32. Saint John's Opinion of the Trinity

No Equality Between Father and Son

In the last post, we saw that John 1:1 does not tell us that Christ was the Word from the beginning of time, but that He existed only from the time that He was conceived in Mary's womb.  Now let's look at some other truths written by Saint John.

Trinitarians insist that Christ is eternal and co-equal with the Father, as of course, He would need to be if He were God.    Look at the following Bible verses, with an open mind, and see where you can find equality between Father and Son.

For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, “and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. John 5:26-27.  

The Father granted life to the Son and the Father gave authority to the Son; authority is given from the greater to the lesser.  If the two are equal why didn't the Son give authority to the Father?  

I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me. John 5:30.  If Christ is the eternal creator, how could He honestly say, I can of Myself do nothing?

When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. John 8:28.  Christ again declares that He is dependant on His Father.  This could not be true if the two are equal; equality in the Trinity is demanded by the Nicene Creed, which was formulated in 325 CE.

Christ said, I am going to the Father, for my Father is greater than I. John 14:28.  If there was no other statement in the Bible about Christ not being equal to the Father, this one verse alone should forever settle the argument against the doctrine of the Trinity, or that the Father and the Son are equal!

Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God. John 20:17.  If Christ and the Father are equal, and if both are God why would Christ call the Father, My God? 

these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, John 20:31.  It is a given that the name Christ, means, The Messiah.  It is also a fact that all devout Jews believe that when the Messiah comes He will be a human, one of the sons of Abraham. 

They are not waiting for "a God", or "a god", to be their Messiah, but, John, a Jew tells us that Jesus is the Messiah.  This is surely a good indication that John believed that Christ was human and not a God/man.

1 John 5:7

1 John 5:7, as it is in the KJV, is almost sure proof of the validity of the doctrine of the Trinity; For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.  But, newer, more accurate, translations have taken all the vitality for that argument out of that verse.  The new translations are much condensed and they say nothing about the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. There is nothing that suggests that the three are one.  Note: 

• The Living Bible - So we have these three witnesses.
• The New Revised Standard Version - There are three that testify.
• The Jerusalem Bible - So that there are three witnesses.

Then, in verse 8, John tells us what the three witnesses are; and they are NOT the Father, the Son and the Spirit; They are the Spirit, the water, and the blood.

About this same verse, 1 John 5:7 the Wycliffe Commentary. writes, The text of this verse should read, ‘Because there are three that bear record’. The remainder of this verse is spurious. Not a single manuscript contains the Trinitarian addition before the fourteenth century, and the verse is never quoted in the controversies over the Trinity in the first 450 years of the church era.

It has been alleged that at the time Jerome was translating the Greek Bible into the Latin Douay version, (the Roman Catholic Bible), while the debate over the Trinity was in full swing, Jerome thought he would bring the debate to an end, once and for all, by adding to the Bible the words, in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.

It is interesting to note that the Douay-Rheims translation includes the words, And there are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one, but in the commentary of this section, they completely neglect to say anything about this verse.  It seems as if they knew that those (implanted) words did not belong in the Bible.

About this verse, Jerome Smith writes, if it was admitted as the Word of God, all the ingenuity and diligence of opponents could scarcely avoid the inference (that there is a Trinity) naturally deducible from it. Contemporary scholarship, however, fails to support this reading in any form, suggesting it was added to a late Greek manuscript made for the purpose to influence Erasmus to include it in his Greek text, for Erasmus had promised he would include the text if even one Greek manuscript could be found which contained it. It seems as if such a Greek text did not exist to prove the doctrine of the Trinity, so someone put those words into a Greek manuscript. Erasmus, not willing to break his promise, had to include the following words into his translation, in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit: and these three are one.

Before Jerome’s translation verse 7 simply said, So there are three that testify.  He added words to the Holy Scriptures just to foster his (the church’s) theology.  Yet, most Protestants still insist that the Bible is inerrant and that these verses prove the doctrine of the Trinity. 

The founder of the Jesuit community was dead right in stating the Roman Catholic position on doctrinal issues, when he wrote, if [the church] shall have defined anything to be black which to our eyes appears to be white, we ought in like manner to pronounce it to be black. 

It seems that the Protestants have taken the same view about the doctrine of the Trinity. Even though the Bible does not teach the doctrine of the Trinity, we are told that it is what we need to believe, and we feel like heretics if we do dare change our stance.  

When the reformers left the Roman Church, they should have left the doctrine of the Trinity, with many other erroneous doctrines that they did leave, in the Roman verbiage vault!