TRINITY: A DIFFERENT GOSPEL

Trinity: A Different Gospel

THE TRINITARIANS KNEW that if they cannot prove that the doctrine of the trinity is biblical, this doctrine cannot be accepted by true Christians because according to Apostles Paul we must condemned the “different gospel.” In Galatians 1:6-8, this is what Apostle Paul said:

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel -  which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.  But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” (Galacia 1:6-8 NIV)

According to the Apostles Paul, “Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.”  The beloved apostle called their teaching as “a different gospel” and admonish the Christians to condemned these teachings.

Apostle Peter clearly warned us that false teachers will appear and will,bring destructive, untrue doctrines:

1False prophets appeared in the past among the people, and in the same way false teachers will appear among you. They will bring in destructive, untrue doctrines, and will deny the Master who redeemed them, and so they will bring upon themselves sudden destruction. II Peter 2:1 TEV

What Apostle Peter calls as “destructive, untrue doctrine” is what Apostle Paul calls as “different gospel,” which is a perverted gospel of Christ.

What is an example of what the Lord Jesus Christ teach that will “pervert” and “confused” by the false teachers? In John 17:1 and 3, this is what the Lord Jesus Christ said:

“After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.

“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:1 and 3 NIV)

Christ taught us that there is only one true God, the Father. This is the gospel or the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ regarding the true God that we all must recognize and acknowledge. He said, “Father…this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God.”

According to Apostle Paul, “Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.” Thus, the false teachers will confused and pervert the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ that the “Father is the only true God.” Apostle Paul also said that this is “a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all.”

Which is the "different gospel" about God? how did the false teachers perverted the gospel of Christ about God that there is only one true God, the father?

STILL ON TRINITY

TRINITY: STILL DOES NOT MAKE SENSE

The following is the comment posted on the article “TRINITY: DOES IT MAKE SENSE” by Mick Alexander, a visitor from Brisbane:

“Gen. 1:1 tells us that God created: ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’

 “But Job 33:4 tells us that the Spirit created: ‘The Spirit of God has made me.’

 “Then Col 1:16, speaking about Jesus says that He created all things: ‘For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth.’

 “So, because God, the Holy Spirit and Jesus all created they must all be God as only God can create. Only the Trinity can account for this.

“This is only one example of many verses which can only be explained through the doctrine of the Trinity.

“By the way, the word "God" in Hebrew is plural.

God bless,

Mick

Let us answer his questions.

 

TRINITY: DOES IT MAKE SENSE?

Let us have a simple test. Let us compare the beliefs about God of the Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) with those of the Catholics and the Protestants (let us call them “Trinitarians”).

Which is logical? Which is illogical?

 

         The Iglesia ni Cristo:

                    The Father only = One True God

 

          The Trinitarians:

                    God the       God the       God the

                    Father   +    Son         +   Holy Spirit   =   One God (?)

         Logic says:

                    1   +   1   +   1   =   3

 

Which is Biblical? Which is Unbiblical?

 

         The Iglesia ni Cristo:

There is only one true God, the Father, and besides Him there’s no one else.

          The Trinitarians:

The Triune God, the Trinity: There is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, and these three, each of whom are true God, are only one God.

 

          The Bible says:

“After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: ‘Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.

“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. John 17:1,3 NIV

“Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.” (I Corinto 8:6 NIV)

“Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another?” (Malachi 2:10 NIV)

“Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.” (Isaiah 44:8 NIV)

Which makes sense?

 

         The Iglesia ni Cristo:

Because there is only one true God, the Father, thus the Lord Jesus Christ is not God because He is the Son of the one true God, and the Holy Spirit is also not God because he is the one that is sent by the Father (the one true God) in the name of Jesus Christ.

 

          The Trinitarians:

The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is also God. These three are all true Gods (co-equal, co-eternal and co-substantial). However, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit (these three) are only one God.

The Admission of the Catholic authories

After many hindreds of years of philisophizing and theologizing and speculating here is a very revealing statement from the Catholic Church: The Trinity is a mystery no one understands. Here is the testimony of the Jesuit priests John Walsh:

“God, of course, cannot perform an absurdity, a contradiction in terms. He canoont, for instance, make two and two equal five.” (Walsh, John. This is Catholicism. New York: Image Book, 1959, p. 25)

Indeed, Trinity does not make any sense. The three persons, each of whom is the true God, are only one God?

If two and two equal five is an absurdity, says Walsh, thus one plus one plus one equal one is no better than this. If God cannot perform an absurdity, according to this Catholic priest, then God would never make up an absurdity such as the so-called Trinity.

Because of this, another Catholic priest testifies that the Trinity “cannot be proved by thereason…” (Bounth, C. J., S.J. The Blessed Trinity. London: Catholic Truth Society, p. 21.)

Which will you now accept and believe?

“The Father of the Lord Jesus Christ is the

only true God, and no one besides Him”

OR

“The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,

each of whom is the true God, but these

three are one God”

Because We Believe That There Is One True God

The Iglesia Ni Cristo Adheres The Biblical Teaching That the Father is the One and Only True God

The BELIEF OF the Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) regarding God is plain and simple - there is only one true God, the Father, and no one else besides Him. The Catholics and the Protestants claim that they too believe that there is only one true God. However, they also uphold the doctrine that there are three persons in one God (they call it the doctrine of the Trinity). Thus, for them, there's God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit  If ask how these three persons become one God, the answer you are likely to received is that this is a mystery

Which is truly biblical? The doctrine uphold by Catholics and Protestants that there are three persons in one God or the the doctrine uphold by the Iglesia ni Cristo that there is only one true God, the Father, and no one else besides Him?

