The Doctrine of the Oneness of God This study is presented as a response to those who believe that God is either

two or three divine persons or beings.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:4-5 The Bible teaches plainly and without ambiguity that God is one! It never says that God is two or three or any other number. It simply says that God is one! Yet many believers today have been taught that God is not one. They have learned that God is two, which is called Arianism or binitarianism. Or that God is three, which is called trinitarianism. The New Catholic Encyclopedia states, When one does speak of an unqualified Trinitarianism, one has moved from the period of Christian origins to, say, the last quadrant of the 4th century. It was only then that what might be called the definitive Trinitarian dogma one God in three Persons became thoroughly assimilated into Christian life and thought. The formula itself does not reflect the immediate consciousness of the period of origins; it was the product of three centuries of doctrinal development (Vol.XIV, p.295). If the doctrine of the trinity was not in the immediate consciousness of either Jesus or His apostles, then what doctrine did they teach? The answer is, they taught they same doctrine Moses taught: that God is one! In Mark 12:29, Jesus said, The first of all the commandments is: Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. Yet in 1 Corinthians 8:5-6 Paul wrote, For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. If God is one, then why does Paul make this distinction between God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ? This sounds like at least two. What we are talking about here is how we are to describe God and how to understand Jesus. But because of verses such as this one, many people have a difficult time understanding the Bible teachings about God and Jesus. So, in an attempt to be better able to describe God, lets look at some of the questions people have asked concerning the teaching that God is one! In the Old Testament:

1. Isnt the Hebrew word for God is plural? THE HEBREW WORD translated God throughout the Old Testament is the word Elohim. This word appears 2570 times. Some have said that because this word is a plural noun, it indicates that God is a plural being, that He is one God, yet simultaneously three distinct divine persons the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit...the trinity. But in Hebrew, plurality not only indicates more than one, it also indicate bigness or greatness or vastness. For example, the word mayim meaning water is also a plural form. So is shamayim meaning heaven. Heaven is big! Genesis 1:1 says, In the beginning God created.... The verb created is in the singular form, proving that Elohim is intended to be taken as a singular noun. When Elohim was first translated into Greek by Jewish scholars, they selected the word Theos, which is a singular noun. They never used Theoi, the plural form, which is translated gods. To say that the fact that Elohim is plural proves that God is a plural being is to read into this word a meaning that simply isnt there. Galatians 3:20 says, Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one [Theos eis esti]. James 2:19 says, You believe that there is one God [Theos eis esti]. You do well. Even the demons believe; and tremble! Even the demons know that God is ONE! 2. What about, Let us make man in our image...? GENESIS 1:26 SAYS, Then God (Elohim) said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.... What did God mean when He said Us? Some say this was the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit speaking together as one God. But Job 38:4-7 tells us, Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? In the OT the term sons of God always refers to angels. Throughout the life of Jesus we see angels in actionat His birth, in the wilderness, at Gethsemane, at the resurrection and the ascension. Throughout the book of Acts we also see angels involved with the people of God. Hebrews 1:14 says that angels are sent to minister to the heirs of salvation. Clearly angels are involved in the ongoing process of making man into the image of God. Similar language is found in Genesis 11:7 and Isaiah 6 where God is clearly speaking to angels. Genesis 1:27 says, So God [Elohim] created man in His own image.... Through the new birth each of us can be made into the image of God; yet none of us have plural identities or personalities. Each of us is only ONE PERSON! Genesis 3:22 says, Then the LORD God said, Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. 2 Samuel 14:17 says, The word of my lord the king will now be comforting; for as the angel of God, so is my lord the king in discerning good and evil. Is it really so unreasonable to believe that the Creator spoke with angels?

3. Isnt Jesus the wisdom of Proverbs 8? PROVERBS 8:1 SAYS, Does not wisdom cry out, and understanding lift up her voice? Proverbs 8:22-23 says, The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I have been established from everlasting, from the beginning, before there was ever an earth. And Proverbs 8:29-31 says, When He assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters would not transgress His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing in His inhabited world, and my delight was with the sons of men. The idea that the wisdom being spoken of in this passage is a second divine person was first suggested by a Jewish philosopher named Philo who lived at the time of Christ. Philo tried to explain the Old Testament using the philosophical ideas of Plato. His ideas about the wisdom of Proverbs was later picked up by so-called Christian philosophers, who identified this wisdom with the Son of God. But notice what the Bible says, Does not wisdom cry out, and understanding lift up her voice? Throughout the book of Proverbs, wisdom is personified as a woman. The wisdom of God is the wise woman. The wisdom of the world is the deceitful, lustful woman. To say that the wise woman of Proverbs is the pre-existent second person of the trinity is to read into the Scripture what is clearly not there. In the New Testament 1. What about the baptism of Jesus? MATTHEW 3:16-17 SAYS, When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Here we see the man, Jesus, standing in the baptismal waters of the Jordan river, the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and a voice speaking from heaven. Is this a portrait of the trinity, three distinct divine persons in one God? If it is not, then how are we to understand this scene? To understand it correctly, we must remember that Jesus did not cease being the omnipresent God when He took on flesh. The entire time He walked the earth as man, He simultaneously ruled the universe as God. Even though the fullness of Gods character and moral attributes dwelled bodily in Christ, the fullness of His Spirit was not so confined. God was in Christ; yet God was also everywhere else! Understanding this, it is easy to see that the omnipresent Spirit of God spoke from heaven and sent a manifestation of Himself in the form of a dove, even as His human body stood in the muddy waters of the Jordan river. What then was the purpose of these manifestations? In John 1:31, John the Baptist said

