The Heresy of a Trinity
Don't misunderstand me when I say the Trinity teaching is a heresy. I don't want to be confused with those who dismiss the trinity to argue that Jesus was not God.
I dismiss the Trinity for two reasons:
1. It is foreign to the Bible.
2. It implies God is made up of three spirits but only one of them is Holy. That is the heresy.
What does the Bible teach? It teaches that God allowed himself to incarnate. This means God never ceased to be almighty but at the same time took a temporary form that was limited to human capacity. Jesus was God Almighty - the same spirit, the same self, the same person. He was not with God. He was never a partner of a three person God. He is completely and fully the one God almighty.
There is no Biblical concept of God in three persons. To avoid confusion I am going to ignore the God with three names, God of three functions, God of three relationships, God of three parts, God of spirit, soul and body, God of omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence or any other construction that excludes three persons as explanations of the trinity. I will also ignore the second century "trinity" reference by Theophilus of Antioch as it does not relate to a triune God. His trinity referred to God, his word and his wisdom.
The traditional idea of a trinity is a naïve historic assumption based on faulty interpretation of eight main texts in the New Testament and some odd statements in the Old Testament. There is nothing in the Bible to suggest so much as a single author of any Biblical books ever believed in a Trinity. There is not a single reference to the trinity in the entire Bible, nor is there any suggestion of such a concept anywhere in the Bible. The concept seems to have arisen in the third century (possibly invented or derived from pagan sources by Tertullian). The concept of a trinity is indoctrination at its best. It is just astounding that the false belief has persisted so long. Actually there is good reason to believe it may be a God inspired heresy for reasons to be explained.
I am going to assume we understand God as a spiritual (or supernatural) being. We could argue that God is a physical being but that generates too many problems. If God created the physical universe he must be outside of the physical. Of course there are other possibilities but none proposed by scripture.
New Testament
(Ref. 1.) 2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
This is probably the most quoted text in Christianity. In many churches it is quoted every service as a benediction. Surely these words would make you suspicious of the concept of a trinity. If Paul believed in a trinity where is the Father? If the Holy Spirit is God why distinguish him from God? The statement logically opposes the concept of a trinity.
Ref. 2. Matthew 3:16–17
16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Problem 1. Where does it say here the spirit of God was God rather than one of the myriad spirits serving God? By the same faulty logic you would have to say a fourth person of God is an angel because there are many references to “the angel of God” in the Bible.
You might ask why this verse refers to “the” spirit of God as if there is only one. The answer is obvious. Matthew 3:11 introduces the spirit as “a” spirit (implied by no article), and then verse 16 refers back to that specific one.
Problem 2. If the spirit of God was God in this case then it was surely the father. The trinity interpretation assumes God the father needs to be distinguished from God the spirit, which is nonsense. If the father is not spirit what else is He?
Even Jesus tells us the father is spirit.
John 4:23-24
23. But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him. 24. God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”
If the one who is spirit must be worshiped, and it is the father who is to be worshiped then obviously the Spirit here is the father.
Ref. 3. Matthew 28:19
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Nowhere does it say God the father, God the son and God the Holy Spirit. Nowhere in the entire Bible does it say “God the Holy Spirit”. There is no justification for assuming the Holy Spirit is God. God has countless holy spirits serving him. All His angels are spirits (eg. Hebrews 1:7) and countless numbers are holy (eg Mark 8:38) so God has countless holy spirits. Even God the father himself is a spirit and surely a holy one.
The concept of baptism is one of washing. John the baptist washed as people repented. The water washing reflected spiritual washing. Just as water washed away dirt, so the spirit washed the penitent from sin. It did so by the birth of a new innocent spotless spirit which covered the old guilty spirit. In Biblical language we are born again in spirit and the new spirit atones the old. Where do all the dispensed spirits come from and how do they have the power to nullify sin? Jesus described it like this, referring to his own death: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." (John 12:24). Through his death many holy spirits were born.
The passage means to impart spiritual baptism by the authority of the father, through belief in the offering of the son, and by the mechanism of the dispensation of the holy spirit available to each penitent believer. In practice this is normally done in combination with water baptism.
It doesn't say or imply that the Holy Spirit is God. It is a gift that proceeds from God. Jesus is the grain that died to reproduce multiple spirits for us. The Holy Spirit you receive is literally an offspring of Jesus' spirit (which is the father's spirit). It is the most precious and holy thing of all time. That's why we are told not to blaspheme it or to grieve it.
Ref. 4. John 14:16–17, 26, 15:26
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
15:26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.
There is no suggestion here that the Helper or Spirit of Truth is God. Rather it is presented as a designated spirit acting on behalf of God, but again I would argue it may refer to an individual spotless offspring spirit of Jesus. "We are the offspring of God" (Acts 17:29)
Ref. 5. 1 Peter 1:2
2 Elect according to foreknowledge of God the father, in sanctification of a spirit unto obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
There is no definite article associated with spirit. That changes the sense of the sentence. The reference to a spirit here is the human spirit of the elect reader. The sense of the passage is that the Elect were chosen by God our Father because in obedience to Jesus Christ they allowed their spirits to be made holy or more literally to be covered by the spotless spirit of Jesus.
