NEW TESTAMENT REFUTATIONS OF THE TRINITY DOCTRINE – Part 35

Continued from Part 34

Is the Trinity Doctrine a New Testament teaching?
Paul, speaking of Jesus says, “for in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9).  Whether Paul is teaching a form of dualism or that this supposed supernatural power that has indwelled Jesus has become God’s unique representative to mankind is a dispute for Christian commentators to ponder.  

NEW TESTAMENT REFUTATIONS OF THE TRINITY DOCTRINE – Part 15

Continued from Part 14

Subordination and subjection
Wherever the relationship of Jesus to God is treated in the New Testament, Jesus is always represented in a subordinate position.  This subordinate role can be seen in the fact that Jesus views himself as a messenger:  “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives Him who sent me” (Matthew 10:40; see also John 5:36).  Jesus acknowledges his subordination and subjection to God when he declares that God is greater than he is (John 14:28), that he does nothing on his own initiative, speaking and doing only what God has taught him (John 8:28-29), and seeking not his own will, but the will of the God who sent him (John 5:30, 6:38).

NEW TESTAMENT REFUTATIONS OF THE TRINITY DOCTRINE – Part 14

Continued from Part 13

Syncretic roots of Paul’s Jesus
Much of Christianity is the development of Paul and his theological descendants, who presented the pagans with a diluted form of Judaism in Hellenized garb.  It is true that the Hellenistic Jewish philosophy of Philo paved the way to such a syncretism, but Philo certainly would have been shocked at the resulting distortion which followed in Paul’s wake.  Philo expected the Messiah, but he never identified the Messiah with the Logos, as was done by later Christian theology.  

NEW TESTAMENT REFUTATIONS OF THE TRINITY DOCTRINE – Part 12

Continued from Part 11

Nevertheless, Barnes believes that Jesus is himself the uncreated and eternal Creator.  However, he does not base his belief on Revelation 3:14.  Of this verse he says:

If it were demonstrated from other sources that Christ was, in fact, a created being, and the first that God had made, it cannot be denied that this language would appropriately express that fact.  But it cannot be made out from the mere use of the language here; and as the language is susceptible of other interpretations, it cannot be employed to prove that Christ is a created being.3

NEW TESTAMENT REFUTATIONS OF THE TRINITY DOCTRINE – Part 9

Continued from Part 8

Paul’s Jesus:  A savior but not God

The New Testament authors make a definite distinction between the one-and-only God and Jesus, never considering them one and the same.  For instance, we find this distinction expressed in the statement:  “Kindness and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” (2 Peter 1:2).  This clarifies the meaning of the preceding verse, which reads, in part, “by the righteousness of our God and of [the] Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:1).  The author of these two verses indicates that he considers God and Jesus to be two distinct beings.