Blade_Runner wrote:
The Bible is not easy to comprehend, and a proper evaluation of the biblical evidence for the doctrine of the Trinity depends on the faithful application of sound principles of biblical interpretation...”
“...the Trinity, when once that doctrine has been given us by revelation...
Jesus said,
"6..."Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, '
This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
7But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'
8"For you set aside the commandment of God, and hold tightly to the tradition of men..." 9He said to them, "
Full well do you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition... 13making void the word of God by your tradition, which you have handed down. You do many things like this." Mark 7:7-13.
It’s a simple principle: you either love the Lord by keeping his commandments, or your “love” for him is only lip service. The Trinity is a man-made tradition that makes the first commandment of no effect.
What did Jesus say is the first and foremost commandment?
28..."Which commandment is foremost of all?" 29Jesus answered, "The greatest is, 'Hear, Israel,
the Lord our God (singular), the Lord (singular) is one (singular): 30you shall love the Lord (singular) your God (singular) with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.'
This is the first commandment.... 32The scribe said to him, "Truly, teacher, you have said well that
he (singular) is one (singular), and there is none other but he (singular), 33and
to love him (singular) with all the heart, and with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself,
is more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." 34When
Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” Mark 12:28-34
There is no commandment otherwise to believe, “God is three coequal persons in one substance”. In fact, that is the “anti” Christian doctrine, because the word “Christ” = “anointing”, which means “given” or bestowed. So that anyone who calls Jesus by the title “Christ” is actually denying he is “God” by that title. It is thus “anti Christ” to claim “Christ” means he is “God”.
Jesus also said, “This is eternal life, that they should know
you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.“ John 17:3
Trinitarians simply don’t hold Jesus’ first commandment as an authoritative command. Why not? We have that answer from John:
“One who says, "I know him," and doesn't keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth isn't in him.” 1 John 2:4
Now, you say that the Trinity is a revelation. This is an admission that it is not “taught” in the Bible, that is, that it is not explained in detail, in the Bible. Paul commanded this:
“As I urged you... that you might
command... men not to teach a different doctrine” 1 Timothy 1:3
It is a commandment to not teach things the apostles did not teach. Teach simply means to expound on and/or explain in detail. “doctrine” means “that which can be taught”. Nowhere does the Bible or did the apostles expound on or explain in detail that “God is a Trinity of three coequal persons in one substance.” That formulation comes from the traditions of men that make the commandments of God of no effect. Merely mentioning Father, Son and Holy Spirit does not equate to teaching or expounding that they can only be interpreted as “three coequal persons sharing one substance.” Therefore, it is obvious that, to teach the trinity of coequal persons, is to transgress both the first commandment and the commandment to teach no other doctrine. Therefore, the Trinity is not arrived at by applying “sound principles of biblical interpretation”. “No lie is of the truth” 1 John 2:21.
Furthermore, Paul wasn’t the only one to warn against adding teachings or doctrines after the apostles were gone:
12Therefore I will not be negligent to remind you of these things, though you know them, and are
established in the present truth... 15Yes, I will make every effort that you may always be able to
remember these things even after my departure.
16For we did not follow cunningly devised fables..." 2 Peter 2:12-21
Peter was adamant that his disciple be grounded in "the present truth", not that which came later, or that which could be developed beyond what they openly declared or expounded on in detail.
Paul wrote:
"27for
I didn't shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. 28Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the Lord and God which he purchased with his own blood. 29
For I know that after my departure, vicious wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock. 30Men will arise from among your own selves, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them... 32Now, brothers, I entrust you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build up, and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified." Acts 20:27-32
It was these men that Paul warned of, that came after the apostles, from among themselves, that perverted the teachings of the apostles and added their “extrabiblical revelations”, just as you are doing. Therefore, you testify that since your “revelation” is a “teaching” (something that you shamelessly expound on beyond what the scripture says) that has added to the "whole counsel of God" that Paul delivered, making your extrabiblical teaching among the ones Paul claimed would come from those who would "speak perverse things”.
Paul wrote to Timothy:
"13But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14But you
remain in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them. 15From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. 16Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, 17that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:16
The holy Scriptures are complete, and yet they never expound in detail on the Trinity, it has to be imposed upon the Scriptures even to the point of negating the first commandment! Since the Trinity is not spelled out in the Scripture, it is therefore NOT a good work. And since people had to develop the doctrine after the apostles, and after the scriptures were completed, clearly, they are the ones whom Paul called "evil men and impostors".
