Introduction

The first edition of this book was originally printed in 1988. In those days, my pastor, teacher, and mentor, Robert A. Sabin[1] was a recognized authority and embodiment of excellence in Teaching Others Who Jesus Really Is! I was new to the Pentecostal experience having been introduced to the message of Jesus as the incarnation of God Almighty by a member of Brother Sabin’s congregation. When arranging my first meeting with Brother Sabin during a church service I suggested he look for a tall guy since I was almost six foot eight inches in those days. Our relationship began with me taking the part of cynic, resistor, and challenger, but that did not last long. I began studying feverishly, hammering out my findings on a relic portable typewriter of my mother-in-law’s. I was up in the middle of the night and most uncommitted periods would find me in our basement surrounded by Bibles, a Strong’s Concordance, Hebrew and Greek word studies. My sweet wife, of over 50 years now, was not always happy with me.

It was not long before I presented my research in a paper, God’s Mystery, that is Christ Himself, Colossians 2:2, to Brother Sabin and then to the deacon board of the Baptist church we attended. Brother Sabin was very impressed, the deacon board not so much. I remember the assistant pastor of the church shaking his index finger at me like my mother use to do, telling me that if I continued down this path of questioning God, I was going to lose my soul. No one would study with me or help in my search. Brother Sabin was a prince; he was patient, kind—if not loving, understanding, and available.

The new pastor of the Baptist church was also kind and patient. He was a seasoned pastor with years of experience. I believe it was his experiential wisdom that caused him to resist chastising, condemning, or threatening me unlike several others. I had a relationship with several members of the deacon board. They seemed almost shocked and heart sick in response to the discussion we were having. They were foreign to meetings of this nature, and I believe some felt they were in over their heads addressing the issues on the agenda. Most Christians are clueless to what the doctrine of the Trinity claims, what verses it came from, how it came to be the premier doctrine of the Orthodox Christian Church, and what the consequences are for questioning, much less challenging it. By the end of the meeting, it was clear that we were at an impasse. These were godly men attempting to be obedient to God’s will. They did not understand because they had never been taught anything their entire lives other than the Trinity. My wife and I decided it would be best for all if we left quietly to avoid any major conflicts or offenses.

Departing the Baptist congregation to enter a Oneness Pentecostal congregation was a culture shock to say the least. I was baptized (sprinkled) as a baby in the Catholic Church, required to be baptized by immersion in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to become a member of the Baptist Church, and Brother Sabin encouraged me to be baptized in Jesus’ name. I fully anticipated to emerge from the water in the Baptist Church speaking in tongues but did not. I now believe God saved me from an early falling out with my new fellowship since speaking in tongues was not wholly accepted by the Baptists. I hoped that being baptized according to Acts 2:38 would remedy that, it did not.

Brother Sabin did not really know how to figure me out. He had never seen anyone understand who Jesus really is before receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit as evidenced by speaking in tongues. He was as anxious for me to be baptized as I was. The evidence he was looking for and gift I thought I was waiting for was not to come that night.

A ministry focused on spreading the message that Jesus was Almighty God in flesh called “Oneness Ministries” slowly came to pass. It started when Brother Sabin taught and preached the most amazing revelations of God becoming a man, week after week, month after month. First, we made tape sets, then he traveled (sometimes I accompanied him) and taught throughout the country where we sold those tape sets. We developed a mailing list and sent out about twelve issues of a free newsletter called the Oneness News & Journal. Brother Sabin and I came together just when the personal computer era began. We purchased one of the first Macintosh computers for RAS and he was off and running. The first newsletter was printed out using a dot matrix printer. The newsletter consisted mostly of Brother Sabin’s edited messages to fit the format and intent. I believe that is when Brother Sabin’s lessons and the message were progressively burned on my heart and in my mind, as I poured over transcripts of his sermons for hours and weeks in my basement and in the fire stations where I worked.

Brother Sabin participated in multiple debates: The first was “The Davenport Debate” against George Mathers held in Iowa. The second consisted of eight sessions called the “Ankerberg Debates,” televised on the John Ankerberg Show with opposing arguments from Dr. Walter Martin, founder of the Christian Research Institute and author of The Kingdom of the Cults who was known as the “Bible Answer Man” and his associate Calvin Beisner, then editor of the Navigator’s Discipleship Magazine. There are many bits and pieces still on YouTube. The last debates I had any involvement in took place January 12 & 13, 1990 in St. Paul, Minnesota and August 17 & 18, 1990 in Newport Beach, California. They were two separate dual session debates against Robert Bowman titled “Who is Jesus Christ?” Brother Sabin debated James White in 1999 which is also on YouTube and had several other debates that I am unfamiliar with.

In 1998, I built the website “whoisjesus.com” which is still active and where this study will be posted. Brother Sabin retired from ministry in 2007 but continued to travel and teach as his failing health allowed him. He passed away on October 15, 2014. He had become so much more to me than a mentor, pastor, or teacher. My children called him “Papa.” There was a time in our lives when he was family. I loved him dearly and miss him terribly.

