11. Does the Bible say that all the Godhead is revealed in one person? Yes, in Jesus Christ. II Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:19; 2:9; Hebrews 1:3.
Colossians 2:9 seems the most relevant passage here and it merely states that all the fullness of deity dwells bodily in Christ Jesus. The key term here is not deity (Gk. theotetos) but rather bodily (Gk. sōmatikōs) for we could accurately say that the fullness of deity is within any one of the three persons of the Trinity, but it is the Son alone whom we can say it dwells bodily.
12. Is the mystery of the Deity hidden from some people? Yes. Luke 10:21-22.
I don’t believe that any defense can be made of Luke 10:21-22 having reference to the mystery of Deity. The plain sense of the passage is that no one intimately knows (Gk. ginōskei) the Son except the Father and no one intimately knows the Father except the Son—and it is the Son who chooses to reveal the Father to others. This is a very apt presentation of the distinction between the persons of the Father and the Son.
13. Who is the Father? The Father is the one God, particularly as revealed in parental relationship to humanity. Deuteronomy 32:6; Malachi 2:10.
This was explained in the response to question #8 but it merits a few more comments. We’ve already seen that the Son has been with the Father since before the beginning of creation from passages such as Proverbs 30:4; Micah 5:2; John 1:1-18; 17:5. The problem with this interpretation is that it makes the Fatherhood of God dependant upon his creation. But the Creator is not dependant upon the creation for anything. The Father is the Father in relation to the Son as is the case with every Father. The Son is begotten by an eternal generation.
To draw an analogy, the Sun generates rays of Sunlight… There was never a time when the Sun was not generating Sunlight nor was there a time when Sunlight was not generated from the Sun. Now let’s suppose the Sun were eternal—this would mean that it has always been from all eternity generating Sunlight.
14. Where was God the Father while Jesus was on earth? The Father was in Christ. John 14:10; II Corinthians 5:19. He was also in heaven, for God is omnipresent.
Again, these comments need to be qualified because as they stand they can be agreed upon by Trinitarians. What must be made clear is that there is a definite distinction in Person as is evidenced from many Jesus’ statements throughout the Gospel of John. One example will suffice. In John 5:30 Jesus says, “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”
Jesus makes it clear in the plainest of language that he can do nothing on his own as well as speaking of the one who sent him (i.e. the Father, vs. 26). For the oneness position to be correct in asserting that Jesus is both Father and Son then they would have to discount this verse. Their attempt to solve the problem by saying that the Father is the divine nature and the Son is the human nature does not work because it then depersonalizes God or separates God into two persons which is self-contradictory to their position on his oneness. I will point out that natures do not send natures to do anything, persons send persons.
15. Did the prophet Isaiah say that Jesus would be the Father? Yes. Isaiah 9:6; 63:16.
Isaiah 63:16 says nothing about Jesus so we can dismiss that verse immediately. But Isaiah 9:6[5 MT] is probably one of the most abused verses in all of Scripture when dealing with oneness theology. The argument first relies on equivocation in that it asserts that ‘father’ is being used consistently when in fact it is not. In this verse we are told of a name that the Messiah shall be called—it is very important to note that this is a prophecy foretelling a future event—this is completely contrary to the oneness position of the Father being the Father in the OT but the Son in the NT.
Secondly, ‘eternal father’ is not the best rendering of the Hebrew avi ad. ‘Father of eternity’ or ‘father of the age to come’ would be more appropriate. If we understand this to mean father of eternity then this fits perfectly with the Biblical presentation of the Son as the creator of all things (Jo. 1:3; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2) but it is more likely that we should take it in the sense of ‘father of the age to come’ because this fits with the overall theme of the passage. This is a Messianic prophecy speaking directly of the Messianic Kingdom/Age. The Messiah will usher in this kingdom/age and can rightly be described as ‘father of the age come’ in the same sense that we could describe Martin Luther as ‘father of the reformation.’
Colossians 2:9 seems the most relevant passage here and it merely states that all the fullness of deity dwells bodily in Christ Jesus. The key term here is not deity (Gk. theotetos) but rather bodily (Gk. sōmatikōs) for we could accurately say that the fullness of deity is within any one of the three persons of the Trinity, but it is the Son alone whom we can say it dwells bodily.
12. Is the mystery of the Deity hidden from some people? Yes. Luke 10:21-22.
I don’t believe that any defense can be made of Luke 10:21-22 having reference to the mystery of Deity. The plain sense of the passage is that no one intimately knows (Gk. ginōskei) the Son except the Father and no one intimately knows the Father except the Son—and it is the Son who chooses to reveal the Father to others. This is a very apt presentation of the distinction between the persons of the Father and the Son.
13. Who is the Father? The Father is the one God, particularly as revealed in parental relationship to humanity. Deuteronomy 32:6; Malachi 2:10.
This was explained in the response to question #8 but it merits a few more comments. We’ve already seen that the Son has been with the Father since before the beginning of creation from passages such as Proverbs 30:4; Micah 5:2; John 1:1-18; 17:5. The problem with this interpretation is that it makes the Fatherhood of God dependant upon his creation. But the Creator is not dependant upon the creation for anything. The Father is the Father in relation to the Son as is the case with every Father. The Son is begotten by an eternal generation.
To draw an analogy, the Sun generates rays of Sunlight… There was never a time when the Sun was not generating Sunlight nor was there a time when Sunlight was not generated from the Sun. Now let’s suppose the Sun were eternal—this would mean that it has always been from all eternity generating Sunlight.
14. Where was God the Father while Jesus was on earth? The Father was in Christ. John 14:10; II Corinthians 5:19. He was also in heaven, for God is omnipresent.
Again, these comments need to be qualified because as they stand they can be agreed upon by Trinitarians. What must be made clear is that there is a definite distinction in Person as is evidenced from many Jesus’ statements throughout the Gospel of John. One example will suffice. In John 5:30 Jesus says, “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”
Jesus makes it clear in the plainest of language that he can do nothing on his own as well as speaking of the one who sent him (i.e. the Father, vs. 26). For the oneness position to be correct in asserting that Jesus is both Father and Son then they would have to discount this verse. Their attempt to solve the problem by saying that the Father is the divine nature and the Son is the human nature does not work because it then depersonalizes God or separates God into two persons which is self-contradictory to their position on his oneness. I will point out that natures do not send natures to do anything, persons send persons.
15. Did the prophet Isaiah say that Jesus would be the Father? Yes. Isaiah 9:6; 63:16.
Isaiah 63:16 says nothing about Jesus so we can dismiss that verse immediately. But Isaiah 9:6[5 MT] is probably one of the most abused verses in all of Scripture when dealing with oneness theology. The argument first relies on equivocation in that it asserts that ‘father’ is being used consistently when in fact it is not. In this verse we are told of a name that the Messiah shall be called—it is very important to note that this is a prophecy foretelling a future event—this is completely contrary to the oneness position of the Father being the Father in the OT but the Son in the NT.
Secondly, ‘eternal father’ is not the best rendering of the Hebrew avi ad. ‘Father of eternity’ or ‘father of the age to come’ would be more appropriate. If we understand this to mean father of eternity then this fits perfectly with the Biblical presentation of the Son as the creator of all things (Jo. 1:3; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2) but it is more likely that we should take it in the sense of ‘father of the age to come’ because this fits with the overall theme of the passage. This is a Messianic prophecy speaking directly of the Messianic Kingdom/Age. The Messiah will usher in this kingdom/age and can rightly be described as ‘father of the age come’ in the same sense that we could describe Martin Luther as ‘father of the reformation.’
