The doctrines or tenets of Sabellius. See Sabellian, n.

God is one being, one person, who successively takes on three different forms or manifestations (from Sabelius, 3rd. cent).

Another term for modalism or modalistic monarchianism. It is derived from Sabellius, the most prominent exponent of the doctrine in ancient church history. Sabellius preached in Rome around 215 A.D. The doctrine is basically equivalent to modern Oneness.

See Sabellius under "Monarchianism"

An early trinitarian heresy, which treated the three persons of the Trinity as different historical manifestations of the one God. It is generally regarded as a form of modalism.

In Christianity, Sabellianism (also known as modalism or modal monarchism) is the belief that the Heavenly Father, Resurrected Son and Holy Spirit are different modes or aspects of one God (for us only), rather than three distinct persons (in Himself). The question is: "is God's threeness a matter of our falsely seeing it to be so (Sabellianism/modalism), or a matter of God's own essence revealed as three-in-one (orthodox trinitarianism)?" Modalists note that the only number ascribed to God in the Holy Bible is One and that there is no inherent threeness ascribed to God explicitly in scripture.