Bible -- Theology; Theology, Doctrinal -- Popular works
No other truth of the Scripture, particularly of the Old Testament,
receives more prominence than that of the Unity of God. This
truth is clearly pronounced also in the material universe; it is
the introduction and conclusion of all scientific researches. Any
other representation contradicts both creation and revelation. Its
denial is a proper object for the ridicule of every thinking man,
and of the disbelief of every orthodox Christian. Let this, then,
be our first and necessary conclusion--that Deity, whether creating,
inspiring, or otherwise manifesting itself, is one God; one, and
no more.--_Cerdo._
A multiplication of Gods is a contradiction; there can be but one
God. There can be but one absolutely perfect, supreme, and almighty
Being. Such a Being cannot be multiplied, nor pluralized. There
can be but one ultimate, but one all-inclusive, but one God.
Monotheism, then, not Tri-theism, is the doctrine set forth in the
Scriptures. "If the thought that wishes to be orthodox had less
tendency to become tri-theistic, the thought that claims to be free
would be less Unitarian."--_Moberly._
b) The Nature of the Divine Unity.
The doctrine of the Unity of God does not exclude the idea of
a plurality of persons in the Godhead. Not that there are three
persons in each person of the Godhead, if we use in both cases
the term _person_ in one and the same sense. We believe,
therefore, that there are three persons in the Godhead, but one
God. Anti-trinitarians represent the evangelical church as believing
in three Gods, but this is not true; it believes in one God, but
three persons in the Godhead.
(1) The Scriptural use of the word "One."
Gen. 2:24--"And they two (husband and wife) shall be one flesh."
Gen. 11:6--"The people is one." I Cor. 3:6-8--"He that planteth
and he that watereth are one." 12:13--"All baptized into one body."
John 17:22, 23--"That they may be one, even as we are one ... that
they may be made perfect in one."
The word "one" in these scriptures is used in a collective sense;
the unity here spoken of is a compound one, like unto that used in
such expressions as "a cluster of grapes," or "all the people rose
as one man." The unity of the Godhead is not simple but compound.
The Hebrew word for "one" (yacheed) in the absolute sense, and which
is used in such expressions as "the only one," is _never_ used
to express the unity of the Godhead. On the contrary, the Hebrew
word "echad," meaning "one" in the sense of a compound unity,
as seen in the above quoted scriptures, is the one used always to
describe the divine unity.
(2) The Divine Name "God" is a plural word; plural pronouns are
used of God.
The Hebrew word for God (Elohim) is used most frequently in the
plural form. God often uses plural pronouns in speaking of Himself,
e. g., Gen. 1:26--"Let _us_ make man." Isa. 6:8-"Who will go for
_us_?" Gen. 3:22--Behold, man is become as "one of _us_."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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