Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, Heras, Papias and the anonymous authors of The Epistle to Diognetus, The Epistle of Barnabas and The Didachus are generally called the Apostolic Fathers. They all had some connection to at least one of the Apostles. Core beliefs of Christianity -- trinity, theanthropic God the Son, total depravity of man, prevenient grace, salvation from eternal damnation by faith, the grace of God and the Substitutionary Atonement of Jesus Christ – had not been clearly defined during the age of the Apostolic Fathers. But all Christians knew one thing for certain: Jesus Christ was God! He said He was God and He was crucified for that claim:
The fifth chapter of John tells us Jesus broke the fourth commandment by healing a man on the Sabbath; He then encouraged this man to likewise violate the Sabbath by telling him to pick up his bed and carry it away. When confronted by the Jews, Jesus said He was working because his Father was working. To the Jews, this meant Jesus was making himself equal with God.
In the eighth chapter of John, Jesus claimed to have existed as a person since before Abraham was born.
The tenth chapter of John indicates Jesus claimed to be one with the Father; the Jews understood this to mean Jesus was making himself out to be God.
When Jesus appeared to "doubting" Thomas, as recorded in the twentieth chapter of John, Thomas addressed him as God; Jesus accepted this greeting.
Jesus healed a paralytic in the second chapter of Mark but, before the physical healing, He forgave the man's sins. Scribes in the audience asked themselves, "Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
In the fourteenth chapter of Mark, the high priest asked Jesus if He was the Son of God. Jesus replied, "I am."
These examples show who Jesus claimed to be; Jesus claimed to be God! He was executed, not for any crime against man, but for something that would be blasphemy if not true. But as clear as this may sound, around 300 AD, a man named Arius said, not so fast. The Greek word monogenes is used to describe Jesus in several New Testament passages (e.g. John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9). Arius and his followers said this word is derived from mono meaning only and the verb gennao, which means to generate or beget. Thus Jesus, by their teaching, became the ‘only begotten’ Son of God. This means there was a time when Jesus did not exist. He was created by God the Father and, therefore, can never be of equal stature. A creation is always subordinate to its creator. Although Jesus may be of high stature, He would not qualify as a coequal member of the Trinity.
However, as explained by Buswell, “When the orthodox church fathers were challenged by the Arians, who said that Christ was a created being and who pointed to the word monogenes for their evidence, the orthodox fathers did not have the facilities to prove that the word has nothing to do with begetting, but they knew that in the light of other Scriptures, Christ was not created: ‘There never was a time when He was not.’ They therefore accepted the word begotten but added the words not made.” (Buswell, p 111) This is revealed in the Nicene Creed. In fact, the last sentence of the original Nicene Creed, from 325 AD, states:
But the holy, catholic, and apostolic Church anathemizes those who say there was a time when the Son was not, or that he was not before he was begotten, or that he was made of things not existing, or who say that the Son of God was of any other substance or essence, or created, or liable to change or conversion.
It can be said, with confidence, that the Bible has nothing whatsoever to say about begetting as an eternal relationship between the Father and the Son. Careful lexicographical studies prove beyond question that the word monogenes is not derived from the root gennao (to generate or beget) but is derived from genos which means type or kind. The word monogenes, therefore, means one and only or unique! For example, the French Bible correctly reads son fils unique for the English his only begotten Son.
The use of the word Son, with the word unique, would seem to relegate Jesus to a position subservient to God the Father even if He was not created by God the Father. However, the Son is not presented by Scripture as generated, as a subordinate, or as an inferior in any sense. When Jesus called Himself the Son of God and claimed that God was His own Father, this was, in the language in which it was understood, “making himself equal with God” (John 5:18). The words Father and Son convey a type of personal relationship in the eternal Trinity without, in any sense, involving the thought of generation or any essential subordination.
The Nicene Creed deals with the use of begotten by saying begotten not made which reduces the meaning of begotten to zero. Nevertheless, some theologians continue to teach the eternal generation of Jesus Christ, in eternity past, by God the Father; they also promote the essential subordination of Jesus Christ to God the Father. On these issues, the theology of the advocates differs only marginally from the theology of Arianism and it serves no useful purpose! It puts little space between Christian teaching and the teaching of Charles Taze Russell.
But what did Methodist theologians say, in the era of John Wesley and Richard Watson before the root meaning of monogenes had been clarified? Here are some words of Daniel Waterland as recorded by Watson, v1, p 542:
I may refer for proof that the title, Son of God, or only begotten Son in Scripture, cannot be reasonably understood either of our Lord’s miraculous conception by the Holy Ghost, or of his Messiahship, or of his being the first begotten from the dead, or of his receiving all power, and his being appointed heir of all things. None of these circumstances, singly considered, nor all together, will be sufficient to account for the title only Son, or only begotten; but it is necessary to look higher up to the pre-existent and Divine nature of the Word, who was in the beginning with God, and was himself very God, before the creation, and from all eternity.
Movements to undermine the divinity of Jesus Christ have been alive and well from Arianism to Socinianism to Jehovah’s Witnesses and beyond. If Satan can discredit the divinity of Jesus, then Jesus could not have served as a propitiation for our sins. The substitutionary atonement would become a lie and we would all be lost!
(See also Sections 1.10 and 2.4 of Theology Corner)
