What can I learn from Geerhardus Vos (among others) to

refute Sabellianism and defend the Reformed Trinitarian

teaching against Sabellian influence?

(final assignment at Core and Fabric of Reformed Theology)

Ambrus Simon Melinda

Reformed Theological University, Kampen

MIRT

January 2019

1
 Table of Contents

Table of Contents........................................................................................................................................2
1. Why did I choose this topic related to Sabellianism?..............................................................................3
2.The research question of my essay and limitations: what I will do and what I will not do.......................4
3. The external goal of my essay..................................................................................................................5
4. What is Sabellianism?..............................................................................................................................5
5. The Scripture's and other theologians' responses to Sabellian teachings...............................................7
6. Sabellianism in 2019..............................................................................................................................11
7. Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................12
8. Bibliography...........................................................................................................................................13

2
 "The Sabellians, they say, spring from the Noetus I mentioned already, for,
according to some, Sabellius was also a disciple of his. But why Epiphanius
counts them as two heresies I do not know."
-Augustine1

1. Why did I choose this topic related to Sabellianism?

15-20 years ago, some of our villagers suggested to their formal pastor going to the river
and get baptized again in the name of Jesus, not in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit.
Géza, a middle-aged man in our congregation participated in a Modalistic Bible-Training
in another county. Since then he wants to join another denomination, on the condition that they
baptize him in the name of Jesus. He believes in the Oneness of God who manifests Himself in
different modes or has different manifestations. He also has many strange ideas and seems
brainwashed to me. Having a normal conversation with him seems to be a piece of work. He is
also convinced he has no sins because he has never committed adultery and has always respected
his parents. All pastors and priests refused his wish to baptize him only in the name of Jesus, so
he remained in our Reformed Church in Cecălaca even if he never comes to church.
We really do not know what to do with him, because he is like a mechanical robot who
repeats the same thing again and again. We would like to help him but we are not sure we can.
He has a wife and three children and at least we can help his family.
I chose to work out the topic of Sabellianism because even if they are still Reformed
church members and nobody is officially Sabellian in my culture, Géza has many relatives and
they can influence our villagers on the topic of baptism in the name of Jesus. I like to think that
Géza does not influence other people's beliefs in the Trinity. Still, we do not know. We could say
that Sabellius was a heretic in the 3rd century and now we live in the 21st, so it seems there is no
use in doing research about an "old-fashioned heresy". Well, in Brown's opinion, "his ideas were
so fascinating that they will continue to crop up again and again through the centuries". 2 These
teachings appeared in the next century (4th) after Sabellius in Neocaesarea 3, too, and so on.
Sabellians showed up in my country and in my village and that is why I consider this topic
relevant even in the 21st century.

1
David E. Wilhite, The Gospel according to heretics (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2015),87.
2
Harold O. J. Brown, Heresies (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1988), 102.
3
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sabellianism

3
 2.The research question of my essay and limitations: what I will do
and what I will not do
I was hesitating about my topic choice and I admit that it is a challenge for me. However,
a great Hungarian mathematician, Bolyai said that if we have two options and we are hesitating,
then we should choose the difficult one.
The orthodox Christian doctrine of the Trinity lies between two extremes: Sabellianism
and Tritheism4. This essay will examine Sabellianism.
The question to which I seek response would be:
What can I learn from Geerhardus Vos (among others) to refute Sabellianism
and defend the Reformed Trinitarian teaching against Sabellian influence?
After presenting the external goal of my essay, the term "Sabellianism" will be defined. I
will use dictionaries of cults, encyclopedia and other books. Online materials are important, too,
because we need to know what teachings can be found on the internet and what online teachings/
videos our church members encounter. For the purpose of this essay, I will present the Scripture's
and other theologians' responses to the Sabellian teachings (and mine, too).
I chose the first volume of Reformed Dogmatics (chapter 3) written by Geerhardus Vos
to clarify the doctrine of Trinity as an answer for this heresy.
I like the way Vos presents his Dogmatics: there are questions and answers in each
chapter he deals with. For example, in the third chapter of his first volume of Reformed
Dogmatics, there are 98 answered questions5 related to Trinity.
I realized that for the purpose of this essay I need other books, too, because in Vos'
Dogmatics, the examined chapter 3 (Trinity) deals with all questions of Trinity, and few
questions are particularly dealing with ways to refute Sabellianism.
Issues concerning all aspects of Trinity are beyond the scope of this essay, which will
focus mostly on the objections of Sabellians related to God's three persons and Trinitarians'
response to them. Related to the three persons of Trinity, I make another limitation: it might
seem I attribute too little importance to the person of the Holy Spirit. That may be because we
have more references in the Scriptures for the first two persons of the Trinity. On the other hand,
Sabellians focused on the first two persons of the Trinity.
For the purpose of chapter 5 of my essay, namely refuting Sabellianic teaching, I cannot
present an exhausting list of objections nor can I enumerate the many passages which show that
the Trinitarian approaching is Biblical.

