The Fallacy Of the Hypostatic Union
WHILE COUNTLESS MILLIONS of people throughout the world profess belief in Jesus, many do not have a clear conception of who Jesus really is. The vast majority claim that He is God the Son, the second person in the so-called Trinity. Others, such as the Oneness Pentecostals, claim Him to be the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then there are those who say that He was simply a great, moral teacher.
THE HYPOSTATIC UNION
Those who believe that Jesus is God the Son have created a complex, mysterious, and in the end, extremely confusing explanation concerning Christ’s true nature:
“We know from Divine Revelation that there is in the Blessed Trinity only one Nature in three Hypostases, or Persons, while in Christ, on the contrary, there are two complete natures in but one Hypostasis, or Person.”
(Reference: The Divine Trinity A Dogmatic Treatise By RT. REV. MSGR. Joseph Pohle, PH.D. , D.D., p. 221)
Trinitarians believe that the one God has one nature in three persons with one of the persons―Christ―having two natures. They have labeled this confusing belief concerning the dual nature of Christ as the hypostatic union. The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology defines hypostatic union this way:
“Hypostatic Union. The doctrine of the hypostatic union, first set forth officially in the definition of faith produced by the Council of Chalcedon (451), concerns the union of two natures (dyo physes) of deity and humanity in the one hypostasis or person of Jesus Christ. It can be stated as follows: In the incarnation of the Son of God, a human was inseparably united forever with the divine nature in the one person of Jesus Christ, yet with the two natures remaining distinct, whole, and unchanged, without mixture or confusion so that the one person, Jesus Christ, is truly God and truly man. … The incarnate Christ is theanthrōpos, the God-man.”
(Reference: Evangelical Dictionary of Theology By Elwell A. Walter, Pub. 1984., p. 540, Emphasis Mine)
Proponents of the belief in a triune God assume that this doctrine concerning the dual nature of Christ is biblical. But, history attests that the theory of the dual nature of Christ was merely an invention of a Catholic council in the fifth century—many years after the Bible was written, after the last apostle died, and well into the apostasy forewarned by Christ and His apostles, which would begin after the departure or death of the apostles (Acts 20:29-30; II Pt. 2:1-2; I Tim. 4:1, 3). Unfortunately, many millions blindly accept this teaching even though it goes against not only human reason but, more importantly, biblical teachings.
JESUS CHRIST IS DIFFERENT FROM GOD
First of all, Christ never introduced Himself as God, God the Son, or God-man, but man:
“As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.”
(Reference: Jn. 8:40 New International Version, Emphasis Mine)
The true God is spirit according to Christ (Jn. 4:24). Christ defined what He meant by spirit:
“See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
(Reference: Lk. 24:39 Revised Standard Version, Emphasis Mine)
Therefore, God, who is spirit, has no flesh and bones, while Christ, a man, has flesh and bones―a clear difference.
Furthermore, God Himself stated on numerous occasions that He is not man neither the son of man (Hos. 11:9; Ezek. 28:2; Num. 23:19), while Christ and the apostles frequently taught that Jesus is man (Jn. 8:40; I Tim. 2:5; Acts 2:22). Furthermore, Christ Himself declared: “…Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” A transparently clear distinction between Him and God (Matt. 16:13). Even now in heaven, Christ remains man on the right hand of God:
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.”
(Reference: Col. 3:1 NIV, Emphasis Mine)
The One who is seated on the right hand of God is man in state of being:
“Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself.”
(Reference: Ps. 80:17 NIV, Emphasis Mine)
Moreover, while preaching in the Areopagus in Athens, Greece, Apostle Paul said that God “… has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from dead” (Acts 17:31, NIV). Therefore, when Christ comes back on the day of Judgment to judge the world, He will come back as man, not as God or God-man.
