The Godhead is the most misunderstood doctrine in Christianity. As a Jewish Rabbi stated, “how many Gods are there? The Holy Writ says one God. One means one. That is not two, not three, not three in one, not two in one, but ONE.”
"Know therefore this day, and consider it in your heart, that the LORD, he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath; there is no other." Deuteronomy 4:39
"I am He, before Me no god was created, neither shall there be after Me." Isaiah 43:10
"Thus saith the LORD (Jehovah), the King of Israel and his redeemer, the LORD (Jehovah) of hosts, I am the first, and I am the last, and beside Me there is no God." Isaiah 44:6
Compare Revelation 22:13 Jesus speaking, "I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, first and the last."
"I am the LORD, and there is none else." Isaiah 45:18
Jesus also taught One God. The scribes asked him, “which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.” (Mark 12:28-30)
So Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:4 to prove that the first commandment is that there is one God.
The apostle Paul makes it clear what the apostles believe.
Romans 3:30: "Seeing it is one God"
I Corinthians 8:4: "We know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no other God than one."
Ephesians 4:6; "One God and father of all"
I Timothy 2:5; "For there is one God"
And look what James says in James 2:19; "You believe that there is one God, and you do well."
Please take good look at the scriptures. Nowhere here is spoken about, or even hinted at a trinity. The concept of trinity is nowhere to be found in the Old or the New Testament.
"The early Church Fathers...had no clear conception of the Trinity." (History of Christian Doctrines, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1937, p. 40)
William DeArteaga, himself a trinitarian, in his book “Quenching the Spirit, Lake Mary, FL, 1992, points out that “the theology of the Trinity had developed from struggles against Gnostic heresies” (pg. 62).
The apostles never did teach a multiplicity of Gods in the Godhead. There is not one scripture that mentions different persons in the Godhead. There is no scripture that says first person, second person, and third person. This idea came about to contradict the teachings of the Gnostics who said that the Father was God, but the Son was not God. This was a dangerous doctrine that denied the deity of Christ. Therefore, in order to prove that the Son was also God, the doctrine of the Trinity was developed. It became a part of the Roman Catholic Church dogma at the Nicene Council in 325 AD when paganism and Christianity were married up together in a compromise (See Hislop’s Two Babylons, Rev. A. Hislop, Neptune, NJ. 1st Ed. 1916).
There is much information on this subject in the church histories. In the early centuries of the Christian church there was no such thing as a trinity. But in 318, the presbyter Arius got into a conflict with his bishop, because of his firm statements about Jesus. Arius could not accept that Jesus was "a god", and therefore he taught that Jesus was not "a god" but a creature. But his bishop, Alexander, disputed that because the New Testament clearly says that Jesus is God. This dispute got so much out of hand that it threatened to tear up the early Christian church, therefore specially for this dispute a synod was organized; the synod of Nice in 325, and there the dispute is settled. First Jesus and "God the Father" become a duality, and later the Holy Ghost is added to form a trinity. (History of the church, by Dr. H. Berkhof, 6th ed. 1955, pages 68-70).
The apostles clearly taught one God according to the scripture with no mention of a trinity of Gods. We also have the early recordings of church history. Take for example the 2nd century statement of Iraneas, who was a direct disciple of Polycarp who was himself a direct disciple of Saint John, from “Iraneas Against Heresies, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol 1 page 412, “All the other expressions, likewise, bring out the title of one, and the same being, the Lord of Power, the Lord, The Father of All, God Almighty, Most High, Creator, Maker, and such like, these are not the names of a succession of different beings, but one and the same.”
John himself warned the believers about what was going to happen. The warning of John:
The doctrine, that in Christ, one has both the Father and the Son, would be the target of attack. And John knew it!
From The Post-Apostolic Age (AD 90-140) The only writings that are intact today are those of Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp and Hermas. In their works, these men said nothing about a Trinity of three eternal persons. Calvin Beisner, the evangelical author, wrote in his book, God in Three Persons, that the earliest times exhibited no clear statements about any Trinity whatsoever and that the first two centuries promoted monotheism as the main thought. The post-apostolic writers simply stressed the One God concept as found in the Old Testament.
See you never learned about a trinity from reading your Bible it was taught to you as part of religious dogma. It was a hand me down theology that got passed through the church from Rome to Luther and the Reformers, on down to Wesley to the modern church age.
