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In the whole Bible we do NOT find a clear-cut statement that Jesus says he is God. We also do NOT find the word "Trinity." All what we find that Jesus was worshipping his God and was asking people to worship God alone. Historians states that Jesus was not worshipped during his life time nor did he call people to worship him. Historians also declare that the idea of Trinity was only invented three hundred years after Jesus.
For those who wish to argue the verse of John 10:30 where Jesus says: "I and the Father are one." This verse does not imply Jesus divinity because in the same sense Jesus referred to his disciples (that Jesus and his disciples and God are one); Jesus said: in John 17:21-23 : "that they [i.e. the disciples] may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us: that the world may believe that thou didst send me. And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one . . ."
It is clear here that Jesus did not mean the oneness of divinity but the oneness of propose as one group not as one god. Jesus meant by saying this that who follows the disciples does follow him and who follows him does follow God. Thus, Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6) Jesus meant here that he was an example for the people that they should follow his teachings to live rightly. So Jesus was the way to God, which definitely means that God was the aim, and to find that aim is through following Jesus as Moses was the example and the way for his people. So Jesus and Moses were not God but they were the way to God. Jesus never said that he was God. Instead, Jesus declared that God is greater than he; Jesus said, "the Father is greater than I." (John 14:28)
Some may argue that Jesus was called SON OF GOD which means that he was God in a Trinity. Actually many were called SONS OF GOD prior to Jesus like in the book of Job (in the Old Testament) the angels were called SONS OF GOD (Job 2:1). Solomon was called SON OF GOD and so was David and others. This term "SON OF GOD" was so common in the language of Jesus (the Aramaic) which signifies godly person who is closed to God but this term (SON OF GOD) never meant that this person is God himself! However, God, in the language of Jesus, was the father of all people and not of Jesus alone; Jesus said, "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your God." (John 20:17) So Jesus clearly stated that God is his Father and the Father of his disciples. Jesus also stated that he had his God, so Jesus himself was not God himself. Otherwise God has a God!
God is not three, He is only ONE:
“And one of the scribes [the Jews] came, … asked him, which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord.†(The Holy Bible, Mark 12:28-29) (If God is three or three in one or one in three then Jesus would clarify it.)
“Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.†(The Holy Bible, Matthew 4:10)
“And it came to pass in those days, that he [Jesus] went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.†(The Holy Bible, Luke 6:12)
TESTIMONIES OF THE HISTORIANS, BIBLICAL SCHOLARS AND ENCYCLOPEDIAS THAT THE DESCIPLES OF JESUS DID NOT WORSHIP HIM:
"They [the disciples] did not regard his [e.g. Jesus] death as a divine, tragic, or saving event. And they did not imagine that he had been raised from the dead to rule over a transformed world. Instead, they thought of him as a teacher whose teachings made it possible to live with verve in troubled times. Thus they did not gather to worship in his name, honor him as a god, or cultivate his memory through hymns, prayers, and rituals."
- The biblical Scholar Burton L. Mack, "The Lost Gospel"
"The earliest followers of Jesus were not even called ‘Christians’ . . . They were called ‘Nazarenes’. They believed that Jesus was the ‘Christ’ in the Jewish sense of that term . . . They did not believe that Jesus was a divine being . . ." - Hyam Maccoby, a Domus Exhibitioner in Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, "Revolution in Judea: Jesus and the Jewish Resistance."
"Unitarianism as a theological movement began much earlier in History; indeed it antedated Trinitarianism by many decades. Christianity derived from Judaism and Judaism was strictly Unitarian. The road which led from Jerusalem to Nicea was scarcely a straight one. Fourth century Trinitarianism did not reflect accurately early Christian teaching regarding the nature of God; it was, on the contrary, a deviation from this teaching."
