Contra Modalism: Jesus Cannot Be the Father

Jesus said something in Matthew 24:36 which has had Christians scratching our heads for the two thousand years since: "Concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only." Since He is God, how is it possible that He not know something? In fact, Jehovah's Witnesses cite this verse as supposed evidence that Jesus is not God.

The answer has long since been given: Jesus was speaking in His humanity, not in His deity. People often forget that Jesus was, is, and ever shall be, truly human. That is not to say that He is not God. Rather, He unites in one person two separate natures, the divine and the human, each with its proper attributes remaining intact. This is correctly summarized in the Definition of Chalcedon: "One and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ." And, as a human with the same limitations as any other human, He would not have had the Father's knowledge of the future. As God, He certainly did, but decided not to reveal that knowledge.

I bring up this verse now because of its impact on the modalist doctrine of Oneness Pentecostalism. That sect claims that Jesus is the Father incarnated. Yet, He explicitly distinguishes between Himself and the Father in this verse, showing that the modalist doctrine is false. The Law of Non-Contradiction tells us necessarily that A cannot be both B and not-B at the same time. Yet, that is what the Oneness theologians would have us believe.