4
Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, Volume One: Theology Proper, trans. and ed. Richard B. Gaffin, (Grand
Rapids: Lexham Press, 2014), 50.
5
Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 38-76.

4
 3. The external goal of my essay
I will talk to Géza's 20-year-old daughter because she has already read the Scripture three
times in Hungarian language and twice in Romanian. She is always present at Sunday worships
and she is open to discussion. She does not follow her father's strange ideas, but it is important
for her to be aware of our church's teachings.
Talking to Géza's other two children might take place maybe in the distant future but not
in the near future, because they are too little for this discussion at the moment.

4. What is Sabellianism?
We do not know much about Sabellius, but we know about his views. Though no works
of him survived6 (or, we could say, only a few fragments of his writings are extant 7) and all
information is secondhand (at best)8, he is well-known by his views. However, assumptions
about his teaching remain unverifiable9.
According to the Encyclopedia of Early Christianity10, "Sabellius lived in the third
century and was involved in Christological debates. His name is associated with a view that the
Son was a different mode of the Father rather than a different person. The position protected the
monarchy of God by refusing any reality to the Son's individual divine existence".
Hall states Monarchians identified Jesus Christ as god, denying any personal distinction.
Because they see the Father and the Son (and the Spirit if he is mentioned) as different modes of
operation of the one person who is God, some moderns class them as "modalist" or "modalist
Monarchian", and the term Sabellian is used in the same sense. 11 The name "Sabellian" came to
be used conventionally for any doctrine which speaks of Father and Son, or of Father, Son and
Spirit as one person in different guises12, aspects, faces, masks13 (Greek "πρόσωπα" prosopa;
Latin personae14, later the Greeks changed the word prosopa to hypostasis, because the
Sabellians made use of these words 15) or costumes16. God changes his costumes as Clark Kent
changes the costume of Superman, was this teaching caricatured.17

6
Frederick W. Norris, Sabellianism, in: Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, ed. Everett Ferguson, (New York and
London: Garland Publishing, 1990), 808.
7
Louis Berkhof, The history of Christian doctrines, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1978), 79.
8
David E. Wilhite, The Gospel according to heretics, 88.
9
Idem, 90.
10
Frederick W. Norris, Sabellianism, in: Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, 808.
11
Stuart George Hall, Doctrine and practice in the early church, (London: SPCK, 1992), 77.
12
Stuart George Hall, Doctrine and practice in the early church, 80.
13
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMPIxCDDxTs&feature=share
14
Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, (James Clarke & Co Ltd, 1991), 51-55.
https://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Modalism
15
Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 45.
16
David E. Wilhite, The Gospel according to heretics, 93.
17
Idem, 93.

