Chapter Six – Is God One?

Other questions must be addressed before thoroughly examining the true God and His Holy Spirit. Many conclude that if one does not adhere to the trinity, he automatically believes in a teaching called modalism. Is this true? What is modalism? Also, many will adamantly claim that the teaching within this book is a form of polytheism and goes against the biblical teaching of a monotheistic God. Again, is this true? Is there more than one Being within the Godhead? These questions have confused philosophers and theologians for centuries. Yet this should never have been the case.

Modalism

Before looking into the issues of monotheism vs. polytheism, there is one specific concept that needs to be addressed—the position of modalism.

Modalism was originally called Sabellianism, after its founder. The beginning of this school of thought goes back decades before the Council of Nicaea. At the time of the Council, the advocates of the trinity were at odds with the supporters of Arian. Sabellianism was associated with Aryanism and was one of the minority factions represented at Nicaea. As was discussed earlier, 300 of the 318-plus delegates at Nicaea were intimidated into voting in favor of the trinity. Anyone not supporting the accepted “orthodox” belief was either exiled or declared a heretic, which could result in death. Modalism and Aryanism eventually disappeared as viable alternatives, since both beliefs were officially viewed as heresy.

Certain theologians have been stuck in the error of Jewish theology, not allowing them to properly understand how God is one. This created a problem. Unwilling to accept classic trinitarianism as compatible with monotheism, these had to come up with an alternative theory that would be compatible. Modalism was their creation.

According to the teaching of modalism, there can be separate modes of a single being. This means that there is only one personage in the Godhead, but this personage can manifest himself as the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit. In theory, this one being can only be perceived in one mode at a time. (In effect, this idea makes God into a kind of divine schizophrenic.) This approach is an acceptance of a modified version of the trinity and is at best a theoretical abstraction much like the trinity itself. All previous passages that we have explored show that modalism is simply not based on the Bible! This theory only mentions the perceived mode of the three beings that God is supposedly representing Himself to be at any one time, without relating to the actual substance or composition of God. This position is advocated by most Pentecostals and Unitarians today.

Trinitarians try to identify everyone who rejects their philosophy as advocates of some form of modalism. However, it is possible for one to legitimately reject both the trinity and modalism as being equally unscriptural and unfounded. While it is not our purpose to address all the issues of the theory or teaching of modalism, it does set up the question of whether God is one.

Monotheism

Monotheism has long been considered by anthropologists and archaeologists as the mark of an advanced culture. This is based on the assumption that ancient man worshipped numerous gods and slowly evolved into monotheism. The few cultures that adhered to monotheism were considered to be more developed.

However, recent research of ancient history confirms what is recorded in Scripture—that monotheism actually preceded polytheism, the worship of many gods. We know that the patriarch Noah was a worshipper of the true God. Only later, after the time of Nimrod, did polytheism begin to flourish. We find in Genesis 31:1-29 that Laban (Jacob’s uncle) possessed idols. In Genesis 35:1-55, Jacob ordered his family and servants to put away their idols.