What is Binitarianism? How does it differ from Oneness, Unitarianism, and Trinitarianism? Join God Honest Truth as we dive into this fascinating doctrine, which holds that the godhead consists of two distinct persons—the Father and the Son—while still maintaining monotheism.
In this teaching, we will explore what binitarianism is, a brief history of Binitarianism in the Church, and how it compares to other concepts of the godhead. Backed by verifiable sources and sound reasoning, this teaching will equip you with a better understanding of the binitarian concept of the godhead.
Whether you are new to this concept or seeking deeper insight, you won’t want to miss this! So join us as we learn the God Honest Truth about binitarianism.
Transcript
So what is Binitarianism? Well, it’s one of the concepts of the Godhead that people can decide on once they have evaluated all of the scriptural evidence as it pertains to the Godhead. In this teaching, we’re gonna be learning about what is Binitarianism, defining it for you so that you can make a better and more educated decision on which concept of the Godhead that you most align with. So this teaching is going to be all about the concept of Binitarianism as it relates to the four main concepts of the Godhead. And this is going to be a continuing episode in our series on the study of the Godhead.
Now if you would like more notes than what we present to you here and also in greater context, then go check out the notes that we took for you on our website at godhonesttruth.com. Simply click on the post for this episode for Binitarianism, and that’ll take you directly to the article page where you’ll be able to find the on demand video. You’ll see the draw slides that you’ve got here on the screen if you’re watching on video, and you’ll be able to go through those draw slides at your convenience and at your own speed or go forwards, go backwards, or what have you. You’ll also be able to find the notes that we took for this particular episode and the transcript if that so is beneficial to you. But it’s all right there on our website at gothonesttruth.com.
And we’ve also made it very convenient for you by placing a link down in the description below this. And that should be there whether you are watching on a video podcasting platform or whether you’re listening on an audio podcasting platform. That convenient link should be down there in the description either way. Now before we get into the main part of this teaching, let’s go over real quick the purpose of this Godhead series in general. Number one, we want you as the viewer to be able to start from a place of knowing absolutely nothing about the Godhead, learn what scripture has to say and a little bit of history and things like that go along with it.
And then at the end of the series, be able to decide for yourself which of the concepts of the Godhead that you most align with or most agree with as you see it from scripture. Now whichever one you choose is absolutely fine with us. Your salvation is not based or determined by which concept of the Godhead that you go with. If you choose none of them, you’re thinking this is exercise of splitting hairs. I don’t want to have anything to do with it.
I don’t see the point. That’s fine too. Or if you happen to pick Trinitarianism, Binitarianism, Unitarianism, or Oneness, you’re still as brother or sister in Messiah to us. Let’s break bread even though we may disagree. That’s fine.
We’re still brothers and sisters. So whichever way you go, do not be concerned about your salvation or about your fellowship with us. It’s all good as I say. So just to recap the series that we have gone over so far. We’ve gone over a lot, so we’re gonna go through this rather quick.
If you happen to miss any of these episodes, make sure to go back and look in our on demand library to catch up on any of these particular episodes. But in episode one, we went over the introduction to the series and terminology that we’ll be using during the series. Plus, things like pheromone and green, exegesis, osteogenesis, all that good stuff. So go check out that episode if you’d like to know more about that. And at the end, we also did a quick recap of what is salvation just to give you assurance that it does not matter which concept of the Godhead that you go with.
It’s not going to determine your salvation one way or the other. Then in episode two, we went over the term or the words God in English and the term Elohim in Hebrew, how that relates to names and titles, and variant nouns, etcetera, etcetera. Episode three went over the Shema, what it is, how it relates to our study of the Godhead, cardinal and ordinal numbers, and a little bit of Hebrew grammar as well. Episode four went over the phrase son or sons of God and how that is used in scripture in a direct reference as the son of someone, that kind of reference, or as the attribute being the son of perdition, son of jealousy, etcetera, etcetera, and then how the actual phrase as it’s used in scripture, son or sons of God as it relates to the angels, to men or humans in general, and then specifically to our Messiah, Yeshua. Episode five, we went over the meaning of names and what meaning of names actually means and how it relates to the study of the Godhead.