- Encyclopedia Americana, (1959) Vol. 27, p. 294
TESTIMONIES OF THE HISTORIANS, BIBLICAL SCHOLARS AND ENCYCLOPEDIAS THAT JESUS DID NOT TEACH THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY:
“To Jesus and Paul the doctrine of the trinity was apparently unknown; . . . they say nothing about it.†- Yale University Professor E. Washburn Hopkins, "Origin and Evolution of Religion."
"What is most embarrassing for the church is the difficulty of proving any of these statements of dogma from the new Testament documents. You simply cannot find the doctrine of the Trinity set out anywhere in the Bible." – Tom Harpur (a Christian Scholar), "For Christ's Sake."
"The Old Testament is a strictly monotheistic. God is a single personal being. The idea that a trinity is to be found there or even in any way shadowed forth, is an assumption that has long held sway in theology, but is utterly without foundation." - Anthony Buzzard, "Who is Jesus?"
“. . . scholars generally agree that there is no doctrine of the trinity as such in either the Old Testament or the New Testament.†- The Harper Collins Encyclopedia of Catholicism (1995)
TESTIMONIES OF THE HISTORIANS, BIBLICAL SCHOLARS AND ENCYCLOPEDIAS THAT THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY WAS INVENTED MORE THAN THREE HUNDRED YEARS AFTER JESUS:
“It [the Trinity] did not find a place formally in the theology of the church till the 4th century.†- The Illustrated Bible Dictionary
"Jesus Christ never mentioned such a phenomenon [i.e the Trinity], and nowhere in the New Testament does the word 'Trinity' appear. The idea was only adopted by the Church three hundred years after the death of our Lord." - Arthur Weigall (a Christian Historian), "The Paganism in Our Christianity."
"The trinity of God is defined by the church as the belief that in God are three persons who subsist in one nature. The belief as so defined was reached only in the 4th and 5th centuries AD and hence is not explicitly and formally a biblical belief." - Dictionary of the Bible by John L. McKenzie, S.J. p. 899
"There is the recognition on the part of exegetes and Biblical theologians, including a constantly growing number of Roman Catholics, that one should not speak of Trinitarianism in the New Testament without serious qualification. There is also the closely parallel recognition on the part of historians of dogma and systematic theologians that when one does speak of an unqualified Trinitarianism, one has moved from the period of Christian origins to, say, the last quadrant of the 4th century. It was only then that what might be called the definitive Trinitarian dogma 'One God in three Persons' became thoroughly assimilated into Christian life and thought ... it was the product of 3 centuries of doctrinal development." - The New Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIV, p. 295
Actually the idea of Trinity was taken from Hinduism:
“[In Hinduism,] All the gods and goddesses, each of which has numerous aspects, are regarded as different forms of the one Supreme Being.†- Columbia Encyclopedia
"In the so-called Hindu Trinity (the Trimurti or ‘three-form’ of God, consisting Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) Brahma is associated with creation, Vishnu with sustaining, and Shiva destruction, just as in Christianity, the Father came to be associated with creation, the Son with redemption, and the Holy Spirit with sanctification." - The encyclopedia of Man, Myth & Magic
“All that converting the Hindoos to Christianity does for them," says Robert Cheyne, "is to change the object of their worship from Krishna to Christ." Of Krishna's gospel, the "Bhagavad-Gita," Appletons Cyclopedia says, "Its correspondence with the New Testament is indeed striking." The parallels between Krishna and Christ to be found in the Hindoo scriptures and the Christian Gospels are too numerous and too exact to be accidental. The legends of the one were borrowed from the other. It is admitted by Christian scholars that Krishna lived many centuries before Christ. To admit the priority of the Krishna legends is to deny, to this extent, the originality of the Gospels. To break the force of the logical conclusion to be drawn from this some argue that while Krishna himself antedated Christ, the legends concerning him are of later origin and borrowed from the Evangelists. Regarding this contention Judge Waite, in his History of the Christian Religion, says: "Here then, we have the older religion and the older god. This, in the absence of any evidence on the other side, ought to settle the question. To assume without evidence that the older religion has been interpolated from the later, and that the legends of the older hero have been made to conform to the history of a later character, is worse than illogical -- it is absurd." - John E. Remsberg, "The Christ"
For those who wish to argue the verse of John 10:30 where Jesus says: "I and the Father are one." This verse does not imply Jesus divinity because in the same sense Jesus referred to his disciples (that Jesus and his disciples and God are one); Jesus said: in John 17:21-23 : "that they [i.e. the disciples] may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us: that the world may believe that thou didst send me. And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one . . ."
