Trinity Collusion – Part I

Changing Perspectives on the Trinity

Most of you know that I have changed my mind over the years on the Trinity. When I came out of Mormonism and into a relationship with Yeshua, I was taught the Trinity – but even then I think I misunderstood how the Trinity is actually defined.

As I have been in the Word I have seen what I think are failures with the man-made teaching. James White even admitted to me that most Christians have the Trinity wrong when they try and define or describe it. And when I had him and my friend Matt Slick and Rob Bowman explain details about the Trinity to me plainly and directly, I pushed back.

Understand plainly and clearly, I admit that there are three manifestations of God in Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And please understand that I believe that the Man Yeshua bore the fullness of God in Him.

But where I firmly differ with Creedal Trinitarianism is relative to the end product:

That there are three persons that make up the One God – Father, who is not God alone, Son, who is Not God alone, and Holy Spirit who is not God alone, but these three co-equal, co-eternal persons make up the one BEING called God.

We have done plenty of shows that illustrate how Paul describes the One Being called God (He repeatedly describes him as the Father and Jesus as the Lord) so we are not going to do that tonight. Instead I want to show you what men (and women) have done in the King James to emphasize and push the Trinity out upon us all.

King James Onliests

Now this program is especially to that radical group of believers who call themselves the King James onliests – people who claim that the King James is perfect and all other Bible versions fail by comparison.

There are three HUGE passages of scripture that Trinitarians use to point to their man-made doctrine being true.

1st John 5:7
Matthew 28:19
And a passage I want to talk with you about tonight, 1st Timothy 3:16, which says, in the King James, which is the Bible I learned out of as a Christian:

16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

Pretty great, huh? And it seems to really explain for us not only what Yeshua did and went through but it straight-up refers to Jesus as God before going through and doing all that he did, right? Now, we have other passages of scripture that tell us about Yeshua being “God with us, right?” Isaiah 9. Matthew 1:23.

But is there a difference between “God being with us” and “God “manifesting himself in flesh.”

So, we have no problem with the notion of God being with us in the Man Jesus Christ – we will even say of others, God is with her or God is with him, right? But this passage fully supports the man-made trinitarian notion that Jesus God, co-equal and co eternal with Spirit God and Father God, came and manifested himself.

But just like 1st John 5:7 and just like Matthew 28:18, this passage has been messed with. MAN-ipulated.

The Greek Text Examination

In what way? The passage is obviously speaking of Jesus, but where it reads

“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit . . . etc. . . . God should not be there.

(GO TO BOARD)

The Greek word for God is THEOS. The word that should be there is OS (hos).

And someone, took OS, (Omnicron Sigma) and inserted a little line in the middle of the Omnicron, which made it a Theta Sigma (TH S) which was seen as an abbreviated term for theos, which is ultimately became – and theos (God) conveniently entered into the passage.

Let’s quickly look at the external evidences to support what I am saying:

If you look at a Greek interlinear on I Timothy 3:16, it will verify the fact that the Greek word, Theos, meaning God, is not in there.

Instead, hos, which means, who or which, is there.

So, the passage ought to read:

16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: who was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in

Examination of I Timothy 3:16

The world, received up into glory.

Next, if you look at a Greek Lexicon of I Timothy 3:16, it verifies the Greek interlinear translation I just read. The oldest complete Greek New Testament in existence, the Codex Sinaiticas, which dates back to the 4th century, confirms all these references and resources cited. An Aramaic version of the Bible, called the Lamsa Bible, dating back to the 5th century, does the same. St. Jerome's Latin Vulgate dating to 405 A.D.? Same. The Armenian Bible, the Syriac Peshitta, Coptic, even the Net Bible, which is a completely new translation of the Bible completed by 25 scholars who are experts in the original biblical languages and worked directly from the best currently available Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts?? Same Same Same.

It seems that the change occurred when someone sought to magnify Jesus to God – which would be in accordance with the man-made trinity.

Support from Biblical Manuscripts

When did this happen? The “TCGNT” [the Textual Commentary of the Greek New Testament] says:

“no uncial (in the first hand) earlier than the eighth or ninth century (?) supports ???? [Theos = God]; all ancient versions presuppose ?? [hos = who] or ? [ho = which]; and no patristic writer prior to the last third of the fourth century testifies to the reading ????”

Again, NO patristic writer (aka, early church writer) prior to the “last third of the fourth century” includes the reading ???? in their writings. Which is about when the Trinity was fully cemented as the way to understand God. There is a Bible out there known as the Companion Bible (compiled by a guy named Bullinger in 1910), and in its notes, it describes how this happened to 1st Timothy 3:16.

