NT Framework - Does God only present Himself in different ways?

Some Christians believe that God is only one person and wears masks, a costume if you will, to appear differently to people throughout time. What is the basis for this and does it adequately reflect the Bible?

More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com 

This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).

Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and
our series on the New TestamentFramework.
Today a smaller, bite-sizedpiece from the larger lesson.
We hope you enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
The first one we'll look at is called ancient modal
monarchianism, sometimes alsoknown as Sabellianism, and a
related but different view iscalled protropassionism, which
is the crucifixion of the Father.
The Father was crucified, notthe Son.
That's related to this.
So those first three words,they're not necessarily all
synonyms.
They're either nuanced versionsor results of one of these

(00:34):
views.
But I don't have time to gothrough all the views.
There's probably 20 or 30.
So we don't have time for allthat.
But that's the ancient conceptand the modern concept is
oneness Pentecostals.
So oneness Pentecostals, sooneness Pentecostals are still
around.
So they believe something verysimilar to this ancient view.
So let me ask you about thisword monarch, see ancient modal
monarchianism.
If I just ask you, well, what'sa monarch?

(00:56):
What would you say?
Okay, one guy is the sole,absolute ruler or king, right, a
monarch.
So that helps you understandwhat this view is.
This view is basically sayingthat God is one, an absolute one
, an absolute monarch.
There's no diversity of personwithin himself, there's just the

(01:19):
one God.
Okay, their conclusions fromthis presupposition were
basically to look at the Biblesuccessively, like you're moving
from the Old Testament to theGospels and then into the New
Testament epistles.
And they said in the OldTestament, the Father is God.
In the New Testament, gospels,the Son is God, and in the

(01:44):
epistles and on down to our ownday, the Holy Spirit is God.
What are they saying?
They're saying that God hasrevealed him successively in
three different masks.
In the Old Testament, he worethe mask of the Father.
In the New Testament, gospels,he put on the mask of the Son.

(02:04):
And in the epistles andfollowing, he put on a different
mask, the mask of the Spirit.
But there's really only one God.
There's not three differentpersons, they are three
different masks of the one God.
So this view is based again onthe idea of God's solitary
oneness.

(02:24):
Right, there can't be adiversity of person in him, but
he can reveal himself withdifferent masks to us.
So this is their idea.
Okay, jesus, well, god is theFather, reveals himself in the
Old Testament, the Son is amanifestation of God in the New
Testament, and the Spirit is nowthe manifestation of God on

(02:46):
down to our own day Oneness.
Pentecostals are very similarto this ancient idea, because
they believe that Jesus is theFather, the Son and the Holy
Spirit, and they base this onColossians 2.9 as their main
verse.
So let's look at Colossians 2.9.

(03:11):
If you can't remember where itis Galatians, ephesians,
philippians then Colossians.
As my daughter reminded me theother day, my way of telling
people to remember these fourbooks is to remember God eats
popcorn.
Galatians, ephesians,philippians and Colossians.
God eats popcorn, which is awhole other question we could

(03:37):
discuss, since God is spirit.
Has he ever eaten popcorn?
And we know he doesn't have abody, so he doesn't eat popcorn.
But then you ask the questionwell, does he know what popcorn
tastes like, since he never ateit, but he's omniscient?
So we have lots of questionsthere.
Colossians 2.9.

(03:59):
This is their main verse forsaying that Jesus is the Father,
the Son and the Spirit, for inhim, that is, in Christ.
Right Into verse 8, christ.
In Christ, all the fullness ofdeity dwells in bodily form.
All the fullness of deitydwells in bodily form.
All the fullness of deitydwells in bodily form.
So, oneness Pentecostals, usethis verse as a key interpretive

(04:20):
verse to explain all the otherverses in the Bible and
emphasize that Jesus is Father,son and Spirit.
So what are some thinking aboutthis model?
What are some problems withthis?
One of the problems is thatthis model makes it very

(04:45):
difficult to explain text whereJesus is talking to the Father,
since, well, he is the Father,or just a manifestation of the
Father, however they exactlyview it.
So, for example, look at John17.
This is Jesus' high priestlyprayer, and you notice right off

(05:16):
the bat in 17.1, jesus speakingthese things, lifting up his
eyes to heaven.
You might ask yourself eventhere, well, is he looking
toward himself?
Oh, wait a minute.
You see, if he is all thatthere is of God, who is he
looking at?
He said, father, the hour hascome.
Glorify your son, that the sonmay glorify you, even as you

(05:39):
gave him authority over allflesh.
So you know like who is hetalking to.
If he's all of God that thereis, there's no one else to talk
to see.
So these types of passages getvery difficult to explain.
Another one, for example, verse5 here Now, father, glorify me

(06:04):
together with yourself, with theglory which I had with you
before the world was.
That doesn't make a lot ofsense.
If he's the only God there isand there's no one else there,
who exactly are you talking to?
You're, the only other personyou could possibly be talking to
is yourself, and you're tellingyourself to do something.
So it doesn't make much senseand this whole chapter has a
number of those types ofstatements throughout.

(06:28):
Another problem with thisconcept of God is it doesn't
explain how the father is thefather of the son, if they're
really the same See, justdifferent manifestations of God.
So father-son passages don'teven make sense.
There have to be two distinctpersons for us to have a concept

(06:49):
of father and another being son.
They can't just be the same.
Father and son can't be thesame.
So this view, while itattempted and tried to explain
the idea of God and somemultiplicity as multiple masks
that he puts on it, doesn't do agood job of explaining certain

(07:11):
texts that seem to indicate twodistinct persons in God.
So that's one view.
It's ancient, but it's also gota modern counterpart oneness,
pentecostalism.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with
Jeremy Thomas.
If you would like to see thevisuals that went along with
today's sermon, you can findthose on Rumble and on YouTube
under Spokane Bible Church.
That is where Jeremy is thepastor and teacher.
We hope you found today'slesson productive and useful in

(07:44):
growing closer to God andwalking more obediently with Him
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next time, we hope you have ablessed and wonderful day.