Sabellianism: Encyclopedia - Sabellianism

Sabellianism

In Christianity, Sabellianism (also known as modalism) is the second-century belief that the three persons of the Trinity are merely different modes or aspects of God, rather than three distinct persons. It is attributed to Sabellius, who taught a form of this doctrine in Rome in the second century. Hippolytus knew Sabellius personally and mentioned him in the Philosophumena. He knew Sabellius disliked Trinitarian theology, yet he called Modal Monarchism the heresy of Noetos, not that of Sabellius. Sabellianism was embraced by Christians in Cyrenaica, to whom Demetrius, Patriarch of Alexandria, wrote letters arguing against this belief.

The chief opponent of Sabellianism was Tertullian, who labelled the movement "Patripassianism", from the Latin words patris for "father", and passus for "to suffer" because it implied that the Father suffered on the Cross. It was Coined by Tertullian in his work Adversus Praxeas, Chapter II, "By this Praxeas did a twofold service for the devil at Rome: he drove away prophecy, and he brought in heresy; he put to flight the Paraclete, and he crucified the Father." It is important to note that our only sources extant for our understanding of Sabellianism is from their detractors. Scholars today are not in agreement as to what exactly Sabellius or Praxeus taught.

Today, Sabellianism is rejected by most types of Christianity and some argue that it logically leads to Nestorianism. It is accepted primarily by some Pentecostal groups, sometimes referred to as Oneness Pentecostals or "Jesus Only" Pentecostals.

Historic Sabellianism taught that God the Father was the only person of the Godhead, as do Oneness Pentecostals today. This teaching proports that the identity of God the Father and Jesus is the same. According to this belief, the terms "Father" and "Holy Spirit" both describe the one God who dwelt in Jesus. Some Oneness detractors call this the "Jesus-Only doctrine".

Category: Christian theology

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Sabellianism", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki