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.