NO. 644 THE TRINITY

“For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.” —1 John 5:7,8 KJV

Quoted above are the two verses of The King James English version that are most often quoted as proof of the trinity. It is never quoted by true Bible scholars because they know several words were added in the seventh century, which are not found in any New Testament manuscript of earlier date. The added words make these verses as a whole — well – absurd.

These words should be stroked through  and noted as Spurious in the King James Version as follows in verse seven: “the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one”; and verse eight, “and there are three that bear witness in earth.”

We love the King James Version in part because of its beautifully poetic language. However like all translations it is not “The Holy Scriptures” and like others it has translation mistakes.

Tradition attributes the poetry in part to William Shakespeare. It is said the scholars appointed by King James to translate the “orig­inal” language were told to consult with the poet-play­wright for a memor­able and poetic English Bible. The king was impressed with Shakespeare and had designated him as one of “The King’s Men.” There may be some validity to Shakespeare’s contributions, as words from his couplets are some­times mistakenly quoted as from the Bible and vice versa.

Later English translations did not make as many errors. The groups of King James trans­lators had only eight original language manu­scripts from which to work. Now there are more than seven hundred identified and validated.

But be that as it may, errors in some instances were incorporated in the little books by well-meaning editors down through the years. So all the words found in the Scriptures was not inspired.

Yahweh overruled this so that seekers of the Truth would have to rightfully divide the word and seek here a little and there at little to find it and to prove themselves worthy.

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  “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 perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” —2 Tim 3:16,17 KJV. Well known verses much quoted and commented upon.

The American Standard Version of these scriptures omits the first “is” in verse 16. See what difference it makes:

“Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for cor­rection, for instruction which is in righteousness. That the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.”

 Benjamin Wilson’s Emphatic Diaglott is even better. He gives the corresponding English words under and in the order of each of the Greek words and to the right,  gives his version of the correct English:

All Scripture, divinely inspired, is indeed profitable for Teaching, for Conviction, for correction, for that Discipline which is in Righteousness; so that the Man of God may be complete, thoroughly fitted for every good Work. 

After thus eliminating these spurious additions, and because no Scripture can be found to give credence to the “doctrine” of the trinity, then you will be able to read that portion of the Word of God in its purity and simplicity. Then the “mystery” part will be gone from it forever. It will be in full accord with the entire Bible in declaring,

“To us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things and we by him.” —1Cor. 8:6.

How absurd the passages of 1John 5:7, 8 as it reads in our Common Version, stating that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are bearing witness in Heaven that Jesus is the Son of God?

The pure Word of God presents simply and beautifully the fact that the great Creator, the Father of all mercies is God, the Creator of all things; and that He has an Only Begotten Son who is yet to be the Savior or Deliverer of the willing of Adam’s entire race who accept the grace of God provided.

The trinity in nominal Christian doctrine is seen as God the Father; the son of God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, which appears as “the Holy Ghost” in 88 verses in the King James translation of the New Testament. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity, one of the most important in mainstream Christian faith, teaches the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons. It is the featured item of the catechisms in every denomination from the mother of harlots, the Papal System to the harlot daughters. 

How did it start

Roman emperors had always held the notion that affiliation with some relig­ion was essential to their success in ruling. So, when the Christian church had increased in sufficient numbers, Constantine considered it good politics to join with them.

Flavius Valerius Constantinus was born in the Roman province of Moesia (later Serbia) about AD 280. His father, Constantius, the northern ruler under Diocletian, was a member of an important Roman family though his mother, Helena, was the daughter of an inn­keeper.

 This is the St. Helena who became a Christian in AD 313 and is credited by tradition as having found the relic of the True Cross near Calvary. She is also said to have identified the location of the Holy Sepulcher. Popular tradition also has it that she was British and that she converted her son.

In AD 293 the emperor Diocletian made Constantius I Caesar, or emperor, of Gaul and Britain, but young Constantine was kept at the court of Galerius, the Eastern emperor, virtually as a hostage. He escaped in 305 and joined his father, who died the next year. Immediately the army hailed Constantine as Caesar.

For five years Constantine was content with ruling Gaul. Then he invaded Italy and made straight for Rome. Maxentius, the emperor of Rome, came out of the city with his army and met Constantine at the Milvian Bridge. Constantine swept the enemy into the Tiber River, and Maxentius was drowned

 Constantine then entered Rome as sole master of the Western half of the empire. In AD 313 he issued the Edict of Milan, which gave the Christians the right to practice their religion openly. By 323 Constantine had brought the entire Roman world under his rule.

 At the time, a quarrel, growing more and more vitriolic, was threatening to split the Christian church into two camps. Arius, an elder or Bishop of the church at Alexandra, maintained that Christ was not the equal of the Father but was created by Him. Others claimed that the Father and Son, though distinct, were equal, and of the same substance.

To settle the matter, Constantine called together an ecumenical (worldwide) council of bishops at Nicaea, in Asia Minor, in 325. As Pontifex Maximus, he himself ran the meeting.

 Athanasius, secretary to the bishop of Alexandria and 30 years old at the time, distinguished himself by an eloquent opposition to Arius and an overwhelming majority con­demned the Arian view as heresy.

As any good politician would do, Constantine sided with the majority.  Arius was banned from the empire along with the two bishops who sided with him to Illyricum (eastern Yugoslavia) on the Adriatic Sea. He slipped away to North Africa and established a flour­ishing church. His followers were called Arians, Arius was called heretic and the Catholics still do to this day. The Council drew up the Nicene Creed, which included the trinity and it is still accepted as the basic doctrine of most nominal churches.

Let no one delude you by any means, because the Apostasy must come first, and there must be revealed That Man Of Sin, That Son Of Destruction, the Opponent, who indeed lifts himself above everything called Divinity or Majesty; so as to seat himself in the Temple of God, exhibiting himself That he is a God  .—2 Thes. 2:3-4 Dia.

OUR GOD IS ONE

“To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things.” —1 Cor 8:6

Notwithstanding the widespread acceptance of the doctrine of the Trinity, we hold closely to the Bible teaching that there is but one God. Jesus called God his Father, and spoke of himself as the Son of God. A father is a life-giver. A son is an offspring, one who receives life from a father. This distinction implies that the father existed first. And so Jesus says of himself, “I proceeded forth and came from God.” —John 8:42. (The Diaglott add to the above, “He sent me.”)

The clear teachings of the Bible, that Jesus in his pre-human condition was the Logos – the Word, or message from the Father; and that as such he was called a god, but not The God – who is the Father.

On so important a question as the equality of the Father and the Son, we must not rely upon any man’s testimony except that of the inspired writers of the Scriptures. We should accept no dictum save that of the divine Word itself. Let us ask Jesus. He replies, “My Father is greater than all; I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and to your God;” this is life eternal; that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” —John 14:28; 5:30; 10:29; l7:3; 20:17

We point out that Jesus was the first of God’s creatures, the only being directly created by Yahweh; and that Yahweh did all subsequent creating through the Son. Thus we read that Jesus was “the beginning of the creation of God,” “the first-born of every creature,” “the Alpha and The Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last of the Father’s direct creation. (Revelation 3:14; 22:13; Colossians 1:15)

The Apostle John declares (John 1:1-3), “In the beginning [not Yahweh’s beginning, for he had no beginning; but the world’s beginning or man’s beginning] was the Word [the Logos], and the Word was with the God and the Word was a god. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” 

Could this subject be made plainer? Why confuse ourselves needlessly? Why fight against the plain statements of God’s Word to uphold a theory which is without Biblical support and was formulated in the dark ages?

We teach, as does the Bible, that the Lord Jesus came from heaven to earth; was born of a virgin mother; that he, “the Logos, was made flesh and dwelt among us,” and his disciples “beheld his glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth!” (John 1:14) Jesus had not two natures, but one nature, having changed the higher, the spiritual nature, for the human nature. As the Scriptures declare, “He who was rich, for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9) And as he grew to manhood he grew in favor with God and men. He was perfect – “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.” —Luke 2:52; Hebrews 7:26.

