The Early Church has always believed that The Holy Sprit was and is God, the third member of the Trinity. This can be traced back all the way to the Apostle John and his followers. Even still, all of these date later than the Gospels and writings of Paul in the New Testament. We should not dismiss the Bible, as it is our first source of Christian beliefs. # 2nd Century #### Ignatius (AD 50-117) Also a disciple of John the Apostle. He wrote a series of letters to various churches on his way to Rome, where he was to be martyred. He writes, >[!quote] Letter to the Ephesians Chapter 9 >Nevertheless, I have heard of some who have passed in among you, holding the wicked doctrine of the strange and evil spirit; to whom ye did not allow entrance to sow their tares, but stopped your ears that ye might not receive that error which was proclaimed by them, as being persuaded that that spirit which deceives the people does not speak the things of Christ, but his own, for he is a lying spirit. But the Holy Spirit does not speak His own things, but those of Christ, and that not from himself, but from the Lord; even as the Lord also announced to us the things that He received from the Father. For, says He, "the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's, who sent Me."61 And says He of the Holy Spirit, "He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever things He shall hear from Me."62 And He says of Himself to the Father, "I have," says He, "glorified Thee upon the earth ; I have finished the work which, Thou gavest Me; I have manifested Thy name to men."63 And of the Holy Ghost, "He shall glorify Me, for He receives of Mine."64 But the spirit of deceit preaches himself, and speaks his own things, for he seeks to please himself. He glorifies himself, for he is full of arrogance. He is lying, fraudulent, soothing, flattering, treacherous, rhapsodical, trifling, inharmonious, verbose, sordid, and timorous. > [!Quote] [[@Lake1919-ay|THE EPISTLE OF TO THE PHILIPPIANS]] > >“What is His name, or what His Son’s name, that we may know?” And there is also one Paraclete. For “there is also,” saith [the Scripture], “one Spirit,” since “we have been called in one hope of our calling.” And again, “We have drunk of one Spirit,” with what follows. And it is manifest that all these gifts [possessed by believers] “worketh one and the self-same Spirit.” There are not then either three Fathers, or three Sons, or three Paracletes, but one Father, and one Son, and one Paraclete. #### 5. Irenaeus of Lyons (AD 130-202) Irenaeus studied under bishop Polycarp, who in turn had been a disciple of John the Apostle. >[!quote] Against Heresies (Book III, Chapter 19) >2. For this reason [it is, said], “Who shall declare His generation?”3669 since “He is a man, and who shall recognise Him?”3670 But he to whom the Father which is in heaven has revealed Him,3671 knows Him, so that he understands that He who “was not born either by the will of the flesh, or by the will of man,”3672 is the Son of man, this is Christ, the Son of the living God. For I have shown from the Scriptures,3673 that no one of the sons of Adam is as to everything, and absolutely, called God, or named Lord. But that He is Himself in His own right, beyond all men who ever lived, God, and Lord, and King Eternal, and the Incarnate Word, proclaimed by all the prophets, the apostles, and by the Spirit Himself, may be seen by all who have attained to even a small portion of the truth. #### Clement of Alexandria (AD 150-215) Another early church father. He writes, > [!Quote] [[@Schaff2017-bd|FRAGMENTS OF CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS]] > >The old things which were done by the prophets and escape the observation of most, are now revealed to you by the evangelists. “For to you,” he says, “they are manifested by the Holy Ghost, who was sent;” that is the Paraclete, of whom the Lord said, “If I go not away, He will not come.” #### Tertullian (AD 150-225) He was an early Christian apologist who argued for the Christian Trinity. >[!quote] Against Hermogenes Chapter XXII. >And to such a degree has the Holy Ghost made this the rule of His Scripture, that whenever anything is made out of anything, He mentions both the thing that is made and the thing of which it is made. > >>“Let the earth,” says He, “bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself, after its kind. And it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after its kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after its kind.” > >And again: > >>“And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that have life, and fowl that may fly above the earth through the firmament of heaven. And it was so. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind.” > >Again afterwards: > >>“And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beasts of the earth after their kind.” > >If therefore God, when producing other things out of things which had been already made, indicates them by the prophet, and tells us what He has produced from such and such a (although we might ourselves suppose them to be derived from some source or other, short of nothing; since there had already been created certain things, from which they might easily seem to have been made); if the Holy Ghost took upon Himself so great a concern for our instruction, that we might know from what everything was produced, > [!Quote] [[@Schaff2017-yc|TERTULLIAN AGAINST PRAXEAS]] > >He will come to judge the quick and the dead; who sent also from heaven from the Father, according to His own promise, the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete, the sanctifier of the faith of those who believe in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost. > >... > >Happily the Lord Himself employs this expression of the person of the Paraclete, so as to signify not a division or severance, but a disposition (of mutual relations in the Godhead); for He says, “I will pray the Father, and He shall send you another Comforter ... even the Spirit of truth,” # 3rd Century #### Origen (AD 185-254) An early Christian theologian. He writes, >[!quote] Origen De Principiis. Chapter III.—On the Holy Spirit. >Now, what the Holy Spirit is, we are taught in many passages of Scripture, as by David in the fifty-first Psalm, when he says, >>“And take not Thy Holy Spirit from me;” > >and by Daniel, where it is said, > >>“The Holy Spirit which is in thee.” > And in the New Testament we have abundant testimonies, as when the Holy Spirit is described as having descended upon Christ, and when the Lord breathed upon His apostles after His resurrection, saying, > >>“Receive the Holy Spirit;” > >and the saying of the angel to Mary, > >> “The Holy Spirit will come upon thee;” > > the declaration by Paul, that no one can call Jesus Lord, save by the Holy Spirit. In the Acts of the Apostles, the Holy Spirit was given by the imposition of the apostles’ hands in baptism. From all which we learn that the person of the Holy Spirit was of such authority and dignity, that saving baptism was not complete except by the authority of the most excellent Trinity of them all, i.e., by the naming of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and by joining to the unbegotten God the Father, and to His only-begotten Son, the name also of the Holy Spirit. Who, then, is not amazed at the exceeding majesty of the Holy Spirit, when he hears that he who speaks a word against the Son of man may hope for forgiveness; but that he who is guilty of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit has not forgiveness, either in the present world or in that which is to come! > [!Quote] [[@Schaff2017-mm|ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS, BOOK 2, CHAPTER 7]] > >ON THE HOLY SPIRIT > It is time, then, that we say a few words to the best of our ability regarding the Holy Spirit, whom our Lord and Savior in the Gospel according to John has named the Paraclete. > >... > >We must therefore know that the Paraclete is the Holy Spirit, who teaches truths ... > >... > >But the Paraclete, who is called the Holy Spirit, ... > >... >In the case of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete ...