IS THE TRINITY DOCTRINE BIBLICAL ?
ARE THERE THREE PERSONS IN ONE GOD OR IS JESUS CHRIST ,THE FATHER AS WELL AS THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT, OPERATING IN DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS OR MODES ?
WHAT IS THE TRUE NATURE OF THE GOD OF THE BIBLE AS REVEALED IN THE SCRIPURES? Pt. 1
BY SISTER HAPPINESS AIBANGBEE.
FEB. 9TH, 2021
To be candid, the word Trinity is not found in the bible, just as the word “rapture” Which is a true biblical teaching of the “catching away of the saints” is not found in the bible. But that does not destroy the authenticity of the biblical doctrine of rapture which is central to our Christian faith.
So what is the Trinity all about ? The Trinity is the concept of the Christian belief that there is One God existing in three persons. Notice that I said earlier on, that the word Trinity is not found in scripures. The word Trinity is a term that is used to attempt to describe the Triune God, three coexistent, co-eternal persons existing in one God. The bible clearly teaches that the Father is God, the Son Jesus Christ is God, the Holy Spirit is God. And yet these three distinct persons constitutes One God and not three Gods.
The doctrine of the Trinity has been a divisive issue throughout the entire history of the Christian church.
There is a false view of the nature of God which many Christians hold on to. A good number of Christians hold the view that there is only one person in the GodHead and that person is Jesus Christ. They believes that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are simply different modes or forms of the same divine Person, Jesus Christ. This is the modalistic monarchianism view of God. According to modalistic monarchianism, God can switch among three different manifestations. That is , in the old Testament, Jesus Christ manifested as the Father, in the New Testament he operated in a different dimension as the Son and in the present Church age, the same Jesus Christ is now operating as the Holy Spirit. Simply put, Jesus Christ alone is the GodHead, the only one true God, he is both the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The following passages are some of the scriptural references being used to support this false teaching and we are going to examine them .
1.Acts 19:5
2.John 14:9-22
- John 10:30
Acts 19:5
“When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
One of the thing the Oneness modalistic monarchianism doctrine, laid emphasis on, is that, Believers should be baptized in the name of Jesus only. They believe that Jesus disciples baptized their converts in the name of Jesus’s only, inspite of Jesus command to baptized in the name of the Father , and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. They contend that this is because they might have had some sort of revelation that Jesus Christ is the name of the one true God, manifesting as the Father in the old testament , the Son and the Holy Spirit. They believe that God is Jesus Christ manifesting as the father, then the son and the Holy Spirit. And that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are titles of Jesus Christ. This is very strange and alien to the scriptural revelations in the Bible. But is this view correct ?
“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”Matt. 28:19.
These are the very words from the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am yet to find the passage of the Bible where it is stated that the terms ” the Father” the “Son” and the “Holy Spirit” are all titles of God whose name is Jesus Christ. Matt. 28:19 is one of the Scriptural reference which fully established the truth about the nature of God. Three distinct persons in one God. Jesus Christ himself made this known to us. The fact that the disciples baptized People in the name of Jesus did not in any way support this errornouos doctrine that Jesus Christ is both the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The disciples were aware of who Jesus Christ is, the Son of God. Were the disciples wrong in baptizing in the name of Jesus Christ ? No they weren’t. For the fullness of the GodHead dwells in Christ. So whether you baptized in the name of the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit or in the name of Jesus Christ, shouldn’t be a problem at all. I was baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. After listening to some people saying that it’s only those who were baptized in the name of Jesus that were properly baptized. I became troubled and asked the Lord if I should get baptized again. The Lord Jesus Christ reminded me that he is the One that commanded his disciples to baptized People in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Lord then told me that my being baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is acceptable to him.
So how could the disciples baptized in the name of Jesus Christ ?
Colossians 2:9
“For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” In Christ dwells all the Fullness of the GodHead. Doesn’t this mean that Jesus Christ is the same person as the Father or the only person in the GodHead ? No.
It is courtesy of God the Father, who is definitely distinct from the person of Jesus Christ. that made all the fullness of the GodHead dwells in him.
” For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell”- Col. 1:19.
It pleased the Father that in Jesus Christ should all fullness dwell. The fullness of the GodHead dwells in Jesus Christ, not because he is God the Father, the son and the Holy Spirit all together , but because it pleased God Father, that in his Son Jesus Christ should all the fullness of the GodHead dwells.
The Father had already exalted Jesus Christ to a high position of power and even gave him” a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee must bow , of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth. And that every tongue should that confess Jesus Christ is Lord ,( guess what) to the glory of God the Father” Phil. 2:9-11. You will notice that in verse 11, all the high privileges enjoyed by our Lord Jesus Christ is to the glory of God the Father the one who has highly exalted him.
