The Trinity
By
Gary DeVaney
"Religion Is Mind Atrophy"
1 John 5:7-8 There are 3 that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost and these 3 are 1.
Matthew 28:19 Jesus said: All authority has been given to Me in Heaven and on Earth. Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
(The end of anything is NOT always.)
The term “The Trinity” is not found in the Bible. "The Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost" was later termed “The Trinity”.
Ergo - "The Trinity" claims that:
Jesus is God and The Holy Spirit.
God is Jesus and The Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is Jesus and God.
If Jesus is the Holy Spirit, then Jesus knocked-up His Own mother, Mary, to produce Himself.
Nice, virtuous scenario - huh? However, one must accept that Jesus impregnated Mary, His own mother, to honestly believe in "The Trinity".
As angry as it may make you, you can't have it both ways and if you are honest - there is no wiggle-room.
To be redundant: If Jesus is the Holy-Spirit - then - Jesus "knocked-up" His own mother.
Fact: The word "TRINITY” does NOT appear anywhere in Bible.
If the 3 "Characters" of "The Trinity" are three (3) separate entities - but also are only one (1) entity - does "The Trinity" amount to a government? If "The Trinity" is literally one (1) - then Jesus Christ, who is "The Holy Ghost", knocked-up His own mother, "The Virgin Mary", to produce Himself. How else would you have it?
The Catholic religion, which is the biggest and the oldest Christian religion, maintain that "The Virgin Mary" remained a virgin throughout her life. How can that be if "Baby Jesus" passed through the "Virgin Mary's" vaginal / birth canal?
If "The Virgin Mary" and Joseph never had sex, they were not legally married under Jewish law and they just shacked up. Why? Because legal marriage, under Jewish law, had to be consummated by sex. So, by that qualification, were Joseph and "The Virgin Mary" legally married? And, where did all of Jesus' named brothers and sisters come from? There is no Biblical documentation that Joseph had been married or had children before His time with "The Virgin Mary".
If Jesus was also God, then it was God who died on the cross. Didn't the Holy Spirit also die on the cross?
Nonsense can certainly be complicated. Can any Christian, God-inspired believer explain each of these issues in a logical, reasonable manner so that thinking realists can intellectually understand and emotionally accept their “realistic” explanation?
Does anyone know a “Practicing Christian”, who believes in the "Virgin Birth and "The Resurrection", to be a realist?
Paul often mentioned things like: The grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. . .
Jesus has His God and prays to His God. Ergo, Jesus is not God.
Mormons, and some other major Christian religions, do not hold to any “Trinity“. Different strokes - it seems.
Q: So, what do you think?
Believer: I don’t know and I don’t care. All I know is that I believe! End of story!
You can always tell a believer - but, not much.
Isn't faith mostly idealistic, hopeful fantasy?
Could "The Trinity" really "The Quartet"? God / Jesus Christ / The Holy Ghost / Satan?
According to scripture, how does God NOT qualify to be Satan any more than God does NOT qualify to be Jesus Christ or The Holy Ghost?
"The Trinity"
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Trinity
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 (Greek: hypostases) in one divine Being (Greek: Ousia), called the Godhead.
According to this doctrine, God exists as three persons but is one God, meaning that God the Son and God the Holy Spirit have exactly the same nature or being as God the Father in every way. Whatever attributes and power God the Father has, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit have as well. "Thus, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are also eternal, omnipresent, omnipotent, infinitely wise, infinitely holy, infinitely loving, omniscient."
The doctrine developed from the biblical language used in New Testament passages such as the baptismal formula in Matthew 28:19 and took substantially its present form by the end of the 4th century as a result of controversies concerning the proper sense in which to apply to God and Christ terms such as "person", "nature", "essence", and "substance".
Trinitarianism contrasts with Nontrinitarian positions which include Binitarianism (one deity/two persons), Unitarianism (one deity/one person), the Oneness or Modalism belief, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' view of the Godhead as three separate beings who are one in purpose rather than essence.
