02 - Chapter 02

CHAPTER 2 SECOND CENTURY GLOSSOLALIA

107 AD, The Testimony of Ignatius Against Oneness Pentecostals: Ignatius, also known as Theophilus, became one of the bishops in the one God, Apostolic Church in Antioch in AD 69, when he was 38 years old. Because of his invention of the Monarchial Bishop doctrine, that is, one bishop not several bishops should rule God’s Church, which in the Bible is known as part of the Nicolaitan doctrine (Revelation 2:6, Revelation 2:15), and his Semi-Arian godhead doctrine of Philo, that is, the doctrine of two-unequal-gods, he was branded as a heretic by God’s children. The apostle Paul warned God’s children to beware of bishops like Ignatius, when he prophesied and told God’s bishops: “For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things [doctrines], to draw away the disciples after themselves” (Acts 20:29-30). The apostle Peter, like Paul, warned God’s bishops against the heresy of the monarchial bishop doctrine, when he wrote: “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers--not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.” (1 Peter 5:2-3, NIV).

Peter spoke of the Semi-Arian godhead heresy of these heretics this way: “There will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord [the supreme Deity of Christ] who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up” (2 Peter 2:1-22; 2 Peter 3:1-18, NIV). The apostle John (c. 90) spoke of the departure of these heretics from God’s Church when he wrote: “Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us” (1 John 2:18-19). Who were these heretics that departed from the oneness Pentecostal Church? They were Ignatius (AD 90), Clement of Rome (AD 90), and other of that ilk. Therefore, somewhere around AD 90, these bishops and their deceived followers, and other bishops of other cities, apostatized and departed from God’s oneness Pentecostal Church. As a result, they came together and formed the first ministerial organization in history; they called it the Catholic Church. The main Catholic Nicolaitan heretics of the second and third centuries are Justin Martyr (AD 150), Tertullian (AD 180), Clemens of Alexandria (AD 200), Origen (AD 220), Hippolytus (AD 225), and Cyprian (AD 255). All of these heretics loved the writings of the Greek philosophers, especially Plato, and the allegoric method of interpreting the scriptures that was used by Philo.

Harvard University professor Harry A. Wolfson, in his book The Philosophy of the Church Fathers, boldly declared the Semi-Arian heresy that all the above heretical Catholics taught. He affirmed that these Catholic Ante Nicene Priests did NOT:

Believe in a preexistent Trinity.... Before His [Jesus’] birth there were only two preexistent beings, God and the Holy Spirit, the latter identified with the preexistent Christ, and, if the term Logos is used, it is identified with the Holy Spirit. He continued by saying, like: Philo, the [Catholic Ante Nicene] Fathers attributed to the Logos… two stages of existence prior to the creation of the world, which according to Philo was the internal and external Logos, who was known as the Holy Spirit. [25]

If my dear readers would like to read a book on the Nicolaitan doctrine, I would suggest my book: “The Heresy of the Nicolaitans,” which is given without charge on my website: www.DoctrinesOfChrist.com. My book: “A Prophetic History of God’s Apostolic Pentecostal Church” also exposes this heresy. If they would like to know more about the early Catholic Semi-Arian godhead doctrine of two-unequal gods, I would suggest my books entitled: “A History of Oneness Throughout the Centuries,” and “The Mysteries of the Godhead Revealed.”

Let us examine Ignatius’ attacks against God’s people. This Nicolaitan heretic, in his Epistle to the Trallians (107), denied the supreme Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and bitterly complained to his Catholic followers that oneness Apostolic Churches taught: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are but the same person…. [26] [Ignatius claimed Jesus] is not God over all, and the Father, but His Son. [27] In his Epistle to the Antiochians, he again wrote against the Monotheistic Pentecostal Churches. He told his followers to:

Reject every Jewish and Gentile error, and neither introduce a multiplicity of gods, nor yet deny Christ under the pretense of [maintaining] the unity of God. [28]

These oneness Pentecostals believed in, sought after, and were greatly used in the Gifts of the Spirit, especially glossolalia. Dr. Wolfson commenting on Justin’s reproof of God’s churches wrote: At the beginning of the age [referring to AD 107] of the apologist there appeared in Christianity a conception of the Trinity which later crystallized into the [so-called] heresies of Praxeas, Noetus, and Sabellius. [29]

