John 10:30-33 " ‘I and the Father are one.’ Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, ‘I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?’ ‘We are not stoning you for any of these,’ replied the Jews, ‘but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.’"
All will admit that Jesus’ Father is God. It is the Father, and not Jesus himself, whom Jesus understood to be the God of Israel (John 8:54), and whom he and all true worshippers worship “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:21-24). It is the Father whom Jesus addressed and referred to as “my God” (Matt 27:46; John 20:17; Rev 3:12), as the “only God” (John 5:43-44), and as the “only true God” (John 17:3). What then does “I and the Father are one” mean? Does it mean, “I and the Father are the same person?” No, it doesn’t – and no orthodox Trinitarian would answer otherwise. But why shouldn’t Jesus’ statement be interpreted in this way? Answer: Because such an interpretation would force Jesus to declare an absurdity. Jesus (a man) and Jesus’ Father (who is Jesus’ God) are most assuredly not the same person. But for the same reason that we cannot understand Jesus to be affirming that he and the Father are the same person (because this would make Jesus declare an absurdity), so we cannot understanding Jesus to be affirming that he and the Father are the same divine being. Jesus’ words cannot mean that he and the Father are both the “only true God” and the “one God.” Throughout the Gospels Jesus both implicitly and explicitly distinguishes himself from God. What then does Jesus mean when he declares that he and the Father are “one?” Answer: “One” here in John 10:30 means “one in purpose,” just as it does in John 17:21-23 in reference to believers. Similarly, when the apostle Paul speaks of he and Apollos as being “one” in 1 Corinthians 3:8, no one understands him to be saying that he and Apollos were the same human being, or shared the same “substance.” A more reasonable interpretation of Paul’s words is that he and Apollos were unified in a common purpose.
Thus, while Jesus was indeed making an astounding claim (i.e., that he and the Father were mutually “one” in purpose, thus giving Jesus a unique status as a human being), we are not told that he was claiming to be “the only true God” (YHWH) - and it is unlikely that this is what the Jews were accusing him of. A better translation of v. 33 would be, “…because you, a man (anthropos; the word “mere” is not in the original Greek text), claim to be a god.” The word theos, without the definite article, can be translated “god” (or “gods”) or “divine” (cf. Acts 12:22; 14:11; 28:6). It is possible, then, that the Jewish people were accusing Jesus of claiming to have the same “divine” status as an angelic being, which are referred to as “gods” (elohim) in Psalm 8:4-5 (cf. Heb 2:7; see also Psalm 86:8; 95:3; 136:1-2; 138:1; Job 38:7). We can be sure that this is a more correct translation and interpretation because, in the very next verses (vv. 34-35), the same expression (theos, without the definite article) is used again by Jesus in his quotation of Psalm 82:6. There, theos is translated “gods.” Jesus’ response to their accusation is basically, “If the corrupt human judges of Israel were called ‘gods’ (in the sense of being God’s human representatives invested with his judicial authority) then there is no impropriety in my calling myself the Son of God.” Thus, neither in the Jews’ accusation nor in Jesus’ response is anything being said about Jesus being YHWH, the Most High God of Israel.
John 14:8-9 "Philip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.’ Jesus answered: ‘Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?’ "
What does Jesus mean when he says, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father?” Does he mean that he and the Father are the same person? Answer: no, that is not what Jesus means (and again, no orthodox Trinitarian would argue otherwise). But why shouldn’t Jesus’ statement be interpreted in this way? Again, because such an interpretation would force Jesus to declare an absurdity. For the same reason, we cannot interpret Jesus’ words to mean that he and the Father are both YHWH. What then does Jesus mean? Answer: he is declaring himself to be the Father’s perfect human representative. As a sinless human being and thus the Father’s perfect human representative (or as Paul says, the “image of the invisible God” – Col 1:15; 2 Cor 4:4), Jesus could with all propriety declare, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
When Thomas later exclaims (upon seeing the risen Christ) in John 20:28, “My Lord and my God,” Jesus’ words in John 12:44-45 and John 14:7-9 should come to mind. In John 12 Jesus declared, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.” And in John 14 we read, “If you had known me, you would have known the Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him” (14:7). Jesus, of course, is not the Father (and no orthodox Christian would argue otherwise). However, because Jesus perfectly represents God, to see and know Jesus is to see and know the Father (which is what Jesus then explains to his disciples in response to Philip’s request – vv. 8-11). But again, it is because Jesus is not the Father that Jesus is not God (because it is the Father who is the “one God”). Jesus even distinguishes himself from God in v. 1 of this very chapter: “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.” Throughout the entire Gospel of John, whenever Jesus or his disciples address or refer to “God,” it is the Father alone who is meant. For example, after Jesus’ resurrection, he told Mary Magdalene, “Go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” It is the Father who is the God of Mary Magdalene and the disciples (including Thomas), and it is the Father who is the God of Jesus. Thus, when Thomas exclaims “My Lord and my God,” we can reasonably infer that by “my Lord” Thomas meant Jesus (whom Paul calls the “one Lord”), and by “my God” he meant the Father (whom Paul calls the “one God”). Upon seeing Christ after he was raised from the dead by God, Thomas must have recalled what Jesus had taught shortly before his death - i.e., that whoever sees Jesus sees him who sent Jesus (i.e., the Father). Thus, Thomas’ declaration “my Lord and my God” should best be understood as an affirmation of this truth.
), I find the doctrine of ECT far more destructive and offensive. I would rather be a Trinitarian Universalist any day than a Unitarian who believes in ECT. At the same time, I think it’s important that we seek to know what is true (especially the truth concerning who God is!), and that believing what is true is important to our worship of God. Recall Jesus’ words to the Samaritan woman in John 4:21-24: “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
, “RedHotMagma”, 
