What? No controversy!

What do I mean? 

How is it that fiercely monotheist Jews in the first century were able to change their minds from the “one Yahweh” of their ancestors to a new “three co-equal persons in one essence” God without a single peep of controversy arising when they came to a knowledge of Jesus as Messiah?

Look at all the Christological controversies that existed in the 4th century. Christians were at each other’s throats over the identity of God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Why is it that no controversy arose back in 33 A.D. over the introduction of this new God paradigm, both inside and outside of Christianity? 

The following quote comes from
“Little Known Facts About the Trinity” related to this matter:

There is something very odd not happening in the New Testament. There is no trace of any first century controversy about whether or not Jesus is God or that God is “tri-personal.” The conduct of the Jews toward the disciples after Jesus’ death gives strong evidence that they knew nothing of any Trinitarian doctrine. The apostles were active in establishing a new dispensation of religion, and in the process brought on themselves the bad repute, abuse, and persecution of their countrymen. Wherever they went, they were assailed by the Jews with outrage and violence. They were accused of speaking blasphemous words against the holy place and the Law, of turning the world upside down, of designing to overthrow the religion of their fathers, and were scoffed at as followers of a messianic “king” who had died the ignominious death of a malefactor. But they were never accused of worshiping him or preaching him as God. Amidst all their enemies’ accusations, they never brought forward charges that the apostles were preaching of more than one God, or of a tri-unity of “persons” within a “Godhead.” And yet, in the eye of a Jew, such teachings would have been the most hateful things to their system. To teach that the deceiver from Nazareth, whom they had despised and slain, was the very God whom they had always honored and worshiped, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!— nothing could have so excited them against the new religion and its active promoters. Yet it never formed the ground of their external opposition. 

But nowhere in the post-Gospel New Testament writings is there a whiff of any controversy about God being multi-personal or Jesus being God. One would think that something as controversial as the essence of God existing as three “persons,” had it been a doctrine that was known to the first century Church, would have raised significant controversy, especially among Jewish believers.

Ideas like the Trinity and God “becoming a man” are so foreign to Jewish thought and difficult to comprehend that one would expect a careful teacher like the Apostle Paul to address them constantly, yet nowhere in his epistles is there an example of him attempting to explain these inexplicable yet “essential mysteries” to his congregations. Nowhere does Paul discuss how the one God can be “three persons in one,” or teach how in Christ Jesus “God became a man.” And would not such lessons have required constant repetition? Why then is there not even a single chapter dedicated to clarifying, let alone a single verse declaring the Trinity in all the New Testament?

(P. Stein Kohl, pp. 55-6.)

Thomas Jefferson

“When we shall have done away with the incomprehensible jargon of the Trinitarian arithmetic, that three are one, and one is three; when we shall have knocked down the artificial scaffolding, reared to mask from view the very simple structure of Jesus; when, in short, we shall have unlearned everything which has been taught since his day, and got back to the pure and simple doctrines he inculcated, we shall then be truly and worthily his disciples.”
President Thomas Jefferson 

Kant

God’s Death – A Counterfactual Historical Reconstruction

The Trinity – The Great Christian Idol

Have You Ever Wondered About The doctrine of the Trinity?

Have You Ever Wondered About The doctrine of the Trinity?

Millions of wonderful people of faith have – often without serious consideration – vested their confidence in the post-biblical concept that three different “Persons” compose the one God. Those Christians have often not considered that God’s prophets and people of old held that only one individual is God – the Father himself (Isaiah 64:4, 8). And, they often have not realized that our Lord Jesus declared that his Father is the only one who is truly God and that he (Jesus) is the Christ (John 17:3).

Because only one individual is God, the later innovation of Gentile Christians that two or three “Persons” are one God divides the honor and glory that is due to the Father alone. The Scripture requires that we serve only “one” as God and that we must love “him” with all of our hearts, souls, and might (Deut. 6:4, 5; Mark 12:28-32).

Hence, the idea of more than one individual being God Almighty is not the teaching of Jesus and the original Christians. Under the later multiple “Persons” God approach, the glory that should be given to “one” as God has now been divided between three – our faith has been confused and thwarted.

There is a Better Way…
J. Dan Gill in his book “The One – In Defense of God” writes that there is a better – more scriptural way to understand these matters.

Rather than the confusion of multiple “Persons” supposedly being one God, “as believers we should hold that the Father of Israel — the Father of Jesus Christ — is the only one in the universe who is truly God (Isa. 45:5; John 17:3); that God’s spirit is not another person of Deity but rather the Father himself at work in his presence and power (Matt. 10:20). We should believe in Jesus as God’s Christ: his Messiah — the one whom God has made Lord of all (Acts 2:36; Ps. 2:2 cf. Acts 4:26); that he is God’s only begotten human son; that he came into existence by a miracle in a young virgin by the name of Mary (Luke 1:35); that Jesus is our redeemer, our savior — but not our God (Acts 5:31; 13:23); that to truly follow Christ, we must serve his God ( John 20:17).
So, to us, there is one God, the Father, who interacts with and touches his creation – not by another “Person” called “the Spirit” – but by his own personal spirit. It is the Father in presence and power.
And, there is one whom God has made Lord over all – Jesus the Messiah! So,There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5). -21st Century Reformation-

Blessings everyone

John Bivens

TRIUNE GOD OF CONFUSION

By Tony Baugh

Speaking as former Trinitarian, I did not come to reject the Trinity flippantly and frivolously, which was never a doctrine of the early apostolic church, but instead was established in the 4th Century by the Catholic Church via the Nicene Council, but rather came to my position by reading the Bible with honest eyes & heart, and seeing that the Trinity simply did not make sense in light of scripture, and created confusion about WHO God & His Son really are, as passage after passage clearly states time and time again, that Jesus is the Son of God, who has a God, who is His Father.

There is a very good reason the Bible never once says “Jesus is God”, nor ever uses parroted terms never to be be found in scripture, such as, “Godman” or “God the Son”, because the very rock Jesus Himself said His church is built on is the confession that Jesus is the SON OF GOD.

There is absolutely nothing whatsoever that could be more absolutely fundamental & vital to the Christian Faith than to know WHO God & His Son are, that we may have a relationship with them, which is precisely the diabolical purpose of the Trinity, which is cleverly and diabolically devised to keep souls in the state of confusion of not knowing who God & His Son really are, which according to scripture, is antichrist…

“Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.” ~1 John 2:22-23

To prove this confusion; when Trinitarians are pushed on exactly what they have been indoctrinated to believe, they will perform an array of parroted mental gymnastics & theological acrobats to protect their idol & true god, their “Holy” Trinity. Trinitarians do not worship the ONE God, but worship a slyly devised polytheistic three-headed triune “god” as God. In short Trinitarians do not worship God, they worship the Trinity.

As some examples; When asked WHO Matthew 1:18-20 says Jesus is the child of, it’s like pulling teeth for them to admit in crystal clear black & white the Bible says Jesus IS the child of the “Holy Ghost”, conceived BY the Holy Ghost, even though scripture states, plainly that God IS a Spirit, that God IS Holy, that God IS the Holy Spirit, who dwelt IN His Son (not AS His Son), who Jesus Himself said is “GREATER” than He is, and that the works He performed and words He spoke were “not of myself”, but rather of the Father (Holy Ghost) dwells IN Him, who as “I AM”, worked & spoke THROUGH His Son, not AS His Son. Trinitarian doctrine explicitly states that God the Father is not the Holy Spirit/Holy Ghost!

Or, when they use Genesis 1, “LET US make man in OUR image”, ASSUMING “us/our” is the Trinity, or John 1 “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God”, which in their trinitarian minds they equated “Word” with “Jesus”, they are unable to answer WHEN the Son was first “begotten”. So they will parrot unbiblical terminology such as “eternally begotten”, ignoring “THIS DAY I have begotten thee”, which denies God even has an “Only BEGOTTEN Son”, that His Word was MADE flesh AS the Son. Because quite simply, if the Son always eternally existed, He was never “begotten”.

