Phl 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
Sometimes I wonder if we Oneness Pentecostals are trying to figure God out rather than just KNOWING Him. Are we placing greater empahsis on knowing ABOUT God than we are on really knowing Him? I’ve thought about this a lot over the years, but as I read through the thread about Bro. Bernards book, I’m beginning to wonder if there are any two Oneness believers who, in fact, believe or understand Oneness the same way? We all believe in ONE God. In fact, I’ve never, ever met a Pentecostal believer, or any Christian believer for that matter, that actually believes in more than one God.
The Articles of Faith: of Assemblies of the Lord Jesus Christ starts with these words: “We believe in the One ever-living, eternal God…”
The 16 Fundamental Truths of the Assemblies of God contains these words: “The ONE TRUE GOD….”
Even the Southern Baptists say: “There is one and only one true and living God…”
So, at least, fundamentally, virtually every Christian group states emphatically that they believe in One God. True, as we dig deeper into each groups beliefs, differences begin to emerge. But on the surface, we all state the same thing: We believe in ONE GOD. Its when each groups attempt to differentiate themselves from other groups that we encounter differences. We analyze our beliefs, we study them, expound them, we explain them. We write book after book, study guide after study guide to assert we believe in ONE GOD- a fact that is summed up quite well with the first words in our belief in ONE GOD.
The Book of Genesis begins with these words:
“In the beginning, God….” No lengthy discourse to prove the existence of God. No introduction, no careful analytical study to prove His existence. Just “God”. No explanations of what or who God is. Just “God”. God is the subject of all 66 Books of the Bible, yet, in those first 4 words of the Bible , God is…well, God is just “GOD”. Over time though, countless sermons have been preached to prove there is but One God. Books and study materials have been written to assert the belief that God is one. Yet, I find it interesting that there is no “Godhead Section” in the entirety of the Bible itself. Sure, there are smatterings of comments regarding the mystery of the Godhead, but, where is the section that brings it all together in one volume or one section that explains the Godhead in minute detail that leaves the reader to unequivocally conclude that there is but One God? Well, there is none….
Why is that? Because there is only ONE GOD. We define Him differently. We understand Him differently. I will go on record as to state that I cannot fathom the depths of the
“mystery of godliness” as Paul puts it in
1 Tim 3:16. Here, Paul says:
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. There is no doubt, no question, that the mystery of God is of such magnitude that we, mere mortals, lack the cognizant ability to fully understand the greatness of our Creator. The created cannot possibly grasp how or why it was created. Can we actually say we, the created, have God all figured out and we have all the answers? Of course we can’t. Oh, we claim we do, we claim to have the great “Revelation”, but in reality, I don’t think we’ve even scratched the surface of comprehending our Creator. Oneness Pentecostals are fond of saying, “I believe in One God who is revealed as Father, Son and Holy Ghost”. Wow, what a revelation. The same one embraced by the AOG. The concept of One God cannot be summed up in a short snippet of a sentence. All the volumes of the world could not contain the acts of a man called Jesus… how in the world do we think we could ever understand the concept of God?
(John 21:25)
I’ll tell you how.
“In the beginning God….”. We understand God, not through our study, not through our education, but we understand God through faith. The same faith through which we are saved is the faith that allows us to understand God. Faith lets us accept God as GOD, with no complex explanation as to Who and What He is. I believe in ONE GOD. That’s all I need to know. That’s really all there is to know about God.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: Deu 6:4 Our God is ONE. Isn’t that enough to know. How is He one? How can He be One when there are three that
“bear record in heaven”? (I John 5:7). How can ONE be three? How can THREE be ONE? I don’t know! It defies all logic. But, yet there it is. One God in three Beings. Or THREE Beings in ONE GOD. But, God doesn’t have to be logical . He is God. He is One God.
It seems to me that, in our never-ending search for truth, we have forgotten about KNOWING GOD, and have gone off in search of knowing ABOUT God. I don’t have to know ABOUT God, faith takes care of that. What I want is to know God as Paul desired to know Him. How did Paul want to know Him? There it is in
Philippians 3:9- I don’t need to know God through my own righteousness or my careful study- but I want to know Him
“….through the FAITH of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by FAITH….”
When we know God BY FAITH, then we can know Him as the One who spoke
“Let there be Light….” We can know Him by faith as the One who led the children of Israel, and who walked the shores of the Galilee. By FAITH we can know Him as He who died, was buried, ad rose again the 3rd day. By faith, we know Him as the One who descended on the day of Pentecost and gave birth to the church that bears His Name. By FAITH, we know Him to be the One who will return to earth one day to receive unto Himself His Bride. I don’t need to know God analytically, I want to know Him personally, as Paul desired to know Him, in
“…. the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." (Phil.3:10-11).