Logos, Demons and the Trinity
Justin Martyr touches on all three matters-- and is wrong about one.
Our continued study of Justin Martyr’s First Apology brings us squarely in contact with three intriguing theological concepts: 1.) the role of evil spiritual forces in the world, 2.) Christ as Logos, and 3.) the early church’s concept of the Trinity. In writing his Apology, Justin’s main goal is to defend Christians against the unreasonable charges brought against them by the Romans, not to pontificate on niche theological topics. But I couldn’t read through the Apology without these three topics catching my eye; the first because spiritual warfare is de-emphasized in many intellectual Protestant circles, the second because Logos connects Christ with Greek philosophy, and the third because Justin’s trinitarian beliefs are seen as incorrect by most modern Christians.
In chapter 5 of the First Apology, Justin responds to the charge that Christians were atheists (recall the main charges against Christians as described in this post; Christians were charged with atheism because they did not worship the pagan gods). He calls the Greek gods demons and believed that they instigated the persecution of Christians:
Yielding to unreasoning passion, and to the instigation of evil demons, you punish us without consideration or judgment. […]
The demons are then juxtaposed with Logos, with Logos as a means of deliverance from evil spiritual influence, first as philosophy of Socrates and later as the true Logos, Jesus Christ:
For not only among the Greeks did reason (Logos) prevail to condemn these things through Socrates, but also among the Barbarians they were condemned by Reason ( or the Word, the Logos) Himself, who took shape, and became man, and was called Jesus Christ [excerpt taken from ch. 5].
We have declared above that he (i.e. Christ) is the logos of whom every race of men were partakers; and that those who lived with the logos are Christians though they have been thought atheists; as, among the Greeks, Socrates and Heraclitus and men like them; and among the barbarians, Abraham, Ananias, Azarias, Misael and Elias […] [excerpt taken from ch. 46]
Logos is Greek for “word” but could also be translated as principle or reason. Although modern-day Christians are familiar with this term from the Gospel of John, Logos has its origins in Greek philosophy. As a philosopher who studied Stoicism, Aristotelianism, Pythagoreanism, and Platonism before his conversion to Christianity, Justin would have been well acquainted with the concept of Logos.
Logos theology gave 2nd century apologists like Justin the language to connect threads of pagan truths to the true Word, Jesus Christ, and to recognize the grains of truth in pre-Christian thinkers. Note that Justin takes the idea of "threads of truth” in pagan thought step further, declaring “those who lived with the logos” as Christians, presumably because they were as intellectually close to the Christian Logos as someone predating Christ could be, and were closer to Christian philosophies than to atheistic ones.
The philosopher Heraclitus, who predates Christ by several centuries, is the first person known to use Logos in a philosophical setting; he notes that the Logos is the guiding principle of life, but that humans are paradoxically unable to understand it or live in full accordance with it. Heraclitus’ ideas were later expanded upon by Stoics, who referred to Logos as the Seminal Reason (logos spermatikos) which generates and sustains all things and to which all things return.1 Below are a few quotes to help you get a sense of what Logos is:
Fragments of Heraclitus (the first known philosophical use of Logos)2:
Though this Word [logos] is true evermore, yet men are as unable to understand it when they hear it for the first time as before they have heard it at all. For, though all things come to pass in accordance with this Word, men seem as if they had no experience of them […] But other men know not what they are doing when awake, even as they forget what they do in sleep. […] It is wise to hearken, not to me, but to my Word, and to confess that all things are one.
The New Testament passage on Jesus as Logos (John 1:1-4)3:
In the beginning was the Word [logos], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
C.S. Lewis in the Abolition of Man describes a similar overarching concept running through different world philosophies4:
The Tao, which others may call Natural Law or Traditional Morality or the First Principles of Practical Reason or the First Platitudes, is not one among a series of possible systems of value. It is the sole source of all value judgments. If it is rejected, all value is rejected.
In his refutation of the charge of atheism, Justin touches upon another key piece of Christian theology: the Trinity. He references the three persons of the Trinity—Father, Son and Spirit— and states that the Son “came forth from Him [the Father].” Justin expresses a hint of subordinationism: he writes of the Logos being present in the beginning with God, and that the Son and Spirit were part of the identity of God, but that they were subordinate to the Father (a common belief in 2nd and 3rd century Christianity):
He is the Son of the true God Himself, and holding Him in the second place, and the prophetic Spirit in the third, we will prove.
This is not what most modern Christians believe about the Trinity; most modern churches abide by the Nicene Creed, which was written in 325 A.D. in response to the Arian heresy that Jesus was a created being and that the Son and Father did not exist together eternally (if you would like a summary of Biblical evidence of the Trinity and eternal Sonship, read here or listen here):
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made.
Justin Martyr is clearly an ardent apologist with a sophisticated grasp on Christian theology and strong philosophical background. In contrast to many modern Christians who focus on either the spiritual or intellectual sides of the faith, Justin had both an intellectual understanding of Logos and he understood the gravity of spiritual warfare and the influence of demons. But he was also subject to some of the theological errors of his time, subordinationism being one of them. Yet we obviously consider him a Christian, and an admirable one at that.
It is hard to define what determines salvation and Christian status. What are the “essential” tenets of the faith which a person must accept to be saved? Is an improper understanding or lack of knowledge excusable in God’s eyes? (My answer is, unless the result of personal sin, then yes.) Some of the folks at my church would say that one need only accept Jesus Christ as savior and the self as sinner, and leave the obedience to the Catholics. Other folks introduce themselves as Calvinists, not Christians, and believe that anyone who doesn’t recognize the doctrine of total depravity isn’t a believer.
I hate reading articles where two extremes are given and the answer is held up to be “somewhere in the middle” yet left unsolved— and yet, I will probably leave you in the middle too. In my own apologetic practice, I focus on teaching the Gospels and answering big questions; if I need to dive into theology textbooks to answer a nonbeliever’s question and find Christian scholars arguing over a sub-point— in other words, if a theological matter would require a degree of intellect or insight to figure out that is beyond the ability of your average layperson— it is unlikely that God expects the everyman to find the answer and it is unlikely to be a matter of salvation. Apologists should be wary of two opposite pitfalls: first, don’t encourage a shallow faith or paper over the strange aspects of the Gospel in your rush to get the nonbeliever to call themselves a Christian; second, don’t intimidate the curious nonbeliever into thinking that he or she must be flawless theologians to be adopted into God’s family.
Perhaps it isn’t a bad idea to embrace the Orthodox mysticism in our apologetics; not an ignorant god-of-the-gaps masquerading as mysticism but a true veneration and appreciation of God’s vast height and unimaginable complexities in relation to us: if we understood Him completely, He would not be God.
Funk, Ken. “Concerning the Logos.” 1996. https://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~funkk/Personal/logos.html#Her1.
“Fragments of Heraclitus,” WikiSource. Last edited 24 March 2023, https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Fragments_of_Heraclitus.
The ESV Study Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008).
Lewis, C. S. 2001. The Abolition of Man. Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, No. 9. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.