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This Bible study deals with a very touchy subject. Most people are very sure about what they believe, even though there are many conflicting beliefs about God. Some of these beliefs have been around for hundreds of years and have become widely accepted. All these beliefs cannot be correct. Yet people are often very unwilling to listen to anything which goes against the traditions which they have received from their churches, or from their ancestors.

This study is not dealing with tradition or custom. It is simply dealing with the plain and simple truth of the Bible. If you will carefully read the verses quoted in this study you will see that it is telling the truth, and you may be surprised to see how many false ideas there are, even among Christians.

Some say, “God is a Trinity.” This is a very popular belief which is held very strongly by many people and some think it is blasphemy to teach anything else.

What is the Trinity?

  • 1. Most Christians say that God is made up of three persons who make up one being called God.
  • 2. Other Christians say that God is really one person, but at times he acts as Father, other times as Son, and another time as Holy Ghost.
  • 3. Still others say that there are three eternal beings and all of them are God. But because they are in agreement in everything, they are called one God.

All of these beliefs are sometimes referred to as the Trinity, or the Triune God. These ideas are very interesting and they have been around for hundreds of years, yet they are not true!

Does the Bible say that God is a Trinity?

There is not one single verse in the Bible which says that God is a Trinity. The Bible speaks of God and of His Son Jesus, and of God’s Spirit, which is His invisible presence. But it does not say these are a Trinity.

Who is God?

This is an extremely important question because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, told us that those who worship God should worship Him in Spirit and in truth. (John 4:24). If we do not worship God in truth can we be saved? The Scripture says that those who believe a lie will be damned. (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12)

The Bible tells us who God is:

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 Corinthians 8:6)

God is the Father. It is He who is the greatest Being in the universe.  (Please see also 1 Corinthians 11:3; John 17:3; Ephesians 4:6; and Mark 12:29-34.)

Who is Jesus Christ?

Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. (1 John 4:15)

Was Jesus Christ created by God?

No. He was not created. He was begotten of God.

God sent his only begotten Son into the world. (1 John 4:9)

Does the Bible tell us when Christ was begotten?

Christ was begotten by God before the universe was created. The book of Proverbs tells us of this and of the relationship which He enjoyed with God in the days before the world was made. Though He is referred to as “wisdom,” yet it is plain that the passage is speaking of the Son of God. We should note that in 1 Corinthians 1:24 Christ is called, “the wisdom of God.”

The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth ... Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth ... When he prepared the heavens, I was there ... when he appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men. (Proverbs 8:22-25, 27, 29-31)

Jesus Himself tells us that He was the begotten Son of God. He says,

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son. (John 3:16)

Why is Jesus sometimes called God?

Because He has the same nature as God. He was born from God so He is God by nature, but He is not the One who is the supreme Being in the universe. There is One who is greater than He. This is the One the Bible is talking about when it says that there is only one God.

How many Beings are there who have the divine nature, or the nature of God?

According to the Bible there are two Beings who have this nature. They are God, and His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. (John 1:1)

Who created the world?

Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. (Revelation 4:11)

It is God the Father who created all things. He is the originator and the source of all things.

Why then does the Bible say that Jesus is the Creator?

Because God created all things by Jesus Christ and gave him power over all things.

God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 3:9)

God, ... Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, ... by whom also he made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:1, 2)

But doesn’t the Bible say that God and Christ are one?

Yes. But in the same way it says that Christians should be one. Christians do not become one human. Neither do the Father and His Son become one God. It simply means that They are in unity as we are to be in unity.

That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. (John 17:21-23)

What is wrong with the Trinity doctrine?

It teaches that Christ is another God like the Father, equal in power and authority, and that He was not actually the real begotten Son of God. If we do not believe that Jesus was the actual Son of God, then how can we appreciate how much God loved us in giving Christ to die for us?

“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.” (1 John 4:9)

Can God the Father die?

No. This is impossible. He cannot die under any circumstances. He cannot be made into a mortal being.

Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen. (1 Timothy 6:16)

Could Jesus Christ, the Son of God die?

Christ could be made mortal so that He could die. He became a man and did truly die to save us from our sins. This was not pretense. This was reality.

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. (Hebrews 2:9)

God cannot die and if Jesus was God, the Father, Himself, then it cannot be true that He really died for our sins. But the Bible plainly says that Jesus “tasted death for every man.”

Does God have a spirit?

Yes. God’s spirit is His personality or His mind which is present in every place. God’s bodily presence sits on a throne in heaven, but His mind or spirit is everywhere.

Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD. (Jeremiah 23:24)

Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? (Psalm 139:7)

For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. (Matthew 10:20)

Does man have a spirit?

Yes. The Bible says that man has a spirit. When a man dies the body perishes, but the spirit returns to God and remains in an unconscious state until the resurrection when God will give it a new body.

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. (Ecclesiastes 12:7)

Is there a similarity between God’s Spirit and man’s spirit?

Yes, the Apostle Paul writes, paralleling man and his spirit and God and His spirit.

For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 2:11)

Whom do the beings in heaven worship?

The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. (Revelation 4:10-11)

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. (Revelation 7:9-10)

Why is it that the Holy Spirit is never worshipped anywhere in the Bible?

Because the Holy Spirit is the presence of the Father and the Son; not another third being. (John 14:19-23; John 17:21,23; 1 John 1:3) The Father and His Son ought to be worshipped but if men worship the Holy Spirit they would worship a god who does not exist.

And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. (Revelation 5:13)

What must we know if we would like to have eternal life?

And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3)


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