The modalistic view of the Trinity found its clearest expression in the teachings of Sabellius in the first half of the third century. Sabellianism was rejected by the ecumenical councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon.
According to the modalistic view, the one true God does not exist as three distinct, transcendent, immanent, infinite, eternal, and immutable persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Instead, there is only one person in the Godhead who appears at different times in one of three different modes: God the Father, God the Son or God the Holy Spirit. Remnants of this view can be found today in the Oneness Pentecostalism movement.
The modalistic view does not explain the prayers of Jesus and His speaking objectively of the Father and of the Holy Spirit. This view also does not explain the actions of God the Holy Spirit and God the Father during the baptism of Jesus (Mat 3:16-17).
Finally, modalism cannot explain how each man and woman is capable of agape (unconditional) love for others. If each person is created in the image of God then agape love must one of God's attributes. But how can agape love be an attribute of God when, before the creation of heaven and the universe, nothing existed except God? Who would have been the object of God's agape love? The answer is simple for Christians. Each of the distinct, transcendent, immanent, infinite, eternal and immutable persons comprising the triune God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) has always loved the other two unconditionally. This quandary becomes unresolvable only for those who believe God exists as one person. The "agape love" dilemma besets non-Christian religions (e.g. Islam) as well as Christian spinoffs (Oneness Pentecostalism).
Why bother to discuss Sabellianism in today's culture? The answer is that Sabellianism was alive and well in the 20th century and is thriving today as Oneness Pentecostalism (Jesus Only) Christianity. Furthermore, in the 20th century, Karl Barth was reputed to be a Sabellian (Buswell, p 123-124). Finally, the UMC has been steeped in modalism for decades. In 1987, UMC Bishop Emerson Colaw issued the 3rd edition of Beliefs of a United Methodist Christian. In the words of Bishop Colaw:
"By having affirmed that as United Methodists we believe in the Holy Spirit, we hasten to add that the Christian faith, contrary to what is often assumed, does not have three distinct persons, separate from each other, as God...No doctrine is more misunderstood than the Christian concept of the Trinity. When we say "God in three persons, blessed Trinity," however, we are using the word persons in the sense in which the word Persona was used in the theater of classical Greece and Rome. It meant the mask, put on by actors, in order to play different parts. The word was taken over by early theologians to express the diverse forms of God's activity without destroying the concept of God's unity...The number three is incidental. We are simply saying that these are the ways we know God, and we are also saying that all these expressions are manifestations of the One God." (Colaw, p 33-34)
The traditional Methodist view is closer to:
The one true God exists as three distinct, transcendent, immanent, infinite, eternal, and immutable persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
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- The one true God (Deut 4:35, 6:4; Isa 43:10, 44:6-8; I Cor 8:6; 1 Tim 2:5) exists as three distinct,
- transcendent (1 Kings 8:27),
- immanent (Acts 17:27,28; Col 1:16-17),
- infinite (1 Kings 8:27),
- eternal (Isa 57:15) and
- immutable (Mal 3:6) persons:
- God the Father (John 5:18, 10:29, 14:28, 17:1-3; 1 Cor 8:6; Phil 2:11),
- God the Son (Isa 7:14, 44:6; John 1:1-14, 5:18, 10:30, 20:28, 8:58 cf Ex 3:14; Rom 9:5; Phil 2:5-11; Col 1:15-18; Titus 2:13, Heb 1:8; 1 John 5:20; Rev 22:13-18) and
- God the Holy Spirit (Ex 17:7 cf Heb 3:7-9; Mat 28:19; Acts 5:3-4, 13:2 cf Gal 1:1 and 1 Tim 1:1; 1 Cor 3:16; 2 Cor 13:14; 2 Tim 3:16 cf 2 Pet 1:21; Heb 9:14).
Some have claimed the Holy Spirit is not a person. This claim is refuted by the following Scriptures: (John 14:26, 15:26, 16:7-11, 14; Acts 5:3, 13:2, 16:7; Rom 8:16, 26; 1 Cor 12:11; Eph 1:14, 4:30).
