learning something new, or when the topic of discussion goes contrary to the status quo. On a side note, when discussing or listening to something that is emotionally charged, such as faith, in order to avoid the possibility of emotionally fueled bias from clouding ones judgement, if a person were to apply the third person perspective, then perhaps, one might actually be able to see that proverbial forest apart from the trees. For example, if I refer to myself in third person and ask, "Heather, is the teaching of the trinity really biblical? " When I do that, something strange and wonderful happens, I'm no longer emotionally tied to the question, even though I know I'm Heather. Just try it, okay? Okay, getting back to the topic at hand, dear reader, redundancy, I cannot stress enough how important it is for Christians ( right here, insert your name as a third person) to dust off their Bibles, crack them open and read them, for themselves. This book (and this book alone) is the rudder, life line, and anchor that keeps our faith from shipwreck, upon the jagged rocks of heresy and apostasy. If a teaching, or doctrine that is being taught in the Church is not clearly seen in its pages, then it's from men, or demons--not from God! I'm sure many saints would agree, at least, I hope so, hence the ongoing debates that appeal to Scripture for verification. This principle applies to any biblical subject, including the Trinity. As taught by God's word, we must examine a preacher's theology and sermons according to the standard of Scripture, in order to see if what he says is so, that is part of being a Berean. How else will we find out who is a false teacher, or not, if we don't see if what they say is so?
Therefore, the Trinity is most definitely subject for scrutiny, yes? So the question of where theologians get the concept of a Triune God must be answered. Is it from the Bible, or from unfaithful men who were influenced by idolatrous, unsaved philosophers? From what I have learned in my personal studies, it appears that the Trinity was brought into Christianity by biblical scholars, and teachers who had a soft spot for unsaved Greek philosophers like: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and even Philo. Philo was a Helenistic Jewish philosopher, and is a prime example of a syncretist. He merged Moses with Plato! Plato! And the people said, "Oy vey!" I tell you the truth, any bald-faced lie is far more easy to reject than a half-truth. People who cleverly mix the truth of Scripture with humanistic philosophy ( Col 2:8), are far more dangerous to the gospel, than the most wicked of Satanists.
Don't believe me about the danger of mixing idolatry with biblical truth? Well, here is what a prominent Greek philosopher had to say about what some would say, sounds an awful lot like the Trinity, perhaps this eye opener will give you something to chew on. In the Fourth Century B.C. Aristotle wrote:
'All things are three, and thrice is all: and let us use this number in the worship of the gods; for, as the Pythagoreans say, everything and all things are bounded by threes, for the end, the middle and the beginning have this number in everything, and these compose the number of the Trinity'" (Arthur Weigall, Paganism in Our Christianity, 1928, pp. 197-198).
As I understand it, in an effort to bring obstinate idolators into the "Christian" church (and all of their money with them), the 1st century church leaders flirted with idolatry, and it wasn't long before they began compromising the gospel. I guess it can be said that they Christianized paganism. However, I believe that it can be equally true to say that Christianity was paganized. Either way, these false teachers who deliberately polluted the faith, or couldn't completely let go of the idolatrous concepts of their beloved Greek philosophers, managed to find four verses in the Old Testament that contain the words “us”, and “our” in the text when God is speaking, and have used them to make a case for a Triune God. Only four key verses are taken from Scripture by Trinitarian scholars against the entire Word of God that contains thousands of Scriptures that put God in a singular existence, as in being absolutely only ONE God, with absolutely NO equal to him. Hmmm....should we go with only four "implied" verses, or thousands of actual written verses that clearly describe the one and only Great I Am? Personally, I'd go with the thousands of verses that give us definite information about our God. That just makes good faith sense to me, but perhaps it's best to dig deeper.
And so, here are the four O.T. 'proof' Scriptures (not including the New Testament verses in Matthew 28, and 1 John 5), which by the way, many claim are also "Trinitarian" proof texts, but let's stay focused on the O.T. verses.
Gen. 1:26 “And God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.'”
Gen 3:22 “And the LORD God said, 'Behold, the man has become as one of Us, to know good and evil: and now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever:'”
Gen 11:7 “Come, let Us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech
Isaiah 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I, send me.”
today was amazing! There was no one there but us." Dear reader, please tell me, based on context clues in this sentence, can we determine how many people were at the beach? No? Well, what if someone 'in the know' told us that this person has four people in their family. Would that help us make an obvious assumption that the "Our" and "us" amounts to four people? Maybe. Even though this person may have four people in their family, that in no way should be the deciding factor in what was meant by "Our" and "us."
Now, what if a few pages later helped in clarifying the number of people at the beach as being only the journal writer and her husband? Should the subsequent information that be ignored in favor of the previous assumption? No. It's the same with Scripture. In the surrounding verses where these supposed proofs of a Trinity are, God uses single person pronouns that clarify that he is the only God that is making the decisions, and acting on them. This is simple grammar. I admit that it is interesting that he doesn't clarify who else is with him to warrant the "us" and "our" pronouns in the immediate context, but just because he chose to omit that information then and there doesn't mean we can presume to place someone's idea of who he is referring to in that verse. No. We've got to be very careful about putting words into the LORD's mouth. Especially since there are other verses where the LORD God says there is no other God except for him, and he has no equal. Now let's look at the verses that surround these supposed proof texts of the LORD God being Triune.
Gen. 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.”
Gen. 3:23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken 24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Gen 11:4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” 5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel[c]—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
Isa. 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
The Trinity is Paganism's "New Math"
The Ba'als
2 Timothy 4:2-4 |