Teens and Christ
← Christianity and the World's Faiths

Lesson 4 of 5 · 10 min

Groups That Deny the Trinity

Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism, modalism and others — what they teach and why it matters.

Why this is not nitpicking

If Jesus is a creature, then a creature died for us and no one has actually seen God. If the Father, Son and Spirit are one person in three costumes, then Jesus praying in Gethsemane is theatre. The doctrine of the Trinity protects the gospel itself.

The main groups

Jehovah's Witnesses teach that Jesus is the first created being and the Spirit an impersonal force. Mormonism teaches three separate beings and that God the Father was once a man. Oneness Pentecostalism teaches one person in three modes. Unitarianism denies Christ's deity outright.

Each holds sincere, often admirable people. Attack the claim, never the person.

The five questions

Is Jesus fully God and fully man, uncreated? Is God one being in three eternal persons? Did Jesus rise bodily? Is salvation by grace through faith rather than membership? Is Scripture the authority rather than Scripture plus a later revelation that overrides it?

Key passages

  • In the beginning was the Word... All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

    John 1:1-3

  • Thomas answered him, 'My Lord and my God!'

    John 20:28

  • For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.

    Colossians 2:9

Reflect

Could you explain, from Scripture, why Christians say Jesus is not a created being?

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Next: How to Disagree Without Being Awful

Where this came from

We're not experts — these are the sources we used while researching this page. Read them yourself, keep digging, and hold us to them.

  1. [1]The Holy Bible — Blue Letter Bible interlinear and lexicons

    Primary source for every lesson; Strong's and BDB/Thayer entries for word studies.

  2. [2]The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (381) — full text and history, Britannica

    The doctrinal frame for the lessons on God, Christ and the Spirit.

  3. [3]N. T. Wright, lectures and articles archive (NTWrightPage)

    New Testament scholarship drawn on for the gospel, kingdom and resurrection lessons.

  4. [4]Catechism of the Catholic Church (Vatican) and the Westminster Confession of Faith

    Consulted side by side wherever a lesson describes how different traditions teach a doctrine.