History very clearly reveals that the Apostolic Pentecostal Churches were in the vast majority in the Roman Empire for the first fourth centuries. Catholic professor and Cardinal John Newman, in his work entitled Essays And Sketches, confirmed this truth when he boldly declared:

Praxeas, Noetus, and Sabellius, in the third century protested against the Catholic or Athanasian doctrine of the Holy Trinity.... We read... their doctrine prevailed among the common people, then and at an earlier date, to a very great extent, and the true faith [which he claims is Catholicism] was hardly [scarcely] preached in the churches. [30]

150 AD, Catholic Apologist Justin Martyr on Glossolalia: Justin, who started the first Catholic school of theology at Rome, where he wrote his Dialogue to Trypho the Jew. Justin no where in his writings ever mentions that he, or the Monarchian Bishop, or presbyters, or even the deacons of his church have any of the gifts of the Spirit. At time God was using Catholic laity in the gift of tongues and prophecy to reprove the Catholic ministry for their Nicolaitan and other false doctrines. Justin speaking of the gifts of the Spirit in this dialogue wrote: For the prophetical gifts remain with us, even to the present time. And hence you ought to understand that [the gifts] formerly among your nation have been transferred to us…. Now, it is possible to see amongst us women and men who possess gifts of the Spirit of God. [31] [He told Trypho:] ‘knowing that daily some [of you Jews] are becoming disciples in the name of Christ, and quitting are also receiving gifts, each as he is worthy, illumined through the name of this Christ. For one receives the spirit of understanding, another of counsel, another of strength, another of healing, another of foreknowledge, another of teaching, and another of the fear of God.’ To this Trypho said to me, ‘I wish you knew that you are beside yourself, talking these sentiments.’ And I said to him, ‘Listen, O friend, for I am not mad or beside myself; but it was prophesied that, after the ascent of Christ to heaven, He would deliver us from error and give us gifts.’ The words are these: ‘He ascended up on high; He led captivity captive; He gave gifts to men.’ [32]

150 AD, Justin Martyr Against Oneness Pentecostals: Justin Martyr hated God’s Apostolic Tongue-Talking Churches and wrote against them. He also confessed that God’s Pentecostals churches definitely existed in the first and second centuries. Doctors M’Clintock and Strong speaking of Justin’s attacks on these Pentecostals stated:

Modalist Monarchianism is generally supposed to have originated about the end of the second century. It seems to us, however, that this [so-called] heresy may be traced to the very earliest times of Christianity. Justin Martyr expressly denounces it, and his notice guides us to its source, for he finds the heresy to exist both among the [Christian] Jews and [Gentile] Christians. He condemns the [Christian] Jews for thinking that, when God was said to have appeared to the patriarchs, it was God the Father who appeared. [33]

156 AD, Montanus, the First Protestant, on Glossolalia: Montanus was a second-century Catholic ascetic, who considered himself to be a prophet. He, like Luther, tried to reform Catholicism, but later gave up after being excommunicated in AD 177. It was at this time, he started his own denomination. Therefore, in a real sense, he was the first Protestant Reformer. He believed in and taught the Semi-Arian doctrine of the godhead, that all Catholic Bishops taught at this time. According to “The Charismatic Movement” by Michael P. Hamilton, Montanism was a: reaction to the structural hardening of main-line [supposedly Catholic] Christianity. [34]

Montanus had two helpers Maximilla and Priscilla, whom were considered as prophetesses. These two women were very instrumental in the spread of Montanism. Harnack, Zahn, Duchesne, and others historians believe this sect arose around AD 156 or 157, using the writings of Epiphanius (Hær., 48, 1) as their proof. Jesse Hurlbut, in his history entitled, The Story of the Christian Church, declared that the Montanists: were Puritans… [who] believed in the priesthood of all believers…. [They] held to prophetic gifts as the privilege of disciples. [35]

Montanists were first known as the Phrygians, then as Montanists, Pepuzians in the eastern part of the Roman Empire, and in the west as Cataphrygians. Montanus, like the oneness preachers of His day, taught two great truths, “glossolalia” and the “universal priesthood of all believers.” He believed in the right and responsibility of all believers to be God’s priests or priesthood. This last doctrine made him very unpopular with Catholic Nicolaitan Bishops; for they taught only a certain few could be priests or hold the priesthood.

