Recently I posted my Statement of Faith which caught the interest of a few who disagreed with my statement of the trinity saying that Jesus wasn't both God and man, just man. This isn't new statement at all, in fact it is a argument that is almost as old as the belief in the trinity it self. The reason for this, as far as I see it, is because the trinity is one of the hardest doctrines to believe, not so much because of God the father or God the Holy Spirit but because of the statement that Jesus is not just 50% God and 50% man but 100% God and 100% man.I will primarily be responding to a post made on Adoni Messiah because it seemed to give a good explanations and give a point by point argument. The first point that I see in the post is "that both Oneness and trinity doctrines try to make Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah our Lord, into Almighty GOD!! And both doctrines state that you must believe that the Lord Jesus is Almighty GOD to be saved!!". On this point I have no problem, in fact if someone were to say that someone did have to have a full understanding of the trinity to become a Christian I would argue against them, the reason for this is because many people don't have a full understanding of the trinity when they are saved. In fact the only major saving elements is that Jesus was perfect, died for are sins, and was raised three days latter (give or take depending on your view of a day), those three elements satisfy the sacrifice system set up in the old testament for our sins.
Second "Both doctrines appeared hundreds of years after the ascension of Christ." This is also true, the formal doctrine of the trinity wasn't written down and worked out until The Nicene Creed (325-381 AD). The reason for this is there really wasn't a reason for it to be written down until then, There was a small contingent of people who would say that Jesus was just a man from the time that He set foot on earth but after His ascension among believers that group shrank a lot. The reason for this is that Christians adopted many of the views that the Jews had on God, you see the doctrine of the trinity in Christianity may have been defined years after Christ but it was actually a well established doctrine in by the time of Christ (you will notice that in the Gospels this is one of the few things that Jesus didn't have to teach, because it was already widely held before He came).
Third, this is where we really start to get in to the meat of the theology, and where it starts to get interesting/ fun "But the original faith which was once delivered unto the saints [Jude 3] did not suffer from this problem. The original faith has always been that there is solely ONE GOD, the Father. And Jesus of Nazareth, is the one man, the one human being whom Almighty GOD raised from the dead, made him, both Lord and Christ, and exalted him to His right hand. Hence, Jesus of Nazareth is the Lord Jesus Christ, a man approved of Almighty GOD, who is currently at the right of the ONE GOD in the heavens. Whom we await for his return. (1 Cor 8:4) ... there is none other God but one. (1 Cor 8:6) 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."
For this one we have to start by looking at the full context of the verse 1 Corinthians 8
Take Care with Your Liberty
1 Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies 2 If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; 3 but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him. 4 Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. 7 However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. 8 But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat. 9 But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. 10 For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols? 11 For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. 12 And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. 13 Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.
In regards to verse 4 it becomes clear that it is taken out of context, this verse is speaking about idols and saying that there is only one God, it is not speaking about the Godhead and does nothing to either support or reject the idea of the trinity. Verse 6 on the other hand does seem to be making an attempt at separating God the Father and God the Son, that is until you start to dig into the Greek of the words Lord in Lord, Jesus Christ means Lord of Lords which is a name used for God. Not only that looking at this verse we realize that this is speaking of roles with in that Godhead, in other words we exist for the Father and we exist through the Son.
(1 Tim 2:5) For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; (1 Th 1:9-10) For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; 10 And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. Here, in 1 Timothy 2:5, you have one of the few verses in the Bible where the doctrine of the trinity could be in conflict, that is until you read it in light of 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10. In 1 Timothy there is no denying what is being said it is clear that the author is speaking about God and His Son, there is a clear separation here, as well as in 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 we can see the same separation made and if we were to take these three verses by themselves never looking at what is said around them the conclusion would be that there would be two separate entities (in this case one God and His Son Jesus). But when we pull out from the verse just a little and look at 1 Thessalonians 1 in its whole we can see a different story being painted
1 Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. 2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; 3 constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father, 4 knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you; 5 for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. 6 You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8 For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. 9 For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.
Starting in verse 3 we can see Jesus motioned as Lord Jesus Christ, this is the same word translated Lord of Lords earlier. Again later in verses 5 and 6 the Holy Spirit is mentioned as another person yet equal here. with these verses it quickly becomes clear that this verse is talking about the trinity and what it is doing is giving a little outline of what the roles in the trinity are. When we go back to 1 Timothy 2:5 with this new realization the same thing can be seen there, this is speaking to the roles of God the Son and God the Father.
Hundreds of years after the pure, true, apostolic faith was propagated; Greek, Hellenistic and pagan philosophy/doctrines changed the human Jesus into a demigod then into a godman. And in response, both the doctrines of the trinity and Oneness tried to solve this self-inflicted problem! The solution then, is to return to the pure faith and doctrine as taught in the Scriptures: that there is solely ONE GOD, the Father. And there is solely one man, one human, whom the ONE GOD has made "Lord of all", the man Messiah Jesus. There are several problems with this statement. First as I said before the pure and true Apostolic faith would have said that there was a trinity because they would have taken the basic belief from the Jewish doctrine and the only real difference is that in the new Christian belief there would have been a greater understanding of the roles of the three persons of the trinity. Second this statement assumes that because this doctrine wasn't written out until a few centuries after the death of Jesus it must be false and made up but the simple fact is that in the history of God's people is has been that way. We can look back at the early and see that there were hundreds of years between God making a covenant with Abraham and the Ten Commandments, same with when Israel came to possess the their land and the time that an actual kingdom was set up. This is a weak argument to begin with and it only gets weaker as you examine it in greater detail. My third problem with this comment is that it seems to think that there is a problem to begin with that we need to solve. I will admit that we can't really know everything about the trinity and how it works but at the same time I will also say that we don't need to know everything about the trinity and how it works. In fact to try to get rid of it creates more problems and questions, from why are three persons mentioned in the Bible to if Jesus was just a man then what was so special about him. Unless we are ready to say that the bible is in direct conflict with itself we can't really believe this statement of One God.
And indeed the day is coming where ... (Phil 2:11) And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Again as in the start of this there is nothing that I can disagree with, there will be a day that God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) sits in all his glory and we praise Him.
If there are any questions and/or comments please feel free to post them, I love talking about stuff like this and I will be sure to respond to any questions.