A detailed Quick Facts research image examining David Pawson’s Trinitarian teaching concerning creation and comparing it with Isaiah 44:24, John 17:3, 1 Corinthians 8:6 and other biblical passages identifying the one God and Creator.
QUICK FACTS: DAVID PAWSON AND THE TRINITY
DID “GODS” CREATE THE WORLD — OR DID YAHWEH CREATE IT ALONE?
There was a time when I had enormous respect for the Bible teacher David Pawson.
Before examining his teaching concerning the Trinity and creation, I want to explain my personal connection with David Pawson, because I do not want readers to think this article was written because I personally disliked the man.
In fact, the opposite was true.
MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH DAVID PAWSON
For approximately the first ten years of my Christian life, I was myself a Trinitarian.
During that period, I did some work as a cameraman at Revelation TV, where I had the opportunity to meet David Pawson, who was already a very popular and respected Christian Bible teacher.
When I first heard David Pawson teaching, I was extremely impressed.
I loved the calm and compelling way he spoke, and I was impressed by his extensive knowledge of the Bible.
I regarded him as a sincere Christian teacher, and I wanted to learn as much as I possibly could from him.
At that time, I was:
HUNGRY TO UNDERSTAND THE WORD OF GOD.
When I discovered that David Pawson had produced an extensive collection of Bible-teaching DVDs, I decided to purchase the entire collection.
I SPENT MORE THAN £500 ON HIS BIBLE TEACHING SERIES.
That should demonstrate just how highly I regarded David Pawson at the time.
I wasn't looking for reasons to criticise him.
I WANTED TO LEARN FROM HIM.
However, something unexpected happened when I began watching the series.
THE FIRST RED FLAG
Despite purchasing a huge collection of David Pawson's teachings, I did not get very far through them.
While watching the first part of the series, I heard David teaching about the location of Mount Sinai.
He presented the traditional identification of Mount Sinai with the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, associated with the area around Saint Catherine's Monastery.
That immediately raised a red flag for me.
Why?
Because I had already spent considerable time researching the subject of Mount Sinai, and there was a biblical statement I could not simply ignore.
Paul wrote:
Galatians 4:25 — Berean Literal Bible
“NOW HAGAR IS MOUNT SINAI IN ARABIA…”
Whatever conclusion we ultimately reach concerning the precise geographical location of the biblical mountain, those words:
“MOUNT SINAI IN ARABIA”
needed to be taken seriously.
I had also been examining archaeological claims concerning possible locations for Mount Sinai in Arabia.
So I decided to write to David Pawson.
I WROTE TO DAVID PAWSON
I contacted him because I genuinely believed I had seen biblical and archaeological evidence that he might want to consider.
I received a reply which, as I remember it, essentially questioned who I was to challenge him on the subject.
I became concerned that perhaps my first letter had sounded disrespectful, which had never been my intention.
So I wrote again.
This time I apologised and explained that I was not claiming to be some great Bible scholar. I was simply pointing him toward what I believed Scripture said concerning Mount Sinai and Arabia, together with archaeological evidence I had encountered.
I did not receive another reply.
That experience stayed with me.
I had spent more than £500 because I genuinely wanted to learn from this man, yet very early in the series I had encountered something which appeared to conflict with my own understanding of Scripture.
Eventually, I found that I could no longer continue watching the collection in the same way.
YEARS LATER, SOMETHING MUCH BIGGER HAPPENED
Years passed.
I was still a Trinitarian.
Then I encountered Bible teachers who challenged something far more fundamental than the location of Mount Sinai.
They challenged me to examine:
THE TRINITY ITSELF.
Initially, this was not something I simply wanted to accept.
After approximately ten years of believing that God was a Trinity, I had to ask myself a difficult question:
DOES THE BIBLE ACTUALLY TEACH WHAT I HAVE ALWAYS BELIEVED?
So I began searching the Scriptures for myself.
I examined the words of God.
I examined the teachings of Jesus.
I examined the apostles.
And gradually I became convinced that the doctrine I had accepted for years could not be reconciled with what I was finding throughout Scripture concerning:
THE ONE GOD — THE FATHER
and:
JESUS CHRIST — HIS SON.
That completely changed the direction of my Bible research.
To this day, I remain thankful to God for the Bible teachers who encouraged me to test what I believed against Scripture, rather than simply accepting a doctrine because Christianity had taught it to me.
I LATER TRIED TO REACH DAVID PAWSON ABOUT THE TRINITY
Because I had once respected David Pawson so highly, I wanted him to examine the same biblical evidence that had caused me to reconsider my own Trinitarian beliefs.
I therefore tried to communicate through comments on some of his YouTube teachings.
Sadly, this never developed into the biblical discussion I had hoped for. Some of my comments were removed, and I was unable to persuade him to reconsider his Trinitarian position.
David Pawson remained firmly committed to the Trinity throughout his ministry.
Eventually, in 2020, David Pawson died.
I was genuinely saddened to hear of his death, and I felt for his family and those who had known and loved him.
