On the Cross
Who died on the cross? The 'Oneness' Pentecostal answer to this question
is 'the Son'...which in 'Oneness'-speak means 'the humanity'
of Jesus of Nazareth. But what does the Bible say?:
"And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write, 'These things
says the First and the Last, who was dead, and
came to life...'" (Revelation 2:8);
Who is the "First and the Last"? A mere man? No, He is
the LORD God!:
"Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the LORD
of hosts: 'I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there
is no God.'" (Isaiah 44:6);
"Listen to Me, O Jacob, And Israel, My called: I am He, I am the First,
I am also the Last." (Isaiah 48:12).
More:
"But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have
a murderer given to you, and you killed the Author
of life, whom God raised from the dead." (Acts 3:14-15, NRSV).
It's God the Word who is the "Author of life" (John 1:4). (The
KJV translates "archegos" as "prince;" the word literally
derives from 'arche,' 'origin,' and 'ago,' 'lead.') It was precisely to taste death that the "author
of life" took on our nature, becoming man in the incarnation: "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower
than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death
for everyone." (Hebrews 2:9). The Bible's testimony is that the One who died on the cross was God incarnate, at
the hour of His death just as well as at the hour of His birth.
On the foundation stone of the Christian gospel -- that God incarnate died
upon the cross to save a world of lost sinners -- the 'Oneness' Pentecostals
part company with the Christian church and join the Jehovah's Witnesses
and Unitarian Universalists in asserting that a mere man, called 'the Son',
died. They mock the very thought of the death of God: "In his
nature God cannot die. But now that God and man are united in one
person, when the man dies, that is rightly called the death of God, for he
is one thing or one person with God." (Martin Luther, quoted
p. 234, The Crucified God, Jurgen Moltmann).
Scandalous as it may seem to unbelievers that God became man and died a
tortured death on the cross, that conviction is at the heart
of the Christian faith: "'God crucified'! That is what Gregory
Nazianzen in an Easter oration once declaimed as a 'miracle'.
'We needed an incarnate God, a God put to death, that
we might live. We were put to death together with him,
that we might be cleansed; we rose again with him, because we
were put to death with him; we were glorified with him, because
we rose again with him.'" (T.F. Torrance, The Trinitarian Faith,
p. 142). If a mere fellow creature died on earth, a spectacle
to a distant God infinitely removed, where is the infinite loving-kindness of our Savior God?
Lord of Glory
"But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom
which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none
of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would
not have crucified the Lord of glory." (1 Corinthians 2:7-8);
The "Lord of glory" is a divine title and, as such, is ill-suited
to a mere man fitfully and occasionally indwelt by deity. This divine title
is all the more ill-suited referring to an occasion at which, to hear some
tell it, He had no more than memories to treasure of having once been so
indwelt.
The First and the Last
"And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His
right hand on me, saying to me, 'Do not be afraid; I am the
First and the Last. I am He who
lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen.
And I have the keys of Hades and of Death." (Revelation 1:17-18).
The Speaker, -- the First and the Last,-- says that He who is alive is also He who was dead, not someone
else of whom He was fond.
The Blood of God
It was the blood of God that paid the ransom for a world of lost sinners:
"Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which
the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which
He purchased with His own blood." (Acts 20:28).
Ransom for Many
How could even a righteous man's death, if he were but a mere man, have
paid the penalty for a world of lost sinners, each of whom fully
deserved death on his own account? The debt we owed was
infinitely beyond our ability to pay. Only the God-man,
Jesus Christ, could pay the price that was due.
Can a mere man save us from the grave? The Bible testifies, no, only God:
"None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God
a ransom for him -- for the redemption of their souls is costly,
and it shall cease forever -- that he should continue to live
eternally, and not see the Pit...But God will redeem my soul
from the power of the grave, for He shall receive me. Selah."
(Psalm 49:7-15);
"O Israel, you are destroyed, but your help is from Me. I will be your
King; where is any other, that he may save you in all your
cities?...I will ransom them from the power of the grave;
I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues!