5
 The Dictionary of cults, sects, religions and the occult points out that Modalistic
Monarchianism is a slight variation of Monarchianism that held that God manifested himself in
three different modes throughout history. As God is a single entity, he manifested himself first as
being the Father, Creator18 or Lawgiver19. At the Incarnation, he became the Son
(Patripassianism)20 or Redeemer21. And, as the Holy Spirit, God is the Sanctifier, Teacher, and
Comforter of the Church.22 At Pentecost, God was acting as Holy Spirit in a different mode 23. In
modalists' view, what we believe to be the different persons of the Trinity, are actually three
pseudonyms of the same, single God, or three modes of presentation (masks) of the same divine
substance. God would be three only for us, not in God's self.24
Berkhof states that Sabellius indeed sometimes spoke of three divine persons, but then
used the word person in the original sense of the word, in which it signifies a role of acting or a
mode of manifestation.25
Where did Sabellius come from? The Encyclopedia of Early Christianity suggests that he
comes from Libya or from the Pentapolis 26. He came from Libya (where doctrinal enthusiasms
were always strong) and must have worked in Rome 27 under bishops (or Popes) Zephyrinus
(reigned 198-217) and Callistus I (reigned 217-222) 28. There were also two proto-Sabellians in
Rome: Noetus was a strict monotheist (came from Smyrna to Rome around 190) and Praxeas (of
whom is nothing known outside of Tertullian's attack against him in his work Against Praxeas
around 210. According to Tertullian, he persuaded the bishop of Rome at that time to teach
Sabellianism, that is, that the Father and the Son were the same person, so that the Father
suffered on the cross29. This teaching can be found under the label of "Patripassianism".).

18
George A. Mather, Larry A. Nichols, Modalistic Monarchianism, in: Dictionary of cults, sects, religions and the
occult, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993), 185.
19
Grenz, Stanley J., Nordling, Cherith Fee, Guretzki, David, Pocket Dictionary of theological terms, (Illinois:
InterVarsity Press, 1999)
20
George A. Mather, Larry A. Nichols, Modalistic Monarchianism, in: Dictionary of cults, sects, religions and the
occult, 185.
21
Grenz, Stanley J., Nordling, Cherith Fee, Guretzki, David, Pocket Dictionary of theological terms
22
George A. Mather, Larry A. Nichols, Modalistic Monarchianism, in: Dictionary of cults, sects, religions and the
occult, 185.
23
https://www.theopedia.com/modalism
24
"Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three pseudonyms of the same, single God, or three modes of presentation
(masks) of the same divine substance. God would be three only for us, not in God's self. This interpretation
(Sabellianism) preserves unity, but abandons Trinity.", Leonardo Boff, trans. Paul Burns, Trinity and society.
(Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1988), 234.
25
Louis Berkhof, The history of Christian doctrines, 79.
26
"A doctrine held in Rome by Noetus and Praxeas, it has led some to see Sabellius as belonging to a Roman circle,
but Greek writers often refer to him as a Libyan or one who came from the Pentapolis. We know far more about
the view, known in the West as Patripassianism, than we do about the man. No works of him survived", Frederick
W. Norris, Sabellianism, in: Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, 808.
27
Stuart George Hall, Doctrine and practice in the early church, 79.
28
Harold O. J. Brown, Heresies, 102.
29
Tertullian, Against Praxeas, in: David E. Wilhite, The Gospel according to heretics (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic,
2015), 90-91.

6
 Sabellianism seems to have won the adherence of two bishops of Rome (Victor and
Zephyrinus), both of whom were involved in bitter struggles with the Adoptionists.
Callistus was at first sympathetic to Sabellius' teaching. Still, later condemned it 30 and
excommunicated Sabellius31, but continued to use a rather Sabellian language. 32 The
entanglement of three early bishops with Sabellianism has proved a continuing embarrassment to
the traditionalist Roman Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility33. It also causes an embarrassment
on the internet, because "Oneness theologians" (modern Sabellians) present it as a proof for
Sabellianism as the true belief and say that Oneness theology was the predominant view of the
early Christians34. I, however, share Wilhite's view and would not say that the bishops were
entangled with Sabellianism, I would rather say they simply struggled to articulate God's
oneness35 and much was still unclear 36. One argument could also be that in the first centuries of
Christianity Christians did not have much time to write dogmatics or apologetics, because many
times they were hiding and busy with saving their lives and they did not have written dogmatics
or catechism37.
It can be argued that as Modalism is a sophisticated form of Monarchianism,
Sabellianism is a sophisticated form of Modalism 38. As Alistair McGrath states, Sabellianism
was a form of "chronological modalism".39 God was huiopator ("Sonfather" or "Sonfathering")
and the Son and the Spirit are projected for redemption and sanctification at the appropriate time
like rays of warmth and light projected from the sun.40

