Variations on the Theme of
The Christ Who is not Really A Man

Although the confused theology of Athanasius (Trinitarianism) continues to pervade almost the whole of the mainstream church, there are other variations on the theme of a Jesus who is not really a man, also dating back to the early centuries of the church, and surviving to the present time.

The Arian Christ

The Jesus of the Arian theology, defeated by the Trinitarians, was also not really human! The Arian Jesus is a created being, but he is a SPIRIT BEING who existed in Heaven before his birth, and took a human body in exactly the same way as the Trinitarian Christ. The logic of this theology is as confused as that of Athanasius. Real men do not exist as spirit beings, before they are born.

The 4th century Arians were just as willing as their opponents, to use persecution as a weapon to achieve their ends. It is unlikely that the church would have fared any better in their hands.

Although persecution ensured that Arianism virtually disappeared from most of the world, it did manage to survive as the State religion, in parts of northern Europe, for several hundred years. However, the fortunes of war, the zeal of the Trinitarians and the expediency of politics, all combined to destroy its State powers and eventually it was suppressed almost completely. Since that time it has continued to surface in almost every generation, on a scale sufficient to be noticed by historians, but it has never regained the power that it had in the 4th century.

Amongst the many diverse groups which are labelled "Anabaptist", in the 15th and 16th and 17th centuries, some appear to have been Arian. In our own time, It is found amongst a few groups outside the church mainstream, the largest of which calls itself "Jehovah's Witnesses". It is also still found occasionally (and usually in secret) amongst some members of mainstream churches, who retain their membership by concealing the truth about their beliefs.

The spirit of those 4th century men who formed the creeds prevails and the mainstream churches still view these groups through less than friendly eyes, labelling them as "cults".

The "Oneness" Christ

Another significant variation of the theme carries various theological labels such as, "Modalism", "Monarchianism", or "Sabellianism", with diverse origins dating back to the second and third centuries. It was, in fact, a source of contention at the same time as the Arian debate. However, under the pressures of political expediency, the opponents temporarily submerged their differences to join forces against the common foe.

The churches who accept it today mainly prefer the term, "Oneness". Their God is only one person, who reveals himself in different forms, or "modes", at different times. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are claimed to be all the same person, Jesus, who appears in the "mode" appropriate to the occasion.

Thus this counterfeit Christ is both Father and Son at the same time, He is spoken of as a "man", but has two separate natures, one human, one divine. He was confined to earth as a man, and yet at the same time, He was in Heaven and omnipresent as God. As Jesus he worships and prays to the divinity within himself. On the cross only his human nature "died", since in his second divine nature, as God, he could not die.

The temptation of Jesus in the wilderness is made into a total farce. They say that although his human nature was tempted, he could not sin at all because of His second divine nature.

This teaching survives today, mainly in a number of Pentecostal churches, and mainly in the U.S.A. The largest of these is the United Pentecostal Church, which separated from the Pentecostal mainstream over this issue in the early years of this century.

Because of their belief in only one person as God, these churches usually also insist that baptism "in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit", (Matt 28:19), is not valid. To be acceptable to their "oneness" God (and to these men) it must be "in the name of Jesus" (only). The words, it seems, are more important than what God sees in the heart. Anyone baptised in the threefold name of "Father, Son and Holy Spirit", must be rebaptised with the right words said over them, before they can be regarded as "born again".

For honest hearts, the perverted logic of the teaching is its own destroyer, for this Jesus must surely be even less a real man than either of his Trinitarian or Arian fellows.

The insistence that the validity of baptism depends on the use of specific words by the baptiser, comes dangerously close to witchcraft.

By Allon Maxwell