If you have explored Trinitarian doctrine to any degree, you will have surely come across the "Jesus is God" or "Jesus is YAHWEH" attribute association charts. These charts are usually arranged to compare Jesus and Yahweh God by showing they share several things in common. These charts are nothing but deceptive fallacies. A person can share numerous things in common with another person and it will not make them that person by identity.
Perhaps you have heard of the phrase, "guilt by association" which is known to be a common fallacy. The Trinitarian is trying to claim that since Jesus shares many things in common with God then he is God by identity. It is pitifully ridiculous. The following chart is a similar layout to the ones Trinitarians use to compare Jesus and Yahweh. It is created with the exact same reasoning process used by Trinitarians to create their charts and demonstrates the complete foolishness of such "reasoning."
Peter is the Messiah ("Anointed One") Description Jesus Peter Son of God Luke 1:35; Matt 3:16-17 Matt 5:45; Rom 8:14;
Gal 3:26Begotten of God Jn 3:16 1 Jn 5:1; Matt 16:17 Shepherd Matt 2:6; 26:31; Jn 10:11; Heb 13:20;
1 Peter 2:25; 5:4Jn 21:16; Acts 20:28;
1 Peter 5:2Light of the world John 8:12 Matthew 5:14 Apostle Hebrews 3:1 Matthew 10:2 Priest Hebrews 7:3, 17, 24 1 Peter 2:5,9; Rev 1:6; 5:10 King Matthew 2:2; 27:37;
Luke 1:33-35Rev 1:6; 5:10 Authority to forgive sins Matthew 9:2,8 John 20:21-23 Healed the lame Matthew 9:1-8 Acts 3:6-7 Raised the dead John 11:43-44 Acts 9:37-41 Walked on water Matthew 14:25 Matthew 14:29 Bestowed the Spirit John 20:22 Acts 8:14-18 Crucified
for the SheepMatthew 27; Luke 23; John 19 John 21:18-19
Early church testimonyAnointed1 Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38 2 Cor 1:21; 1 John 2:20, 27 Conclusion: Both Peter and Jesus are the Messiah!!! A person can theoretically share absolutely everything in common with another person and it will still not make you that person. Even if Peter shared 100% of Jesus' attributes, Peter would not be Jesus. This is because there is one thing they cannot share in common: identity. Peter is one person and Jesus is another person. Peter is one identity, Christ is another identity, and the one thing they can never have in common is their personal identities. No matter how big you make the chart above, and no matter how many things you show Peter has in common with the Messiah, Peter will simply never be the Messiah.
The same is true with the Son of God and his Father who is God. In fact, Jesus does not share several things with the Father in addition to not sharing the Father's identity. This Trinitarian ploy is nothing but a pitiful fallacy. On one hand they want to claim Jesus and the Father are two different identities but on the other hand they wish to claim that both of them share one common identity as the one we know as "God."
What Trinitarians try to do is identity Jesus as God when God already is identified as the person of the Father by showing he shares things in common with the Father. It is just as ridiculous as trying to identify Peter as the Christ as we have shown above. ... Not only so, much of the information presented in these charts is simply false information anyway. For example, they will try to claim Jesus is "omniscient" and avoid the fact that Jesus increased in wisdom and does not know "the day nor hour." Other falsehoods in these charts are based on their own misinterpretations. The truth is that even IF these charts were not presenting falsehoods within them, the whole idea itself is a farce. Our own chart above demonstrates that quite clearly. No matter how many things you show one person has in common with another person, it will never amount to both of them having the same identity.
Notes:
1. The word Messiah, or maschiach, is Hebrew for "Anointed One." The Greek word is chrisma which is a cognate of the word "Christ."
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
The Attribute Association Farce by K.N. Stovra
