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Oneness Pentecostals and the Trinity
What's special about Oneness Pentecostals?
In this penetrating analysis of Oneness theology and practice, Gregory Boyd reveals the experience of four years of personal involvement in a Oneness church.
Although Oneness Pentecostals' belief in Christ's deity establishes some common ground with other Christians, their aggressive denial of the Trinity has nonetheless fostered their indisputably sub-Christian ideas about God's character, about salvation, and about Christian living.
In this penetrating analysis of Oneness theology and practice, Gregory Boyd reveals the experience of four years of personal involvement in a Oneness church.
Although Oneness Pentecostals' belief in Christ's deity establishes some common ground with other Christians, their aggressive denial of the Trinity has nonetheless fostered their indisputably sub-Christian ideas about God's character, about salvation, and about Christian living.
- GenresTheology
244 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1992
14 people are currently reading
92 people want to read
About the author
Gregory A. Boyd
94 books349 followersGregory A. Boyd is the founder and senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minn., and founder and president of ReKnew. He was a professor of theology at Bethel College (St. Paul, Minn.) for sixteen years where he continues to serve as an Adjunct Professor.
Greg is a graduate of the University of Minnesota (BA), Yale Divinity School (M.Div), and Princeton Theological Seminary (PhD). Greg is a national and international speaker at churches, colleges, conferences, and retreats, and has appeared on numerous radio and television shows. He has also authored and coauthored eighteen books prior to Present Perfect, including The Myth of a Christian Religion, The Myth of a Christian Nation, The Jesus Legend (with Paul Eddy), Seeing Is Believing, Repenting of Religion, and his international bestseller Letters from a Skeptic.
Greg is a graduate of the University of Minnesota (BA), Yale Divinity School (M.Div), and Princeton Theological Seminary (PhD). Greg is a national and international speaker at churches, colleges, conferences, and retreats, and has appeared on numerous radio and television shows. He has also authored and coauthored eighteen books prior to Present Perfect, including The Myth of a Christian Religion, The Myth of a Christian Nation, The Jesus Legend (with Paul Eddy), Seeing Is Believing, Repenting of Religion, and his international bestseller Letters from a Skeptic.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 9, 2025
Gregory Boyd’s Oneness Pentecostals and the Trinity defends the Trinity but his tone is combative. The book often relies on straw man arguments, oversimplifying and misrepresenting Oneness theology rather than engaging with it at its strongest. While both sides care deeply about following the Bible, he doesn’t try to understand or represent the Oneness view fairly, so the book doesn’t help real conversation or understanding. The book is over 30 years old. These types of books and discussions on this topic are antiquated. Modern Christians from both sides are having real conversations and leaving the straw man behind.
August 23, 2023
I give this book a 3.5/5 rating. It could easily be a 4/5 if he took out some material, or tweaked other material. I'll give a rundown of the good and bad.
Good- Boyd gives a comprehensive defense of trinitarian theology contra Oneness theology throughout this book. He does a solid job of thoroughly citing the Oneness position from primary and well-respected authors like Sabin and Bernard. No one can accuse him of creating a straw man in this book. It helped that I read Bernard's primary work on The Oneness of God. Boyd cites and references Bernard's arguments accurately. Boyd goes through blow by blow the common Oneness arguments and even gets into some more detailed and difficult arguments along the way. Thorough is a good description of this work. Because of that, it can be dry at times, but not overly. Boyd is an ex-Oneness person himself, and so this adds further credibility to his representation of the other side. Overall, Boyd's defense of the Trinity is very good. However, some of the language he uses confused me at times. See below. This functions as a nice reference work for someone who wants to know a Biblical response to Oneness argumentation. For the majority of it, I would say Boyd is biblical.
Bad- Boyd argues from emotion a lot when criticizing the UPCI and how they think they are the only ones saved. He broadly and frequently uses buzz phrases like legalism and cult without defining what he means by this, though he finally defines cult in footnotes of Appendix C. He describes UPCI as being narrow-minded because they believe other "Chrsitians" are lost, yet Boyd certainly believes billions of non-Christians are lost.
