Alternatives: Modalism and Social Trinitarianism

I've heard it said, "Contrast is the mother of clarity."

Before we go any further, let's consider two alternatives to Trinitarian thinking.

One alternative is modalism. There are many ways of being modalists, but this is, for instance, the theology of Oneness Pentecostals.

Fred Sanders explains it like this:

"Modalism arises whenever a theologian stops halfway to the doctrine of the Trinity and tries to preserve God's unity by committing serial monotheism. God in this case would appear first as the Father in order to create, then as the Son in order to redeem, and finally as the Spirit in order to indwell and fulfill."

But when you chop up God's work like this, you no longer have one God in three persons, but three separate persons who work separately, one after the other.

Another common mistake are the various forms of social trinitarianism, which are very common today. These approaches to the Trinity are often a kind of tritheism.

For instance, a professor at a Southern Baptist seminary says this about God: "He is a socially related being within himself."

But this is not who God has revealed himself to be. As the theologian Matthew Barrett clarifies:

"…the unity between Father, Son, and Spirit is not merely a cooperation between three separate persons. Again, that assumes each person has his own, individual will (three wills in God). That type of cooperation may give the appearance of unity, but it is not the unity of a triune God who is one in essence; mere cooperation does not result in a God who is simply Trinity."

Whether serial monotheism or social trinitarianism, in both cases, people are making the mistake of dividing the three persons of the Trinity into three separate beings.

Whether they work in sequence, or work together cooperatively, both approaches divide the Trinity into three separate gods.

But we want to remember that we know and worship one God. As the church father Gregory of Nazianzus taught:

"No sooner do I conceive of the One than I am illumined by the Splendour of the Three; no sooner do I distinguish Them than I am carried back to the One."