O Grave, I will be your destruction! Pity is hidden from My
eyes." (Hosea 13:9-14);
"Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who
forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with
lovingkindness and tender mercies..." (Psalm 103:2-4).
"For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last
on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
that in my flesh I shall see God, Whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another." (Job 19:25-27).
Only Jesus Christ, both God and man, can save us: "Do not put your trust
in princes, Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help...Happy
is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, Whose hope is in
the LORD his God..." (Psalm 146:3-5). We would hope in
vain if we put our trust in the death of a mere man upon the cross.
Each and every human being fully deserved death on account of our own
sins: "Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as
well as the soul of the son is Mine; the soul who sins shall
die." (Ezekiel 18:4). All have sinned: "For all have sinned,
and come short of the glory of God..." (Romans 3:23), and deserve
death: "...who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that
those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only
do the same but also approve of those who practice them." (Romans
1:32). One righteous man, if he were no more than a righteous
man, could save only himself, not a whole world of lost sinners:
"'Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out My fury
on it in blood, and cut off from it man and beast, even though
Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live,' says the Lord
GOD, 'they would deliver neither son nor daughter; they would
deliver only themselves by their righteousness.'" (Ezekiel 14:19-20).
But the Bible says that Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, payed the ransom
for a world of lost sinners:
"The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, 'Behold!
The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!'" (John 1:29).
"And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but
also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2:2).
Consequently, is it not apparent He was no mere man? The law never knew of
any 'recyclable' sacrifices, where the victim was pulled from
the fire, dusted off, and offered up again for another customer.
The worth of this once-and-for-all sacrifice, the Lamb of God,
had to exceed all the wrongs of an erring and rebellious world:
"So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto
them that look for him shall he appear the second time without
sin unto salvation." (Hebrews 9:28). None but man owed
the debt, so Jesus Christ had to be a man; and none but God
had means to repay, so Jesus Christ had to be God.
A mere man cannot transmit his righteousness: "Thus says the LORD of
hosts: 'Now, ask the priests concerning the law, saying, "If
one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with the
edge he touches bread or stew, wine or oil, or any food, will
it become holy?"' Then the priests answered and said, 'No.'
And Haggai said, 'If one who is unclean because of a dead body
touches any of these, will it be unclean?' So the priests answered
and said, “It shall be unclean.' Then Haggai answered and said,
'"So is this people, and so is this nation before Me," says
the LORD, "and so is every work of their hands; and what they
offer there is unclean."'" (Haggai 2:11-14).
But God can impute His righteousness to His people: "But to him that
works not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his
faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describes
the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness
without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to
whom the Lord will not impute sin." (Romans 4:5-8). Thus only
God can save: "But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah,
and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save
them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by
horsemen." (Hosea 1:7). We who put our faith in Him are saved,
not by a mere man, but "by the LORD their God."
In what accounting ledger could the death of a man who was a mere
man pay off the sin debt owed by the entire world? The
arithmetic will not work; only the God-man could pay the immeasurable
debt we had incurred. After counting up the debt humankind
owed God as "something greater than all the universe besides God", Anselm concluded,
"Anselm. Therefore none but God can make this satisfaction.
"Boso. So it appears.
"Anselm. But none but a man ought to do this, otherwise man does not
make the satisfaction."
"Boso. Nothing seems more just.
"Anselm. If it be necessary, therefore, as it appears, that the heavenly
kingdom be made up of men, and this cannot be effected unless
the aforesaid satisfaction be made, which none but God can
make and none but man ought to make, it is necessary for the God-man to make it."
(Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, Book II, Chapter VI).
The Scandal of the Cross
That God condescended to become man and suffer a tortured death on the
cross has always scandalized the pagan world: "To the humanism
of antiquity the crucified Christ and the veneration of him
were also an embarrassment. Crucifixion, as the punishment
of escaped slaves or rebels against the Roman empire, was regarded
as 'the most degrading kind of punishment'. Thus Roman
humanism always felt the 'religion of the Cross' to be unaesthetic,
unrespectable and perverse. 'Let even the name of the cross
be kept away not only from the bodies of the citizens of Rome,
but also from their thought, sight and hearing,' declared Cicero...The
idea of a 'crucified God' to whom veneration and worship were
due was regarded in the ancient world as totally inappropriate
to God...Thus Christian belief in the crucified Christ was found
to produce on Jews and Romans the effect of continued blasphemy.