What the Old Testament Teaches about God

Numerous passages of the Old Testament confirm the teaching that there is only one true God, the Father, and no one else besides Him.

In Malachi 2:10, the Old Testament is clear in its teaching that the one God who created us is the Father:

“Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another?” (Mal. 2:10 NIV)

Isaiah 64:8 confirms that the Father is the Lord who created us:

“But you are our father, LORD. We are like clay, and you are like the potter. You created us,” (Is. 64:8 TEV)

The Old Testament attests that there is no other God but the Lord (our Father):

“How great you are, O Sovereign LORD! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears.” (II Samuel 9:22 NIV)

God Himself declares that there is no other God besides Him:

“Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one." (Isaias 44:8 NIV)

The Old Testament further declares that there is no other god with Him:

“ ‎For I will give honour to the name of the Lord: let our God be named great. ‎He is the Rock, complete is his work; for all his ways are righteousness: a God without evil who keeps faith, true and upright is he.

“‎So the Lord only was his guide, no other god was with him.” (Dt. 32:3-4 and 12 BiBle Basic English)

Thus, the Old Testament teachings about God is clear, that there is one true God, the Father.

What the New Testament Teaches about God

According to Apostle Paul, for true Christians there is only one true God, the Father:

“Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live…” (I Cor. 8:6 NIV)

They learned this from the Lord Jesus Christ who Himself taught that the Father is the only true God:

“After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.

“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:1,3 NIV)

According to Apostle Paul, the Father who is the one true God is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ:

“If I have to ‘brag’ about myself, I'll brag about the humiliations that make me like Jesus. The eternal and blessed God and Father of our Master Jesus knows I'm not lying.” (II Cor. 11:30-31, The Message)

Even Apostle Peter attests that the one true God is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ:

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (I Peter 1:3 NIV)

Thus, the New Testament is also clear in its teachings about God, that there is only one true God, the Father.

Trinity is Unbiblical

Now, let us examine the doctine called the Trinity, or the doctrine that there are three persons in one God. Is this doctrine biblical? In a book entitled “The Divine Trinity,” this is what this book admits regarding the doctrine of the Trinity:

“It cannot therefore be seriously maintained that the mystery of the Divine Trinity was clearly revealed in the Old Testament.” (The Divine Trinity, A Dogmatic Treatise, by the Rt. Rev. Msgr.Joseph Pohle, Ph.D., D.D., p. 20.)

The author admits that they cannot seriously maintained that the doctrine that there are three persons in one God (the doctrine of the Trinity) was clearly revealed in the Old Testament. The reason of this admission is because the doctrine of the Trinity is not known before the advent of Christ:

“It is true that before the advent of Christ the Trinity of Persons was not known., not even to the inspired authors.” (Principles of Catholic Theology, Edward J. Gratsch, ed., p. 50.)

This Catholic book quoted above clrearly admits that the Trinity of Persons is not known before the advent of Christ, not even the inspired authors know them. Actually, no where in the Old Testament can we read the word “Trinity” and the doctrine that “there are three persons in one God.”

How about in the New Testament? Can we found the word “Trinity” in the New Testament? This is the admission of another Catholic book:

“The word Trinity does not appear in the New testament and the meanings of the words persons and nature, in the precise senses and which these words are used to bear the meassage of God, had to be carefully refined to bear that message rightly. But what the New Testament teaches is in truth captured with care and reverence in the exact statements of the early councils of the Church.” (The Teaching of Christ: A Catholic Catechism for Adults, by Ronald Lawler, Donald Wuerl and Thomas Comerford Lawler, p. 177.)

If the word “Trinity” cannot be found both in the Old and New Testaments, where did this word came from? The book Systematic Theology explains this:

“The term ‘Trinity’ is not found in Scripture…The invention of the termis ascribed to Tertullian.” (Systematic Theology, by Augustus Hopkins Strongs, D.D., L.L.D., p. 304.)

Thus, the term “Trinity” and the doctrine that there are three persons in one God are both cannot be found in the Bible. Trinity is indeed an unblical doctrine.

Because We Believe that There

Is Only One True God

Because the Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) uphold the biblical doctrine that there is only one true God, the Father, and no other God besides Him:

(1)    We reject the doctrine of the Trinity or the teaching that there are three persons in one God.

This doctrine clearly contradicts the teachings of the Bible that the Father is the only true God.

(2)    We reject the doctrine that Chtrist is God.

When we say that Christ is not God, we mean that the Lord Jesus Christ is not the Father who is the only true God, but the Son of the Living God (cf. Matt. 16:16).

The teaching that Christ, the Son of God, is the true God contradicts the teaching of the Bible that there is only one true God, the Father of Jesus Christ.

 The Bible clearly states that the Lord Jesus Christ is the mediator between the one true God and man:

“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (I Tim. 2:5 NIV)

(3)    We reject the doctrine that the Holy Spirit is God.

According to the Bible, the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father (the only true God) in the name of Christ.

“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” (John 14:26 KJV)

The teaching that the Holy Spirit, the Comforter that the Father sent in the name of Christ,  is God contradicts the teaching of the Bible that there is only one God, the Father that sent the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, we (the Iglesia ni Cristo) uphold the biblical doctrine that the Father is the only true God, and no one else besides Him, and thus, we reject the unbiblical doctrine of the Trinity, that there are three persons in one God, and that the Son and the Holy Spirit are also Gods.