5. The Scripture's and other theologians' responses to Sabellian

teachings
In this chapter I present some of the church fathers', Reformed and evangelical authors'
objections to Sabellian teachings.

30
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sabellianism
31
Stuart George Hall, Doctrine and practice in the early church, 79.
32
"the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are hen kai to auto, "one and the same". This is an orthodox formulation
if one understands it to mean one and the same God, but Sabellian if the missing word is "person".", Harold O. J.
Brown, Heresies, 103.
33
Harold O. J. Brown, Heresies, 103.
34
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6AyeNt9DVs&feature=share
35
David E. Wilhite, The Gospel according to heretics, 98.
36
Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 42.
37
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0UaOJrjEYQ&feature=share
38
"Sabellianism is a sophisticated form of Modalism ", Stuart George Hall, Doctrine and practice in the early church,
79.
39
https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-difference-between-Arianism-Sabellianism-and-Modalism-in-simple-terms
40
Stuart George Hall, Doctrine and practice in the early church, 79.

7
 Monarchianism, Modalism, Sabellianism, and Patripassianism were condemned as being
heretical because it failed to distinguish between the single essence of the Godhead and the three
persons of the Trinity.41
Many of early orthodox opponents challenged the modalist view of God calling it
unreasonable, irrational and inconsistent with itself. Epiphanius attacks these teachings
aggressively, stating that the Sabellians were persuaded "due to some sort of stupidity", for the
error is pure "idiocy"42.
Monarchists saw a monarchy as something held by one person. Tertullian, however,
claims that he, too, holds to God's monarchy, but a monarchy can be shared by more than one
person. For example, their emperor, Septimius Severus, declared his sons to be co-emperors with
him. No doubt, the father in this triad had priority, but the other two persons nevertheless shared
in the one rule. So with God, argued Tertullian: the Father has a logical priority, but the Father
shares his monarchy with the Son and the Spirit.43
It seems plausible that the explanation for the apparent discrepancy between God's
oneness and the diversity within God is found in another word: "economy" or "household
management", which implies an ordering within a single system 44. It is a diverse economy within
God. God is una substantia, tres personae45. It was Tertullian who used the name Trinity first:
Trinitas Unius Divinitatis46. This formula becomes the norm for Trinitarian orthodoxy. God is
one essence in three persons.
The thing is that understanding the Trinity is not easy. It is like a mystery: three persons
are one. Is the Trinitarian personhood as pure relationality: persona est relatio47, so that the
persons dissolve into relations48, or can we distinguish among them?
The Modalistic view makes it hard to see how Jesus can meaningfully pray to the Father
if he is the Father in another mode. Even more serious, it is impossible to conceive of him as our
"advocate with the Father". (1John 2:1)49

41
George A. Mather, Larry A. Nichols, Modalistic Monarchianism, in: Dictionary of cults, sects, religions and the
occult, 185.
42
David E. Wilhite, The Gospel according to heretics, 98.
43
Idem, 98-99.
44
David E. Wilhite, The Gospel according to heretics, 99.
45
Idem, 99.
46
Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 42.
47
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Wurzel, 223., in: Miroslav Volf, After our likeness: The church as the image of the
Trinity, Sacra Doctrina. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 204.
48
"Ratzinger defines Trinitarian personhood as pure relationality: persona est relatio. This understanding of the
Trinitarian persons has two important consequences. First, the persons become so transparent that it is difficult to
distinguish them from the one, sustaining divine substance. The consequence is not only that the one substance
gains the upper hand over the three persons, but also that the three persons actually become redundant...... The
persons seem to dissolve into relations. These persons become superfluous but also incapable of action.", Miroslav
Volf, After our likeness: The church as the image of the Trinity, Sacra Doctrina. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998),
204-205.
49
Harold O. J. Brown, Heresies, 149.

