ONENESS PENTECOSTALISM AND THE TRINITY
A Biblical Critique by Robert M. Bowman, Jr.
From: Christian Research Institute magazine Forward, Fall 1985.
An astonishing number of professing Christians today reject the doctrine of
the Trinity. Of course, there are obvious examples of this, like the Mormons
and the Jehovah's Witnesses. Then there are the "Christian" liberals who
reject the Trinity along with the Incarnation as myths. Evangelicals
generally have no trouble identifying such movements as heretical, since in
each case they deny the deity of Christ.
Recently, though, anti-trinitarianism has emerged in yet another form, that of
Oneness Pentecostalism. (1) The movement began in 1913 and has grown quickly
since then to over four million worldwide, (2) making it the second-largest
anti-trinitarian movement. (Mormonism is the largest with over five million.)
What sets Oneness Pentecostalism apart from other anti-trinitarian heresies is
its seeming orthodoxy. Unlike Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, for example,
Oneness Pentecostals teach both that there is one God and that Jesus is fully
God. For this reason, many Christians have difficulty seeing anything wrong
with the Oneness position. Moreover, unlike Mormonism and similar sects,
Oneness Pentecostals make no appeal whatsoever to extrabiblical literature or
modern leaders for authoritative interpretations of Scripture. Compared to
many other controversial sects, Oneness Pentecostalism appears quite orthodox
in many respects.
If the Oneness doctrine is heretical, then, it must be admitted to be a much
subtler error than that of many current heresies. Subtlety does not, however,
make an error less dangerous, but more, since the subtler the error the more
people are likely to fall for it (people are more apt to accept a criminal's
conterfeit bills as real money than they are Monopoly bills). This potential
danger makes it all the more important that the Oneness teaching be evaluated
on the basis of Scripture.
DEFINITIONS
The Oneness position is "the doctrine that God is absolutely one in numerical
value, that Jesus is the one God, and that God is not a plurality of persons."
(3)
God is generally said to be neither one "person" nor three, on the assumption
that the term "person" is applicable only to individual human beings; the
incarnate Jesus, though, is agreed to be one person. (4)
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three "manifestations" of the one God, who
is not, though, limited to these three manifestations. (5)
Because almost all Oneness groups hold to the Pentecostal doctrine that
receiving the Holy Spirit is evidenced initially by speaking in tongues, these
groups are generally called "Oneness Pentecostals."
Oneness believers usually reject the nick-name "Jesus Only," feeling that it
implies a rejection of belief in the Father. (6) However, the name derives
from their insistence that baptism is to be administered "in the name of Jesus
only."
The doctrine of the Trinity was concisely stated by the Westminster Confession
of Faith (1647): "In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons
(personae), of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Ghost." (7)
Thus, the Trinity is understood to be one God, yet three "persons." The
Athanasian Creed explicitly rejects tritheism (belief in three Gods), stating
that "they are not three Gods: but one God." (8)
Despite this fact, Oneness believers, along with Jews, Muslims, Jehovah's
Witnesses, and others, condemn the Trinity as tritheism. (9) The principal
reason for this misinterpretation is a faulty understanding of the term
"person." Its long and fascinating history cannot be traced here. (10)
The first theologian to use it of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit was
Tertullian (circa A.D.200), who borrowed the term in its legal sense of "a
party to a legal action" and used it in a relational context, while insisting
that the three 'personae' were one God. (11)
To speak of three eternal persons in this sense is to recognize relationships
among the Three that transcend manifestations in history. That is, each
person is a self-aware subject who relates to each of the other two as
"another."
In our finite world, we are used to encountering only finite beings, and every
person we meet is an entity separate from all other persons. However, God is
not finite, so it may be that as an infinite being He exists as three
distinguishable persons, while remaining one indivisible essence. Neither can
the term "person" be restricted to human beings, since angels are self-aware
subjects also. Whether God is three persons cannot be determined by reasoning
alone, but only by examining God's revelation of Himself in Scripture.
IS GOD ONE PERSON?
The Bible repeatedly asserts that God is one. He is one God (James 2:19) and
one Yahweh or Jehovah (Deut.6:4). The first plank in the trinitarian platform
is the indivisible oneness of God. However, nowhere in Scripture are we ever
told that God is one person.