I have vivid memories of asking him, “Brother Sabin, when are you going to start writing your book?” On one occasion he responded, “I am writing it now in you.” I never took him seriously. Another vivid memory occurred when his health was declining, months before his death. I had been reading about Elisha asking Elijah for a double portion of his spirit. I asked Brother Sabin if he would pray for me to have a double portion of his spirit. He laid hands on me and prayed for me in his driveway sitting in my minivan.

I cannot say whether God granted that prayer at all, or in part, because I know he did not grant it entirely, but that is to yet to be determined. There are no thoughts or aspirations in my heart or mind that I will ever attain the level of Brother Sabin. It is impossible for me to differentiate between the lessons I learned from Robert Sabin and what I learned on my own. The foundation laid down for me by Brother Sabin that the overwhelming truth of the Bible is “there is one, and only one God, absolutely alone” guides my every interpretation of scripture. I only want to pass on what I have learned. I will always consider it a privilege to have carried his bags or brought him his Bible. When I wrote the first edition of this book, I was living under Robert A. Sabin’s shadow. He was and is a giant. It was intimidating then to write a book about Jesus with Brother Sabin looking on.

But now he is gone, and he never wrote a book. My heart is still on fire with the message that caused Brother Sabin to coin the phrase: God did not send someone to save the world, He came himself. We do not hear many messages about the Mighty God in Christ anymore. Ministers don’t feel comfortable teaching this subject and people don’t know what they are missing. I intend to write out everything I can remember, or everything that Yehovah’ God brings to my mind. This book will be significantly longer than the first edition. New chapters have been added, and previous chapters have been expanded.

Over the years, I have been asked questions about my enthusiasm to know who is Jesus Christ? Why is this so important? Why are you making such a big deal out of this? What difference does it make, I believe Jesus is God? I was unable to satisfy the questioners with a Biblical answer, primarily because they did not agree with my Biblical explanation. If you were to ask a Trinitarian “Do you believe in one God?” most would say emphatically “Yes.” But do they believe in one God the same as those who believe Jesus is the one eternal, solitary, creator of the world, born as a baby in Bethlehem? Do they believe the spirit of Almighty God made His abode within that baby who grew into a man that went to the cross to purchase our salvation? Do they believe that man is the son of the eternal God and not the eternal son of God; not the second person of the Trinity, but Jesus, in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form (Col 2:9)? I do not believe that Trinitarians believe the same about God but I do believe Trinitarians will be welcomed into heaven because their faith in Jesus makes them a child of God, not perfect, but justified, like us all.

There are those who disagree that Trinitarians will not be judged for their errors based on John 8:24: “I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am [the one I claim to be], you will indeed die in your sins” [Prior brackets part of NIV). I do not believe that position is consistent with the Gospel. My dissenters would say that Jesus is identifying himself as the great “I AM,” God Almighty, and anyone not accepting his claim will die in their sins. We must be aware that Jesus was talking to the Pharisees who rejected and criticized every claim and miracle that Jesus expressed or completed. These priests of the law did not ask questions like the common people who sincerely asked, what must I do to be healed, saved, be your disciple? They set traps for him to discredit and arrest him. They were beyond confused, unaware, or untaught. It can’t even be said that they were blind. The Pharisees were more deranged; they refused to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, their salvation.

That is not the case for Trinitarians. They believe in and love Jesus with their whole heart. Their ministries show the fruits of the spirit. When Jesus asked his disciples in Mt 16:13-18, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” Peter’s response was, “You are the Christ [Messiah], the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church” (NIV). Jesus would establish, build his church, on the fact he was the Messiah, the savior of the world. Jn 3:16 teaches “whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (NIV). Jesus further explains in Jn 3:18 by telling us “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

Jesus never required believers to exhibit an understanding of who he really was to be saved, not the apostles when he called them (Mt 4:19), the woman at the well when he exposed her sin (Jn 4:10), and not the thief on the cross as he responded to his request to be remembered by saying “today you will be with me in paradise” (Lk 23:43). Paul did not contradict this tenet in Rom 10:9-10 when he wrote “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”  Nor did John require more when he wrote, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ [Messiah] is born of God (1 Jn 5:1), And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 Jn 5:11-13).

The Pharisees did not believe Jesus was the Messiah. This could be the reason for their downfall. I don’t know. I am not denying the possibility that I might be wrong. But if I am wrong, I would rather error on the side of not judging a fellow believer in Jesus, whether they believe in him exactly as I do, or not. Jesus warned, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Mt 7:1-2).

I have had my share of index fingers pressed to my chest accompanied by warnings of damnation for their perception that I rejected Jesus. I have lost friends because we didn’t see eye to eye on who Jesus is. If writing this book gives me an upper hand over being judged, I have no desire to turn the tables and start drawing lines in the sand that condemn others to hell.

