Trinitarian vs. Oneness Theology – Oneness Proof Texts Addressed (cont.)

In addition to the many texts that we have discussed previously, there are other standard texts to which Oneness advocates will appeal in support of their position that God is unipersonal and that the Son merely refers to the humanity of Jesus –he was God the Father manifested in the flesh.  I am attempting to touch on a number of those passages here.

John 20:28 – Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

The statement of Thomas to Jesus is clear and unambiguous – he called Jesus his Lord and his God.  The response of Jesus is not to correct Thomas in any way but to affirm that the confession of Thomas is a demonstration of his faith.

The fact of the matter is this is a verse that strongly confirms the deity of Christ but nothing concerning him being the same as the Father in terms of identity unless you being with the presupposition that the God is unipersonal and read into the text that Thomas was declaring the Jesus to be the Father.  In his book, The Oneness of God, Bernard properly cites to this verse as evidence of Jesus being God but he does not go so far as to state that this is a statement of Jesus being the Father because it is not such a statement.  Nevertheless, oneness advocates look to this verse making the assumption that God is unipersonal and read into the text that notion that Jesus was God the Father.

Again, one would need to bring the presupposition that God is unipersonal to the text to interpret the text in isolation from the rest of scripture to understand the passage as a declaration that Jesus is declared to be the Father by Thomas.

Author: mikeformerupci

After spending 25 years as a member of a United Pentecostal Church International (UPCI) church, one of the largest Oneness Pentecostal church organizations, I made the decision that it was time to leave the UPC based not simply on differences of opinion with respect to the practices of the UPC in general but more specifically as a result of fundamental doctrinal teaching that does not comport with scripture or the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is not my intent with this blog to convince anyone to leave one church and move to another – it is my intent to challenge the ideas as presented by organizations such as the UPC.  I'm just a layman - like most church attending people out there.  But you don't need to be some trained theologian to read your Bible, to read other books to aid in your understanding of the scripture, to pray and most certainly to hear and know the Shepherd's voice in your life. You shouldn’t fear challenges to your fundamental doctrinal beliefs if those beliefs are rooted in scripture. If you find that the beliefs you hold may in fact be based on a distorted view of scripture and you hold a high-view of scripture, I would expect that it would be your desire to bring your thinking, your faith, your life in line with the teaching of scripture. I also believe that when you do, what you will find is a greater appreciation and experience of the righteousness, peace and joy of the Holy Spirit in your life than you thought possible.