It is clear here that Jesus did not mean the oneness of divinity but the oneness of propose as one group not as one god. Jesus meant by saying this that who follows the disciples does follow him and who follows him does follow God. Thus, Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6) Jesus meant here that he was an example for the people that they should follow his teachings to live rightly. So Jesus was the way to God, which definitely means that God was the aim, and to find that aim is through following Jesus as Moses was the example and the way for his people. So Jesus and Moses were not God but they were the way to God. Jesus never said that he was God. Instead, Jesus declared that God is greater than he; Jesus said, "the Father is greater than I." (John 14:28)
Some may argue that Jesus was called SON OF GOD which means that he was God in a Trinity. Actually many were called SONS OF GOD prior to Jesus like in the book of Job (in the Old Testament) the angels were called SONS OF GOD (Job 2:1). Solomon was called SON OF GOD and so was David and others. This term "SON OF GOD" was so common in the language of Jesus (the Aramaic) which signifies godly person who is closed to God but this term (SON OF GOD) never meant that this person is God himself! However, God, in the language of Jesus, was the father of all people and not of Jesus alone; Jesus said, "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your God." (John 20:17) So Jesus clearly stated that God is his Father and the Father of his disciples. Jesus also stated that he had his God, so Jesus himself was not God himself. Otherwise God has a God!
God is not three, He is only ONE:
“And one of the scribes [the Jews] came, … asked him, which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord.†(The Holy Bible, Mark 12:28-29) (If God is three or three in one or one in three then Jesus would clarify it.)
“Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.†(The Holy Bible, Matthew 4:10)
“And it came to pass in those days, that he [Jesus] went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.†(The Holy Bible, Luke 6:12)
TESTIMONIES OF THE HISTORIANS, BIBLICAL SCHOLARS AND ENCYCLOPEDIAS THAT THE DESCIPLES OF JESUS DID NOT WORSHIP HIM:
"They [the disciples] did not regard his [e.g. Jesus] death as a divine, tragic, or saving event. And they did not imagine that he had been raised from the dead to rule over a transformed world. Instead, they thought of him as a teacher whose teachings made it possible to live with verve in troubled times. Thus they did not gather to worship in his name, honor him as a god, or cultivate his memory through hymns, prayers, and rituals."
- The biblical Scholar Burton L. Mack, "The Lost Gospel"
"The earliest followers of Jesus were not even called ‘Christians’ . . . They were called ‘Nazarenes’. They believed that Jesus was the ‘Christ’ in the Jewish sense of that term . . . They did not believe that Jesus was a divine being . . ." - Hyam Maccoby, a Domus Exhibitioner in Classics at Balliol College, Oxford, "Revolution in Judea: Jesus and the Jewish Resistance."
"Unitarianism as a theological movement began much earlier in History; indeed it antedated Trinitarianism by many decades. Christianity derived from Judaism and Judaism was strictly Unitarian. The road which led from Jerusalem to Nicea was scarcely a straight one. Fourth century Trinitarianism did not reflect accurately early Christian teaching regarding the nature of God; it was, on the contrary, a deviation from this teaching."
- Encyclopedia Americana, (1959) Vol. 27, p. 294
TESTIMONIES OF THE HISTORIANS, BIBLICAL SCHOLARS AND ENCYCLOPEDIAS THAT JESUS DID NOT TEACH THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY:
“To Jesus and Paul the doctrine of the trinity was apparently unknown; . . . they say nothing about it.†- Yale University Professor E. Washburn Hopkins, "Origin and Evolution of Religion."
