A week later I discovered that my comment was removed!
Now that's not very nice! Is it?
Oh well, it is the blog administrator's choice. :-)
However, no need for my comment to go to waste; so here it is in its entirety for the edification of others, as follows :-
Greetings Dave
Personally, I acknowledge that the concept of the Trinity is very difficult for our finite human minds to comprehend because it is NOT based upon Scripture!
The Scriptures lend themselves to the 'simple' belief that there is solely ONE GOD.
ONE Individual Being who is Almighty GOD, the Father; whilst Jesus the Messiah is the ONE GOD's human son.
Now that is not difficult. It is really very simple and a child can understand this!
Jesus himself said, (John 17:3) And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
So Jesus acknowledged his Father as the only true GOD.
In Mark 12:29 he quoted the Shema as the most important commandment, (
Mark 12:29-30) And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
Thus confirming the fact from Deut 6:4,
that YAHWEH his GOD, was ONE!
YAHWEH IS ONE!
Christ's audience, the scribe, understood Jesus to mean: (Mark 12:32) And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:
So obviously, both Jesus and the scribe were not trinitarians. They had no concept of three co-equal beings who each can be called 'Almighty GOD'. They had absolutely no concept that God is a trinity of persons consisting of one substance and one essence. Why? Because it is NOT in Scripture!
They acknowledged solely ONE individual Being as 'Almighty GOD'.
Jesus went on to say to the scribe, (Mark 12:34) And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. ...
Isa 43:10-11 confirms the Oneness of GOD; that there is solely ONE GOD and that there is NO other (co-equal) person or being that can be called Almighty GOD. Isa 43:10-11 speaks of 'one person' who is solely Almighty GOD.
Now, the NT clearly acknowledges the facts that the ONE GOD is the Father; Jesus is His Son; and GOD & Christ operate in the church via the holy spirit which is simply the spirit of GOD;
therefore GOD, His son, and holy spirit is mentioned in Matthew 28:19.
However, Matthew 28:19 says nothing about God eternally existent in three persons. Again, read it! It just does not say that! Besides throughout the Book of Acts, the apostles baptized believers in the name of Jesus! Hmmm!
Concerning John 1:1-3,14.
Dr. Colin Brown (of Fuller Seminary) puts it beautifully ...
"'It is a common but patent misreading of the opening of John’s Gospel to read it as if it said: "In the beginning was the Son, and the Son was with God and the Son was God." '" Incidentally, Dr. Brown goes on to say "'Indeed to be a "Son of God" one has to be a being who is not God!'"
The fact is, John 1:1-3 does not say In the beginning was the Son or In the beginning was Jesus!
John 1:1-3 is about GOD's word. You know! GOD said and IT was done! [Psa 33,6,9; etc]
In verse 14, John informs us that GOD's word became flesh! That's it!
A word is not a person. A word is an impersonal noun. An IT!
Incidentally, did you know that the majority of the English Bibles before the KJV from Tyndale onwards, translated John 1:1-4 as follows: (John 1:1-4) 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 it; and without it was not any thing made that was made. 4 In it was life; and the life was the light of men.
Thus William Tyndale and other translators understood that John was NOT talking about Jesus, the Son of GOD, in John 1:1-4; rather John was talking about GOD's [spoken] word which in the fulness of time (verse 14; cp. Gal 4.4) became flesh resulting in the person of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, Jesus is not the logos/word as such; rather Jesus is what the word/logos of GOD became!
In John 10:30 Jesus indeed said "I and the Father are one."
However, one what? What is the context? He said nothing about them being of one substance and one essence. From John 10:25ff you ought to see that they are 'one' in agreement & purpose! Plus Jesus prayed that his disciples be one with the Father, even as he was one with the Father!! [John 17.11,21-22] Again, absolutely nothing to do with substance or essence! It goes without saying that the disciples/church of Christ are NOT co-essential or consubstantial with the Father!!!
Eph 4:4-6 ... great scripture! ... "There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call-- one Lord [Jesus], one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."
Just as there is numeral one body, spirit, hope, faith, and baptism.
There is in like manner, solely one GOD who is Father of all. This ONE GOD has made none other than Jesus of Nazareth, both Lord and Christ [Acts 2.36, 10.36]. Therefore there is in like manner, solely one Lord, Jesus the Christ. He is the numeral one person whom the ONE GOD, the Father of all, has made Lord of all.
Paul reiterates this truth also in (1 Cor 8:4) ... that there is none other God but one. (1 Cor 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.
ONE GOD, the Father.
And ONE Lord, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Father [2 John 3]
So simple! Our finite human minds can gladly grasp these truths. GOD has made solely Jesus, Lord of all. Hence, (Phil 2:11) ... every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Again and again, there is a simple and clear distinction between the ONE GOD & His human son who is the one Lord!
There is solely ONE GOD, the Father. Who has solely exalted & made the man Christ Jesus, Lord of all!
ONE GOD, ONE man!!
GOD alone is GOD!
Whilst Jesus is the one mediator between the ONE GOD & mankind [1 Tim 2.5]
Jesus himself being a man and not GOD, since there is solely ONE Almighty GOD!!
Again, our finite human minds can grasp these simple truths.
Dave, compare your response and trinitarian thoughts to the scribe's response given in Mark 12.32; bearing in mind, Jesus' response in verse 34. Look again, at the above scriptures given. And hopefully you will begin to see that in believing that there is only one God, that is the Father; in believing Jesus as being simply the Son of God, a perfect glorified man; in NOT believing in a so-called trinity (as formulated in the Nicene/Athanasian creeds, etc);
... will bring one much closer to entrance into the Kingdom of GOD.
Dave, May GOD bless you as you endeavor to seek these truths.
Yours In Messiah
Adam Pastor
