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Much of the confused notions which prevail relative to the Doctrine of the Trinity in Unity, and which prevents people from inquiring into its truth, arises from the fact of the Translators of the English Bible having introduced into the fifth Chapter of the first Epistle of John, a passage which purports to teach clearly that doctrine; and yet, strange to say, that passage is a purely spurious one, and is no part of Holy Scripture at all. The spurious passage reads: “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.” The authentic Greek manuscripts only read, “For there are three that bear record, the spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree in one;” i.e., agree in bearing one and the same testimony, viz., that Jesus is the Son of God: and any one who reads with attention the whole chapter will see that John’s argument requires only these latter words, and that the excluded words would have no meaning in his Epistle at all.
But the Translators of our English Bible also translated with a prejudice in favour of the Doctrine of the Trinity, and have dared to translate passages so as to imply the teaching of that Doctrine. Such passages, however, are mistranslations. Thus in the Gospel by John, 1:1, the English Translation says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.” The original Greek, however, is very concise and definite in its expressions, and gives no countenance whatever to any such doctrine; for it says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the God, and the Word was a God; he was in the beginning with the God.” The passage asserts that the Word had the nature of a God, and not that of a created being, but it carefully distinguishes the Word from the God; and, as if to guard against all possible mistakes as to the Word ever being confounded with the God, twice repeats that that Word was only with the God. No such statement would ever have been made had it been intended to be taught that the Word was the “very God;” for it is clear as daylight it would never have twice repeated that he was with himself, which in that case would have made the sentence utter nonsense.
Another passage of Scripture is equally altered from the original by the translators of our English Bible, to make it agree with their Trinity in Unity views—viz., Rom. 9:5. The English Translation says, “Whose are the Fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.” The true translation of the original Greek is very diflierent. It is this: “Whose are the Fathers; and of whom is Christ according to the flesh: the living supreme God be blessed for ever, Amen.” This passage, therefore, instead of giving any countenance to the Trinity doctrine, refutes it, and, when properly translated, harmonizes with the rest of Scripture.
It is not my intention to enter at large into the subject in this place. I may only mention that the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity is quite irreconcilable with the declaration of Jesus while on Earth, and with his Revelation to John while in Heaven, after his Resurrection, that God the Father is also his God. We must remember that Jesus, during his whole life on earth, prayed to God as his God; and even when in Heaven, seated at the right hand of God, he speaks of “the God” as his God. “I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” John 20:17. “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Matt. 27:46. “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the Temple of my God, and he shall no more go out; and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the City of My God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God.” Rev. 3:12. Now no pretended human reasoning, or human philosophy, can get over such distinct teaching. How, indeed, dare we set any philosophical reasonings against the distinct teaching of God in his revealed word?
But these passages stand not alone. We have the same truth, viz., that God is “the God of Jesus Christ,” no fewer than seven times distinctly repeated in the Apostolic writings. “That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Rom. 15:6. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Cor. 1:3. “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ knoweth that I lie not.” 2 Cor. 11:31. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Eph. 1:3. “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom.” Eph. 1:17. “We give thanks unto the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Col. 1:3. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Pet. 1:3.
Now no jesuitical reasonings, founded on any data which may be adopted as true, but must be false, can get over such distinct direct teaching. These passages all declare that God the Father is “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ;” and as that is the undoubted Scripture doctrine, it must be false teaching which avers that Jesus Christ is part (or a person) of that God, or is the very God himself.
But there are a few additional passages which authoritatively settle such false teachings. God is from all Eternity. He is without beginning, without ending. But Jesus Christ his son is distinctly revealed to us in the Scriptures as having a beginning, though the Trinitarians have wilfully shut their eyes, and ears, and hearts to that fact. John the Evangelist distinctly says, “In the beginning was the Word.” That means, of course, that point in Time when the Word was begotten of God. That this was a point of Time very different from the existence of God from all Eternity, is confirmed by Paul’s writings, for he calls Jesus “the first-born of every creature,” Col. 1:15. And in another Epistle, alluding to the same subject, he makes a statement which settles that point authoritatively; for he says, “When he (God) bringeth in the first-begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the Angels of God worship him.” Heb. 1:6. This passage almost infers that the Angelic Host was brought into being before Christ. And again, “Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.” Heb. 1:5. The Apostle John gives testimony to the same fact, for in the Revelations he styles Jesus “the beginning of the Creation of God,” 3:14.
All these passages, then, thoroughly bear out the conclusion I have ventured to draw from the whole teachings of Scripture, that the Doctrine of the Trinity in Unity is a human delusion, having no foundation in the word of God. We see that the Scriptures plainly declare that Jesus had a beginning, while we know God had none. We see that the Scriptures plainly declare that God the Father is “the God of Jesus Christ.” We see that the Scriptures clearly teach that when the world is ended, Jesus Christ will lay down his mediatorial office, and resume the place of a subject, and not of an equal, in heaven, in order that “the God may be all in all.”
If, then, we be followers of Christ, if we believe the will of God as it is revealed to us in the Scriptures, if we believe that Doctrine which Christ himself and his Apostles have taught, then we will reject the humanly devised theological dogma of the Trinity in Unity.
It must be remembered that the whole philosophicotheological, but antiscriptural Doctrine of the Trinity in Unity, is founded on the false assumption that Jesus Christ possesses all the attributes of God. We have just seen, however, that such an assumption is utterly unfounded; for while the Scriptures clearly teach that the Great God and Father existed from all Eternity, they at the same time distinctly ascribe a beginning to Jesus Christ the Son. On only one other divine attribute do the Scriptures give us any information as to its comparative perfection in God the Father, and in his son Jesus Christ, viz., the attribute of Omniscience; and they distinctly state that that attribute did not exist in the same perfection in Christ, as it did in the Supreme God the Father. See what is written: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” Mark 13:32. “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which the God gave to him.” Rev. 1:1.
Neither on Scriptural, nor on philosophical grounds, therefore, is there any truth in the Doctrine of the Trinity in Unity; so that it must be rejected as a purely theological delusion.
Before leaving this subject, however, allow me to inquire whether any one who holds the Doctrine of the Trinity in Unity ever seriously asked himself the question: What becomes of the human body which Christ took with him to Heaven, if it be true, as the trinitarians assert, that Jesus is “the very God”? That human body cannot become part, or a person, of the supposed “Godhead.” So that if Jesus in Heaven retains that resurrection-body, as we are assured by the Scriptures that he does, then it is clear as reason can make it, that Christ in Heaven must be a different and distinct being from God the Father. That he must be, as the Scriptures represent him, the Son of that God, a being having so far the same divine nature, inasmuch as being his Son necessarily implies his similarity of nature; but he must be a subject, and not an equal, even as is the son of an earthly monarch; and he must always retain his individuality, else he neither could act as our Intercessor and Mediator, nor could he retain his resurrection human body. In no other way could that which the Scriptures distinctly assert of him be true, that when he shall lay down his Mediatorial office, he shall resign to the Supreme God that power with which he has been temporarily invested, and again become a subject, in order that “The God and Father” may be all in all.
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