Trinity? Then also Sixpointsixbillionity

Waldmark, 12 June 2008

The Trinity is difficult to explain. As an example, the following is an evaluation of Daily Bible Online from Christian Family Software, a 'non-denominational Christian site devoted to spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ and helping believers grow in their Christian faith.'

In its Statement of Faith, expounding on the Trinity doctrine, the Daily Bible Online declares:

‘We believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, that the Bible, Old and New Testaments are the inspired, infallible Word of God. The Bible says… “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2nd Timothy 3:16-17)’

This declaration conveys the impression that the Bible is regarded as the ultimate authority concerning all aspects of God the Father and of Jesus Christ. Indeed, Daily Bible Online emphasises this precept when it writes on the same page:

‘The Bible is Gods word preserved for us through the ages. In order to know God better you have to become familiar with His word.’

In order to know God, and also in order to know God better, one has to be familiar with God’s word. Laudable. Why, then does one need to consult sources outside of God’s word, sources other than the Bible, in order to learn about one of the supposedly essential characteristics of God, namely the fact that God the Father is part of a unity of three and does not exist on his own?

The Trinity is considered of paramount importance for every Christian because it presumedly informs us how God the Father relates to Jesus Christ. As the Daily Bible Online writes:

‘The concept of the Triune God is one of the foundational teachings of Christianity and is intimately connected with the bedrock of Christianity, which is the Person and Deity of Jesus Christ, who is fully God and fully human,’ and ‘Without belief in the Trinity it’s hard to reconcile the Deity of Christ and the gift of salvation.’

Seeing its apparent importance in helping us grasp the relationship between God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son of God, and therefore helping us ‘to know God better’, one could easily be forgiven for thinking that the Bible will contain one or more explicit explanations of the Trinity. Indeed, even if not expecting to find a description of the Trinity in the Bible then reading this declaration of the Daily Online Bible would leave no doubt as to the Bible’s position on the Trinity:

‘the Bible is clear in it’s declaration that the Trinity does exist and is real.’

But, sincere Christian, prepare yourself for a shock: the above quotation is a major deception. There is not a single line in the Bible that refers to a Trinity. Indeed, there is not a single reference in the entire Bible, from the first verse of Genesis to the last verse of Revelations, that even suggests that for instance the Holy Ghost would be a Person, or that Jesus Christ and God the Father are both members of a Godhead.
There is no declaration in the Bible concerning the Trinity, let alone references to its supposed existence and reality.

Even the very word Godhead is a man-made term without any real meaning. Godhead is defined in dictionaries as ‘divine nature’ but what is ‘divine nature’? To merely mention a ‘divine nature’ on its own is nonsense; it immediately prompts the question: the divine nature of whom? Divine means ‘of, from, or like God or a god. It is stated as an adjective and means ‘associated with or derived from God’ (New Oxford) and does not refer to itself but to God, or in this case, to nature. Whereas nature means ‘the basic or inherent features of something or someone’ or ‘the innate or essential qualities or character of a person’ or ‘inborn or hereditary characteristics as an influence on or determinant of personality’ (New Oxford). So nature also refers to a someone or a something, not to itself.

Unless, of course, we understand nature as the ‘physical force regarded as causing and regulating’ the phenomena of ‘the physical world collectively’ (New Oxford) but it seems to me that not even misguided Christians will go so far as limiting the God of the Bible to the realm of physics only.

The word Godhead, therefore, is a word without meaning when used on its own or as substitute for God. The statement that ‘the Bible is clear in it’s declaration that the Trinity does exist and is real’ is therefore not true. Such a declaration must of necessity at the very minimum address the issue of the Trinity, if not with the specific word then as a concept, but neither the word ‘Trinity’ nor any allusion to the concept can be found in the Bible.

Now I do not think the Daily Bible Online would make their statements about the Trinity if they would have suspected anything wrong with their belief in it. That is why I write these Ipistles: the majority of Christians sincerely believe in the Trinity. Yet they are sincerely being deceived. Not only the Daily Online Bible, other Christian organisations too support their claim that the Bible declares the Trinity with statements such as this one from the Daily Bible Online website:

‘We believe that God is eternally existent in three distinct persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. For the Bible says… “For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.” (1st John 5:7)’.

The word ‘for’ in ‘For the Bible says…’ means that the first statement can be concluded from the second statement. The claim is that God is eternally existent in three distinct persons because there are three that bear witness, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one.

Isn’t it sad that Christians, with a desire to help other Christians grow in their faith, resort to such poor reasoning? Let me explain why the interpretation is so poor.

1 John 5:7 states that the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are one. But the next! verse down, John writes: ‘And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.’

So, while no one would conclude from 1 John 5 vs. 8 that water and blood and Spirit form a kind of triune flow or something, the exact same wording is used as the irrefutable evidence that God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son of God and the Holy Spirit do constitute a Triune God.

Mankind has been given a reasoning mind. The reasoning mind of man has made up the Trinity (because God didn’t) so if logic can be considered grounds for arriving at conclusions, then when a Triune God follows from verse 7, there is no option for mankind but to conclude the existence of a Triune Flow as following from verse 8.

One may counter by pointing out that verse 8 states that the three agree in one, whereas verse 7 states that the three are one, but this is just the interpretation of translators seeking to justify their own theology. In the few original manuscripts in which both the verses appear they are exactly similar in ending. Thus, if the correct translation should be that the three agree, that should then also apply to verse 7, eliminating the strongest of the so-called ‘declarations’ about the Trinity altogether.

Conversely, if are one is the correct translation, then together with a Doctrine of Trinity or Triune Godhead, we should also rapidly introduce a Doctrine of Liquidity or Triune Flow.

The Trinity is a man-made doctrine. It nullifies everything the Bible teaches us about God the Father being the only true God and the Most High. God would not be the Most High if He were not the highest. He is not Shared Highest as the doctrine of the Trinity implies. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did not tell Moses that His Name was I-Am-Part-of-a-Threesome. He told Moses His real Name, a Name too holy to mention here in argument but which can be found in every Bible.

The Trinity is a deception that is eating away at the foundations of Christendom precisely because every Christian church seems to declare the Trinity as being the foundation.

Footnotes and references

Daily Bible Online: http://www.dailybibleonline.com/

Dictionary quotations from the New Oxford American Dictionary (built into Apple Mac OS)

Tags: trinity, doctrine, false teaching