Praying to the Triune God

• Messages sorted by:[ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]

Dear Bro. Carey,

I am glad to see that we agree that our differences with Trinitarians are not
simply semantical.  I do believe that the dogmatic language leaves much to
be desired in clarifying their actual stance.  The word 'persons' seems to me
a most inadequate description of what many practical trinitarians believe.

I also agree that it is unfortunate that Apostolics 'shy away' from the
three manifestations of God as if everything that referred to the Father, Son
and Holy Ghost were actually trinitarian.  I feel that this is part of the
Oneness response to the trinitarian controversies that we have undergone in
times past.

The greatest difference between Oneness and trinitarian perceptions of the
Godhead seems to be the office/person of the Son.  The trinitarian insistence
upon the eternality of the person of the Son is antiposed to the Oneness af-
firmation of the eternal God who became Son.  The designation by Oneness
theologians of the Son as defined and distinguished by Incarnation rather than
substantial co-existance with the Father has caused many Trinitarians to brand
the Oneness Christology aberrant.  They would suggest, in their apologetics on
the subject, that we, like the Arians, suggest that the Son was a created
being, a mere man containing the Spirit of God (a strain of Oneness that is
certainly heretical).  While we cannot deny the humanity of the Christ, we
must carefully define the union between His flesh and His deity, which St
Paul himself calls a 'great mystery' (I Tm. 3.16).

Being realistic, I do not see a 'dialogue' per se between Oneness and
Trinitarian theologians.  Our differences are great, indeed insurmountable.
Not to sound too awfully condemnatory, but trinitarians do worship, as it
were, 'another Jesus' (II Cor. 11.4), one that was not preached by the Apostles
or received by the greater Christian community well into the fourth century.
I do emphatically believe that Oneness doctrine can be articulated to trini-
tarians in a spirit of love and true concern, but I cannot envision a future
reconciliation between our respective persuasions.




Matthew Shaw
00mcshaw@bsu.edu