It is sometimes argued that the use of 'echad' ("one") in Deuteronomy 6:4
indicates that God is a composite unity. That is not quite accurate, since
"composite" speaks of a uniting together of parts into a whole, whereas the
three Persons are not three "parts" or three "thirds" of God. Nor is it true
that 'echad' necessarily indicates some sort of inner plurality. Like its
Greek counterpart 'heis' in the
New Testament, 'echad' is simply the common Hebrew word for "one." However,
like both 'heis' and "one," 'echad' does not necessarily imply absolute,
unqualified and undifferentiated unity. Rather, the word "one" in any
language can only indicate unity as unity, whether that unity is in some sense
differentiated or not must be determined by other factors. For example, to
say that a certain biological entity is "one organism" says nothing about
whether it is unicellular (e.g., an amoeba) or multicellular (e.g., a man).
It may be one organism in one cell or one organism in many cells. In a
logically analogous manner, God might be one God in one person or one God in
three persons.
Of course, if God is three persons, these "three" cannot be three parts (as
cells are parts of an organism). Since God is an infinite being, He cannot be
composed of parts in any case. Yet it may be that He exists as a kind of
differentiated infinite unity that is 'triune' (three in one) though not
'triplex' (three in parts). Since this is the infinite God we are talking
about, there will be no corresponding or analogous instance of "triunity" or
trinity in nature. We must be careful, then, not to beg the question by
assuming that the unity of the Deity will be the same sort of unity as we find
in the finite world.
IS JESUS THE FATHER?
According to Oneness theology, the term "Father" designates Christ's deity,
while "Son" designates either His humanity considered separately or His deity
as manifested in the flesh. Therefore, while Oneness believers say that the
Father is not the Son, they do hold that Jesus is both the Father and the Son.
The most common prooftext used to prove that Jesus is the Father is Isaiah
9:6, which gives Christ the name "Everlasting Father," or rather, "Father of
eternity" (as Oneness writers admit. (12)
The use of "Father" here supposedly identifies Jesus as the "God the Father"
of the New Testament. However, this is not the case. A number of proper
names in the Old testament use the term 'ab' "in accordance with a custom
usual in Hebrew and in Arabic, where he who possesses a thing is called the
father of it." (13)
Thus 'Abiethon' (2 Sam. 23:31), "father of strength," means "strong";
'Abiaseph' (Ex.6:24), "father of gathering," means "gatherer"; 'Abigail' (1
Chron.2:16), "father of exultation," is a woman's name meaning "exulting"; and
so forth.(14) Evidently, then, "Father of eternity" in Isaiah 9:6 means that
Jesus is eternal. This would imply, of course, that He is the creator of the
ages (cf. Heb.1:2; 11:3), but not that He is "the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ" (2 Cor.1:3).
In John 10:30, Jesus stated, "I and the Father are one." Oneness believers
erroneously understand this to mean that they are one 'person.' As is often
pointed out, such an interpretation is guarded against by the use of the
neuter 'heri' rather than the masculine 'heis' for "one," thereby suggesting
essential unity but not absolute identity. (15)
Also precluding a one-person interpretation is the first-person plural "we
are" ('esmen'). If Jesus were the Father, He could have said, "I am the
Father," or "the Son and the Father are one ('heis')," or some other
equivalent; but as it stands, John 10:30 excludes modalism and Oneness as
surely as it excludes Arianism.
Another such prooftext is John 5:43, where Jesus rebukes the Jews: "I have
come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his
own name, you will receive him." Oneness writers consistently interpret "in
My Father's name" as meaning that Jesus' name is the Father's name (i.e.,
Jesus is the Father). (16)
However, the expression "in the name of" here clearly means "in the authority
of"; thus the person whom Jesus warned would come "in his own name" will come
with "no credentials but his own claim." (17)
To receive someone who comes "in his own name" is therefore, according to
Jesus, a foolish act. This contrast between "My Father's name" and "his own
name" proves beyond question that Jesus did not come "in his own name."
Therefore, "Jesus" is not the Father's name, and so Jesus is not the Father.
Ironically, then, this is one of the clear prooftexts against the Oneness
doctrine that Jesus is the Father.
