Traditional Heresies Concerning the Triune God

Against Modalism, Adoptionism, Arianism, and Tritheism

Many Christians over the centuries have grappled with the mystery of the Triune God as revealed in the Bible. Thanks to their diligent inquiry, most of the theological confusion has been mapped out and orthodoxy has been delineated. Heresies concerning the understanding of the Three-One God have appeared in a variety of guises throughout church history, but most have polarized along two extremes: monarchianism and tritheism.

Those who overemphasize the aspect of the oneness of the Trinity to the point of compromising the eternality, equality, or distinction among the Three are said to profess monarchianism. At the opposite extreme, those who dissect the unique God into three separate entities have embraced tritheism.

Monarchianism is defined as an excessive and unscriptural insistence on the rigid unity of the Godhead which precludes the existence of a Trinity. There are two subcategories within monarchianism—modalistic monarchianism and dynamic monarchianism.

HERESY: Modalistic monarchianism, also known as modalism, is the notion that the one unique God manifests Himself in three different modes or stages. Modalism maintains that the singular God appeared initially as the Father in the Old Testament. God then manifested Himself in the four Gospels as the Son, and meanwhile ceased to exist as the Father. Beginning with the day of Pentecost, God began to move as the Spirit, and is therefore no longer either the Father or the Son. Modalism thus denies the eternal coexistence of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

TRUTH: While the work of the Son is certainly more prominent, that is, more evident, in the Gospels, and that of the Spirit in the Epistles, this shift of emphasis certainly does not signal any essential, ontological transience among the divine Trinity. The Bible offers abundant proof that the Father is eternal (Isa. 9:6), the Son is eternal (Heb. 1:12; 7:3), and the Spirit is eternal (Heb. 9:14). The eternal nature of the Father, Son, and Spirit strongly implies that They coexist continuously and simultaneously from eternity past to eternity future. A careful reading of the Bible confirms and further reveals the intrinsic eternal inseparability of the Trinity, including the fact that any action taken by One necessitates the simultaneous involvement of the other Two. The testimony of Scripture, therefore, invalidates the modalistic belief that God exists and manifests Himself only in any one of three modes. (read more)

HERESY: Dynamic monarchianism, or adoptionism, maintains that only the Father is genuinely God, and thus, that neither the Son nor the Spirit can properly be accorded the same rank of Deity as the Father. Hence, adoptionists tend to believe that Jesus Christ was merely a man, or maybe even a special man, upon whom the Father conferred special favor or status, but that He was never a genuine Son of God. He was said to have been only “adopted” by the Father to be His Son during His baptism, based on the account in Matthew 3:17, where the Father stated, “This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found My delight.” A variant view asserts that Christ was adopted not during His baptism but rather, in His resurrection, when the Father declared, “You are my Son; today I have begotten You” (Acts 13:33). In either case, Christ the Son was merely made, appointed, constituted, or elevated to a god, but certainly never is God in the same way in which the Father is God. Further, proponents of adoptionism also deny that the Holy Spirit is a distinct hypostasis within the Godhead, but is instead merely a manifestation of the Father’s grace.

TRUTH: Fundamental Christian faith, based on the consistent revelation of Scripture, testifies that all Three of the Godhead are fully and co-equally Deity. The Son of God is eternally the complete God (Heb. 1:8). In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9); hence, the entire Godhead resides within Him. As the Son, He is the mighty God (Isa. 9:6). Furthermore, the Spirit is not merely a manifestation of God’s grace, but is fully God Himself. Thus, when Ananias deceived the Holy Spirit in Acts 5:3-4, he was in fact lying to God.

Acts 13:33 does indicate that Jesus Christ was begotten by God as His Son in resurrection. However, this fact in no way precludes His divine sonship prior to His resurrection. Christ is eternally the only begotten Son of God in His divinity; nevertheless, the humanity He put on in incarnation belonged to the old creation. Therefore, in resurrection it was necessary for His humanity to be sanctified, uplifted, and transformed into the divine sonship (Witness Lee, Footnotes, 603). In this sense, He was begotten by the Father in resurrection to be the Firstborn Son of God, possessing both divinity as well as uplifted, “sonized” humanity (Rom. 8:29). (read more)

HERESY: Arianism, which bears some semblance to adoptionism, likewise denies both the eternality and the absolute Deity of the Son. This notion holds that the Son is not consubstantial with the Father; that is, They do not share the same divine essence. Arianism teaches that since the Son is the Father’s Only Begotten, the Son had to have been begotten at some point in time. Hence, by extension, as a common Arian expression asserts, “there was a time when He [the Son] was not.” The fact that Christ was begotten therefore implies that He was created. Though He be the first, or even the chief of God’s creation based upon Colossians 1:15, He is nevertheless merely a creature and therefore temporal; at the most, He exists as an inferior deity.

TRUTH: Christ's being the Son of God does not denote in any sense an inferior standing relative to the Godhead. On the contrary, His identity as the Son of God proves His equality with God (John 5:18-19). Furthermore, the Father’s begetting of the Son does not refer to a specific event in time, but rather, to an eternal relationship of perpetual dispensing from the Father to the Son in which the only begotten Son of God is eternally begotten of the Father. In addition, while the Firstborn of all creation in Colossians 1:15 does refer to Christ, the entire divine revelation testifies that Christ, in His dual status as the complete God and the perfect man, is simultaneously both Creator and creature. Christ in His humanity is the Firstborn of all creation, yet in His divinity He is the eternal “I am” (John 8:58) without beginning or ending. (read more)

Realizing that the Father, Son, and Spirit are one God annuls any need for spiritual legality concerning which of the Three to address in prayer, into which One a believer is baptized, etc. The Trinity who has saved us, who indwells us, and who operates within us is the Three-One God—distinct but not separate, coexisting and coinhering eternally.

Without a doubt, the greatest truth entrusted to the Christian is the truth concerning the Triune God. As to himself, he must know it and treasure it. As to others, he must defend it and proclaim it. As to God, he must honor it and experience it. A lucid understanding of the Triune God serves not only to fortify a believer against unscriptural teachings about God abounding in today’s religious world, but also to increase his appreciation of God and benefit his personal spiritual experience. To a human being, there is indeed no undertaking greater, no calling nobler, than to know, love, experience, and preach the Triune God.