The biggest thing causing division among claimants to Christianity is whether Jesus is God. Certainly this should be very important for all of us to consider. What we believe about God and Christ can have a profound effect on our relationship with God and our eternal salvation as it relates directly to the salvation message and who or what we perceive God to be. Surely something as "clear" as the Trinity is claimed to be should not be so confusing as to require centuries of theological debate, bloodshed, and forbidding Bible reading to enforce.
They say that the Trinity is the sole saving tenet of Christianity, when the Bible makes no such claim. They ask people to believe what they say without thinking. They call all that came before “heretical” in order to introduce a heretical belief. Then they claim that any religion that contradicts them is trying to "brainwash" you and anyone who questions the Trinity must be being manipulated by a "cult". Just by your reading this, they claim you are being "unduly influenced". They get people to accept their forced interpretations of Bible texts. Sound familiar? Try asking a question about Jehovah's Witnesses beliefs of your minister/pastor/priest and then hear Big Brother's reply.
To get a clear dose of the "believe, don't think" teaching, you need go no further than the recommended first Bible lesson in the wordgo app. (It is one of the most bone-chilling things I ever heard.) To quote the audio (text was not provided), a soothing female voice says:
1) They use audio for the lesson, with no written text to examine, so that you are unable to engage your visual cortex to analyze the statements made. Trinitarians call this "oral tradition", even though it is exactly the same as writing. You just don't get to check it. The soothing voice helps reduce your motivation to question.
2) It claims: "The Bible ... answers these questions right up front. But not in a way that can be completely explained or understood." Something that cannot be explained or understood cannot be an answer, as an answer is an explanation for understanding, therefore the Bible would not be giving the answer, but would rather be raising a question that cannot be answered, thus they immediately tie the listener's thinking in knots that cannot be untied.
3) They paint questioning and requesting proof as a "challenge" in a negative sense.
4) They then paint simply accepting the claim as true to be something noble in contradiction to Acts 17:11 [pa|in] where it says those testing whether something was true are called "noble" (KJV) or "fair-minded" (NAB).
5) The audio claims "It's up to us whether or not we believe" a person we trust. Yet trusting in someone's word without checking its veracity is a demonstrable logic fallacy in critical thinking, especially if we do not know who that person actually is. They are hijacking your mind by asking you to artificially access feelings of trust in your memory so that you will transfer those feelings to the one speaking in the audio.
6) It compares this credulity to how some technology is beyond most of our understanding but we say "I trust them". This ignores the fact that we can see these things at work with our own eyes, therefore trust is not in question. We cannot see the so-called Trinity, therefore, we would have to find another way to identify whether the claim that God is a Trinity is true or false, namely in the very book that they claim to draw the teaching from: the Bible.
7) After making all those statements it then asserts that "John asks us ... to believe something completely true." This is false. Nowhere in John chapter 1 does John anywhere ask us to accept what he says is true. Instead he is one of many witnesses who attested to the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.—Acts 17:11 [pa|in].
8) The audio claims that what John asks us to accept is: "Jesus Christ is fully human and yet fully God," But nowhere in John chapter 1 does John ever say that "Jesus Christ is fully human and yet fully God." But I will not get into what he actually said in verse 1. We will get to that later, using actual reasoning on the original text, not the forced translation.
9) They are making the claim that it is "completely true" while dodging providing any such proof and trying to trick the reader into simply accepting that claim without question.
If you were raised with the Trinity or converted, can you remember a time when you were asked to seek proof of anything? Did they just show you verses in their translation without asking you to go deeper? Well now we are going to go deeper.
What I seek to show the reader in this refutation against the Trinity and Binity doctrines is that no matter what model one holds to regarding the Trinity or Binity, (Often misstated as "Duality",) it takes scriptures out of context, spurious texts, faulty logic and forced translations to establish the doctrine, shoehorning it into the Scriptures, instead of reading the unadulterated Scriptures at face value. For example, there is no room at all for a Trinity or Binity at John 17:3 [pa|in]. It means the same in the context as it does alone. Also, at Isaiah 41:4 [pa|in] Jehovah himself said that he had never revealed himself differently and never would, but was exactly the same as he had revealed himself from the very beginning.
Those who are faithful "know Jehovah", not because of some feeling or claimed "divine inspiration", but because of knowledge they acquire from the Scriptures, from God's own words. (Ac 17:2, 3 [pa|in]; Ro 12:1 [pa|in]; 2Ti 3:16, 17 [pa|in]; Heb 4:12 [pa|in])
There is no clearly defined statement in the Scriptures that proves that God is three consciousnesses in one, thus the controversy. So in the absence of a clear statement that God is a Trinity, the first thing needed is to prove, beyond doubt, that Jesus is God. That alone would prove the Binity. (If you claim to believe in the Trinity or Binity, but do not believe that Jesus is God, then you do not actually believe in the Trinity or Binity.) What is required to establish that claim? A direct statement that Jesus is God or a demonstration that all things attributed to God can also be attributed to Jesus equally. Simply by establishing this, you prove that the Father, Jesus and the holy spirit are all God. However, there is one more thing required.