8
 According to modalists, the most debated verses from the Scriptures are John 10:31 "the
Father and I are one" and John 14:9 "whoever has seen me has seen the Father"50. Wilhite states
that on the basis of these two verses (among others) the modalists prove that Jesus and the Father
are the same person51. The orthodox party, however, has a different reading. As a result of
reading these verses alongside other statements of Jesus, we may draw the conclusion that it is
not so easy to "do the math" when it comes to this doctrine. Even in the same gospel, Jesus says
that the twelve (or more) disciples should be "one". In fact, they should be "one" in the same way
as God is52: Jesus prays to the Father on the disciples' behalf: "so that they may be one, as we are
one" (John 17:11).
When I first heard of our church member's Sabellianic view, Jesus' baptism automatically
came to my mind and I think that this is the passage where there appears one God who is
simultaneously present as three persons. Epiphanius used this passage (Matthew 3:13-17, Mark
1:9-11, Luke 3,21.22, John 1:32-34) as a test case53: Jesus is in the water, the Voice (the Father)
speaks about his Son from heaven, and the Spirit descends from heaven onto the Son in the form
of a dove. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are separated in the text, The Modalists' view explain
this phenomenon as confirming God's omnipresence, and His ability to manifest himself as he
pleases54.
Modalists and Oneness theologians point out the lack of the word "Trinity" in any
canonical Scripture55 56. In Vos' view, it was left to the church, under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, to gather the givens spread abroad throughout Scriptures and the to formulate the dogma
gradually and in contrast to all kinds of error57.
Modalists reference several Old Testament passages58 as a proof that the Being of the
One God is solidly single, and although known in several modes. Vos states we mustn't seek
decisive proof for the Trinity in the Old Testament, because Old Testament revelation wasn't
finished but only preparatory. Besides that, what we can in the Old Testament in the light of the
New is not the same what the Old Testament saints were able to read 59. However, Vos takes the
view that some traces of this doctrine can we discover in the Old Testament 60: the distinction
between the names Elohim and Yahweh, the plural form of this name Elohim, the concept of the
angel of the Lord, the doctrine of the Spirit of God in the Old Testament, Old Testament

50
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgmfu4DNkdA
51
David E. Wilhite, The Gospel according to heretics, 101.
52
Idem, 101.
53
Idem, 101.
54
https://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Modalism
55
https://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Modalism
56
Anthony Buzzard (July 2003), "Trinity or not?" Elohim and Other Terms. focusonthekingdom.org.,
https://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Modalism
57
Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 42.
58
Deut 6:4-5; Deut 32:12; 2Kings 19:15-19; Job 6:10; Job 31:13-15; Psalm 71:22; Psalm 83:16,18; Is 42:8; Is 45:5-7;
Is 48:2,9,11-13; Mal 2:8,10, Scripture
59
Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 38.
60
Idem, 38-41.

