Is God a Trinity?

Nicene and Athanasius under the Biblical microscope

Part of the creed of Nicaea: We believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made; of the same essence as the Father. (…) And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life. He proceeds from the Father and the Son, and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified.

one God, the Father The most important truth of Scripture is that there is one God. That’s just not a question of quantity, but of quality. A Deity Who has to share His place with another Deity is not even a deity! God is God because there is only one of them. Out of, through and to Him is everything. Doubt the word ‘all’ and you come into the mists of polytheism. Mark 12:30; Romans 11:36 The Scriptures teach, explicitly, in several places that there is only one God, the Father. This statement is the most deadly of all to the doctrine of the Trinity. 1 Corinthians 8: 6; Ephesians 4: 6; John 17: 3; 1 Timothy 2: 5 Paul writes: There is one God and one Mediator of God and men, the Man Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2: 5 Using Biblical words When we want to express our thoughts about God and His Christ, there is only one safe method: use words and phrases use agreement offered by the Scripture itself. Words of human wisdom are worse than worthless. 1Corinthians 2:4,5; 3:20 dogma built on reasoning It is appalling that the most important doctrine by which one’s orthodoxy is measured is not clearly (or rather, not explicitly) taught in the Scriptures.  In fact, it took several centuries by the process of reasoning, to extrapolate it from Scripture! The Greek word for “confess” is the ‘omo logeo’, which means ‘saying the same thing’. An accurate confession that articulates the Scriptural truth about something is, by definition, dependent on the vocabulary of Scripture. out of the Father, through the Son The Bible nowhere teaches that creation comes out of the Son. Everything is out of God, the Father, and everything is through the Lord Jesus Christ. 1Corinthians 8: 6; John 1: 3; Colossians 1:16 God the Son? Nineteen times the Scripture speaks of “God, the Father.” A small fifty times, “the Son of God.” is mentioned. Not once, do we find the expression “God the Son”. Very revealing! the image of God, the invisible God is Invisible and the Son is the Image of the invisible God. Wherever God’s glory appears, He is called “the effulgence of God’s glory.” He is God’s imprint or emblem. He is not the Father, but His Image. Anyone who has seen Him has seen the Father. Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1: 3; John 1:18; ; 4: 9 figurative language The Son of God’s love is the image of God, the Invisible. That the Son, so often, in Scripture is presented as being God, Himself is truly figurative-speech or language. Colossians 1:15 God’s Logos The Son is God’s LOGOS (KJV: Word). Compare this to our word ‘logo’. A logo is a “mark of an image” that represents an invisible greatness. John 1:1 God’s Icon Christ is the IKON (KJV: Image) of God, the Invisible. The man is expressly forbidden to make icons and bow down to them. Why? Because this honor is only reserved for the only perfect IKON! Colossians 1:16; 2 Corinthians 4:4 up is the Son of all eternity? That the Son would have existed from eternity is once again a typical example of a departure from the Scriptural terms. The Bible says that Jesus is the Son of God through His birth from Mary. Luke 1:35 Although Athanasius professes that the Son is generated (born or produced), he denies this at the same time, by stating that “in the Trinity, there is no first or last … but all three persons are coeternal.” Whoever can grasp this may say so…. The Son of God is the “firstborn of every creature.” I.e. among all the creatures, He takes the highest place. Colossians 1:16,17; Psalm 89:28 is the Spirit the third person of the Trinity? Athanasius assumes that “the Spirit of the Father” is another than the Father, Himself. Strange … is the spirit of man someone other than the man himself? Matthew 10:20; 1 Corinthians 2:11 Mary became pregnant by the holy Spirit. In other words, the holy Spirit was the Father of the One who came from Mary. Matthew 1:18 the power of the Most High The Spirit is not someone besides the Most High, but it is “the power of the Most High.” Luke 1:35 man is not God’s image Nowhere in Scripture is man called the image of God. Man was created in God’s image. And God’s image is… Christ! Genesis.1:26.27 in brief The church says there is one God: the Father and the Son and the holy Spirit. The Scripture says there is one God, the Father. Period. This is the Invisible God and the Son is His image and Stature. The Spirit is the (personal) Power of the Most High. to whom do we pray? In prayer, we turn to God, the Father. Of praying to Jesus, we do not read this in Scripture. Neither do we read of praying to the Spirit. We approach God through Christ Jesus. That’s the recurring formula in Scripture. As God comes to us through the Lord Jesus, we come to God through the Lord Jesus. Christ Jesus is the Mediator between the one God and humanity. Ephesians 1:18; Colossians 3:17; Jude 25; 1 Timothy 2: 5

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