The Trinity
We have covered what it means to live as Christians in the age of fulfillment physically. And last week we embarked on living and maturing in the spirit. And with that in mind I want to begin to present items to you that are not always in harmony with traditional Christianity. After all traditional Christianity makes a lot of demands that are simply not in harmony with the age – in other words it has been collectively wrong. And since it has been wrong on the second coming, and brick and mortar, and marriage, and divorce and the like, there are other areas where it has been sorely mistaken. And tonight, I present to you a big one – the TRINITY. The man-made construction of the trinity is assumed accurate for a number of reasons including but not limited to: it has been around for a very long time, it has been accepted by millions of Bible readers for a long time because it has been taught, it has therefore been accepted across denominational boundaries, which wields great influence on the masses, and it is said to have been created by a body of adept scholars.
Challenges in Understanding the Trinity
Ironically, very few people have the ability to actually explain the Trinity in understandable terms, and the majority of lay people who try to explain it, especially when questioned, often end up describing something that is not how the scholars defined the word Trinity in the first place. This was a conundrum admitted to me by James white who fancies himself somewhat of an expert on the Trinity. Add in the fact that a sound definition of the term is not even agreed upon by Christian scholars around the world, and anyone who gives much attention to the term, if they are honest, will end up admitting that the whole thing is suspect in some ways. This does not dissuade them from embracing the trinity but instead causes them to say things like: “Well, I don’t want to worship a God that my little brain can comprehend anyway.” And at this thought-killing cliché, the discussion ends. It’s interesting that Jesus himself said that to know the true and living God and His Son whom he has sent is life eternal and that to me suggests that believers can and should be able to know and understand them. There are some major questions believers have to ask themselves when they are confronted with the man-made doctrine of the Trinity (if they are to conclude it accurate). Some of the initial questions include: if the trinity is correct why did God make knowing his make-up so difficult? How come God never described himself as a trinity in scripture and instead left it up to men to create and define Him with the term? Why are there so many passages in the Apostolic Record that make accepting and understanding the Trinity even more difficult? And is embracing the trinity necessary to be a son and/or daughter of God by faith?
Defining the Trinity
The mere fact that scholars for nearly 1,750 years have agreed to accept the Trinity as the best working definition around for God, and that Catholicism, Orthodoxy of every strain, and all of Protestantism agrees with this same definition does not make it any easier on someone who does not, or cannot, fathom or accept how God has been described by it. Now the working definition of the Trinity is contained in something like the following: “The Trinity is one God of three divine persons.” Or more threshed out: “The Christian doctrine of the Trinity holds that God is one God, but three coeternal consubstantial persons (or hypostases)—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – as 'one God in three Divine persons'. The three persons are distinct, yet are one 'substance, essence or nature' (homoousios). In this context, a 'nature' is what one is, whereas a 'person' is who one is." In these working definitions, the following ideas are present, many of them agreeable with what the Bible says, including: there is One God, that God is composed (so to speak) of three divine persons, those persons are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. These persons are distinct and therefore “are who they are,” but their nature, however, is “what” they all are – which is God. So far so good in terms of clarity, right? And at this fundamental level, these simple statements tend to be acceptable to most Bible reading people. Therefore
The Trinity and Its Complexities
Most Christians maintain that there is One God, and most concur that the person of the Father is God, and that the person of the Son is God, and that the person of the Holy Spirit is God – and that these three make God up. But where these things begin to unravel is just below the surface of these fairly comforting generalities, because just below the surface of this convenient chimera created by men some 1,750 years ago (as a means to keep the faith united) lies a lot of non-sensical, and yes, anti-biblical rhetoric that cannot stand up to scrutiny when challenged.
I have to admit here that there are plenty of factors that make dismissing creedal Trinitarianism difficult in the least – and this, in part is what makes the conversation about it so hard; in other words, there are facets of the man-made doctrine that hold water and I would be a fool to suggest otherwise. However, there are also a number of elements to the man-made doctrine that cannot withstand scrutiny and so to demand that a person must accept the Trinity lock stock and barrel in order to be saved or considered a Christian is at best unfair and at worst, heretical (in the worse sense of the word). It seems important that we let the Bible speak for itself in the case of the Trinity. Not to what the scholars say the Bible says or what I say the Bible says but just to what the translated versions of the Bible say about the nature of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Remember, our translations are translations of the ancient languages and do not need more translations from arrogant interpreters to tell us what the translations have in our hands mean, right?
