Jesus and His God

"But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through [Greek, dia, Strong's #1223 ] Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation; namely, that God was in [Greek, instrumental en -- through, by means of, Strong's #1722 ] Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation." -- 2 Corinthians 5:19, World English Bible translation The thought many would like for us to see in this verse is that God was in Christ, and being in Christ makes Christ God Almighty. This, of course, is not what the verse is saying. The Greek word *en* -- translated "in" -- has many variations of meaning, including "through", "by" [often with the meaning as "by means of", "in" [still often with the meaning as an instrument being used]. From the context of 2 Corinthians 5:17 we understand what this word is saying. God -- by means of C...

John 14:7 - If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you know him, and have seen him." John 14:8 - Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us."   John 14:9 - Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say, 'Show us the Father?'   John 14:10 Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father living in me does his works. World English Bible translation John 14:9, especially, is often referred to as proof that Jesus is God Almighty. However, very few seem to present any information as to how this is supposed to mean that Jesus is God Almighty. If one reads many trinitarian writings, you will often see this scripture listed or quoted as proof of the doctrine, but with no serious explanation given as to how this is s...

By Ronald R. Day, Sr. One of the alleged direct proofs that is often offered for belief in the trinity and "oneness" doctrines is the unity of the Father and Son in John 10:30, where John records Jesus as saying: "I and my father are one." We suppose that if one is firmly convinced of the trinity, one could read "trinity" into John 10:30 (as well as many other scriptures) through presupposition. Of itself, there is nothing in John 10:30 that hints at three persons in one God, or that Jesus and his Father are one God. As worded, if Jesus is one with his Father, he is one with what? One God? One essence? One substance? One being? If, in saying that he is one with his Father, Jesus is saying that he is Jehovah, then, since Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is his God and Father, this would logically make Jesus his own Father. Of course, we realize that trinitarians do not believe that Jesus is the Father, although our neighbors who believe in the...

"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." One scripture that is often presented to support the trinity is 1 John 5:7,8. We believe the evidence is overwhelming that the part in brackets above were never written by John, but are an interpolation. We have no doubt that John did not write the words as they appear in the King James Version and some other translations in 1 John 5:7, but these words, even as they appear in the KJV, do not say anything at all about three persons in one God, nor three aspects of God, nor three modes of God, etc. One has to add the trinitarian (or modalist) doctrine to the words and then read the doctrine into the words, even as they appear in the KJV. Thus, there is nothing at all in 1 John 5:7,8, even in the KJV, that offers any proof of the ...

"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." -- 1 John 5:7 (Greek words are given with English transliterations throughout) This is the only passage in the whole Bible that gives any color to the trinity or "oneness" doctrines. However, the bracketed portion (see above) of this passage is almost universally recognized as an interpolation. It appears to have been first put into the Greek text in the tenth century. It is true that some late Latin, Vulgate MSS., copies a few centuries before, do contain it. This interpolation was first inserted into some Vulgate manuscript and was later translated into the first Greek text having it. Had this text been in the Bible when the trinitarian controversies were going on in the fourth to the eighth centuries, certainly the trinit...