Kingdom Ready

by Patrick Navas

“If God is a Trinity, then we would expect to find certain things in the New Testament.” —Robert Morey, The Trinity, Evidence and Issues, p. 247

The following is representative of the way key scriptural passages arguably should or might have been expressed if the Doctrine of the Trinity was central to the Christian faith and if acceptance of the Doctrine was an essential condition of human salvation. The texts presented below in the following forms were not put together in a spirit of sarcasm but in all seriousness, for if the latter orthodox doctrine of the Trinity is really grounded in, and in agreement with, the doctrine of the New Testament, it is, in fact, completely reasonable that the clearest “confessional statements” presented by these well-known and central-to-the-Christian-faith texts would have been expressed in the following or similar ways:

Peter’s confession: Matthew 16:13-17

When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Simon Peter said in reply ‘You are God the Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.’ Jesus said to him in reply, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father—the fist person of the Trinity—who is in heaven.”

Matthew 28:18, 19

“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘As God, second person of the Trinity—co-equal and co-eternal with the Father—I possess all authority in heaven and on earth. 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, the one God.’”

Mark 12:28-30

“…one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, ‘Which commandment is the most important of all?’ Jesus answered, ‘The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one essence, three persons (or ‘the Lord our God is one what and three whos’). And you shall love the triune God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…’

or,

“Jesus answered, ‘You have heard that the ancients were told: ‘The Lord is our God, the Lord is one,’ but I say to you, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is three persons—one essence…’”

John 1:1

“In the beginning was God the Son, the Word, and the Word was with the person of the Father, the first member of the Trinity, and the Word shared the essence of the Father.”

John 4:23, 24

“…the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the one God in spirit and truth, for God is seeking such people to worship him. God is a tri-unity of persons, and those who worship God must worship in spirit and truth, as three persons in one essence, for the three persons of the Trinity are looking for such like ones to worship them together as the one God.”

John 3:16

“For God the Father so loved the world that he gave God the Son, so that whoever would believe in his deity should not burn in hell forever but go to heaven.”

John 8:24

“Unless you believe that I am God in the flesh you will die in your sins…”

John 8:58

“Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was born, I have eternally existed as God the Son, the second person of the Trinity.”

John 17:3-5

“And this is eternal life, that they may know you, Father, as the only true God, the Son, sent by the Father, as God, and the Spirit as God—three distinct persons, one God. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you as God the eternal Son in eternity past.”

John 20:30-31

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is God the Son, the second member of the triune Godhead, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Romans 8:3

“For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do, when God himself took on a body of flesh and, for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh…”

Romans 10:9

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is God, the second person of the Trinity, and believe in your heart that the Father raised him from the dead, you will be saved…”

Romans 15:4-6

“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the one God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—the blessed Trinity.”

1 Corinthians 8:4-6

“Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that ‘an idol has no real existence,’ and that ‘there is no God but one.’ For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’— yet to us there is one God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three persons, one essence.”

1 Corinthians 15:27-28

“For ‘The Father has put all things in subjection under his feet.’ But when it says, ‘all things are put in subjection,’ it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son’s manhood will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, that the triune God may be all in all.”

1 Timothy 2:5, 7

“For there is one God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and one mediator between the Father and mankind, the God-man, Christ Jesus…For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth—the salvation of man rests on the acceptance of this doctrine.”

1 John 4:2, 3; 5:1-13

“By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus as God incarnate is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already…Everyone who believes that Jesus is God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever is eternally generated of him. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is God the eternal Son? This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and these three are one God. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of the Father is greater, for this is the testimony of the Father that he has borne concerning God the Son. Whoever accepts Jesus as God the Son has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that the Father has borne concerning God the Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is attained through faith in the doctrine of the Trinity, and belief in God the Son. Whoever has God the eternal Son, the second member of the triune God, has life; whoever does not have God the Son does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of God the Son, that you may know that you have salvation.”

Colossians 1:15, 16

“He is the image of the invisible Father, the creator of the universe, for by (Gk. hupo) him were created all things, everything, heaven and earth.

Hebrews 1:3

“He [the Son] is the radiance of the Father’s glory and an eternal partaker of the Father’s divine essence.”

Philippians 2:5-11

“Have the same mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus; although he eternally partook of the same divine essence as the Father, he did not consider substantial co-equality with the Father something to exploit for his own gain, but he made himself of no reputation, combining the essence of God with a human nature, so that he would become the God-man…Therefore the Father has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory the triune God.”

Revelation 5:13, 14

“And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, ‘To the one that sits on the throne (the Father), to the Lamb (Jesus, the Son), and to the Spirit, be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!’ And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ and the elders fell down and worshiped the blessed Trinity.”

Of course, none of the above passages appear in Scripture in the forms presented. However, a serious consideration of these may prove beneficial to those studying the controversies surrounding the Trinitarian dogma, for they clearly and vividly illustrate how far removed modern-day, “mainstream Christian” doctrine is from the emphases and language of the New Testament Scriptures, as originally expressed by Jesus himself, and the apostles and Christians of the first century. The statement is true: “If God is a Trinity, then we would expect to find certain things in the New Testament”—yet we do not find them.