9
passages in which God speaks of Himself in the plural, passages that speak of three persons
(Numbers 6:24–26; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Psalm 33:6; Isaiah 61:1; 63:9–10).
There are enumerated New Testament passages in Vos' Dogmatics which speak of the
three persons alongside each other providing proof for the Trinity: Matthew 28:19; Luke 1:35;
2Cor 13:14; 1Cor 12:3-4, 1Pt 1:2 and John chapters 14-16.61
I will start with the Great Commission: Jesus commands his disciples to do mission and
baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. As far as I know, the Sabellians
whether ignore this passage or take it as false. Modern Modalists state that Eusebius quoted it
without the "Trinitarian" formula. Trinitarians respond that he did quote the "Trinitarian"
formula in his later writings. We know that Matthew 28:19 is quoted also in the Didache (late
1st Century or early 2nd Century) and in the Diatesseron (mid 2nd Century). There are no Greek
manuscripts of the Gospel of Matthew which does not contain Matthew 28:19 62. On the basis of
this text, the baptism in the name of the Trinity is Jesus' commandment. Therefore, Sabellians
who baptize only in the name of Jesus, are wrong. (Logically, they may have a point if they take
into consideration Acts 10 and 11, when Peter baptizes Cornelius and his household in the name
of Jesus, but it is not a proof that they always practiced this, and, on the other hand, Jesus'
commandment is related to the Trinity. )
In Luke 1:35 we read about the angel who foretold Mary that the Holy Spirit would come
upon her, the power of the Most High would overshadow her so that she would give birth to the
Son of God. I understand here that all the three persons of the Trinity contribute to the birth of
Jesus and have different roles or tasks. This text does not deny the immutability of God. Neither
does it prove that we have a self-developing God, as some Sabellians believe. (Vos states that
Sabellians deny the immutability of God as soon as they take the distinction between the persons
more seriously. Some Sabellians do teach that the Godhead from eternity was unipersonal but for
the sake of revelation has divided itself into a trinity of persons. This is the pantheistic doctrine
of a self-developing of God in the world.63)
Vos enumerates 2Cor 13:14 as a proof for the different persons of the Trinity. This was
the general blessing of the apostles and a lot of epistles are closed with this formula. Why would
Paul enumerate three persons if there was only one? In every Reformed church in Transylvania,
both the fore-prayer and the last blessing of the worship contain the three persons of the Trinity.
2Cor 13,14 is the last sentence (prescribed blessing) of any Reformed worship in my county.64

61
Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 41.
62
"It is also suggested by some modern Oneness Pentecostal critics, that Matthew 28:19 is not part of the original
text, because Eusebius of Caesarea quoted it by saying "In my name", and in that source there was no mention of
baptism in the verse. Eusebius did, however, quote the "Trinitarian" formula in his later writings. (Conybeare
(Hibbert Journal i (1902-3), page 102). Matthew 28:19 is quoted also in the Didache (Didache 7:1), which dates to
the late 1st Century or early 2nd Century) and in the Diatesseron (Diatesseron 55:5-7), which dates to the mid 2nd
Century harmony of the Synoptic Gospels. No Greek manuscript of the Gospel of Matthew has ever been found
which does not contain Matthew 28:19. The earliest extant copies of Matthew's Gospel date to the 3rd Century,
and they contain Matthew 28:19. Therefore, scholars generally agree that Matthew 28:19 is likely part of the
original Gospel of Matthew.", https://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Modalism
63
Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 51.

10
 1Pt 1:2 gives another proof of the three persons of the Trinity and also suggests different
roles of them.
Sabellians affirm that Jesus and the Father are the same person. There are a great deal of
passages, where Jesus talks to His Father, or prays to Him. They are presented in the NT as two
different persons who "address each other, they assume objective relations to each other, they
love each other and they can interact with each other"65. The same author, Vos points out related
to his 19th question (How do you refute Sabellianism?) that we can refute this heresy by showing
that Scripture everywhere places the divine persons in distinction from each other66.
Furthermore, in God's economy, the persons appear in juridical relationships with each
other. What is said about the Counsel of Peace, would be a mere show if the persons weren't
distinguished from each other67.
One consequence of following Vos' argument for Trinity, namely the persons of the
Trinity love each other68, would be that God teaches us to love, because He shows us what love
means. If there was no love among the persons of the Trinity, it would be more difficult for us to
understand love. God is love and the persons of the Trinity practice love unconditionally (love to
death: John 3:16. We hear this verse in Transylvania every Sunday during the worship service).
Last, but not least, I want to touch upon the humanity of Jesus. As Vos states,
Sabellianism does not allow justice to be done to the humanity of the Mediator. According to this
point of view, it is merely a revelatory form of God, like the appearance of an Angel of the
Lord69. We, Trinitarians, believe that Jesus was 100% divine and 100% human. In Sabellians'
view, we cannot speak of Jesus' humanity. John 2:25 helps us out (among other passages) and we
can answer our Modalistic fellowmen that He (Jesus) knew what being a human was like: "He
did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man"

