Modalism

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by UntoHim

I don't know of anybody who "believes" in modalism - it's not part of the core of the Christian faith.
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I have. One group I knew believed Jesus was the Father, Jesus was the Son, and Jesus was the Holy Spirit. They embraced the I John 5, "Three are One," paradigm. They probably never heard the word "modalist," and would earnestly deny that their faith was in any way misguided. They would quote you many verses supporting their beliefs.

My observation is that few Christians actually obsess with the theology of God. I'm sure they have their views about God, but basically accept the Bible and live their lives. This is basically a topic for academic apologetics, those misguided folks who travel about correcting everyone else. If it wasn't for the very nasty and public debate between Walter Martin and Witness Lee, each moving to opposite ends of the spectrum, we would probably never even be having any of these discussions.

To be honest, most Christians see "2 Persons" in God, the Father and the Son, a heavenly loving relationship which desired to include all mankind. The Father sent the Son, the Son prayed to the Father, The Son obeyed the Father establishing a pattern for all of God's children, and the Son resurrected from the dead. If we look at the synoptic Gospels and Acts, the emphasis of the message was not on Jesus being God, but Jesus as a Man sent by God, dying for our sins. It was John's writings, written years afterwards, correcting other errors at the time, and displaying the eternal deity of the Son, which seemed to fuel modalistic ideas.