Or, to prove Jesus is God Almighty Himself, they will hypocritically use the same passage Oneness folks use (Isaiah 9:6) to prove Jesus IS the Everlasting Father. And when you ask them if they are using the passage to prove Jesus is Father, they have no answer, because Trinity doctrine explicitly states the Son is not the Father & the Father is not the Son!

Confusion on a grand master scale.

Again, the Bible warns we are “anti-christ” if we deny the the Father & Son, who are IMPOSSIBLE to know if we don’t KNOW which is which & who is who, because whosever does not know the Son, denies the Son, and therefore does NOT have the Father/Holy Ghost (1 John 2:23)!

And when all else fails in their attempt to clarify WHO God & His Son are, they will declare that the Trinity is a “mystery” human minds just cannot fully comprehend, that we cannot fully understand WHO God & His Son really are, which DOES make God the “author of confusion”, even though Peter DID comprehend, who correctly stated, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God”, as well as Paul, who said, “But to us there is ONE GOD, the FATHER”.

And even more insidiously, the Trinity deceives souls into denying Jesus was born as fully human man made & tempted in ALL points as we are, “in the flesh”, therefore sadly and tragically, they die deceived believing they were saved IN their sins, because of the Gnostic Augustinian lie of Original Sin (another Catholic doctrine), they believed that only a superhuman hypostatic “Godman” could defeat sin, and that if we will just have “Faith Alone” that He obeyed FOR us, to save us IN our sins, that HIS righteousness will magically “imputed” to us, and we will be righteous in the sight of God, thereby creating a “Jesus ” who is impossible to follow, taking up our own cross and denying ourselves, as Jesus commands we must, walking even as He walked…IN THE FLESH.

If we are all truly honest with ourselves, we will admit that a “triune god” would never be derived from any honest reading of scripture, but rather that the Trinity has been parroted and pumped into our indoctrinated heads so much so, that we ASSUME that’s what scripture teaches, but it simply does not.

Let’s be honest, if a Bible washed up on a desert island beach, and someone had never heard of a “Trinity”, the chances are a million to one that on their own they would ever conclude, “Ah ha!…God is triune, composed of three persons!!!”

Trinitarians do NOT worship the ONE God of Israel (Deut 6:4), but rather worship a slyly devised polytheistic three-headed triune “god”, as God. In short, Trinitarians do not worship God, they worship the Trinity.

Essentially, Trinitarians believe, whether they will admit it or not, that God give birth to Himself as Jesus, prayed to Himself, obeyed Himself, feared Himself, forsook Himself, raised Himself from the dead, and now sits at the right hand of Himself!

Confusion.

Let us be honest folks about what the Word of God says; Jesus is NOT God the Father, Jesus IS the SON of God, God IS the head of Christ, who Christ Himself said IS GREATER than He is, God is NOT His own Son, Jesus is NOT His own God, Jesus did NOT pray to Himself, Jesus did NOT fear Himself. Jesus did NOT obey Himself, God did NOT say, “This is my beloved self in whom I am well pleased”, Jesus did NOT ask Himself, “Let this cup pass from myself”, Jesus did NOT cry, “Why have I forsaken myself?”, Jesus did NOT say, “No one comes to me but by me”, Jesus does NOT sit at the right hand of Himself, but rather as the one mediator between God & man, the MAN Christ Jesus.

So who is Jesus?

Jesus wants to know who WE say He is. And WHO He is, is the very foundational rock He said that HE will build His very church on, that the gates of hell shall NOT prevail against, which Peter correctly answered…

“Thou art the Christ, the SON of the Living God.”

“But to us there is but ONE GOD, the FATHER of whom are all things, and we in him; AND one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.” ~1 Corinthian 8:6

“That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the FATHER, AND with his SON Jesus Christ.” ~1 John 1:3

“For there is ONE God, AND ONE mediator between God and men, the MAN Christ Jesus.” ~1 Timothy 2:5

“And THIS is life eternal, that they might KNOW THEE the ONLY true God, >>AND<< Jesus Christ, whom THOU hast SENT.” ~John 17:3

BOTH TRINITARIANS AND ONENESSIANS ARE REFINED FORMS OF GNOSTICISM.