There is no reference here to “the” Spirit much less the “Holy Spirit” and not the slightest suggestion of "God the Holy Spirit". It doesn't occur here or anywhere else in the Bible.
Ref. 6. Acts 5:3–4
3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”
It is faulty thinking to take this to mean that the Holy Spirit is God. If you lie to God’s representative then by default you lie to God. If this holy spirit was God then it would surely be the father spirit not a third person spirit.
Ref. 7. 1 Corinthians 3:16
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
Again this doesn’t tell us whether it is the father (who is spirit) that dwells in us or a spirit assigned by God that dwells within us or something else. Again I would argue it is a derived spirit of Jesus that dwells in us. There is no suggestion it is a God spirit different from the father spirit as implied by the trinity concept.
Ref. 8. 1 John 5:5-8
Some proponents of the Trinity also point to a disputed text - 1 John 5:5-8 - known as the Johannine comma.
In most modern translations, Verse 7 appears as:
7. For there are three that testify.
In KJV, we have the disputed text:
7. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
The additional words do not appear in the early codices such as Codex Vaticanus, Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Sinaiticus.
The KJV text is widely regarded as a sixteenth century forgery. Trinitarians seem to think that there are three separate holy spirits in heaven (Father spirit, son spirit and "holy" spirit) and each can give witness about themselves without conflict of interest. That is impossible.
OK if the New Testament doesn’t teach a trinity what about the Old Testament?
Old Testament
Although the examples chosen do not cover all relevant texts, they do cover all significant arguments for a trinity arising from Old Testament texts.
Ref. 1. Elohim
Proponents of the trinity point to the use of Elohim a plural expression of God. However there is a problem with that. Elohim combines with singular adjectives when referring to God Almighty. This strongly suggests that such a combination is a simple concatenation of “the God of gods” (as indicated in Deuteronomy 10:17) and not a suggestion that God Almighty is multiple persons. If in doubt read Deuteronomy 7:9 where Elohim is equated with "the LORD" singular, "he" singular and "the faithful God" singular.
Ref. 2. Genesis 1:26
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Who was God talking to? Other parts of himself? Not a chance. He was talking to the hosts of heaven. To cut to the chase, the image of God and of all heavenly beings was “spirit”. The proposal was to give man a spirit. Adam was the first person to get a spirit and in that sense was the first complete man. Eve was the second person to get a spirit. All their offspring were endowed with a spirit. Prior creatures had no supernatural component.
Ref. 3. Isaiah 61:1
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound
The "Spirit of the Lord God" is referring to the spirit by which God anointed the one who Isaiah is speaking for. There is no suggestion it is some separate personality forming part of God. Remember also “Lord God” does not necessarily mean God Almighty because God lends his name “Elohim Yaweh” to his angels. See Exodus 21:23.
Exodus 23:20-21
20 “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. 21 Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him.
Ref. 4. Psalm 45:6–7
6 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness;
7 you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
Therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;
This passage makes no reference to God the spirit or even a holy spirit. Nowhere does it suggest an equality of persons in a trinity of God.
Seriously, the trinity concept as God in three persons is a heresy. Deuteronomy 6:4 is a foundation statement. “Hear O Israel. The Lord our God, The Lord is One”. It is re-stated by Jesus in Mark 12:29. It leaves no room for a trinity of persons in a God-head. There is nothing Biblical about a trinity concept.
The Truth according to the Bible
God almighty is a spirit. He can appear in any physical form he wishes without constraints. That is different from incarnation. Incarnation involves human constraints. Jesus is not a second person of a Godhead. He is the one and only God almighty - the holy spirit who incarnated in Jesus. Although as Jesus he was constrained in knowledge to human capacity, his spirit (which is his self or identity) is God Almighty. Outside of the constraints of His human body He is and operates as God Almighty. While God Almighty had unity with Jesus from outside the constraints of his human body, the incarnation was constrained to human weakness and forced to operate beyond its constraints by faith. The essential point is that God is one spirit (one identity, one person) choosing to operate transiently within human constraints but never ceasing to also operate outside those constraints.
Soul is not Spirit, Nephesh is not Ruarch, Psyche is not Pneuma
Soul is natural, Spirit is supernatural. Soul includes all the animal features including body, mind, emotions, memory (although in common usage body is excluded). Spirit is a supernatural component. Animals do not have a spirit. Pre-Adamic humans (if there were any) did not have a spirit. The image of God and all spiritual beings (angels, cherubim, heavenly hosts) is Spirit. Adam was the first real human because he was the first to be endowed with a supernatural component. Your Spirit is your self. It transcends the body. Without it you do not have self consciousness, God consciousness or sin consciousness. Your Spirit is born innocent but its delicate beauty is irrevocably scarred by even the most trivial sin. It quickly loses its innocence. If by chance it resisted sin and loved both God and neighbour selflessly and fully, then its delicate beauty would become incorruptible beauty. That has only happened once in the history of humankind two thousand years ago by Jesus.