Most ministers graduate from Bible Schools, teaching Trinitarianism, but know little about its history and problems; they attack it on the grounds that they have been warned against it. The terms "Oneness," "Monarchianism," and "Sabellianism" have not only erroneously been termed the "Jesus Only" doctrine, but have become known as the devil's lie and heresy -- whereas in truth, Trinitarianism is the deviate. It is even common to hear or read that Monarchianism (the belief in one person of God operating in different modes) denies the Holy Trinity -- as though the doctrine of the Trinity was the established doctrine while Monarchianism was invented. The truth, as shown by history, is that the Trinity doctrine, when formulated, denied Monarchianism, which came first.
Trinitarians are always accusing those who believe in "One God" of "denying the Trinity." Excuse me? Show me anything in the Bible about denying the Trinity! Show me the word Trinity anywhere in the Bible! On the contrary the Bible says, "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also (I John 2:23).
The fact is the apostles taught One person of God, so did the early church. The teaching of the Trinity developed later. The Trinity which came up later, is the culprit here, denying that God is One. Nothing at all in scripture about denying a Trinity, for there are NO Trinity of Persons of God in the Bible!
No wonder people are confused, neither knowing what they affirm nor what they are against -- blindly following Roman Catholic tradition, and labelling the teachings of the Apostles: "heresy" and "a cult"!.
Notice Deuteronomy 32:39 "See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no God with me."
This scripture clearly shows that there is One God and leaves no room for the Roman dogma of three distinct and separate persons of God. He alone is God, besides him there is no other, and there is no other God with him, all according to the scripture.
Why do Trinitarians have to invent unscriptural language when there are perfectly adequate scriptural terms already available, such as the correct Godhead (Greek =“deity”) instead of "Trinity," Spirit instead of "substance," manifestation instead of "person." And why invent unscriptural language that contradicts already existing terms! Why have "eternal Son" instead of "begotten Son?" Why use "third person of the Trinity" instead of "Spirit of Christ?" And what justification is there for substituting "God in three persons" for "God in Christ?" These are extra-biblical terms that are unnecessary since Biblical terms describing the deity already exist in scripture.
Most Trinitarians say they do not believe in 3 Gods, but one God who is 3 persons. What’s the difference? The discussion of "persons" in the Godhead is irrational without a determination of whether the person advocating "persons" intends "persona" How can three persons be one person? That lacks intelligent reasoning. Three distinct persons though identical in substance, makes three gods or language has lost its meaning entirely. It is impossible to propose a division of the eternal being of God without approaching polytheism.
Take this little test assuming we have 3 different persons who are God. Imagine 3 bowls sitting in a row as a representation. The one in the middle is God the Father, the one on his right is God the Son, and the one to his left then is God the Holy Ghost, as the Roman Catholics teach it.
Q: Now which of these 3 is Jesus daddy?
Jesus himself said that God was his Father (See John 5:18, John 8:54, John 10:36). So that’s the one in the middle right?
Q: Whose blood came out at Calvalry?
Jesus the son, the one on the right, is that right? Hebrews 13:2 says "Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood" is that right?
The Holy Ghost is the subject, and “he hath purchased with his own blood is” the prepositional phrase. It was Holy Ghost blood that came out on Calvalry!
Q: Which of these 3 indwells the believer?
The Holy Ghost right, the one standing on the left. They were filled with the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost the Bible says in Acts 2.
See they are altogether one and the same person. It wasn’t just the 2nd person that died on the cross, it was God himself. It’s not just the 3rd person that indwells the believer, it’s the spirit of God, the spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit. God is a spirit!
There is One God, and only One Spirit!
One God, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism. The idea of a Trinity of Gods is nonsense in the light of scriptural truth.
The Bible says All of God was in Christ. “In Him dwelt all the fullness of deity in bodily form.” Colossians 1:8
Notice Psalm 83: 18 “That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.”
Now look at Matthew 1:21 “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.”
The name Jesus means “Jehovah-Savior.” All the redemptive qualities of Jehovah were fulfilled in Christ Jesus.
| Jehovah Jireh | Phillipians 4:19 |
| Jehovah-rapha | Matthew 8:16-17 |
| Jehovah-nissi | I Corinthians 15:57 |
| Jehovah-shalom | John 14:27 |
| Jehovah-tsidkenu | Romans 5:21 |
| Jehovah-raah | John 10:11 |
| Jehovah-shammah | Matthew 28:20 |
Exodus 3:14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
Jesus in John 8:58 told the Pharisees, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.”
Jesus was the “I AM”, the Logos of God manifested in human flesh.