BOTH TRINITARIANS AND ONENESSIANS
ARE REFINED FORMS OF GNOSTICISM.
By Tom Raddatz of Ohio

(Originally published in 2017)

The Apostles would be ashamed of the new doctrines
Apparently, the Oneness Jesus, and his apostles, were all ashamed of the [false] Oneness good news that God incarnated himself. Imagine if God had incarnated himself and revealed himself to you and you were Moses; what would you do?

When God presented himself to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3, He told Moses exactly who He was, what His name was, why He was calling out to Moses, and what He had planned. And then Moses went out and straightly proclaimed that YHWH himself had sent him. No ambiguity here whatsoever.

When Jesus presented himself to Israel to begin his public ministry, what did he proclaim of himself? Did he claim that he was YHWH incarnate in fulfillment of Isaiah 9:6 as Onenessians suppose? No he did not. Although he did quote Isaiah, not once did he or any apostle claim Jesus was a fulfillment of Isaiah 9:6. In declaring who he was and what he was about to do, Jesus quoted the following from Isaiah 61:

18 “‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed, 19 And to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.’ 20 He closed the book [of Isaiah], gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began to tell them, ‘Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’”
(Luke 4:18–21)

Here, Jesus was given the whole scroll of Isaiah and had to unroll it to near the back. He had to have passed right by 9:6. He chose instead to declare his ministry by presenting himself as both personally distinct from God who sent him and having been anointed by God. We need to keep in mind that to be anointed was something no one took upon himself.

The Messiah does not anoint himself
The word for “Messiah” in the Old Testament means “to be anointed” (mishchah,
Strong’s H#4888). It comes from the root word anoint (mashach, Strong’s H#4886).
The word has the following definition in Strong’s Bible Dictionary: “unction (the act); by implication, a consecratory gift.” This latter notion of a gift very clearly and specifically means that something has been granted or given to the one being anointed. For example, Jacob’s pillow rocks didn’t anoint themselves. Nor did the sons of Aaron anoint themselves when they were anointed by Moses. Thus, when Jesus Christ said, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth…” (Matthew 28:18), this is precisely what he was referring to: the OT concept of being the anointed one and having authority gifted to him by God.

Now notice how the NT describes, very clearly, what this anointing means, and clearly states the same thing the OT taught us about being anointed:

4 “Nobody takes this honor on himself, but he is called by God, just like Aaron was. 5 So also Christ didn’t glorify himself to be made a high priest, but it was he who said to him, “You are my Son. Today I have become your father.” 6 As he says also in another place, “You are a priest forever…” (Hebrews 5:4–6)

The whole point of being anointed is that it is an “official” act of someone giving or bestowing honor or power on someone else. It is absolutely NOT something one takes on himself. And ever so clearly, the Bible says, “so also Christ.” If words and language mean anything at all, then this passage is a clear, “it is written again” Scripture that completely refutes the Onenessian jumped-to conclusion that God the Father made himself into the Messiah. If God anointed Himself, then by the very description given of being anointed, even He is disqualified! God is not the author of confusion and does not go against His own word!

Jesus was NOT a God in human clothing, a flesh suit.
Now then, back to our topic of Jesus’ introduction of himself. Instead of taking Jesus at his word, the Onenessian position is to claim that he was 100% God and 100% man. Onenessians often describe this condition by saying that “God robed Himself in flesh” to make Himself known. Jesus made a similar analogy when he said:

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves.” (Matthew 7:15)

Jesus’ point is that those who robe themselves in clothing that hides and disguises their true identity are really just masquerading in order to deceive. The problem with the theory of the “100% God/100% man” idea is twofold. First, God cannot lie; and second, God cannot be tempted. Jesus claimed to be anointed by God and spoke of God in the third person, which would be a lie if he himself were indeed God. For the second point, as we see in the comparison to wolves in sheep’s clothing, wearing outer clothes doesn’t change the inner personality. If Jesus were “God robed in flesh,” as people assume, then He certainly couldn’t have been tempted by sin like the Bible says of him.