Since Catholic history is all we know of church history, all we know of this man is written by his enemies, therefore, they no doubt slandered his character and those of his followers, just as they did to the Apostolic Pentecostal Preachers. Eusebius, a Catholic Bishop and one of the early Catholic Church historians, wrote against Montanus in no doubt very exaggerated terms; that is, he claimed that Montanus, Maximilla, and Priscilla claimed to be the Lord Jesus Christ, and sometimes the Holy Spirit. This is nothing but foolishness.

Anyone who knows anything about the spirit of prophecy or the interpreting of tongues, knows when God speaks through any of His children, in either of these gifts, He always speaks in the first person and not the third person! This does not mean the child of God, who is speaking, claims to be God, but only a mere tool that God is using to speak through. Who would dare say that the donkey, God spoke through to Balaam, claimed to be God because God spoke through it. Therefore, when we read Eusebius, or any ancient Catholic priest’s writing, who wrote against their enemies, we should bear in mind he is speaking from a heart that is full of bias and hate. With this in mind, let us read what Eusebius wrote about Montanus and his two helpers. Eusebius stated:

There is said to be a certain village called Ardabau in that part of Mysia, which borders upon Phrygia. There first, they say, when Gratus was proconsul of Asia, a recent convert, Montanus by name, through his unquenchable desire for leadership, gave the adversary opportunity against him. And he became beside himself, and being suddenly in a sort of frenzy and ecstasy, he raved, and began to babble and utter strange things, prophesying in a manner….

He stirred up besides two women, and filled them with the false spirit, so that they talked wildly and unreasonably and strangely, like the person already mentioned…. And the arrogant spirit taught them to revile the entire universal Church [meaning priesthood] under heaven, because the spirit of false prophecy received neither honor from it nor entrance into it…. These persons were expelled from the Church and debarred from communion…. Since, therefore, they called us slayers of the prophets. [36] The Catholic record of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is not very good. In Justin’s day the gifts of the Spirit in most Catholic Churches had just about disappeared. Reverend Marvin M. Arnold, in his great work the History of the Christian Church, quoted Thomas O’ Dea as saying: By the time Justin wrote his Apology in AD 150 in which he described the Eucharistic service of the Catholic Church, free expression of emotion characteristic of earlier meetings, such as ‘prophesying, speaking with tongues, and interpretation of tongues’ had disappeared. [37]

Because Catholic Bishops believed in and taught Ignatius’ Nicolaitan Monarchial Bishop doctrine and the priesthood of only certain believers, they did everything they could to stop any movement of the Spirit of God in their services. They did not want anyone standing up and saying: “Thus saith the Lord,” and thereby defy their absolute authority over the church, as Montanus and his followers had done. After all, when Ignatius or any other Catholic Bishop claimed that their authority over the Church is the same as God’s authority over the Church, they certainly did not want God or anyone God was using to contradict anything they said or taught.

Therefore, these Catholic Bishop were afraid of the Gifts of the Spirit. So, what did they do to stop it? The first thing they did was to forbid it by claiming it was of the devil! The second thing they did was to take away the liberty and joy of spontaneous emotional worship, and replaced it with the ritual and ceremony of the Mass! They obviously realized that the Gifts of the Spirit usually moved on the people, when they were pouring out their hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ in love in verbal worship!

180 AD, Catholic Bishop Irenaeus on Glossolalia: There are two basic truths that we can learn from the writings of Irenaeus: First, he claimed that the gifts of the Spirit were still in operation in his church in Lyons, and in some of the other Catholic Churches in France around this time. Therefore, the Holy Spirit of God was evidently being quenched in most of the Catholic Churches around the world. Second, Irenaeus believed that glossolalia and other gifts of the Spirit would continue until the resurrection took place. So with this in mind, let examine Irenaeus’ writings. Irenaeus, like Justin Martyr, connected the ascension of Christ with Jesus imparting the gifts of the Spirit to the Church. He wrote in his book entitled “Against Heresies”: For the Lord, through means of suffering, ‘ascending into the lofty place, led captivity captive, gave gifts to men,’ and conferred on those that believe in Him the power ‘to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and on all the power of the enemy….’ [38] Those who are in truth His disciples, receiving grace from Him, do in His name perform [miracles], so as to promote the welfare of other men, according to the gift which each one has received from Him. For some do certainly and truly drive out devils, so that those who have thus been cleansed from evil spirits frequently both believe [in Christ], and join themselves to the Church. Others have foreknowledge of things to come: they see visions, and utter prophetic expressions. Others still, heal the sick by laying their hands upon them, and they are made whole. Yea, moreover, as I have said, the dead even have been raised up, and remained among us for many years…. The name of our Lord Jesus Christ even now confers benefits [upon men], and cures thoroughly and effectively all who anywhere believe on Him. [39]

