I was recently asked to expound upon my understanding of the nature of God, particularly in regards to the the doctrine of the Trinity found so prevalent in most of modern Christianity. This article will address two primary questions, both of which individually could be the subject of entire books worth of discussion. The first question is regarding what I believe the modern day “Bible” teaches about the nature of God and the Trinity and the second question is regarding what I PERSONALLY believe about the nature of God. Again, let me reiterate that entire books can, and HAVE, been written about these topics so in no way can this be a full defense of my position. Having said that, I’m totally willing to write a books worth of explanation for anyone TRULY interested in continuing to ask questions or see “proof” of my conclusions.
Before we begin I also want to express my sympathy and concern for those who might be offended by what I write here today. What a person believes about the nature of God and their relationship to him (or her, or it) is a deeply personal issue. This is why, in my personal life, I rarely, if EVER, ask a person what they personally believe about the nature of God. It’s just too personal of an issue. Please understand therefore that my “attacking” a belief system can be portrayed by some as a personal attack upon their PERSONAL belief system (i.e. an attack on them personally), but that is not my intention. I want to assure you that I am not judging or attacking YOU, the reader, nor am I trying to make any sort of personal attack whatsoever. More than likely I don’t even know what it is exactly you believe because I tend not to ask people what they believe for this very reason. It’s just too personal. My issues (or attacks) expressed in this article are with the “church” and those who taught (on purpose) what I believe to be false doctrines. It is NOT with the individuals who bought into and believed in those false doctrines (as I see them).
What is the Doctrine of the Trinity?
Simply put (if you can call it simple), the doctrine of the Trinity is the modern Christian belief that “God” is a singular being, or “God”, that is comprised of three “persons”. While Christians will maintain that there is only one God (as the “Bible” repeatedly tells us there is only one God), they will also assert that this “one God” is comprised of three “persons” which they most often refer to as “The Father”, “The Son”, and “The Holy Spirit”. Christianity is adamant that these three “persons” do not suggest there are actually three “gods” even though individually, they say, each person can claim to be “God”. The Father is “God,” the Son is “God,” and the Holy Spirits is “God” and yet again, this is NOT three Gods but rather ONE God.
These three distinct beings or figures (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) are of one singular mind and form what Christianity often refers to as the “Godhead”. The “Godhead” therefore is a term that better expresses the concept that three separate beings (each independently “God”) together still collectively form only one “God” and not three distinct “gods”. An analogy many Christians prefer to use to explain this concept is that a singular egg has three components: the white part of the egg (or albumen), the yolk, and the outer shell that holds it all together. Each one of the three individual parts (whites, yolk and shell) can be thought of independently as “egg” (i.e. egg white, egg yolk and egg shell) yet together the three distinct parts form one singular egg.
Does the Bible Teach the Trinity?
On the surface, the egg analogy sounds logical, but is that what the “Bible” actually teaches? The short, and quite blunt answer is, absolutely not. In my independent studies I have found that the Trinity doctrine is a modern invention of the “church” that took hundreds of years (and much bloodshed by the way) to develop. Jesus, the one Christianity uses as the example of right living, did not believe in the Trinity. He never believed himself to be “God” nor did he ever claim to be “God”. In fact, Jesus flatly denied being “God” on more than one occasion. It is ironic therefore that his followers insist on making a claim for him that he himself NEVER made. Jesus also made it clear that he himself worships God and taught others to worship the God he worships. His original followers also did not believe he was “God” but instead thought of him as a prophesied “king” who had come to re-unite the twelve tribes of Israel. None of his early disciples believed that he was “God” in the flesh or that he was preparing die for the sins of the world. That interpretation also did not develop until well after the death of Jesus.
Simply put, the doctrine of the Trinity came about because more and more “gentiles” (or non-Jews) were converting to the faith and trying to reconcile their concept of multiple gods and a dying “savior” who dies for the sins of his people with that of their new found religion. In an effort to appease the gentile masses, the “church” adopted a more pagan friendly version of “God” (and Jesus) in which a singular God could be depicted as being multiple “gods” and Jesus could be depicted as “god in the flesh” who died for the sins of the world. Hebrew and Greek verses that were ambiguous at best were re-interpreted by the church and subtly manipulated to make it appear as if the concept of the trinity and godhead always existed in the original writings. It did not.
