So You Think God Has Multiple Personalities?

I didn’t set out to be a “Heresy Hunter.”  But once I saw THREE churches in our county that said they believed in “One God who has existed in three personalities: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” I knew I needed to look further.

While I do not and have never thought that these churches were staging a deliberate subterfuge to undermine 16 centuries of Christian belief, I do think that defining the Trinity as “One God with Three Personalities” rather than “One God in Three Persons” is a dangerous misunderstanding with real consequences.  I’m posting this because I have now seen such statements on the websites of other churches in cities that I have recently traveled to.

One God in Three Persons is Important. Further down in this post, I've listed some resources that dig deeper into the biblical foundations and history of the development of the Doctrine of the Trinity.  Certainly, that is a deep matter and difficult to grasp.  But it has also been recognized as an essential and defining Christian belief across all cultures and many centuries. 

Let me jump to the point.  Here are three specific, important truths that get lost when we no longer believe that the One God exists as Three Persons.

Love Existed Before Creation

Before anything else was ever created, there was God.  Because the one God existed in three persons, love could be expressed and experienced among the three before anything else was created.  Think about this.  Love existed, and could be expressed and experienced, before anything else existed.

That is impossible if a person believes – like our Jewish or Muslim neighbors – that there is one god who is one person – no matter how many personalities that one person has.  That god may exist and he/she/it may be just or powerful or wise or whatever, but there is no love, because there is no one else to express it to or receive it from.

Because the God of the Bible is one God in three persons, we know that love existed and was expressed before anything else was created. 

Jesus Is God Himself

Jesus was not a personality of the one god, or a “personal way” that the one god revealed himself.  Jesus – yes, the one who was born of Mary, lived in Galilee and was eventually crucifed outside of Jerusalem – was God Himself in the flesh.  Like no one before or since.  He was God and He was human.  He was the eternal, second person of the Triune God, who for just over 30 years was incarnate in human flesh.  For centuries, believers have understood this to be the teaching of the Scriptures, the message of the Apostles and an essential of the faith.  Change this one truth and you have changed who Jesus is and altered every idea and experience that Jesus touches, salvation included.

Personalities Are Not Persons

No matter what anyone says or how many times you say it, personalities are not persons.  I hate to think about people believing in a god with Multiple Personality Disorder?!?

The idea that Jesus was just an alternate personality of the one True God is a form of the old heresy called Modalism: one god expressed in three different modalities over time.  This error was dealt with in the third century.

The BackStory

I wanted to be succinct in the first part of this post: make a point with three brief applications.  If you've made it this far, let me give you some of the context for this escapade.

How I Went From Praying For Revival To Becoming A “Heresy Hunter”

I came to faith in the revival of the late ‘60’s/early ‘70’s called the “Jesus Revolution” or “Charismatic Renewal."  Years later I would study with Dr Richard Lovelace and spend a year reading the history of revivals.  Authentic Revival has been my experience, my passion and my prayer throughout my Christian life.

I have observed through history that when the Father pours out a season of revival, it comes first upon those who been earnestly seeking Him for it. 

So here I am, planting a church in Spotsylvania County, VA and praying for revival.  As part of that, I’ve sought time and friendship with every pastor who will answer the phone or an email.  In the internet age, I have also listened to the sermons of area pastors so I can get to know them in that way.  As I know them better, I can pray more effectively for them.

It was in the course of this – getting on church websites to listen to sermons so I can better pray for the preaching pastors – that I discovered three churches expressed their faith in “One God who has existed in three personalities:”  I was floored.

But as a church planter, I was also very busy with my own portion of the Father’s Field in Spotsylvania.  Still, it would not let me go.  I eventually concluded that I had come across this for a reason, so it was best to pursue the matter.

Let Me Introduce Myself

I assumed these pastors were brothers, so I set out to engage them on that level.  I wrote out a one page letter of introduction, my commitment to pray for them and revival in our county, then pointed out the statement on their website, and asked what led them to express their faith in this way.  I asked to speak directly with them at their convenience so we could pursue this together.

