Trinity

The Trinity is the belief that God is one God in three persons.  God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are three coequal, co-eternal, consubstantial parts of God – all in one entity.  This doctrine is the result of the Catholic Church changing their beliefs to incorporate the gods and doctrines of the pagans over time to get them to accept the new Christian Church.  It is a false doctrine.  God is the Supreme Diety, Christ was a man born into the royal line of the house of David by miraculous birth to a virgin.  The Holy Spirit is God’s power (described like light radiating off a light bulb), it is not a person or entity, but rather God’s all present power driving our lives and used to direct his will.  The paragraphs below address the question, was Christ coequal with God?

1. Speaking of Himself – God declared that he was one God.  This is significant because all the pagans worshipped multitudes of God, some who were several Gods in one.  God is not like this:

• Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
• Mark 12:29  And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
• Deuteronomy 32:39 See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
• 1 Samuel 2:2 There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God.

2.  Jesus, speaking of himself, denied equality with God.  God was greater than him, and his apostles said the same.

• John 14:28 I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
• 1 Corinthians 11:3  the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
• 1 Corinthians 15:27-28 then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
• Philippians 2:5 (RSV) Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

3 Jesus did not consider himself God’s equal in goodness or righteousness

• Matthew 19:17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God

4. Yet Jesus said, “My father and I are one” in John 10:30.  How were they one?

Jesus Praying for his apostles said:

• John 17:20-21 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;  21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
• Acts 4:31-32  And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together…32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul…

The twelve apostles were not one person, but twelve distinct persons.  The way they were one, was that they were of one mind to do the will of God, and Jesus indicates that the way they all were one, is the same way he is one with God.  Of one mind. This is how Jesus could say “He that hath seen me hath seen the father”, because he was a perfect representation of God because he was perfectly of one mind with him, and perfectly fulfilled his will…

5. Jesus made many other distinctions between himself and God.  

A. He claimed that God (not he himself) had come up with the doctrine he was teaching

Doctrine: Jesus taught God’s doctrine, not his own (indicating a separation of intelligence with God)

• John 7:16 Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.
• John 15:15 …all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
• John 12:49 but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
• John 14:24 and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.

B.  That he himself could do nothing, the power and authority he had was from God, not from himself

Power: Did Jesus have his own underived power?

• John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
• John 5:27 And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.

C.  That there were things God knew that he did not

Intellect: God knows everything/Jesus did not (separation of intellect)

• Mark 13:32 But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the father

D. Jesus could not give away things that were not his to give away

Ownership: Could Jesus give away things that were God’s?

• Matthew 20:23 And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.

E. God had sent him, he did not come of his own will or desire

• John 5:36 the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.
• John 6:38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
• John 6:40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
• John 7:16 Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.

There are over 20 verses in John That make this point

F. Jesus did not come to do his own will or his own sayings, but that which was God’s will for him to do or say.  This distinction indicates a separation of intellect, even though Christ perfectly obeyed God

• John 6:38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
• John 5:36 for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.

G. Jesus’ very life was provided by God

• John 6:57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

6. The bible tells us many things about God.  There were many ways that Christ did not fit the descriptions of God, so we know he was not God.  God does not change.

Death: God cannot die/Jesus Died

• 1 Timothy 6:16
• Deuteronomy 32:39
• Psalms 90:2
• Psalms 102:27
• Luke 23:46

Evil: God cannot be in the presence of evil/Jesus was

God:

• Psalms 5:4
• Habakkuk 1:13

Jesus:

• Matthew 4:1-4

Man: God does not dwell on the earth and is not a man

God:

• Numbers 23:19
• 1 Kings 8:27
• Job 9:32

Jesus:

• Matthew 2:22-23

Obedience: Jesus had to learn to be obedient to God

• Hebrews 5:8-9

Sleep: God Never tires or sleeps/Jesus slept

God:

• Isaiah 40:28

Jesus

• Mark 4:37

Temptation: God can’t be tempted with evil/Jesus was

God:

• James 1:13

Jesus:

• Hebrews 4:14-15

Visible: God cannot be seen (Jesus was seen)

God:

• Exodus 33:20
• John 1:18
• John 5:37
• 1 Timothy 6:16
• 1 John 4:12

Jesus: Jesus was obviously seen

Will: Did Jesus always want what God wanted?

Jesus perfectly submitted himself to the will of God, but the death of the cross was something he asked to be spared from and then said “Thy will be done”.

• Mark 14:36
• Luke 22:42
• John 6:38

6. What was the nature of Jesus Christ – Was he a God or a man?

Jesus had an unclean nature, a result of his being born of a woman.  He was a man, born with the same sinful flesh that we all have.  The word Trinity does not appear in the bible.  Documents suggesting a primitive understanding of the Trinity appear first in 150 AD and the Catholic Church itself ratified it in the First Council of Nicea in 325 CE.

He was a man, born into the royal lineage of the house of King David, and heir to it’s throne.  God has raised him above all men and angels because of his perfect obedience to his will, and Christ sits on the right hand of God until God sends him back to set up his eternal kingdom.  When Christ died on the cross, it was to atone for his sinful flesh, and provide the perfect sacrifice.  Those who follow him into baptism are baptized into his death and like he was raised, are promised resurrection to life for judgement with the hope of eternal life.  Those who are not baptized have no hope of coming out of the grave.

• Hebrews 2:14-18 Children are partakers of flesh and blood – He took part of the same
• Job 14:4 …bring clean thing out of an unclean
• Hebrews 4:15 but was in all points tempted as we are
• Galatians 4:4 son…made of a woman…made under the law
• Job 15:14 14 What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
• Job 25:4-6 How can he be clean that is born of a woman?
• Hebrews 7:27 Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.
• Hebrews 9:7 But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: –