Free from the Severe Complexities of Trinitarianism!
From Focus on the Kingdom - March 2014
by Anthony Buzzard
“There is one God, the Father…There is no other God except Him” (1 Cor. 8:4, 6).
“You, Father, are the only one who is true God” (Jesus in John 17:3).
Then Paul said, “There is one Lord Messiah” (1 Cor. 8:6), the Lord Messiah who was born in Bethlehem (Luke 2:11). He was promoted to the supreme position next to God. Peter said, “God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Peter cites Psalm 110:1 to prove his point and define “lord” (see Acts 2:34-36). God cannot be born and God is not promoted to a position! The second lord of Psalm 110:1 is adoni, my lord, which is never a title of Deity.
Paul again in an explicit creedal statement: “There is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Messiah Jesus.” Jesus is the second Adam (man). Jesus is the head of the new creation and to make him an angel or GOD Himself is to throw away the prize and choice, elect, of God, the great, sinless prince of the human race.
There are 1300 examples of “GOD” = the Father and not Jesus, in the NT. There is not one example in the Bible of this idea: “There is one God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” The word GOD in Scripture never means a Triune GOD. So no one in the Bible, who wrote “God,” meant a Triune God. Does this not strongly suggest that the Bible writers were not Trinitarians?
Do you see how Jesus first affirmed the most important command of all: “The Lord our God is one Lord” or “Lord alone” (Mark 12:29)? Next Jesus described the relationship to the Messiah of that one God. Jesus is the son of David, the “my lord” of Psalm 110:1, about which Jesus had questioned them, and used Psalm 110:1, as we should, to settle all problems.
Paul did exactly the same. First he echoes Jesus exactly and with the precise wording of a creed: “There is for us one God, the Father, and no other God except him.” Then Paul declared his belief in “one Lord Messiah Jesus,” evidently the second lord (Messiah) of Psalm 110:1.
Jesus and Paul are both solidly rooted in the strict monotheism of Israel, which was never a Trinitarian “monotheism.” So then ask your friends to engage this question without dodging or pivoting! Try this at various blogs, websites, etc. This will help to get the now silenced conversation going. Nothing is more important than the identity of God and Jesus. Ask this question at any website dealing with Scripture:
“Sirs, Since Jesus affirmed the Shema in Mark 12:29 (with a Jew agreeing), was he not obviously in line with the orthodox, non-Trinitarian view of God? Or did the Shema present a Trinitarian creed? Thanks for an answer.”
The above article was taken from:
Free from the Severe Complexities of Trinitarianism!
