Fifth Sunday After Pentecost
Fifth Sunday After Pentecost
Light of Christ Anglican Church
The Rev. Michael Moffitt July 13th, 2025
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Appendage 1: CHURCH HISTORY1
For the first few centuries, the early church worked to explain and summarize Scripture’s teaching on the Holy Spirit. Scripture has always taught that there is only one God, and that the Father, Son and Spirit all are that one God. But this is obviously a complex and mysterious idea. So, Christians have often disagreed over how to explain and define it.
We’ll look at four steps in the development of pneumatology in early church history. First, we’ll consider the affirmation of the Holy Spirit in the Apostles’ Creed. Second, we’ll explore the formalized Trinitarian doctrine. Third, we’ll see how this doctrine was reflected in the Nicene Creed. And fourth, we’ll mention the distinction between the ontology and economy of the Trinity. Let’s begin with the Apostles’ Creed.
Apostles’ Creed
The Apostles’ Creed grew out of local baptismal creeds that date as far back as A.D. 200. These were creeds that new believers were expected to affirm when they were baptized. Some ancient accounts indicate that when a person was baptized, he or she was expected to provide three affirmations: one relating to the Father, one to the Son, and one to the Holy Spirit. And the Apostles’ Creed is structured around these affirmations. As such, it liturgically places the Holy Spirit on the same level as the Father and the Son. And it does this because it reflects the early church’s belief that the Holy Spirit is a third distinct person within the uncreated Godhead, on an equal level with the Father and the Son.
Moreover, within the structure of the Apostles’ Creed, the various works of each person of the Trinity are listed under his name. So, the Father is said to be the Maker of heaven and earth. Regarding the Son, the Creed lists his conception, birth, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and future return.
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And the Holy Spirit is mentioned as the one responsible for the church and for the application of salvation to believers.
Despite the fact that the Apostles’ Creed pointed to both the Spirit’s full divinity or deity, and his full personhood, it still didn’t provide a clear definition of the doctrine of the Trinity. It contained all the right elements. But it didn’t produce the vocabulary that the church eventually came to embrace. As a result, people could say they affirmed the language of the Creed even if they didn't agree that the Spirit was a third distinct person on an equal level with the Father and Son.
Having mentioned how the Apostles’ Creed reflected the development of pneumatology in church history, let’s consider the initial stages of formalized Trinitarian doctrine.
Trinitarian Doctrine
God’s existence as the Trinity is highly mysterious. It’s so far beyond our experience that we have a hard time thinking about it, let alone talking about it. So, in order for the early church to discuss their beliefs about God, it was useful for them to find consistent ways to talk about him. And much of the early church’s work in this area benefited from the work of the early theologian Tertullian.
Tertullian was a prolific Christian writer who lived from around A.D. 155– 230. He used and popularized the Latin term trinitas as a way to refer to the Bible’s teachings that God exists as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Trinitas can be translated “three” or “triad.” But when it refers to the Godhead, we translate it “Trinity.”
Tertullian also used the Latin word persona — which we translate “person” — to refer to the distinct persons of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And he used the Latin substantia — meaning “substance” or “essence” — to refer to
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God’s being, which the Father, Son and Holy Spirit share in common. This is why the traditional definition of Trinity says:
God has three persons, but only one essence.
Of course, the church didn’t reach this understanding of the Trinity without difficulty. And in the conversations that led up to this definition, the Holy Spirit was often at the center of debate. There were some, like the fourth century theologian Eustathius of Sebaste, who wrongly believed that the Holy Spirit was neither the self-existent God nor a created being. And even the creeds of the church didn’t provide many details that all Christians were expected to affirm. For example, the Apostles’ Creed merely said, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” And the original Nicene Creed, written in A.D. 325 by the First Council of Nicea, simply said, “We believe … in the Holy Spirit.”
As a result of this lack of clarity, there were many arguments over the details of Trinitarian doctrine. In fact, it got so bad that during the reign of the Roman emperor Constantius II, and for a short while after his death, many in the church actually rejected Trinitarianism, at least in the form we know it today. The Second Council of Sirmium in A.D. 351 and the Third Council of Sirmium in A.D. 357 affirmed what’s been called the “Arian heresy.” This teaching denied the Son’s full membership in the Godhead and denied that the Son was of the same essence or substance as the Father. At this point in history, many parts of the church broadly rejected the same Trinitarian doctrine they had previously accepted as biblical.
Now that we’ve considered pneumatology in church history from the Apostles’ Creed to the initial formalization of Trinitarian doctrine, let’s turn our attention to the Nicene Creed.
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Nicene Creed
As we’ve mentioned, the original Nicene Creed, written in A.D. 325, said very little about the Holy Spirit. But in light of the controversies that arose, another council was held to debate and resolve the questions about the Trinity. In A.D. 381, the First Council of Constantinople met. They rejected the Arian heresies and defended the Nicene understanding of the Trinity. They also revised and expanded the Nicene Creed so that it could no longer be affirmed by Arians and others that denied God’s eternal existence as three distinct, uncreated persons in one essence. With regard to the Holy Spirit, the Nicene Creed was expanded to say:
We believe … in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.