The purpose of God taking on human flesh was to redeem man from sin. Jesus was to make the perfect offering for sin. Paul wrote in the letter to the Hebrews, “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.” (Hebrews 10:4)
The requirement to take away mans sin was
Jesus was both all man and all God. “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” (Hebrews 9:12) Further more he foretold it perfectly in his word that he is our redeemer. “As for our redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah 47:4)
God as our judge could not be righteous and tell the archangel Michael to go do die for our sins. Neither could he say “son you go do it.” The only way he could fulfill the law of righteousness and justice was to do to come down from his estate and do it himself. That’s what happened. God is a spirit, and his spirit over-shadowed the womb of Mary and created the flesh body of Jesus Christ, he was called “Emmanuel, God with us.” Not another person, God himself.
Nowhere in the Bible does it say that there are three Gods. Nowhere does it say God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. There is no such scripture. That is Roman Catholic dogma. Jesus said to baptize, “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Father is not a name, neither is son a name, and the Holy Ghost is what God is, a spirit. "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). They are simply titles of the offices of the One God, not individual entities. Jesus said in the name, and there is “none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” That is in the name of Jesus and anyone ever baptized after Pentecost was baptized the same way (see Acts 2:38, Acts 8:12, Acts 19:5, Romans 6:3).
It says this is not a controversy. God was manifest in the flesh. That’s what the Bible says. It doesn’t say a thing about a first, second or third person or any other person besides God. It says God was manifest in the flesh. One God. That One God was manifested in the flesh. God came in human form. That didn’t make him another God, a secondary God, a second person. He was God, the Same God. That should settle it.
As we saw earlier the Bible says the Holy Ghost indwells the believer. But the Bible here says the Spirit of Christ. See. They are the self same spirit. Not different spirits, the same one. The spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, is the Spirit of Christ, the same person. Not three in One. These three are ONE. One person. God.
It is the pagan world religions that believe in a multiplicity of Gods. The Jew will never receive it. They remember well, “hear o Israel, the Lord thy God is ONE LORD!” They know where that doctrine came from.
The ancient Babylonians worshipped a three-headed god on one body. To see a picture of it and for an in depth discussion on the Pagan Origins of the Trinity and Romanism CLICK HERE: Mystery Babylon and 666!
God said not to worship him in the way the Babylonians did! So utterly idolatrous was the Babylonian recognition of the Divine God, that Jehovah, the Living God, severely condemned His own people for giving any countenance to it.
The "Only One" of the Babylonians was a three headed god on one body. Sound familiar? It predates Christianity by millenia.
In the unity of the god of the Babylonians, there were three persons to symbolize the doctrine of the trinity…just as it does in the Romish church today (Two Babylons pg. 16).
The Doctrine of the Trinity is strictly pagan in origin, it was developed as part of Christian theology in order to disprove the error of the Gnostics which denied the deity of Christ. It then became a part of the Roman Catholic Church at the council of Nicea, and was handed down through the church ages after the Reformation.
The Trinity is a Roman Catholic Doctrine. The Athanasian Creed proves it:
God said not to worship him in the way the Babylonians did. In this pagan form of religion. Notice this emblem of the pagan Trinity from Egypt, representing Isis, Horus, and Seb.
This emblem is now used by the Roman Catholic Church, representing the pagan Trinity. Doesn't it seem strange to you that the pagan's promoted a Trinity but the Children of Israel, who had the prophets, and the Abrahamic Covenant with the One God, never believed in such a thing?
God was speaking to the Morning Stars (angels), and the sons of God who are spirit men, as are we, when he laid down the foundation of the Earth.
No, there’s still just One. It says the Spirit descended like a dove not a dove descended. The voice speaking from heaven was to show to those witnesses the supernatural event that was occurring. Notice Jesus said
He was standing on the earth right before them and proclaiming that he was also in heaven at the same time. He was the omniscient and ever present God.
Here is a nice type. In Exodus chapter 3 Moses encounters a 3-fold manifestation of God. There is the presence of God in the burning bush, the finger of fire writing in the rock, and the voice speaking from heaven, but the One God. God is revealed in threes and perfected in sevens but is One Person.
No. Obviously this is a figurative speech about the authority of Christ sitting at the right hand of power. The Greek word here for "right hand" is DEXIOUS Thayers Greek-English Lexicon describes it as "a place of honour or authority"
Taken literally he surely isn’t standing ON Gods right hand. In fact the clear intent of the meaning of this phrase can be seen from the following scripture
Jesus the Son of God (the spirit of God manifested in the flesh), came from the Logos of the Father, and returned back to the Logos of the Father, he is the working arm of God and he is sat down at the right hand of power.