Also cited to prove that Jesus' name is the Father's name (and therefore that
Jesus is the Father) is John 17:6,11-12. Oneness writers emphasize that Jesus
"manifested" the Father's name, and that the Father "gave" His name to Jesus,
as evidence that Jesus is the Father. This interpretation overlooks the fact
that a human father can give his name to his son, without the father and son
being one person!
Moreover, notice that Jesus said twice that His disciples were "in Thy {the
Father's} name." If we interpret this phrase in the sense that the Oneness
believers assign to it in John 5:43, we come to the ridiculous conclusion that
the disciples are the Father! The Oneness interpretation simply does not
work. Since, as even Oneness writers acknowledge, God's "name" represents His
character and His power,(18) and since in the context Jesus is asking the
Father to keep the disciples holy and united (17:11-12,15-23), it is apparent
that Jesus is saying that He possessed and manifested the character and power
of the Father.
A favorite passage of modalists in all centuries has been John 14:6-11, where
Jesus says, among other things, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father."
Jesus begins by asserting, "No one comes to the Father except through Me"
(v.6). The natural sense of these words is that Jesus is, not the Father, but
a mediator between us and the Father. Then He states, "If you had known Me,
you would have known My
Father also" (v.7a). This is true, not because Jesus is the Father, but
because those who know Jesus are led by Him to know the Father as they see Him
imaged perfectly in Jesus. Thus, says Jesus, "from now on you know Him, and
have seen Him" (v.7b). Existing with the Father as the one indivisible Divine
Being, Jesus can say, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (v.9).
Nevertheless, Jesus does not say, "I am the Father," but rather, "I am in the
Father and the Father is in Me" (v.10, repeated in v.11; cf.10:38).
Oneness believers frequently cite the second part of this last statement, "the
Father is in Me," to mean that the deity ("Father") dwells in the humanity
("Son") of Jesus. This view, however, fails to explain the first part of the
sentence, "I am in the Father," which in Oneness terms would have to mean that
the human nature of Jesus dwells in the deity -- the opposite of what they
believe. Moreover, it fails to account for the fact that 'in this same
context,' as well as elsewhere, Jesus uses this sort of expression to denote
His unity with believers: "In that day you shall know that I am in My Father,
and you in Me, and I in you" (v.20; cf.17:21-23).
JESUS IS GOD
Trinitarians affirm that Jesus Christ is fully God. This does not mean that
Jesus is the only person who is God; rather, it means that His nature is that
of perfect, essential deity. Thus the many passages which identify Jesus as
God (John 1:1; Tit.2:13; etc.) do not teach that Jesus is the Father. Only by
isolating these verses from their context, and in some cases by ignoring the
precise wording used by the biblical authors, can the Oneness position be
maintained.
Perhaps the Scripture most often cited by Oneness believers in favor of their
view of God is Colossians 2:9, "For in Him {Christ} dwells all the fulness of
the Godhead bodily." This verse is the basis for the title of Oneness writer
Godon Magee's widely distributed booklet\Is Jesus in the Godhead or is the
Godhead in Jesus? (19)
Since Colossians 2:9 says that the fulness of "the Godhead" dwells in Jesus,
Oneness believers argue, the Godhead is in Jesus, not Jesus in the Godhead.
This either/or approach, however, would force Colossians 2:9 to contradict
John 10:38 where Jesus states, "the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father."
Since "the Father" in Oneness terms is "the Godhead," John 10:38 in their
terms means that the Godhead is in Jesus, and Jesus is in the Godhead.
When Oneness believers deny that "Jesus is in the Godhead," what they mean to
deny is that Jesus is one person in a triune Godhead. Colossians 2:9, though,
does not rule out that possibility. What it affirms is that Jesus is no less
than the full and complete revelation of God's nature ('theotetos', "deity")
in the flesh. While not all three persons of God are incarnate in Jesus, all
of God's essence is incarnate in Jesus.
THE NAME OF JESUS
Central to the theology of Oneness Pentecostalism is an emphasis on the name
"Jesus" as the name of God since the Incarnation. The Oneness movement began,
in fact, with the "revelation" that the "name" of the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit spoken of in Matthew 28:19 was the name "Jesus," based on Acts 2:38 in
particular. (20)
This is why Oneness Pentecostals are so adamant that baptism be administered
in the name of 'Jesus only.'