Episode six, we went over the phrase name of the father, son, and holy spirit as it comes from Matthew chapter 28 verse 19. Episode seven, we went over the concept and the term worship. What is worship? How does scripture use that term? And how does it differ or how does it line up with how we view that word today?
Episode eight, we went over the general word or general term of spirit. Things like the spirits in heaven, the spirit of man, things like that. General term spirit. And then in episode nine, we went over the specific term spirit of the holy or holy spirit, holy ghost set apart spirit, what have you. That was getting more specific because that is more related to our subject at hand and that is the study of the Godhead.
Then in episode 10, we went over original sin, what it is, where it came comes from, and how that relates to our study. Episode 11, we went over various distinctions as we find them in scripture. Distinctions such as mortality, omniscient sin, forgiving sins, doing miracles, things like that, and how those distinctions line up between Yahweh, Yeshua, angels, and humans. Because, again, the study of the Godhead is who God is and who is God. So that was a very important episode.
Make sure go back and watch that if you have not already. In episode 12, we went over various miscellaneous things that didn’t really deserve their own episode, so we just kinda put them together in a conglomeration, a montage episode, if you will. But various things like basic language and basic reading comprehension and just the understanding of what father and son and begotten actually means. And we also went over real quick the word lord as it’s used in scripture. A lot of people get that wrong and understand it incorrectly.
We tried to clear that up. So if you missed that, go back and watch that in the on demand library. And then last episode, we went over the concept of trinitarianism as it relates to our study of the godhead. What the trinity is as it’s defined, then we clarified it or tried to clarify it and make it more understandable, at least the what the doctrine of the trinity actually is. Then we went over some history and chronicled some of the development of the doctrine of the Trinity and then looked at some of how the doctrine of the Trinity has changed through the use of artwork and kind of illustrated that through artwork.
So that is a recap real quick of our episodes in the series so far. And now let’s go ahead and recap real quick and real rapidly some important terms to keep in mind as you go through each of these concepts of the Godhead. Keep all these terms in mind so that you have a clear head and can make a clear judgment. Now last time, we applied that to the concept of Trinitarianism. Tonight, we’re gonna be doing it on the concept of Binitarianism, but it’s still important to keep all these concepts in mind all the same.
So let’s recap real quick what a study of the Godhead is. Once again, a study of the Godhead is a study of who God is, who is God, and how many are God. Essentially, the nature and essence of God. Fearmongering is the use or of fear to influence the opinions and actions of others towards some specific need. That comes from sisnossenso.com.
From oxforddictionary.com, the activity of spreading stories deliberately to make people frightened or nervous. And from cambridgedictionary.org, the action of intentionally trying to make people afraid of something when this is not necessary or reasonable. That’s what fear mongering is. We kind of alluded to this a little bit back when we went over the purpose of the series. Once again, some throughout history, and this goes for more than just one concept of the Godhead, but some throughout history have tried to fearmonger people into aligning with their particular concept of the Godhead.
And that’s not right. Because when people fearmonger, whether it’s in a religious concept context or more often nowadays in a political context, it’s wrong. And it’s pretty much childish when you really get down to it. But at the end of the day, if you’re having to fear monger someone into believing a certain way or making a certain decision, then you really don’t have truth and evidence on your side to begin with. So keep that in mind and do not allow anyone to fear monger you into believing a certain doctrine or believing a certain way about a certain thing.
We We are not going to do that here, but we do want to bring that to your awareness so that when you go out into the world or you’re doing further research, you can keep that in mind and not allow people to fear monger you, especially when it comes to your salvation. Just rest assured that your salvation is not dependent on which concept of the Godhead that you go with. Now moving on, looking at the term Orthodoxy from witchenary.org. Orthodoxy means from the ancient Greek Orthodoxos equivalent to correct ortho, pretty much meaning the correct opinion. From Britannica.com, orthodox from Greek orthodoxos, true doctrine and its adherence as opposed to heterodox or heretical heretical doctrines and their adherence.
And from EtymOnline, from Greek Orthodoxos, having the right opinion, right, true, straight, or opinion or praise. So orthodoxos or I’m sorry. Orthodoxy means having the right opinion. That’s how it’s technically defined, but throughout history, orthodoxy has generally been what the majority has decided on and voted in. So whoever has the majority, whoever has the power, that’s who gets to declare what is orthodoxy.