6. Sabellianism in 2019
One might think that Sabellianism WAS a heresy only in the 3rd century. History is
repeating itself and there are modern Sabellianists or Modalists, as well. I found some videos on
the internet which refute Modalism/ Sabellianism. 70 71 72 73 74There is also a great number of

64
Református Ágendáskönyv, Erdélyi Református Egyházkerület, https://www.yumpu.com/hu/document/read
/13992268/reformatus-agendaskonyv-erdelyi-reformatus-egyhazkerulet
65
Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 43.
66
Idem, 51.
67
Idem, 51.
68
Idem, 43.
69
Idem, 51.
70
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5729V-XiW1E&feature=share
71
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0UaOJrjEYQ&feature=share
72
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlPGv7rXoq4&feature=share
73
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RCF7aM33Fo&feature=share
74
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t-8sptc5sg&feature=share

11
videos propagating Oneness Theology (Modalism).75 76 77 78 Therefore, if someone is looking for
the truth online, might become extremely confused.
Oneness Pentecostalism of today began in 1913, in a camp79. Oneness Pentecostals
believe that Jesus was "Son" only when he became flesh on earth, but was the Father before
being made man. They refer to the Father as the "Spirit" and the Son as the "Flesh". But they
believe that Jesus and the Father are one essential Person, operating as different "manifestations"
or "modes". Oneness Pentecostals reject the Trinity doctrine, viewing it as pagan and un-
Scriptural, and hold to the Jesus' Name doctrine with respect to baptisms 80. Our church member
got into touch with Oneness Pentecostals, and it started in a camp, how interesting. Since then,
he wants to get baptized in the name of Jesus. I found this teaching 5 years ago online in
Reckart's idea81.
In Hungary, we can find Oneness Pentecostals under the name of "Üzenet Közösség" 82
(Message Communion). It is very important to be aware of Hungarian influence because sooner
or later, they reach the Hungarian-speaking regions in Romania.

7. Conclusion
Sabellians were monoprosopistic in their understanding of God. According to orthodox
thinkers, the Scriptures revealed God to be triprosopistic, one being in three persons 83. There is
one God and there are three distinct persons named, called and considered God. There is Unity in
Trinity and Trinity in Unity84.(capitals mine) The persons of God have their personal glory
entirely distinct.85
What finally defeated Sabellianism was the conviction that Christ really is distinct from
the Father, a conviction that naturally results from all those New Testament passages in which
we see the Father and the Son dealing with one another as distinct persons.86
75
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6AyeNt9DVs&feature=share
76
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHV3PB4ckyo
77
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgmfu4DNkdA
78
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOPdI7FUoFI
79
"At the Arroyo Seco World Wide Camp Meeting, near Los Angeles, in 1913, Canadian evangelist R.E. McAlister
stated at a baptismal service that the apostles had baptized in the name of Jesus only and not in the triune Name
of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Later that night, John G. Schaeppe, a German immigrant, had a vision of Jesus and
woke up the camp shouting that the name of Jesus needed to be glorified. From that point, Frank J. Ewart began
requiring that anyone baptized using the Trinitarian formula needed to be rebaptized in the name of Jesus “only.”
Support for this position began to spread, along with a belief in one Person in the Godhead, acting in different
modes or offices.", https://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Modalism
80
https://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Modalism
81
http://jesus-messiah.com/html/modalistic-patripassianism.html
82
András, Szalai : Más Jézus, más lélek, más evangélium, (Budapest: Harmat- Apológia, 1998), 225-226.
83
David E. Wilhite, The Gospel according to heretics, 103.
84
Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics, 41.
85
"They have their personal glory entirely distinct, and therefore one may have a peculiar personal dignity that
another has not.", Jonathan Edwards, Writings on the Trinity, Grace and Faith, ed. Sang Hyun Lee, (New Haven and
London: Yale University Press, 2003), 146.
86
Harold O. J. Brown, Heresies, 103.