Ok, I admit, all of that sounds pretty critical and harsh. So can I prove it? Absolutely! As I said at the beginning, there are literally books and books written about this subject. Many modern theologians are starting to come to understand that the doctrine of the Trinity is not biblical but a modern invention of man created by the Nicaean counsel around 325 AD and manipulated over the last thousand or so years by reinterpreting various “hard to understand” passages in the “Bible” in order to better align with what was then the current pagan thought.
Below are a couple of great resources if you have grown up believing that the Trinity Doctrine is biblical and yet have an open mind to re-examine the possibility that you could be wrong. The first book “The Doctrine of the Trinity: Christianity’s Self-Inflicted Wound” probably changed my life more than any other book. It taught me to examine the “Bible” through the eyes of the original writers and not the modern re-interpretation of man. If however, you prefer to discuss the issue with me instead of reading a book I’m happy to take all the time you need to discuss it with you and lay out all the evidence or answer your questions.
Another great resource for explaining away those difficult passages the “church” has used for a thousand years to teach the Trinity is “One God and One Lord: Reconsidering the Cornerstone of the Christian Faith”. This book literally covers every single verse Christians use to “prove” Jesus is God or that God is three persons in an easy to look up reference guide. The book is about 4 inches thick so it’s a monster but literally you can look up a verse quickly and get a full explanation how any particular verse the church uses is actually misunderstood and how to correctly understand the meaning intended by the original authors. I don’t recommend this book however as the FIRST source for tackling the topic of the Trinity as it is more a reference guide and doesn’t lay the foundation as well. In my opinion, the previous book does a much better job of laying the foundation of how to read the Bible correctly, through the eyes of the original writers. The second book is a great reference guide after you come to understand that Trinity doctrine is manmade and you find yourself struggling again with pesky verses like John 1:1 “In the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word WAS god.”
My Personal View on God
Not unlike what I believe the Bible teaches, I believe that God is unknowable and incomprehensible to the finite mind. I have in recent years had what I would call a spiritual awakening in which my eyes were opened to a more complete understanding of the concept of “God” than I originally grew up with. My mind was blown when I but TOUCHED the concept of God and my entire view of God was changed in an instant when I realized just how alien God is and how incapable our human minds are at comprehending such a vast consciousness. To me now, it is pure arrogance to think we can fully comprehend what “God” is or try to put it in a box by imagining God as a person.
In the Bible, God warned his people not to make any “graven image” of “him” or attempt to conceive of “him” in any form whatsoever. Again it is ironic that Christianity will believe that despite all these warnings in the past, that same God would suddenly decide to come down in the form of a created man and choose to be worshipped in the image of a white-skinned, blonde-haired, blue-eyed human (which is not even racially accurate). It makes ZERO sense to me and, in my understanding of the “Bible” it made zero sense to the original believers as well.
In my understanding of the Hebrew Bible, God forbid his people to make any sort of image in which they would say “this is God” exactly because the concept of God is beyond our comprehension. Once you put a face and a name to it (like Jesus), suddenly God becomes just like one of us. While Christians find that is what makes “God” so wonderful (he became like one of us to have a relationship with us), the concept is alien to the original faith or the writings of the “Bible”. In my view, THAT is blasphemous. God is so beyond our understanding that to suggest a human being can “represent” God is ludicrous to me (and dare I say to the original followers of “God” as well).
Again, there is SO much I have left unsaid here. I could go on and on giving “proof texts” from the Bible demonstrating that even the original believers did not perceive of “Jesus” as “God” and that this concept was blasphemous to them. As I said, there are entire books written explaining the original thought process and how our modern concept of god developed. Another great resource is a book called “The History of God” if you care to read books. If however you wish to just talk to someone about it and ask specific questions, I’m here to answer anything I can and share with you how I came to these conclusions.