Heresies The Real Life Impact of Theology Gone Bad Lesson 3:

The : Is it worth getting right? Are you tempted to just avoid discussions of the Trinity? Has it become one of those things that you feel you have to believe but you’d rather push it aside? If you’ve ever heard a child try to grapple explaining Bible lessons, it is easy to sympathize with their confusion. There is God and , but Jesus is God and there are not two Gods, let alone three.

Sometimes it is just easier to explain the Trinity like a shamrock or as H20: Ice, Water, and Vapor. What is the big deal?

This is a different question than “is it biblical”? It is enough for most of us to believe that God is One in Three because the Bible said so. It is important to note that apart from scripture the Trinity is not something man would create. But does it make any difference?

• What is lost with ? If there are three gods and not one, what is lost?

• What if there is just one (monad) God and Jesus is just a prophet? What is lost if Jesus is not Divine?

• Do you ever feel like the Holy Spirit is the forgotten member of the Trinity? Why are we CPC and not HSPC?

Monarchianism (One-ruler) In the second century a movement grew up attempting to safeguard Monotheism. The word Trinity is no where found in the scriptures, and the only number ascribed to God in the Bible is the number one.

Monarchianists began by asserting the Jesus was not divine, but was only “adopted” to represent God during his earthly ministry. Jesus was human but under the influence and power of God. These proponents were often called “Adoptionists” or Dynamic Monarchianists.

Sabellius (or Modal ) lived and taught in Rome in the 3rd century. He also wanted to preserve Monotheism, but he also believed that Jesus was divine. Sabellius built on the teaching of two other thinkers, Noetus and , who taught that the Father became the Son.

1 Sabellius articulated that the Godhead was One but appeared in a succession of modes or operations. Like one actor wearing different masks in different parts of a play, so God took on different roles in his interactions with humanity. God wears the mask of Father in creation and giving the law; He wears the mask of the Son in Jesus’ earthly life and crucifixion; and, he wears the mask of the Spirit today.

On the surface, this might not sound too bad? What is really lost? God is one. Jesus is God. Even the Holy Spirit is identified as God.

Sabellius compared the Godhead to the Sun: Round, Hot, Bright. And referred to God as Son-Father (uios-pater).

Eventually, Sabellius’ views were attacked. First by the orthodox theologian Hippolytus and then by his former advocate Pope Callistus (217-222) who excommunicated Sabellius as a heretic.

One of the great theologians of the early church criticized this movement, calling it Patripassian (Father sufferer) because it implies that it was the Father who suffered on the Cross.

“If Christ was God, as Christian faith took for granted, then He must be identical with the Father; otherwise He could not be God. Consequently, if Christ suffered, the Father suffered, since there could be no division in the Godhead.” J.N.D. Kelly 120

Tertullian seems to suggest that the majority of believers at that time favored Sabellian’s view of the oneness of God. By about 375 there were still a large number of Sabellians in Rome and the Mesopotamian region. The first general council at Constantinople in 381 declared Sabellius’ baptism was invalid. But this was restated in the third general council at Constantinople in 680, indicating that Sabellianism still maintained a presence.

Why it is so attractive? There are a lot of attractive qualities about Sabellianism. • It is easy to understand. • It preserves the deity of Christ. • It makes the different ages of redemptive history clean-cut.

I want to look at two key things that are lost in advocating Sabellianism.

A Relational God Sabellius taught that it was easier to understand the Godhead using a relationship illustration. It is an illustration we can relate to (sorry for the pun): In one relationship he is son; in another, brother; and in a third, father. In all these relationships there is but one real personality.

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The key difference is that there is no real separation between the Father, Son, and Spirit. They are all the same.

But, the Father, Son, and Spirit are not relations; they are persons standing in relation. Paternity is simply the Father standing in relation to the Son. He cannot be Father without the Son.

What we find in scripture is not one God playing three different roles, but three persons in relationship with each other.

This is seen clearly at Jesus’ baptism where all three members of the Trinity are distinctly present.

Looking at the scope of inter-trinitarian relations in the Bible, John Frame notes: “Father, Son, and the Spirit are all divine, and they are distinct from one another. “The Father appoints the Son to a place of honor (Pss. 2:7; 110:1). The Father and the Son know each another (Matt. 11:27), but the Son is somehow ignorant of something the Father knows (Mark 13:32). The Word is with God, as well as being God (John 1:1-2). The Father gave his Son to die for sinners (John 3:16; Gal. 4:6). Jesus prays to the Father (e.g. Mark 14:36; John 17), making requests, giving thanks, expressing love. He teaches the disciples to pray to the Father in the name of Jesus (John 16:23). Jesus asks the Father to send the Spirit, who is ‘another’ counselor, distinct from Jesus himself (John 14:16). The Father speaks from heaven, testifying to the Son (Matt. 17:5). Jesus ascends to the Father (John 20:17) and sits down with him on his throne (Rev. 3:21). The angelic chorus ascribes salvation to God and to the Lamb (Rev. 7:10). None of this makes sense on a modalistic basis. The members of the Godhead are distinct persons.”

They are distinct in their personality. Personality is an attribute not simply a role. Which means that God is personal rather than impersonal!

Think about what this means. Tim Keller draws out some of the implications of this.

“The inner life of the triune God, however, is utterly different. The life of the Trinity is characterized not by self-centeredness but by mutually self-giving love. When we delight and serve someone else, we enter into a dynamic orbit around him or her, we center on the interests and desires of the other. That creates a dance, particularly if there are three persons, each of whom moves around the other two. So it is, the Bible tells us. Each of the divine persons centers upon the others. None demands that the others revolve around him. Each voluntarily circles the others. That creates a dynamic, pulsating dance of joy and love.” 214-5

3 “Imagine there is someone you admire more than anyone else in the world. You would do anything for him or her. Now imagine you discover that this person feels exactly the same about you, and you enter into either a lifetime friendship or a romantic relationship and marriage. Sound like heaven? Yes, because it comes from heaven—that is what God has known within himself but in depths and degrees that are infinite and unimaginable. That is why God is infinitely happy, because there is an ‘other-orientation’ at the heart of his being, because he does not seek his own glory but the glory of others.” 218

The reason why God creates humans isn’t because he needs us or has some lack that only we can fill. Rather he extends this perfect internal communication of the Trinity to us so that we might share in God’s goodness and love.

This is why is so much more than simply going to a paradise when you die. It is God’s plan to bring us into communion with him while also not losing our identity.

Need for Different Persons for Redemption: Oneness Theology One modern example of Sabellianism is found in a branch of Pentecostalism called Oneness theology. It claims an estimated 24 million adherents today. They affirm that God is singular, yet manifests himself in different ways as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Oneness Pentecostalism defines salvation as repentance, baptism and receipt of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues rather than faith in Christ alone. They also tend to emphasize strict “holiness standards” in conduct and dress.

This view of salvation might make sense if we understand that God is in the role of the Spirit now and not in the role of the Son.

In Sabellianism, how can the Son be present and active during the Spirit’s work? Salvation is dependent on Jesus’ work being real and applied now to believers. We pray in the Spirit and Jesus is presently interceding to the Father on our behalf as our great high priest.

It is our hope. Romans 8:11 “just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

Think of the other implications if there are not three persons but simply one God with three masks.

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