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 We also need to know that the term "person" meant something different in the early
Christian centuries than it does today. Today, we tend to think of an independent self, of a
Descartian ego, in philosophical terms. However, if this meaning is used of the three divine
persons, then we inevitably end up as tritheists rather than monotheists, for three persons in this
sense would entail three independent beings87.
I am thankful for the possibility to write my essay related to Sabellianism, because doing
research I realized this is not a no-brainer and we need to know what we believe and why. We
need clean and clear teachings. We need to know what modern Sabellians teach online to be able
to refute their teaching.
If I will have an opportunity to speak to any Sabellian (whether to our church members,
whether other persons), I will focus on Jesus, on His person, personality and role. I will show
them where the Oneness videos are wrong (especially those which "prove" that all early
Christians were Sabellians), I will show them some of the many Trinitarian passages from the
Bible, and I will share my testimony about Jesus.

8. Bibliography
1. Berkhof, Luis. The history of Christian doctrines. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1978.
2. Boff, Leonardo, trans. Paul Burns. Trinity and society. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books,
1988.
3. Brown, Harold O. J. Heresies. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1988.
4. Edwards, Jonathan. Writings on the Trinity, Grace and Faith, ed. Sang Hyun Lee. New Haven
and London: Yale University Press, 2003.
5. Grenz, Stanley J., Nordling, Cherith Fee, Guretzki, David. Pocket Dictionary of theological
terms. Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1999.
6. Hall, Stuart George. Doctrine and practice in the early church. London: SPCK, 1992.
7. Mather, George A., Larry A. Nichols, Modalistic Monarchianism, in: Dictionary of cults,
sects, religions and the occult. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1993.
8. Norris, Frederick W. Sabellianism, in: Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, ed. Everett
Ferguson. New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1990.
9. Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal. Wurzel, 223., in: Miroslav Volf, After our likeness: The church as
the image of the Trinity, Sacra Doctrina. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.
10. Szalai, András. Más Jézus, más lélek, más evangélium. Budapest: Harmat- Apológia, 1998.
11. Tertullian. Against Praxeas, in: David E. Wilhite, The Gospel according to heretics. Grand
Rapids: Baker Academic, 2015.
12. Volf, Miroslav. After our likeness: The church as the image of the Trinity, Sacra Doctrina.
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.
13. Vos, Geerhardus. Reformed Dogmatics, Volume One: Theology Proper, trans. and ed.
Richard B. Gaffin. Grand Rapids: Lexham Press, 2014.
14. Wilhite, David E. The Gospel according to heretics. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2015.

87
David E. Wilhite, The Gospel according to heretics, 101-102.

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Online bibliography, all accessed last in January 2019

15. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sabellianism
16. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMPIxCDDxTs&feature=share
17. Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, James Clarke & Co Ltd,
1991. https://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Modalism
18. https://www.theopedia.com/modalism
19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6AyeNt9DVs&feature=share
20. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0UaOJrjEYQ&feature=share
21.https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-difference-between-Arianism-Sabellianism-and-
Modalism-in-simple-terms
22. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgmfu4DNkdA
23. Református Ágendáskönyv, Erdélyi Református Egyházkerület, https://www.yumpu.com/hu/
document/read /13992268/reformatus-agendaskonyv-erdelyi-reformatus-egyhazkerulet
24. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5729V-XiW1E&feature=share
25. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0UaOJrjEYQ&feature=share
26. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlPGv7rXoq4&feature=share
27. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RCF7aM33Fo&feature=share
28. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t-8sptc5sg&feature=share
29. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6AyeNt9DVs&feature=share
30. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHV3PB4ckyo
31. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgmfu4DNkdA
32. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOPdI7FUoFI
33. http://jesus-messiah.com/html/modalistic-patripassianism.html

I checked the passages from two Bibles: The NIV Study Bible (Zondervan, 1985) and the
Hungarian Újfordítású Biblia (Kálvin Kiadó, Magyar Református Egyház, 1992).

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