By Elder E. A. Green
"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.” Duet. 6:4
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Monotheism is the doctrine or belief that there is one God. The Old Testament is clearly monotheistic as the above verse succinctly states. The existence and prosperity of national Israel under that economy was linked to their observance of this principle. Israel was surrounded by nations that worshipped a variety of deities. The religion of these nations was polytheistic, which means they believed and worshipped a plurality of gods.
Israel’s God made himself known to them by delivering them from Egyptian bondage. Afterwards He brought them into the wilderness and gave them His law. He said:
Periodically Israel would break their covenant with God and worship the gods of the heathen. God would then chastise them by various judgments. They would then repent but before long their interest in heathen deities would return. This cyclical apostasy continued for generations and finally culminated when God delivered them into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Thus it happened according to Jeremiah 5:19: After the Babylonian captivity God returned a remnant of Israel into their land and monotheism was restored. Apparently they learned the lesson because idolatry and polytheism never again became a problem. When the promised Messiah came, Israel was practicing Old Testament monotheism. The advent of the Messiah was accompanied by additional revelation about the nature and purpose of the one true God. However, it bears emphasizing that New Testament revelation is predicated upon Old Testament Monotheism, that is, upon the principle of God’s Unity or Oneness. In the Old Testament God frequently emphasized His unchangeable Oneness. Consider the following two passages: “Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.” Isaiah 43:10 “For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Malachi 3:6 The New Testament revelation builds upon this doctrine of the Unity or Oneness of God. The advent of Christ did not diminish nor replace this important principle. The Unity of God continues to be a fundamental principle in the New Testament dispensation. In Mark 12:29 Jesus echoes that great Old Testament principle: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.”
Even as he reaffirmed the Unity of God Jesus went beyond the teachers of his day and applied a personal dimension to it. He referred to God as his Father and taught his disciples to pray, “Our Father, which art in heaven......”. Throughout his ministry Jesus continued to set forth this personal dimension of God. Fully developed, this doctrine later became known as the doctrine of the Trinity. Although the word “Trinity” is not found in the bible, the concept or doctrine is taught explicitly in several passages. One such statement provides the foundation for evangelism in the instructions to the apostles: Equally important to note, the doctrine of a personal Trinity is taught *implicitly* in virtually hundreds of passages. Virtually every New Testament passage which includes Jesus and his Father in the same context necessarily implies the fact of a personal Trinity; this is so even though the Holy Spirit may not be specifically mentioned. It is an error to suppose that the Trinity is exclusively a New Testament doctrine. The Old Testament has numerous passages that allude to it. Perhaps one of the most familiar is the first chapter of Genesis: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. (v.26)” The personal plural pronouns, “us” and “our”, clearly allude to a Personal Trinity. As clear as this passage is, the New Testament develops the doctrine of the Trinity much more fully and explicitly.
SPECIAL THEOLOGY Bible students need to be aware of various tactics used to oppose the doctrine of a *personal* Trinity. One tactic detractors frequently use is to pit verses that teach the Oneness of God “against” those verses that teach the personal distinctions in the Trinity. In this way they create an unwarranted tension between these two branches of Special Theology. To illustrate this, suppose you were discussing the doctrine of the Trinity with a Unitarian and you have cited Matthew 28:19 as a proof-text for your case. Rather than address your argument and the explicit language in that passage it is very likely he would avoid it by simply jumping to different text, a text like Mark 12:29 which speaks about the Oneness of God. Mark 12:29 is a good text, but his use of it in this manner is less than honest; he seeks to pit the “oneness” of God against the “threeness” of God. Sometimes a more subtle method is used by detractors. These simply ignore those verses that teach a personal Trinity while emphasizing those which teach the Oneness of God. Thus they deceive and mislead by teaching half-truths.
As you may recall, the Unitarian rejects the doctrine of the Trinity outright; no if, and, or buts. Modalism is more subtle; the Modalist denies a Trinity of persons but affirms a Trinity of “manifestations." For obvious reasons this view is less objectionable than Unitarianism.
For the Modalist, the terms **Father, Son, Holy Spirit** only refer to different manifestations, NOT to actual personal distinctions within the Trinity. Thus, to the extent that he denies a *personal* Trinity, the Modalist is Not truly Trinitarian in the historical and orthodox sense. The following verse is representative of a set of verses which Modalists frequently cite as supportive of their view. The verse contains elements which relate to both categories of Special Theology; the Trinity and the Oneness of God. It will be both interesting and helpful to consider it more closely and make comparison with other verses. “I and my Father are one.” John 10:30 Obviously the word “one” in this passage must be understood in some sense that retains the personal distinction of the “two” (I and my Father), else the passage is reduced to nonsense. Therefore it is an error to read it thus: “I and my Father are one person.” Such an interpretation is self-refuting! Any view that refutes itself is obviously false. Reputable expositors basically interpret it as, “I and my Father are one divine essence, or deity.” Or, as John Gill similarly states it: “we are one; that is, in nature, and essence, and perfections, particularly in power; since Christ is speaking of the impossibility of plucking any of the sheep out of his own and his Father’s hands; giving this as a reason for it, their unity of nature, and equality of power.”
In the above passage the Greek word for “one” is *hen*. It may be helpful to look at its use in other verses. In 1st Corinthians 3 Paul is speaking of his labor in the kingdom of God. He says: “I have planted, Apollos watered: but God gave the increase. (v.6)” “Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one.” Consider this statement in the context of the language used in John 10:30. Did Paul mean that he and Apollos were “one person”? Of course not! He meant that he and Apollos were *one* as laborers; they were engaged in the same work, with the same purpose. Likewise, the Father and the Son are NOT one person in John 10:30, although they are of the same divine nature and engaged in the same work, as also is the Holy Spirit. Likewise, consider Jesus’ statement in John 17:11: “Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are one.” Here, Jesus is praying for the preservation and unity of those the Father gave him. These are undoubtedly a very large number of persons. Jesus prays that this multitude of persons may be *one*. Are these to be somehow melded into one person? Of course not! Is he praying that their distinct individuality and personhood may be reduced to merely an illusory manifestation? No! Such an interpretation would be an obvious distortion and error. Likewise, to reduce the personal distinction of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to mere manifestations is an error. He said, “That they may be one, as we are one.” Paul, Apollos, and Cephas are distinctly different persons, yet they are one as laborers in God’s kingdom. Those that the Father gave the Son are a multitude of persons, yet they are kept and preserved as one in the Fathers’s hand. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have revealed themselves as three distinct persons, yet they are one in divine nature, purpose, power, and love. |
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