JESUS BECAME A NEW CREATURE

At thirty years of age, this Perfect One, having reached the perfection of manhood according to the law consecrated, or devoted, his life to God as the great sacrifice for human sin, fulfilling the Scriptures, “a body hast thou pre­pared me,” “for the suffering of death.” (Hebrews 10:5; 2:9) That consecrated sacrifice of the Man Jesus God accepted, indicating his acceptance by the anointing of Jesus with the Holy Spirit at Jordan. Thenceforth he was dual – a perfect human body with a newly begotten mind – spirit-begotten. He then, as a new crea­ture, was to complete the sacrifice of his flesh; and his new mind – the new creature – was to go on to perfection.

He prayed that the Father would restore him to the glory which he had with the Father “before the world was.” (John l7:5) In his humility he asked no higher glory. His sacrifice was finished at Calvary, and his new mind, his spirit-begotten new nature was, in the resur­rection, granted the new body which the Father had promised. “Sown in dishonor,” he was “raised in glory”; “sown in weakness,” he was “raised in power” sown a natural body,” he was “raised a spiritual body.” —l Corinthians 15:43, 44.

Our Lord was not originally created in the way the angels were; for he was the direct creation of the Father, whereas the angels were the indirect creations of God, through the Son. St. Paul declares that all things are of the Father, and all things are through, by the Son. (1 Corinthians 8:6) He was the Father’s honored agent in all other works of creation.

Our Lord Jesus became the Christ, the Anointed, when he received the anointing of the holy Spirit at his baptism. Ile was perfected as the Christ at his resurrection. He was a god (Mighty One) before he came into the world; he also was a god from the time he received the begetting of the Holy Spirit at Jordan; and he is still a god, set down at the right hand of the Father. But he is not The God; he never was and never will be. Note again his own words after his resurrection, when speaking to Mary Magdalene: “I ascend to mv Father and your Father; to my God and your God.” (John 20:17) Hear what St. Paul says, “To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things… and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by [or through] whom are all things.” (l Corinthians 8:6) Again, in referring to Yahweh, the Apostle calls him, “God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”; and again, “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.” —2 Corinthians 1:3; Ephesians 1:3, 17.

A COMMON, BUT UNSCRIPTURAL VIEW

The Lord Jesus is not the second person of a triune God. The word “triune” is unscriptural; so is the thought. St. Paul sets the matter straight in his words quoted above. He also declares that Jesus “thought not of robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation.”  No translation of this passage (Philippians 2:6), save in our Common Version gives the thought that Jesus considered himself equal to God the Father, but all are to the contrary of this. Our Common Version rendering is evidently a mistranslation. The entire argument of the Apostle shows that Christ humiliated himself, not that he claimed equality with Yahweh!

“Who though being in God’s form, yet did not meditate a usurpation to be like God. — Philippians 2:6 (Diaglott)

The word “trinity” is not found in the Bible. The only text which seems in any way to suggest a trinity is acknowledged even by trinitarians themselves to be a forgery, incorporated into the text about the fifth century This interpolation forms apart of 1 John 5:7, 8. We quote the passage with the interpolated words enclosed in brackets: “For there are three that bear record [in Heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one; and there are three that bear witness in earth,] the Spirit and the water and the blood: and these three agree in one.” See Revised Version, Emphatic Diaglott, American Standard Union Translation, Young,s translation, etc. This passage is pronounced an interpolation by such eminent author­ities as Sir Isaac Newton, Benson, Adam Clarke, Horne, Griesbach, Tischendorf and Alford.

We have explained in our writings that there was a time when our Lord Jesus did not exist, when Yahweh was  alone. How else could the Bible declare that Jesus was the “beginning of the creation of God”?  (Rev.3:14) What is the value of language, anyway, if we do not give words their manifest meaning? Jesus undoubt­edly had a beginning. This was ages before he came to earth as a human being to die for Adam and his race. Those who denounce us should read our writings before criticizing them. Then they would not criticize at all, if honest; for they would know that there is no ground for criticism on the part of those who hold to the Bible as the word of God.

TRANSFERRED FROM HEAVEN TO EARTH

The Lord Jesus (The Logos) had a heavenly nature before he came into the world. He exchanged that nature, as we have stated, for an earthly one, in order that he might give his flesh, his humanity, a ransom-price for the sins of the whole world. Having accomplished this great work, he was granted by the Father an exaltation still higher than his previous g1orious position and nature, even though his previous station had been second only to Yahweh himself.  St. Paul declares of the position given Christ at his resurrection: “Wherefore God also highly exalt­ed him and given him a name above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth [those now in the tomb, but yet to be raised to learn the truth that is in Jesus]; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” —Philippians 2:9-11.