Understanding the Nature of God
The translations we have in our hands ought to plainly describe to us the make-up of God, and if they do not spell out trinity in it creedal form, I say to hell with the creeds and those who perpetuate them. We are going to start off simply here and I want you to know that I do not subscribe to the LDS version of the Godhead any more than I subscribe to the man-made definitions of God. I am asking you all, Sons and Daughters of God, by the spirit to simply hear what the Bible says, by the Spirit, and to ask yourselves the questions I have to ask relative to what it says. The call to arms here is the presence of the Holy Spirit, the willingness of the reader, and the reason that God has given all humans to use in their search for truth.
The Great Shema
So, let’s first consider a set of passages from the Old Testament that meant a great deal to the Nation of Israel. It is known as the Great Shema and it begins at verse 4 of Deuteronomy 6 saying: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” In the Hebrew, this line literally means, The YHWH our elohym is one YHWH. One. So this concords with the first premise of the Trinity listed above – there is one God. The Shema is a central prayer in what is called the Jewish prayer book and it is often the first prayer a Jewish child would learn. So important is this prayer that many Jews recite it once in the morning and once in the evening, and when it is recited in the synagogue each word is carefully annunciated with the right hand covering the eyes. Finally, parts of the Shema are written very small and inserted inside the mezuzah’s which are placed on the doorposts of many faithful Jews.
After verse four of the Shema we then read: Deuteronomy 6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And this brings us to the first of many, many reasonable questions believers might have toward the man-made doctrine of the trinity – ready?
QUESTION 1: Is it possible to supremely love, with all of ones heart, and all of ones soul, and all of ones might more than one person or being? It’s an important question relative to the man-made doctrine of the trinity because that doctrine states that of the one God there are three “distinct, co-eternal, uncreated, co-equal persons or beings,” namely the “Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”
Understanding the Concept of One God
One God exists as three separate and distinct beings—persons, individuals, each with their own mind, will, and person. So back to the question—can a human actually and genuinely love two or three persons equally, with all of their heart, mind, and strength? This is not to suggest that we cannot love and appreciate the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but our supreme devotion must, according to the Great Shema, be pointed at the only one God that there is and with all, all, all of our selves. This leads us to the next observation, and that is what does the scripture say about who God is? Not, what do men say what scripture says about who God is, but what do the actual words of the apostles say about the One God?
Scriptural Descriptions of One God
Before we look at them, we are going to look only at those passages that directly describe the One God—without any alteration, reinterpretation, or amelioration—just what is written. This approach is not pleasing to many “scholars” because they insist that we must read the Greek to reinterpret the interpretations! Admittedly, the Greek is beneficial to interpretation of problematic passages but remember, the passages we are reading have been interpreted from the Greek by scholars already! So, let begin with one scripture, from the mouth of the Apostle Paul, who said in 1st Corinthians 8:6: “But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.”
Reread, even memorize, this passage. Paul could have used any number of other words to better describe the one God but he chose these: “But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.” Now, Lord here is not the same word as LORD in the Great Shema. Lord here speaks to a ruler, master, king. LORD in the Great Shema is the sacred given name, the proper pronoun name, of God Himself—represented by the letters YHWH. So, Paul, describing the One God, says that there, “is but one God,” and he chooses to use a term to describe him, saying, “the Father.” That is what Paul directly says here—“the one God is the Father” and then he adds, “and one Lord Jesus Christ.” People say, “describe God,” and if we respond according to scripture and not the man-made doctrine of the Trinity, the response would be to cite Paul: “But to us there is but one God, the Father.”
Additional Scriptural References
Now, one verse is usually not a very good way to establish a view of a subject, though this is a really poignant passage that can hold up well against scrutiny, but it’s also important to look at other examples where Paul (and others) have the chance to describe God and the Lord. Ready? Galatians 1:1: Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;) Galatians 1:3: Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Ephesians 6:23: Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 2:11: And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 1st Thessalonians 1:1: Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. 2nd Timothy 1:2: To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Titus 1:4: To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.
What did Peter say? 1st Peter 1:2: Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. 2nd Peter 1:17: For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
Jude's Perspective on the Trinity
What did Jude write? Jude 1:1 Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called. And so this all leads us to our second and third questions about the man-made doctrine of the trinity:
QUESTION #2 If Jesus is the second member of the co-equal, co-eternal, uncreated member of the man-made trinity, how come no writer of scripture has ever called him by the man-made trinitarian term, God the Son? Isn’t that funny? I would have thought that would have been a common way to describe Jesus, wouldn’t you?
QUESTION #3 If there are three beings in the one God, why then does Paul and the other writers of the Record never include the Holy Spirit in the salutations of their letters? In other words, Paul constantly thanks God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ but never includes the Holy Spirit? If he was a person, separate and distinct and co-equal to the Father and Son, wouldn’t Paul have shown him the same respect? Trinitarians can’t explain this. Or when they do its just more mansplaining.
Biblical Interpretations and Teachings
Now, which of the two propositions I am about to give you most reasonably, by the Spirit, sounds true?
The Bible teaches us that Jesus is “God the Son” OR The Bible teaches us that Jesus is “the Son of God?”
The Bible teaches us that the Holy Spirit is a separate third person, God the Holy Spirit, a third person in addition to God the Father and God the Son. OR The Bible teaches us that the Holy Spirit is the divine nature, power, and presence, of God, the one God, whom Paul calls the Father.
The Bible teaches us that the God of Christianity is the Trinitarian God. OR The Bible teaches us that the God of Christianity is Jesus’ Father.
The Bible has the apostles teaching the Trinitarian God. OR The Bible teaches us that the God of the Apostles was Jesus’ Father.
The Bible teaches us that Jesus was God the co-equal Son who became a man OR The Bible teaches us that Jesus through God in Him became His Son. (Be careful on this one, its tricky and you have to understand Acts 13:33 to get it)
The Bible teaches us that Jesus had two natures. OR The Bible teaches us that Jesus had one nature, humanity, and he was led by the Holy Spirit of God who was in Him fully and whom He obeyed perfectly.
The Bible teaches us that Jesus believed in the existence of a Trinitarian God including the personhood of the Holy Spirit. OR The Bible teaches us that Jesus' only true God was His Father alone.
The Bible teaches us the Father is the only true God, Jesus is the only true God and the Holy Spirit is the only true God. OR The Bible teaches us that Jesus identified his Father alone as the only true God.
Understanding God's Nature
The Bible teaches us that "the Lord our God the Lord is one" meaning God is one divine substance OR The Bible teaches us that "the Lord our God the Lord is one" means God is one being.
When you read the Bible does it read like Jesus had known all along that the one true God is a three person being. OR When you read the Bible its obvious that Jesus never conceived of such an idea since His Father alone was His one and only true God.
When Jesus said, "I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to my God and your God," was he speaking of a three person God? OR When Jesus said, "I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God," did he meant His Father alone who is His one God and His Father alone is also our one God?
Question #15 The next question we need to ask ourselves is who fathered Jesus of Nazareth? Its an important one because if there are three persons, three distinct, individual, co-eternal, co-equal “persons” that make up the One True Trinitarian God, then the one person that fathered (or sired) the man Jesus of Nazareth, born of Mary, is very important. So, what does scripture say?
Matthew 1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was
The Nature of Jesus
When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Luke 1:35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Now listen to what Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 1:3 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; So And from this we have to first admit that the Holy Spirit is God, and then that either the Holy Spirit, as the third person of the man-made trinity was the one who sired Jesus or the Holy Spirit, as the very spirit of God the Father, sired his Son Jesus Christ. You decide. But these are just some of the biblical issues that confront the man-made doctrine of the trinity. Just some. And I haven’t even gotten into the good stuff – just the obvious stuff.
Common Assumptions
But I want to address the major thing trinitarians scream if you question their man-made creation of God, and that is that if you DON’T accept the trinity, you are denying that Jesus was God. This is not so, not true – if we interpret the Word correctly. In their minds, the deity of Christ has to be explained or understood in the following way: Jesus was God with us. (True) God is eternal and uncreated. (True) Jesus, therefore, has always existed and is uncreated. (False) And since Jesus has always existed, then he was in the beginning with the Father but as a separate and distinct individual from the Father, co-equal, co-eternal, uncreated. (False)
Understanding the ontology of Jesus is a simple thing made very difficult by some assumptions of trinitarians. These assumptions include: A) The convenient belief that Jesus of Nazareth had two natures – which is standard fare in most Christian worldviews – and those natures include one that is fully human and one that is fully God – I used to teach this myself. The next convenient assumption trinitarians make is that B) His Godly Nature existed as a separate and distinct, co-equal, co-eternal, uncreated person known as the Jesus the Son of God since the beginning. (albeit the doctrine of eternal Sonship is debated even among trinitarian scholars).
Jesus of Nazareth: One Nature
In response to A, we might suggest otherwise and say that Jesus of Nazareth, “born of a woman, born under the law,” “tempted in all things,” Jesus “who learned obedience by the things he suffered,” had one Nature – and that it was human. It was a nature that needed to overcome itself, its flesh, that was tempted in all things and ultimately it was that nature, that flesh, that overcame sin, death and the grave for himself and on behalf of the rest of the world. It was that nature that asked if the cup might pass from him, but agreed to the Fathers will instead, and it was that nature that did not know the hour or day of His coming. It was that nature that died on a cross, the resurrected from the grave three days later, and then ascended to His father and returned to his own brethren to wrap that former material age up.
