Trinity Berean and the Pattern

Trinity Berean is a website devoted to evaluating the doctrine of the trinity, and developing an alternative viewpoint known as “the pattern” to resolve areas where trinitarian doctrine seems to depart from biblical teaching. Many groups who object to the trinity do so on philosophical grounds, such as believing that it’s impossible to have three persons without three gods. Others, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses or LDS, object to the trinity on the basis of extrabiblical scriptures that they believe to be also divinely inspired. Unlike the non-trinitarian beliefs of cultic or otherwise unbiblical groups, the content on this website centers around biblical issues — ways in which the trinity seems to use scripture (the 66 books of the Bible) inconsistently, in conflict with other biblical doctrines, or out of context.

Anonymous Authorship

For the foreseeable future, the authorship of content on Trinity Berean will be kept anonymous. Churches and Christian ministries generally take action against non-trinitarians as a matter of standard procedure, under the errant belief that acceptance of the trinity is essential to salvation, or that there is no room for disagreement on the nature of God among Bible-believing Christians. Patternists on the other hand generally view this as a “secondary issue” that is non-essential to Christian colaboration and fellowship, akin to differences between Calvinism and Arminianism. Anonymous authorship of articles and other forms of contribution allows the writer(s) to defend their beliefs in the context of a modern church court system that frequently fails to render biblically-grounded justice in disputes.

Anonymity serves a second useful purpose, in that it forces readers to grapple with the actual content of an argument, rather than simply attack the person making the argument. There are always legitimate or illegitimate ways to discredit a person’s morality, intellect, or consistency. However, such ad-hominem attacks have nothing to do with the truthfulness of the person’s argument, unless the argument is grounded on his/her own authority. If the authority is scripture, then the authorship is irrelevant to the truth claims being made, and should be ignored.

What to Expect

In addition to the above concerns, I’d like to set some practical expectations about what you’ll find on this site. First and foremost, you will not find a contact form, at least not for a long time. In addition to my job, I focus most of my spare time on the abolition of abortion as an issue of greater importance than discussions on the godhead. This website is constructed primarily because my views on the godhead have become a significant hindrance to my service in other areas of ministry, so I (understandably) have to invest some time into defending my convictions. But I don’t have additional time to invest in developing relationships and debates with people online who encounter my content, and want to engage in some way.

Put another way, even though trinitarians generally view this as a primary issue of grave importance, I view it as a secondary issue where Christ- and scripture-honoring Christians can disagree and remain in unity. Thus while it’s something I’m passionate about, it’s also something that takes a back seat to more pressing concerns of the kingdom. You won’t find a contact form, but hopefully you’ll find the spirit of grace and friendly conversation that should characterize such discussion, where all parties genuinely want to understand what God has communicated in his word.

You’ll also find a great deal of “under construction” markers, where articles are either entirely missing (the page serving as a placeholder for future content), or they’re incomplete. This can even happen in the middle of a sentence, if I’m suddenly

Pattern Christology

Jesus has two natures — an uncreated divine nature, and a created human nature.

Jesus is truly God, meaning that his divine nature predates the existence of the universe, and has all of the attributes of monotheistic, biblical divinity (omniscience, omnipotence etc.). He is not a lesser, created god, but rather exists eternally before and outside of time as the one true God.

Jesus is truly man, meaning that his human nature is truly descended from Adam. From the moment of conception onward, he has (and forever will have) a human body comprised of matter and energy, and a human soul with its own distinct intellect and will. He is not a mirage or apparition; he truly lived a real, human life among us, while simultaneously possessing and displaying his divinity through miraculous works and words of life.

Like the title “son of man,” the title “son of God” describes Jesus’ created, human nature. Adam, Jesus, and the Christian are all described as sons of God because we are in the form/image/likeness of God. Both divine and human activities are ascribed to Jesus through both titles, because of their contextual meaning (Jesus is a particular son of man who is divine; Jesus is a particular son of God who is divine). But the title “son of God” fundamentally describes his human nature and human relationship to God.

A few scriptures describe Jesus as having a father/son relationship with God prior to his incarnation as a man. If Jesus’ sonship is through his humanity, then this presents a challenge to pattern christology, because his human relationship with God predates his existence as a man.

Trinitarians turn to Jesus’ divinity to explain this preincarnate sonship. Patternists, on the other hand, maintain that he was the son of God through a “preincarnate hypostatic union” known as the angel of the Lord. Prior to the incarnation, Jesus was truly God, and truly angelic (or at least a true creature). This allows the person of the son to exist from the moment that God first created light, without compromising his true divinity.

Like trinitarians, patternists believe that Jesus has two natures that together form a single person. Unlike trinitarians, we also affirm that each nature is distinctly personal, and that Jesus can behave as a single unified person, or as two distinct persons (often identified as the Father and the Son). Scripture shows us that Jesus has a human mind and human will that are distinct from his divine mind and divine will. This implies that Jesus’ human and divine natures are distinctly personal.

Pattern christology therefore agrees with both orthodox christology (belief in a single person), and nestorianism (belief in two distinct persons). This is not a contradiction, because scripture supports the idea of two (or more) persons becoming and behaving as one person.

God dwells in Jesus as a human temple, similar to how he dwells in a Christian, but with a few differences. First, Jesus is described as God incarnate, and we are not. Second, God dwells in Christ through the divine person of the Word, whereas he dwells in the Christian through the divine person of the Holy Spirit.

These two temples correspond to the two persons in the godhead. God is a composite union of two persons who are one, the Word and the Spirit. The term “Father” is used to denote the godhead as a whole, the composite union of Word and Spirit. Thus it is accurate to say that the Father (God) dwells in Christ through the Word, and the Father (God) dwells in the Christian through the Spirit.