Christian Monotheism: Beliefs in God and Christendom

Study Notes

Monotheism: belief in one God
Atheism: denial of the existence of God
Agnosticism: assertion that the existence of God is unknown or unknowable
Pantheism: belief that God is nature or the forces of the universe
Polytheism: belief in more than one God
- Ditheism: belief in two Gods
- Tritheism: belief in three Gods

Trinitarianism: belief in three distinct persons “in” the Godhead
Binitarianism: belief in two persons
Strict monotheism (excluding multiple persons) with a denial of the full deity of Jesus Christ
- Examples: Arianism, dynamic monarchianism
Strict monotheism (excluding multiple persons) with an affirmation of the full deity of Jesus Christ
- Examples: modalistic monarchianism (modalism); Oneness

Deuteronomy 6:4 teaches absolute monotheism
- It is the historic Jewish confession of faith, called the Shema
- It is important to teach continually (Deuteronomy 6:5-9)
- It is the first and greatest commandment (Mark 12:28-31)
God declared His absolute oneness in Isaiah
- “alone, by myself, no God beside me, none else, no God else, none like me” (Isaiah 37:16; 42:8; 43:10-11; 44:6, 8, 24; 45:5-6, 21-23; 46:5, 9; 52:6)
The Bible calls God “the Holy One” over 50 times, but never the holy two or three (Isaiah 54:5)
Old Testament saints had no trinitarian concept

It affirms Old Testament monotheism (Romans 3:30; Galatians 3:20; I Corinthians 8:4, 6; James 2:19)
There is one God, and one mediator (John 17:3; I Timothy 2:5)
- The mediator is the sinless man Jesus, in whom God was manifested
- He reconciles the holy God and sinful humanity
- If there were a second, co-equal divine person, he could not be the mediator; he also would need a man to mediate between him and sinful humanity
Jesus endorsed the Jewish concept of God (Mark 12:29; John 4:22)

Life
Individuality (personality)
Rationality
Spirituality (John 4:24)
- Not material; not flesh, blood, or bones
- Not confined to a body
- Since the Incarnation, God is fully revealed in Jesus; there is no visible God outside Him
Invisibility (John 1:18; I Timothy 6:16)
Self-existence
Eternity
Omnipresence (being everywhere present) (Psalm 139)
- Description of God as being in heaven has these connotations:
  - God’s transcendence
  - Center of reasoning and activity (“headquarters”)
  - Immediate presence and glory
  - Perhaps a visible manifestation of angels
Omniscience (having all knowledge)
Omnipotence (having all power)
Immutability (unchanging nature)
Transcendence (beyond human comprehension, except by revelation)

Description of the nonhuman (God) in human terms (for the sake of our finite understanding)
Specifically, speaking of God as having eyes, arms, heart, feet, nostrils, and so on
These descriptions are figurative; for example, God’s “feet” are not literally propped up on the earth

Definition: a visible manifestation of God, usually thought of as temporary
The angel of the LORD was sometimes a theophany of the one God and sometimes simply an angelic agent of God
Melchizedek was probably not a theophany but a type of foreshadowing of Christ
The fourth man in the fire was probably not a theophany but an angel
In the New Testament, Old Testament theophanies were superseded by the Incarnation (Jesus Christ)
Jesus is more than a theophany; He is God incarnate