SERENDIPITY FOR THE LOVER OF GOD AND OF THE PURE TRUTH
“UPON THIS ROCK – IS THE TRINITY DOCTRINE REALLY BIBLICAL?”
Go to chapters 1-20 & 21-37 to continue
Introduction
This work is intended to be a study of the raw, pure truth of the most important issues of life, for those who recognize or are learning the value of seeking to learn the absolute truth. It is meant to supplement an intensive Bible study for the sincere seeker of truth, those rare disciples who are of noble character, who love and work to uncover the often costly and painful truth, as the Bereans of biblical fame. I have been grieved too many times in the past, when after reading a controversial statement by an author, I have looked up their proof texts and found that the Bible isn't proving at all what the author had stated. However, in this book I believe you will find that the Scriptures and arguments I offer are pertinent to the related statement or subject, and are presented in integrity after careful consideration. You may also recognize that collectively they clearly prove the truth of my assertions, just as Apollos "vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah” (not that Jesus was literally God-Acts18:28).
Please bear with the repetition of some basic concepts that I have overemphasized throughout. I believe that certain truths will be better grasped through being stressed for the necessary impact, since we are so programmed to resume believing our faulty premises even after they have been corrected. A Strong's Concordance and a literal English translation of any original Greek manuscript will prove very valuable at looking up some of my references, for often I convey the meaning of the original Greek as accurately as possible. Please be willing to look up a few words and lots of scriptures to find a literal gold mine of truth that will enrich your faith in the real Jesus, and therefore your life forever!
I did not get this study from any book (except for any books I refer to in the Bibliography), not one, debating the Trinity or deity of Christ, nor have I ever read such a book. (I add this update: Before the (almost) final revision I have just finished reading a book on this very subject, and have inserted three things I learned from it.) I wrote this study ‘cold turkey’, so to speak, by the grace of God and the Lord Jesus, by the Holy Spirit, with the very few reference books we had on the shelf at the time. A few additional reference books were consulted during later revisions. It is an original work.
This book is not intended to merely get Christians to disbelieve the Trinity doctrine, or to doubt that Jesus is God the Son, literally God, Yahweh in a body, the second member of God the Holy Trinity. If every believer comes to believe the exact truth about these issues, where will that get them if they are not in fact obeying the Lord Jesus? The motive and intent of this book, and my life and teachings, are to help the church come into the unity of the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and to help the church become mature and complete, filled to all the fullness of Christ. I desire to become completed in Christ as I help all the believers I know intimately to become "perfect (complete) in Christ" (Col.1:28), and only if we will raise our aim can we hit the right target. My goal is to help facilitate the true restoration of the body of Christ to the original apostolic faith, and therefore this book will touch on many side issues that all interconnect in the full life in Christ. I will attempt to remind believers of our apostolic foundational truths. It is not an easy read, but an extremely interesting one for the lover of Christ and His truth. I do not believe that our God is, was, has ever been, nor ever will be literally seen by sinful man, tempted, touched by sinners, begotten, spit upon, beaten, killed, or anointed. I don‘t believe that God Almighty is a son, a branch, a vine, the rock that accompanied the Israelites through the desert, a cornerstone, a man, a son of man, the second Adam, the last Adam, bread, water, a lamb, a lion, a door, the firstborn from among the dead, the beginning of the creation of God, a prince, a sacrifice for sins, made to be sin, made to be a curse, an intercessor, a mediator or a priest, and I will attempt to prove this as I demonstrate who the Bible says that God is, and who His Son is.
I do not commend the teachings of Mark Twain or Socrates or any worldly philosophers, but since this study is filled with proof from the Bible, God’s living message to all men, I include a few quotes in case anyone can glean the light of the truth therein contained as applied to our present controversy:
"In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue, but have taken them at second hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing."
Mark Twain
"Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."
Mark Twain, Notebook, 1904.
People only see what they are prepared to see."
R.W. Emerson
"If you are going to tell people the truth, you had better make them laugh or they will kill you."
Oscar Wilde
And, gleaned from the internet I have adapted this addition for my purposes: “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates taught his students that the pursuit of truth
can only begin once they start to question and analyze every belief that they ever held dear. If a certain belief passes the tests of evidence, deduction, and logic, it should be kept. If it doesn't,
the belief should not only be discarded, but the thinker must also then question why he was led to believe the erroneous information in the first place. This is no opinion piece. Rather it is a
collection of sometimes buried or obscured, but undeniable facts (sadly that most Christians will deny), events, and quotes which, when assembled in one place, will state their own conclusions. In
putting together this research in a logical and sometimes sequential format, great care was taken to confirm and double confirm the conclusions I assert, and to be relatively sure of the bulk of
other information given. Of course I cannot be certain of all of the history contained herein, as is true with most quoted history, but the historical accounts I quote are from reputable sources
which often serve as hostile witnesses to truths which the authors would have no obvious reasons to fabricate. Questionable data which could not be independently verified to this author’s
satisfaction was discarded.
