ian scholars state that Ignatius believed that “the Son and the Spirit” were merely “modes of the Father’s self-revelation” if Ignatius was a true Trinitarian? As honest historians Kelly and Loofs had to admit, Ignatius taught that the Son and the Spirit are manifestations of the self-revealing Father.
“For our God, Jesus the Christ, was conceived in the womb by Mary according to a dispensation, of the seed of David but also of the Holy Ghost.” (Ephesians 18:2, J.B. Lightfoot)
Ephesians 18:2 in a modern translation is much easier to understand,
“For our God, Jesus Christ, was conceived by Mary according to God’s plan, both from the seed of David and from the Holy Spirit. ...” (Ephesians 18:2, Modern Translation)
Ignatius clearly believed that the humanity of Jesus Christ was “of the seed of David” from “Mary”, while the divinity of Jesus Christ was “of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:20).” Therefore, Ignatius believed that the Holy Spirit is the divine nature of the Son from which he claimed divinity (John 8:58; John 14:9), whilst the same omnipresent Holy Spirit is the divinity who Fathered the Son (Luke 1:35).
Ignatius further claimed that the Holy Spirit is the same divine person “who is Jesus Christ.”
“Fare ye well in the harmony of God, ye who have obtained the inseparable Spirit, who is Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 3:17; Romans 8:9; John 14:16-18).” (Magnesians 15:1, Roberts-Donaldson Translation)
According to Ignatius, “the inseparable Spirit” “is Jesus Christ.” Just as Paul contextually wrote in his second Epistle to the Corinthians, “Christ Jesus the Lord (2 Cor. 4:5)” and “the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17),” so Ignatius faithfully followed the theology of the Apostles by writing, “the inseparable Spirit, who is Jesus Christ.” Early first and second century Christian writers often spoke of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit who became the Son through the virgin (Hermas, Clement, Mathetes, Aristides, Irenaeus, Melito) because this is precisely what the first century apostles had taught in all the churches.
Church Historian Jaroslav Pelikan observed that the earliest Christian witness believed that the Lord Jesus Christ is the indwelling Holy Spirit, “… the use of Lord for the Spirit in 2 Corinthians 3:17, continued to require explanation even after the Trinitarian issues appeared settled.” Then in the very next paragraph (Pg. 185) Pelikan wrote, “Christ is constantly described as Spirit by the fathers, in virtue of His divine nature … The use of Spirit for the divine in Christ was prominent in those early Christian writings which still show the marks of the Jewish origins of Christianity.” (The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition, Pg. 185, Jaroslav Pelikan)
Church historians agree that the later Semi-Arian writers who were influential in developing later Trinitarian ideas began to change the earlier Christian teaching of the apostles and their immediate successors from Christ as the Holy Spirit in order to promulgate their new idea of Christ being a god the word person out of John 1:1. Since the earliest Apostolic and post Apostolic Christians had taught that “the Lord (Christ) is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:17), we know that the Trinitarian, Arian, and Unitarian Socinian doctrines could not be correct. For if the Holy Spirit is Christ, then there would be no third God Person of a three person deity. In like manner, Arians such as Jehovah’s Witnesses cannot explain how the Holy Spirit as an impersonal force could be the personal Christ who speaks through his Church (Acts 13:2; Luke 21:14-15); while Socinians cannot explain how the Holy Spirit which they believe to be the Father could be the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, only Oneness Theology brings perfect harmony to all of the scriptural data while other theological views do not!
Church historian J. N. D. Kelly further wrote,
“Ignatius even declares that He is 'our God' (Ephesians 8:2; Trallians 7:1), describing Him as 'God incarnate' (Ephesians 7:2; 19:3 – ‘en sari genomenos theos’) and 'God made manifest as man (theou anthrōpinōs phaneroumenou).' He was 'in spirit united with the 