This interpretation assumes that there can be only one correct baptismal
formula, which would not appear to be provable from the texts themselves. It
also makes much of the fact that Jesus said "name," not "names." (21)
While this is true, it does not absolutely rule out one name applying to three
persons, since a singular name can apply to two or more persons (e.g.,
Gen.5:2; 11:4). Moreover, if one name is meant, it need not be "Jesus"; it
could be "Lord," the New Testament equivalent of the name of Yahweh in the Old
Testament.
In order to reconcile Matthew 28:19 with Acts 2:38 and similar passages it is
helpful to see them as pertaining to two different historical contexts. Those
who were converted to Christ and baptized in the name of Jesus were either
Jews (Acts 2:5,38; 22:16), Samaritans (Acts 8:5,12,16), God-fearing Gentiles
(Acts 10:1-2,22,48), or disciples of John the Baptist (Acts 19:1-5). (22)
Already knowing of the God revealed in the Old Testament, the critical issue
for them was a confession of Jesus as Lord and Savior. When pagan Gentiles
who knew little or nothing of the God of Israel were led to Christ, however,
they would need to confess their faith, not only in Jesus as Lord, but in the
one God revealed in Scripture as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (23)
Jesus, ordaining that the gospel be taken "to all the nations," made provision
for this in His "great commission" (Matt.28:19). In order to demonstrate that
"Jesus" is the name for God in the New Testament, Oneness Pentecostals cite
passages such as Acts 4:12 ("no other name under heaven...by which we must be
saved") and Philippians 2:9-10 (God "bestowed on Him the name which is above
every name, that in the name of Jesus..."). The point of Acts 4:12 is
identical to that of John 14:6 --salvation is through Jesus Christ alone; it
does not mean that Jesus alone is God. In Philippians 2:9-10 "the name which
is above every name" does not mean the name 'Jesus,' but rather, an additional
name which the Father has bestowed on Jesus because of His obedience to the
point of death (v.8). In context, that name is "Lord," since the passage
concludes, "and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord"
(v.11). That "Lord" is the name given to Jesus can be confirmed by a
multitude of texts (see, for example, Acts 2:36; Rom.10:9, I Cor.12:3; 2
Cor.4:5). This is consistent with the fact that "Lord" (kurios) is the New
Testament equivalent of "Yahweh" or "Jehovah," the name of God in the Old
Testament (e.g., Acts 2:21; Rom.10:13).
FATHER AND SON
According to Oneness theology, the Father and Son are two natures in the one
person, Jesus Christ. If "person" is defined as "an individual being," then
without question God is only one "person" in that sense. However, that is not
the best definition of the term, which is, as we have already explained, used
to mean simply a "self-aware subject," that is, an "I" aware of its own
existence and the existence of other self-aware subjects. If, then, the
Father and the Son are consistenty presented in Scripture as two self-aware
subjects, then they are two persons, even if they are one being. And the
evidence for them being two persons is overwhelming; only a few examples can
be given here. (24)
There are, first of all, two passages in John where Jesus states that He and
the Father serve as two witnesses authenticating His ministry (John 5:31-32;
8:16-18). His statement, "there is another ('allos') who bears witness
concerning Me (5:32), proves that Jesus is not the Father. The term 'allos'
is used here to mean someone "different {from} the subject who is speaking."
(25)
In John 8:16-18, Jesus makes the same point, and clarifies it by quoting the
Old Testament principle that two witnesses, not just one, are required for a
judgment to be considered valid (Deut.17:6; 19:15; also Num.35:30). According
to Oneness theology, what Jesus must have meant was that His divine Spirit and
His human nature both testified.
If Jesus is only one person, though, then only "one person" testified, not
two, as Jesus' words demand. It would make just as much sense for a man to
say in court, "I am two witnesses to the crime -- my body testifies, and my
soul testifies," as for Jesus alone to be two witnesses. These passages,
then, are fairly explicit statements to the effect that Jesus and the Father
are two persons.
