The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief

by James R. White

Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God’ “(John 20:17). Why cite this passage? Because the truth I noted at the beginning of this chapter really is frequently ignored! The idea is simple: if Jesus can speak of His “God,” then He can’t really be God, but must be something less (i.e., a creature) who is called “God” but only in a “sort of” fashion. Remember the maxim: Difference in function does not indicate inferiority of nature. Here the Father is described as Jesus’ “God.” Since this is so, Jesus must be some inferior being, and therefore, John 20:28 can’t mean what it so obviously says.[6] Note how one writer has expressed it: Such a confession, as in the case of Thomas, is qualified not only by the context (John 20:17), but also by the whole of Scripture. The use of later Chalcedonian christology does not come into play in verses such as John 20:17, either. Here Jesus, in the same state Thomas addressed him, says that the Father is his God, again differentiating between the two in terms of theos, as well as acknowledging the Father’s superiority over him, as his God.[7] And just here we see the circularity of the arguments of those who deny the deity of Christ: why can’t Thomas mean what he said? Because, of course, the Father is different than the Son. It was the Son who became Incarnate, and since the Son, as the perfect ma...