So keep that in mind. And the flip side of that is heresy From carm.org, heresy is false teaching is a belief or idea that is in contradiction to orthodoxy. In the context of Christianity, heresy is that which deviates from standard biblical teaching. From Elam Online, from Greek hairesis, a taking or choosing for oneself, a choice, a means of taking, a deliberate plan, purpose, philosophical sect, or school. And finally, from Liquisearch.com, the term heresy is from Greek heresis, originally meant toys, but also referred to that process whereby a young person would examine various philosophies to determine how to live one’s life.
So if orthodoxy means right opinion, the flip side would be heresy and heresy would mean incorrect or wrong opinion. That’s the technical definition, but once again, the way it’s practically put into use and what it practically means, heresy would be those beliefs which did not make it into the mainstream and which did not get voted in. The outliers, if you will. Those who were not in power were deemed as heretics. They did not have the strength to be able to stand up against the might of those who did have the power.
But that’s just generally how it’s been used in turn. So going on, one quote that we get from GW Butterworth when he’s referencing Rufinus’ translation of Origen going from the Greek into the Latin. Rufinus actually changed some of Origen’s teachings to better align with that which was voted as orthodoxy. And GW Butterworth wrote of Rufinus, quote, fear of heresy is with him a stronger motive than love of truth. He has shown himself willing to alter the text or to omit portions of it on no evidence whatsoever and for no purpose except to conciliate the prejudices of his readers and to give greater authority to his translation.
Let that never be said of us. Let it never be said of us that our fear of heresy is stronger than our love of truth. In fact, let it be flipped around and let it be said of us that our love of truth was greater and stronger than our fear of being called a heretic. That’s tough sometimes. When you’re ostracized and you’re given the left foot of fellowship and you’re kicked out and some people that you’ve known for years is just like that.
Put a knife in your back and turn their backs on you. It’s rough. I know. But this just this life. Brothers and sisters, stick with it.
Go and hold the truth because it will all be rewarded in the end. Maybe not in this life, but definitely in the next. So once again, let’s recap the four main concepts of the Godhead. We have Trinitarianism, which we covered last week. We have Binitarianism, which we’re about to cover here in just a moment.
Then we have Biblical Unitarianism, not to be confused with Unitarian Universalism, which is a whole bag of wacky in itself, but biblical Unitarianism and then oneness or modalism. And during this teaching, like we said, we’re gonna be covering Binitarianism. So what is Binitarianism? Let’s go ahead and define that so we can know what it is that we’re working with, what the concept is, and so that you can apply this concept to what you have learned about the Godhead to see if that’s what you see as lining up better than the other three. So Binitarianism, this comes from the Living Church of God, which is a Binitarian organization.
But in their official statement of fundamental beliefs, they state this, quote, the father and the son comprise the Godhead. There is one God. Scripture shows that God is a divine family, which began with two, God the Father and the Word. The Father is the supreme being and the Godhead. The Son, Jesus Christ, is the Word in Greek, Logos, through whom the Father created all things, the only begotten Son of the Father.
God is Spirit. The holy spirit is the very essence, the mind, life, and power of God. It is not a being. The spirit is inherent in the father and the son and emanates from them throughout the entire universe. It is given to all who repent of their sins and are baptized and is the power by which all believers may be overcomers and will be led to eternal life.
Now, I did have to cut this down somewhat to fit on the slide fit on one convenient slide, but the full quote is in the notes or the link is there that you can go and check that out for yourself to verify the source as it were. But I promise you, we did our best to make sure the main points and what they were actually trying to say was actually in here. So that is a one definition of Binitarianism or at least how the Living Church of God sees Binitarianism and what they believe. Now coming from the Church of God Seventh Day of the United States and Canada, and this is from their statement of beliefs or what they believe, and they say, quote, the sovereign deity of the universe is God Almighty. He is one in nature, essence, and being.
God is revealed in scripture as father and son. God the father is revealed as our loving heavenly father by his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God’s one and only begotten son, as begotten not created. He shares the nature, names, and attributes of God with the father. As son, not father, Jesus is subordinate to his father in rank.