There is also no question of the holy spirit's direct association with God. Occasionally the holy spirit is referred to, synonymously, as Jehovah or vice versa. (Eze 11:5 [pa|in]) So the next thing needed to prove the Trinity is that the holy spirit is an intelligent independent consciousness that is also God just as Jesus is an intelligent independent consciousness that they claim is also God. What is required to establish that claim? A clear statement that the holy spirit is an intelligent independent being. Now we know that the holy spirit is not Jesus because Jesus was "compelled by holy spirit" and "filled with holy spirit" and that the holy spirit settled upon him in bodily form like a dove at his baptism and then guided him into the wilderness. So, if they are both God, then they must be shown to be separate personifications, or separate consciousnesses, of God to prove the Trinity.
In this series, I show that neither the Trinity nor Binity has been established, but I prove from the Scriptures alone that Jesus is God's Son and only God's Son, not God himself. nor equal to God, and that the holy spirit is not an independent consciousness, but is simply God's active force, as wind or breath, the means by which God interacts with his creation. A mode of operation, if you will. (But not a mode of consciousness.)
Now let us consider the ancient history and reasoning of the doctrine of God as Christ as well as the salvation message through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Go to Part 2: A Brief History of the Trinity/Binity Doctrine
4 is 5 and 1 is 3
The Trinity doctrine reminds me of the moment in George Orwell's 1984 in which O'Brien gets Winston to state that O'Brien is holding up 5 fingers instead of 4. Similarly, in our current situation the so-called "orthodox" religions are training people through propaganda to believe that God is three beings instead of one, even though the evidence in the Bible clearly shows that there is only one singular true God, the Father. (1Co 8:6 [pa|in])They say that the Trinity is the sole saving tenet of Christianity, when the Bible makes no such claim. They ask people to believe what they say without thinking. They call all that came before “heretical” in order to introduce a heretical belief. Then they claim that any religion that contradicts them is trying to "brainwash" you and anyone who questions the Trinity must be being manipulated by a "cult". Just by your reading this, they claim you are being "unduly influenced". They get people to accept their forced interpretations of Bible texts. Sound familiar? Try asking a question about Jehovah's Witnesses beliefs of your minister/pastor/priest and then hear Big Brother's reply.
To get a clear dose of the "believe, don't think" teaching, you need go no further than the recommended first Bible lesson in the wordgo app. (It is one of the most bone-chilling things I ever heard.) To quote the audio (text was not provided), a soothing female voice says:
The Bible ... answers these questions right up front. But not in a way that can be completely explained or understood. So what's your response when you cannot explain something, but you're told that it's true? Some people take it as a challenge and immediately start digging to figure it out. Others say, "I'm not going to believe it unless I can prove it." Or: "I will accept what I understand and wait until I can unravel the rest. Aren't we all more likely to believe something unexplainable if a person we trust tells us its true? ... Some of you with scientific minds know how these things work. I cannot explain these things, but I trust them. Think about some of the people and things you trust. John wants us to believe. ... It's up to us whether or not we believe them. John asks us in these verses to believe something completely true, yet impossible to completely understand: Jesus Christ is fully human and yet fully God." (Emphasis mine. Quoted in full compliance with Copyright Act of 1976.)Do you see the problems in those statements? Being a free thinker, I see such statements to be a threat to my ability to think for myself. It is one thing to conform to Christ's mold (Ga 3:27 [pa|in]) and to speak in agreement with my brothers, (1Co 1:10 [pa|in]) but it is quite another to ask me not to think and just accept. (Ro 12:1 [pa|in]) Questioning and seeking proof in the Scriptures is exactly what I was taught to do when I began studying with Jehovah's Witnesses. (Pr 2:1-6 [pa|in]) So now allow me to enumerate the problems in the above quote:
1) They use audio for the lesson, with no written text to examine, so that you are unable to engage your visual cortex to analyze the statements made. Trinitarians call this "oral tradition", even though it is exactly the same as writing. You just don't get to check it. The soothing voice helps reduce your motivation to question.
2) It claims: "The Bible ... answers these questions right up front. But not in a way that can be completely explained or understood." Something that cannot be explained or understood cannot be an answer, as an answer is an explanation for understanding, therefore the Bible would not be giving the answer, but would rather be raising a question that cannot be answered, thus they immediately tie the listener's thinking in knots that cannot be untied.
3) They paint questioning and requesting proof as a "challenge" in a negative sense.
4) They then paint simply accepting the claim as true to be something noble in contradiction to Acts 17:11 [pa|in] where it says those testing whether something was true are called "noble" (KJV) or "fair-minded" (NAB).
5) The audio claims "It's up to us whether or not we believe" a person we trust. Yet trusting in someone's word without checking its veracity is a demonstrable logic fallacy in critical thinking, especially if we do not know who that person actually is. They are hijacking your mind by asking you to artificially access feelings of trust in your memory so that you will transfer those feelings to the one speaking in the audio.
