Scripture
1 Corinthians 8:6
Paul includes the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in the one-God confession.
yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we exist. And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we exist.
One God and one Lord
Paul does not solve Christian worship of Jesus by abandoning monotheism. He speaks of the one God and the one Lord within a single confession.
Where this passage comes up
- God was once a manThe Bible and the Book of Mormon both describe God as God from all eternity. The Bible promises likeness to God, not a God who was once a man.
- Jesus never claimed to be GodThe earliest records show Jesus claiming God's own authority, and his followers worshiping him within decades, long before the Council of Nicaea.
- John did not write the Gospel of JohnDisputed authorship is not the same as unreliability. John's Gospel claims eyewitness roots, circulated early, and its view of Jesus appears in earlier sources.
- The Trinity and incarnation violate monotheismChristians confess one God, not three. They claim Jesus belongs within the identity of Israel's one God, a claim argued from the Hebrew Bible, not polytheism.
- The Trinity is shirkThe Trinity is not three gods, but that is not the heart of the charge. The question is whether persons within the one God fit his oneness, and who Jesus is.
- Biblical monotheismIsaiah denies that any god was formed before or after the LORD. That rules out a family of gods and gods who were once creatures, and it sets the test for every later claim.
- Jesus is GodThe New Testament places Jesus inside the identity of Israel's one God, the Creator, while still distinguishing him from the Father.
- The Trinity is monotheismThe Bible says there is one God, distinguishes the Father, Son, and Spirit from one another, and treats each as that one God. The Trinity is the summary that keeps all three.