From eternity, the son was with the father, shared the father’s glory as the pre incarnate word, and with him created and sustains all things. Jesus the Christ Messiah was born of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, thus uniting two natures, human and divine. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and Son. The Spirit is God’s presence and power in the world. So this is the statement of belief as it comes from the Church of God Seventh day.
And once again, we had to cut it down for the slide, but you have the link here on your screen. You also have the full quote on the notes that we took for this episode. So go down below, click on that link in the description to take you directly to the article post where you’ll find the notes. And in the notes, like I said, you got the full quote, but you also have a link that you can click on. It’s very convenient.
Take you directly to the Church of God website where you’ll be able to find this for yourself. And then looking at Wikipedia.org, everyone’s favorite whipping boy for research, but, quote, Binitarianism is a Christian theology of two persons, personas, or aspects in one substance or divinity or god. Classically, Binitarianism is understood as a form of monotheism, that is that god is absolutely one being and yet with Binitarianism, there is a twoness in God which means one God family. Most Binitarians teach that the Holy Spirit is essentially the power, activity, and presence of God with no distinct identity within God and not a separate person as they conceived the Son to be. Binitarians believe that statements from early Christian leaders were Binitarian, though most mainstream scholars do not accept this assertion.
So there you go. You’ve got two pretty much definitions of what Binitarianism is, at least as how they believe it to be from two, I would consider fairly large Binitarian churches organizations here in America, and one of them also actually ends up serving Canada as well, apparently. And then you’ve got a definition here from Wikipedia as well. But just to clarify it and hopefully make a little bit more sense, Last week, we looked at the what’s called the shield of the trinity that probably does the best job at explaining visually what the very, very basic concept of the trinity is. There’s not really one for Benetarianism because as you go throughout history, there’s really not that many adherence to Benetarianism that you find throughout history.
So you don’t find that many, creeds. In fact, I haven’t found any at all except for one that we’ll get to here in just a moment. But you don’t find much artwork or whatnot because Binitarianism really didn’t have the numbers and the power and there wasn’t a lot of Binitarianism. I’m sorry. A lot of binitarians that I could at least I could find throughout history.
So I made this shield of binitarianism, as it were. This is what something I made to kind of help better explain this where you have the concept of God existing pretty much as an essence, but existing as two persons, the Father and the Son, where the Father is God, the Son is God, but the Son is not the Father, and the Father is not the Son. Now, the Holy Spirit or Spirit of the Holy, unlike with Trinitarianism, which states that the Holy Spirit is a person with Binitarianism, they’re not stating that the Holy Spirit is a person. Instead, they’re stating that the Holy Spirit is the spirit of God, in essence. Sort of like the spirit of man or the spirit of the angels, something like that.
But it’s the power and the presence and the active force of God himself, not a separate person according to Binitarianism. So now moving on, let’s go ahead and look at some historical information as it relates to Binitarianism. And as you look into this subject, once again, there’s not a lot of information out there, at least historically, as it goes because there really weren’t that many Binitarians to that existed that you could pull from like there were existed in other groups. Like you have a source or I’m sorry, you have several sources that you can pull from as it relates to Trinitarianism, several that you can pull from as it relates to Unitarianism and Oneness or Modalism as it used to be called, but not that many from Benitarianism. So we’ve got several here and when you listen and read from Benitarian teachers and those who hold to Benetarianism, they really go back to first several centuries.
First, second, third, things like that. And, of course, all four of these concepts and people who hold to these different concepts, whether it be Trinitarianism, Binitarianism, Unitarianism, or Oneness, every single one of them states that it goes back to what the apostles taught in the New Testament. So, Binitarianism is just the same. They claim that this is what the apostles taught and what Jesus taught and things like that. But, they Binitarianism goes back to pretty much the first few centuries there and we’re gonna be looking at some early writers, specifically Philo of Alexandria here in just a moment, but also we’re gonna be looking at a guy named Justin Martyr.
And both of these writers, Binitarians, appeal to to show that there was this belief in Binitarianism even early on immediately after the time of the apostles. But reading from Larry Hurtado, which from what I can find out, I’m really not sure exactly which concept he lines up with. I think he goes with Trinitarian, but I’m not exactly sure. But he’s a historian, and I think he’s done a lot of great work. And he’s the kind of guy I’ve heard him one time.