Paul wrote the following:
“Now these things, brothers, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you might
learn not to think beyond the things which are written, that none of you be puffed up against one another.” 1 Corinthians 4:6
Here is another “sound principle of biblical interpretation” that Trinitarians reject because, clearly, they are not afraid to “think beyond the things that are written.” Therefore, because you admit your “revelation” of the Trinity is in fact a teaching beyond what is written in the Bible, it is an “extrabiblical revelation”, just like the extrabiblical (beyond what God said) revelation the serpent had in the Garden of Eden when he negated the first commandment in time. The difference is that the Trinity is a negation of the first commandment in importance, that is, in eternal importance, not just here on earth.
“Whoever says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person” 1 John 2:4
What did Jesus command? That God is three, or that God is one in the context of one personal pronoun? Obviously, the latter.
“
If you love me, keep my commandments.” John 14:15
"Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and don't do the things which I say?” Luke 6:46
Now, you say “The bottom line is if Jesus was not the divine incarnation of Yahweh, then His sacrifice on the cross, His resurrection and ascension are meaningless.”
But that, again, is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches very clearly and explicitly that Jesus had to be human, and could only be human, in order to reverse the curse of death:
“21For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man. 22For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:21–22)”
12Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned... 15...For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many... 16The gift is not as through one who sinned: for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to justification...18So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life. 19For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one will many be made righteous. (Romans 5:12–19)
These scriptures are referring to God’s original prophecy concerning a savior, in which nothing is said about him needing to be a “God-man hybrid”.
“14Yahweh God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this... 15I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel." Genesis 3:14-15
The genetic offspring of Eve was what God Himself said would crush the devil. Again, the bible never articulates the idea that the Messiah would be a God-man hybrid. Furthermore:
“Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same...
Therefore he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people... (Hebrews 2:14–18)
This verse clearly disallows Christ as a God-man hybrid by clearly defining him as being made in all things like his brothers, and it teaches, that is, explains in detail the reason and purpose that this is so. This verse simply reiterated the description that God gave to Moses, namely that the Messiah would be like his brothers.
“24Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power. 25For
he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy that will be abolished is death. 27For, "He put all things in subjection under his feet." But when he says, "All things are put in subjection," it is evident that he is excepted who subjected all things to him. 28When all things have been subjected to him,
then the Son will also himself (Gr. autos) be subjected to him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all in all.” 1 Corinthians 15:24-28
It isn’t a human nature that is subordinated here, it is his very person, his self, in the Greek autos “the reflexive pronoun self, used of the third person, and of the other persons.” Strong’s
To the contrary of what these scriptures expound in detail, Incarnationists such as you are parroting want us to believe that God had to “cheat” in order to save man. This again shows that Incarnationists make God out to be unrighteousness for arbitrarily deciding who gets saved and who gets lost. In truth, God offers salvation through Christ for all who will follow in Christ’s steps in rejecting the world and its sinful system and choosing instead to submit to God through the man whom He has “anointed”, Jesus of Nazareth. Thus Peter proclaimed on the Day of Pentecost:
“Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto (Gr. eis = unto) the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit!” Acts 2:38
But just as importantly is what Peter preached (openly declared) on the Day of Pentecost about what is to be believed about Jesus for salvation. In no way, and at no time did the apostles ever, anywhere they preached salvation in the Book of Acts, declare that Jesus was a second person in a “Trinity of three coequal persons in one substance”. To quite the contrary, he said this:
"22"Men of Israel,
hear these words! Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which
God did by him in the midst of you, even as you yourselves know, 23him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and killed; 24whom God raised up, having freed him from the agony of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it...
"2This Jesus God raised up, to which we all are witnesses...
"36"Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that
God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." Acts 2:22-36
And Paul, in the same exact way, proclaimed this:
"22For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you
a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. 23Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from their people.’" Acts 3:22-23
And what Paul taught about what was openly proclaimed (preached) was this, which is, by anyone’s estimation, pretty strong language:
“6I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7Which is not another; but
there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach [openly declare] any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 9As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach [openly declare] any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:6–9)
“But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be
corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11:3
So those who teach other doctrines, particularly those who teach a “different” Christ than the apostles taught and preached, aren’t to be “celebrated” or “honored” for their “creativity”, but held to be accursed!
“
If you love me, keep my commandments.” John 14:15
"Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and don't do the things which I say?” Luke 6:46