1. God is unique - the only one of His kind and therefore it is presumptuous of us to try to force Him to fit into our box. We must allow Him to be as He has revealed Himself to be.

2. The Bible says that He is a mystery (Isa. 55:9; Col. 2:2; I Tim. 3:16), i.e. that which is revealed but not altogether understood.

3. Some claim that the Trinity is a pagan doctrine formulated by the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D., displaying a woeful ignorance of church history. Instead, we should say, "My basis is what the Bible teaches about who God is, and if the Bible teaches that God is triune then that's His nature."

4. It is important to clarify several points:
    a. Only one God.
    b. 3 separate and distinct persons.
    c. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all co-equal in
        essence and attributes; co-eternal.
    d. In the incarnation (Phil. 2 and Heb. 2), Christ took on a human nature.

1. Philippians 2:5-8 Jesus "being in the form of God" (deity), did not consider it something to cling to, but emptied himself of his divine perogatives and powers, not his divine nature, and took upon his divine form 'the form of a servant', or humanity, in order to suffer death."

Phil. 2:9 He has the name that is above Every name, which is Jehovah. See also Eph. 1:21 and Col. 2:10

Phil. 2:10,11 Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Jehovah. Compare Isa. 45:23; Isa. 48:11

2. John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God (the Father and Holy Spirit), and the Word was God."

John 1:14 "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us....."

3. Heb. 1:3 Jesus is the visible manifestation of God (Jn. 14:9), the reflection (Greek - apaugasma) of God's glory (see Isa. 42:8), and the exact impression (Greek - charakter) of his substance (Greek - hupostasis), or nature. Please note, no finite creature could be so likened to the Infinite God (Isa. 46:9).

Heb. 2:9,10 Jesus set aside his infinite glory to be one of us. He who is eternal God became man for the suffering of death so that the horrible debt of sin was paid. He now as a man (though also God) is our Captain to take us as sons of God into glory. The gulf between God and man is now spanned by the God-man.

4. Jesus did all he did as a man, not by his power as God, which power he set aside to become man. He was our perfect example in order that he might be our perfect mediator (I Pet. 2;21).

Just as they cults describe and worship a different Jesus they also, as a natural consequence, pervert the gospel. The cults produce a Jesus who cannot save, "secretly introducing destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them." (II Pet. 2:1).

One of the distinguishing marks of a cult is the presentation of one of the following plans for salvation.
1. By keeping commandments or law-keeping as a means to merit eternal life -
    measuring up.
2. By a fatal mixture of grace and works, or more properly, confusing
    justification with sanctification.
3. By saying there is no need for any satisfaction of God's wrath; that man is
    already divine or saved and all he needs to do is realize it.

Every Christian should understand that salvation means to be in right standing before God - righteous, justified; and that this is accomplished entirely by God's grace through our faith in Christ's finished work alone on our behalf. Grace and works are incompatible as Paul affirms; "....if it is by grace it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace" (Rom. 11:6). "For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). "But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God and righteousnes and sanctification and redemption" (I Cor. 1:30). "So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified" (Ga. 2:16).

Works (law-keeping) and grace are mutually exclusive "because by the works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight...." (Rom. 3:20). Under law God demands righteousness from men; under grace, God gives or imputes righteousness to men (Rom. 4:4-6) If a man is to find right standing with God he can either deserve it, (perfect works), or not deserve it but get it anyway (grace).

*Seed Planter - Ask the question, "Who deserves the credit (or who will deserve the credit) for your being a Christian (your eternal life) - you or God?"

The incompatibility between the cults teaching a works system of salvation and the Christian gospel of grace is obvious, BUT what is much more subtle and therefore much more dangerous is the disguised counterfeit of a grace and works mixture.

Many groups present this in varying ways such as Roman Cathlicism, most Churches of Christ, most Seventh-Day Adventists, Mormonism, The Way, International, etc. The first thing they do is say that grace is God's part, providing everything necesary; the second is man's part in that he must do something to appropriate the grace. It usually follows this pattern:

1. Believe
2. Repent
3. Confess or join their church
4. Be baptized in order to receive forgiveness of sins
5. Obedience to commands

At this point, some cults try to get around the biblical language by trying to make a distinction between God's moral law (Mosaic law) and obedience to Christ's commands. BUT, God's law is the same, whether it comes through Moses or Christ (who is God anyway). Christ's commands were not any less than the "law of Moses" (Rom. 7:12, Rom. 3:31, Matt. 5:17, 18-48, 22:36-40). This is further confirmed in Rom. 3:20 - Rom. 4 as it applies salvation apart from works of law to Abraham who lived hundreds of years before Moses.

*Seed Planter- always seek to demonstrate that the only alternative to the good news of Christ's grace is a mission impossible - perfection! (Matt. 5:48; Jas. 2:10; Gal. 3:10).

Additionally, illustrate the distinctive stages in the process of salvation and the elements contained in each. These are: propitiation, regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification.

It is absolutely impossible for human works to form the basis of justification or salvation, for what God requires - our perfect obedience to the law - is impossible (Rom. 3:28; Gal. 2:16; Jas. 2;10; Gal. 3:10).

*Seed Planter - Always bring the person back to the issue of two choices:
    1. Mission impossible - perfect works.
    2. Grace alone.

Remember - we are saved unto the law to obey it. It is now seen as the law of the Spirit and life rather than the law of sin and death (Rom. 3:31; I Cor. 9:21). It is still the standard of holy living for our training in righteousness.

Ephesians 2:8,9 - "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast."

Romans 4:2 - "If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about - but not before God."

Romans 5:1 - "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Titus 3:5 - "He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy."

Romans 3:20 - ".....by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight."

Isaiah 64:6 - ".....all our righteous acts are like filthy rags [to God]."