Hello Free,
Though the trinity doctrine is accepted by the many who profess to be Christian, it is not a Bible teaching. Orthodox Christianity has amassed many doctrines or teachings that did not originate from the Bible, such as hellfire, the immortality of the soul, baptism of infants, the trinity, clergy-laity class, that all good people go to heaven, etc.
How is it that this doctrine was not fully conceived until the year 382 C.E, at a synod in Constantinople, almost 350 years after Jesus death and resurrection, when the "kingdom" was understood clearly almost immediately upon Jesus death ? If there was a "problem" regarding just who God, Jesus and the holy spirit is, when the apostles and older men met in Jerusalem in 49 C.E. concerning the issue of circumcision,(Acts 15) 16 years after Jesus death, why did they not resolve it then ? Something is amiss here.
The apostles and "older men" that directed the first century Christian congregation established no "creeds", but rather gave the Biblical counsel to "abstain from the things polluted by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood."(Acts 15:20) How many that profess to be Christian are closely adhering to these commands, such as using no idols in worship of God, avoiding fornication or ' abstaining from blood ", avoiding blood transfusions and other improper uses of blood ?
Likewise, with the trinity, for the majority of churches teach this as a Bible doctrine, despite the fact that it is found nowhere in the Bible. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia (1912, Vol XV, pg 47), it says: "In unity of the Godhead there are Three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, these Three Persons....are co-eternal and co-equal: all alike are uncreated and omnipotent." How can Jesus be "taught" by God (John 8:28) and yet be God, since God is taught by no one, as seen at Isaiah 40:13,14 ? Please explain. In addition, Jesus said, at John 14:28, that the "Father is greater than I am." Can Jesus be God and yet his Father be greater than him ?
Did Jesus say that he is "uncreated and omnipotent" ? At John 6:57, Jesus told the Jews, that "just as the living Father sent me forth and I live because of the Father, he that feeds on me, even that one will live because of me." If Jesus is God and "uncreated", then how is it that he "lives because of the Father ", his life coming forth from the Father ? If he is "co-eternal" and "uncreated", then what Jesus said is untrue. But Jesus does not lie. So who is the one that is not telling the truth, Jesus or the churches ?
Since those who exercise faith in Jesus "will live because of (Jesus)", gaining everlasting life, and Jesus "lives because of the Father", what does that mean ? That he is "uncreated" ? Not at all. Rather, that he has life because his Father gave it to him, being created just as any father causes his childen to come into existence to have "life". Is this difficult to grasp ? For many it worse than going through withdrawal symptoms when addicted to drugs.
If Jesus had no beginning, was "uncreated", then how can the apostle Paul say that he is the "firstborn of all creation" at Colossians 1:15 ? Does not "firstborn" mean just that, that of the first son born to parents in a family ? Nowhere in the Bible does it specify a different meaning.(Gen 43:33; 46:8; 48:14; Ex 12:29) So who is playing games here, the churches or the Bible ? Please show me in the Bible where it has a different meaning, as espoused by trinitarians.
Deuteronomy 21:17 says that when a man that has two wives with children from both, the law of inheritance says that he "should recognize as the firstborn the hated one's son (despite his love for the other wife and her children) by giving him two parts in everything he is found to have, because that one is the beginning of his generative power." Thus, firstborn means just as it implies, that the first son primarily born to a father is the "firstborn", with all his rights.
In any family, can the son be the same as the father, same age, same authority ? The son is never as old as the father, nor does he have authority within the family the same as the father. If Jesus is God, then how is it that he said that "all authority has been given me in heaven and on earth" ?(Matt 28:18) How is it that he was given the "throne of David his father" by God, if he already has such authority as God ?(Luke 1:32; Dan 7:13,14)
If you looked closely concerning the Greek word monogenes, you could see it's literal meaning as "single of a kind" at Judges 11:34 ("Now she was absolutely the only child"), whereby the Greek Septuagint rendered the Hebrew weraq´ hi’ yechi·dhah´,(literally "and only she, she alone", online interlinear Scripture4all, "she only"), as monogenes there, the same word used at Luke 8:42, regarding Jairus daughter, saying that "he had an only-begotten (literally "only one", online interlinear Scripture4all, "only-generated" or "only-begotten") daughter about twelve years old." Thus, Jesus was a "single of a kind", or "only one", that was "only-generated", or "only-begotten". The meaning of generated is clear, for the word generate means to "create"(Encarta Dictionary). Thus, just as Jairus' daughter, she being his only child, "created", so likewise was Jesus created, being a unique generated "single of a kind" son.
