Questions to ponder
These questions are but a few that must be addressed. If you believe that Jesus is God, listen carefully to your answers as you explain these questions. If you find your answers to be complex and confusing, this is a good indication that all is not as it should be. Jesus message was not meant only for intellectuals, but for all people. His followers were fishermen, housewives, tax collectors, and people from all walks of life. They were not just an elite group of scholars.
The Quest Study Bible states:
"The existence of the Father and Son as one God yet two distinct persons baffles the human mind. Its a mystery that cannot be fully explained by logic or reason. Yet, because the Bible teaches the unity of God and the deity of Christ (this writer claims Jesus is Divine not YHVH- the self existing one), we must accept the fact that an infinite God cannot be comprehended by finite humans. When we meet Christ face to face, its possible that such mysteries will be better understood."
Does this sound like something God would want for us, to be baffled by His Word? The Bible was meant for us to get to know God more closely, not to alienate us by baffling us. All the letters written by the Apostles to the new churches were written to instruct or clarify the faith. They were written as simply as possible to make sure they understood what was being said. Paul wrote:
"For we do not write you anything you cannot read or understand"(2 Corinthians 1:13).
There should not be "The Mystery of the Holy Trinity."
Before answering these questions, read carefully the Chalcedon Creed that is the creed that all Trinitarians adhere to and profess to be true. This is the creed that you are defending when you accept Jesus as God.
DEFINITION OF THE COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON (451 AD)
Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood begotten, bearer; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of him, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the fathers has handed down to us.
Some people will try to answer some of these questions by saying, "Jesus emptied himself." This shows how little people understand their own creed.
This is called the "kenotic doctrine" and people try to use it in defense
of the trinity. But it is in total contradiction to the Chalcedon Creed.
The Kenotic Doctrine says that Jesus emptied himself of his deity. Well, you can simply read in the Chalcedon Creed that it defines Jesus nature as fully God and fully man at all times, without division, without separation. You cannot say that you believe in the trinity and use this excuse. If you subscribe to the kenotic doctrine, then you have already rejected the trinity. You cannot be both.
In 1951, in celebration of the 1500th birthday of the Chalcedon Creed, Pope Pius the 12th wrote the following:
Encyclical of Pope Pius the 12th on the Council of Chalcedon September 8, 1951 (paragraph 29).
There is another enemy of the faith of Chalcedon, widely diffused outside the fold of the Catholic religion. This is an opinion for which a rashly and falsely understood sentence of St. Pauls Epistle to the Philippians 2:7, supplies a basis and a shape. This is called the kenotic doctrine, and according to it, they imagine that the divinity was taken away from the Word in Christ. It is a wicked invention, equally to be condemned with the Docetism opposed to it. It reduces the whole mystery of the Incarnation and Redemption to empty the bloodless imaginations.
Remember that the Chalcedon Creed is not just Catholic. All major
Trinitarian denominations use it to describe the nature of Jesus.
1. Mark 13: 32: "No one knows the day or hour, not even the angels in Heaven nor the Son, but only the Father."
Trinitarians believe that God the Son is omniscient (all knowing).
Q. If Jesus is omniscient, why does he not know the day or hour? (Matthew 24: 36)
Q. If Jesus is omniscient, why does he not know who touched him? (Luke 8: 45)
2. John 14: 28: "I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I."
Q. According to the Doctrine of the Trinity, the Father and Son are co-equal. How can the Father be greater than Jesus if they are co-equal?
Q. How is Jesus going to himself?
3.Q. How can you kill God? God cannot be killed. Yet, they killed Jesus. He was resurrected. Scripture says that God resurrected Jesus. Websters Dictionary, Resurrect - 1. rising from the dead. Scripture says: "For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man" (1 Corinthians 15: 21). It does not say, comes also through a Godman, or through God, but through a man. Jesus was a man anointed by God.
If Jesus is God, then obviously his divine nature did not die. Which means there really was no atonement for sins.
4. Hebrews 1: 3 - 4: "After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of The Majesty in Heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs."
Q. Whos right hand did he sit next to? Arent Jesus and The Majesty the same being?
Q. If Jesus is supposed to be co-equal with God the Father, what does "He became superior mean?" Isnt Jesus, if he is God, superior to all already?
5. Matthew 27: 46: "About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani?" Which means My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?"
Q. Who is Jesus God?
Q. How can God forsake himself?
Q. How can God the Son have a God?
6. John 20: 17: "Jesus said, do not hold on to me, for I have not yet
returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, "I am returning to my Father and your Father, my God and your God."
Jesus makes it clear that his Father and God is our Father and God, this is why Jesus refers to us as "brothers," and God calls us "sons."
Q. Why would Jesus make such a clear distinction between himself and God, is he trying to confuse us on purpose?
Q. If Jesus is God, then this Scripture plainly says that there is more
than one God.