6) It compares this credulity to how some technology is beyond most of our understanding but we say "I trust them". This ignores the fact that we can see these things at work with our own eyes, therefore trust is not in question. We cannot see the so-called Trinity, therefore, we would have to find another way to identify whether the claim that God is a Trinity is true or false, namely in the very book that they claim to draw the teaching from: the Bible.
7) After making all those statements it then asserts that "John asks us ... to believe something completely true." This is false. Nowhere in John chapter 1 does John anywhere ask us to accept what he says is true. Instead he is one of many witnesses who attested to the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.—Acts 17:11 [pa|in].
8) The audio claims that what John asks us to accept is: "Jesus Christ is fully human and yet fully God," But nowhere in John chapter 1 does John ever say that "Jesus Christ is fully human and yet fully God." But I will not get into what he actually said in verse 1. We will get to that later, using actual reasoning on the original text, not the forced translation.
9) They are making the claim that it is "completely true" while dodging providing any such proof and trying to trick the reader into simply accepting that claim without question.
If you were raised with the Trinity or converted, can you remember a time when you were asked to seek proof of anything? Did they just show you verses in their translation without asking you to go deeper? Well now we are going to go deeper.
Who Is God?
Consider this: could you say you know someone if you have fundamental information about them completely wrong? For example, if you say you know a certain man whom you identify as being a black man, but he is in fact a white man, would anyone believe that you actually know him? (Mt 7:21-23 [pa|in])What I seek to show the reader in this refutation against the Trinity and Binity doctrines is that no matter what model one holds to regarding the Trinity or Binity, (Often misstated as "Duality",) it takes scriptures out of context, spurious texts, faulty logic and forced translations to establish the doctrine, shoehorning it into the Scriptures, instead of reading the unadulterated Scriptures at face value. For example, there is no room at all for a Trinity or Binity at John 17:3 [pa|in]. It means the same in the context as it does alone. Also, at Isaiah 41:4 [pa|in] Jehovah himself said that he had never revealed himself differently and never would, but was exactly the same as he had revealed himself from the very beginning.
Those who are faithful "know Jehovah", not because of some feeling or claimed "divine inspiration", but because of knowledge they acquire from the Scriptures, from God's own words. (Ac 17:2, 3 [pa|in]; Ro 12:1 [pa|in]; 2Ti 3:16, 17 [pa|in]; Heb 4:12 [pa|in])
What is Needed for Proof One Way or the Other?
Trinitarians and Binitarians try presenting many "proofs" to support their doctrines, but as I will show, all of them fail to do what they are intended to do.There is no clearly defined statement in the Scriptures that proves that God is three consciousnesses in one, thus the controversy. So in the absence of a clear statement that God is a Trinity, the first thing needed is to prove, beyond doubt, that Jesus is God. That alone would prove the Binity. (If you claim to believe in the Trinity or Binity, but do not believe that Jesus is God, then you do not actually believe in the Trinity or Binity.) What is required to establish that claim? A direct statement that Jesus is God or a demonstration that all things attributed to God can also be attributed to Jesus equally. Simply by establishing this, you prove that the Father, Jesus and the holy spirit are all God. However, there is one more thing required.
There is also no question of the holy spirit's direct association with God. Occasionally the holy spirit is referred to, synonymously, as Jehovah or vice versa. (Eze 11:5 [pa|in]) So the next thing needed to prove the Trinity is that the holy spirit is an intelligent independent consciousness that is also God just as Jesus is an intelligent independent consciousness that they claim is also God. What is required to establish that claim? A clear statement that the holy spirit is an intelligent independent being. Now we know that the holy spirit is not Jesus because Jesus was "compelled by holy spirit" and "filled with holy spirit" and that the holy spirit settled upon him in bodily form like a dove at his baptism and then guided him into the wilderness. So, if they are both God, then they must be shown to be separate personifications, or separate consciousnesses, of God to prove the Trinity.
The Other Side
Inversely, we who have the non-Trinitarian/-Binitarian viewpoint must also seek to provide proof that God is not a Trinity/Binity in the absence of a clear statement that "God is not a Trinity" (or Binity). Just as Trinitarians must prove that Jesus is God, we must prove that Jesus is not God. Likewise, just as the Trinitarians must prove that holy spirit is a distinct consciousness, those of us who believe otherwise must prove that holy spirit is not a distinct consciousness. If neither side can prove their viewpoint, then it is a stalemate and it cannot be proven either way and thus becomes a matter of preference and nothing else, in which the claim that the Trinity is the sole defining tenet of Christianity would be proved to be a fabrication. So in order for that claim to be proved true, the Trinity must be proved true beyond doubt.In this series, I show that neither the Trinity nor Binity has been established, but I prove from the Scriptures alone that Jesus is God's Son and only God's Son, not God himself. nor equal to God, and that the holy spirit is not an independent consciousness, but is simply God's active force, as wind or breath, the means by which God interacts with his creation. A mode of operation, if you will. (But not a mode of consciousness.)
Now let us consider the ancient history and reasoning of the doctrine of God as Christ as well as the salvation message through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Go to Part 2: A Brief History of the Trinity/Binity Doctrine
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