Further evidence is gained from the many passages that state that the Father
sent the Son (John 3:17; Gal.4:4; I John 4:10; etc.). The point here is not
that the Son existed prior to His birth (though that is true enough), but that
the Son is a person other than the Father. It is therefore irrelevant to our
point to cite John 1:6 (which says that God sent John the Baptist), as Oneness
writers often do. (26)
In fact, John 1:6 lends weight to the trinitarian view, since God and John the
Baptist are, of course, two persons. Moreover, note that Jesus told the
Disciples that He was sending them just as the Father had sent Him (John
17:18; 20:21). Necessarily implied here is that the disciples were not Jesus;
neither was Jesus the Father. Also relevant is the fact that the Father loves
the Son (John 3:25; 17:23-26; etc.), and that Jesus loves the Father (John
14:31). This most naturally implies two persons; it certainly demands
relationship, which is central to our definition of "person." The Oneness
explanation, "The Spirit of Jesus loved the humanity and vice versa," (27)
amounts to saying that Jesus loved Himself. The fact is that natures do not
love, persons do. My human nature cannot love -- only I can love, in and
through my human nature. If Oneness is correct, why is it that Jesus clearly
and consistently implied that He and the Father were two persons, rather than
saying the things which
Oneness theologians think He meant?
Devastating to the Oneness view are the passages where Jesus prays to the
Father. Of course, they are aware of the problem and have an answer -- the
human nature prayed to the divine nature. However, this runs into the same
problem as with the love of the two for one another: natures do not talk,
only persons do. In answer to this difficulty, their response is, "What would
be absurd or impossible for an ordinary man is not so strange with Jesus."
(28)
But this response evades the point: when Jesus prayed He prayed as a person
talking to another person, not as one nature talking to another nature. Jesus
addressed God as "Father," which is a relational term, not as "My divine
nature," as the Oneness believers assume He meant.
THE PRE-EXISTENT SON
Since the "Son," in Oneness theology, is the incarnate Jesus Christ, they
cannot allow the doctrine that the Son preexisted His incarnation to go
unchallenged. The concept of "eternal Sonship," and especially "eternal
generation," is, they say, both unbiblical and unreasonable. On this point,
a number of respected trinitarian, evangelical scholars can be found who
agree. (29)
A mediating position rejects "eternal generation" but retains the concept of
"eternal Sonship." (30)
For our purpose in this article, it is not esential to settle this question.
What we wish to know is not whether it is proper to speak of "the Son" as such
prior to the Incarnation, but rather, whether the person who is the Son
existed as a person distinct from the Father prior to the Incarnation. To
this question, the biblical answer is a clear yes.
For example, Proverbs 30:4 asks concerning God, "What is His name or His son's
name?" This statement clearly implies that the Son existed at the time the
passage was written. To circumvent this conclusion, Oneness writers argue
that the passage is a "prophecy" (see 30:1, KJV, where this word appears), and
is therefore referring to the future time when God would manifest Himself as
the Son. (31)
However, the word rendered "prophecy" here and at Proverbs 31:1, 'massa', is
usually rendered "burden" (over 50 times in the KJV). A simple reading of
chapters 30 and 31 should demonstrate that neither "burden" is a predictive
prophecy. Thus the Son existed at least as far back as Agur's day (30:1).
Then there are the many passages which state that the Word or Son created the
universe (John 1:3; Col.1:16-17; Heb.1:2; Rev.3:14; etc.) Hebrews 1:2 says
that God made the ages through His "Son" -- to which Oneness writers reply
that "God used His foreknowledge of the Son when He created the world. He
predicated the entire creation on the future arrival of Christ." (32)
Whenever in Scripture the Son is said to have said or done something, or even
existed, prior to the Incarnation, it is explained as only being true in God's
fore- knowledge. This arbitrary handling of Scripture is justified by
appealing to Revelation 13:8, which speaks of those "whose names are not
written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the
world"(KJV). While this translation is grammatically possible, the parallel
passage in Revelation 17:8 suggests that the correct rendering is, "whose name
has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of
the Lamb who has been slain" (NASB).(33)
Once it is understood that Revelation 13:8 cannot be used to relegate anything
said of the past to the foreknowledge of God, it becomes clear that Jesus
existed prior to creation\with\the Father. Thus, John 1:1, "the Word was with
God," means He was really there.