that he came baptizing to reveal the Messiah to Israel. In other words, the purpose of the baptism of Jesus was to serve as the starting point of His ministry and the public declaration of His Messiahship to the people of Israel. John 1:32-34 states that the dove was to be a sign to John. Since Isaiah 40:3 said that John would be the forerunner of Jehovah (the LORD), John needed to know that Jesus was indeed Jehovah come in the flesh. John knew it would be the one the Spirit descended upon, but you cant see a Spirit; therefore, God sent this special manifestation in the likeness of a dove. Furthermore, the descent of the Spirit was a type of anointing. Jesus had come to fulfill the roles of prophet, priest, and king, so He had to be anointed into those roles. But since Jesus was a sinless man and was God Himself, being anointed by a sinful man with symbolic oil was not enough. Instead, Jesus was anointed directly by the Spirit of God. The voice from heaven was for the benefit of the people. A similar incident took place in John 12:28-30. This manifestation of a voice served as a divine introduction of Jesus to Israel as the Son of God and their Messiah. Since there were many people present at the baptismal site, the Spirit singled out the man Jesus and identified Him by the voice. This was certainly much more effective that if Jesus had simply announced Himself as a man. 2. If Jesus was God, why did He have to pray? HEBREWS 5:7 SAYS that Jesus prayed in the days of His flesh. Psalms 65:2 says, O You who hear prayer, to You all flesh will come. When Jesus prayed, it was not one divine person praying to another; it was flesh praying to Spirit, humanity praying to Deity, Son praying to Father, man praying to God. Why would one diving person need to pray to another? If that were what was happening, then we would have to say that the second divine person was inferior to the first divine person. That would mean that they are not coequal. But when we understand that God was manifest in the flesh, then we realize that while He was in the days of His flesh, Jesus had to do what all flesh must do: pray to the One who hears prayer. Furthermore, He was being an example to us in how we ought to live for God. 3. Didnt God forsake Jesus on the cross? MATTHEW 27:46 SAYS, And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? What was happening here? Was the first person of the trinity forsaking the second person in the midst of His greatest trial? No! This passage cannot be describing an actual separation between the Father and the Son, because the Son IS the Father manifested in the flesh. Jesus Himself said, I and my Father are one (John 10:30). Furthermore, 2 Corinthians 5:19 says that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. It never states that God left Christ on the cross. What then does the cry of Jesus mean? It does not mean that the Spirit of God departed from Christs body, only that it provided no help to the body. In other words, the fact that

Jesus was God in the flesh does not mean that His flesh didnt feel the pain of the nails just as our flesh would. There was no lessening of the physical pain by the Spirit. Hebrews 9:14 says that Christ offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit. If the Spirit had left Him on the cross He would have ceased to be the Christ the Anointed One. The Spirit was with Christ throughout the ordeal. Jesus was not literally God-forsaken, but He did feel God-forsaken. Remember, He was bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. He felt what it feels like to be a sinner. He felt the fiery pain of the nails. He felt the humiliating sting of the insults. He felt the awful horror of divine judgment. In addition, Jesus was pointing the people to Psalms 22, a riveting first-person account of the agony of the crucifixion, which begins, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning? It goes on to say, I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it has melted within Me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded Me; the congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me (Psalms 22:1, 14-17). When did the Spirit actually depart from the body? Matthew 27:50 says, And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. The Spirit departed when Jesus died. 4. What about the stoning of Stephen? WHEN THEY HEARD these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God! (Acts 7:54-56). What did Stephen actually see? The Bible says he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. How did he describe what he saw? He said, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God! The glory of God seems to be equal to the heavens opened. We see something similar when a short time later Paul saw Jesus. The Bible says, As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? And he said, Who are You, Lord? Then the Lord said, I am Jesus...... (Acts 9:3-5). Later on Paul said, I could not see for the glory of that light (Acts 22:11). So the light from heaven is the glory of God. Stephen saw heaven opened and a glorious light shining forth. And He saw Jesus, the Son of Man, (ben Adam) standing at the right hand of God. Did Stephen see two distinct divine persons?

Did he see the man Jesus and a large hand belonging to God? Does God actually have a literal right hand? Didnt Jesus say, God is a Spirit (John 4:24)? Does a Spirit have a literal hand? What does the Bible means when it speaks of the right hand of God? Exodus15:6-7 says, Your right hand, O LORD, has become glorious in power; Your right hand, O LORD, has dashed the enemy in pieces. And in the greatness of Your excellence You have overthrown those who rose against You...... Psalms 20:6 says, Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand. Psalms 89:13 says, You have a mighty arm; strong is Your hand, and high is Your right hand. The right hand of God is an Hebraic figure of speech referring to the power and strength of the Almighty God. In Matthew 26:64, Jesus said, Hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven. Mark 16:19-20 says, So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. After His resurrection and ascension into heaven, the man Jesus took up His seat upon the throne of heaven. No longer is He acting in His role of the suffering Savior, now He is acting in His role as the Lord God Almighty.