The early Christians had constantly to defend themselves
against the charge of 'irreligiositas' and 'sacrilegium'." (Jurgen
Moltmann, The Crucified God, Chapter 2, p. 34).
What shocked the world then still shocks today; thus, 'Oneness' Pentecostals
employ the idea that 'God cannot die' as an argument against
the Trinity. But to those who love God, this shocking
fact is priceless testimony of His love for us: "And can it
be that I should gain An int'rest in the Savior's blood? Died
He for me, who caused His pain? For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be That Thou, my God, shouldst die
for me? Amazing love! How can it be That thou, my God, shouldst
die for me?" (And Can it be That I should Gain?, Charles Wesley).
Boso. Infidels ridiculing our simplicity charge upon us that we
do injustice and dishonor to God when we affirm that he descended
into the womb of a virgin, that he was born of woman, that
he grew on the nourishment of milk and the food of men; and,
passing over many other things which seem incompatible with
Deity, that he endured fatigue, hunger, thirst, stripes and
crucifixion among thieves.
"Anselm. We do no injustice or dishonor to God, but give
him thanks with all the heart, praising and proclaiming the
ineffable height of his compassion. For the more astonishing
a thing it is and beyond expectation, that he has restored
us from so great and unmerited blessings which we had forfeited;
by so much the more has he shown his more exceeding love and
tenderness towards us." (Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, Book I, Chapter III).
What the pagans mock and ridicule is just what we praise our God for
all the day long!
Theos Apathes
The pagans taught the world about "theos apathes", the apathetic god, who
is incapable of suffering. "We say therefore that God is a living being, eternal, most good, so that life and duration continuous
and eternal belong to God; for this is God...But it has also been shown that it is impassive and unalterable..." (Aristotle,
Metaphysics, Book XII, 1072b-1073a).
The 'Oneness' Pentecostals have borrowed a page from the pagan theologians.
They tell us that God is incapable of suffering, and thus a mere man, called 'the Son', must have suffered and died upon
the cross. But where did they learn that God is incapable of suffering? From the Bible? -- No, that information's not
found in the Bible. Rather, from pagan theologians like Aristotle.
Competent as the pagan theologians may have been, one should be careful
about adopting their concepts wholesale. The Bible, after
all, teaches that God is love: "He that loveth not knoweth not
God; for God is love." (1 John 4:8). The pagans were quite serious
in denying passions to God, and they knew that love is a passion:
"Friendship occurs where love is offered in return. But
in friendship with God there is no room for love to be offered
in return, indeed there is not even room for love. For
it would be absurd if anyone were to assert that he loved Zeus."
(Aristotle, Magna Moralia II, 1208b, quoted in Jurgen Moltmann,
The Crucified God, p. 268). So if the pagan concept of
the 'apathetic God' ends in denying He can love or be loved
-- yet we know from the Bible that He is
love -- should we perhaps hesitate to join the 'Oneness' Pentecostals
in borrowing this concept from the generous pagans?
The closest one can come to finding 'theos apathes' in the Bible is Acts
14:15: "And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are
men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should
turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven,
and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein..."
Paul and Barnabas, modestly declining worship as gods, point
out they are men "of like passions" with their would-be worshippers,
implying if they really were gods they would not be "of like
passions". James also speaks of Elijah as a man of "like
passions" with us: "Elias was a man subject to like passions
as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and
it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six
months." (James 5:17). By implication, God is not "subject
to like passions as we are". But does this mean He is subject to no
passion or suffering? Or is He subject to love...and "sympathy"?
"For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we
are, yet without sin." (Hebrews 4:15). The verb translated
"touched with the feeling" is Strong's 4834, 'sympatheo'. It
means what it says: to feel, or suffer (pascho) with (sym).