The Oneness explanation that "with" ('pros') here should be rendered
"pertaining to," based on Hebrews 2:17 and 5:1 (34) ignores the grammatical
difference between John 1:1 and the Hebrews texts.(35) Jesus' request to the
Father in John 17:5 is to be taken literally: "And now, glorify Me, O Father,
with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world existed."
The word 'para' ("with") is "nearly always" used of a personal
relationship,(36) and is without question so used in this context, which uses
the relational pronouns "I" and "You" and the relational name "Father."
OBJECTIONS
Confronted with the biblical evidence for a plurality of persons in the unity
of the Deity, Oneness advocates are likely to turn away from the biblical text
itself to one or more stock objections to the doctrine of the Trinity, all of
which are used by anti-trinitarians of all persuasions. We can only respond
briefly to two of these.
The most common objection to the Trinity is that the doctrine employs
nonbiblical terminology ("Trinity," "person," etc.). While this is true, it
proves nothing. The word "Oneness" is not in the Bible, either; nor does the
Bible ever call the Father or Holy Spirit "manifestations" of God. On another
subject, the words "Bible," "canon," and "inerrancy" cannot be found in
Scripture, either: shall we then throw out these words, too, and the
doctrines they represent? Christians use such nonbiblical terms as "Trinity"
and "person" because they express the biblical truth about God in such a way
as to exclude unbiblical perversions of that truth. As Calvin explained
concerning Arius: "Arius says that Christ is God, but mutters that he was
made and had a beginning. He says that Christ is one with the Father, but
secretly whispers in the ears of his own partisans that He is united to the
Father like other believers, although by a singular privilege. Say
"consubstantial" and you will tear off the mask of this turncoat, and yet you
add nothing to Scripture."(37)
The other common objection to the Trinity is that it was not formulated until
the fourth century. It was supposedly imposed on the people by the Roman
Catholic church (by then quite apostate, we are told) through the political
agency of Constantine at the Council of Nicea in A.D.325. This argument is a
mix of historical truth and error. First of all, there was no "Roman Catholic
church," in the sense of a hierarchical church structure encompassing churches
over a wide area with the Roman bishop as the head, until the end of the sixth
century. Indeed, the Roman bishop did not even attend the Council of Nicea,
which was almost completely a Council of bishops from the Eastern churches.
Second, the doctrine of the Trinity as such originated long before
Constantine; all of the essential terms (three persons, one substance,
Trinity) were used by Tertullian well over a century before Nicea. Third,
although it is true that Constantine originally supported Athanasius (the
champion of trinitarianism) and deposed Arius, in A.D.332 he reversed himself
and supported Arius; for the next fifty years or so, Arianism was the ruling
movement.
Moreover, many doctrines which we now consider essential to Christian faith
came to us through an historical development similar to that of the Trinity.
The Bible does not list the books which belong in the canon; such a list was
not put together for the New Testament until the fourth century, in response
to heretics who were adding or subtracting books from Scripture. The Bible
never explicitly insists that it is inerrant in historical and scientific
matters. Inerrancy 'per se' was not explicitly formulated until the
nineteenth century in response to those who said the Bible was inspired but
contained errors.
Thus, doctrines that are taught or implied in Scripture become 'formulated'
(given formal structure and definition) in response to heresy.
The same is true of the doctrine of the Trinity, which was formulated to avoid
the errors of Arianism and modalism. Thus, far from being unbiblical, the
Trinity is a faithful expression of the biblical teaching concerning God, and
it has guarded the church from heresy for centuries. To throw out the
doctrine of the Trinity in favor of a modernized version of modalism betrays
an ignorance of church history, as well as a misunderstanding of Scripture.
HERESY?
We have seen that the Oneness doctrine of God is not faithful to the biblical
revelation of the Father and Son as two persons, and that the Oneness
rejection of the Trinity is in error. The question now must be asked how
serious an error this is, since theological errors vary in their harmfulness.
Evangelicals commonly suppose that a professed Christian movement may be
judged orthodox or heretical simply on the basis of whether or not it affirms
the full deity and humanity of Christ. Consequently, some Christians have
concluded that the Oneness doctrine, despite its denial of the Trinity, is
essentially Christian.