Notice that Apostle Paul said that God raised Christ from the dead. One of the qualities of the true God is that He is immortal and never dies:
“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
(Reference: I Tim. 1:17 NIV, Emphasis Mine)
Christ, having experienced death, negates any possibility of Him being God. The true God does not die. Moreover, before dying on the cross, Jesus Christ cried out to God:
“At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud shout, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why did you abandon me’?“
(Reference: Mk. 15:34 GNT, Emphasis Mine)
The true God, on the other hand, does not recognize any other as God:
“Come and present your case in court; let the defendants consult one another. Who predicted long ago what would happen? Was it not I, the LORD, the God who saves his people? There is no other god.”
(Reference: Isa. 45:21 Today’s English Version, Emphasis Mine)
Prophet Isaiah, who recorded the above passage, the spoken words of the Lord God, who does not recognize any other god―is the Father:
“But you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us or Israel acknowledge us; you, O LORD, are our Father.”
(Reference: Isa. 63:16 NIV, Emphasis Mine)
This is the same teaching of Christ and of the apostles (Jn. 17:1, 3; I Cor. 8:6). God is also Almighty (Gen. 17:1) with no one rivaling or approaching His greatness while Christ, on the other hand, stated:
“By myself I can do nothing.”
(Reference: Jn. 5:30 NIV)
One of God’s omnipotent qualities is that nothing can be hidden from Him. He is omniscient or all-knowing (I Jn. 3:20). Unlike the true God, Christ does not know when the day of Judgment will come:
“No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
(Reference: Mt. 24:36 NIV, Emphasis Mine)
Even Christ’s ability to work miracles was not inherent in Him (Acts 2:22), but was done by God through Christ and who also performed miracles through the hands of the apostles (Acts 19:11-12).
REDUCED TO ABSURDITY
If we were to accept the teaching that Christ is God, we would be led into a series of absurd conclusions. For example, those who believe that Christ is both God and man have to accept that, at one point, Christ was fully God and fully child―before that fully toddler, fully baby, etcetera, etcetera. It would mean that, at one time, the God part of Jesus was floating for nine months in the womb of Mary doing absolutely nothing and then had to struggle through the various stages of development.
It would also mean that when Christ died, God also died or at least half of Christ died. If they say that Christ the man died and not Christ the God, then they would have to accept the unbiblical conclusion that there are two Christs ‒ Christ the God and Christ the man. At this point then, what happened to His alleged inseparable dual nature?
Trinitarians would also have to accept the conclusion that when the Son died, that left only two-thirds of God fully operational―the Father and the Holy Spirit to rule the universe, leaving an incomplete Trinity. When Trinitarians are faced with these contradictions, they say it is a mystery. The real mystery is how can anyone continue to believe in a false, absurd, illogical, heretical, and unbiblical teaching?
NOT AN ORDINARY MAN
Proponents of the Christ-is-God doctrine falsely accuse us that we are belittling our Lord Jesus Christ when we state He is a man in his state of being and not God. While the Church of Christ does not believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, we have never taught that He is just an ordinary man. Christ was made Lord, Savior, and Mediator (Acts 2:36; 5:31; I Tim. 2:5); He is the Son of God, whom the Father commanded to be worshiped and obeyed (Mt. 3:17; Philip. 2:9-11); He is the head of all things and the one God placed above all creation (Eph. 1:20-22); and He is the only man who did not sin because He was sanctified by God (I Pt. 2:21- 22; Jn. 10:36, New King James Version). But, in spite of these attributes, the truth remains, as declared by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, that He has only one nature ― “man.”
IN CONCLUSION
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WE KINDLY EXTEND our visitors an invitation to explore the pristine, unadulterated teachings of Christ and His apostles as they were taught in the first-century Church Of Christ. Learn the importance of who the true God is and the simplicity that is in Christ because to know who the true God is means “eternal life” (Jn. 17:3).
To learn more visit the following link:
The Truth about God and Jesus Christ
SUPPORTERS OF THE BELIEF in the divinity of Christ, also known as the Christ-is-God or the God-man doctrine, assert that God exists as a trinity consisting of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Although they are three in nature and considered distinct beings, proponents maintain that they form a single God. The concept of the Trinity lacks explicit biblical endorsement; thus, proponents often argue that it represents a profound mystery beyond human comprehension and should be accepted by faith alone.
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