The Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity has been strenuously controverted, on the one hand, by errorists who denied the three Persons (Monarchians, Unitarians, Antitrinitarians) and, on the other, by errorists who denied the one essence (Tritheites). The Monarchians may be divided into two classes: the Modalistic Monarchians, or Patripassians, known in the East as Sabellians, who held that the three Persons of the Trinity are but three different energies or modes of the same divine person, so that the Son and the Holy Ghost are but different manifestations (πρόσωπα) of the Father; and the Dynamic Monarchians, or Adoptionists, who held that the Son was a mere man and the Holy Ghost the Father's divine energy in the creatures (Paul of Samosata, Photinians, Arians, Socinians, Unitarians, Modernists). In opposition to Monarchianism, which denies the three distinct Persons, the Christian Church holds that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are not three modes or energies of one person, but three distinct persons, or individuals. This truth is proved a) by the very terms Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, which never designate qualities or energies inhering in a person, but always Persons subsisting of themselves. (Augsb. Conf., Art. I: "And the term person they use as the Fathers have used it, to signify not a part or quality in another, but that which subsists of itself.") This truth is also proved b) by the personal worKs of the individual Persons, such as speaking, willing, reproving, etc., which Scripture ascribes not only to the Father, but also to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. (Actiones semper sunt suppositorum intelligentium, ... opera sunt personis propria.) To the Son Scripture ascribes the acts of knowing, Matt. 11, 27, of declaring, John 1, 18, of willing, John 17, 24, etc.; to the Holy Ghost it ascribes the acts of speaking, Acts 28, 25, of teaching, John 14, 26, of reproving, John 16, 8, etc. This truth is furthermore proved c) by express passages of Scripture in which the Father is called another (ἄλλος) than the Son, John 5, 32. 37, or in which the Holy Ghost is called another (ἄλλος) than the Son, John 14, 16.
As the Monarchians deny the three Persons of the Godhead, so other errorists deny the unity of God and teach three distinct divine essences in place of the one undivided and indivisible divine essence. Of these errorists the Tritheites coordinate the three essences, while the Subordinationists subordinate them, ascribing to the Father priority of essence. All Subordinationists deny the one true God and teach polytheism; for since they affirm that the Son and the Holy Ghost are "God in a lesser degree" than is the Father, they assume three distinct divine essences, or three gods, of whom one is the supreme Lord, while the others are inferior deities. In opposition to this error the Christian Church teaches that the three Persons in the one Godhead are fully coordinate, that is, that they are God in the same manner and the same degree, because the divine essence, which is numerically one (una numero divina essentia), belongs to each Person entire and undivided. This doctrine rests upon clear and decisive Scripture-passages. In Matt. 28, 19 three distinct and entirely coordinate Persons are described as having the same name (όνομα). Again, to the Son and to the Holy Ghost are ascribed a) the same divine names as to the Father, including the nomen essentiale et incommunicabile יְהוָה(the Son: Jer. 23, 6; John 1, 1; the Holy Ghost: 2 Sam. 23, 2; Acts 5, 3. 4); b) the same divine attributes, such as eternity, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, goodness, mercy, etc. (the Son: Col. 1, 17; John 10, 28; John 21, 19; Matt. 28, 20; 2 Cor. 13, 14; the Holy Ghost: Heb. 9, 14; Is. 11, 2; 1 Cor. 2, 10-12; Ps. 139, 7) ; c) the same divine works, such as creation, preservation, miracles, etc. (the Son: John 1,1-3; Col. 1, 16; John 5,17; 6, 39; the Holy Ghost: Ps. 33,6; Job 33, 4; Acts 10, 38); d) divine adoration and worship (the Son: John 5, 23; Phil. 2, 10; the Holy Ghost: Is. 6, 3; 2 Cor.13, 14; Num. 6, 26). Thus the true deity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is strenuously affirmed in Scripture.
Hence whenever the Father is called the First, the Son the Second, and the Holy Ghost the Third Person of the Godhead, this does not denote any subordination or any inequality in respect to time (tempore) or dignity (natura vel dignitate), but merely in dicates the Scriptural truth that the Son is from the Father, John 1, 14, and the Holy Ghost from the Father and Son, Matt. 10, 20; Gal. 4, 6. Or we may say this order of enumeration shows the divine mode in which the Three Persons subsist in the Godhead (modus subsistendi). But that the Son was generated from the Father does not render Him inferior to the Father, nor does the spiration of the Holy Ghost render the Spirit inferior to the Father and the Son, because the divine generation and spiration are eternal acts, or timeless processes, by which the Son and the Holy Ghost, together with the Father, possess the same divine essence and majesty. The Creed of Athanasius declares: ''In this Trinity none is before or after other; none is greater or less than another; but the whole three Persons are coeternal together, and coequal: so that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshiped." When Christ says of Himself: "The Father is greater than I," John 14, 28, He speaks of Himself according to His human nature in His state of humiliation. Athanasius: Aequalis Patri secundum divinitatem, minor Patre secundum humanitatem. The fact that the Father was "greater" than the Son in the latter's state of humiliation ceased when Christ was exalted, John 14, 28; Eph. 1, 20-23; Phil. 2, 9-11.
Again, when Scripture says that God created the world by the Son, Heb. 1, 2; John 1, 3, it teaches by no means any subordination of the Son to the Father, but rather the divine mode of operation (modus operand·i) ad extra. For as the Son is of the Father, so also His operation is from the Father, while that of the Holy Ghost is from the Father and the Son. Nevertheless, the divine operation remains one according to number (una numero potentia) and belongs to each Person entire, so that it is not distributed among the Three Persons. For this reason Holy Scripture sometimes ascribes the whole work of creation to one single Person without naming the others. (Creation ascribed to the Son John 1,1-3; Heb. 1, 10.) Gerhard writes (IV, 4): "But that one true God is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; therefore in Scripture the work of creation is ascribed to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. Of the Father it is affirmed 1 Cor. 8, 6 ; of the Son, John 1, 3; Col. 1, 16; of the Holy Ghost, Job 26, 13; 33, 4; Ps. 104,30. We conclude therefore that creation is an undivided action of the one and true God alone, namely, of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." Doctr. Theol., p. 162 And Hollaz writes: "In Holy Scripture and the Apostles' Creed the work of creation is ascribed in a peculiar manner to God the Father a) because of the order of working: for this reason that what the Father has of Himself to do and to create the Son of God and the Holy Ghost have of the Father; b) because in the work of creation God the Father by His most efficacious word of command manifested His own omnipotence, Gen. 1, 3; c) because creation is the first work ad extra and therefore, by appropriation, is affirmed of the First Person of the Godhead." (Ibid.)