Taken individually, each story, quote and event may not amount to a full case. But when taken collectively, this mountain of facts should hammer home the truth to even the most skeptical reader. …
(Many people are) often unaccustomed to thinking for themselves, no amount of truth can sway them from their preconceived prejudices… They are victims of a psychological affliction known as "the
lemming effect". Lemmings are small rodents who have been known to follow each other as they charge to their deaths into raging rivers or off of cliffs. Lemminghood is an innate psychological
phenomenon, present in most mammals and observable in common people as well as the most sophisticated and educated elites. Lemminghood is not an intellectual phenomenon - it is psychological. As
such, no socio-economic class is immune to its strangulating effect. A grant- seeking university scientist can be a lemming just as much as a fashion obsessed teen-age girl. One blindly follows the
latest trendy theory while the other blindly follows the latest trendy clothing style. What's the difference? Neither can resist the force of nature to go along with the crowd. The power to fit in
with one's social peers can be irresistible. To a human lemming, the logic behind an opinion doesn't count as much as the power and popularity behind an opinion.
Man, like lemming, usually behaves collectively. Lemminghood is a survival trait, an inborn instinct in the majority of people. However, as with most natural phenomena, this often beneficial tendency can be very dangerous, and can be manipulated and used for harmful purposes. It is this lemming effect which enables entire segments of a society to lose their sense of judgment all at the same time. This research paper will likely be wasted on many lemmings. For lemmings, denial is a basic psychological defense mechanism used to not only shield themselves from unpleasant realities, but also to reassure themselves that they will still fit within the acceptable range of opinion held by their peer group. Lemmings are absolutely terrified at the thought of being labeled as an "extremist" or a "conspiracy theorist". At all costs, their beliefs must always be on the "right" side of the issue and conform within the boundaries of their lemming peers. Lemmings simply cannot bear the burden of responsibility, or the discomfort, which comes with thinking independently. They'll resist any efforts to change their misguided beliefs with all their mental energy.
We can try to open their closed minds and free them from their self-imposed blindness, but it’s not easy fighting the force of human nature. The chains of ideological conformity have too strong of a grip, and breaking them is a difficult task. Nevertheless, some of us must make the attempt, and thus lay the foundation upon which the truth might one day rise again. There are those among us who do have the courage and intellectual capacity to break free of the shackles of lemming hood and accept the truth when it is presented in a clear and logical sequence. To those open minded and independent thinkers I wish to state clearly and unequivocally. I intend to set forth in this paper an overwhelming body of evidence which should forever destroy the notion that God is three Gods as one, and that Jesus is literally God Almighty. The ideas are utterly laughable in the light of reality and truth. And yet, due to the blithering barrage of false teaching dished out for centuries by the religious leaders that be, religious Americans and Christians worldwide have accepted this ridiculous fairy tale with a religious fervor.”
“For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearances as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are.”
Niccolo Machiavelli
And: "I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives."
Leo Tolstoy
More: “Heresy never succeeds: what’s the reason? For if it succeeds, none dare call it heresy!”
Adapted from John Harrington
And: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
Upton Sinclair
Consider the word “EPISTEMOLOGY“: the theory of knowledge, esp. with regard to its validity and scope, the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion. How do we know that which we believe is true - really is? So this is not an obscure or impractical subject - quite the opposite - Epistemology is an uncommon word for what should be a common act... It is a wake-up call, a challenge for all of us - to think very critically about everything we think we know. Why? Because unless we examine our assumptions we cannot find where we are mistaken…” (gleaned from the internet)
Another culled from the internet: “IF YOU REALLY WANT THE TRUTH THEN YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO ADJUST TO IT WHEN YOU HEAR OR SEE IT. The truth does not adjust to you. The attempt to achieve that adjusting is how lies are created.”
If we could just start at this one biblical fact, and answer this one very important question, it would greatly help. Was Jesus’ God, and was Jesus’ Father, a Trinity of three Gods (including Himself, somehow?) Consider that Paul writes by the Holy Spirit: “The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever…” (2 Cor. 11:31) Who is Jesus’ God? I am certain the Bible is extremely clear that GOD is the God of Jesus, and He is THE FATHER, “GOD THE FATHER”, and not some triune God of three Gods in unity co-dependent on each other to be God. Please consider that Jesus said, “The Father Himself loves you…“ (Jn. 16:27). Who is “The Father Himself”? Is “The Father Himself”, according to Jesus, exclusively ‘God Himself‘, or is He ‘co-dependent‘ on two other members of the so called ‘Blessed Holy Trinity‘? Then only a few verses later, in Jn. 17:3, Jesus calls the Father “the only true God“, and then speaks of Himself as other than God by saying, “and me“ (for all intents and purposes). And in Acts 1:7 Jesus said that the Father had set the time to restore the Kingdom of the world to Israel by “His own authority”. Who is “the Father”, and is He alone Jesus’ God and Father? If Jesus’ God is or was ‘The Trinity‘, then my God is a trinity. But this is impossible according to all the many definitions of the Trinity that I have heard, and especially impossible according to the sum of all the scriptures in the Bible. Jesus’ God was and is God the Father, and so is mine.
This study requires the ability to think critically. Critical thinking is the careful, deliberate determination of whether one should accept, reject, or suspend judgment about a claim and the degree of confidence with which one accepts or rejects it. Critical thinking employs not only logic but broad intellectual criteria such as clarity, credibility, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, significance and fairness. Critical thinking requires extensive experience in identifying the extent of one's own ignorance in a wide variety of subjects (‘I thought I knew, but I merely believed’). One becomes less biased and more broad-minded when one becomes more intellectually empathetic and intellectually humble.” Jim Quinn And Walter Lippman once reportedly said that a man has honor if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable or dangerous to do so.