In other words, in some manuscripts where “Theos” is abbreviated Theta Chi (OC) you can even see an addition of different colored ink to give the omnicron a middle dash, turning it from this O (the first letter of OS meaning who or which) to a theta (the first letter of Theos, meaning God), proving the change was a modern addition.

Internal Evidence of the Text

But even more telling, what about the internal evidence of the passage itself? See, it is by internal evidence that I came to see the Trinity as false, not the external. It came by reading the Word and seeing an abundance of inconsistencies with the doctrine. Only later would I go and find supportive external evidences that validated my views.

So again, notice that translation of the King James:

16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

Let’s take this passage as it reads in the King James line by line and see if the rest of the word supports them, beginning with “God was manifest in the flesh” instead of “Who, Which or He” was manifest in the flesh.” (referring to Yeshua). There is no verse in the Bible that supports this statement – only religious traditions.

Yes, Matthew 1 does read that “Immanuel” means God with us, but God being with us (in the person of Jesus) can be said of any believer – and is said of them, so that is a very different statement over God was manifest in the flesh which means, God himself became visible in human flesh because what that infers is that for people to see Yeshua and to touch Him was to touch God. Not so. To touch Jesus was to touch the flesh of the man from Nazareth.

Listen, if God were truly manifested in the flesh, as this intrusion tries to make us believe, then obviously, people would be able to “see God.” But that is NOT possible as even Yeshua said in John 1:18

“No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”

And 1st John 4:12 says:

“No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.”

Conclusion from Scripture

Remember how Paul describes God in I Timothy 1:17:

Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

To accept the addition of "God" in I Timothy 3:16 contradicts these verses, so based upon this alone, we can confidently conclude that the word "God" in this verse was inserted and incorrect.

Next line after “God was manifest in the flesh:” is

Examining the Interpretation of Scripture

2. "God was justified in the Spirit."

Think hard about this for a second. Since when would God need to be justified by anything? Our passage in question is talking about Jesus, obedient to the Law, being justified here. Paul says in Romans 3:21 that “The righteousness of God exists without the law,” so we know that the translation with God inserted here is incorrect. God has to be just in order to justify us. So, we know, from this passage two things: first, God is never justified by anything, and 2, Jesus was justified by his obedience to the Law, again proving the change in words in the original. See the problem when men mess with scripture? How could God, the creator of the universe, whose glory fills the heavens, be justified by the spirit? He was not. But we can see how Jesus, born of a woman, as a man from Galilee, with God in him, was indeed justified by the Spirit!

Understanding the Interpretation

“God to be seen of angels,” "God preached unto the Gentiles," "God believed on in the world:" All work. No internal contradiction here. But the next line "God received up into glory" is jacked. I mean, really? God was "received up into glory?” First of all, God is already and always is "up"- in heaven and everywhere present, so how could he "get" there since he's already there? Secondly, how could he be received up into glory when God was already glorious to begin with? This verse is actually a direct smack down on trinitarian doctrine of Jesus being God from the beginning, co-equal, co-eternal with Father and Spirit because we know that Jesus was received up into Glory, proving the glory of God was not with him throughout his mortal life. At times, the Glory shown, but as God glory is never lost. To read the passage without the polluted word supports the deification of the Messiah by His obedience to God in Him. So there is yet another internal evidence in the passage that cannot stand up to the King James translation!!

Now listen to the passage in Bible versions that refuse the King James lie: 16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the spirit, Seen of angels, Preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory. Names of God Bible (NOG) Verses he Trinitarian 16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

But not coincidentally, post the Council of Constantinople when the co-eternal, co-equal, personal deity of Yeshua was confirmed by man along with the Holy Spirit, this passage began to change in manuscript evidences as a means to support the Trinity and the word OS, which obviously referred to Jesus, was changed to either Theos or Theta S, an abbreviation for God. What is also fascinating about all of this, is the first verse Paul writes after verse sixteen, which serves as the first verse of chapter four and says:

"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils."

Paul's Interpretation

One final point here as Paul writes: “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:” Right off the bat we can see that Paul is talking about the mystery of godliness (which we will see speaks of the godliness that was in Yeshua) and NOT of GOD. Without controversy GREAT is the mystery of Godliness which was in Yeshua . . . So, of the three passages that directly and clearly proved the Trinity to me when I was a young Christian, all of them have been messed with.

The Bible and the truths of it, and God, and Christ can be known. But be very wary of the Traditions of Men. When people ask me about God and Christ, I merely cite Paul’s repeated descriptions of them found in:

1st Corinthian 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.

Here on Heart of the Matter!