Jesus was God
This website proves that early Christians and the early Church, did
believe that Jesus was the son of God the Father, and not just a
messenger of God.
Christian critics, Jehovah’s Witnesses and others, claim that Jesus was simply considered a messenger of God by the early Church, and not a God figure. They say that Jesus was promoted into a divine God figure, by the Roman emperor Constantine, at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD. And that Christians before that, simply recognized Jesus as only a messenger of God. The critics are wrong however. First of all, different writers of the bible, wrote that Jesus was God [the son], well before the Council of Nicea in 325 AD occurred. [Mat 16:16-17] [Mat 26:63-64] [Luke 9:35-36] [John 1:1-14] [John 10:36]
Secondly, below are just some of the writings from notable Christians in the early Church who refer to Jesus as being God. These were written well before the Council of Nicea in 325 AD occurred.
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Bishop Ignatius of Antioch - Letter to the Ephesians 1 [110 AD]
"Ignatius, also called Theophorus, to the Church at Ephesus in Asia . . . predestined from eternity for a glory that is lasting and unchanging, united and chosen through true suffering by the will of the Father in Jesus Christ our God"
Ignatius (again) - Letter to the Romans 1 [110 AD]
"[T]o the Church beloved and enlightened after the love of Jesus Christ, our God, by the will of him that has willed everything which is"
Barnabas - Letter of Barnabas [written 70 – 130 AD]
“If the Lord submitted to suffer for our souls, even though he is Lord of the whole world, to whom God said at the foundation of the world, “Let us make humankind according to our image and likeness,” how is it, then, that he submitted to suffer at the hands of humans?”
Christian author, Aristides the Athenian - Apology of Aristides 16 [140 AD]
"[Christians] are they who, above every people of the earth, have found the truth, for they acknowledge God, the Creator and maker of all things, in the only-begotten Son and in the Holy Spirit"
Theologian, Tatian the Syrian - Address to the Greeks 21 [170 AD]
"We are not playing the fool, you Greeks, nor do we talk nonsense, when we report that God was born in the form of a man"
Bishop Melito of Sardis - Fragment in Anastasius of Sinai’s The Guide 13 [177 AD]
"It is no way necessary in dealing with persons of intelligence to adduce the actions of Christ after his baptism as proof that his soul and his body, his human nature, were like ours, real and not phantasmal. The activities of Christ after his baptism, and especially his miracles, gave indication and assurance to the world of the deity hidden in his flesh. Being God and likewise perfect man, he gave positive indications of his two natures: of his deity, by the miracles during the three years following after his baptism, of his humanity, in the thirty years which came before his baptism, during which, by reason of his condition according to the flesh, he concealed the signs of his deity, although he was the true God existing before the ages"
Bishop Irenaeus of Lyon - Against Heresies 1:10:1 [189 AD]
"For the Church, although dispersed throughout the whole world even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and from their disciples the faith in one God, Father Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them; and in one Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became flesh for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who announced through the prophets the dispensations and the comings, and the birth from a Virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the bodily ascension into heaven of the beloved Christ Jesus our Lord, and his coming from heaven in the glory of the Father to reestablish all things; and the raising up again of all flesh of all humanity, in order that to Jesus Christ our Lord and God and Savior and King, in accord with the approval of the invisible Father, every knee shall bend of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth . . . "
Clement of Alexandria - Exhortation to the Greeks 1:7:1 [190 AD]
"The Word, then, the Christ, is the cause both of our ancient beginning—for he was in God—and of our well-being. And now this same Word has appeared as man. He alone is both God and man, and the source of all our good things"
Theologian, Tertullian - The Flesh of Christ 5:6–7 [210 AD]
"The origins of both his substances display him [Jesus] as man and as God: from the one, born, and from the other, not born"
Tertullian (again) - Against Praxeas 13:6 [216 AD]
"That there are two gods and two Lords, however, is a statement which we will never allow to issue from our mouth; not as if the Father and the Son were not God, nor the Spirit God, and each of them God; but formerly two were spoken of as gods and two as Lords, so that when Christ would come, he might both be acknowledged as God and be called Lord, because he is the Son of him who is both God and Lord."
Theologian, Origen - The Fundamental Doctrines 1:0:4 [225 AD]
"Although he was God, he took flesh; and having been made man, he remained what he was: God"
Priest Novatian - Treatise on the Trinity 16 [235 AD]
"If Christ was only man, why did he lay down for us such a rule of believing as that in which he said, ‘And this is life eternal, that they should know you, the only and true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent?’ [John 17:3]. Had he not wished that he also should be understood to be God, why did he add, ‘And Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent,’ except because he wished to be received as God also? Because if he had not wished to be understood to be God, he would have added, ‘And the man Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent;’ but, in fact, he neither added this, nor did Christ deliver himself to us as man only, but associated himself with God, as he wished to be understood by this conjunction to be God also, as he is. We must therefore believe, according to the rule prescribed, on the Lord, the one true God, and consequently on him whom he has sent, Jesus Christ, who by no means, as we have said, would have linked himself to the Father had he not wished to be understood to be God also. For he would have separated himself from him had he not wished to be understood to be God"
Bishop Cyprian of Carthage - Letters 73:12 [253 AD].
"One who denies that Christ is God cannot become his temple [of the Holy Spirit]..."
Bishop Gregory the Wonderworker - Declaration of Faith [265 AD]
"There is one God, the Father of the living Word, who is his subsistent wisdom and power and eternal image: perfect begetter of the perfect begotten, Father of the only-begotten Son. There is one Lord, only of the only, God of God, image and likeness of deity, efficient Word, wisdom comprehensive of the constitution of all things, and power formative of the whole creation, true Son of true Father, invisible of invisible, and incorruptible of incorruptible, and immortal of immortal and eternal of eternal. . . . And thus neither was the Son ever wanting to the Father, nor the Spirit to the Son; but without variation and without change, the same Trinity abides ever"
Christian apologist, Arnobius - Against the Pagans 1:42 [305 AD].
"‘Well, then,’ some raging, angry, and excited man will say, ‘is that Christ your God?’ ‘God indeed,’ we shall answer, ‘and God of the hidden powers’"
Christian author, Lactantius - Divine Institutes 4:13:5 [307 AD].
"He was made both Son of God in the spirit and Son of man in the flesh, that is, both God and man"
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Therefore this clearly shows that the early Church Fathers, Christian church and Christians did in fact believe that Jesus was a divine figure, and not just a messenger from God, well before the Council of Nicea in 325 AD.
All the Council of Nicea in 325 AD did, was simply officially affirm the Apostles and early church father's belief, that Jesus was God.
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