Now then, when Jesus presented himself to the apostle Paul (presumably a lot like when God presented himself to Moses according to the erroneous Oneness view), what did Paul do? Did he run straight out and preach that God had incarnated himself as a man named Jesus? No, rather, it is written of Paul that…

20 “Immediately in the synagogues he proclaimed the Christ, that he is the Son of God… 22 But Saul increased more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived at Damascus, proving that this is the Christ.”
(Acts 9:20-22)

We need to keep in mind that to be anointed, to be “Christ,” was something no one took upon himself. Paul didn’t set out to prove Jesus was God incarnate, but that Jesus was anointed by God (something no one takes upon themselves, as Aaron, so also Christ). Now we return to what Paul was preaching (declaring) of what had been revealed to him. And it looks nothing whatsoever like what Moses said about YHWH revealing himself to Moses…

32 “We bring you good news of the promise made to the fathers, 33 that God has fulfilled the same to us, their children, in that he raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second psalm, ‘You are my Son. Today I have become your father.’
34 Concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he has spoken thus: ‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’ 35 Therefore he says also in another psalm, ‘You will not allow your Holy One to see decay.’ 36 For David, after he had in his own generation served the counsel of God, fell asleep, and was laid with his fathers, and saw decay. 37 But he whom God raised up saw no decay. 38 Be it known to you therefore, brothers , that through this man is proclaimed to you remission of sins, 39 and by him everyone who believes is justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. 40 Beware therefore, lest that come on you which is spoken in the prophets: 41 ’Behold, you scoffers, and wonder, and perish; For I work a work in your days, A work which you will in no way believe, if one declares it to you.’” (Acts 13:32-41)

1 “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Good News of God, 2 which he promised before through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, 4 who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 1:1-4)

The pagan concept of “Incarnations of Deity”
In no way did Paul view the Jesus that he preached as an incarnation of God.
Rather, Paul was quite absolutely repulsed by the pagan idea of gods coming to earth in the form of men!

8“At Lystra a certain man sat, impotent in his feet, a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked. 9 He was listening to Paul speaking, who, fastening eyes on him, and seeing that he had faith to be made whole, 10 said with a loud voice, ‘Stand upright on your feet!’ He leaped up and walked. 11 When the multitude saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice, saying in the language of Lycaonia, ‘The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!’ 12 They called Barnabas ‘Jupiter,’ and Paul ‘Mercury,’ because he was the chief speaker. 13 The priest of Jupiter, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and would have made a sacrifice along with the multitudes. 14 But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they tore their clothes, and sprang into the multitude, crying out, 15 ‘Men, why are you doing these things?’”
(Acts 14:8–15)

The writers of the Bible knew how to form a sentence that reads, “the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men.” But nowhere in the whole Bible will you read such a clearly stated sentence about the biblical YHWH “coming to us in the likeness of men.”

Looking for such a phrase or statement in the Scripture is just as fruitless as looking for the word “Trinity” or a definition of the Trinity in the Bible. Onenessians are quick to point this out to Trinitarians. But that doesn’t stop the Onenessians from interpreting the Bible the same way Trinitarians do through their mutually held pagan idea of incarnations of deity!

Some say, “The above scriptures in paragraph #2 describe the humanity and deity of Christ…the dual nature of Christ”

The historical fact is that the dual nature doctrine that some are now preaching was originally an antichristian teaching that was repugnant to apostolic Christians. We have this from Irenaeus who was a disciple of Polycarp who was a disciple of John.

“The Gospel, therefore, knew no other son of man but him who was of Mary, who also suffered; and no Christ who flew away from Jesus before the passion; but…blasphemous systems which divide the Lord…say… that he was formed of two different substances. For this reason also he has thus testified to us in his Epistle: ‘Little children, it is the last time; and as ye have heard that Antichrist doth come, now have many antichrists appeared…’”
(Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 3, Chapter 16, par. 5)

Let these words sink in: “blasphemous systems…divide the Lord…saying that he was formed of two different substances.”

You have just read where the idea of the dual natures in Christ came from: the antichristian Gnostics. Nowhere in the Bible will you read where it describes Christ as personally made of two natures. To the contrary, the historical truth is that the early Christians sharply rejected the “two substance” or “two nature” doctrine as an antichristian invention.

