As you may know, the altruistic notion of “thinking of others” and “sacrificing for others” is an evidence of a CONSCIENCE that would experience GUILT if it were self-seeking. Wouldn’t it be assumed that if the “fittest” people were the “selffish” people, the conscience would have been eliminated from the gene pool by now? Surely, all of the thoughtful people would have joined armies and given their lives for the sake of the selffish ones.
Why is the conscience continually with us? The Bible teaches that the conscience is a testimony of the Law of God given to all men. To some degree or other, our conscience either excuses us or accuses us – depending upon how sensitive or insensitive we are.
When we are born again, the Lord writes the Law of God upon our hearts afresh and renews the conscience.
The conscience is a testimony of God to all men of the reality of RIGHT and WRONG – and would not have been left for us to experience if we had evolved.
The conscience serves no “fit” or “self-surviving” purpose and defies the doctrine of evolution!

Jesus was asked which of the commandments is the greatest (the word in scripture is “first”, the meaning of which is “greatest” (protos) in the original text). His answer?

“Hear O’ Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first (greatest) commandment.”

Mark 12: 29-30

He quoted Deuteronomy 6:4 - 5 as the greatest commandment in the whole of the law.

When asked by his followers to “show us the Father”, he said, “if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” John 14: 8-9

Clearly, the Father was in the Son (the “Son” is a term used to describe God in his role as a human being, the Messiah, the “lamb” of God).

In heaven, there is one throne, not three. Guess who sits on it? Yes, Jesus. That is, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

They are all sitting on the throne, because the glorified, risen body of the Messiah is sitting on it, and “in him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily”.

The full Godhead, that is, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, dwells in the Son.

There is no separation in the Godhead. He is one God, with one mind, manifesting himself in different ways to us.

Just as he did as a burning bush, a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. It is the same, one God.

As the Father, he is the creator. As the Son, he is the lamb. As the Holy Ghost, he is the comforter.

Oneness vs Trinitarianism

One of the clearest distinctions between a oneness, or modalism believer and a trinitarian, is that oneness don’t believe the Son existed before he was born in the flesh, other than in the mind of God.

Trinitarians, however, believe he was up there in heaven having conversations with “the Father”, sitting in the living room type of thing. He then “left his post”, to come down to earth and do the Messiah thing.

How many thrones in heaven? One, right?

Prior to the Son being born, who was sitting on the throne?

Did the Son stand while the Father sat on the throne?

What about now? Is the Father standing while the Son is sitting? 

These are silly questions, aren’t they? 

The name Jesus means “Jehovah-Saviour”. It is the latest revelation of the name of God.

The Jehovah of the old testament who was known as “Jehovah-Jireh” (God, our provider), has now become the Messiah, performed that role and become our saviour.

The name Jesus can be used now in place of Jehovah – xxxxxxx, because Jehovah has become our saviour, so we can attribute that role to him. Instead of calling him Jehovah-Saviour, we call him Jesus, because that is what the name means.

On a personal level, the only way that I can see to reconcile all scripture is through the oneness view. This is also the view of NBPC, and that’s why NBPC are oneness Pentecostals, not Trinitarians.

I hope this brief article gives you some idea of the difference between oneness (also called “modalism”) and trinitarianism.

Creationists believe that God created the universe in 6 days. The universe is somewhere between 6000 and 10 000 years old.

Evolutionists believe that there was a “big bang”, from which all matter in existence came.  The general emphasis here is that there is no God, thus no greater intelligence that created. It all just happened by itself over billions of years (i.e. given enough time, things will organize themselves into complex systems). This is like saying that if you drop a bomb on a brick yard, given enough time a house will build itself, complete with plumbing, microwave oven, swimming pool and so on. No greater intelligence is required (i.e. a person with a mind) for this to happen, just lots of time and chance.

The difference in real life, is that an evolutionist must hold to the belief that there are no morals. It is survival of the fittest, we are all just animals.  The weak fall by the wayside and die off, leaving the strong to “evolve” into a stronger species.

If this theory is true (and it is just a theory), then what is man evolving into? We have been using weapons for all of recorded history, but we aren’t growing spear-heads or swords out of our arms. Clearly there is a need for this function, but no changes are occuring.

Creationists believe that the God of the bible exists, and that the bible account of creation is literally true and correct. In six literal, 24-hour days, God created the world, the universe, and everything in it. Species were made according to their kind, and that’s how it remains today.

If the evolutionary view was true, we would expect to see transitional forms of life on the planet, both in fossil records and living presently. However, there are no half human/apes, there are no half cat/dogs, there are no species linking the different forms of life together.

That is what we can observe, without bias. There aren’t any half tree/koalas either.

That which we observe around us, fits with a creationist point of view. Seperate species, nothing inbetween.

Dogs don’t and can’t breed with cats, humans with animals, and so on. The species are all seperate – because we were designed and created that way.

From the bible, we can also draw a moral code and learn about God’s nature.

Care for the sick, help the weak, feed the poor. The exact opposite of “survival of the fittest”.

As you can see, you cannot be a Christian and an evolutionist at the same time. Either you believe in God and creation, or you are an evolutionist who believes your ancestors are apes and, ultimately, pond scum. You can trace your family tree back to a single cell, whose origin no-one knows either.

Jesus taught in John 3:5 that “except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

At the time, the Holy Ghost had not yet been given (the Spirit Jesus was speaking about), so he was obviously speaking prophetically of when the Spirit would be given (i.e. when the N.T. church would start), which is what we find in the book of Acts, chapter 2.

On this particular day of Pentecost (a Jewish Feast), the “born of the Spirit” that Jesus spoke of in John 3:5 was fulfilled, when those in the upper room were filled with “power from on high”, and they spake with other tongues.

This was the giving of the Spirit, the Holy Ghost.

The apostle Peter, who previously had cowered while warming his hands at the fire of some of Jesus’ persecutors, now boldly proclaimed to a crowd of thousands, that they should “repent, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ (born of water in John 3:5 – full immersion baptism) and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:38).”

This was the fulfillment of John 3:5 and from that point onwards (Acts 2:38), that is how people were converted to Christianity, and that is still the method of entering the kingdom. We are still under the covenant of grace, ushered in by the events of Acts 2, the fulfillment of John 3:5.

No new method of salvation been given since. So, that is still the method in place, as established by God himself, when he “dwelt among us” (as the Messiah).

There is no other way to attain eternal life.

Baptism on it’s own won’t save you, but in combination with repentance and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, it will.

Here is John 3:5 again, the prophetic words of Jesus to Nicodemus, followed by Acts 2:38, the start of the church when the Holy Ghost was given. See the fulfillment of the words of Christ by matching the colored words.

“Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” John 3:5

“Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Acts 2:38 (the apostle Peter)

Either Jesus and Peter were lying, or water baptism is a requirement of entering the kingdom of God, the body of Christ.