During the night of His prayer at the Mount of Olives, the Lord Jesus Christ set the way on how believers will attain everlasting life. In His prayer to the Father, the Lord declared;
“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3)
The statement is very clear and plain as a stream that flows through the paradise of God, that those who wish to live in eternity must have the knowledge about the Father and the Messenger He had sent to redeem the fallen race of man. And in conformity to this prayer, the gospel helped us by supplying plenty of details about everlasting life. Christ, during His earthly ministry, presented before the world a loving Father who provides every good thing for His children and the One who is worthy for all the glory and praises of the entire creation because of His unfathomable wisdom, love, mercy and justice; that for the sake of the fallen race, sent His beloved Son, the Joy and Prince of His heavenly kingdom, to save them from the curses of sin. Concerning to this Prince, those disciples who witnessed the story of His great sacrifice and humility never left us without full knowledge about Him. By their letters, they presented to the world a Son who loved not His own life and covet not the glory that He have since the foundation of the world but unconditionally and wholeheartedly submitted Himself to the plan of redemption; a Son who seek not His own glory but the glory of His Father in heaven.
But however clear are the details of the Holy Scriptures about the Father and the Son, false preachers and corrupt theologians are continually destroying the gospel that even the very comprehensible details are illogically presented and twisted deliberately. Among these perverted teachers of religion are the so-called “Oneness theologians” who interpreted the nature of Godhead in a very complicated and illogical way that resulted into serious contradictions of biblical verses and harmed the mind of those people who want to know the truth. According to their invented doctrine;
“The Incarnation caused the eternal God to exist within two distinct consciousness – human and divine. God continued to posses a timeless omniscient ‘DIVINE CONSCIOUSNESS’ in heaven – while at the same time – He experienced a human existence within the mind of the man Jesus Christ. Thus the One personal God of the Old Testament simultaneously exists as two distinct beings – being both God (Father) and man (Son). “
Plenty of Oneness denominations are scattered throughout the world. In the Philippines, there are 7 well-known Oneness groups that have their respective branches abroad. And based on my own experience, reasoning with them is a tragic one. I clearly seen how logic was badly destroyed when Oneness theology begins to strike the mind of its listeners, even to the mind of a known degree holder. The notion that the Father is Jesus Christ, the Son is Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost is also Jesus Christ is a clear invention unsupported even by a single paragraph from the Bible. And since the doctrine of Oneness Pentecostals about God lack of biblical support, their defenders are trying hardly to withstand those verses that clearly state the truth, and when they can’t refute the obvious meaning of the verse, they finally retired into telling that the matter is still a mystery. But the Bible is not a book of mystery or secrets. It’s a book of revelations – a book that the details are comprehensible by human mind. It has sufficient details for us to know who is our heavenly Father and who is Jesus Christ our Savior.
Oneness theology destroys logic, etymology, and lexical categories. It removes the sense of the biblical chapters and verses until the
meaning is finally twisted or polluted. Lets take for example the praying of Jesus. We all know that praying is an act of communication performed by a man to his God, thus it requires two distinct individuals – the one who pray and the recipient of his prayers. And most of the time when we are praying to God in an open area, we lift up our face to heaven – to the direction of God’s throne and habitation, like what Jesus did according to John 17:1. If it’s true that Jesus Christ is also the Father, what then the necessity of lifting up His head to heaven as He is speaking to another individual other than Himself? Is He talking to Himself with a piece of dramatic act? That’s nonsense! Oneness defenders formulated an explanation concerning to the praying of Jesus but still they don’t have even a single biblical verse that supports this explanation. Furthermore, according to the book of Matthew;
“And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:
And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17)
The story of Christ’s baptism tells us that while the Son (as He was addressed by the voice from heaven which is obviously His Father’s) is with the Baptist in the Jordan River, the voice of the Father was heard from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And at the same time, the Spirit of God is descending like a dove and lighting upon the Son. This description perfectly explains that there are three active individuals separated by space in this specific scenario – the Father (which is the owner of the voice), the Son (which is in the River), and the Spirit of God (which is descending like a dove). Therefore, the claim that the Son is both the Father and the Holy Spirit is illogical and unbiblical in its fullness, or may be Oneness Pentecostals are trying to devoid this scenario of its meaning.
The Messenger
If there is a single biblical term that really ignored by these Oneness preachers, this is definitely the term “messenger”. “Messenger” stands for the One who bears a message; the bearer of a verbal or written communication, notice, or invitation, from one person to another. The office of a “messenger” which Christ possessed according to the Holy Scriptures defines the relation of the Son to the Father. Christ is not the Father or the Father sent Himself to the world, but Christ is the messenger of the Father (or the Father sent Jesus Christ). The reasoning that the Father existed within two distinct consciousness – one divine in heaven and the other human in the mind of the flesh – and that makes Him to exist simultaneously as two distinct beings, is nothing but a fallacy when the concept of the word “messenger” is concerned. That is amounting to say that the Father sent Himself to the world as a messenger of His own self, and there’s indeed no such thing mentioned in the Holy Scriptures. What was written in the Bible is this; “And we know that the Son of God is come… “(I John 5:20). Come from where? Christ said, “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” (6:38 of John). Christ came to the world not to do His own will, but the will of the One who sent Him. It explains that Christ is not the same person who sent Him, or else the phrase “not to do my own will” will become nonsense. The next question is, “Who sent Jesus Christ?” In John 12:49 it says, “For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.” This is a direct and very clear statement of Christ Himself that He is not the Father. His arrival on earth is not according to His own will and the words that He speak are not of Himself… therefore, Christ is not the Father! And again, in John 13:16 Christ said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.” Is Christ the Father? Of course not, because the Sender is greater than the one who is sent.
Please do not be deceived by this false movement. Friendliness, good music and good food will not save you. We must pass this and all doctrine through the lens of Scripture. If a teaching is contrary to the entirety of God’s Word….it is error.
THE WATCHMAN'S CRY 