A Biblical Answer to "60
Questions on the Godhead"
by Mike Bugal
Founder, Heartland Christian Ministries
Throughout history there have been many errors that have attempted to creep into the foundational doctrine of the Body of Christ, the Church. One such error is "Modalism". Modalism basically denies the existence of the Trinity in favor of the teaching that there is only One Person in the Godhead who, like an actor in a play, has appeared at different times wearing different masks. He was the Father in Creation, the Son at Calvary and the Holy Spirit indwelling believers after Pentecost. This error, like most others, was resisted by the Church fathers in various Councils as being an unscriptural view and for 1400 years was basically a dead doctrine.
In the early1900's this view resurfaced in it's modern guise, Oneness Pentecostalism. Among the various doctrines of this organization is the central teaching that there is only One Person in the Godhead and His Name is Jesus, hence the name that many know them by "Jesus Only". They are also known as the United Pentecostal Church or Apostolic Church. One of the tracts that the UPCI publishes is called "60 Questions on the Godhead with Bible Answers" in which they attempt to refute the doctrine of the Trinity.
The purpose of this article is to examine the responses given in this tract to see if they are not just "bible answers" but biblical answers. In other words, how do their answers square with the whole Word of God taken in context? In order to shorten the length of this article questions that are repetitive will be combined. Scriptures quoted will be from the King James Version, which is the Bible of choice of the UPCI.
[Note: The last sentence above originally read: "Scriptures quoted will be from the King James Version, or New King James Version, which is the Bible of choice of the UPCI." I believed that some UPCI ministers used the NKJV. I altered it after this page was originally posted thanks to input from Mark Bassett and Donnie Hayes, two Oneness Pentecostal ministers. Rather than cause anyone to stumble over something that trivial (and since I didn't USE any NKJV quotations), I changed it.]
Part 1
1.
Is the word trinity in
the Bible? No.
This is the weakest argument of the lot. Just because the word
"Trinity" doesn't appear doesn't mean that the doctrine
that the word describes doesn't. There are many doctrines that
Christians ascribe to whose descriptive word isn't found in the
text of the Bible. "Rapture" is one example.
2.
Does the Bible say that there are three persons in the Godhead?
No.
Actually, the answer to this should be "yes", and to shorten this response a
little I'll simply refer you to our "Introduction
To The Godhead".
3. Does the Bible speak of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? Yes. 4. Do these titles as used in Matthew 28:19 mean that there are three separate and distinct persons in the Godhead? No, they refer to three offices, roles, or relationship to humanity.
While the UPCI admits that the Bible speaks of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, it relegates (without scriptural support for the terms) each to an "office or role" (mask of the actor)... Modalism. Yet Jesus spoke to His "office" in the Garden at Gethsemane: "These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:" (John 17:1). Was Jesus simply speaking to a "role" or Someone who had a personality who could hear what He said, and responded when Jesus prayed a similar prayer in John 12:28, "Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again."? Was Jesus referring to a "relationship" when He referred to the Holy Spirit with the personal pronoun "He" rather than "I" in John 16:7-15? There are either 2 other Persons in the Godhead with the Son or Jesus was mentally ill (multiple personality disorder). Which do you believe?
5. Does the Bible use the word three in reference to God? Only one verse in the entire Bible does so-I John 5:7. It speaks of the Father, the Word (instead of Son), and the Holy Ghost, and it concludes by saying, "These three are one." 6. Does the Bible use the word one in reference to God? Yes, many times. 10. Does the Bible say that there are two persons in the Godhead? No 38. How many Gods should we know? Only one. Hosea 13:4. 53. Can it be proved Scripturally that Jesus and the Father are one in the same sense that husband and wife are one? No. 52. Did Jesus ever say, "I and my Father are one?" Yes. John 10:30. 54.Does the Bible say that there is only one wise God? Yes. Jude 25. The Godhead was never compared to the relationship of a husband and wife. Jesus identified Himself with the Father in a way that husband and wife cannot be identified with each other. John 14:9-11.
It's important to understand that ancient languages, such as Hebrew or Koine Greek, had many words which could be translated "one" but had entirely different meanings. In translation, the meaning of the word comes both from its immediate context (the words around it) and how it's used in other places. The translation that the UPCI would prefer here is "the same", but it is actually the same word that is used by Jesus in Matthew 19:4-5: "And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?" The same is true in the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy 6:4 we read, "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:" and the word translated "one" here is the same word [echad] used in Genesis 2:24 (the same Scripture quoted by Jesus in Matthew). Does this mean that the man and woman become the same person? Of course not! It's a oneness of unity, just as it is with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So their statement that the relationship between the Persons of the Godhead cannot be compared to a husband and wife is false.