He doesn’t really like labels, so he doesn’t or he did not. He’s he’s passed away now, but he did not like labels. And so he did not use terms like Trinitarian, Binitarian, Unitarian, things like that. But you can read a lot of his work and he did a lot of work on early Christianity, especially the Brit Chadasha, New Testament times, and the first few centuries. We read here from Larry Hurtado and his work, Lord Jesus Christ, Devotion to Jesus and Earliest Christianity.
Quote, there are a fairly consistent linkage and subordination of Jesus to God the father in these Christian circles, evident even in the Christian texts from the later decades of the first century that are commonly regarded as reflect reflecting a very high Christology, such as the gospel of John and Revelation. This is why I refer to this Jesus devotion as a Binitarian form of monotheism. There are two distinguishable figures, God and and Jesus, but they are posited in a relation to each other that seems intended to avoid a ditheism of two gods, and the devotional practice shows a similar concern, e.g. prayer characteristically offered to God through or in the name of Jesus. But the worship of Jesus clearly shows a recognizably monotheistic concern shaping it. This Jesus devotion, indeed the Christological rhetoric of the New Testament generally, involves an adaptation of the principal agent traditions.
Jesus functions as God’s principal agent. Jesus’ revelatory and redemptive actions consistently portrayed as done on God’s authority as expressions of God’s will and as serving God’s purposes and glory. The accommodation of Jesus as recipient of cultic worship with God is unparalleled and signals a major development in monotheistic cultic practice and belief. Now keep in mind, when people like mister Hurtado use words like cultic, they’re not using it in the context context that we use today, meaning sacrificing barnyard animals and dancing naked and going to pagan gods. No.
What he means is, like, small time or because back in the day when Jesus and the disciples were going around, the group of people who actually believed in Christianity or followed Messiah was very small, and it took time to grow. And that’s what he’s meaning here by cultic practices and belief. And we still kinda use that concept today when we look at various TV shows or movies that don’t really knock it out of the park in the box office and as long as it gets a very small positive reception, we call them cult favorites. Right? So we kinda got that same use of the word cult there even today.
And also remember, keep in mind as we go throughout the rest of the series to keep in mind that term God and what God means and what it actually meant to people back in the day because it doesn’t mean the exact same thing that we mean nowadays in our normal speech either. Moving on, we look at follow-up Alexandria, one of the people that Binitarians, or at least the ones that I researched through, appeal to and trying to illustrate an early Binitarian belief within the early church. Now just to clarify real quick, the Binitarians I’ve researched from and got into, we’re not saying that Philo was a Christian or Binitarian. No. Philo was a Hellenized Jew.
He was a studier of Platonism and he was not a follower of Messiah. So keep that in mind as we go through this. But one of the things that the Benetarian teachers are appealing to here with follow of Alexandria is the belief within certain groups of Judaism in what’s called a two powers in heaven kind of belief. And that’s what they’re showing here that even this two powers in heaven thing was in existence even before the time of Messiah. But here we quote from follow of Alexandria and his book or letter or whatever you wanna call it, questions and answers on Genesis, quote, why does scripture say, as if speaking of another God, in the image of God, he made man and not in his own image?
Most excellently and voraciously, this oracle was given by God, for nothing mortal can be made in the likeness of the Most High One and Father of the universe, but only in that of the second God, who is his Logos. For it was right that the rational part of the human soul should be formed as an impression by the divine Logos, since the pre Logos god is superior to every rational creature. But he who is above the Logos and exists in the best and in a special form, what thing that comes into being can rightfully bear his likeness. Moreover, scripture wishes also to show that God most justly avenges the virtuous and decent men because they have a certain kinship with his Logos, of which the human mind is a likeness and image. So that was a quote from the Hellenized Eulophilos of Alexandria, which was a contemporary of Yeshua and the Apostles, but just this is just used to illustrate that there was a belief in this two powers in heaven kind of thing even early back in the day.
And another early writer that these Minitarian teachers appeal to was the Christian writer, Justin Martyr. You probably heard about him in some of your studying. Now just a little bit of background about Justin Martyr, a lot of what I get from his writings, I take with a grain of sand because I take a lot of his writings to be antisemitic in a lot of places. So there is that. And also keep in mind that Justin Martyr also was a Greek who comes from a Hellenistic background, and he was also trained and studied Platonism before he came to Christianity.
