The Trinity or One God (part 1 thru 3)

Ok, lets jump right into one of the big problems I have with church doctrine, namely that of The Trinity. While it may not be scientifically provable that God exists, I do believe logic and God can co-exist, and there are some serious logical issues with The Trinity concept. My main issue is that I believe there is one God. The idea that God has three aspects, namely, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, is certainly possible. My problem has come from my experiences in Church, in which it seems worship of Jesus has eclipsed worship of God.

So I began to wonder about this concept of The Trinity, and where it came from. I could recall no instance of it being mentioned in the Bible, and I never heard of Jesus calling himself God. Moreover, I remember Jesus praying to God, asking for strength, not taking counsel with himself. And when Jesus was baptized by John, God spoke from Heaven, saying this was His Son, in whom He was well pleased. It seems like a bit of split-personality, pardon the expression, if Jesus were God Himself.

I believe in Jesus, and the fact that he lived, performed miracles, died and was raised. These things would not be changed by whether Jesus was God or the Son of God. When I ask myself why it matters if I have an answer to this question, it is because it troubles me that a true understanding of God and Jesus may be blurred by human issues and misconceptions.

So, last year I heard a radio program on which the Rev. Mark D. Roberts was a guest, and he offered some interesting perspectives, so I emailed him about this question. He emailed a link to his website (click on the post title, above), which addressed this. I read it then and have reread it now, and I’m finally starting to write my thoughts on the article.

His essay is broken up into 22 parts, so I will work my way through the posts in sections. I hope he will be interested in responding (and have the time to do so). As always, I am not saying he is wrong, I ‘m challenging the ideas, looking for the response that I can’t reasonably challenge.

See www.markdroberts.com for more!


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Part 1

“But if Christians claim that Jesus was not merely a human prophet, but somehow also the one true God in the flesh, then this sets Christianity apart from other religions”

Not so. Gods have come to flesh in other religions as well.

“The question of why the earliest Christians believed Jesus to be divine is important, not only as a matter of historical interest, but also because the divinity of Jesus is often rejected today on the grounds that it was not an essential part of earliest Christian faith but a latter addition. Because it came later, many have argued, it can be safely jettisoned, and we can all get back to the most authentic and politically-correct version of Christianity, in which Jesus is an inspired man, but only a man.”

If something comes to the belief system later, it is a valid argument to say it may not be accurate, because human vagaries are more likely to make changes as time goes on. I also do not think it is reasonable to say that Jesus is no more than an inspired man, but only a man. It may well be that Jesus was much more than an inspired man, but still not God in the flesh.


Part 2

This section, though it is designed to refute an example of why early Christians may have thought Jesus was divine, is a very good example against the belief in general. Namely, that Jesus was never claimed to have been God, and that references to him are more similar to those of royalty and Divine favor (the Divine Annointing) that applied to other people in the Bible.


Part 3

“The earliest Christians confessed that “God raised” him from the dead (Acts 2:24; Rom 10:9; 1 Cor 6:14), but they did not say that Jesus raised himself, thereby showing himself to be God.”

This is a very strong argument against Jesus as God.

“Jesus could have been the Messiah/Son of God, and he could even have been raised by God on the third day after his crucifixion, without being divine. These things surely point in the direction of Jesus’s specialness, but more is required to get to his divinity.”

Yup.

“In fact, there really wouldn’t have been any early followers of Jesus after his crucifixion, were it not for his resurrection.”

Very important to why Jesus had to sacrifice himself, but something for another discussion.