Does the Bible Really Teach It?

THE Bible is the world’s oldest religious book. For Christians it contains the only remaining record of what Jesus Christ taught. For Jews it preserves Moses’ law. Even “unbelievers” read it as great literature. Thus, more copies of the Bible have been distributed than of any other book in the history of the world.

Yet, there are more false ideas about what the Bible teaches than there are about any other book!

What the Bible really teaches about such basic ideas as who God is, how earth was created and what happens when we die, is far different from what many religions teach today.

IS GOD A TRINITY?

Take, for example, the basic idea of who God is. For centuries Christendom has taught that God is a Trinity. People have been told that “the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three Gods but one God.” According to this doctrine, none of the three is greater, none is older, and none is more powerful than the others. If, as The Catholic Encyclopedia says, this is “the central doctrine of the Christian religion,” you would expect it to be explained specifically in the Bible. However, this is not the case.

The New Catholic Encyclopedia says that today “Trinitarian discussion, Roman Catholic as well as other, presents a somewhat unsteady silhouette.” Why? It says this is because of the modern return to “the primitive sources, chiefly the Biblical.” No doubt to the great surprise of many of its readers, it says that there is a recognition among Biblical scholars, “including a constantly growing number of Roman Catholics, that one should not speak of Trinitarianism in the New Testament without serious qualification.”a

It was not during the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, but, according to this encyclopedia, it was as late as “the last quadrant of the 4th century” that the teaching of “‘one God in three Persons’ became thoroughly assimilated into Christian life and thought.” This means, of course, that the current idea about the Trinity was not explained by Christ to his apostles, but was added centuries after his death.

Among Protestants, The New Bible Dictionary admits: “The word Trinity is not found in the Bible, and, though used by Tertullian in the last decade of the 2nd century, it did not find a place formally in the theology of the Church till the 4th century.”

Thus, these persons who teach the doctrine of the Trinity are forced to admit that it is not found in the Bible. It developed after Jesus’ earthly ministry, and therefore was not a part of his teaching. He explained his relationship with the Father in an entirely different way. Rather than claiming to be equal with him, Jesus said: “The Father is greater than I am.”​—John 14:28.

The Bible is clear in its teaching about Jesus. It says he existed in heaven before coming to the earth​—that he had glory with his Father “before the world was.” (John 17:5) But it does not say that, like God, he had no beginning. Instead, the Bible calls him “the first-born of all creation,” and “the beginning of the creation by God.”​—Col. 1:15; Rev. 3:14.

The inspired Bible writers made a careful distinction between God and Jesus. The apostle Paul was very specific in this matter. He wrote: “There is actually to us one God the Father, out of whom all things are, and we for him; and there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and we through him.” (1 Cor. 8:6) Who did he say God is? The FATHER!

In view of such Biblical statements, it is no wonder that the New Catholic Encyclopedia says modern “Trinitarian discussion, Roman Catholic as well as other, presents a somewhat unsteady silhouette.” But this discussion about God is only a beginning. Many other ideas commonly thought to be from the Bible are not found there at all. Read on; some of these may surprise you.

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