This is far too simplistic, however. While it is true that adherence to the
two natures of Christ is critical to orthodoxy, and while most pseudo-
Christian sects do deny that Jesus is both fully God and fully man, simply
affirming the two natures is not enough. Indeed, it is possible to call Jesus
"God" and still have "another Jesus" (2 Cor.11:4), if in calling Him "God" one
means something significantly different from what the Bible means.
Such is the case with the Oneness understanding of the deity of Christ. When
Oneness believers say that Jesus is God, what they mean is that He is the
Father. That is not what the Bible means, as we have seen. Rather, when the
Bible says that Jesus is "God," it means that He exists eternally as a divine
person in relationship with the Father; or, to use the church's theological
shorthand, it means that He is the second person of the triune God.
The apostle John warns us, "Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father;
the one who confesses the Son has the Father also" (1 John 2:23). Oneness
Pentecostals will not admit to denying the Son, of course; but that should
come as no surprise. It is doubtful that any heretic, including those about
whom John specifically warned, has ever admitted to denying the Son. Instead,
heretics of all kinds have simply redefined the meaning of the term "Son" (and
along with it the meaning of "Father"). Thus the Jehovah's Witnesses define
"Son" as "direct creation," while the Mormons claim that Jesus is the "Son" of
God by virtue of having been begotten through physical union between God and
Mary. The Oneness redefinition of "Son" as the human nature of Jesus (and
"Father" as His divine nature) may be less offensive than the Mormon version,
and less obvious than that of the Jehovah's Witnesses, but it is a
redefinition nonetheless. The fact is that the Son and the Father are two
persons, co-existing eternally in relationship with one another. To deny this
fact is to deny the biblical Son, and thus to have a false view of Jesus.
It turns out, then, that one's view of Christ cannot be separated
from one's view of the Trinity. Deny the Trinity, and you will lose
the biblical Christ; affirm the Christ of Scripture, the Christ who was
sent by the Father and who sent the Holy Spirit, and you will find that
your God is the Trinity. It is, in fact, the doctrine of the Trinity
that is the distinctive feature of the Christian revelation of the
nature of the true God. As Calvin expressed it: "For He so proclaims
Himself the sole God as to offer himself to be contemplated clearly in
three persons. Unless we grasp these, only the bare and empty name of
God flits about in our brains, to the exclusion of the true God."(38)
Only the Christian God is triune, and consequently, to deny the trinity
is to say that, historically, Judaism and Islam have been right about
the being of God, while Christianity has been wrong. Oneness writers
have said as much.(39) Therefore, while there may be individual
Oneness believers who are saved, the Christian community has no choice
but to regard the Oneness movement as a whole as having departed from
the Christian faith.
We must conclude, then, that the Oneness teaching is a heresy, that it denies
a fundamental, basic belief of biblical Christianity, and that those churches
and denominations which teach this heresy are actually pseudo- Christian
sects. In popular Evangelical terminology, such a heretical sect is known as
a "cult," a term which simply means that the group's beliefs are in some
important respect non-Christian.
In this sense, we regretfully conclude that the Oneness churches are indeed
cults, and we urge Christians to reach out to Oneness believers in love and
share with them the triune God revealed in the Scriptures.
_____________________________________________
NOTES
l. On the history of Oneness Pentecostalism, see David Arthur Reed, "Origins
and Development of the Theology of Oneness Pentecostalism in the United
States," Ph.D. diss. (Boston, MA: Boston University Graduate School, 1978);
and Oneness writer Frank J. Ewart, "The Phenomenon of Pentecost" (Houston:
Herald Publishing House, 1947; rev.ed., Hazelwood, MO: Word Aflame Press,
1975). Word Aflame Press (hereafter WAP) and Pentecostal Publishing House
(hereafter PPH), both located in Hazelwood, are the official publishing houses
of the United Pentecostal Church, the largest Oneness denomination in the
world. Due to the brevity of this article, our analysis of Oneness
Pentecostalism is largely restricted to the UPC.
2. David B. Barrett (ed.), "World Christian Encyclopedia" (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1982), p.837.
3. David K. Bernard, "The Oneness of God" (WAP, 1983), pp.321-322. This book
is probably the best and most complete defense of the Oneness doctrine of God
in print.