Boyd is often confusing on explaining trinitarian concepts, particularly the way he described the relationship and unity of the three distinct persons in the Trinity. The way Boyd talks sometimes, it makes you question whether he is actually saying the three persons are truly distinct or not. For example, "God is therefore fully present in each of the three ways he eternally exists" (50). "Where ever and however God exists -- as Father, or Son, or Holy Spirit -- all of God exists. From this it follows that whatever 'person' of the Godhead one is referring to, the other two are fully present" (64). It is never clear exactly what Boyd believes about the distinctness, yet unification of the Godhead. He explicitly alludes to it as beyond conception at times. He seems to muddy the water more than say James White on his definition of the Trinity and the relationship of the three persons.
Boyd's Chapter on baptism is predictably bad as he believes it is not for remission of sins. His arguments against are largely weak. He even uses grammatical arguments against baptism for remission of sins that he previously in the book used to show Oneness interpretations of Colossians was wrong (compare p. 136 w/ 104 on "eis").
His appendix on Hair was grossly assumptive, sometimes plain ignorant or misleading, and based on citations was scripted off Gordon Fee's Corinthians commentary.
Overall, if you want to read a book on trinitatrianism, this is a good book. It's not perfect at all, and it will leave you confused at times, but it does effectively prove trinitarianism over and against Oneness theology in my final assessment.
Good- Boyd gives a comprehensive defense of trinitarian theology contra Oneness theology throughout this book. He does a solid job of thoroughly citing the Oneness position from primary and well-respected authors like Sabin and Bernard. No one can accuse him of creating a straw man in this book. It helped that I read Bernard's primary work on The Oneness of God. Boyd cites and references Bernard's arguments accurately. Boyd goes through blow by blow the common Oneness arguments and even gets into some more detailed and difficult arguments along the way. Thorough is a good description of this work. Because of that, it can be dry at times, but not overly. Boyd is an ex-Oneness person himself, and so this adds further credibility to his representation of the other side. Overall, Boyd's defense of the Trinity is very good. However, some of the language he uses confused me at times. See below. This functions as a nice reference work for someone who wants to know a Biblical response to Oneness argumentation. For the majority of it, I would say Boyd is biblical.
Bad- Boyd argues from emotion a lot when criticizing the UPCI and how they think they are the only ones saved. He broadly and frequently uses buzz phrases like legalism and cult without defining what he means by this, though he finally defines cult in footnotes of Appendix C. He describes UPCI as being narrow-minded because they believe other "Chrsitians" are lost, yet Boyd certainly believes billions of non-Christians are lost.
Boyd is often confusing on explaining trinitarian concepts, particularly the way he described the relationship and unity of the three distinct persons in the Trinity. The way Boyd talks sometimes, it makes you question whether he is actually saying the three persons are truly distinct or not. For example, "God is therefore fully present in each of the three ways he eternally exists" (50). "Where ever and however God exists -- as Father, or Son, or Holy Spirit -- all of God exists. From this it follows that whatever 'person' of the Godhead one is referring to, the other two are fully present" (64). It is never clear exactly what Boyd believes about the distinctness, yet unification of the Godhead. He explicitly alludes to it as beyond conception at times. He seems to muddy the water more than say James White on his definition of the Trinity and the relationship of the three persons.
Boyd's Chapter on baptism is predictably bad as he believes it is not for remission of sins. His arguments against are largely weak. He even uses grammatical arguments against baptism for remission of sins that he previously in the book used to show Oneness interpretations of Colossians was wrong (compare p. 136 w/ 104 on "eis").
His appendix on Hair was grossly assumptive, sometimes plain ignorant or misleading, and based on citations was scripted off Gordon Fee's Corinthians commentary.
Overall, if you want to read a book on trinitatrianism, this is a good book. It's not perfect at all, and it will leave you confused at times, but it does effectively prove trinitarianism over and against Oneness theology in my final assessment.
