Trinity

Trinity

Dr. Adel Elsaie

Trinity in Christianity is very confusing. According to the first two Ecumenical Councils of Church, God is three gods merged into one God. This one God is called the Trinity. This name of God does not exist anywhere in the New Testament! Also Jesus never mentioned the trinity and certainly did not explain it in the clearest way. However, to say that God is three, in Christianity, is a blasphemy of the highest order. All three parts of the Trinity are "coequal" "co-eternal" and "of the same substance." In other words, while the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost sustain distinct relationships to one another, they share the same divine nature. For this reason, this doctrine as described is an “eternal mystery” because it was a human’s fabrication.

There is reference in the New Testament, King James Version, to the trinity, in the First Epistle of John 5:7-8.

King James Version

“For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.”

The above verses exist only in the authorized King James Version, and form the strongest evidence for the doctrine of trinity. “the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one” has been removed in the Revised Standard Version of 1952 and 1971, and many other Bibles. In the New Revised Standard, 1989, those same verses read as follows: “There are three that testify, the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree.” The differences between these recognized Bibles represent a theological crisis. The average Christian, as well as many Christian preachers and ministers may not be aware of the removal of the strongest verses advocating the trinity from their Bible! Any one should ask himself why these verses of the King James Version were deleted from later versions of the New Testament, and how they were introduced in the first place!

The following are the above verses in different Versions of the Bible:

American Standard Version

“And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three who bear witness, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and the three agree in one.”

New American Standard Bible

“For there are three that testify the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.”

Revised Standard Version

“And the Spirit is the witness, because the Spirit is the truth. There are three witnesses, the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree.”

New Revised Standard Version

“There are three that testify, the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree.”

Check 1 John 5:7: http://bible.crosswalk.com/

The eternal substance in Greek Philosophy

During the sixth and seventh centuries BC, the Greek Philosophers attempted to discover the building block of all matter (eternal substance). Thales of Miletus (640? -546? BC) suggested that water is the basic substance from which all matter is created. A more complex view was offered by Anaximander (611-547 BC), who held that the raw material of all matter is an eternal substance that changes into the known forms of matter. These forms in turn change and merge into one another according to the rule of justice, that is, balance and proportion. Heraclitus advocated that fire is the original source of matter, but he believed that the entire world is in a constant state of change and that a mixture of different matters produces most objects and substances. He considered the soul, for example, as a mixture of fire and water. Anaxagoras (500-428? BC) introduced dualistic explanation of the universe that is to say that the universe consists of living and non-living matters. He developed the concept of nous (reason), which he considered as an infinite and unchanging substance that entered into and controlled every living object. This concept of eternal substance was later adopted in formulating the doctrines of Christianity during the Ecumenical Councils of Churches, and that eternal substance was made to be the substance of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Some Christian apologists advocate that God shows us trinity everywhere:

Time is divided into past, present, and future and they are all time.
Matter is divided into gas, liquid, and solid and they are all matter.
Coordinate is divided into X, Y, and Z and they are all coordinates.

Anyone can assemble an argument for duality such as day and night, positive and negative, good and evil, etc. Anyone can assemble an argument from the very many natural facts to strengthen his claim. The Pyramid of Giza was exhausted in numbers to prove that it is a cosmic structure. So where does this leave us? Should we believe in duality, trinity, 15, or other numbers based upon these rationales? Should we ignore the strong argument in the Old and New Testament and in Islam about the Unity of God and follow human assumptions mixed with Greek philosophy?

Why did not God reveal before Jesus that he is actually one with three different persons? One apologist claims that humanity was not ready for that language of one god with different personalities. The example that he gives to clarify this point is that his son used to call the lid of a can of coke door when he was a child. When his son grew up, he knew that it is the lid that opens the coke! Similarly, God was one; and when humanity grew up, God revealed that he is still one but with three personalities!

Another apologist explained these three ways in which God exists and acts with the following example: Mr. Abraham is a mechanic; he is also the husband of Mrs. Abraham, and again he is a member of the Evangelical Church. He may be in the workshop repairing cars, he may be at home with his wife, he may be at prayer in the church--he is always one and the same Mr. Abraham. He is at once mechanic, husband and member of his church, yet always the same man. You see, this apologist stated only 3 jobs for Mr. Abraham to justify the trinity.

This is the best that apologists can come up with to justify the Trinity. No apologist has the courage, or perhaps the knowledge, to state that the strongest evidence of the trinity in the first Epistle of John was deleted from later versions of the Bible. The conclusion is that you do not really ask any question about trinity because the more you ask, the more confused you will be. Just accept Jesus and your sins are forgiven and you guaranteed paradise!