This is an extremely important truth: without the antichristian “dual natures” doctrine, both Trinitarianism and Onenessianism completely fall apart. That is simply because of the absolute overabundance of Scriptures clearly describing Jesus as a human, personally separate and distinct from his God and Father.

Onenessians are right to criticize Trinitarians for adopting the idea of three persons in the godhead from pagans. Why then don’t they realize that Gnostics invented their precious “dual natures” doctrine? How can anyone believe that the Gnostics, (the antichristians of the Bible according to Irenaeus), had a better way of explaining Jesus’ human relationship to deity than the one in the Bible?

Read this biblical explanation again:

“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)

Doctrines invented and redefined by antichristians
Any Christian who wishes to be true to the NT Scriptures and the words of Christ needs to seriously consider the evidence. If you can’t go to the Scriptures and show where it clearly and explicitly teaches that Christ is personally made of two natures, then you can be certain that you are adding to the Bible a teaching that was invented by antichristians, and you are redefining—that is, taking away from—what the Bible does say Christ is.

Both Trinitarians and Onenessians are refined forms of Gnosticism.
They are thus “Neo-Gnostics.”

What is Biblical Unitarianism?

In the name “Biblical Unitarianism”, “Biblical” denotes faith in the Bible; serving to distinguish from Unitarian Universalists, a liberal non-Christian group. “Unitarian” simply refers to the belief that the one God of the Bible is only one person, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

A “Biblical Unitarian” then is a Bible-believing Christian who believes that the God of the Bible is one person, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, rather than a Trinity of three persons. Biblical Unitarians believe in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, but do not believe that they are all one God; rather, the one God is the Father alone.

Biblical Unitarians note that in the Bible, God is never spoken of as being a Trinity, or as being multiple persons. Rather, they note that all throughout the Bible, God is always spoken of as a single person, indicated by the use of hundreds of singular personal pronouns, and that the one God is expressly equated with the person of the Father alone several times:

Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.
1 Corinthians 8:4-6 NKJV

Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, 2 as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
John 17:1-3 NKJV

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Jude 1:24-25 NASB

There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
Ephesians 4:4-6 NASB

These passages of scripture all expressly equate the one God of the Bible with only one person, the person Jesus calls His God and Father.

Biblical Unitarians note that Jesus never claimed to be the one God, but rather taught things which clearly distinguish Him as another person or being besides God:

“Believe in God, believe also in me.”
-Jesus, John 14:1 NKJV
“Jesus answered, “If I honor Myself, My honor is nothing. It is My Father who honors Me, of whom you say that He is your God.”
-Jesus, John 8:54 NKJV
“I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.” -Jesus, John 20:17 NKJV
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
-John, John 3:16 NASB

Biblical Unitarians thus conclude that Jesus is not the one God of Israel, but another person and being besides the one God – His only-begotten Son, His appointed Christ, the one mediator between God and man, as the following texts say:

“The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him.”
-Peter, Acts 3:13 NASB

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.”
-Peter, Acts 2:36 NASB

“For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”
-Paul, 1 Timothy 2:5 NASB

Biblical Unitarians note that the apostles call Jesus a man, repeatedly, and without qualification; for this reason, Biblical Unitarians confess that Jesus Christ is a true man, fathered uniquely by God in the womb of Mary, by the agency of the Holy Spirit. Not only did Jesus’s apostles call him a man, but he also called himself a man -and so do the Old Testament scriptures:

“But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do.”
-John 8:40 NASB
“Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know—”
-Peter, Acts 2:22 NASB
“Because [God] has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” -Paul, Acts 17:31 NASB
“He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” -Isaiah 53:3 NASB

Thus the simple confession that the one God is one person, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that Jesus is the human Son and Christ of God, forms the heart of Biblical Unitarian faith in God and Christ.