December 29, 2021
This is a borderline 4/5. Boyd does an excellent job introducing the core apologia for the Oneness (i.e. modalist) view of God in the first chapter then systematically dismantles it, showing the unmistakable diversity in the Godhead or as he calls it “the inescapable Trinity”. Many of Boyd’s arguments are standard fare for Trinitarian apologetics but some are weaker than others. For example, Boyd takes the “royal plural” view of Gen 1:26. Elsewhere, Boyd overstates his case or includes some annoying rhetorical flourish. The last chapters shine and, surprisingly, the best stuff can be found in the appendices. In short, this is a bit dated and deserving of a second edition to clean up some of the arguments and update some of the stats. This would be a fine book for a Oneness person to read, save for the rhetorical asides that would come off as tacky to a less charitable reader. Overall, 3.7/5.
June 21, 2017
I read this book while researching a project. It is extremely well written, but wasn't the best choice for my needs.
The first two chapters of the text outline the basis for the Oneness Pentecostals' disbelief in the Holy Trinity - and their belief that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are simply different facets of the same God. The remaining chapters refute this theory and argue in favor of the Trinity.
All of the arguments both for and against Oneness beliefs seem valid and to me come down to semantics. I was actually shocked to read how much information there is in the Bible to support the Oneness theory.
I was hoping for more information about the practices of Oneness believers and this book did not give me much outside of the introduction (the author was a 4 year follower of the OP tribe before leaving to get his PhD in Theology from Princeton).
The first two chapters of the text outline the basis for the Oneness Pentecostals' disbelief in the Holy Trinity - and their belief that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are simply different facets of the same God. The remaining chapters refute this theory and argue in favor of the Trinity.
All of the arguments both for and against Oneness beliefs seem valid and to me come down to semantics. I was actually shocked to read how much information there is in the Bible to support the Oneness theory.
I was hoping for more information about the practices of Oneness believers and this book did not give me much outside of the introduction (the author was a 4 year follower of the OP tribe before leaving to get his PhD in Theology from Princeton).
April 20, 2018
Very thorough treatment
This book provides the exact insights I need to deal with Oneness adherents I am dealing with. And I didn't even know I was in their crosshairs.
This book provides the exact insights I need to deal with Oneness adherents I am dealing with. And I didn't even know I was in their crosshairs.
September 24, 2018
Very helpful!
This book was both fair and thorough in it's dealing with Oneness doctrine. I wish that I had come across this sooner when I was still in the U.P.C.
This book was both fair and thorough in it's dealing with Oneness doctrine. I wish that I had come across this sooner when I was still in the U.P.C.
June 10, 2010
I had a friend give me this book to read and I read it and it helped out a great deal understand the difference between the Trinity and Oneness doctrine. I think it's a must read, though my friend was hoping that I would believe the Trinitarian belief it helped me understand the Oneness theology better and gave me a greater understanding of the need to understand that we need to love the truth of the word of God and that God needs to reveal these things to us. The natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit. Our faith needs to be challenged and tried to make sure that it is sure.
May 13, 2011
This book shows how the trinitarian belief has more consistent, sound biblical explanation of the very nature of God than the oneness does; how in the trinity we have God that is open, revealed Himself as He is rather than God that is hidden, revealed Himself as an "illusory".
Overall, this book is really helpful for those who want to know better about doctrine of trinity.
Overall, this book is really helpful for those who want to know better about doctrine of trinity.
November 29, 2012
This is a good book, on an important subject... It has great apologetic import - he deals very fairly with Oneness Pentecostals (which few critics do) - but it also helps defend in general the importance of the Trinity and its importance in general. Good book.
January 1, 2010
A careful analysis of the Oneness position and a solid defense of the Trinity vs. Oneness doctrine.
Read
August 12, 2011Very Good, provides good argumentation for his points, although can become lost in his language sometimes, but he is a philospher
December 19, 2013
Not as helpful as I hoped.
April 30, 2017
Interesting to read and understand some things better. I for one appreciate his clarity on some issues
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews