Trinity

(The idea of the trinity did not come about until the second century, and did not become a doctrine of the church until the fourth century. The apostles did not recognize a trinity. They seemed to believe that the Holy Spirit was the power of God. Not a seperate person of the Godhead. Paul in his letters even neglected to mention the Holy Spirit in his greetings to the churches.)


Paul's standard greeting was "Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." [I Cor 1:3, II Cor 1:3; Gal 1:3; Eph 1:2; Philip 1:2; Col 1:2; I Thes 1:1; II Thes 1:2; I Tim 1:2; Tit 1:4; Phil 1:3]


Funk and Wagnall Encyclopedia - article Trinity
"in Christian theology, doctrine that God exists as three persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - who are united in one substance or being.
The term 'trinitas' was first used in the second century by the Latin theologian Tertullian, but the concept was developed in the course of the debates on the nature of Christ. In the 4th century the doctrine was finally formulated."
(Even though the doctrine of the trinity was confirmed in the fourth century by the early church Fathers, the Catholic encyclopedia now admits....)


New Catholic Encyclopedia vol 13 p. 575
"The O.T. clearly does not envisage God's spirit as a person, neither in the strictly philosophical sense, nor in the semitic sense. God's spirit is simply God's Power. If it is sometimes represented as being distinct from God; it is because the breath of Yahweh acts exteriorly [Isa 48:16; 63:11; 32:15].


Very rarely do the O.T. writers attrebute to God's spirit emotions or intellectual activity [Isa 63:10; Wis 1:3-7] When such expressions are used, they are mere 'figures of speech' that are explained by the fact that the 'ruah' was regarded also as the seat of intellectual acts and feeling [Gen 41:8]. Neither is there found in the O.T. or in rabinical literature the notion that God'a spirit is an intermediary being between God and the world. This activity is proper to the angels, although to them is ascribed some of the activity that elsewhere is ascribed to the Spirit of God.
(In [II Cor 13:14]the Holy Spirit is mentioned with God and Jesus, but this is in connection with communion or fellowship.


In [I Cor] it says that Christians belong to Christ as Christ belongs to God, but evidently no one belongs to the Holy Spirit.


[Eph 5:5] mentions the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Christ, but no Kingdom of the Holy Spirit


In [Col 3:1] Paul wirtes of Christ sitting at the right hand of the Father. But where is the Holy Spirit?Why is He not sitting there too?)
1John 5:7 KJV For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one."
(Seems to uphold the doctrine of the Trinity at first glance, but...)


Bullinger's Companion Bible (footnotes) on [1John 5:7]
"The text reads "the Spirit, and the water", and c., omitting all the words from "in heaven' to "in earth" inclusive. The words are not found in any Gr. MS before the sixteenth century. They were first seen in the margin of some Latin copies. Thence they have crept into the text."


Unger's Bible Hand Book [1John 5:7]
"Verse 7 is not in the oldest and best manuscripts and should be omitted."


New Bible Commentary Revised [1John 5:7]
"The words are clearly a gloss and are rightly excluded by RSV even from its margin (p. 1269)"


Peake's Commentary on the Bible p.1038 [1John 5:7]
"The famous interpolation after "three witness" is not printed even in RSV and rightly..No respectable Greek MS contains it. Appearing first in a late 4th century Latin text, it entered the Vulgate and finally the N.T. of Erasmus."


The English Bible p.217 (footnote) [1John 5:7]
"the passage is 'not' in any of the early Greek MS of the Vulgate itself and it is probably a gloss that has crept into the text."


Interpreter's Bible [1John 5:7]
"This verse in the KJV is to be rejected...It appears in no ancient Greek MS nor is it cited by any Greek father; of all the versions only the Latin contained it, and even this is in none of the most ancient sources."


The Wycliffe Bible Commentary [1John 5:7]
"The text of this verse should read. 'Because there are three that bear record.' The remainder of the verse is spurious. Not a single manuscript contains the trinitarian addition before the 14th century, and the verse is never quoted in the controversies over the trinity in the first 450 years of the church era."


New Anerican Bible [1John 5:7-8
"So there are three that testify, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and the tree are of one accord."


Revised Standard Version [1John 5:7-8]
"There are three that testify the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these three agree."


New World Translation [1John 5:7-8]
"For there are three witness bearers the Spirit and the water and the blood, and the three are in agreement."


Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology p.581-582
"The trinity doctrine as we know it today owes more to the controversial needs of the 4th century and to the religious imagery accepted by Christians and non- Christians alike at that time than to any other influence either before or since.
The missionary requirements of the task of the early Christians theologian were dictated, naturally, by the kind of theology then emerging fron the dominant religious vision of the culture within which emerging Christianity then had to grapple."


Matt 28:19 "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."


Bullinger's Companion Bible footnote [Matt 28:19]
"Not 'names' final definition of the Name of the one trus God."
(Scholars translate the Greek expression 'eis to onoma', into the name of, something like into the possession of.)


(Yahshua didn't say baptize them 'in' the personal names of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit, as the KJV translators thought. The word should be into.)


Acts 2:37-38 "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
(gift- not person )
(The Holy Spirit is the power of God, which emanates from God.Upon conversion the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit unites with our minds and we are begotten again.)


[Gen 6:3; Job 33:4; Ps 139:7; Isa 11:2; Isa 42:1; Isa 61:1; Ezek 36:27; Ezek 39:29; Luke 1:15; Luke 1:35; Luke 1:67; Luke 11:13; John 20:22; Acts 4:8; Acts 4:31; Acts 13:9; Acts 15:8; Rom 8:11; 2Cor 1:22; 2Pet 1:21; Matt 3:11; Luke 2:26; John 1:33; John 14:26; 20:22; Acts 1:2,5,8,16; 2:33,38; 4:8; 10:38,44,45; Gen 1:1; Jer 27:5; 51:15; Matt 28:18; John 3:34; 1Pet 1:5]