This version of the Creed is sometimes called the Niceno Constantinopolitan Creed, in order to distinguish it from the original Nicene Creed.
It’s likely that this expanded emphasis on the Holy Spirit was motivated, at least in part, by the work of Basil of Caesarea, who lived from around A.D. 330–379. Basil’s book titled De Spiritu Sancto, or On the Holy Spirit, was greatly influential in refuting the beliefs of people like Eustathius, who refused to acknowledge the full deity of the Holy Spirit. Basil also made the point that since the Holy Spirit was God, he deserved to be worshiped. The expanded references to the Spirit in the Nicene Creed themselves constituted a form of worship, since the Creed became part of the church’s liturgy. But they also helped lead the church more broadly to focus on the worship of the Spirit in the rest of their liturgy and prayers.
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There was an interesting dispute over worship of the Holy Spirit in the fourth century. In his book, On the Holy Spirit, Basil of Caesarea tells us that there were two liturgies that were used in his church. The first liturgy was praise to the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit. A second liturgy was praise to the Father, with the Son, together with the Spirit. Some who were Arian in orientation objected to this liturgy because they really didn’t believe the Holy Spirit was divine. But if, as Scripture teaches, we have good reason to believe that the Holy Spirit is divine, then it’s appropriate that we express to him in worship, doxology, and praise his true nature.
— Dr. Keith Johnson
So far, we’ve considered the development of pneumatology in early church history in terms of the Apostles’ Creed, formalized Trinitarian doctrine, and the Nicene Creed. Now let’s address the distinction between the ontology and economy of the Trinity.
Ontology and Economy
As church history progressed, theologians eventually came to understand the Trinity from two different perspectives. They began to speak of both the ontological Trinity and the economic Trinity.
The word “ontological” refers to being and existence. So, the theological term “ontological Trinity” has to do with the existence of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit within the Trinity. From this perspective, the Holy Spirit is equal in power and glory to the Father and the Son. And he shares with them all of God’s divine attributes. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism question and answer 4 puts it, all three persons are “infinite, eternal and
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unchangeable in [their] being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.”
You’ll recall that the Niceno-Constantinopolitan version of the Nicene Creed says:
We believe … in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father.
The western church later expanded the Latin version of this Creed to add the word filioque, meaning “and the Son,” to the end of this phrase. So, most churches in the West now use a version that says the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son.”
Some theologians have understood the Holy Spirit’s procession to be ontological. That is, they believe the Spirit’s personhood is eternally “breathed out” from the Father, or from the Father and the Son. But others have understood the Spirit’s procession as a function of the economic Trinity.
The theological term “economic Trinity” refers to how the Father, Son and Holy Spirit interact with each other, especially as it pertains to creation. From this perspective, each one has different roles and different responsibilities, and even different authority.
Many parts of Scripture suggest that the Holy Spirit willingly serves the Father and Son. For instance, he was sent or “given” by the Father and the Son. Scripture teaches this in passages like Luke 11:13, John 14:26 and 15:26, and Acts 2:33. And when he comes, the Spirit obeys the Father and the Son by doing the work they’ve sent him to do. We learn of this in places like John 16:13, Romans 8:11, and 1 Peter 1:2.
Because of passages like these, many theologians say that, within the economic Trinity, the Father and Son have greater authority than the Holy
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Spirit. Even so, it’s important to emphasize that the Spirit is still fully God, and that this authority structure exists because they all want and agree to it. So, the Holy Spirit isn’t in any way inferior to the Father and the Son.
The doctrine of the Holy Spirit took centuries to formalize. But this doesn’t mean that the church didn’t always believe the central elements of pneumatology. After all, the church in all ages has embraced the Scriptures. And the Scriptures clearly teach that the Holy Spirit is a fully divine person — an equal member of the Godhead. Rather, the formalization of pneumatology happened in stages, and generally in response to heresy. Theologians realized that they needed to provide more details, and to communicate more clearly, in order to prevent others from falling into error. And these formulations have stood the test of time. Throughout the centuries, nearly all branches of the church have affirmed the same beliefs about the Holy Spirit’s role in the Trinity.
CONCLUSION
In this lesson on the Holy Spirit in the Trinity, we’ve explored how the Old Testament speaks of God’s Spirit in terms of his divinity and personhood. We’ve seen how this understanding was expanded in the New Testament under Jesus and his apostles. And we’ve surveyed pneumatology in church history by considering the Apostles’ Creed, the formalization of Trinitarian doctrine, the Nicene Creed, and the distinction between Trinitarian ontology and economy.
Understanding who the Holy Spirit is in the Trinity is an important part of understanding his work in our lives. As we’ll see in future lessons, the Holy Spirit is even more personally involved with us than the Father and the Son are. He indwells us. We rely on him for spiritual strength, for experiencing God’s forgiveness when we sin, for growth in holiness, for perseverance in faith, for the gifts that allow us to minister to others, and
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for a host of other blessings. And knowing that the One who lives in us is the personal, fully divine Spirit of our Father, and of our Lord and Savior, helps us appreciate his ministry and cooperate with the work he’s doing in our lives.
