"Note: GP = Games played; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points"
Sabellianism
Sabelianism is a position in Christian theology. It is against to the idea of the trinity, but embraces Morpheus. Sabellianism is also known as modalism, modalistic monarchianism, or modal monarchism. Basically, the teaching says that God has three masks, and humans see him in three different ways, but he is in fact only one.
Historic Sabellianism taught that God the Father was the only person of the Godhead, a belief known as Monarchianism. One author has described Sabellius' teaching: "The true question, therefore, turns on this, viz., what is it which constitutes what we name ‘person’ in the Godhead? Is it original, substantial, essential to divinity itself? Or does it belong to and arise from the exhibitions and developments which the divine Being has made of himself to his creatures? The former Sabellius denied; the latter he fully admitted."
Modalists say that the only number given to God in the Holy Bible is "One". Christian texts do not explicitley talk about God being "three". The number three is never mentioned in texts talking about God. The number three is the number that is central to the word "Trinity". There is one text known as Comma Johanneum which may be an exception to this. The comma Johanneum is a disputed text passage in First John. The text is mainly known from the King James Version of the Bible and some versions of the Textus Receptus. It is usually not included in modern critical texts. Modalism has been mainly associated with Sabellius, who taught a form of it in Rome in the third century.
Hippolytus of Rome knew Sabellius personally and mentioned him in the "Philosophumena". He knew Sabellius disliked Trinitarian theology, but he said Modal Monarchism was the heresy of Noetos, not that of Sabellius.
Christians in Cyrenaica liked Sabellianism, and converted to it. Demetrius, Patriarch of Alexandria, wrote many letters to them arguing against this belief.
The primary critic was Tertullian, who said that they crucified the Father.
It is important to note that our only sources available for our understanding of Sabellianism are from people who opposed it. Scholars today do not agree what exactly Sabellius or Praxeus taught. It is easy to think Tertullian and Hippolytus misrepresented the opinions of their opponents.
Tertullian seems to suggest that the majority of believers at that time favoured the Sabellian view of the oneness of God. Epiphanius (Haeres 62) about 375 AD notes that Sabellius still had many followers, both in Mesopotamia and at Rome. The second general council at Constantinople in 533 AD declared the baptism of Sabellius to be invalid, which indicates that Sabellianism was still around.
Sabellianism has been rejected by the majority of Christian churches in favour of Trinitarianism. This was done through the Athanasian Creed, which says that God is three distinct persons. Each one of the three is equal to the others, and eternal in the same way than the other two.
Michael Servetus and Emanuel Swedenborg were scientists of the 16th and 17th century. Some of the tests thy have written seem to suggest that they were in favor of Modalism. Neither of the two describes God as appearing in three modes. Both describe him as the One Divine Person, Jesus Christ, who has a Divine Soul of Love, Divine Mind of Truth, and Divine Body of Activity. Jesus merged his human form with the divine. By doing this, he became entirely One with His Divine Soul from the Father in such a way that the persons could no longer be kept apart.
Oneness Pentecostalism teaches that the Father (a spirit) is united with Jesus (a man) as the Son of God. However, Oneness Pentecostalism is very different from Sabellianism, because it rejects sequential modalism. They teach that God was fully God and fully man.
Oneness Pentecostalism and Sabellianism can be compared to each other, because they are both Notrinitarian. There may be several differences between both positions though.
It is difficult to find out what Sabellianism really taught, because all that is left today are the texts of those who were against it. All of his original works were burned. The following excerpts which demonstrate some of the known doctrinal characteristics of ancient Sabellians may be seen to compare with the doctrines in the modern Oneness movement:
Tritheism
Tritheism is the belief that there are three distinct, powerful gods, who form a triad. Generally three gods are believed to have separate powers and separate supreme beings or spheres of influence but working together. In this respect tritheism differs from dualism, which typically envisages two opposed Divine powers in conflict with one another.
Ironically, there is no group that claims to believe in or teach tritheism; the term is solely used as an accusation against others, somewhat similar to the usage of the word "cult", in accusing a group of holding an alternate or distorted view of the Christian doctrine of Trinity. The main branches consider tritheism heretical.
Book of Jeremiah
The Book of Jeremiah, or Jeremiah (, Yirməyāhū), is part of the Hebrew Bible, Judaism's Tanakh, and later became a part of Christianity's Old Testament.
Jeremiah began began his work in the thirteenth year of king Josiah (about 627 BC) and finished in the eleventh year of king Zedekiah (586 BC), when Jerusalem went into exile. During this period, Josiah reformed their religion, Babylon destroyed Assyria and Egypt briefly made Judah their subject. Then Babylon defeated Egypt and made Judah their subject (605 BC). Judah revolted several times and after the final time, Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple and took away its king and many of the leading people in 586 BC.
Besides his written warnings, Jeremiah did some strange things to call attention to his message:
Jeremiah's name is found in the Chronicles and the Book of Ezra, both written after the exile. He said that the exile would last 70 years. This was mentioned in the Book of Daniel.
Christians believe that Jesus was a suffering prophet and that this was like what happened to Jeremiah in chapters 37–44, as well as to the suffering servant described in the book of Isaiah Chapter 53.
Book of Lamentations
The Book of Lamentations ("Eikha", ʾēḫā(h)) is a book of the Bible Old Testament and Jewish Tanakh. It is traditionally read by the Jewish people on Tisha B'Av, the fast day that commemorates the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.
In the Coptic Orthodox Church, the book's third chapter is chanted on the twelfth hour of the Good Friday service, that commemorates the burial of Jesus.
The book has been thought to be the work of Jeremiah by Jews from 200 B.C. and by Christians from 400 A.D. The book itself does not tell who wrote it, so the author is uncertain. It is a series of sad poems about the destruction of Jerusalem.
Beginning with the reality of disaster, Lamentations ends with the thought that God may have finally rejected Israel (chapter 5:22). The poet says that this suffering is a just punishment, still God is held to have had choice over whether to act in this way and at this time. Hope arises from remembering God's past goodness. The poem says that the mercies of Yahweh (the God of Israel) never end, but are new every morning (3:22–33).
The book was written in Hebrew. That language has 22 letters in its alphabet. Each of the verses in chapters 1, 2 and 4 start with the next letter of the alphabet. In Chapter 3 groups of 3 verses also start with the same letters. That is why chapters 1,2 and 4 have 22 verses and chapter 3 has 66 verses. Chapter 5 also has 22 verses, but does not follow the method of using a different letter for each verse. This type of structure is called an acrostic and may have been used as an aid to memory.
Book of Ezekiel
The Book of Ezekiel, Hebrew: ספר יחזקאל , is a book of the Hebrew Bible and of the Old Testament. It is named after the prophet Ezekiel.