Please explain to all how I am wrong regarding Colossians 1:15. How can Jesus be the "image of the invisible God" and yet be God ? Also explain, as requested earlier, how Jesus can be the "firstborn of all creation" according to the Bible meaning, not some creed and yet be God ?
In addition, just because Jesus was involved in helping his Father create all things, as the apostle Paul stated at Colossians 1:16,17, does that make him God ? If I were to help my father in building a house, does that make me the builder of the house ? Who is the one that has the final authority or say-so in all decisions regarding this home ? Is it the son or the father, the one paying for it ?
Have you not read, at Proverbs 8:30, that Jesus is called a "master worker", assisting his Father in making the universe and all life in it and that he is the "beginning of (God's) way".(Prov 8:22) How can Jesus be the "beginning of (God's) way" if he is God ? Jesus himself says that he was "the beginning of the creation by God" at Revelation 3:14. Can we say that what Jesus said is a lie, that it is not true ? Who should anyone believe, Jesus or you and the churches ?
Some translations say "master workman"(American Standard Version),"workman"(Young's Bible), "nursling"(Darby's Bible) at Proverbs 8:30. There the Hebrew word is ’a·mohn´, meaning literally a fosterling or a child who is nurtured, one who is provided with care and upbringing. Thus Jesus, as the personification of God's wisdom and called the "Word of God",(Rev 19:13; John 1:1) was brought up as God's "only-begotten Son", even as a foster child is provided with "care and upbringing". He therefore is not equal to God, for no "fosterling" is equal to his parents. Proverb 8:30 further says that "I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;"(King James Bible) The word "begotten" comes from the word beget, meaning "to cause, bring about, produce".(Encarta Dictionary) Thus, Jesus was "produced" or was ' brought about ' by being created by the Father, God. In speaking with Nicodemas, Jesus told him that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten ("generated") Son".(John 3:16, King James Bible)
Do I need to understand "Trinitarian theology" to grasp who God, Jesus, and the holy spirit is ? No. Yet, I do indeed have an understanding of "Trinitarian theology", but just as the theory of evolution has no basis as a viable teaching, so likewise the trinity. It is not found in the Bible. That is why many noted individuals could see for themselves that it is based on false suppositions, such as Sir Isaac Newton, (1642-1727) who refuted the trinity by means of his work An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture, first published in 1754, twenty-seven years after his death. It reviewed all the textual evidence available from ancient sources on two Bible passages, at 1 John 5:7 and 1 Timothy 3:16, that have been shown to have been corrupted or tampered with.
John Milton (1608-74), the great poet, who is best remembered for composing Paradise Lost, also renounced the trinity, Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), famous chemist and discoverer of oxygen, Laelius Socinus (1525-62), who studied Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic, along with his nephew, Fausto Socinus (1539-1604), who directed the policy of the anti-trinitarian movement in Transylvania (now part of Romania) and the Spanish physician and theologian, Michael Servetus (1511-53, who gave the first accurate description of the pulminary circulatory system and served as personal physician to the archbishop of Vienne, France), was burned at the stake by John Calvin on October 27,1553 because of his opposition to the trinity. Servetus published the book, "On the Errors of the Trinity", in which he stated: "that he “will not make use of the word Trinity, which is not to be found in Scripture, and only seems to perpetuate philosophical error.†He denounced the Trinity as a doctrine “that cannot be understood, that is impossible in the nature of things, and that may eve be looked on as blasphemous!â€Â
