THE Bible does not teach the doctrine of the Trinity. But we are
still faced with the question: Who was Jesus Christ? Was He a man
that lived such a perfect life that God decided to call Him His Son
at baptism? Or was He God who became a man and died for all men?
In the past, in most theological circles, a rejection of the doctrine
of the Trinity included a rejection of the divinity of Christ. But
before this booklet becomes classed as an Arian heresy, let me quote
from Catholic theologian Karl Rahner:
". . . We must be willing to admit that should the doctrine of the
Trinity have to be dropped as false, the major part of religious
literature could well remain virtually unchanged. . . . the Christian
idea of the incarnation would not have to change at all if there were
no Trinity.
"It is not surprising then, that Christian piety practically
remembers from the doctrine of the incarnation only that 'God has
become man, without deriving from this truth any clear message about
the Trinity" (The Trinity, pp. 10-12).
A rejection of the doctrine of the Trinity does not constitute a
rejection of the incarnation - the divinity of Christ. In fact, what
he says indicates that, for all practical purposes, the doctrine is
meaningless.
To this day Christianity is still confused about who and what
Jesus Christ really was. There is a majority who believe in a
mysterious Trinity and a vociferous minority who believe that Christ
was a created being. Neither has the truth.
But why all the confusion?
Who Jesus was is clearly indicated in the pages of the Bible. It has
been there for centuries. While Christians were busily
excommunicating and killing each other over the question of who Jesus
was, the answer has been in the pages of the Bible, and that
explanation is not in harmony with what is taught by most churches
today. Christ is not the second person in a Trinity, and He was not
created by God - He is the Creator God!
To find out who Jesus was, let's go back to the beginning. Beginnings
are mentioned in the Bible in at least two separate places - in the
first chapter of Genesis and in the first chapter of John's
Gospel.
The Apostle John began his Gospel by describing who and what Jesus
was before He came to this earth as the savior of mankind.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were
made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. And
the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of
grace and truth" (verses 1-3, 14).
If we read no further in the New Testament than this, we would be
able to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ was God and
that He is the One who created man in Genesis 2:7. Because John
clearly states that the Word - the One who became Christ - created
all things. Had Christians clearly understood these verses there
would have never been an Arian controversy or a doctrine of the
Trinity.
But the Apostle John is not the only New Testament writer who wrote
about the pre-existence of Christ. Notice what Paul wrote to the
Corinthians. "Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be
ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all
passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud
and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all
drink of the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual
Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ" (I Cor.
10:1-4).
Paul clearly tells us that Jesus Christ was the God of the Old
Testament - the One who spoke to Moses and led the Israelites out of
Egypt. This clearly shows us that the One who became the Son was the
God of the Old Testament, not God the Father.
Yet the doctrine of the Trinity hinges on the assumption that God
manifested Himself as the Father in the Old Testament and Christ in
the New Testament.
The plurality of God is not merely a "plural of majesty" as some
would have us believe.
Six hundred years before Christ, the Prophet Daniel recorded for us a
vision. "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of
man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days.
. ." (Dan. 7:13). The "Son of man" he described can be none other
than the One who later became Jesus Christ. Daniel then saw Him given
rulership and a Kingdom that will never be destroyed (verse 14). The
"Son of man" mentioned here could hardly be a mere physical human
being!
The Ancient of Days, in this instance, is the divine Being who is
called the Father in the New Testament.
Jesus Christ referred to the same occurrence as mentioned in this
vision in His parable of the nobleman (Himself) who went to a far
country (heaven) to receive a kingdom, and to return (Luke
19:12).
The duality of the God family was also referred to in Psalm 110 by
David.
"The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make
thine enemies thy footstool" (verse 1).
Two different Lords are mentioned here. One is God the Father and the
other is the One who became Jesus Christ. Paul quoted this passage to
the Jewish Christians - applying it directly to Jesus Christ: "But to
which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until
I make thine enemies thy footstool?" (Heb. 1:13.)
Was the Son also God? Verse 8 answers, "But unto the Son he saith,
Thy throne, O God, is for ever. . . ." There can be no doubt that God
the Father and Jesus the Son are mentioned as two separate beings in
the Old Testament.
Now notice Hebrews 5:6-7:
"So also Christ glorified not himself to be made high priest; but he
[glorified him] that said unto him, Thou art my Son, today
have I begotten thee. As he saith also in another place, Thou art a
priest forever after the order of Meichizedek."
So Christ holds the office of Melchizedek. Who was Melchizedek? He
was one of the Persons composing God.
In Genesis 14:18 he is called the king of Salem and the priest of the
Most High God. Notice why he could not have been merely a human
being.
The Apostle Paul described Him further in Hebrews 7:2-3:
"To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by
interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of
Salem, which is King of peace; without father, without mother,
without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life;
but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually."
Paul could not have been describing a human being, or even an angel
in these verses, for he is describing a Being that eternally existed,
as only God has eternally existed.
Melchizedek was a priest of the Most High God. Who is the Most High
God? Why of course, the Father! Jesus Christ said: "My Father is
greater than I" (John 14:28). And also Melchizedek still lives (and
if you will read Hebrews 7:8 carefully, you will see that Paul
repeats this supremely important fact) and is still that High Priest.