Jesus Christ is the Logos of God. The Logos is identified as God himself, but is also said to be “with God”. What is Logos? The word Logos in the Greek means to speak, or a word. What is a word? A thought expressed, see? Hebrews 1:3 says he is the "express image of his person." The Bible says that God’s Words are “Spirit and they are Life.” Gods words are spirit. Jesus is the Spirit of God made manifest in the flesh, but not a different divine person separate from God. It’s the Spirit of God Incarnated in Man.
The Word was not merely an impersonal thought existing in the mind of God but was, in reality, the Eternal Spirit Himself clothed upon by a visible and personal form. This form could be seen as God and was visible to the heavenly host, for they presented themselves before God. (I Kings 22:19; Job 1:6) The Logos is the Holy Spirit in theophany form. It was Jesus "in the form of God" (Phillipians 2:6) prior to his Incanration.
Jesus is the Son of God, which is the spirit of God manifested in human flesh. God the Eternal Spirit took on humanity! How staggering that is. No wonder angels desire to look into it. In the plan of redemption God the Eternal one took on humanity.
The deity of the Christ, as the Son of God, is inextricably joined with humanity to form an existence distinct from God's existence as a transcendent Spirit. The deity of the Father is in the Son, but the Son's existence is different from the Father's. There is, therefore, a distinction between the Son and the Father, but not a separation. The deity of the Son is none other than that of YHWH Himself, having come down in the form of a servant and in the likeness of men. This is why we find statements like, "He that believes on me, believes not on me, but on him that sent me. And he that sees me sees him that sent me" (John 12:44-45). On another occasion Jesus said, "He that receives me receives him that sent me" (John 13:20).
Jesus made even more profound statements of this nature. Such include "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me. If you had known me, you should have known my Father also" (John 14:6-7). Not only is Jesus the way to the Father, but the Father can only be known through the Son. Probably one of the best examples demonstrating this point is found in II John 9 where John said, "Whosoever transgresses, and abides not in the doctrine of Christ, does not have God. He that abides in the doctrine of Christ, he has both the Father and the Son." (See also I John 2:23-24) If you accept Christ's person you will have the Father and the Son.
One very telling statement is, "I came forth from the Father, and entered the world; now I am leaving the world, and am going to the Father" (John 16:28). He (Christ in the flesh) came from the Logos of the Father and returned to the Logos of the Father.
As has already been demonstrated, as it pertains to the deity of the Son, He was YHWH. He was eternally the Word of God, the Logos, the Eternal thought and the attribute of all that God was. Just as Jesus can be said to be the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8), without having a physical body until the incarnation and having been slain in time, God can give glory to His Logos before the Logos is ever made flesh to perform his plan. God calls those things, which are not as though they were (Romans 4:17). Jesus could rightly say that He came forth from the Father. The Logos was with God, and then was made flesh, coming to the earth (John 1:1,14). Jesus did return to heaven. He ascended to the Father, from whence He came. Since the Logos was God, He did not come as one of the three personalities in the Godhead, but it was the deity of the Father Himself who came.
To explain the prayers of Jesus as one divine person praying to another poses even greater problems. If this were the case, then there is a subordination of one divine person to another. Prayer is addressed to one who is superior in power and ability, or else there would be no need for prayer. If this is a case of deity praying to deity, then there is a hierarchy in the Godhead with Jesus as sub-ordinate, a lesser God. However the scripture says, "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth (Phillipians 2:10)
It is best to understand the prayers of Jesus in light of His humanity. Jesus possessed a complete human psyche through which He communicated with man and with God as all other human beings do. Hebrews 5:7 says "Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared." This explains Jesus' prayers as being prayed "in the days of his flesh." This doesn't mean that the body Jesus possessed during His earthly ministry was dissolved somehow upon His glorification and ascension, but was speaking of the days in which Jesus walked in this earth before His ascension into heaven. It was during that time that Jesus prayed in this manner.
That Jesus’ prayers were genuine is witnessed by the fact that Jesus prayed in solitary places and at night (Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16). Not only did Jesus pray alone, but He prayed all night long at times (Luke 6:12). For Peter, He prayed that his faith would not fail (Luke 22:31-32).
Jesus needed to pray as much as we do, and He did. He prayed because He needed a relationship with God, and depended upon God's strength and power that comes from His anointing to minister to the world and finish the works the Father gave Him to do (John 4:34; 5:36).
