Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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Christ Is God
Chapter 33 – Trinitarianism
Why am I bringing up Trinitarianism? And why am I bringing it up now?
Trinitarianism is the prevailing view of God in the institutional church. It has been ever since it was settled as a doctrine in the 4th century when it was documented in the Nicene Creed.
Trinitarianism was founded on the assumption that the Second Coming did not happen when Jesus said it would, which was the 1st century.
Trinitarians will not say that they have disbelieved Jesus. Rather, they will say that I have misinterpreted Him – that His words do not mean that the Second Coming had to happen before His generation completely passed away. I will leave it to you to make up your own mind about who is misrepresenting Jesus and the Bible.
Trinitarianism’s greatest virtue is also its greatest vice. Its greatest virtue is in declaring Jesus to be divine – not just a creature. But this is also its greatest vice because in declaring Jesus divine, Trinitarians presented Him as the second person of a three-person divine being. This concept of three persons in one being has a lot of problems. But the biggest problem is that it limits Christ.
In Trinitarianism, some other person gets to be the Father such that the Jesus – the Messiah – never gets to be the Father. How can it be that the seed of Abraham never gets to be a father? How can the promises of God all be fulfilled in a fatherless Messiah? How could such a concept ever be accepted by biblically-literate people?
Here is the part of the Nicene Creed which denies that the Second Coming has occurred. When speaking of Jesus specifically, its closing words are:
…
He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.
…
Thus the 4th-century church – as well as every century’s church since then – went on record implying that the 1st-century church was wrong about the Second Coming. You can believe the New Testament on this point or you can believe the Nicene Creed, but you can’t believe both.
The institutional church made the same mistake that Moses’ brother Aaron made when he made the golden calf. The Israelites panicked and demanded something visible to worship because Moses was delayed on Mount Sinai. Aaron collected their gold, melted it, and fashioned it into a molten calf idol.
Similarly, the institutional church – having rejected the Second Coming as a spiritual and timely event – fashioned a model of God made from scraps of Scripture held together by philosophical pronouncements. They knew in their hearts – because God had made them to know – that Jesus had been God in the flesh. But they couldn’t bring themselves to go all the way to the point of believing the things Jesus taught about the Second Coming. So they ended up with the equivocation of three persons in one being – a mash-up of polytheism and monotheism.
Unbelief blinds and confuses.
If you need help processing the data in this chapter, see my book 300 Reasons to Worship Christ and Not a Trinity.
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