Saturday, December 13, 2014

Modalism vs. Scripture, Part 1: The Use of the Old Testament in the New Testament

One of the best refutations of Modalism, the theology that states that the Father and the Son (as well as the Holy Spirit) are the same person, can be found in the New Testament’s use of the Old, including Messianic texts that reveals a differentiation between the Father and the person of the Messiah. For this post, I will briefly discuss two texts which reads as follows:

I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. (Psa 2:7)

Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore, God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy follows. (Psa 45:6-7)

Both these texts are Messianic texts and were addressed to the king of Israel, a Davidic King who would serve as a proto-type of the ultimate Davidic King, the then-future Messiah, Jesus.[1] Clearly, in the Old Testament context of these, and similar, texts there was clearly a differentiation, not conflation, of the persons of God and the Davidic King—obviously, two separate person are in view here. I am sure that all apologists in favour of Modalism (e.g., members of the United Pentecostal Church and other denominations holding to a form of this theology) will agree with this. However, when we examine how the New Testament texts use the above passages, in part, to discuss the relationship between the Father and the Son, one has to, I argue, posit an unnatural use (abuse, even) on the part of the NT authors to argue that they held to a Modalist perspective vis-à-vis the relationship between Father and Son.

Psa 2:7 is used in Acts 13:33:

God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.

Luke here records the words of Paul affirming that God (the Father) “raised” Jesus; in Oneness theologies, the Father raised his own person, but this verse differentiates the persons of the Father and the Son, only to be coupled with Psa 2:7 which differentiates the persons of God (the Father) and the Davidic King. The prima facie and even secunda facie reading of this text disproves Modalism.

This same text is also used in Heb 1:1-5, which presents a cantata of Old Testament texts proving, not the identity of persons of the Father and the Son, but the superiority of Jesus to the angels, and in a context that clearly differentiates Father and Son in terms of their personality:

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, but whom he also made the ages[2]; Who being in the brightness of his glory, and express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

In this important Christological text, there is a clear differentiation between the Father and the Son—God’s speaking to his people by the prophets in the Old Testament is mirrored with His speaking to the people by the Son, using the same preposition (εν). Furthermore, it would be nonsensical for the author of Hebrews, if he held the view that the Father and Son were the same person, to refer to Jesus as being “in the express image” of God or that the Father (v.3) or to speak of God having “appointed” Jesus heir of all things and by (δια) the Son, the Father created the “ages” (v.4). The use of the Messianic text, Psa 2:7, only serves to further prove this point, where God “begets” the Davidic King, again showing separate persons.

Continuing in the same chapters in Hebrews, the author quotes Psa 45:6-7 in vv.8-9. Why is this significant? This text differentiates between two “Gods.” In Heb 1:8 (cf. Psa 45:6), the Son is referred to as “God” (θεος), but, in the subsequent verse, this “God” is differentiated from another “God,” namely the Father (“God, thy God”)—this is not just an artifact of translation, it is part-and-parcel of both the Greek NT and LXX, as well as the Hebrew. The Greek NT, following the LXX, reads “o θεὸς ὁ θεός σου,” literally, "the God, the God of you." The Hebrew of Psa 45:7 reads, "אֱלֹהִ֣ים אֱ֭לֹהֶיךָ," literally, “Elohim, your Elohim.” Why is this so significant? Not only does this show two separate persons, but also shows Jesus Christ can be called “God,” and yet is still subordinate to another God, the Father. This is nonsensical, not just in Modalist, but Trinitarian theologies, but is utterly consistent with “Mormon” Christology.[3]

As we have seen, a proponent of a form of Modalism are in the unenviable position of having to defend a theology that requires one, not just to explain away all texts that, at a primae facie reading, presents the Father and Son as separate persons (e.g., Matt 3:13-17; John 17:3, 5; 1 Tim 2:5; 1 Cor 15:22-28), but also the New Testament author’s use of Old Testament that speak of God addressing a second, distinct person, the Davidic King, and apply the second person of these Messianic passages to the person of Jesus Christ.

Notes for the Above

[1] For a recent, scholarly book-length study, see Shirley Lucass, The Concept of the Messiah in the Scriptures of Judaism and Christianity (T&T Clarke, 2013).

[2] The Greek uses αιων not κοσμος, thus my replacing the KJV “worlds” with the more proper “ages.”


[3] For a further discussion on “God” in Latter-day Saint theology and discourse, as well as biblical evidence for the “plurality of the Gods” doctrine, see Blake T. Ostler, Exploring Mormon Thought: The Attributes of God (Greg Kofford Books, 2001) and idem., Exploring Mormon Thought: Of God and Gods (Greg Kofford Books, 2008).