Authoritative testimonies on "The Trinity".
Is the so-called Trinity a doctrine in the BIBLE?
YOU CAN NOT FIND THE WORD “TRINITY” IN THE BIBLE
“TRINITY. The word trinity is not found in the bible, it did not find a place formally in the theology of the church till the 4th century." (The Illustrated bible dictionary, vol.3. USA: Tyndale house publishers, 1980.) “The doctrine of The Holy Trinity is not taught in The Old Testament” (New Catholic encyclopedia, p.306) The doctrine of trinity is not found in the Bible. (Christian beliefs, p.32)
In the New Testament, there is no explicit statement of the doctrine: (Baker’s Dictionary of Theology. Michigan, USA: Baker Book House, 1988.) Neither the word Trinity, nor the explicit doctrine as such, appears in The New Testament, nor did Jesus Christ and his followers intend to contradict the Shema in The Old Testament. ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord’. (Deuteronomy 6:4 (Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 10. USA: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1976.)
Exegetes and theologians today are in agreement that the Hebrew Bible does not contain a doctrine of Trinity.
(Eliade, Mircea, ed. The Encyclopedia of Religion, vol. 15. New York: Mcmillan Publishing Co., 1987.)
Careful reading of The Old Testament shows no indication of the trinity itself…” (An introduction to the Christian Faith. Oxford, England: Lynx Communications, 1992.)
The New Testament formulates no doctrine of The Trinity. (Richardson, Alan., D.D. An introduction to the Theology of the New Testament. London: SCM Press ltd., 1958.) The Old Testament does not plainly and directly teach The Trinity (Pearlman, Myer. Knowing the Doctrines of the Bible. Missouri, USA: Gospel Publishing House, 1981.)
The Trinity was formulated between the end of the 2nd and 4th centuries.
The Trinity of God is defined by the church as the belief that in God are three persons who subsist in one nature. The belief as so defined was reached only in the 4th and 5th centuries AD and hence is not explicitly and formally a biblical belief. Actually, the terms do not appear in the Bible. The Trinitarian definitions arose as the result of long controversies in which these terms and others such as ‘essence’ and ‘substance’ were erroneously applied to God by some theologians.(McKenzie, John L. Dictionary of the bible, Archdiocese of Chicago. New York USA: Macmillan publishing Co., 1996)
“The Church began to formulate its doctrine of The Trinity in the fourth century.” (Systematic Theology, p.82)
“But the word ‘trinity’ is not a word of two-ness. It is a word of three-ness and comes from the latin word trinitas coined by Tertullian of Carthage at the end of second century.” (Olyott, Stuart. The Three Are One: What the Bible teaches about The Trinity. England: Evangelical Press,1996.)
Tertullian and Cyprian of North Africa, Clement and Origen in Alexandria, began to clarify and define the still inchoate doctrines concerning the relation of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and to set forth the claims of the Church to power and authority. But lack of complete agreement among them gave scope to acrimonious disputes. (Noss, John B. Man’s Religions. New York, USA: The Macmillan Company, 1949.)
And so by the end of the period of the Apostolic Fathers there was no belief in a preexistent Trinity. (The Philosophy of the Church Fathers, p.191)
A catholic priest said: The trinity is a wonderful mystery. No one understands it. The most learned theologian, the holiest Pope, the greatest saint, all are as mystified by it as the child of seven. It is one of the things which we shall know only when we see God face to face. (God and Myself: An Inquiry into the true religion, Martin J. Scott, p.118)
If that’s the case, if The Trinity is so mysterious and no one understands even theologians, POPES, and whatsoever, how could a man on the street understand it? Huh? Why does it cannot understand by anyone, unless just covering the truth that it was just a FORMULATION of the CHURCH FATHERS? It cannot be understand because it was not the doctrine FROM the BIBLE, and so it was called MAN MADE TEACHING! Tsk. Tsk. Hurt to hear, but TRUTH.