But Christ also is High Priest (see Heb. 7:26; 8:1). There cannot be
two High Priests both holding the same office, so Melchizedek and
Jesus Christ must be one and the same.
So we see that even in the first book of the Bible the plurality of
God is shown, although clear understanding of this truth could not be
known until Jesus came to reveal it in the New Testament. Jesus
said,".. . No man knows who the Son is, but the Father; and who the
Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him" (Luke
10:22).
A clear distinction is made in the New Testament between Christ
and the Father. The God that Moses saw and heard was not God the
Father, again proving that Christ was the God of the Old Testament.
"No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in
the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him" (John 1:18). Christ
came to earth to, among other things, reveal the Father and to show a
family relationship that exists in the Godhead. But, more about that
later.
Unless Jesus had revealed the Father to us, there is no way for us to
know Him. "All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man
knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father,
save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him" (Matt.
11:27).
In the Hebrew of the original inspired text, there are two
different names that are commonly used to refer to God. The word
first used for "God" in Genesis is Elohim.
The second word - which we will explain here - is YHVH (commonly,
though erroneously, pronounced "Jehovah"). This word YHVH is
generally translated "LORD" (in capital letters) in the King James
Version of the Bible. The first place it is used is in Genesis 2:7.
It was the LORD God - YHVH - who formed man out of the dust of the
ground. It was the LORD God that dealt directly with Adam and Eve in
the Garden of Eden. And as we saw in John, chapter 1, it was the Word
- Jesus Christ - who created all things.
Therefore, it was the LORD God of the Old Testament who became the
Jesus Christ of the New. This fact is illustrated interestingly
enough by the grammatical derivation of the word YHVH.
The word YHVH is explained by Rabbinic sources as encompassing three
Hebrew words: HYH meaning was, HVH meaning is (literally "the present
tense" - the word "is" is not used in Hebrew) and YHYH meaning will
continue to be.
Putting them all together, YHVH actually means the "Was-Is-Will
Continue to Be" Being. Even Hebrew linguistic scholars agree that
YHVH must be derived from some form of the verb "to be" (was, is,
will be).
By His very name, then, God quite literally encompasses all aspects
of time - past, present and future. This is in complete accord with
Malachi 3:6: "For I am YHVH, I change not"; Hebrews 13:8: "Jesus
Christ the same yesterday [was], and today [is], and
forever [will continue to be]"; and Revelation 1:8: "I am
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which
is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."
Here we can see that even etymologically, Jesus Christ and YHVH can
be equated. Yet this is only a small part of the picture because the
clear statements of both the Old and New Testaments give overwhelming
proof that the God of the Old Testament is the One who became Jesus
Christ. (For further information on this vital part of our subject,
write immediately for the free article "Who and What Was Jesus Before
His Human Birth?")
In Isaiah chapter eight, verses 13 and 14, we find a very interesting
prophecy concerning the Lord of Hosts.
"Sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and
let him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a
stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of
Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem."
Most editions of the King James Version of the Bible note that these
verses refer to the one who later became Jesus Christ. But even more
accurate proof is found in the New Testament.
In his first epistle, the Apostle Peter writes:
"Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in
Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on
him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is
precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the
builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a
stone of stumbling and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble
at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed"
(I Pet. 2:6-8).
The very same prophecy is alluded to in Luke 2:34. There can be no
denying the fact that Jesus Christ was the God of the Old Testament,
the Stone over which many people stumbled.
The religious leaders of the time simply could not understand how
Jesus could have been God. Yet the Old Testament which they had
copied for centuries is filled with prophecies about Him. Truly they
were blinded, and most remain so to this day, as the Apostle Paul
explained in the ninth through the eleventh chapters of his epistle
to the Romans.
While Jesus Christ, the God of the Old Testament, was on earth as a
human being, there was only one God Being - the Father - left in
heaven. And we find that Jesus prayed to His Father in heaven:
"And, now, 0 Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was" (John 17:5).
The Jews and the Arians found it hard to believe that God could
become man. Yet, the New Testament explains that it did indeed
happen. One of the members of the Godhead became a man that we might
have the opportunity to become God.
The Apostle Paul explained this concept in his epistle to the
Philippians. The Amplified Bible makes the passage a little clearer.
In chapter 2:5-8, he encourages the Philippians:
"Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in
you which was in Christ Jesus. Let him be your example in humility. .
. Who, although being essentially one with God and in the form of God
[possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God
God], did not think this equality with God was a thing to be
eagerly grasped or retained; but stripped Himself [of all
privileges and rightful dignity] so as to assume the guise of a
servant (slave), in that He became like men and was born a human
being. And after He had appeared in human form He abased and humbled
Himself [still further] and carried His obedience to the
extreme of death, and even the death of [the] cross!" Jesus
Christ was God. But He voluntarily gave up His position as God,
became a physical human being and came to this earth to die for us
that we might be saved.
The true impact and importance of the oft-repeated scripture: "For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life" (John 3:16), becomes abundantly clear.