Today, the primary tool used to silence us is rejection, thus denying us a platform. The Orthodox Christian Church had its own version of cancel culture long before it became so prevalent in our American society. The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the first three points in the doctrinal statement of most evangelical churches. This results in any church attender desiring to progress to membership having to either recant their belief that Jesus is God Almighty in flesh or abandon their desire for membership. We are isolated and silenced in one step, labeled “heretic” or “cultic.” We escape the previous atrocities inflicted upon past dissenters only through protection of current laws for religious liberty. Those laws are not worldwide and as I revise this 2^nd edition, the religious liberties of the United States are threatened. If the seriousness of this issue is not addressed because it is the truth of God’s Word, or out of a desire to know the true nature of the God whom we serve, then the mere historical and sociological importance justifies the time spent acquiring an accurate Biblical opinion.

I discovered a wide variety of conflicting and contradictory information during my research: word studies that contradicted each other in their definitions of Greek or Hebrew words, commentaries from men of like faith that disagreed on the interpretation of a text, and history books that expressed the personal theological stand of the authors in addition to the historical facts. This caused me to draw some conclusions of my own. 1. A more complete understanding of the scriptures can be obtained from language experts, but one cannot be certain the author’s opinion is true to the Bible. 2. Insight can be gained from reading commentaries, but one must be alert that they may also be receiving the personal doctrinal position of the author. 3. Facts are available from historians, but we must be aware that history is written by the victors, and the history books are not always accurate. 4. A variety of sources can bring enlightenment, but one must remember that confusion can result from too many differing opinions. In short, pure unbiased truth is difficult to obtain from any human being. The Bible is the best commentary on the Bible. We can only depend on God, His Word, and His Spirit to lead us into truth.

I have asked myself many times: Who do you think you are to oppose the universal church? I am nobody. I am a common, if not simple man. I read most theological books with a dictionary within reach to grasp what I am reading, and even then, it is frequently a struggle. My most significant accomplishment is that I was mentored by Robert Sabin. I am not a trained, certified theologian. I have no seminary certificates, diplomas, or accolades, but I am theological. I am not qualified to write a book as I am endeavoring to do based on any credentials, but I have the spirit of Jesus living in me—the spirit of truth (John 14:16-18). That’s all Peter, John, and Paul had. I am confident and rely on that alone.

When I was growing up, we lived next to a family whose father was a blue-collar worker for a large company. In his free time, he would tear apart automobile engines and rebuild them. He was not a mechanic; he had no technical mechanical training, but when he finished reassembling those engines, they ran. He was mechanical. People thought of him as a “backyard mechanic.” He was admired for his knowledge, skill, and ability. I hope I can attain my neighbor’s level of ability.

I used parenthetical explanations and provided definitions to words I did not understand in footnotes so the reader could gain a deeper understanding. The documentation made available on these pages has rarely, if ever, been compiled within the confines of one text. It should be beneficial to the student of the solitary nature of God, and anyone interested in discovering the origins of the doctrine of the Trinity. Every Christian should understand the message within these pages. It is my hope and prayer that this study will assist readers to gain an understanding of Who Jesus Really Is! If, for no other reasons, than it is the truth and Almighty God, our Father, deserves the praise and glory that will result when the world knows God did not send someone else to save the world, He came Himself.

The interpretations and opinions presented are supported using other authors and scripture laying a groundwork of infor­mation before stating my conclusions. This may result in a greater time commitment for the reader since without the contribution of experts, this text would contain only my personal beliefs which are immaterial. The information, as difficult as it may seem, is crucial to understanding the origins and foundations of the doctrine of the Trinity. Please forge ahead despite difficulties, do not give up.

Seasoned scholars may take offense at the simplicity of this book. Volumes have been written about the subject matter I am attempting to discuss in paragraphs. I hope this mate­rial wets the appetite and ini­tiates an insa­tiable hunger to learn more.

My desired audience for this book is the layman, the members of con­gregations, the workers in fields of harvest. I know my conclusions are not exclusive to me. Scholars, ministers, and students of the Bible have published or reached similar outcomes since the codification of the Trinity. Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) known for being one of history’s greatest scientific minds was also a theologian. He rejected the Trinity, viewing it as a corruption of early Christianity and not supported by the Bible. He kept his beliefs hidden. The number of victims throughout history caught on the wrong side of a disagreement with the religious hierarchy are more than can be numbered here. Whether Jew, Moslem, Christian, Baptist, a member of the Waldense sect, Priscillian, or Michael Servetus, excommunication, exile, torture, and execution are the tools utilized to win this argument in the past.

The Biblical explanation of Jesus will be understood as this book unfolds, but the question “Who is Jesus to You?” is more important than any theological understanding one could gain from reading on. What you believe about Jesus determines how you will spend eternity. The Bible tells us that “All have sinned…the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life…” (Romans 3:23).  In short, we all deserve the spiritual death penalty, but Jesus took the punishment in our place, declared us not guilty, making a way for all of us to be set free. Jesus is the only way for us to experience an abundant life here on earth or receive eternal life in fellowship with God. Admit, confess, and turn away from your sin; ask Jesus to forgive you; turn to God and receive the gift of eternal life; ask Jesus to take control of your life. If you have done that, you’re ready to read on.

[1] Throughout the book, I refer to Robert A. Sabin as Robert Sabin, Brother Sabin, Pastor Sabin. All names or titles used refer to the same man, as well as “Papa,” my children’s term of endearment.