The Options on the Table

Start with a question If someone asked you, “What do you believe about God?” could you say it clearly in two or three sentences? Not what your church says. Not what your pastor says. What you can explain. Try it now. Write it down on a piece of paper. We will come back to it at the end of this module.

Why we must define our terms In any discussion, it is easy to talk past each other. As we just noted, a Trinitarian and a Oneness believer both say “God is one.” But they do not mean the same thing by it. The same goes for the terms “Son of God” and “Spirit of God.”

If we allow human traditions to use philosophical jargon to blur the plain meaning of Scripture, we will never arrive at the truth. As we learned in Module 2, we must not allow a framework to rule over the text. We must look at what is actually being claimed.

A Few Terms Explained

Before comparing these teachings, let us clarify a few words that are often used in discussions about God.

Co-equal means equal in status, authority, or divine nature. In Trinitarian teaching, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are described as co-equal. This does not mean that every relationship or role attributed to them is identical.

Co-eternal means equally eternal, with no one existing before or after another. In classical Trinitarian teaching, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have no beginning and are all eternal.

Person has a particular meaning in traditional Trinitarian theology. It does not simply mean a human being or a separate individual in the ordinary sense. Trinitarians distinguish three Persons while affirming one God. Because the word can mean different things in everyday conversation and theology, we must ask what a teaching means by it rather than assume we already know.

Substance refers here to what something is in its underlying nature or being. When a creed speaks of three Persons sharing one substance, it is attempting to explain how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit can be distinguished from one another while still being confessed as one God.

Tritheism means the belief that there are three distinct Gods. In this lesson, we use the term to describe a view in which the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are understood as three separate divine Beings, rather than three Persons of one God.

Modalism, often associated with the term Oneness in this discussion, is the view that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three distinct Persons, but different ways in which the one God reveals or presents Himself. Some Oneness groups and believers explain their beliefs differently, so this description is intended as a general outline, not a claim that every group uses identical wording.

These definitions are provided so that we can understand the claims being compared. They do not, by themselves, prove any view to be true or false. That question must be examined through the Scriptures.

There are three main teachings in Christendom about the Godhead:

1. The Trinity
2. Tritheism
3. Oneness (also called Modalism, or “Jesus only”)

(A fourth possibility isn’t on this list yet: whatever the Bible itself actually says. That is what the rest of this study will find.)

1. The Trinity In one sentence: One God in three co-equal, co-eternal Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This is the view of the Catholic Church and the majority of Protestant churches. Their own official statements say it this way:

• The Anglican and Methodist Articles of Religion: one living and true God, and “in unity of this Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity.”
• The Westminster Confession (Presbyterian): three Persons of one substance, power and eternity, “God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.”
• The Catholic Church: one God in three divine Persons (see, for example, the Angelus address of Pope Francis on Trinity Sunday, 30 May 2021, and the New Orleans address of Pope John Paul II, 12 September 1987).
• “Co-eternal” means existing eternally, with no beginning. “Co-equal” means equal in status or nature. In Trinitarian theology, “Persons” does not mean three human beings; it refers to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as distinct personal identities within the one God. These terms are important because Christians may use the same words while understanding their meaning differently.

The classic wording comes from the Athanasian Creed. Here are some of its central lines: “We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity; neither confounding the persons; nor dividing the substance... The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God; And yet there are not three Gods; but one God... And in this Trinity none is before or after another; none is greater or less than another. But the whole three Persons are co-eternal together, and co-equal.”

Notice the philosophical language: "substance," "hypostasis," "co-eternal." These are not biblical words; they are Greek philosophical concepts imported into Christianity centuries after the apostles died.

How the Trinity handles “begotten” Here a massive puzzle appears. The creed says none is before or after another, all are co-eternal. Yet the Bible repeatedly says Jesus is the "begotten" Son. To harmonize a philosophical creed with the biblical text, later theology invented the idea of eternal generation: the Son is eternally begotten. The Father continually, from all eternity, begets the Son, without there ever being a time when the Son was not.

Not all Trinitarians accept this philosophical workaround, and so the doctrine has branched. Two other positions exist inside it:

1. Sonship began at the incarnation. The second Person was not “the Son” before He was born of Mary. (See, for example, the writings of Walter Martin and Finis Dake).
2. Sonship is a metaphor. The second Person has always existed, and “Father” and “Son” are just titles describing roles, not a literal begetting. (See Adventist World, November 2015, and Max Hatton, Understanding the Trinity).

Look closely at these three variations. What do they have in common? The one thing in common between all these variations of the Trinity doctrine is the consistent denial of the real, literal Father-Son relationship. They all, in different ways, strip the Bible of its plain, familial language and replace it with a philosophical role-play.

2. Tritheism In one sentence: One Godhead made up of three separate Beings, each a God, united in purpose, will and character.

Trinitarians say this is exactly what their creed forbids (“nor dividing the substance”). But look at what Tritheists actually believe: They don’t say there are three persons in one being. They say there are three separate beings. In this view, none is before or after the others, none begot another, and so “Father” and “Son” are merely descriptive titles. The Spirit is a third distinct God.

Strictly speaking, this is a form of polytheism—the belief in more than one God, even though its supporters would never use that word. Many people sitting in Trinitarian churches actually hold this view in their heads without realizing it contradicts their church’s official creed.

3. Oneness (Modalism, “Jesus only”) In one sentence: One God, one single being, who shows Himself in three modes: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

There are not three persons or three beings. There is one person, appearing in different ways at different times. The core claim is that Jesus is the Father, and Jesus is the Spirit. So there are no two separate beings to be Father and Son. It is the exact same being wearing three different "masks" or modes.

Side by side

The standard we will use Remember the pledge you made at the end of Module 2. We will test every view, including the one this course points to, by the same questions:

1. Is it stated in Scripture, or is it an inference drawn from a philosophical framework?
2. Does it account for all the relevant passages, or does it have to explain away the plain ones?
3. Does it keep what the Bible keeps: both distinction and unity?

We are not arguing against the people who hold these views. Many are deeply sincere, devoted Christians who love the Lord and honestly believe what they were taught. But sincerity is not a test of truth. As the Apostle Paul proved on the road to Damascus, a person can be 100% sincere, 100% religious, and 100% wrong. The only test is the Word of God.