This is where our word 'sympathize' comes from. 'Theos
apathes', meet the God of the Bible: who 'suffers with' His people!
Patripassianism
Ancient modalists like Sabellius were called 'Patripassianists' because
they taught that the Father suffered on the cross. Some modern-day
'Oneness' Pentecostals, by contrast, hotly insist that 'God cannot die',
and that thus 'the Son', a human shell occasionally inhabited by Deity,
died instead.
But consider: the whole rationale for their novel baptismal formula is
their claim that 'Jesus' is the name of 'the Father.' And the Bible authors
are under the distinct impression a party by that name died upon the cross:
"And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last."
(Mark 15:37);
"And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, 'Father,
"into Your hands I commit My spirit."' Having said this, He
breathed His last." (Luke 23:46);
"And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His
spirit." (Matthew 27:50);
"So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, 'It is finished!'
And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit." (John 19:30).
"Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore
is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also
makes intercession for us." (Romans 8:34).
So: the Bible tells us that Jesus died upon the cross, and the 'Oneness'
Pentecostals tells us that Jesus is the name of the Father...but
the 'Oneness' Pentecostals do not believe the Father hung upon the cross. You see, it's not the 'Jesus'
who is the Father who hung upon the cross...but the other one!
His Love
"By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also
ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." (1 John 3:16).
The KJV translates, "Hereby perceive we the love of God,
because he laid down his life for us..." As
Matthew Henry comments, "Here is the condescension, the miracle,
the mystery of Divine love, that God would redeem the church with his own blood."
The 'Oneness' Pentecostals undo the incarnation
by splitting Jesus Christ into His two component parts, Deity
and humanity, and sending the two pieces thus sundered flying
apart on separate trajectories, to experience differing and
non-intersecting biographies. One piece, the 'humanity',
suffered a tortured death upon the cross, while the other piece,
'Deity', occupied Himself doing cross-word puzzles. For
the real incarnation taught in the Bible -- "And the Word became
flesh" (John 1:14) -- they substitute the fitful, voluntary and
occasional infilling of a mere man by God, much the way the
Holy Spirit filled the prophets of old. Instead of God
become man, they teach God slipping into a 'robe' or 'tabernacle'
of flesh -- a man-suit equipped with a zipper, for easy egress
in those difficult and embarrassing moments, like on the cross.
They split the One Jesus into two persons who carry on conversations with
one another; two persons not even of like nature but of altogether
different natures, human and Divine. This deconstruction
of the incarnation cannot be reconciled with the Bible evidence,
that "the first and the last", "was dead, and is alive" (Revelation
2:8). There is only One Jesus, not two...and He is both God and man!
Is Death Extinction?
'Oneness' Pentecostals indignantly demand, if, as Christians say,
God incarnate had died upon the cross, how could the world keep
on functioning during the three-day interval awaiting His resurrection?
Truly the Bible says all things hold together in Jesus
Christ and we live through Him: "...yet for us there is one
God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and
one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through
whom we live." (1 Corinthians 8:6, Colossians 1:17). So
how could the world get by without Him?
To make this argument against the Trinity, they must borrow another heresy
from the Jehovah's Witnesses: the unbiblical idea that death means extinction.
We do not cease to exist when we die! When Jesus Christ died,
He died in just the same manner as every human being who has ever lived
and died: His soul and spirit departed His body, which was left a lifeless
corpse. Had He died in some novel and unheard-of manner never before
seen -- to wit, annihilation, total cessation of existence -- how could
He have tasted death for us all? (Hebrews 2:9)?
Death is not annihilation for any of us. The preacher wondered what
becomes of our spirit when we die: "Who knows the spirit of the sons
of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down
to the earth?" (Ecclesiastes 3:21). Lazarus and Dives would
find out -- and it's not extinction! An instructive ditty for the
'Oneness' Pentecostals to memorize is, "John Brown's body lies a-mould'ring
in the grave, etc.,...but His soul goes marching on!...He's gone to be
a soldier in the army of the Lord! His soul is marching on...John Brown's
knapsack is strapped upon his back...His soul is marching on."