"What is most embarrassing for the church is the difficulty of proving any of these statements of dogma from the new Testament documents. You simply cannot find the doctrine of the Trinity set out anywhere in the Bible." – Tom Harpur (a Christian Scholar), "For Christ's Sake."
"The Old Testament is a strictly monotheistic. God is a single personal being. The idea that a trinity is to be found there or even in any way shadowed forth, is an assumption that has long held sway in theology, but is utterly without foundation." - Anthony Buzzard, "Who is Jesus?"
“. . . scholars generally agree that there is no doctrine of the trinity as such in either the Old Testament or the New Testament.†- The Harper Collins Encyclopedia of Catholicism (1995)
TESTIMONIES OF THE HISTORIANS, BIBLICAL SCHOLARS AND ENCYCLOPEDIAS THAT THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY WAS INVENTED MORE THAN THREE HUNDRED YEARS AFTER JESUS:
“It [the Trinity] did not find a place formally in the theology of the church till the 4th century.†- The Illustrated Bible Dictionary
"Jesus Christ never mentioned such a phenomenon [i.e the Trinity], and nowhere in the New Testament does the word 'Trinity' appear. The idea was only adopted by the Church three hundred years after the death of our Lord." - Arthur Weigall (a Christian Historian), "The Paganism in Our Christianity."
"The trinity of God is defined by the church as the belief that in God are three persons who subsist in one nature. The belief as so defined was reached only in the 4th and 5th centuries AD and hence is not explicitly and formally a biblical belief." - Dictionary of the Bible by John L. McKenzie, S.J. p. 899
"There is the recognition on the part of exegetes and Biblical theologians, including a constantly growing number of Roman Catholics, that one should not speak of Trinitarianism in the New Testament without serious qualification. There is also the closely parallel recognition on the part of historians of dogma and systematic theologians that when one does speak of an unqualified Trinitarianism, one has moved from the period of Christian origins to, say, the last quadrant of the 4th century. It was only then that what might be called the definitive Trinitarian dogma 'One God in three Persons' became thoroughly assimilated into Christian life and thought ... it was the product of 3 centuries of doctrinal development." - The New Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIV, p. 295
Actually the idea of Trinity was taken from Hinduism:
“[In Hinduism,] All the gods and goddesses, each of which has numerous aspects, are regarded as different forms of the one Supreme Being.†- Columbia Encyclopedia
"In the so-called Hindu Trinity (the Trimurti or ‘three-form’ of God, consisting Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) Brahma is associated with creation, Vishnu with sustaining, and Shiva destruction, just as in Christianity, the Father came to be associated with creation, the Son with redemption, and the Holy Spirit with sanctification." - The encyclopedia of Man, Myth & Magic
“All that converting the Hindoos to Christianity does for them," says Robert Cheyne, "is to change the object of their worship from Krishna to Christ." Of Krishna's gospel, the "Bhagavad-Gita," Appletons Cyclopedia says, "Its correspondence with the New Testament is indeed striking." The parallels between Krishna and Christ to be found in the Hindoo scriptures and the Christian Gospels are too numerous and too exact to be accidental. The legends of the one were borrowed from the other. It is admitted by Christian scholars that Krishna lived many centuries before Christ. To admit the priority of the Krishna legends is to deny, to this extent, the originality of the Gospels. To break the force of the logical conclusion to be drawn from this some argue that while Krishna himself antedated Christ, the legends concerning him are of later origin and borrowed from the Evangelists. Regarding this contention Judge Waite, in his History of the Christian Religion, says: "Here then, we have the older religion and the older god. This, in the absence of any evidence on the other side, ought to settle the question. To assume without evidence that the older religion has been interpolated from the later, and that the legends of the older hero have been made to conform to the history of a later character, is worse than illogical -- it is absurd." - John E. Remsberg, "The Christ"
