Re: The Early Christians: Creed, Confession and Scripture

Jim wrote:

> We who worship the creator of this world are not atheists. What
> sensible person will not admit this?
> 
> Moreover, we want to make it known that we recognize Jesus Christ, who
> is our teacher in these things, who was born for this purpose and was 
> crucified under Pontius Pilate, Procurator of Judea at the time of the
> Emperor Tiberius, as the true son of God. To him therefore we give the
> second place, and with good reason we honor the prophetic Spirit in
> the third place.
> 
> Justin, First Apology 13.
> 

I have shown sufficiently that we are not atheists, for ours is the one
God, uncreated and eternal, invisible, immutable, incomprehensible,
inconceivable, to be grasped only by the mind and by reason, surrounded
by light and beauty, by Spirit and power to an ineffable degree: he by
whose word the universe was created, was set in order, and is ruled. 

However, we also acknowledge a son of God. Let no one think it
ridiculous that God should have a son! For our thoughts about God the
Father and the Son are very different from the myths of the poets who
represent that the gods are in no way better than men. The son of God is
the Word [Logos] of the Father. He is thought that shapes, and power
that creates; for according to his pattern and through him is everything
made, the Father and the Son being one. Since through the unity and
power of the Spirit the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son,
the son of God is the thought [mind] and the Word [Logos] of the Father.

If, however, in your superior intelligence you should wonder what is
meant by the expression "son," I will give you a brief explanation. He
is first-begotten to the Father, but not as if he were created. God, the
eternal mind, had the Word in himself from the beginning; he is never
without the Word. Rather, the Son came forth to be formative thought and
creative power for all things material. With this the prophetic Spirit
also agrees, saying, "The Lord created me in the beginning of his ways
for his works." 

Further, we teach that the Holy Spirit, who shows himself at work in the
prophets, is also an effluence of God, flowing from him and returning to
him like a ray of the sun. How can a person know his way about if he
hears people decried as atheists who confess one God, the Father, and
one God, the Son, and one Holy Spirit, and who prove that these have
power in their oneness and yet are different in their order? 

Athenagoras, A Plea Regarding Christians 10.