But what about the traditional doctrine of the Trinity? That there exists one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

Biblical Unitarians note that besides the fact that this doctrine is absent from the Bible, it also conflicts with several things the Bible teaches. If we have to choose between tradition and scripture, “We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29 NASB). We must “Test all things, and hold fast that which is good.” (1 Thess 5:21) rather than simply believing something because it is traditional. Biblical Unitarians note that the doctrine of a triune God is incompatible with some of the Bible’s clear teachings about God and Jesus. Where the doctrine of a triune God teaches that the Father and Son are equal and identical, the Bible repeatedly marks God and Jesus as distinct and different from one another:

1. God is the Almighty (Greek “Pantokrator”, meaning, ‘Ruler over all’); He is supreme in authority over all (Rev 4:8, 2 Cor 6:18).
   Jesus is subject and obedient to the Father as His God, and so is not supreme over all in authority (1 Cor 11:3, 1 Cor 15:28).
2. God is uncaused, the Maker of all things.
   Jesus is caused by the Father, as the very name ‘Son’ implies; He also expressly declares that He lives because of the Father (Jn 6:57).
3. God is immutable, meaning He is eternally unchanging. He is also not a man, for the Bible says “God is not a man” in Numbers 23:19, and “For I am the LORD, I do not change” in Malachi 3:6.
   Thus it is impossible that God would have gone from not being a man to being a man, as this would obviously be a change in God. This contradicts the Trinitarian teaching that the one God became a man.
4. God is invisible, having never been seen by man, and is declared to be incapable of being seen (1 Tim 6:16). “No one has seen God at any time.” -1 John 4:12 NKJV.
   Yet Jesus Christ was seen.
5. God is omniscient; He knows all things absolutely (1 Jn 3:20). Jesus declares plainly that He did not know something, which only the Father knew: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” -Mark 13:32 NKJV.
   If only the Father and no other person knows this, then the Father alone knows all things; and so, the one God, Who knows all things, must be only one person, the Father, and no other.
6. God is immortal; He is not subject to death (1 Tim 1:17). Whatever death is, an immortal being, by definition, cannot experience it.
   Yet Jesus Christ died (and rose from the dead); and this is a central part of the gospel. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” -Romans 5:8 NKJV
7. “God cannot be tempted by evil”;
   yet Jesus “was tempted in all things” (James 1:13, Heb 4:15).
8. Jesus is the Christ of God; that is, the anointed king, prophet, and priest of God, sent and empowered by God. Is the one sent by God the same as He Who sent? Is the one who is anointed the same as He Who anoints?
9. Jesus is the Son of God; and no son is the same individual being as their father.
10. Jesus is the one mediator between God and man, and by definition, no mediator is a party to their own mediation.
    “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men,
    the man Christ Jesus.” -1 Timothy 2:5 NKJV.
    Notice, Jesus is simply described as a “man”, not a “God-man”, as trinitarianism says.
11. Jesus is the Lord appointed by God over the universe, subject to God. “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
    -Acts 2:36 NKJV. A person who is the one God has no need to be made Lord by God, for God has always been Lord.
12. Jesus is the High Priest of God; a high priest worships His God, and is necessarily distinguished from the God whose priest he is.
    “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” -Hebrews 4:14 NKJV.

Biblical Unitarians note that these truths about God and Christ make it impossible to reasonably believe that they are together one being or one God. Rather, the one true God, the God of the Bible, is only one person, the one Jesus Christ calls His God and Father.

Refutation of the Master’s University Bible Faculty Document on the Trinity and Divinity of Messiah (Parts 1-4)

via Refutation of the Master’s University Bible Faculty Document on the Trinity and Divinity of Messiah (Part 1)

via Refutation of the Master’s University Bible Faculty Document on the Trinity and Divinity of Messiah (Part 2)

via Refutation of the Master’s University Bible Faculty Document on the Trinity and Divinity of Messiah (Part 3)

via Refutation of the Master’s University Bible Faculty Document on the Trinity and Divinity of Messiah (Part 4)

See also

• A Christmas Myth
• The Lordship of Jesus the Messiah
• The Lordship of Jesus the Messiah (Part 2)
• Son of God (Part 1)
• Son of God (Part 2)
• Son of God (Part 3)
• Son of God (Part 4)
• Son of God (Part 5)
• Son of God (Part 6)