�Critical Perspectives
from the Word of God
The Bible states that God is one (Deuteronomy 6:4, I Corinthians 8:6). The question is�one what? What is the essence of monotheism (the abstract idea of one God)? Many from the early church to our day have attempted to answer that question. We will not attempt to do so here, but rather in the table below, set forth a schematic of various beliefs, ideas, and theories as they relate to biblically-based Christianity. This is a noun-based schematic wherein God is understood as a noun. We will not attempt at this point to present the concept of deity as a verb although discussion of this concept has intensified among some theologians. Unfortunately, many writers misunderstand the theological terms underlying the philosophical formulation of the triune nature of God in the context of Christian monotheism and advocate a naive Tritheism or Ditheism.
The limits of this discussion is Christian monotheism and to a degree its comparison with polytheism forms but neither Islam nor Judaism. In the non-Christian context, while Islam claims to be an Abrahamic-derived faith, many Christian scholars dispute this claiming that Islam is out-and-out paganism consisting of a hybrid blend of concepts lifted from the Bible and beliefs associated with the pagan desert god Allah as embellished by Mohammad. Rabbinic Judaism, of course, is not Christian in any sense but we briefly address Messianic Judaism due to its close bond with Christianity.
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Concept |
Pertinent Tenets Relating to Christianity |
Contemporary Groups |
Monotheism is the doctrine or belief that there is but one God. There are three forms�Unitarianism, Binitarianism, and Trinitarianism. |
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Unitarianism (sometimes called monarchianism and by some unitary monotheism). A strict form of monotheism wherein the deity exists only in one persona, but in a historic sense consisting of two general schools of thought�one denying the full deity of Jesus Christ (exemplified in the teachings of Paul of Samosata and Arius) and the other holding that the deity simply manifested itself in Jesus Christ (a modalistic view as seen in Noetus, Praxeas, and Sabellius). From the standpoint of Judeo-Christianity and the successors of Greco-Roman Orthodoxy (Roman Catholicism, the Orthodox, Evangelicals, and the like) Unitarians claiming to be Christian are without a doubt heterodox. They are not Christians. The Ebionites of the first and second century were Unitarian and rejected by Judeo-Christians and Greco-Roman Orthodox Christians as heretics. In a contemporary form the one God is understood to be the Father, who is the Creator and Savior. The resurrected Jesus of Nazareth, a distinct and separate being from God, is understood to be Lord [king] and the Anointed One [High Priest] but not God. |
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Jehovah's Witnesses Christadelphians Christian Churches of God The Way International Association for Christian Development Church of God of the Abrahamic Faith (General Conference) & Atlanta Bible College Seventh Day Church of God Some minor derivatives of The Worldwide Church of God declaring themselves Unitarian congregations. |
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Binitarianism is the hypothesis that the deity exists essentially and indivisibly as two personae, hypostases, in the Godhead, the Father and the Son, collapsing the Holy Spirit into the persona of the Son, i.e., the Holy Spirit was not a distinct hypostasis from Jesus of Nazareth but rather another name for him. Scholars and theologians often use the word Binitarian in contrast to Unitarian or Trinitarian theologies. Binitarianism is found in The Shepherd of Hermas (Lake 1970) as well as the Macedonian heresy of the fourth century. The Binitarian statement is never ditheistic in the sense of affirming two separate self-conscious and self-determining individualities in the Godhead. There are not two separate personalities in the Godhead for that would be ditheism. God is a single entity and not a class. From this perspective it is appropriate to say that God has a family but not that God is a family. Binitarian monotheism is most likely the understanding of many Christians of the first three centuries�without losing their passionate commitment to the oneness of God, they began to speak of and to worship the resurrected, ascended, and glorified Jesus of Nazareth in such a way as to confess that he was as divine as God the Father. Due to rising heresy in Gentile Christendom the Council of Constantinople in CE 381 resolved the matter for Byzantine Christianity with adoption of the Nicene Creed declaring the nature of God to be one divine essence existing in three hypostases, known as the Holy Trinity, reflecting their exegesis of the wording of Hebrews 1:3. Harold Brown holds that it is an "erroneous assumption that theology went through a kind of 'binitarian' phase before developing a full trinitarianism. It would be better to say that while trinitarianism formulas are found in Scripture and were used from the beginning of the church, their meaning was not really clear until it began to be understood that each of the three members of the Trinity is a Person" (Brown 1984:113). |
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A few contemporary Christian groups claim to be Binitarian. Some minor Sabbatarian derivatives of the Worldwide Church of God declare themselves Binitarian congregations. |
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Trinitarianism is the theory of the nature of God that one divine essence exists in three divine personae, that is, one divine essence or substance (substantia) existing in three hypostases. The Greek term hypostases (pl.) and hypostasis (sing.) resist translation into English. The Latin equivalent of the Greek hypostasis is persona. The English word "person" from the Latin persona, tends to imply anthropomorphic qualities to God that hypostasis does not. The English word "person" is a source of much misunderstanding. When one reads that there are three persons in the Godhead the word "person" should be understood in its archaic sense and not in the contemporary sense of a center or core of personality. There are not three separate personalities in the Godhead. God is not a person nor three persons. Nicholas Lash explains: For us, a person is an individual agent, a conscious centre of memory and choice, of action, reflection and decision. But when we say there are, in God, 'three persons', we do not mean that God has, as it were, three minds, three memories, three wills" (Lash 1993:32.) In theology the words hypostases and personae retain the nuances of meaning of their use by early Christians in the context of a world vastly different from our own. Lash holds that there "is no doubt whatsoever, to my mind, but that the arguments for ceasing to speak of 'persons' in trinitarian theology greatly outweigh those in favor of the term's retention" (Lash 1993:31). There are three personae, hypostases, or actual distinctions in the unity of God which are co-equal inasmuch as in each of them the divine nature is one and undivided, and by each the collective divine attributes are shared. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three parts of God. There are in God three modes of being. The Greek hypostasis indicates a real certain existence or actuality, an independence or principle of individualization or distinction within the being of God. Moreover, the Trinitarian statement is never tritheistic. God is a single entity and not a class. God is not three individuals. From this perspective it is proper to say that God has a family but not that God is a family. To represent God as a class, such as a family of divine beings, removes discussion of the nature of God from monotheism to polytheism. From a Trinitarian view Unitarians and Binitarians are not Christians but rather pseudo-Christians. Messianic Jews are by definition not Christians but consider themselves a fourth branch of rabbinic Judaism although rabbinic Judaism does not recognize them as such. |
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Christian Orthodoxy Messianic Jews The Worldwide Church of God and, on close examination of their teachings on the nature of God, several of its derivatives that are in fact crypto-Trinitarian although these groups would probably vociferously deny it. Seventh Day Adventists
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Ditheism is the doctrine that the Father and Son consist of two distinct eternally existing immortal beings living harmoniously as sovereign and autonomous Gods who can live without and apart from each other. This is a form of polytheism and therefore is neo-paganism. From the standpoint of Judeo-Christianity and the successors of Greco-Roman Orthodoxy (Roman Catholicism, the Orthodox, Evangelicals, and the like) Ditheists are heretics. |
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Tritheism is the doctrine that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three distinct Gods. This is a form of polytheism and therefore neo-paganism. From the standpoint of Judeo-Christianity and the successors of Greco-Roman Orthodoxy (Roman Catholicism, the Orthodox, Evangelicals, and the like) tritheists are heretics. |
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Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) |
Polytheism is the belief in or worship of more than one god and is outright paganism or neo-paganism. |
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New Age movements and mother earth religions. |
Page last edited: 01/02/06 04:56 PM
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