The Development of Modalism in Early Church History

Abstract

A study of modalism in the second and third centuries is significant for at least three reasons: (1) It was one of two major ways in which early Christians articulated the distinctive Christian view of God. (2) It was the predominant Christian view of God for over a century. (3) There is some similarity to modern Oneness Pentecostalism, which has thirty million constituents. To study ancient modalism, we trace the doctrine of God in the second and third centuries, situate modalism within this historical context, and contrast it with early trinitarianism. First-century Christians embraced both strict monotheism and a high view of the deity of Jesus. Only later do we find significant modifications of monotheism in favour of binitarianism and trinitarianism. Instead of speaking of multiple divine persons, early Christians simply said God acted in Christ and was revealed in Christ. The major issue became how to reconcile Greek ideas of God’s transcendence with the New Testament depiction of God’s immanence in Christ. Subordinationists said the supreme God could not directly enter the physical world; thus, Jesus is the incarnation of a second, subordinate, divine person. Modalists maintained that Jesus is the incarnation of the one, indivisible God. Modern trinitarianism may be more compatible with modalism than with subordinationism. In other words, by modern trinitarian standards, modalism might be the best expression of orthodoxy in the second and third centuries. Indeed, if measured by majority opinion, it was the orthodoxy of the pre-Nicene era.