When on earth, Jesus was not a sinful man in any sense. His birth of the Virgin Mary was miraculous. His holy life was transferred to human conditions. He was made a man – “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,” and fit, therefore, to be the great Sin offering for Adam and all his posterity. He was simply the Man Jesus up to the time of his immersion in Jordan; but the anointing he there received constituted him the Anointed of God, the Christ, the Messiah.

MADE “PARTAKER OF THE DIVINE NATURE”

 Jesus was a god, a Mighty One, higher than the angels before he became a man. When born a babe, he was not a god at all, but a human being, and as the perfect man of thirty he was not a god at all, but a human being; and as a perfect man he was not a god. But when he received the anointing of the holy Spirit. of divine power, he became a Mighty One, because of this spirit-begetting. And since his resur­rection he is a god greater than ever before, “partaker of the divine nature” for his church is called to this great exaltation and they are called to the obtaining of the glory of their Lord that they may be with him, as his bride, and be like him, members of his glorious body. —2Thes­salonians 2:14; 1John 3:2; Revelations 21:2, 9; 22:17; 1 Corinthians 10:16, 17; 12:12, 13, 27; 2 Peter 1 :4.

Our Lord is the great Head of his church, and Head and Body must partake of the same nature in glory. He gave up his human nature in death to purchase the human race. For parts of three days he lay dead in the tomb – not alive in any sense; for death is the absence of life. He had given up human life never to take it up again. It was the purchase price for the world. He was resurrected to the divine plain, an exaltation never before given to any creature of God. His bride is called to the same glorious nature as her head, whose inheritance she is invited to share. Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of God. —Romans 6:4; 8:11; Acts 2:22, 24. 32, 33.

CONFUSION OF TRINITARIAN VIEW

Notice for a moment the great confusion from which we are saved by following the Bible’s own testimony respecting our Lord Jesus and by throwing out the ridiculous nonsense of the dark ages. We are saved from thinking of our God as three being with only one body or one being with three bodies. Trinitarians do not know which of these creedal statements to take – some say one and some say the other. But both are wholly irrational; three are not one and one is not three. The oneness between the Father and the Son is explained by our Lord himself. He prayed that his disciples might become one in the same sense that he and the Father were one – surely not that his disciples might become one person, but that they might be one in spirit, in mind, in purpose, as were the Father and himself. See John 17:20-23.

The followers of Jesus become one in mind and purpose by each giving up his own will to do God’s will. And Jesus and the Father are one because Jesus surrendered his will to the Father’s will, saying, “Not my will, but thine be done”; “I came not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me”;  “Lo, I come; I delight to do thy will, O my God !” These are the words of the Lord Jesus to the Father.

Touching the rise of the Trinitarian view, Abbott and Conant’s Religious Dictionary,  page 944, says “It was not until the beginning of the fourth century that the Trinitarian view began to be elaborated and formulated into a doctrine and an endeavor made to reconcile it with the belief of the church in ONE GOD.” “Out of the attempt to solve this problem sprang the doctrine of the Trinity.” Trinity “is a very marked feature in Hinduism, and is discernible in Persian, Egyp­tian, Roman, Japanese and the most ancient Grecian mythologies.”

Like some other doctrines received by Protestants from Papacy,, this one is accepted and fully endorsed, although its educated adherents are aware that not  a text of Scripture can he adduced to its support. Yea, more; whoever will not affirm this unscriptural doc­trine as his faith is declared by the articles of the Evangelical Alliance to be non-orthodox – a heretic. Hebrews l:8 has been used by Trini­tarians as a proof text that Jesus is Yahweh, and the fact is cited that the word God here is theos, the same as verse 9 which refers to the Father. They seem not to have noticed that the word god, 2 Corinthians 4:4, which refers to Satan, is also theos in the Greek. Theos is used of any mighty one, the same as Elohim in the Hebrew.

