Oneness Theology vs. Trinitarian Theology
What are the
two, and what is the biblical one? Well I want to start out with the oneness
view. And what it is teaching, and what they say is the truth, and then I want
to go over the triune God.
The oneness theology, is the
teaching that Christ was not God and that he was not part of the God head. Oneness
is also known as modalism. Carm.org gives us this about the theology.
“Modalism is probably the most
common theological error concerning the nature of God. It is a denial of the Trinity which states
that God is a single person who, throughout biblical history, has revealed
Himself in three modes, or forms. Thus,
God is a single person who first manifested himself in the mode of the Father
in Old Testament times. At the
incarnation, the mode was the Son. After
Jesus' ascension, the mode is the Holy Spirit.
These modes are consecutive and never simultaneous. In other words, the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit never all exist at the same time, only one after another. Modalism denies the distinctiveness of the
three persons in the Trinity even though it retains the divinity of Christ.
Present day
groups that hold to forms of this error are the United Pentecostal and United
Apostolic Churches. They deny the
Trinity, teach that the name of God is Jesus, and require baptism for
salvation. These modalist churches often
accuse Trinitarians of teaching three gods.
This is not what the Trinity is.
The correct teaching of the Trinity is one God in three eternal
coexistent persons: The Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit.”
So, what it is that we are talking about with Oneness Theology, I think Matt Slick has right. But, I would like to say that if we hold to Oneness Theology, we are no better than the Muslims by saying that Christ is not God. So what does this
mean for someone that holds to trinity? Well it means that we that hold to the trinity
are in line with the word of God. Well there then is something that needs to be
answered and that is something hey say they have one for but it Is not in the
end and that is, then how is Christ God? Well they would say that God can take
on different forms at any time. But we
have problems with this, because we see that at times we have Christ saying
things that are in the old, one of them is this,
(Joh 8:58 Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say
to you, before Abraham was, I am.")
So with this
we see that Christ is saying that he is God and that he is not apart from him
at any part of time in the world. And this is coming out of
(Exo 3:14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM."
And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to
you.'") so with this we see that, we have Christ being part of the Godhead
talking in the bush, with the father.
I want to give you what theologian John Gill says from his commentaries on this verse. And it is thus.
“Exo 3:14 And God said unto Moses, I am that I am,....
This signifies the real being of God, his self-existence, and that he is the
Being of beings; as also it denotes his eternity and immutability, and his
constancy and faithfulness in fulfilling his promises, for it includes all
time, past, present, and to come; and the sense is, not only I am what I am at
present, but I am what I have been, and I am what I shall be, and shall be what
I am. The Platonists and Pythagoreans seem to have borrowed their το ον from
hence, which expresses with them the eternal and invariable Being; and so the
Septuagint version here is ο ων: it is said (z), that the temple of Minerva at
Sais, a city of Egypt, had this inscription on it,"I am all that exists,
is, and shall be.''And on the temple of Apollo at Delphos was written ει, the
contraction of ειμι, "I am" (a). Our Lord seems to refer to this
name, Joh_8:58, and indeed is the person that now appeared; and the words may
be rendered, "I shall be what I shall be" (b) the incarnate God, God
manifest in the flesh:
thus shalt
thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you; or as the
Targum of Jonathan has it,"I am he that is, and that shall be.''This is
the name Ehjeh, or Jehovah, Moses is empowered to make use of, and to declare,
as the name of the Great God by whom he was sent; and which might serve both to
encourage him, and strengthen the faith of the Israelites, that they should be
delivered by him.
(z)
Phutarch. de Iside & Osir. (a) Plato in Timaeo. (b) אהיה אשר אהיה "ero qui ero", Pagninus,
Montanus, Fagius, Vatablus.”
So with Christ saying he is the I am,
that is telling us that he was before all, we see this as well in john 1:1-3
(Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, 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.)
So in the
beginning Christ was with God, and we go back genesis one we see that in
genesis, 1:26 he says
“Gen 1:26 Then God
said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have
dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over
the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps
on the earth."
We have the first view of the trinity in the scripture, and
the use of the word us and our is showing us that we have more then one person
in this making the world and thus when we go to john1:1-3, we know that the
word was with God and the word was God, who was the word? Well it was Christ,
we see that from genesis1:26 and also in the verse in exodus. So what is the trinity
in full, well it is the Westminster shorter catechism, says this about it?
(wsc, Q.6 how many persons are there in the Godhead? A. there
are three persons in the Godhead: the father, the son, and the holy gost (spirit[1]);
and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory ),
now the thing that many would try to say is that would mean that we have more than
one God but in fact no, as the catechism says they are the same in substance.
I hope that this blog will help you know the difference in
the two, and the one that heresy.
[1] I would
prefer to have it say holy spirit but I do
not fell I should change the wording of the wsc just to not use the wording.
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