Irenaeus was a disciple of Polycarp. Is it not sad that this Catholic Bishop speaks as an observer and not as a participator! Eusebius, in the fourth century, interpreted Irenaeus writings when he wrote:

He shows that manifestations of divine and miraculous power continued to his time in some of the churches…. And in another place the same author [Irenaeus] writes: ‘As also we hear that many brethren in the Church possess prophetic gifts, and speak, through the Spirit, with all kinds of tongues, and bring to light the secret things of men for their good, and declare the mysteries of God.’ So much in regard to the fact that various gifts remained among those who were worthy even until that time. [40]

Irenaeus believed that speaking in tongues and the gifts of the Spirit would continue in the Church until the resurrection. He declared that the apostle Paul taught that the perfect man was one who was filled with the Holy Spirit of God, and one who kept the Holy Spirit until the end, and preserved his spirit, soul, and body blameless, until the resurrection when he will see God. Irenaeus said it this way: And Paul declared: ‘Not that I have already attained, or that I am justified, or already have been made perfect.’ ‘For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect has come, the things which are in part shall be done away. As, therefore, when that which is perfect is come, we shall not see another Father, but Him whom we now desire to see for ‘blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. [41] To truly understand how the apostle Paul relates the perfect to tongues and the gifts of the Spirit, lets examine the entire passage. Paul declared: “Prophecies they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away” (Php 3:12). According to the apostle, when will the gifts of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge cease? He says: “When that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away” (1 Corinthians 13:8-10). Therefore, since Irenaeus correctly relates the perfect to the resurrection, the gifts of the Spirit will be will the Church at least until the resurrection. Irenaeus continues his teaching on the resurrection by writing:

Now God shall be glorified in His handiwork [meaning man’s physical body], fitting it so as to be conformable to, and modeled after, His own Son. For by the hands of the Father, that is, by the Son and the Holy Spirit, man, and not [merely] a part of man, was made in the likeness of God. Now the soul and the spirit are certainly a part of the man, but certainly not the man; for the perfect man consists in the commingling and the union of the soul receiving the spirit of the Father, and the admixture of that fleshly nature which was molded after the image of God. For this reason does the apostle [Paul] declare, ‘We speak wisdom among them that are perfect,’ terming those persons ‘perfect’ who have received the Spirit of God, and who through the Spirit of God do speak in all languages, as he used Himself also to speak. In like manner we do also hear many brethren in the Church, who possess prophetic gifts, and who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages…. And for this cause does the apostle, explaining himself, make it clear that the saved man is a complete man as well as a spiritual man; saying thus in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians, ‘Now the God of peace sanctify you perfect (perfectos); and may your spirit, and soul, and body be preserved whole without complaint to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now what was his object in praying that these three — that is, soul, body, and spirit — might be preserved to the coming of the Lord, unless he was aware of the [future] reintegration and union of the three, and [that they should be heirs of] one and the same salvation? For this cause also he declares that those are ‘the perfect’ who present unto the Lord the three [component parts] without offense [in the resurrection]. Those, then, are the perfect who have had the Spirit of God remaining in them, and have preserved their souls and bodies blameless, holding fast the faith of God, that is, that faith which is [directed] towards God, and maintaining righteous dealings with respect to their neighbors. [42]

180 AD, Irenaeus Against Oneness Pentecostals: Irenaeus writing against God’s Apostolic Tongue-Talking Churches in France, who not only existed during this period of time, but also in the first century, as I have already shown. They also existed throughout the Roman Empire. Irenaeus wrote: But there are some who say… that Jesus was the Son, but that Christ was the Father and the Father of Christ. [43]