Philippians 2:8, 9 implies that our Lord’s present glory is greater than the glory which he possessed before he became a man; otherwise it could not have been an exaltation. Now having the divine, immortal nature he cannot die. “Christ dieth no more.” How straightforward and simple and reasonable is the Scriptural pre­sen­tation compared with human traditions! In what a jumble of contradictions and confusion do they find themselves who say that Jesus and the Father is one God! This would involve the idea that our Lord Jesus acted the hypocrite when on earth and only pretended to address God in prayer, when he himself was the same God. Such should conclude, too, that since we read that God cannot be tempted of any, it was only a farce when Jesus was tempted of Satan.

 Again, the Father has always been immortal, hence could not die. How then, could Jesus have died? The Apostles are all false witnesses in declaring Jesus’ death and resur­rection if he did not die. The Scriptures declare, however, that he did die – “He poured out his soul [his being] unto death,” not merely his body, as many assert.—Isaiah 53:12.

If they admit that Jesus really died, they take the other horn of the dilemma; for believing that their three Gods are all one person as many do, when Jesus died they must all three have died. If they all died, who raised them to life?  How foolish all this sounds!  Yet if Jesus and the Father are the same person, the same being, then when Jesus died the Father must have died. Shall we thus contradict the apostles and prophets and Jesus himself, and ignore reason and common sense, in order to hold to a dogma handed to us from the dark, superstitious past, by a corrupt apostate church? Nay! “To the law and to the testimony! If they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them.”

 SCRIPTURES on the HOLY SPIRIT

We next inquire: What say the Scriptures with regard to the holy Spirit? The nominal churches, Protestant and Catholic, affirm that the holy Spirit is a person, the third person of the Trinity. They claim that all this is “a great mystery.” Yes, truly it is a mystery, such as is characteristic of the confusion of man-made creeds held by Babylon. But to those who turn to the Word of God and let it speak, all is clear and plain. We suggest that whatever definition of the term “holy Spirit” will meet all known condi­tions and harmonize all Scriptures bearing thereon may be understood to be the true meaning of the term. We will first give what we conceive to be such a definition, and then ask the reader to subject every Scripture where this term is used to this definition and see if it does not make harmony of all.

We understand the Bible to teach that the holy Spirit is the divine will, influence, power or disposition, exercised anywhere and for any purpose, at the divine pleasure. God exercises his Spirit or energy in a variety of ways, using various agencies, and accomplishing various results. Whatever God does through agencies is as truly his work as though he were the direct actor, since all his agencies are his creation – created by his own power; just as a contractor for building is said to build a house, though he may never have lifted a tool upon it. He does it with his materials and through his agents.

Thus, when we read that Yahweh God created the heavens and the earth, we are not to suppose that he personally handled them. He used an agent. “He spake and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast.” His holy power was exercised through his Only Begotten. God’s Spirit was exercised in times past through the prophets. “They spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” [power] of God.

The masculine pronoun is often used in our Common Version Bible in referring to the Holy Spirit of God, because God, who is a Spirit, is represented as masculine, as indicative of strength. The pronoun translated he when refer­ring to the Holy Spirit, can with equal consistency be translated it, and is often so rendered.

See Diaglott rendering of John 14:17, 26, as an example.

For further understanding of this subject of the Holy Spirit, we refer the interested reader to our fifth volume of STUDIES IN THE SCRIP­TURES, Page 163; Chapters 8-11, where we have treated the subject at length.

“One reads with father’s specs upon his head,

And sees the thing just as his father did;

Another reads through Campbell or through Scott,

And thinks it means exactly what they thought.  

Some read to prove a pre-adopted creed,

Thus understand but little what they read;

And every passage in the Book they bend

To make it suit that all-important end.

Some people read, as I have often thought,

To teach the Book, instead of to be taught,”

(See Pastor Russell’s Reprints “JEHOVAH OUR GOD IS ONE”– Pages 5747- 5749)

Note: Some minor editing has been done in this article without, we trust, any change in Pastor Russell’s teachings.

For instance, since we are no longer confortable with the popular name given the Heavenly Father for the unpronounceable name, YHVH by adding vowels from the names for Jesus Christ, to wit, ”Jehovah”; we have changed to “Yahweh.”