Did Paul Believe that Jesus Was God the Son?

[_KevinSim]

Some months back I decided to read all the way through the Epistles of Paul, paying special attention to what Paul thought of God the Son. By that I mean the idea that Jesus is in fact God. That's usually used in conjunction with the idea that Jesus' Father is also God, the Holy Spirit is as well God, and yet they are not three deities but are in fact considered altogether just one God, hence the alleged monotheism of orthodox Christianity.

Anyhow I finished that study a couple of weeks ago. The closest Paul ever came to endorsing the God the Son idea was in 1 Timothy 3:16 where it says, "God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles ...." That does definitely sound like it's saying Jesus was in fact God; who else could have been God manifested in the flesh?

But I did a little research and it turns out that a lot of respected scholars seriously doubt that Paul actually wrote either of the epistles to Timothy, or the Epistle to Titus. Each of those epistles start out by identifying themselves as having been written by Paul, but those scholars point out that it was a common practice of people of that day to write an epistle in the style of some prominent figure and to in fact identify that figure as the author, when in fact it was written by someone else.

So I removed 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus from my consideration, and concentrated on the other epistles attributed to Paul.

The passage that came next most to endorsing the God the Son idea was Phillipians 2:6, that says of Jesus, "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." But the more you look at this verse the clearer it is that Paul doesn't use equal to mean same; he really isn't saying Jesus is God when he says Jesus is equal with God; he is clearly drawing a distinction between Jesus and God.

I also remember a number of times a common theme; over and over Paul talks about belief in one God and one Lord, Jesus Christ. It's hard to escape the conclusion that Paul believes Christianity is monotheist because there's only one God, and that God is someone other than the one Lord, who is Jesus. Is it possible that Paul didn't believe that Jesus is the one God that Christianity worships? It could be argued that Paul believed that Jesus was "equal with" that one God, but did Paul believe that Jesus was that one God?

[_GR33N]

Great post.

[_Buffalo]

Very interesting observation, thanks for that.

[_Aristotle Smith]

The passage that came next most to endorsing the God the Son idea was Phillipians 2:6, that says of Jesus, "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." But the more you look at this verse the clearer it is that Paul doesn't use equal to mean same; he really isn't saying Jesus is God when he says Jesus is equal with God; he is clearly drawing a distinction between Jesus and God.

And because of this, orthodox Christianity always thinks in terms of the Trinity when relating Jesus to God the Father. I'm not claiming that Paul thought in terms of the the Trinity, I'm fairly certain he didn't. The Trinity is orthodox Christianity's way of synthesizing and making sense of passages like this in the New Testament. For a simple infographic of this, see here:

http://ldstalk.wordpress.com/2012/03/16 ... fographic/

In any case, it looks like you are looking for evidence that Paul was a modalist. Mormons, I think, usually think of Trinity in terms of modalism. It's a common misunderstanding and it's the view of God promulgated in the Book of Mormon. Modalism and Trinitarianism are not the same. Modalism would not see a distinction between Jesus and God the Father, which the passage you cite is clearly trying to communicate.

I also remember a number of times a common theme; over and over Paul talks about belief in one God and one Lord, Jesus Christ. It's hard to escape the conclusion that Paul believes Christianity is monotheist because there's only one God, and that God is someone other than the one Lord, who is Jesus. Is it possible that Paul didn't believe that Jesus is the one God that Christianity worships? It could be argued that Paul believed that Jesus was "equal with" that one God, but did Paul believe that Jesus was that one God?

Again, Paul wasn't a modalist, for him there is a distinction between Jesus and God the Father. It's too bad that Mormonism thinks that Trinitarian thought is the epicenter of all evil in Christianity, because it provides a way of thinking through these kinds of passages.