Once a person has sinned how do they become innocent again? They cannot go back and be born again. But it is not the body or the natural person who holds the guilt. It is the self which is the spirit that holds guilt. So it is the spirit that needs to be born again.
When Jesus was crucified he was wrongly pulled down to Death because he was innocent. Death could not hold him. But his death was like a seed of wheat planted and springing up with new seeds vastly multiplied – a new strain of Spirit no longer delicate but incorruptible. These are his spotless offspring Spirits. These are the Spirits we are to be reborn with. They do not take away our original spirits. They cover (or atone) them and in a sense consume them. The multiplying of a grain of wheat and the multiplying of loaves of bread and the multiplying of fishes were all pointing to the multiplying of Jesus' spirit. There is a piece in Isaiah 53:8 which says he was cut off, so how could anyone talk of his children (implying he was killed before he had a chance to father children). The answer comes in verse 10 where we are assured he shall see his offspring. His offspring are the spotless offspring spirits we are to be reborn with. It is the spirit of Jesus specifically, meaning his offspring spirits that God gives to you. "God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts" Gal 4:6. According to John 1:12, Jesus gives us the power to become sons of God. The Holy Spirit you receive is not God but offspring (sons) of God symbolised by the multiplication of the grain that died and it is born in you by power.
Why does God refer to Jesus as his son? and Jesus refer to God as his father? if they are one and the same.
Surely the answer is obvious. God provided the seed by which the physical body of Jesus was conceived as promised for example in 2 Samuel 7, 1 Chronicles 17 or Psalm 89.
The God Inspired Heresy
It sounds like a contradiction to say God inspired heresy. But just as God blinded the bulk of the Jews to the presence of their Messiah among them, He continued to blind them so that the gentiles could be brought in. The concept of a Trinity was anathema to the Jews. It was invented well after the apostles of the New Testament were passed away or they would have corrected it. The promotion of a triune God has surely been a significant factor in long term Jewish rejection of Christianity.
Why was Jewish rejection important? Because it is the Jewish rejection that proves their Torah has not been manipulated by Christians. To have the guardians of the Torah continuously opposed to acceptance of Jesus as their Messiah means all the messianic prophecies pointing to Jesus in the Torah are genuine. In a sense the Jews are unwitting witnesses to the truth.
Was it ethical for God to blind the Jews? Well the Bible answered that even before the event. Isaiah 66:3-4 "Yea, they have chosen their own ways. I also will choose their delusions; because when I called, none did answer;" It seems fairly plain to me. They mistakenly thought they had the truth through their rabbis and sages and willingly ceased looking to God for direction. They looked elsewhere and found delusion. That is how it works.
But surely the Jews are God's chosen - the apple of his eye. Though many Jews have not known His name or risen to His defence, some at least have have known Him through their scriptures. I think of them as Joseph's brothers before he revealed himself to them. So it will be for many Jews. The revelation of Jesus to the Jews is coming, along with an amazing reunion. I am guessing there will be some form of mass spiritual revelation and I can guess it will occur after dark on Shavuot. Of course not all Jews through history will be saved but all who receive by any means the offspring spirit of Jesus will be saved. I would not rule out that in this "times of the gentiles" that many faithful Jews who have a heart for God but do not know Jesus by name are specially endowed with his offspring spirit. All I do know for sure is that without the gift of the spirit they will not be saved. It is simple logic.
Soon the truth will be revealed and the times of the gentiles will be fulfilled. Despite two thousand years of the Gospel being preached, millions of gentiles have chosen their own ways and now that age appears to be closing and the time of the Jews is set to return.
Ideally in baptism a person genuinely repents and is washed spotless in pure crystal clear water. In the process they can feel and draw in the cleansing baptism of the Holy Spirit and experience the feel of a crystal clear spirit. Alternatively the touch of a holy, spirit filled person by laying on of hands may provide a similar stimulus to make it a memorable event. For others it may be a gradual or quiet time of prayer that brings the baptism of the Holy Spirit and it may not even be memorable. But here's the rub. Baptism by the Holy Spirit is the event of becoming an offspring of God. As John says it is by power and that is an understatement. It may look subtle but it is the most earthshaking power event that you can experience. In case after all I have said this is not obvious let me put it like this. There is one God who is spirit. For a time he incarnated as Jesus. As God he was Jesus. As human he was limited in perception and power. Now he is just one spirit accompanied by a memory of Jesus along with the accomplishments of Jesus. God is just one spirit but that spirit gives birth to new God spirits that we are atoned with. I call them the offspring spirits of Jesus, because Jesus likened his death to the planting of a grain of wheat (John 12:24-26) and his resurrection to the multiplication of the grain as offspring grains.
Baptism in the Holy Spirit or atonenent or being clothed in righteousness mean the same thing. Being born in the spirit carries the added meaning of becoming a God child. Anointings of the Holy Spirit are different. They are specific empowerments by that spirit for specific roles or purposes and usually comprise supernatural gifts. When we are born of the spirit we can and should seek anointings.