The first-fruits of those who sleep, the Lord's spirit was not left in Hell,
nor His body in the grave: "...he [David, Psalm 16], forseeing this,
spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul
was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption." (Acts 2:31).
Pierced
"And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem
the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they
will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and
grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn." (Zechariah 12:10).
The Speaker is the LORD God.
"And again another Scripture says, 'They shall look on Him whom they pierced.'" (John 19:37).
Testator's Death
The letter to Hebrews tells of a new "covenant": "Because finding fault
with them, He says: 'Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will make a new covenant ['diatheke'] with the house
of Israel and with the house of Judah...For this is the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,
says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them
on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be
My people.'" (Hebrews 8:8-10). This is a quote of Jeremiah 31:31-33:
"Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah
-- not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers
in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of
the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I
was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those
days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and
write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they
shall be My people."
Can there be any doubt in Chapter 8 that the testator, the party who undertakes
to enter into the new testament, is the LORD God?
But we learn in Chapter 9 that that testator had to die before this new covenant could come into force: "For where
there is a testament ['diatheke'], there must also of necessity be the death
of the testator. For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all
while the testator lives." (Hebrews 9:16-17). This is
Jesus Christ: "And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write,
'These things says the First and the Last, who was dead, and came to life...'" (Revelation 2:8).
Common Consent
'Oneness' Pentecostals and Jehovah's Witnesses act as if it were so far
past being obvious that "God cannot die" that every thinking
person must always have agreed with them that it was a man and not God
who hung upon the cross. This in the face of two millenia of Christian
hymnody and preaching proclaiming Christ, and Him crucified! A small
sample:
"But answer me at once, you that murder truth: Was not God really crucified? And, having been really
crucified, did He not really die? And, having indeed really died, did He not really rise again? Falsely did Paul 'determine
to know nothing amongst us but Jesus and Him crucified;' falsely has he impressed upon us that He was buried; falsely inculcated that He
rose again. False, therefore, is our faith also. And all that we hope for from Christ will be a phantom. O thou most
infamous of men, who acquittest of all guilt the murderers of God!" (Tertullian, On the Flesh of Christ, Chapter 5).
"Fortunately, however, it is a part of the creed of Christians even to believe that God did die, and yet that
He is alive for evermore." (Tertullian, Five Books Against Marcion, Book 2, Chaper 16).
"Forbid
it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ, my God;
All the vain things that charm me most --
I sacrifice them to His blood."
(When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, Isaac Watts).
"Well might the sun in darkness hide
And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker, died
For man the creature's sin." (At the Cross, Isaac Watts).
"Behold my God, who was crucified, behold the Judge. This is He who whimpered as a babe wrapped
in swaddling clothes, in a manger." (Jerome, Letter 14, 11:2).
"Man unveils himself here as really and finally guilty. But that this did happen, that man really and finally
revealed himself as guilty before God by killing God, had to happen thus and not otherwise in the event in which God asserted His
real lordship." (Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, Volume I The Doctrine of the Word of God, Part 2, Section 14, Chapter 2, p. 92).
"It is better for me to die for Jesus Christ than to rule over the ends of the earth. Him I seek, who died on
our behalf; him I long for, who rose again for our sake...Allow me to be an imitator of the suffering of my God." (Ignatius,
Letter to the Romans, 6).
"If anyone does not confess that our Lord Jesus Christ who was crucified
in the flesh is true God and the Lord of Glory and one of the
Holy Trinity: let him be anathema." (10, The Capitula of the
Council, Fifth Ecumenical Council, The Nicene and Post-Nicene
Fathers, Second Series, Volume 14, by Philip Schaff, editor,
p. 606).
"It was men’s wickedness that laid the cross upon him to bear, and that nailed him to it, and put him to so cruel and
ignominious a death...When it killed Christ, it appeared in its proper colors. Here Christ saw it in its true nature, which is the utmost
hatred and contempt of God; in its ultimate tendency and desire, which is to kill God; and in its greatest aggravation and highest
act, which is killing a person that was God." (Jonathan Edwards, Christ's Agony).