How about the word "Elohim"?
Is it a proof or evidence that there are 3 persons in one god? The answer? NO! because even those who study about Trinity, the word "Elohim" means "gods" (many God) and does not mean "persons".
If the word "Elohim" will use as an evidence to the doctrine Trinity, it will show that there are "many God". And so, William Smith say this: “The fanciful idea that it referred to the Trinity of Persons in the Godhead, hardly finds now a supporter among scholars. It is either what grammarians call the plural of majesty or denotes the fullness of divine strength, the sum of the powers displayed by God.(Smith’s Bible Dictionary. New York, USA: Jove publications Inc. 1982.)
So, it is not WE, or the Church of Christ (Iglesia Ni Cristo) whom only says that The Trinity cannot be found on the bible, and even not a teaching from Christ! Is the doctrine Trinity a doctrine from the BIBLE? SIMPLE. NO!
Can “The Trinity” actually “The Quartet”? = God / The Holy Ghost / Jesus / Satan?
GWD: Nonsense does not stop being nonsense just because a Human Ego attaches God's name to it.
Leo Tolstoy: One may say with one's lips: I believe that God is one, and also three - but no one can believe it, because the words have no sense.
Thomas Jefferson: It is too late in the day for men of sincerity to pretend they believe in the Platonic mysticisms that three are one, and one is three; and yet that the one is not three, and the three are not one.
Robert Ingersoll: According to the celestial multiplication table, once one is three, and three times one is one, and according to heavenly subtraction if we take two from three, three are left. The addition is equally peculiar, if we add two to one we have but one. Each one is equal to himself and the other two. Nothing ever was, nothing ever can be more perfectly idiotic and absurd than the dogma of the Trinity.
Elbert Hubbard: Faith is the effort to believe what your common sense tells you is not true.
Athanasian Creed
1. Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith;
2. Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.
3. And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;
4. Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance.
5. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit.
6. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.
7. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit.
8. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated.
9. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible.
10. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal.
11. And yet they are not three eternals but one eternal.
12. As also there are not three uncreated nor three incomprehensible, but one uncreated and one incomprehensible.
13. So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty.
14. And yet they are not three almighties, but one almighty.
15. So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God;
16. And yet they are not three Gods, but one God.
17. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord;
18. And yet they are not three Lords but one Lord.
19. For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord;
20. So are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say; There are three Gods or three Lords.
21. The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten.
22. The Son is of the Father alone; not made nor created, but begotten.
Atheism - Hummm
23. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.
24. So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.
25. And in this Trinity none is afore or after another; none is greater or less than another.
26. But the whole three persons are coeternal, and coequal.
27. So that in all things, as aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.
28. He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.
29. Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
30. For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man.
31. God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man of substance of His mother, born in the world.
32. Perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting.
33. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His manhood.
34. Who, although He is God and man, yet He is not two, but one Christ.
35. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of that manhood into God.
36. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person.
37. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ;
38. Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead;
39. He ascended into heaven, He sits on the right hand of the Father, God, Almighty;
40. From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
41. At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies;
42. and shall give account of their own works.
43. And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.
44. This is the catholic faith, which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved.
Have you ever seen anything so nonsensical and absurd?
There is one word that can replace the word "God" in any, every and all contexts.
That word is: AUTHORITY.
Examples: May Authority bless you. Authority damn you. Authority is great. Praise Authority. We thank Authority...
Atheists don’t tend to do that. Ergo, practicing, worshipful believers resent / dislike / even hate Atheists.
That's why I view practicing religious believers as “Authority Worshippers”.
The problem with that is - believers then want to impose their Authority (God) / values / agendas / desires on others - even by threat of consequence.
This is one big reason why The God Murders website exists.
Bart Eheman: "The Trinity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR4NXfkI0jQ&feature=youtu.be
See Gary DeVaney's YouTube Videos:
Gods Evil Deeds - on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnqrT-Ahk2c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g17YO9lSuqA
