Page 92 - Countering Trinitarian Arguments With Historical Reference

Manual of Universal Church History written by Rev. Dr. John Alzog Professor of Theology, 1874, Volume 1 page 354. “Sabellius, in introducing his [One-God] system, professed to be influenced by the conviction that the doctrine of the [Catholic] Church, which distinguished three persons or hypostases in God—the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost—would inevitably lead to a belief in a plurality of Gods;” On page 352 we find according to the Roman Catholic History book that Sabellius, Praxes and Epigonus believed in only one God. They taught not a trinity of three persons but “that the One True God assumed in the womb of Mary a human body,...” We also find this One God that has manifest Himself in three different ways but is only one deity was also taught by them “that the names [or titles] Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost are used only to designate different manifestations of this Substance, or modes by which God acts externally; that God the Father having gone out from Himself, and on this account called the Son, descended into the Virgin Mary, in whom He assumed a human Body, in which He suffered.”
Sabellius and other One God Modalistic Monarchians were slandered and persecuted by Trinitarians and Rome. Many so-called “Oneness” Ministers even ignorantly speak badly about Sabellius not understanding that he was a One God Jesus Name man of God. Many modern day Pentecostal Apostolic Ministers and Saints do not realize that Sabellius baptized hundreds in the name of Jesus. He was not an apostate or Heretic!
Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911. “Other Arian sects, such as the Eunomians and Aetians, baptized “into the death of Christ”. [Or in the Name of Jesus] Converts from Sabellianism were ordered by the First Council of Constantinople (can.vii) to be rebaptized because the doctrine of Sabellius that there was but one person in the Trinity. Pope Innocent I (As. Episc, Maced., vi) declares that these [Sabellian-One God] sectaries did not distinguish the Persons of the Trinity when baptizing. [In other words, the Sabellians did not name or call on the Trinity titles over the people that they baptized. Rather they baptized in the name of Jesus!] The Council of Nicaea (can. Xix) ordered the rebaptism of Paulianists, and the Council of Aries (can. Xvi and xvii) decreed the same for both Paulianists and Photinians. There has been a Theological controversy over the question as to whether baptism in the name of Christ only was ever held valid. Certain texts in the New Testament have given rise to this difficulty. The St. Paul (Acts, xix) commands some disciples at Ephesus to be baptized in the Christ’s name: “They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” In Acts, x, we read that St. Peter ordered others to be baptized “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”. Those who were converted by Philip (Acts, vii) “were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ”, and above all we have the explicit command of the Prince of the Apostles; “Be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins” (Acts, ii). Owing to these texts some theologians have held that the Apostles baptized in the name of Christ only. St. Thomas, St. Bonaventure, and Albertus Magnus are invoked as authorities for this opinion, they declaring that the Apostles so acted by special dispensation. Other writers, as Peter Lombard and Hugh of St. Victor, hold also that such baptism would be valid. The authority of Pope Stephen I has been alleged for the validity of baptism given in the name of Christ only.”
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