Strict Monotheism vs Trinity

Foreword

I have no logical structure to this post, but I will shuffle it around as I write it, and hopefully it will make some sort of literary sense.

I suggest a prayer to help you realise my angle on things, and not to just raise the armour of God and blank me out.

Introduction

As some of you may or may not know, I am having issues with the christian view of God. Namely that God is one God but in three divine persons. I cannot reconcile monotheism (belief in one God) with christian trinitarianism (belief in one God in three persons). This will cause a stir within all Christian circles and would probably get me anathemitized from any Christian church. God gave us rational thought, I do not think that he asked us to disregard it when coming to something as vitally important like faith and belief; although Job was told to basically belt up when he questioned God. These are the basic tenets of trinitarian belief:

• Each member of the Trinity is fully God, but only the unity of them is God
• God is one God in three persons
• Jehovah is God, Father and Creator
• Jesus is God, the Son of God and Saviour of Creation
• Holy Spirit is God, impregnated Mary and dwells in all Christians
• Each member is distinct from each other, but share the same divine essence
  

Some of these statements don't make sense if actually thought about rather than blithely believed for fear of being outcast. The above items makes it sound like polytheism (belief in many Gods). Before you go saying that you believe in "One God, three persons" consider the following prayers:

• Father God, thank you for today and bless this food which we are about to eat. Amen.
• Lord Jesus, please forgive me. I have sinned terribly today as I have stolen three shekels and made bread on the Sabbath day. Amen.
• Holy Spirit, come upon us! Amen! *Commence frantic shaking and glossolalia*

Now most ardent trinitarian christians have probably said these prayers, or variations of them, but it sounds like they have three separate deities which they pray to depending on the occasion.

Strict Monotheism

The rest of this blog is going to try and reason out each member of the trinity so that monotheism is maintained, the importance of Jesus is upheld and the fact of the Holy Spirit is described.

Jesus as the Son of God, not God the Son

Jesus, when he was alive and doing stuff (like healing, getting angry at the temple and other such fun activities) displayed no innate Godlike abilities. Now "abilities" ascribed to God include omnipotence (all powerful), omniscience (all knowing) and omnipresence (all present); otherwise God would not be God. Jesus was none of these things as the Bible mentions that Jesus was:

• not omnipotent - Mark 6:4-6 "But Jesus, said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching."
• not omniscient - Matthew 24:35,36 "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."
• not all present - Jesus was one individual with a limited sphere of influence in His ministry
• not God
  • John 1:18 - "No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." (If Jesus was God, then the disciples would have seen God)
    
  • Mark 10:18 - "And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God." (If Jesus was as good as God, there would be no need for this apparent chastisement of the rich man)
    
  • Mark 14:36 - "And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt." (Jesus is asking God to take away the cup of suffering prepared for Him, God would not argue with Himself (since the Trinity is supposedly a perfect three way relationship with all parts mutually supporting the others))
    
  • Psalm 110 - "The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." (notice capitalization; if they were equal, both would be LORD)
• His name ¨Immanuel¨ meaning God with us, means that God is not against us anymore, since He has sent His Son to die for us
  

These above points demonstrate that Jesus was not God while on Earth, and any power given to Him came from God. Any of the times that He displayed suprahuman (beyond human) powers was when God allowed Him to.

Christians may rush to John's Gospel to defend their idea of God the Son, and usually the best verse from it is John 10:30 "I and the Father are one". It is good to read on through John 17:20-26. Now is this verse suggesting that we are all to become part of the Holy Trinity, since Jesus is one with God, and He prays for all believers to be one in God as well?

Another port of call is John 1 in the introduction of the Word. Trinitarians describe this as the 2nd Person of the Godhead Trinity, who becomes God incarnate in Jesus Christ. A way which maintains strict monotheism without doing what the JWs do (add a few words here and there to support their big God small god doctrines) or what liberal Christians do (pick 'n' mix Bible, or in some cases absolutely refuse to be corrected by the word of God), is proposed here:

The Word is God's plan of salvation for humankind.

• John 1:1 - When the Word is described as being God, it could mean that it belongs to God
• John 1:2 - God had the plan from the beginning, it wasn't suddenly cooked up because things didn't go the way He wanted
• John 1:3 - Without the plan, there would be no point in creation if there was no hope
  
• John 1:9 - When the Word becomes flesh, the plan of salvation is embodied in Jesus

The Holy Spirit as God's personal spirit not as a distinct entity

The Holy Spirit appears in Genesis 1 as the hovering Spirit of God, and numerous points in the NT as a dove or as the Holy Spirit. But this could be described as God's personal spirit presence on earth, there is no need for a "third person" of the Trinity. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit would therefore be blasphemy against God since it is His spirit, and not a part of God or the third person of the Trinity.

Also, the spirit of God is not some sort of Star Wars force like some New Age religions and the Jehovah's Witnesses believe; it is God's personal spirit presence here on Earth, like when He appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai amidst fire and smoke.

• Exodus 19:17-25 - And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.
• Exodus 33:14 - And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
  

Scriptural Problems with Strict Monotheism

Problems include Matthew's baptismal formula, the three witnesses in Heaven and places where Peter mentions Jesus as God and the Saviour. The formula problem is allegedly a passage added by trinitarians to support their view after the Council of Nicaea; the same explanation goes for the witnesses; and the Peter reference can be "solved" with the addition of a comma after God (commas weren't used in Hebrew/Greek scriptures since the meaning is obtained through the words alone; whereas commas are needed in english since it refines the writer's thoughts and intentions).

Another problem is that in the Old Testament, God seems to use the "royal we" when seemingly refering to Himself (Creation, The Fall, Tower of Bable, Sending of Isaiah) . This can be explained by the fact he was talking to His angels. I do not want to rip off someone's work and claim it as my own, because that's what I'd basically be doing if I just reiterated his explanation here, so I have provided the link below to his essay.

Before trinitarians think I'm making the above up, I give the following 3rd party links:

• Baptismal Formula
  
• 1 John 5:7 Scriptural Problems
• Angels as the reason for God's reference as "we"
  

This will be an ongoing journey which I, and doubtless many others, will carry on with. I just pray that God will show me or tell me what is right.

Summary

My own thoughts and limited research on this subject have lead me to believe that trinitarianism or nontrinitarianism are not salvation affecting doctrines, but very difficult ones to prove either way nonetheless. My views of Jehovah, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are summed up in this small list

• Jehovah is God, Father and Creator and totally worthy of all worship
• Jesus is God's Son, Saviour of Creation, and it is because of Him that the world had a reason to exist. Praise offered to Him glorifies the Father in Heaven since in effect it praises God for sending Jesus to save us all. Faith and following the example of Christ is what brings us salvation, trusting in God and His Son for life both here and after
  
• The Holy Spirit is God's personal spirit presence in the world, not a separate person of God

All these points are compatible with strict monotheism (in that there is one, unique God, not a conglomerate of holy beings) and practiced trinitarianism with a few changes; ie all prayers go to the Father made possible by the sacrifice of His Son Jesus.

If this was a salvation affecting doctrine, it would turn God into a petty and unrealistic God. Only God can comprehend God (which is also an argument Trinitarians use when they're pressed) and so ANY description which our minds can make up is wrong; be it a Monotarian, Binatarian or Trinitarian view of what God is. Age of a view of God is no qualifier, since Hindus have been around for far longer than any religion, and they're polytheistic.