“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.”
Deuteronomy 6:4
One God
We believe in one God. Not three Gods, and not three persons in one God, but one. Jesus Himself quoted this as the first of all the commandments (Mark 12:29).
This one God has made Himself known in three offices, or manifestations: as Father, as Son, and as Holy Ghost. The same God who overshadowed Israel in the Pillar of Fire came down and dwelt in a body of flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ, and now dwells in His church by the Holy Ghost.
“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” 1 Timothy 3:16
Fatherhood, Sonship, Holy Spirit
- Fatherhood. God over Israel, the Creator and the Life of all things. “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24).
- Sonship. God with us, Emmanuel (Matthew 1:23). Jesus was a real man, born of a virgin, the body God prepared for Himself (Hebrews 10:5). “In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).
- Holy Spirit. God in us. “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27; John 14:16–18).
When Philip asked to see the Father, Jesus answered, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). Isaiah called the child who would be born “The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). Thomas, seeing the risen Christ, said “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28).
Why we reject the Trinity
The teaching that God is three distinct persons, co-equal and co-eternal, is not found in the Bible. The word “trinity” does not appear in Scripture. The doctrine was shaped by church councils in the centuries after the apostles. Three persons, each with his own mind and will, cannot be reconciled with “The LORD our God is one LORD.” It leaves believers praying to three, and it was the reason the apostolic Name in water baptism was replaced with three titles.
Why we reject Oneness teaching
We also do not hold the Oneness or modalist view. That teaching treats Father, Son and Holy Ghost as masks or modes that God puts on and takes off in turn, and often blurs the difference between the Spirit of God and the man Christ Jesus. The Bible shows a real Son: a man who prayed, who was tempted, who died and rose again, in whom the Father dwelt (John 14:10). The Father was in the Son, reconciling the world unto Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). The Son was not the Father wearing a costume. He was the tabernacle in which the fullness of God lived.
Scriptures to study
Deuteronomy 6:4; Isaiah 9:6, 44:6; Matthew 1:21–23; John 1:1, 1:14, 4:24, 10:30, 14:7–11; 2 Corinthians 5:19; Colossians 1:27, 2:9; 1 Timothy 3:16; Revelation 1:8.