Hebrews 1 quotes Psalm 45:6-7 saying, "But to the Son he says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even your God, has anointed you with oil of gladness above your fellows."
Psalm forty-five was a prophetic psalm concerning the Messiah. Here the Son is referred to as God, and yet He is also said to have a God ("even your God"). This verse clearly refers to the Son in His dual nature as both man and God, viewing Him as God, and as one who has a God.
All of these Scriptures relay one common truth that knowing the Father is bound up in knowing the Son, showing that he is the Revelation of God.
The New Testament does not reveal another God, or speak of different persons who are God. It is a further revelation of the ONE and SAME GOD. Christ did not come to reveal a 2nd person. He did not come to reveal the Son. He came to reveal the Father. He never talked about 2 or 3 Gods. He talked about One God. And now in the last age God is calling us who are not indoctrinated into denominational organized religion back to the cornerstone revelation of the entire Bible, that JESUS IS GOD, HE AND THE FATHER ARE ONE. THERE IS ONE GOD. AND HIS NAME IS LORD JESUS CHRIST! He is IMMANUEL, which being interpreted means “God with us.”
Jesus asked his disciples one day “who do men say that I the son of man am?” Some say you are Elijah, or Jeremiah or one of the prophets. “But who do you say that I am?” And Simon Peter answered and said, “thou art the Christ the son of the living God.”
The Roman Catholic Church says that this scripture declares the church is built on Peter and that he is the first pope. Peter was the head of the church in Jerusalem, not Rome. That's not it. What was the church to be built upon then? Oh my, think for a moment.
What was the question that Jesus asked? “Who do men say that I the son of man am?”
It was the revelation of who Jesus was! Peter had the rock of the revelation of who Jesus was and on that he said he would build his church. There’s no way Satan can stop a revelation. Once its been revealed to you, nothing can take that away.
Notice in Matthew 28: 19 Jesus commanded them to baptize in the NAME of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Also notice the scripture doesn’t say in the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost as the Roman Catholic Church does it, nor does it say in the Names (Plural). He said in the NAME (singular). And Father is not a name. You might be a Father but that’s not your name. It’s a title that you hold. If you are man then you are a Son, but that’s not your name, and you are a human being, but that’s not your name, its what you are. God is a spirit!
Now Peter
Some say, “Oh I’ll take what Jesus said”. Oh brother, if they didn’t say exactly the same thing then what kind of a religion do we have? Jesus the scripture declares is both LORD and CHRIST (Acts 2:36) He is both Lord (Jehovah-Savior) and Christ (the word Christ means, “Anointed one”) the Holy Spirit manifested in flesh. He is Lord (Father) Jesus (Son) Christ (Holy Spirit). He is all of it. The FULLNESS of the deity in bodily form (Colossians 1: 28).
Now that is sound Bible doctrine. God himself purchased our salvation, not the blood of bulls and goats which were but shadows, not a second person. Jesus was the perfect sinless sacrifice, all man and all God. That is the gospel program. That is the truth! That is Gods Word!!
Trinitarians believe in three eternal persons that make up the "one God" in unity of spirit. They believe that the second person of the Trinity became incarnated while the Truth is the Father who is the Eternal Spirit, became incarnated as the Son of God. Trinitarians believe that the Son is eternal while the Truth is that the Son did not exist until the incarnation, because the term refers to God as He exists as a man, and not as He exists in His essential deity, he is not the "eternal Son" there is no such scripture, he is the "begotten Son."
Trinitarians see the Biblical distinctions between the Father and the Son to be a distinction in both personality and flesh while the Truth is that all distinctions are a result of the relationship of the Spirit of God to the incarnate God-man. Trinitarians make Christ into a secondary God by making him a second eternal person, which is unscriptural. This is a pagan belief of a Trinity of Gods that predates Christianity and is purely Roman Catholic dogma as both the Word and the histories prove. Trinitarians are in essence denying Colossians 1:28, that he is the FULNESS of God, by making him a secondary God. Notice Rev. 1: 8 "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” Jesus said he was the first, the last, the ALL of it, but not a second person.
When John was caught up to the Throne room of God in the Book of Revelation how many thrones did he see? How many persons were on the throne?
Amen! One Throne and One sat on the Throne! The Truth is Revealed!
Brother Branham said the following: God is looking today for those who will not be bound into denominational dogma, and organized religion of man, but who will follow the leading of the Spirit of God into truth. "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev 22:17).