7. John 12: 49: "For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it."
Q. Jesus accord is not the same as the Fathers?
Q. How can God be commanded? Obviously, if one is commanding the other they are not equal.
8. Psalms 110: 1: "The LORD (YHWH) said to my Lord"(Messiah).
Q. Who is the LORD speaking to, himself?
9. Revelation 1: 6: "To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father."
Revelation 3: 12: "Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God."
Q. Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God in Heaven at the time of this writing. Why does Jesus continue to make such clear statements that God is his God and his Father if he himself is God?
10. Jesus prayed all the time. Jesus himself teaches us to pray to God in his name.
Q. If Jesus is God, Who is he praying to? Who is there to listen?
Examples: Mark 14: 32, Luke 9: 18, John 17: 9 - 18, John 17: 20 - 26.
These are just a few of many.
11. John 17: 3: "That they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you sent."
Q. Why does Jesus make such a clear separation between God and himself? Doesnt Jesus know that He is God?
12. John 11: 41: "So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me."
Q. Who was Jesus thanking? Was he thanking himself? If so, why?
13. Q. Why does Paul also make clear distinctions between God and Jesus in the following Scriptures?
Ephesians 1: 3: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Ephesians 1: 17: "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father..."
Titus 1: 4: "Grace and peace to you from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior." (It doesnt say God the Son)
Philemon vv. 3: "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
14. Q. Why do all the messianic prophecies speak of the Messiah (Christ in English) as a man anointed by God and not God Himself?
Q. Isnt that what Christ means, the anointed one?
Q. If Christ means the anointed one, then according to Trinitarian thinking, God anointed Himself with Himself?
15. Luke 22: 42 - 44: "Father if you are willing, take this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done. An angel from Heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish he prayed more earnestly."
Q. How can Jesus will not be the same as the Father. Arent they the same being?
Q. Jesus sent himself an angel? Why?
Q. How is an angel going to strengthen God Almighty?
Q. Who is Jesus praying to more earnestly?
16. Demons refer to Jesus as the Son of God and the Son of The Most High God (Luke 8: 28).
They know who he is, and they know he is not The Most High God, but that he is His Son. Satan knows God personally. Job 1: 6 - 7: "One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them. The LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the LORD,"From roaming through the earth and going back and forth." The devil knows God.
Q. Why would Satan, at the temptation of Jesus, pretend not to know God?"
17. Luke 4: 2: "Where for forty days he was tempted by the devil."
James 1: 13 states, "For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone."
Q. If Jesus is God in the Flesh why would the devil even try to tempt him? He would know that it would be useless to try.
Q. If Jesus is God, how could he be tempted by the devil? It says God
cannot be tempted.
Q. The devil offered Jesus all the kingdoms in the world if he would worship him. Why would the devil offer something to God that is already His?
Q. Did the devil really expect God to worship him?
Q. If Jesus was not fully human, but had another nature that was divine, then how can he expect us to live up to his standards? We do not have a second divine nature. If Jesus is not fully human, then this whole temptation episode is a farce.
18. John 8: 17: "In our Law it says that the testimony of two men is
valid. I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father who sent me."
Q. If Jesus is God, why does he say that his other witness, the second one is the Father? Wouldnt that still be just one witness?
19. Acts 7: 55 - 56: "But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God."
Q. Why did Stephen see God and Jesus standing at His right hand?
Q. If Jesus is God in the flesh, why would he be in Heaven? Isnt he God in Heaven?
20. 1 John 4: 12: No one has ever seen God.
Q. How can that be? Did not thousands of people see Jesus?
21. Numbers 23: 19: God is not a man, that he should lie, nor is he the son of man that he should change his mind.
Q. Jesus was a man, and without a doubt he was the "son of man." How can this be?
22. Trinitarians believe that Jesus was 100% man and 100% God. First of all, you cannot be both. That would equal 200%. Secondly, Hebrews 2: 17 states, "For this reason he (Jesus) had to be made like his brothers in every way."
Q. How can he be like us in every way? We are not 100% God.
23. Matthew 3:17: "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well
pleased."
24. 1 Corinthians 15: 26 - 28: "The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For He has put everything under his feet. Now when it says that
"everything" has been put under him, it is clear that this does not
include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to Him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
Q. According to the trinity, Jesus and God are co-equal, this verse
definitely shows that they are not equal but that God is above all. How can this be?
Q. Who put what under whom?
Q. How is God going to be subject to God ?
Same verse as above. 1 Corinthians 15: 26 - 28 translated to trinity:
"The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For He has put everything under His feet. Now when it says that "everything" has been put under Him, it is clear that this does not include Himself who put everything under Himself.
When He has done this, then He Himself will be made subject to Himself who put everything under Himself, so that He Himself may be all in all."
Now that you have answered these questions, answer them again using the thought that has been given in this paper. Judge for yourself.
so many claim nontrinitarians twist scripture....funny....they never tell with scripture what has been twisted. Reminds me of the religious leaders that put their hands over their ears and screamed for the believers of Jesus to leave!
Deut 6:4.... Hear O Israel the LORD our God is one (not two...not three)
love in Christ,
Sondra