Doesn’t the Jordan show three persons?
The Objection Lab · Objection V of X
Doesn’t the Jordan show three persons?
Stated first the way its strongest advocate states it. Then your turn.
“At Jesus’ baptism the Son is in the water, the Spirit descends like a dove and the Father speaks from heaven, so that’s three persons at once.”8 verses answer it
I · The steelman
Their case, at full strength
“At Jesus’ baptism the Son is in the water, the Spirit descends like a dove and the Father speaks from heaven, so that’s three persons at once.”
The baptism of Jesus is the clearest picture of the Trinity in the Gospels. All three appear at once, in different places. The Son stands in the Jordan. The Spirit of God descends “in a bodily shape like a dove” and lights upon Him (Luke 3:22; Matt 3:16). A voice from heaven says, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt 3:17). The Father speaks both about the Son and to the Son (Mark 1:11), which is how one person addresses another.
This is not one person appearing in three modes one after another; it is simultaneous. Any view that makes Father, Son and Spirit the same person has to explain how that person stands in the water, descends from heaven and speaks from heaven in the same moment, and why the voice would say “my beloved Son.”
II · Drill it
Answer it. Ninety seconds.
Write what you would say if you heard this tonight. The clock starts with your first word; the ring is only a guide.
0 words
Read further
- Ten Objections to Oneness, Answered · this objection in the essay
- Oneness Theology: A Working Compendium
A short but complete map of Oneness theology: the one God of Israel, manifested in flesh as Jesus Christ. It works through the Hebrew and Greek of the key Old and New Testament texts, the typology of the angel, the tabernacle and the priesthood, and the apostolic practice of baptism in Jesus’ name. Each contested text is set beside the strongest Trinitarian reading before it is answered.