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Trinity...Where?
By Loren M. Chamberlain
Just where in the Bible is the Trinity mentioned? Even though we might
search diligently for the word “trinity” in the Bible, it will not be found.
Many point to Matthew 28:19 as proof of the trinity simply because it mentions our Father, our Savior, and the Holy Spirit. However, it does not imply in any way that the Holy Spirit is a third person of the Godhead, and this is where the so-called Trinity doctrine goes wrong, Wrong, WRONG!
Matthew 28:19 says, “into the name of the Father, the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The Greek word translated “in” is “eis,” which is more correctly translated “into” (see Strong’s Concordance, word number 1519, or Young’s Greek Lexicon Section EIS). If the intention had been to render the passage as it is in the King James, the Greek word “en,” meaning “in” would undoubtedly have been used.
We are then actually baptized into something. But what? A person, or a group of persons? No! We are baptized into the name of the Father, etc. What is His name? It is God. God has revealed there is a Divine Being referred to as “Father,” and another as “Son.” These are family names. We can become children of God, actual members of the Divine Family, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 6: 17-18). Hebrews 2:10 and Romans 8: 14-15 speak of many potential members of the God Family, not just two or three! Christ is already very God (Hebrews 1: 8-10), and our potential is to actually become God also, strange as it might seem (Compare John 10: 34; 1 John 3: 2; and Hebrews 2: 6-11, which explain man’s destiny).
Therefore, we can see the emphasis of Matthew 28: 19 is actually to show God is a growing family not limited to any specific number of beings.
Holy Spirit of Creation
God is a spirit (John 4:24). God is also Holy (1 Peter 1:16). Therefore, He is the personification of the Holy Spirit. Since Christ is also very God, He, too, is a “Holy Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:17). While the Holy Spirit was used in the original creation, it is also something we need for salvation and to live a Christian life.
Matter can exist in various states, and have different uses or purposes in each state. Water for example, can be used differently when in the solid state as opposed to the liquid state. Spirit also has different “states.” One of its states is the very composition of God. “God is Spirit” (John 4:24). The Father and the Son, though composed of spirit, each are separate and have definite form and shape. They look like men (or we should say we look like them, for it is we who have been created in the image and likeness of God), with eyes, ears, arms, head, and torso, etc. Many Bible passages confirm this (Genesis 1:26-27).
God’s Spirit according to the scriptures permeates the entire universe much the same way the atmosphere permeates the earth’s surface (Psalms 139:7-11). As energy can be used to change matter from a solid to a liquid, so God can send forth His Spirit to apparently create ex nihilo, something by human reckoning, out of nothing. God transformed this creative energy into the physical world we see around us. “When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth” (Psalms 104: 30).
Notice, in all of God’s creative work, He never “sent forth a person” of the Godhead! “...And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water” (Genesis 1:2).
This “Spirit” obviously was an energy source used in the creative work, as a tool by the member of the Godhead that actually did the creating.
The Scriptures clearly show in both the Old and New Testament that Jesus Christ is the actual personage who did the creating. He did it by “Speaking.” He is called the “Word” who made all things (John 1:1,3). The Greek word translated “Word” in these verses is “Logos,” and it literally means “Spokesman,” or “one who speaks” (Colossians 1: 15-17; Revelation 4: 11; Hebrews 1: 2, 10). These Scriptures reveal Jesus Christ as the one who actually performed the work of creation;
“By the word of the Lord were the heavens made,
their starry host by the reath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.”
(Psalms 33:6-9)
If the Spirit is a person as is commonly supposed, did the creating, why did it not speak for itself? And where then does Christ fit and enter into the creation picture. The only possible method or way to avoid a head on conflict in the above scriptures is to admit that the “Spirit” is the power Christ used, the source of energy out of which the physical creation was brought into being.
The Book of Acts plainly shows the same creative power Christ used to create the Universe is the same power the apostles were endued with from on high. It shows this power to be the Holy Spirit that was made available to mankind in general for the first time on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 1:5, 8; Acts 2).
The Trinity as a Mystery!
Most religious leaders are very vague when it comes to actually explaining, clearly and precisely, what the Holy Spirit is, and why they support the Trinity Doctrine. Often the term “mystery” crops up. What is a “mystery,” religiously speaking?
The Catholic Encyclopedia devotes an entire subsection to the subject of the “Trinity as a mystery” (Catholic Encyclopedia, Trinity, p52). Following are some quotes from that section;
“A mystery is a truth which we are not merely incapable of discovering apart from Divine Revelation, but which, even when revealed, remains ‘hidden by the veil of faith and enveloped, so to speak, by a kind of darkness.’”
“As regards the vindication of a mystery, the office of the natural reason is solely to show that it contains no intrinsic impossibility, that any objection urged against it on the score that it violates the laws of thought is invalid.”
“…the Christian Faith contains mysteries strictly so called. All theologians admit that the doctrine of the Trinity is of the number of these. Indeed, of all revealed truth, this is the most impenetrable to reason.”
“The true profession of the mystery of the Trinity is to own that we do not comprehend it.”
The Catholic Encyclopedia even makes this admission, “For nowhere in the Old Testament do we find any indication of a Third Person…” and “the Twofold personality (of Father and Son) is strenuously asserted by the prophets” (Catholic Encyclopedia, Trinity, p49).
There are numerous Encyclopedia articles that give ample evidence of the struggles for pure doctrine that occurred in the first three centuries after the death and resurrection of Christ. A list from the Encyclopedia Americana, dealing with the great controversy over the trinity include articles entitled, “Arius,” “Arianism,” “Athanasius,” “Creeds and Confessions,” “Filioque,” “Nicaea, Councils of,” “Nicene Creed,” and “Trinity Doctrine.” This is only a partial list.
Words of the Apostles
Paul spoke about listening to such “philosophers” and their nonsensical views. “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ” (Colossians 2:8).
Before the New Testament canon was even complete, Jude, one of the half brothers of Jesus, made a plea that the church leaders in his day would “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3). In the next few verses, he spoke of men who like Simon Magus, had “crept in unawares” and corrupted the true doctrines even at that early date.
The apostle John affirmed this fact when he wrote, before one hundred A.D., “that many deceivers are entered into the world” (2 John 7).
The Bible, as one might expect, labels the source of this deception in plain language. The apostle John calls this false church “the synagogue of Satan” (Revelation 2: 9). Further he goes on to call it “Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.” Her false doctrines have come down through the ages from their inception as part of the dogma of the Babylonian Mystery Religion. However they have been given Christian names to give them a façade of righteousness. All nations have been taken in and deceived by her abominable doctrines. As she has a name of “mystery,” so does she label her doctrines “mysteries.” The Trinity is so labeled.
The real truth is the truth of God is NOT a mystery. Paul tells us that we are not to be ignorant and lack understanding (Ephesians 4: 17-18). He also tells us we can understand everything we need to know about God, including His very nature and Godhead, by looking to the physical creation, for it is modeled after the spiritual, “since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:19-20). i
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