"The earth shook, and its foundations trembled; the sun fled away, and
the elements turned back, and the day was changed into night:
for they could not endure the sight of their Lord hanging on
a tree. The whole creation was amazed, marveling and saying,
'What new mystery, then, is this? The Judge is judged, and holds
his peace; the Invisible One is seen, and is not ashamed; the
Incomprehensible is laid hold upon, and is not indignant; the
Illimitable is circumscribed, and doth not resist; the Impassible
suffereth, and doth not avenge; the
Immortal dieth, and answereth not
a word; the Celestial is laid in the grave, and endureth! What
new mystery is this?' The whole creation, I say, was astonished;
but, when our Lord arose from the place of the dead, and trampled
death under foot, and bound the strong one, and set man free,
then did the whole creation see clearly that for man’s sake
the Judge was condemned, and the Invisible was seen, and the
Illimitable was circumscribed, and the Impassible suffered,
and the Immortal died, and the Celestial was laid in the gave."
(Melito of Sardis, From the Discourse on Soul and Body, 177 A.D.)
"Now is the Son of man glorified. Not that He was without glory
before: for He was glorified with the glory which was before
the foundation of the world. He was ever glorified as
God; but now He was to be glorified in wearing the Crown of
His patience...He came therefore of His own set purpose to His
passion, rejoicing in His noble deed, smiling at the crown,
cheered by the salvation of mankind; not ashamed of the Cross,
for it was to save the world. For it was no common man
who suffered, but God in man's nature, striving for the
prize of His patience...He stretched out His hands on the Cross,
that He might embrace the ends of the world; for this Golgotha
is the very center of the earth. It is not my word, but
it is a prophet who hath said, 'Thou hast wrought salvation
in the midst of the earth' [Psalms 74:12]. He stretched
forth human hands, who by His spiritual hands had established
the heaven; and they were fastened with nails, that His manhood,
which here the sins of men, having been nailed to the tree,
and having died, sin might die with it, and we might rise again
in righteousness." (Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures,
Lecture 13:6 and 13.28).
"For Scripture had foretold that He Who is God should die;
that the victory and triumph of them that trust in Him lay in
the fact that He, Who is immortal and cannot be overcome by
death, was to die that mortals might gain eternity. These
deeds of God, wrought in a manner beyond our comprehension,
cannot, I repeat, be understood by our natural faculties, for
the work of the Infinite and Eternal can only be grasped by
an infinite intelligence. Hence, just as the truths that
God became man, that the Immortal died, that the Eternal was
buried, do not belong to the rational order but are an unique
work of power, so on the other hand it is an effect not of intellect
but of omnipotence that He Who is man is also God, that He Who
died is immortal, that He Who was buried is eternal. We,
then, are raised together by God in Christ through His death."
(Hilary of Poitiers, On
the Trinity, Book 1, Chapter 13).
"Wherefore, he that preaches a God to me that died not for me the death
on the cross, that God will I not receive." (Martin Luther,
Table Talk, Of Jesus Christ).
"But turn aside and see this great sight!-- an incarnate God upon the cross; a substitute atoning for mortal
guilt; a sacrifice satisfying the vengeance of heaven; and delivering the rebellious sinner." (C. H. Spurgeon, Christ Crucified,
Sermon 7, 8, 2/11/1855).
"Every change or passion, furthermore, proper to one's body can be ascribed to him whose body it is. So, if the body
of Peter is wounded, scourged, or dies, it can be said that Peter is wounded, scourged, or dies...So it is right to say that the
Word of God -- and God -- suffered, was crucified, died, and was buried. And this they used to deny." (Thomas Aquinas, Summa
Contra Gentiles, Book Four, Salvation, Chapter 34.11).
"The Apostle also says: 'It became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, who, had brought many children
into glory, to perfect the author of their salvation, by His passion ' (Heb. 2:10). Thus one holds: He for whom all things are, through
whom all things are, He who leads men to glory, and who is the Author of human salvation suffered and died. But these four are God's
in a singular way; they are attributed to no other...It is, then, plainly right to say that 'God, God's Word, suffered and
died.'" (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, Book Four, Salvation, Chapter 34.12).