So I’m sure that probably and might have had some sort of impact on his understanding of scripture and doctrine as he went through life. But here with the dialogue dialogue with Trypho in chapter 56, Justin writes, quote, Moses then, the blessed and faithful servant of God, declares that he who appeared to Abraham under the oak in memory is God, sent with the two angels in his company to judge Sodom by another, who remains ever in these super celestial places invisible to all men, holding personal intercourse with none, whom we believe to be maker and father of all things, end quote. And once again, quote, I shall attempt to persuade you since you have understood the scriptures of the truth of what I say that there is and that there is said to be another God and Lord subject to the maker of all things, who is also called an angel because he announces to men whatsoever the maker of all things above whom there is no other god wishes to announce to them, end quote. So a lot of the times, what I get from Justin Martyr is a to God kind of philosophy. Now don’t, once again, don’t take that to extremes here because remember what we said about the word God and how it was used in comparison to how we use it nowadays.
So there’s this two God theory at one point in time. And that’s what I really understand Justin Martyr as having in his doctrine. Is having this two God kind of theory. Not two gods on the same level, but you have this supreme God and then this lower down God. So that’s what I get from Justin Martyr.
But anyways, this is one of the points that the benitarian teachers I researched from pointed to as it relates to Justin Martyr himself. Then another from Justin Martyr in his first apology, quote, now the word of God is his son, and he is called angel and apostle and is sent forth to declare whatever is revealed. As our Lord himself says, he that hears me, hears him that sent me. And the angel of God spoke to Moses in a flame of fire out of the bush. So much is written for the sake of proving that Jesus the Christ is the Son of God and his apostle, being of old the word and appearing sometimes in the form of fire and sometimes in the likeness of angels.
And the Angel of God spoke to Moses in a flame of fire in a bush, yet maintained that he who said this was the Father and Creator of the universe. The Jews accordingly being throughout of opinion that it was the father of the universe who spoke to Moses, though he spoke though he who spoke to him was indeed the son of God, who is called both angel and apostle. For they who affirm that the Son is the Father are proved neither to have become acquainted with the Father, nor to know that the Father of the universe has a Son, who also, being the first begotten word of God, is even God And of old, he appeared in the shape of fire and in the likeness of an angel to Moses and to the other prophets. End quote. So here’s another excerpt that these benitarian teachers appeal to from Justin Martyr.
And here, you can in this quote, it says that he’s stating that Jesus is the word of God and is even God. But once again, take Justin in context and what is he actually saying or what do you hear him actually saying here? That he is even God as the same as the almighty God, the two persons in one essence kind of idea or is he talking about he is even God going back to a to God kind of doctrine? Decide for yourselves. I’m not going to tell you which way to believe.
This is that’s part of the point for you to make up your own mind. And once again, whichever way you decide, you’re still our brothers and sisters in Messiah. Let’s come break bread. Let’s fellowship. Now the creed I referenced earlier saying that there wasn’t a lot of creeds or historical information to pull from, there was one particular creed or at least that’s the way I see it and you’ll probably see it the same way when we look at it here in just a moment.
There was one particular creed that may not have been written and intended to be benitarian, but it that’s the way it really did come out. So we look at, once again, like we did last week, the Nicene Creed, the original Nicene Creed of March as it came out of the Council of Nicaea. And we read, quote, we believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things, visible and invisible, and in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, light of light, very God, a very God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the father, by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man. He suffered, and the third day, he rose again, ascended into heaven. From thence, he shall come to judge the quick and the dead, and in the Holy Ghost, end quote.
So think back to those statements of beliefs that we read from the two groups, the Church of God groups at the beginning when we defined Benitarianism. And now, think about this Nicene Creed and line those up. They’re pretty much saying the exact same thing. Here in the Nicene Creed, we’re talking about the father and the son, and the son being very god of very god. The Gods not made consisstant consisstantially with the Father.
And all of this combined with that very last short phrase and in the Holy Ghost. Remember, whoever it was that went to the Nicene Council here, they just kinda tacked on the Holy Ghost to make sure not to forget the Holy Ghost. But there’s really nothing there except just handing in the Holy Ghost. That’s it. Anyways, we go back and we think about the definition that we put forth earlier about what Benetarianism is.
