Augsburg Confession, Article One: Of God - Page 4© John L. Hoh, Jr.
Page 4
Dec 28, 2001
The Valentinians believed that God is incomprehensible and cannot be known directly. Therefore he defies accurate description. He is infinite, without beginning or end and is the ultimate origin of all things. He encompasses all things without being encompassed. Everything including the world lies within the deity and continues to be part of it. The Godhead manifests itself through a process of self-unfolding in the subsequent multiplicity of being while maintaining its unity. The Valentinians also believed that God is androgynous and frequently depicted him as a male-female dyad
The Arians described the Son as a second, or inferior God, standing midway between the First Cause and creatures; as Himself made out of nothing, yet as making all things else; as existing before the worlds of the ages; and as arrayed in all divine perfections except the one which was their stay and foundation. God alone was without beginning, unoriginate; the Son was originated, and once had not existed. For all that has origin must begin to be. Such is the genuine doctrine of Arius. Using Greek terms, it denies that the Son is of one essence, nature, or substance with God; He is not consubstantial ( homoousios) with the Father, and therefore not like Him, or equal in dignity, or co-eternal, or within the real sphere of Deity. The Eunomians, named after Eunomius of Cyzicus, believed that the name "Ungenerated" was the only proper name for God the Father; all other beings were generated, including the Son, who was adopted. This doctrine led to a radical form of Arianism in which the Son is not only unequal to, but also unlike, the Father. The Eunomians also taught that the Being of God was wholly comprehensible by logical definition. The Mohammedans believed that Allah alone was god and that Jesus was merely Allah's prophet. They do not accept the divinity of Jesus Christ, nor do they accept Jesus' death as the atoning sacrifice for all sins. The Samosatenes believe that Christ was just a man, chosen by God, and specially endowed by the Holy Spirit. (This is the view of much of modern liberal theology today.) The Lutheran Reformers stake their theology on the Athanasian Creed. They not only assert that they agree with Rome on the doctrine of the nature of God, but also denounce those that preach and teach heresy. As the Athanasian Creed states upfront, "Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic (universal, ecumenical, common) faith-- That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance"
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