"If any should not believe that He had perished by an unjust death, and that those who were beloved were saved
by other laws, thence that life was suspended on the tree. . .God Himself is the life; He Himself was suspended for us."
(Commodianus, Instructions, Section 40).
"Granted someone may be called a lord by sharing in lordship: no man at all, no creature in fact, can be
called 'Lord of glory,' for God alone by His nature possesses the glory of the future beatitude...and so the Psalmist says: 'The Lord
of hosts, He is the King of glory' (Ps. 23:8-10). But the Apostle says the Lord of glory was crucified (1 Cor. 2:8). Then truly it can
be said: God was crucified." (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, Book Four, Salvation, 34:13).
"Trust, O man, in Him who is man and God; trust, O man, in Him who suffered and is adored. Trust, ye slaves, in the
living God who was dead." (Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks, Chapter X).
"But what are these points? Such as follow: That God became man, that
He wrought miracles, that He was crucified, that He was buried, that He
rose again, that He ascended, that He will judge..." (John Chrysostom,
Homily 1, Section 6).
The opinion of these fallible authors carries no weight nor brings conviction;
only the Bible does that. But who, in the habit of talking with devotees
of the new religious movements, has not twirled on this merry-go-round: 'John
Calvin and Martin Luther agree with the Jehovah's Witnesses that Jesus
is a created being.' 'No, these authors explicitly address the issue and
do not agree with you.' 'Why must you trust ignorant human authorities?
Why is the Bible never enough for you?'
What Christian has not been cornered by an anti-trinitarian who insists
that all Christian theologians agree with him that 'God cannot die?' While it is true that God was constrained to take
on human nature in order to die, and while it would be strange and extravagant
to say that God died as God, in fact their own conception of a mere man sometimes indwelt by God, who watched from far away as
the mere man went the way of all flesh, is outside the Christian realm. The argument -- their argument -- is by form an argumentum
ad verecundiam: a fallacious appeal to authority. Not only is the argument fallacious
by construction: as is so often the case with 'cult quote technique,'
the 'authorities' they cite do not, as it happens, agree with them.
Nestorius
The fifth century heretic Nestorius put forth a 'two-person in Christ' theory of the incarnation. Though a trinitarian
who realized Jesus was the Word, not the Father, incarnate, Nestorius shared some of the errors of the 'Oneness' Pentecostals
regarding the incarnation: "For how great and unprecedented a thing it is -- unique and incapable of repetition in any other
age -- that the nature of him who is God alone should come together with human nature which was entirely different from God and
thus form from different natures by conjunction a single person! But according to the opinion of Nestorius, what happens
that is new? 'Humanity and divinity,' quoth he, 'keep their proper persons.' Well, when had not divinity and humanity
each its proper person? And when will this not be so? Or wherein is the birth of Jesus more significant than that of
any other child, if, the two persons remaining distinct, the natures also were distinct?" (Boethius, Contra Eutychen, IV., 65-75).
'Oneness' Pentecostals simultaneously praise Nestorius, while denying they
follow him in describing 'two persons' in Christ -- when that is functionally
just what they are describing. The conversations between Father and
Son, fellowship of mutual love, and other personal relations which trinitarians
sum up under the internal trialogue within God, they situate rather within
Christ. Overhearing Christians situate the 'I-thou' relation between
Father and Son within God, albeit conditioned by the 'humbling' of Philippians
2:5-8, they insist Christians worship 'three gods'. Yet situating
the very same 'I-thou' relation within Christ Himself, they deny they have
split Him into two separate beings.
But it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that that is just what
they have done. Unlike the persons of the Trinity, who
are of one being or substance, their 'two persons' in Christ,
one human and one divine, are not even of like nature, but altogether
unlike! Nor do they share a common biography; one of their
'two Jesuses' suffers a tortured death upon the cross, while
the other looks on unmoved. Splitting Jesus into two separate
beings, one merely human and one divine, undoes the incarnation
-- the very wonder of God's love which Christians cannot cease praising!
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