We’ve got the father and son, the two persons as the one god. That’s pretty much what the Nicene Creed is stating here. These two are one god. So like I said, the people who came up with the Nothing Creed may not have been intending for it to be a Benetarian Creed. That at least in my opinion is exactly how it comes out.
And that’s the way I’m putting it forth. That Nothing Creed is a Benetarian Creed. Not anything else. Now, of course, as we saw last week, the Nicene Creed of 03/25 was modified and added to later on in March. And then at that point, you have a Trinitarian Creed.
So it evolved, it changed, but it wasn’t until March that the Nicene Creed became a Trinitarian instead of Benitarian creed. So now looking at Benitarian bards. Okay. This is my attempt at alliteration. I thought it was clever in going back to Renaissance times and traveling minstrel telling stories and, you know, singing songs.
That’s what I think of as a bard. And if you’ve ever played Skyrim, you join the college of the bards and okay. I thought I was clever. But anyways, Benetarian bars people who believe in Benetarianism to teach on it things like that. That’s what I meant.
I just thought it was clever. But anyways, they we have the worldwide Church of God as it was started by Herbert Armstrong and also people that came out of that like Derek Prince and the offshoots that came out of the Worldwide Church of God. Those are Benatarians for the most part that might have diverged. I know some actually have. I’m not going to say names right now.
We’ll get into that next week or next episode. But some of them did diverge from the Benetarian beliefs. So make sure to check if you’re looking into any of those offshoots. And then we’ve got the general conference of the Church of God Seventh day, the Church of God Seventh day, and certain Seventh Day Adventist groups. Because I don’t know if you remember from last week, but when Ellen White created the Seventh Day Adventist organization, originally, they were Benitarian and then Ellen White and her husband, I think it was, eventually moved into Trinitarianism.
So there was that, but there still are, from what I can find out, certain Seventh day Adventist groups that are still Benetarian. Now one person you can find online is someone called the Biblical Benetarian that is Mario Shepherd and you can find him at Biblical Benetarian on YouTube and also biblicalbenitarian.com. And, of course, like we referenced earlier, you have the Living Church of God that you can look up and contact if you would like to learn more about Benitarianism or their specific beliefs in Benitarianism. And then once again, you have the Church of God Seventh Day in The United States and Canada, and there’s their YouTube link, Facebook link, and website link if you would like to contact them. Now just like we stated last week with the Trinitarianism, within Benitarianism, you have divergences in the way people believe.
You’re not gonna contact two different Binitarians and have them say the exact same thing in the way they believe. There’s nuances as you go from person to person and group to group, organization to organization, but still the same general concept is there for Binitarianism. So don’t just lump every Benetarian with every other Binitarian and put all your eggs in one basket because it’s not a cookie-cutter kind of thing. Once again, there are nuances and expect differences in beliefs when you talk to different Binitarians. But if you like to go further, here are some different groups and people that you can contact to learn more about Binitarianism.
And so, finally, in summary, Binitarianism or the concept of Binitarianism states that God consists of two persons, that being the Father and the Son, in one essence. The Holy Spirit is the essence, mind, life, and power of God, but not a separate person. The Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father. The Father is God, and the Son is God, but there are not two gods, but one god. Remember, these two persons exist in one god according to Binitarianism.
Many early writers such as Philo and Justin Martyr that we looked at wrote things that at first glance may seem to come across as Binitarian. Once again, go back, take everything into context as these writers put it, and examine it in the light and context of scripture when you’re determining what it is you’re going to believe as doctrine. And the original Nicene Creed of 03/25 was a Binitarian Creed. We looked at that compared it to the faith statements of those organizations. And not many denominations or people over the centuries and today even hold to the concept of Binitarianism.
It’s a very, very small group of people who hold to Binitarianism, and it has been ever since the time of the Apostles and Yeshua. So there wasn’t a lot of information to draw from and collect for presentation during this teaching. So that’s just the way things are, unfortunately. There’s those who come into power, and then there are burnings book burnings in the suppression of information as far as the opponents go. So there just simply weren’t that many denominations or people throughout history and even today that believe or hold to the concept of Binitarianism.
And that’s just the God honest truth.
