Theological Term of the Week: Sabellius

Sabellius
An obscure early third century Roman theologian who taught that God is only one person who acts out three different roles.1 

• From 2000 Years of Christ’s Power by N. H. Needham:

Sabellius taught that God is only one person, Who acts now as Father in creating the universe, now as Son in redeeming sinners, now as the Holy Spirit in sanctifying believers. These are simply three different roles acted out by one divine person, much as one human person might be a husband, a father, and a bus-driver. Sabellianism of one sort or another was quite popular in the early Church, because it offered a way of believing in the deity of Christ while preserving the oneness of God.  

Learn more:

1. Philip Schaff: Sabellianism
2. Got Questions: What is Sabellianism?
3. Theopedia: Modalism

Related terms:

• Ambrose of Milan
• Apollinarius
• Athanasius
• Augustine of Hippo
• Basil of Caesarea
• Cappadocian fathers
• Columba
• Cyril of Alexandria
• Gregory of Nanzianzus
• Gregory of Nyssa
• Gregory the Great
• Hilary of Poitiers
• Irenaeus of Lyons
• Jerome
• John Chrysostom
• Justin Martyr
• Maximus the Confessor
• Monica
• Nestorius
• Origen
• Patrick
• Pelagius
• Tertullian
• Venerable Bede, The

Filed under Christian History

1From 2000 Years of Christ’s Power by N. R. Needham.

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