Whatever disagreements I later had with his theology, I have never forgotten that this was once a man whose Bible teaching I admired so much that I spent hundreds of pounds buying his teaching collection.
That is important for readers to understand.
THIS ARTICLE IS ABOUT TESTING TEACHINGS — NOT ATTACKING A MAN
David Pawson may have been completely sincere in what he believed.
But sincerity cannot determine biblical truth.
Neither can popularity.
Neither can qualifications.
Neither can decades of ministry.
And neither can I.
SCRIPTURE MUST BE THE TEST.
That principle applies to David Pawson.
It applies to every Trinitarian teacher.
It applies to Unitarian teachers.
And it applies equally to me, Simon Brown.
If anything I teach contradicts the Word of God:
DO NOT BELIEVE ME.
Test it.
Search the Scriptures.
That is precisely what the Bereans did.
Acts 17:11 — Berean Literal Bible
They received the word eagerly,
“EVERY DAY EXAMINING THE SCRIPTURES, WHETHER THESE THINGS WERE SO.”
That is the spirit in which I want this research to be read.
Now we can examine a remarkable statement in David Pawson's teaching concerning the Trinity and creation.
QUICK FACTS: DID “GODS” CREATE THE WORLD?
In one of David Pawson's teachings about the Trinity, he used language referring to “Gods” in connection with creation.
This raises an extremely important biblical question.
If the Father is God,
the Son is God,
and the Holy Spirit is God,
and all three participated as God in creating the world:
HOW MANY WHO ARE GOD CREATED THE WORLD?
Three?
Or one?
This is precisely where I believe the traditional doctrine creates a problem that needs to be examined against Scripture.
Rather than simply accepting theological explanations, let's look at what God Himself says.
WHO DOES ISAIAH SAY CREATED EVERYTHING?
One of the clearest statements occurs in Isaiah.
Isaiah 44:24
Yahweh identifies Himself as the Creator.
The passage describes Him as the One who made all things, stretched out the heavens and spread out the earth.
Most importantly, the text uses extraordinarily exclusive language.
The question we therefore need to ask is:
WHO WAS WITH YAHWEH DOING THE CREATING?
If Yahweh was three divine persons creating together, we might expect Scripture to explain this.
Instead, Isaiah repeatedly presents Yahweh speaking as one personal speaker:
“I”
and describes His creative work in exclusive terms.
This creates a serious question for the claim that three distinct persons, each fully God, performed the act of creation together.
WHO IS YAHWEH?
This brings us to the central question.
Who is the one God?
Jesus gives us an extraordinarily clear statement.
John 17:3 — Berean Literal Bible
Jesus prayed to His Father and called Him:
“THE ONLY TRUE GOD.”
Notice who is speaking.
Jesus.
And notice to whom He is speaking.
HIS FATHER.
Jesus distinguishes between:
“YOU, THE ONLY TRUE GOD”
and:
“JESUS CHRIST, WHOM YOU SENT.”
We therefore have two clearly distinguished individuals:
1. The Father — the only true God.
2. Jesus Christ — the One whom that God sent.
Paul gives us the same basic distinction.
PAUL SAYS THERE IS ONE GOD — THE FATHER
1 Corinthians 8:6 — Berean Literal Bible
“YET TO US THERE IS ONE GOD, THE FATHER…”
Paul doesn't say:
“There is one God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”
Instead, he identifies the one God as:
THE FATHER.
He then distinguishes Jesus from that one God:
“AND ONE LORD, JESUS CHRIST.”
This distinction occurs repeatedly throughout the New Testament.
THE FATHER IS NOT THE SON
Interestingly, Trinitarian theology itself insists that:
The Father is not the Son.
And:
The Son is not the Father.
I agree that the Father and Son are distinct persons.
But this creates an important question when combined with the biblical statement that:
THE ONE GOD IS THE FATHER.
If the Father is the one God, and the Son is not the Father, how can the Son simultaneously be the very same one God identified as the Father?
This is one of the fundamental questions I believe Trinitarian theology needs to answer from Scripture.
DID JESUS EVER SAY HE WAS THE SAME GOD AS HIS FATHER?
Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus continually speaks about His Father.
John 8:19
Jesus speaks of:
“MY FATHER.”
John 10:36
Jesus describes Himself as:
“SON OF GOD.”
John 17:3
Jesus calls His Father:
“THE ONLY TRUE GOD.”
John 20:17
After His resurrection, Jesus speaks of:
“MY GOD AND YOUR GOD.”
These statements establish a consistent relationship.
There is:
GOD
and there is:
THE SON OF GOD.
Jesus never says:
“I am God the Son.”
He never says:
“God is three persons.”
And He never teaches His disciples:
“The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three co-equal persons who together constitute the one God.”
Instead, Jesus identifies His Father as His God.
SO WHAT ABOUT CREATION?
This brings us directly back to David Pawson's teaching.
If we say there are three distinct persons who are each God and that these three participated in creation as God, we need to reconcile that claim with the statements where Yahweh describes Himself as the Creator using singular and exclusive language.
Isaiah does not present three Gods announcing:
“WE CREATED THE WORLD.”
