Understanding:
The Father
Son
Holy Spirit

Index

• Introduction
• The Holy Spirit
• Jesus the Messiah
• The New cannot contradict the Old
• God sends Jesus the Messiah
• How did Jesus become God?
• Who benefits from Jesus becoming God?
• Questions to ponder
• But what about these proof texts?

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this paper is not to weaken someone’s faith, on the contrary, it should if anything, strengthen your beliefs. It should however, give you enough questions about the trinity to force you to go and do some research for yourself, at least for the piece of mind that you have not been mislead. However, if you do any kind of research, you will find that the Doctrine of the Trinity is completely man made. It was not taught by Jesus nor his Apostles. It is a product of the influence of Greek philosophy upon the early Christian church of the first few centuries.

The Bible, Jesus, and the Apostles are all Jewish. One has to read and interpret the Bible with an understanding of what a particular verse meant to a first century Jew. Unfortunately, as the early church grew and spread all over the world, the leaders of the church were no longer Jews, but non-Jews (Gentiles). In the first few centuries, the international language was Greek, much like English is today. This is why the New Testament is written in Greek. Greek philosophy was considered to be the most enlightened teaching of its time. Anyone with an education would have a good understanding of the concepts of Greek philosophy, and they, for the most part, would agree with it.

The problem of interpreting the Bible by Gentiles who were schooled in Greek philosophy is that the two do not mix. Someone using Greek philosophy to interpret Hebrew documents is going arrive at some very mistaken conclusions. I like to use an example that I heard from a friend of mine to illustrate this point. If an Englishman says, "I am mad about my flat." He means that "he is excited about his apartment." To an American it means that "he is angry about his flat tire." Keep in mind that in this example they are both speaking English in the same century. Imagine interpreting Hebrew writings from a different century, using Greek philosophy to determine their meanings. The outcome can only be disastrous!

This outcome effected Christianity in three major areas.

1. Death (what happens when you die).

2. The kingdom of God.

3. The nature of Jesus.

In this paper we will only be concerned with the last one. We will examine Scriptually the Doctrine of the Trinity. Is it Biblical, or is it a man made tradition? As a Christian I would want to be certain on this point. Look at all the evidence, and then make up your mind. Some verses in the Old Testament might not correspond exactly as I have them quoted, some Bibles differ in their numeration of the Old Testament. Just look one verse above or below and it will be there. I have used a few verses from the Apocrypha, specifically from Sirach and Wisdom. They are not canonical, but they provide us with an excellent source of outside biblical evidence and also confirm examples of Jewish literary devices.

I hope this paper helps you on your way to really knowing God and His Son Jesus the Messiah.

Index

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