OBJECTIONS;

As you see there are hundreds of verses that I used to show you that there is no Trinity.  There are a very few verses in the Bible that are used to support the Trinity even though there are no verses that speak about the Trinity.  Those few used to support the Trinity are those that mention the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – but believing in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is not by any means proof of a Trinity.  Even those who don’t believe in the Trinity acknowledge that there is a Father and a Son and the Holy Spirit – they just don’t believe that they are all three co-equal gods.

 

Trinitarians will point out that Jesus was worshiped in the New Testament, it usually happened as immediate reaction to a miracle witnessed. (Even though Jesus said that the miracles were the work of the Father).  As I mentioned earlier the word for ‘worship’ is the same word used for ‘bowing down’.  Bowing down before someone is not always worship, it is often showing respect and reverence – that’s what they did for Jesus, not accepting Him as God, but rather a great teacher, Rabbi, and or a prophet.

 

a.Matthew 28:19, (NKJV), “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”

This verse is often used to support the Trinity, but this verse has been modified from the original words of Jesus.  In the 2nd  or the 3rd centuries it was modified.  The original verse, before someone promoting the Trinity changed it, reads; “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in my name”.  This original version makes it compatible with the other 17 times the baptism formula was given, stating that we are to be baptized ‘in Jesus name’.  You can believe in a ‘Father’, ‘Son’ and ‘Holy Spirit’ without believing in the ‘Trinity’.

 

b.John 1:1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Many people read this verse and use it as proof, or in support of, the Trinity doctrine.  However that is not what it is saying.  First, in the Greek, there is a definite article (the) before the first instance of the word ‘God’, but it is missing in the second instance of ‘God’.  So it reads;   

John 1:1  In the beginning was the Word (Torah), and the Word (Torah) was with (the) God, and the Word was (a) god.

Note: in the Greek, the first reference to God has a definite article (the God), the second reference to God does not, so it is proper to supply an indefinite article (a god).

 

The Jews believed that the Torah of God existed before creation.  Torah is the Word.  I disagree with that Jewish view, but that is why they say ‘In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with the God’.  And it was through that Torah that God used to create the World.  John don’t intend on saying that Jesus was from the beginning.   John’s gospel goes on to say in verse 14 that the Word (the Torah) became flesh.  He doesn’t say when, but it had to be after the creation of the earth because ‘flesh’ is an earthly thing.    For John, Jesus was the Torah made flesh because Jesus perfectly reflected the Torah.  Jesus taught the Torah, told others to keep the Torah and said that we would be judged by him the living Torah.  God gave all judgment to the Son – the Living Torah.  John said that the Torah was a god, and the Torah was embodied in Jesus.

 

John was a Hebrew, raise and taught the Hebrew Scriptures.  John knew that the OT word of God was Elohim.  Elohim is used in the scriptures for the word ‘God’, but it is also used for the word ‘god’ and ‘gods’ and for other powerful beings.  Only by the context of the verse can you know the proper know how to interpret that word.  Next question, who is a ‘god’ in the Old Testament? They are listed below with their Bible verses, but in addition to false gods, it included Judges, kings, angels, and important dignitaries.  “Elohim”, really means ‘powerful one’ or ‘powerful ones’.  So in the Bible, Elohim is sometimes taking about ‘the God’ and sometimes talking about a false god or idol, and sometimes it is referring to a person of power and authority.

 

Could John be calling the ‘Torah’ made flesh a god?  Yes, and when the Torah became flesh, in the person of Jesus, he was ‘a god’.  Was He ‘the God’?  No, but he was most certainly god, judge, governor, High Priest, Prophet, and messianic King – all of which the Bible calls a ‘god’ – a god to be honored and respected but not a god to be worshiped, but simply a person of high power and authority.  Saying that Jesus was a god, does not imply that he is a false god, he is a true god, but not ‘the God’.  ‘The God’ always refers to YHWH, or Jehovah, God Almighty, also known as the Father.

 

Who Are Elohim (translated as ‘God’ or ‘god’ or ‘gods’) in the Bible?

• the true God—Gen 1:1; Isa 2:3; Ps 50:1
• false or foreign gods and goddesses—Exude 20:3; 32:1
• angels (supernatural spirits)—Ps 8:5; 97:7; 138:1
• Samuel's afterlife "shade" or hologram—1 Sam 28:13
• Moses (as God's agent rep)—Exodus 4:16; 7:1
• the shoftim (judges-governors)—Exodus 21:6; 22:7, 8, 27
• the Messianic king—Ps 45:7

 

c.John 10:30  - Some people will argue, as you point out, that Jesus’ statement in John 10:30, “I and my Father are one,” demonstrates that Jesus considered himself God. The Greek word ἐν (hen), meaning “one,” however, does not imply being a part of the same substance. We see this clearly in John 17:11 and 17:21-22 where Jesus prays to God that the disciples may be one (ἐν) as are Jesus and God. Clearly, Jesus is requesting that the disciples be of one unified purpose, not of the same substance or part of the Trinity.