Finally, their argument that the Bible doesn't use the word "three" in relationship to God anywhere but 1 John 5:7 is the same as the "Trinity is not in the Bible" argument. The weight of scriptural evidence supports the "3-Persons-in-One God" concept that the term "Trinity" describes and the fact that Jesus referred to the Father using second and third person pronouns (You, He) and the Holy Spirit using second person pronouns (He) requires that there are either two other Persons that Jesus is talking to or about (2+1=3), or Jesus is mentally ill, imperfect and incapable of saving anyone.
7. Can the mystery of the Godhead be understood? Yes. Romans 1:20; Colossians 2:9; I Timothy 3:16
What "mystery of the Godhead" would there be if it was as simple as an actor wearing a different mask in a different scene of a play? The Greeks definitely would have had no trouble grasping that. But the idea that there could be Three-Persons-in-One-God (Tri-Unity or Trinity)? Now that, at least to man's sin-scarred, limited mind, is a "mystery". Yes, we can understand the Godhead in the sense of "apprehending" the concept because the weight of scripture says it is so, but it is beyond our "comprehension".
8. Has the Christian only one Heavenly Father? Yes. Matthew 23:9. 9.Then why did Jesus say to Philip, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:39) [Note: wrong citation]? Because Jesus is the express image of God's person. Hebrews 1:3. The Greek word for person in this verse literally means "substance." 13. Who is the Father? The Father is the one God, particularly as revealed in parental relationship to humanity. Deuteronomy 32:6; Malachi 2:10. 14. Where was God the Father while Jesus was on earth? The Father was in Christ. John 14:10; II Corinthians 5:19. He was also in heaven, for God is omnipresent. 15. Did the prophet Isaiah say that Jesus would be the Father? Yes. Isaiah 9:6; 63:16. 18.How may we see the God who sent Jesus into the world? By seeing Jesus. John 12:44-45; 14:9. 29. Could Jesus have been on earth and in heaven at the same time? Yes. John 3:13
"And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me." (John 8:16)
"Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things." (John 8:28)
"For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak." (John 12:49)
Because of the witness of what Jesus had spoken and done during His time on earth, they should have seen the Father through Him. This also brings up an interesting point: doesn't someone who is "taught" and someone who is "sent" require that there be someone else who is the "teacher" or "sender"? I can "go" myself, but I must be "sent" by another.
As for the "substance" of God, the Bible says that: "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." (John 4:24). The concept of "The Trinity" doesn't deny that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are of the same substance... spirit. Only the Son took on human flesh and became Jesus Christ. More on this in next answer, but it should be noted that while the Son was in both heaven and on earth at the same time (God is omnipresent), Jesus was not. If He were, why did He say to Mary at the tomb, "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." (John 20:17)?
11. Does the Bible say that all the Godhead is revealed in one person? Yes, in Jesus Christ. II Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:19; 2:9; Hebrews 1:3. 17.How many of God's qualities were in Christ? All. Colossians 2:9. 19. Does the Bible say that Jesus is the Almighty? Yes. Revelation 1:8
"For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven." (Colossians 1:19-20)
Note that this verse does not say that the whole Godhead dwelled in Jesus, but that "all fullness dwell". The Godhead was "revealed" in Him because of the Unity of the Tri-Unity just as Jesus had said in John chapter 8 and chapter 12 (see above). Note also that the Father used Jesus to reconcile all things to Himself. Is that the action of a nonexistent "office or role" or of a Living Person?
"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)
Does the fact that Jesus is the "image of God" mean that He, the Father and the Holy Spirit are all the same actor wearing different masks? God said, "Let us make man in our image..." (Genesis 1:26). Are we then the same as The Father and The Holy Spirit as well?
"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they." (Hebrews 1:1-4)
This citation address the same concept as above.
16. When God said, "Let us make man in our image" (Genesis 1:26), was He speaking to another person in the Godhead? No. Isaiah 44:24; Malachi 2:10
Then to whom was He speaking? The angels? Created beings themselves, and the power of creation is reserved to God. Who does the Scripture say was present at Creation? "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." (Genesis 1:2): The Holy Spirit. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:1-3): the Son. "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." (John 17:5): the Father.