One Equals Three!

 Stick to The Truth

1. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh. 1 Tim. 3:16.

This is among the Trinitarians favourite verses to prove the doctrine of the Trinity.  However, before we, who hold the opposing argument, admit defeat, we must point out that in the Greek translation it does not say, God was manifested in the flesh, it says, great is the mystery of the piety who was manifested in the flesh.  For the word mystery, it is more accurate to use the word, unveiling or revelation. 

When we stop to look at Christ’s life we agree that it is a great revelation that a person living in human flesh could live a life of such piety.  In the Greek text, this verse does not say that Christ was God; it says that Christ lived a life of piety and the revealing of that piety was great.

2. Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. 1 Tim. 1:17.  Here is a good example of how easily, and how grossly wrong, theology can turn if the writer insists on inserting his own theology into a verse of scripture. 

The late Dr McGee wrote, Paul simply couldn’t go any further without sounding out this tremendous doxology. Who is “the King eternal”? He is the Lord Jesus Christ. And who is the Lord Jesus? He is “the only wise God.” Don’t tell me that Paul did not teach that the Lord Jesus was God. Paul considered Him to be God manifest in the flesh, and here he gives this wonderful testimony to that.

If Mr McGee had not been so insistent on seeing evidence of the Trinity, even where it is not to be found, he would have seen the obvious. 

This verse of scripture does not even mention Jesus Christ.  It is a phrase of praise to God the Father.  Anyone reading McGee’s opinion, without thinking too much about it, will accept it as proof of the doctrine of the Trinity.  This kind of brainwashing is what has happened throughout the ages of the church and now people accept, as fact, a doctrine which the Bible does not even hint at.

Here is how a teaching like the Trinity can get started and how it grows.  Suppositions handed down from one age to another acquire additional weight from the authorities by which they are supported, till at last they are received, even by men of genius, as fundamental truths. Lavoisier.

Matthew Henry, about 350 years ago, in his Bible commentary, clarifying this verse, 1 Tim. 1:17, says nothing about the Trinity.  He attributes all praise to God, the Father, where it belongs.  He makes no reference to Christ at all!  Looking at the difference in emphases that these two teachers place on the Trinity, indicates that the doctrine of the Trinity has grown stronger even within the last three and a half centuries.

It should be emphasized that the Bible (both Old and New Testaments) is, in its entirety, highly Hebraic. In spite of the fact that portions of the New Testament was communicated in Greek, the background is thoroughly Hebrew. The writers are Hebrew, the culture is Hebrew, the religion is Hebrew, the traditions are Hebrew, and the concepts are Hebrew.  Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus. David Bivin and Roy Blizzard

It is impossible to believe that Hebrew men, with a background in the Hebrew religion, would unanimously have put forward a doctrine such as the Trinity!  It is impossible to imagine Saint Paul, a Pharisee, preaching that God was actually three persons.  Preposterous!

The Returning King

3. Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Titus 2:13.  Noting the Greek translation again, we see that this verse does not say that our great God will be appearing.  It writes, expecting the blessed hope and appearance of the glory of the great God and Saviour of us Christ Jesus. 

It says that the glory of our great God will be appearing; and who is the glory of God except for Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb of God?  It is Christ that will be appearing to take His bride home.

4. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Phil. 1:3.  Here, Paul again makes a distinction between the Father and the Son.  Our peace comes from Jehovah and from His Son, and the two are not the same, or Paul would not have mentioned them separately!

5. But to the Son He says: Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. Heb. 1:8.  Here it sounds as if Jehovah Himself is saying that Jesus, His Son, is God. 

The New World Translation has an interesting variation of this verse.  It writes, But with reference to the Son: God is your throne.  In this translation, that verse does not say that Christ is God but rather that God is Christ’s throne.  Many people would reject that meaning because it is from the Bible of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. 

However, Westcott and Moffet are accepted, by Evangelical Christians, as trustworthy Bible translators; this is what they say about this verse, it should read, God is thy throne for-ever and ever.  In the Greek text it reads like this, But with regard to the Son: the throne of Thee, God is.

6. To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ: Jude 1:1.  The division between the two is clear.  

• We are sanctified by the Father 
• we are not preserved by Christ
• but we are preserved in Christ by the Father. 

The doctrine of the Trinity must be rejected by all honest Bible students!

7. Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ. Rev. 1:4-5.  

The separation of the Father and the Son in these two verses again indicates that Christ is not equal to the Father or even part of the Godhead!

8. To Him (Jesus) who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and made us kings and priests to His God and Father. Rev. 1:5-6.  The point hardly needs to be made; God is also the God of Jesus, how then is it possible to claim equality between Christ and God?

9. Christ says I have not found your works perfect before your God. Rev. 3:2.  Christ did not claim divinity here (or anywhere else); He rightly attributed divinity to God, His Father.

Here we end this segment of our study of the (so-called) Trinity.  It is time that church members think again about this very important doctrine.  

In my next post, I will write a little bit about the rise of the theory of the Trinity in the early church.