I hand-carried the letter to each church and introduced myself and asked to speak to the preaching pastor.  That never happened.  I was able to talk with an administrator, and at one church the worship leader.  Once they understood I was asking a question about their statement, they thanked me and promised to pass on my letter.  The worship leader was surprised at my question and insisted that “three persons” and “three personalities” meant the same thing.

After about a week, I followed with an email to each church or pastor, depending on what was available from the website.

The Outcomes

I have never received any sort of response to the letter, the email or from walking in to their office.

After several weeks, one church changed the statement on their website to an orthodox statement of “one God in three persons, co-equal, co-eternal.”   A victory for the Kingdom.

A second church has changed their website statement about every six months with a variety of statements.  Currently: “One externally ("externally existent" - I'm hoping they just need to find a new proof reader!?!) existent God who has expressed himself in personal ways.  As God, He is Triune in essential being, revealed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”  A bit better?  I'm not sure what to think.

The third church seems to be closed now.

What Is Going On Here?!?

Let me say again that I do not think that churches that say they believe there is “one God with three personalities” are deliberately working to undermine 16 centuries of universal Christian faith.  Granted, I cannot be sure of that since no one from such a church will have a conversation with me, but until they show me otherwise, I am not making this accusation.

I am guessing that the Trinity seems mysterious and impractical as a doctrine to them.  This is just a way to put “the same thing” into “more modern language” that is “understandable to people who are far from God.”  Two of these three churches are quite large and aggressively committed reaching people outside of or alienated from the church.  They aim to make faith more appealing, understandable and practicle.  Yes, they were “seeker sensitive” churches. 

Nos, don't get me wrong.  I am all for evangelism and reaching people with the Gospel.  I work hard to use contemporary and understandable language and to reach people that the institutional church seems insulated from.  But “one God with three personalities” changes the content and meaning of the faith being shared.  In effect, these churches are leading their people to a different god.  They are doing it with good intentions, but make no mistake, it is a different god.

How does this happen?  

Several things may be involved:

• Unconnected and/or disrespectful of what God has done in other places and previous times.  I remember coming to faith and rejecting my own church experience thinking that my new youth group was the first truly faithful group since the book of Acts.  I have since repented.  But youthful zeal can get polluted with pride, and cut us off from the work that God has done apart from us.
• Consumer mindset - For many Americans, increasing numbers are a self-justifying reality.  If we are growing, we must be right or better or blessed or something that is better.  Bigger is not better though if it misses the mark of truth.  We are not free to alter the truth just because we get more people in the door.
• Shallow faith – It is easier to change something and make it more palatable if you have never really tasted it in the first place.  I am concerned that even leaders in these churches feel free to change doctrines like the Trinity because they have never deeply engaged the Trinity as truth.  They may have heard about it in college as an idea, but they have never been moved to speechless awe at the wonder of a God too great to fully understand.  They have never wept when they were gripped by the message of God choosing to lay aside His glory and take on their sin.  In short, they may have been educated, but they have never been discipled in anything but marketing.  And as a result, they now feel free to alter an idea from their education in pursuit of their pragmatic goal of growing churches. I would guess that noone could change a statement about the Triune God if their heart, mind and life had been shaped by Him personally.

 

Postlude: Try This Experiment

While in the process of working on this blog I went to Google search and entered “Fredericksburg, VA one God three personalities.”  I was surprised to see two different churches that I was not aware of that used this on their website’s statement of belief.  Remember that this search would no longer find the three churches that started me on this journey.

  Next, I changed the location to “Dallas, TX.”  Wow!  Try entering your location followed by “one God three personalities” and see what you get.  Pretty amazing.

Resources

No discussion of the Trinity will be simple.  Face it, this is a truth about a God Who is bigger than us, and bigger than our mind.  But as KevinDeYoung says, there is no Christianity without it.  Here are some places to dig in.

What is the Doctrine of the Trinity? - Of course John Piper has written about it!

The Doctrine of the Trinity: No Christianity Without It  - A Blog Post by Gospel Coalition author Kevin DeYoung

The Biblical Basis of the Doctrine of the Trinity - Robert Bowman, Jr. on one of my favorite Bible study websites: BlueLetterBible.Org  Good reference to the biblical texts

The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything by Fred Sanders. The best single volume dedicated to the Trinity in my reading.