4. Bernard, op.cit., pp.257-258,287; Kenneth V. Reeves, "The Godhead"
(Revised), 6th ed. (WAP, 1962), pp.26-28; John Paterson, "God in Christ Jesus"
(WAP. 1966), p.40.
5. Bernard, op.cit., pp.142-143,288.
6. Reeves, op.cit., pp.24-26.
7. Philip Schaff, "The Creeds of Christendom" (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book
House, 1983 reprint), Vol.III, pp.607-608.
8. Schaff, op.cit., Vol.II, p.67. An excellent line-by-line discussion of
the creed is found in "Creeds, Councils and Christ," by Gerald Bray (Downers
Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1984), pp.175-191.
9. Bernard, op.cit., pp.257-260; Reeves, op.cit., p.9.
10. See Bray, op.cit., pp.78-79,146-171.
ll. Bray, op.cit., p.78.
12. Paterson, op.cit., p.12.
13. Albert Barnes, "Notes on the Old Testament Explanatory and Practical:
Isaiah," Vol.I (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1950 reprint), p.193.
14. Benjamin Davidson, "The Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon" (Peabody,
MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1981 reprint), pp.1-2.
15. For example, see R.C.H. Lenski, "The Interpretation of St. John's Gospel"
(Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), pp.759-761.
16. David Campbell, "All the Fullness" (WAP, 1975), p.43; John Paterson, "The
Real Truth About Baptism in Jesus' Name" (PPH, 1953), p.16; Bernard, op.cit.,
pp.126,137.
17. F.F. Bruce, "The Gospel of John" (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Co., 1983), p.138.
18. Bernard, op.cit., pp.42-44.
19. (Pasadena, TX: Gordon Magee, n.d.).
20. Reed, op.cit., pp.97-103; Ewart, op.cit., (WAP ed.), pp.105-109.
21. Paterson, "The Real Truth," p.12.
22. The Corinthian Christians were predominantly Jews and God-fearing Greeks
from the synagogue (Acts 18:1-8; cf. I Cor.1:13).
23. F.F. Bruce, "The Spreading Flame" (Exeter, England: Paternoster Press,
1958), pp.240-241.
24. Space does not permit a discussion of the distinct personhood of the Holy
Spirit. However, it is safe to say that, once persuaded of the fact that the
Father and Son are two persons of an indivisible God, most will concede the
truth of the Trinity. This writer has never yet encountered a "binarian."
25. William F. Arndt and F. Wilbur Gingrich, "A Greek-English Lexicon of the
New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature" (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1957), p.39.
26. Bernard, op.cit., p.184; Magee, op.cit., p.24.
27. Bernard, op.cit., p.186. 28. Bernard, op.cit., p.177.
29. Notably Adam Clarke; see David Campbell, "The Eternal Sonship" ("A
Refutation According to Adam Clarke")(WAP, 1978). Walter Martin also rejects
the eternal Sonship doctrine, while insisting on the eternal preexistence of
the Word (Logos): see "The Kingdom of the Cults" (Minneapolis: Bethany House
Publishers, 1985), pp.115-117.
30. J. Oliver Buswell, Jr., "A Systematic Theology of the Christian Religion"
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1962), Vol.I, pp.111-112.
31. Bernard, op.cit., pp.50,159-160; Magee, op.cit., p.23.
32. Bernard, op.cit., p.116.
33. Alan F. Johnson, "Revelation," in "The Expositors's Bible Commentary,"
edited by Frank E. Gaebelein, Vol.12 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing
House, 1981), p.528.
34. Bernard, op.cit., pp.61,188.
35. In John 1:1 we have 'pros ton theon', "with God," whereas in Hebrews 2:17
and 5:1 we have 'ta pros ton theon', "the things {'ta'} having to do with
God." The use of the neuter plural article 'ta' changes the meaning of
'pros.'
36. Arndt and Gingrich, op.cit., p.615.
37. "Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion," edited by John T.
McNeill, translated by Ford Lewis Battles; Library of Christian Classics
(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960), Vol.I, p.127 (I.xiii.5).
38. Calvin, op.cit., p.122 (I.xiii.2).
39. Bernard, op.cit., pp.17,19,244,299,319; Reeves, op.cit., p.23.
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