German protestant Professor Adolph Harnack, in his History of Dogma, confessed that the oneness tongue talking churches were throughout the Roman Empire. He wrote: The real dangerous opponent of the Logos Christology in the period between AD 180 and 300 was not Adoptianism, but the doctrine which saw the Deity Himself incarnate in Christ, and conceived Christ to be God in a human body, the Father becoming flesh. [44]

190 AD, Oneness Montanist Pentecostals and Glossolalia: Speaking in tongues and the gifts of the Spirit were always identifying characteristics in all the centuries of the Apostolic Montanists and other one God Jesus’ name Pentecostal’s movements. In the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Dr. James Hastings wrote: The Montanists first attracted attention [to themselves] by speaking in tongues…. [45] By the end of the 2nd century there were two parties of Montanists, who took different sides in the [Modalist] Monarchian controversy. [46]

According to history, the two-god Montanists split from the main body around AD 190, when they became oneness Pentecostals. Tertullian was the leader of this small group. In the Dictionary of Sects, Heresies, Ecclesiastical Parties, and Schools of Religious Though, John Blunt spoke of this by saying: The author of Praedestinatus infers that the Tertullianists had... separated themselves from the main body of Montanists. [47] The Catholic Encyclopedia also speaking of this split revealed that the most of the main body of Montanist went with Aeschines and some with Alogi and others with different ones. It stated: A number of Montanists led by Aeschines became Modalists [oneness Pentecostals].... The Alogi [Montanists] have sometimes been classed with the [oneness or Modalists] Monarchians…. An anonymous bishop of Asia Minor, who composed an influential three-volume work on the subject c. 192-193… Apollonius c. 197, and others. [48]

Asterius Urbanus (AD 230) speaking against Tertullian’s Montanists followers, who like Tertullian believed in the doctrine of two-unequal-gods, asked them why they no longer had the gifts of the Spirit in their churches. Urbanus then declared, like Irenaeus, that God’s true church would always have the gifts of the Spirit in it until the final advent, meaning the resurrection. Let us read what Urbanus wrote: For the apostle deems that the gift of prophecy should abide in all the Church up to the time of the final advent. But they [Tertullian’s group of Montanists] will not be able to show the gift to be in their possession even at the present time, which is the fourteenth year only from the death of Maximilla. [49]

History reveals that sometime after Tertullian died, his Semi-Arian Montanists followers lost the gifts of the Spirit and rejoined the Semi-Arian Catholic Church. Blunt spoke of this by saying:

Augustine relates that in his time the remnant of the Tertullianists in Cartage returned to the Catholic Church. [50]

These Montanists, like their brethren the Catholics, had the Spirit of God in their Churches, but when they would not follow the leading of the Spirit and come out of their Nicolaitan Monarchical bishop doctrine, which also denied the priesthood of all believers, and their Semi-Arian godhead doctrine, God departed from them. Now, all one God, Jesus’ Name, Tongue-Talking believers strongly denounced the Catholic Nicolaitan concept of the ministry and their Semi-Arian doctrine of the godhead. In fact, Hastings says they: used scathing words about the [Catholic] ecclesiastical rulers, and stigmatized them as slayers of the prophets…. Put forth treatises in which the arguments of their opponents were answered.... The early Montanists were prolific writers.

200 AD, The Montanist Protestant Tertullian on Glossolalia: Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, better known as Tertullian, was the son of a Roman centurion. He was born in Carthage, and in adulthood he trained for a career in law. It was in Rome that he practiced his profession. It was there that this pagan was converted Catholicism around AD 190. He returned to Carthage around AD 197 and became a presbyter of the church. About AD 200 or before, he aligned himself with Montanism, a sect that encouraged prophesying and espoused a rigorous form of asceticism. The Montanists, increasingly in conflict with church authorities, were finally declared heretical. The most renowned follower of Montanus was without a doubt Tertullian of Carthage, Africa. He converted from Catholicism to Montanism shortly before AD 190. Tertullian defended the validity and existence of the gifts of the Spirit when he wrote against the Gnostic Marcion around AD 200. Tertullian, like Irenaeus and Justin Martyr, rightly interpreted the teaching of Ephesians 4:8, that is, God: “led captivity captive,” not by taking dead souls in Hades to heaven, but by setting men free from the bondage and slavery of sin, by giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit, he wrote: The Creator promised the gift of His Spirit in the latter days; and… Christ has in these last days appeared as the dispenser of spiritual gifts…. Now hear how he declared that by Christ Himself, when returned to heaven, these spiritual gifts were to be sent: ‘He ascended up on high,’ that is, into heaven; ‘He led captivity captive,’ meaning death or slavery of man; ‘He gave gifts to the sons of men,’ that is, the gratuities, which we call charismata.

