Modalistic Monarchianism, also known asModalism orOneness Christology, is aChristian theology upholding the unipersonal oneness ofGod while also affirming thedivinity of Jesus. As a form ofMonarchianism, it stands in contrast toAdoptionism (Dynamic Monarchianism), a Christology of the divine nature of Jesus that views Jesus as not pre-existent as a distinct divine person, although empowered byGod the Father through theHoly Spirit.[1] Dynamic Monarchianism is closely associated with Adoptionism, a theology of theGodhead that argues that Jesus became God's son at a moment in time when God adopted or exalted him into divinity. The termmodalism was first used byTrinitarian scholarAdolf von Harnack, referencing this belief.[citation needed]
Modalistic Monarchianism is opposed toTrinitarianism andbinitarianism. Followers of Modalistic Monarchianism consider themselves to be monotheistic in a strict sense—similar toJews andMuslims—and they argue for no plurality of persons in the theology of God. They consider God's person to be absolutely one and assert that the person of God reveals himself to creation through different "modes" (or "manifestations")—namely, theFather,Son, and theHoly Ghost—without limiting his modes or manifestations.[2][3]
In this view, the godhead is understood to have dwelt in Jesus from theincarnation as a manifestation of the God of theOld Testament (Hebrew Bible). The terms "Father" and "Son" are then used to describe the distinction between thetranscendence of God and the incarnation.[4] To frame it another way, "Father" and "Son" are technical terms that distinguish between the deity of God alone (i.e., the Father) and the deity of God joined to the human nature in Jesus (i.e., the Son). Lastly, since God is aspirit, it is held that the Holy Spirit should not be understood as a distinct person but rather as the one God, acting in the world.
Modalistic Monarchianism is closely related toSabellianism andPatripassianism, two ancient theologies condemned as heresy in theGreat Church and successivestate church of the Roman Empire.[5][6]
Theologian and church historianAdolf von Harnack first used the termmodalism to describe a doctrine that was believed in the late 2nd and 3rd centuries CE.[7] At the time, Christian theologians were attempting to clarify the relationship between God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.[8] Concerned with defending the absoluteunity of God, modalists such asNoetus,Praxeas, andSabellius explained the divinity of Jesus and the Holy Spirit as the one God revealing himself in different ways or modes:[9]
By the 4th century, a consensus had developed in favor of Trinitarianism, and modalism was generally consideredheresy.[5][6]
With the advent ofPentecostalism, the revived theology developed into a central tenet ofOneness Pentecostalism. Oneness Pentecostals teach the divinity of Jesus and understand him to be a manifestation ofYahweh, the God of the Old Testament, in the flesh, and the Holy Spirit, or God in action.[2][10] They also conductbaptism in the name of Jesus alone; in this way, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are considered titles pertaining to the one God, not descriptions of distinct individuals, and Jesus is seen as the one name for these titles.[11]
Modalistic Monarchianism is accepted within Oneness Pentecostalism. Much of the movement's theology is grounded in a Christian exegesis of the Hebrew Biblical God in order to understand what the firstapostles would have believed about Jesus. It also seeks to avoid use of theological categories produced byPlatonic-Aristotelianepistemologies, preferring rather to tell the story of redemption through narrative.[12] Thus, the distinction found in theNew Testament writers between God the Father and Jesus is understood to be from the attempts to identify God the Father and Jesus together, rather than to separate them more than necessary.
The Bible speaks of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as different manifestations, roles, modes, titles, attributes, relationships to man, or functions of the one God, but it does not refer to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as three persons, personalities, wills, minds, or Gods. God is the Father of us all and in a unique way the Father of the man Jesus Christ. God manifested himself in flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, called the Son of God. God is also called the Holy Spirit, which emphasizes his activity in the lives and affairs of mankind. God is not limited to these three manifestations; however, in the glorious revelation of the one God, the New Testament does not deviate from the strict monotheism of the Old Testament. Rather, the Bible presents Jesus as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Jesus is not just the manifestation of one of three persons in the Godhead, but he is the incarnation of the Father, the Jehovah of the Old Testament. Truly, in Jesus dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Monarchianism holding that Jesus Christ was not a distinct person of Trinitarianism but was rather one of three successive modes or manifestations of God
Modalistic Monarchianism took exception to the "subordinationism" of some of the Church Fathers and maintained that the names Father and Son were only different designations of the same subject, the one God, who "with reference to the relations in which He had previously stood to the world is called the Father, but in reference to his appearance in humanity is called the Son." It was taught by Praxeas, a priest from Asia Minor, in Rome about 206 and was opposed by Tertullian in the tractAdversus Praxean (c. 213), an important contribution to the doctrine of the Trinity.
In 382 the Council of Rome, with Pope Damasus I presiding, condemned the heresy, stating, "We anathematize those also who follow the error of Sabellius in saying that the same one is both Father and Son" (Tome of Pope Damasus, 2).
The revelations of Father and Son therefore, to Sabellius, belonged to the past, and the Church now was the Church of the Spirit, and after the end of the age, there would just be God, who would be neither Father, Son, nor Spirit. His teaching was rightly condemned by the Church, which understood that it strikes at the very foundations of Christianity.
Jesus is everything that the Bible describes God to be. He has all the attributes, prerogatives, and characteristics of God Himself. To put it simply, everything that God is Jesus is. Jesus is the one God. There is no better way to sum it all up than to say with the inspired Apostle Paul, "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him" (Colossians 2:9-10).
So went one of the hymns of the Oneness Pentecostals, for whom Jesus was the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Their desire to recapture the mantle of the apostolic church started with questions over the proper formula to use in water baptism. But they were soon questioning even the doctrine of the Trinity.