How can Jesus Christ be the Father as well as the Son and the Holy Spirit, switching from one dimension to another ? For goodness sake, where exactly, does the bible say that Jesus Christ is the name of the Father ? I have heard some say, that Jesus is the name of God the Father, the one they say, switched to the Son and came to the earth and then switched to the Holy Spirit .The Original Divine name of God the Father is the tetragrammaton YHWH. Due to a fear of accidentally taking God’s name in vain (Leviticus 24:16), the Jews basically quit saying the real original divine name of God the Father out loud altogether. Instead, when reading Scripture aloud, the Jews substituted the tetragrammaton YHWH with the word Adonai (“Lord”).Some versions of the Bible translate the tetragrammaton as “Yahweh” or “Jehovah”; most translate it as “LORD” (all capital letters). The name Jesus is translated from the Aramaic/Hebrew name YESHUA. Jesus Christ is not YHWH , Yahweh or Jehovah. Jesus the Messiah is not God the Father. He is the Son of God even as the scripures says. However, Jesus Christ is fully God.
Now about the Holy Spirit. Is the Lord Jesus the same person operating as the Holy Spirit in this Church age now ? Has he switched to Holy Spirit mode or dimension ?
.The Lord Jesus Christ made a clear distinction between his very person and the person of the Holy Spirit.
“And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him”.-Luke 12:10. This Scripure clearly established a clear distinction between our Lord Jesus Christ and the Blessed Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is not the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is not Jesus Christ.
- John 14:9-11
“9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou [then], Shew us the Father?
10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.”
This is one bible passage which is being misinterpreted in support of this false doctrine.
Does the above passages indicated in anyway that Jesus Christ is the father ?
What did Jesus mean when he told Philip that if you see me, you have seen the Father ?
The bible made it very clear that there exist a strong resemblance between the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father. In fact Jesus Christ is the perfect image of his Father.
John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
John 1:14 “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth”
Jesus who is the word was made flesh. He is the only begotten Son of God, sent by his Father. John 3:16
Jesus Christ when he was made flesh radiated his father’s glory on earth.
“For in Him dwelleth all the Fullness of the GodHead Bodily”- Col. 2:9.
And that’s because of the Father,s doing or out of the Father’s good pleasure. “For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell”-Col. 1:19. Both Colossians 1:15 and 2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us that Jesus is the image of God. Jesus could rightly tell Philip that if you see me, you have seen the Father. However, this does not in anyway indicated that Christ is not distinct from the person of the Father.
Now consider the following Scripure,
Hebrew 1:3
” Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high”
That is it. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the express image of the person of the Father, he is the exact representation of his being or nature. This verse clearly unveils the fact that Jesus’s nature is completely identical to that of his Father. As the Father’s eternal Son, the radiance, glory, nature of the Father are fully in the Son. You don’t need to see the Father face to face, once you see the Son you have see the Father also. The Son is the exact representation of all that the Father is. Jesus Christ is divine, exactly as his father’s is. Christ is the embodiment of God the Father.
At the same time, you can see that our Lord Jesus Christ is distinct from the Person of the Father. In Heb. 1:3 which we just read, we see that the Lord Jesus Christ, having finished his redemptive work , went back to heaven and sat down at the right hand of the God the Father. He Jesus Christ sat at the right hand of God the Father. He didn’t sit at the right hand of another Jesus Christ who is operating as God the Father !
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- John 10:30
What did Jesus mean when he said that ‘ I and the Father are one ? – John 10:30.
In like manner, the Lord Jesus Christ spoke of him being one with the Father. The Lord was simply talking about the strong internal unity that exists in the GodHead. That does not prove in any way that Jesus Christ is the Father. This bond of unity which the Lord Jesus Christ shared with the Father is so unique and is beyond what the human mind can conceive. Interestingly, Jesus , just before his crucifixion asked the Father to make us Believers to be one with himself and the Father.
Let’s look at the following verses John 17:21 – 23
21″That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”
22 “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one”
23 “I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.”
Here the Lord Jesus Christ, was praying to the Father, that all those who believe in him should be one, just as he and the Father are One. Just as he is in the Father and the Father is in him, believers should be one in Christ and the Father.
Jesus prayed that Believers may be one, as ” EVEN AS WE ARE ONE”
The Lord went on “I in them, and thou in me”
This is the same thing Lord said in John 10:30,” I and the Father are one.” Now just before his death, he is asking the Father to ensure that all those who believe in him, including those who will believe in him in the future be made one just as he and the Father are one. This is the Oneness which exists in the GodHead. The Lord Jesus Christ wants that same Oneness among all his followers.
You will notice in verse 21 , that the Lord Jesus Christ asked the Father , not only , that Believers should be ONE, as he and the Father , but he uses the phrase”…that they may be ONE IN US”. “US PLURALITY”
Truly the Lord Jesus Christ is a distinct Person from the Person of the Father. He was really addressing God the Father in prayers. He wasn’t addressing himself. There is nothing like Jesus Christ the son somehow addressing Jesus Christ the Father ! The false teaching that Jesus Christ is the same person manifesting as the God the Father is from the pit of hell.
Contrary to what many people believe in Christendom, that the Trinity doctrine is a heathen concept , we are going to peruse the Bible to seen what exactly the bible teaches.
God bless you.
Shalom.
Sister Happiness AIBANGBEE.
David Abankwah 