Christ has in these last days appeared as the dispenser of spiritual gifts (as the apostle says….’ Now [this] was absolutely fulfilled that promise of the Spirit, which was given by the word of Joel…. Since, then, the Creator promised the gift of His Spirit in the latter days; and since Christ has in these last days appeared as the dispenser of spiritual gifts… it evidently follows in connection with this prediction of the last days, that this gift of the Spirit belongs to Him [Jesus], who is the Christ of the predictors [meaning the prophets]….

[Therefore,] when he [the apostle Paul] mentions the fact that ‘it is written in the law [1 Corinthians 14:21],’ how that the Creator would speak with other tongues and other lips [Isaiah 28:11], whilst confirming indeed the gift of tongues by such a mention…. Let Marcion then exhibit, as gifts of his God, some prophets, such as have not spoken by human sense, but with the Spirit of God, such as have both predicted things to come, and have made manifest the secrets of the heart; let him produce a psalm, a vision, a prayer — only let it be by the Spirit, in an ecstasy, that is, in a rapture, whenever an interpretation of tongues has occurred to him. Let him show to me also, that any woman of boastful tongue in his community has ever prophesied from amongst those specially holy sisters of his. Now all these signs (of spiritual gifts) are forthcoming from my side without any difficulty. [51]

Even though Tertullian defended the gifts of the Spirit, there is no mention that he ever spoke in tongues or was used in any of the gifts of the Spirit. In fact, according to A History of Christian Thought by Otto Heick, Tertullian defended himself by saying: The prophet does not need to speak in ecstasy. [52] Tertullian did believe a prophet could chant. There is no comparison between chanting some word or phrase in the flesh, such as the Buddhist do, and being used of God in the gifts of the Spirit!

Tertullian Against Praxeas, A Oneness Pentecostal Preacher: Tertullian complained that Praxeas and other Jesus’ Name Pentecostal movements vastly out numbered the Catholic Churches and his little band of Semi-Arian Montanist Churches. He did not like God’s oneness people calling him a heretic because he and the Montanist Churches he headed, and the Roman Catholic Churches, believed in and worshipped two-unequal-gods, or in other words, they followed the teaching of the Jewish apostate Philo Judaeus (AD 45). As a result, Tertullian wrote against God’s Apostolic Churches. In his writing against the godhead doctrine of Praxeas and other Pentecostal Preachers, he openly confessed that the one God, Jesus’ Name Churches were in the vast majority in the first and second centuries. He wrote: The older [so-called] heretics much more before Praxeas, a pretender of yesterday… [who preaches] this heresy, which supposes itself to possess the pure truth, in thinking that one cannot believe in the one only God in any other way than by saying that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are the very selfsame person…. The simple, indeed, I will not call them unwise and unlearned, who always constitute the majority of believers, are… constantly throwing out against us that we are preachers of two gods and three gods, while they take to themselves pre-eminently the credit of being worshippers of the one God. [53]

Let my readers make a mental note of this truth, Tertullian clearly stated beyond all argumentation that the One God, Jesus Name people were in existence long before Praxeas began to preach against him and the heretics of that day in AD 190. Tertullian also openly admitted that God’s people constituted the majority of Christians in his day. Doctor James Hastings declared that the one God, Jesus’ Name Churches were in every part of the Roman Empire. According to Hastings, Tertullian sums up his case against the Latin and Greek oneness Pentecostal Churches by saying: The Latins take pains to pronounce monarchia, [and] the Greeks refuse to understand aeconomia... For extolling the monarchia at the expense of the aeconomia, they contend for the identity of Father, Son, and Spirit. [54]