Johnnie Ellington II August 18, 2015 at 2:33pm · All this seems to have been confusing for early Christians too. Before the controversy over the Trinity came to a head in the Councils of Nicene during the fourth century, there were many different understandings of the nature of Christ, and an even wider range of understandings about the Holy Spirit. There were those who believed that Jesus was just a mortal man who had a very special relationship with God. Then there were those who agreed with Theodotus of Byzantium that Jesus was born a mere man and attained the ability to work miracles at the time of his baptism. Some of Theodotus’ students later believed that Jesus became God after his resurrection. And then there were those known as Monarchians who believed that God and Jesus were one and the same from the beginning of time. Many of those same views are still held today by various groups of Christians