That was Jesus of Nazareth, given the name Yeshua at his material birth. There was no Yeshua of Nazareth as the second person of God co-equal and co-eternal with the God the Father prior: Jesus of Nazareth started, mortally began, at conception. Period. HOWEVER this does not suggest (IN THE LEAST) that Jesus WAS NOT “GOD WITH US” – he was, (clearly). And we will get to this, but Jesus of Nazareth, contrary to man-made trinitarian lore, had one nature – and it was human, meaning He had a will, he had a mind, he had a physical body and he had emotions – all of which, by their nature, stood in contradiction to the will of God.
So then how was Jesus of Nazareth “God with us?” In answering this we are able to help redefine the man-made trinitarian notion of B, which says: That Jesus’ Godly Nature existed as a separate and distinct, co-equal, co-eternal, uncreated person known as God the Son since the beginning. And we will use the word of God to help make this redefinition. By going to the creation account.
The Creation and Nature of Jesus Christ
In the book of Genesis, we read the following on how YHWH created all things: Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. All the way through the rest of the creation account, we read the phrase, “God said,” and then we read that whatever he said, occurred. In other words, when YHWH commanded something (said it) it happened. Period. Done. And by His word he created all things. Later in Ephesians 3:9 we read “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:” So, if we take these two biblical presentations, that in Genesis God said something and it happened, and then in Ephesians that God created all things by Jesus Christ, we know that the man we call Jesus Christ, before taking on flesh and becoming human existed as the very Words of God.
The Eternal Word of God
This is why we read in John 1:1-4: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And it's why we read ten verses later in John 1:14: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. Since we know, from Jesus’ own mouth, that God is a Spirit, when God speaks it is not with vocal chords or lips forming words, right? Therefore, since God is spirit, his words are spirit too. Are His words God? Of course, his Words are God – they are “God’s Words.” And scripture describes God’s words as eternal. Our human words last only but a second when spoken, but God’s words are 1, as much of Him as His Spirit and His light, and His fire are, and they are 2, eternal. Therefore, what filled the man Jesus, who was in flesh, was the very eternal word of YHWH! It was what the One God created all things by! Those very eternal, spirit words were made flesh and were called Jesus of Nazareth. Those words or the words of God are no more separate from YHWH anymore than his spirit is separate from Him. They were and are Him. But the words of YHWH were not an individual person, anymore than His Spirit is a separate individual being – they are all Him, His, and fully the One God. No more, no less. ALL ONE GOD expressed to human beings in the Father, and in His only human single natured son Jesus of Nazareth, and in His Holy Spirit.
The Uniqueness of Jesus
There was not three persons from the foundation of the world, standing around and making plans together. There was One true uncreated being – God (whom Paul calls, the Father) who spoke (logos) and breathed (pneuma) and these expressions came in the form of Jesus (the Word made flesh) and the Holy Spirit. One God with three expressions of Himself. One more thing. What makes Jesus wholly unique from all other human forms include: He was from the creation of his flesh an expression of God. He was therefore in possession of the fullness of God from the beginning of his mortal experience. His father was therefore in him and he was in His father. Unlike anyone else, he was God with us – and therefore deity covered in human flesh. He was not perfected in that flesh during his natural life. His nature was subject to pain, temptation and death. But the fullness of God in Him directed and guided Him and He allowed, he CHOSE to let the Spirit to reign over his mortal flesh – out of love for His father and for us. After overcoming all things, the human being, clothed in flesh – Jesus of Nazareth – was deified. What was in him was always and eternally God, but God in Him took his natural flesh and bringing it through this mortal experience perfectly, deified the flesh of Jesus, making Him (in total) “God of us.”
The Role of the Son
Father actually referred to Him as His only begotten Son (Acts 13:33) before that he was only called beloved. And having done this through the flesh of his only begotten Son, YHWH put all things in His glorified Son's hands, who is now fully and completely God, but in a resurrected human body, whereas before He was only God’s Son. In and through this means, YHWH took the flesh of humanity, which was wrapped around His own “Words made flesh,” and reconciled the fallen human world to himself. This is the purpose and goal of the One True God, that in and through His Son he might bring many other human beings into His kingdom as sons and daughters.
Becoming Sons of God
In light of this consider: John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Hebrews 2:10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 1st John 3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Romans 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. Titus 3:7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 2nd Corinthians 6:18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Romans 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 1st John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
Seekers of God
If you are a seeker of God in spirit and truth, you are His Daughter or His Son. Test all things, by the Spirit, and know the true and living God and His Son whom he has sent.
