Difficult Questions — A Triune God, or three separate individual Gods?
1/ Question: John 10:30 plainly states, “I and my Father are one.” John 14:6-9 states, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?” Also, in 1 John 5:7-8 it states, “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.” Even the Book of Mormon can be used to support the concept of a triune God, as Mosiah 15:2-4 states, “And because he [Jesus] dwelleth in flesh he shall be called the Son of God, and having subjected the flesh to the will of the Father, being the Father and the Son — The Father, because he was conceived by the power of God; and the Son, because of the flesh: thus becoming the Father and Son — And they are one God, yea, the very Eternal Father of heaven and of earth.” Also, 2 Nephi 26:12, found in the Book of Mormon, states that “Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God.” Even the testimony of the Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon states, “And the honor be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, which is one God, Amen.” Is it not obvious that the Father and the Son are one and the same?
1/ Response: In Acts 7:55-56, Steven saw both the Father and the Son. He saw TWO personages. Christ also taught the He and the Father were two persons, He being separate from the Father. In John 8:17-18, the Jews accused Christ of being an impostor because he was the only one that bore witness of himself. Jewish law required the testimony of TWO or THREE men to establish truth. Christ replied, “It is also written in your law that the testimony of TWO MEN is true. I am one that beareth witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me.” Christ clearly taught that two separate men, himself and the Father, were bearing witness. Christ did state in John 10:30 that He and the Father were one, but in John 17:30-31 he explained what that ‘oneness’ means. Praying to the Father, Christ said, “…that they [His disciples] may be one, Father, as thou art in me, and I in Thee, that they may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” How are Christ and the Father one? They are one in purpose, one in unity, one in focus. When Peter, in Matthew 16:16 testified that Jesus was “…the Christ, the Son of the Living God”, Jesus responded by saying, “…flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” Christ at that time was mortal, with a body of flesh and blood, so it was not Christ that had given Peter his witness. It was the Father who was in heaven. Two distinct, individual beings are here referred to.
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