The Creator speaks as:
“I.”
And this same biblical pattern occurs again and again.
The God of Israel is presented as one.
THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT
This was not merely an Old Testament idea that Jesus later replaced with a Trinity.
When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, He began by quoting Israel's confession concerning God.
Mark 12:29 — Berean Literal Bible
“HEAR THIS, O ISRAEL: THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD.”
Jesus did not correct this Jewish understanding by saying:
“You have misunderstood God. God is actually three persons.”
Instead, Jesus affirmed the confession of Israel.
And shortly afterwards, the scribe responded:
Mark 12:32 — Berean Literal Bible
“HE IS ONE, AND THERE IS NOT ANOTHER BESIDES HIM.”
Jesus did not rebuke him.
Jesus told him:
“YOU ARE NOT FAR FROM THE KINGDOM OF GOD.”
That is enormously important.
ONE GOD — NOT THREE GODS
This is why I believe language about multiple divine persons creating the universe needs to be examined very carefully.
The issue is not whether David Pawson was sincere.
I believe he was.
The issue is whether his theological framework can be reconciled with the biblical statements concerning the identity of the one God.
The Bible repeatedly presents God as:
ONE.
Jesus calls the Father:
THE ONLY TRUE GOD.
Paul says:
THERE IS ONE GOD, THE FATHER.
And Jesus Himself has:
A GOD AND FATHER.
So if three distinct persons are each individually fully God, we must still answer the simple question:
WHY DOES THIS NOT AMOUNT TO THREE WHO ARE GOD?
Calling those three “one God” does not by itself answer the question.
It must be demonstrated from Scripture.
JESUS IS NOT DIMINISHED BY BEING THE SON OF GOD
Rejecting the claim that Jesus is God Almighty does not mean rejecting Jesus.
Quite the opposite.
I believe Jesus exactly as Scripture identifies Him:
THE CHRIST.
THE SON OF GOD.
THE ONE BEGOTTEN BY GOD.
THE ONE SENT BY GOD.
THE ONE ANOINTED BY GOD.
THE ONE RAISED FROM THE DEAD BY GOD.
THE ONE EXALTED BY GOD.
THE ONE GIVEN ALL AUTHORITY BY GOD.
Jesus Himself said:
John 10:36 — Berean Literal Bible
“I SAID, ‘I AM SON OF GOD.’”
And John tells us why his Gospel was written:
John 20:31 — Berean Literal Bible
“BUT THESE HAVE BEEN WRITTEN SO THAT YOU MAY BELIEVE THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD.”
That is the identity I believe Scripture gives Jesus.
THE QUESTION DAVID PAWSON'S TEACHING LEAVES US WITH
David Pawson was an intelligent, knowledgeable and highly respected Bible teacher.
I once admired his teaching enormously.
But no teacher stands above Scripture.
Not David Pawson.
Not the early Church Fathers.
Not the councils.
Not modern theologians.
And certainly not me.
So forget personalities for a moment and consider the question itself:
IF THE FATHER IS GOD,
THE SON IS GOD,
AND THE HOLY SPIRIT IS GOD,
AND THESE ARE THREE DISTINCT PERSONS,
HOW ARE THERE NOT THREE WHO ARE GOD?
And concerning creation:
DID THREE PERSONS WHO ARE EACH GOD CREATE THE WORLD?
Or should we accept the straightforward declaration of the God of Israel, who speaks of Himself as the Creator?
This is why every Christian should follow the example of the Bereans and examine these teachings carefully against Scripture.
FINAL CONCLUSION
I once accepted the Trinity.
I once listened to teachers such as David Pawson believing that what I was hearing represented biblical Christianity.
But eventually I realised that I had a responsibility to test everything against the Word of God.
That same responsibility belongs to every reader.
Do not believe something simply because Simon Brown says it.
Do not believe something simply because David Pawson said it.
Do not believe something simply because a church has taught it for centuries.
SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES.
Ask:
Who did Jesus say the only true God is?
Who did Paul identify as the one God?
Who is Jesus' God?
Who did Yahweh say created the heavens and the earth?
And then ask the question at the centre of this research:
DOES THE BIBLE REALLY TEACH THAT GOD IS THREE PERSONS?
Or does Scripture consistently reveal:
ONE GOD, THE FATHER
and:
ONE LORD, JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD?
The decision should never be based upon tradition.
It should be based upon the Word of God.
Research by Simon Brown
wwwrealdiscoveriesorg-simon.blogspot.com
You tube videos:
EXPOSING FALSE TEACHERS ON REVELATION TV!
EXPOSING Dr. Grady S. McMurtry On Revelation TV!
According to Dr. Grady, John 14:9, John 10:30, PROVES Jesus is GOD Almighty!
FALSE TEACHINGS of Dr Grady John 10:30.
Dr. Grady McMurtry's FALSE TEACHING on HELL!
Dr Grady McMurtry says 2 Corinthians 5:8 proves the saints are in HEAVEN!
David Pawson & Answers in Genesis, FALSE TEACHINGS on the TRINITY.
