Oneness of the Godhead, Oneness of the Church, and the Irrationality of Oneness Religion

Oneness Pentecostals often cite John 10:30 in defense of their doctrine of a monadic deity: "I and the Father are one." Oneness claim that Jesus is here professing that He and the Father are one Person. Does that hermeneutic hold up when examined against biblical usage?

It does not.

Consider these other words of Jesus from the same book: "I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. The glory that You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one even as We are one, I in them and You in Me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent Me and loved them even as You loved Me" (John 17:20-23).

This is from Jesus's High-Priestly Prayer. In it, He asks the Father to make His people one, just as He and the Father are one. Now, if we follow the logic of Oneness theology, this means that He is praying that all Christians will be merged into one gigantic mass, a literal oneness of person - no more single bodies or personalities. Yet no rational person would imagine that was His intent. 

However, the fact remains that Jesus describes a parallel of the unity of the church with the unity of the Godhead. It is not a unity of person, with no distinctions of identity or personality. Rather, it is a unity of purpose and love. The people of God should be united in the sight of an unbelieving world, united in a work that He gave us to do (Matthew 28:19-20) and love for each other (which is not to say that we have attained such oneness yet). This is exactly how the Persons of the Godhead are one, in perfect unity and love. They have had that unity from eternity, even if their people have yet to attain it. Each member has his own job to do, just as each Person of the Trinity has His own office. If all are made the same, then the body and the Godhead fail (see I Corinthians 12).

Simply stated, Oneness arguments cannot stand even minuscule attention because they are irrational, and produce even more irrationality if applied consistently. Any worldview that fails by its own consistent application is necessarily a false worldview.