Moreover, John 10:30-34 is particularly revealing. The fourth Gospel describes how when the Jews heard Jesus proclaim, “I and my Father are one,” they immediately wanted to stone him. When Jesus asks them why they wanted to kill him, the Jews responded because “you claim to be God.” Upon hearing this, Jesus asked, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are gods’?” This response is one of the most important statements in the Book of John, and should at least give Trinitarians pause.

The verse is found in Psalm 82:6 where the Bible refers to judges who teach God’s divine law as gods. This title was bestowed on them because they were teachers of the Almighty’s divine Law and sacred Oracles, not because they were actually God in any way. This usage is quite common in the Jewish Scriptures. For example, in Exodus 7:1 Moses is called a god because he was God’s representative to Pharaoh. In essence, Jesus, as depicted by John, is explaining that his identification with God is comparable to that of a Jewish judge – who were referred to as ‘god’ in the scriptures.

 

•  .John 8:58, Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”  Here we have Jesus saying that He is ‘I AM’.  “I AM” in the Hebrew is YHWH – the name for God the Father.  But, that’s not what Jesus is saying here; John 8:58 was written in the Greek, so in the Greek, ‘I AM’ is not God’s name.  In the Hebrew language that would work, but not in the Greek. Jesus is simply saying that before Abraham, he existed.

 

•  John 5:23, “That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honors not the Son honors not the Father which hath sent him.”

 

Yes we are honor the Son as we honor the Father.  “Honor” is not worship.  I honor my earthy father, but I do not worship him.  I also honor his sons (my brothers), but I don’t worship them.  We are already told in the Scriptures to worship the Father only, this verse (John 5:23) does not negate it, nor is it contrary to dozens of other verses. 

 

To honor is to obey. Ephesians 6:1a, "Children obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honor thy father and mother…”  Jesus said His words were not His own, but rather the words of His Father. So to disobey Jesus, or to not honor Him,   would be to dishonor, not just Him, it would also be to dishonor the Father as well, because it was His words that Jesus was speaking.  Jesus was ‘the word made flesh’, Jesus was the walking and talking Torah – to dishonor His word is to dishonor the Torah, the words of His Father.

 

• .Hebrews 1:8 refers to Jesus as God and Hebrews 1:6 says that the angels worship Him and Hebrews 1:10 implies that Jesus made the heavens and the earth.  But in each case, the Old Testament verses quoted, Ps 45:6-7, Ps 97:7 and Ps 102:25-26, are all talking about the Father, LORD (YHWH), and the writer of Hebrews wrongly ascribes them to Jesus.

 

• Matthew 1:23, “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).  This verse has been used as one of the proofs and Jesus is God.  But again, not only is this verse misquoted from the Old Testament, but it is taken out of context.  The Original verse Isaiah 7:14 in the Hebrew OT is written in past tense, and it is not a virgin , but a young woman who has already conceived and will give birth to a son and she shall call it Immanuel.  Also the next verse, Isaiah 7:15, He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right.  This is clearly not speaking about a Messiah born of a virgin, 600 years after the prophecy.

  In addition, the verse from Isaiah 7:14 says that he will be named ‘Immanuel’, Jesus was not named that, and was never called that.  This verse is not a messianic prophecy.

   

  Just because God was with Jesus, and hence Jesus was among us, does not make Jesus into Yahweh God.  When Jesus raised back to life the widow’s son, the people who saw the miracle “glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people.” (Luke 7:16).  Note that the people who witnessed this miracle did not believe that Jesus was God, for there is no indication that they bowed down and worshipped Jesus.  The people referred to Jesus as "a prophet", and not a god.  Rather, they understood that God used Jesus to perform the miracle.  In this sense “God hath visited his people”.  In this sense God was with us. 

   

• According to the King James Version, and New King James, refers to Jesus as God in the flesh.However that verse is known to be forged and most Bible translations have restored that verse to what it said in the oldest Greek manuscripts.

 

i.Thomas, in John 20:28, said to Jesus, “my God and my lord’.  Doesn’t that prove that Jesus is God?  No.  The Greek text really said, “my God, my lord”.  John was astonished when he say the resurrected Jesus.  Much as we in great astonishment may cry out, ‘my God’ – Thomas cried out, ‘my God, my lord’.  In which case Thomas wasn’t really addressing Jesus, but the Father who raised Jesus from the dead.  If Thomas really claimed Jesus as God, that would have been so significant that the other Gospel writers would have mentioned it, but they didn’t.

 

J.    John 10:30-35 (NIV),  I and the Father are one.”

31 Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”

33 “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”

(At this point, the religious leaders thought Jesus was claiming to be ‘God’, but he straightened them out in the next two verses.)

34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”’? 35 If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside—

People, judges, rulers, prophets, angels and others are called ‘god’ in the Bible – ‘god’ means ‘powerful one’. Jesus here is denying that he is ‘God’ and saying that he is a ‘god’ – as the scriptures say.  This goes hand in hand with Jesus saying that the Father is greater that he is.