Insight on the News

Who Are the Heretics?

“In the Bible we read that God is a Trinity,” wrote Professor Johan Heyns, spiritual leader of South Africa’s Dutch Reformed Church, in the November 15, 1986, edition of the South African newspaper Naweek-Volksblad. Of those who reason that God cannot be three and yet one, continues the professor, “the Christian Church said that these people were preaching a false doctrine, and therefore the church also denounced them as heretics.”

But where is the word Trinity found in the Bible? Professor Heyns did not say. This is not surprising because, as The New Encyclopædia Britannica explains, “neither the word Trinity nor the explicit doctrine appears in the New Testament, nor did Jesus and his followers intend to contradict the Shema [Jewish confession of faith] in the Old Testament: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord’ (Deut. 6:4).” If not taught by Jesus and his apostles nor specifically stated in the Bible, how did the Trinity doctrine become popular? Although the Britannica claims that the germ of the doctrine is in the “New Testament,” it admits that “the doctrine developed gradually over several centuries and through many controversies” and that by the end of the fourth century “the doctrine of the Trinity took substantially the form it has maintained ever since.”

If those who refuse to believe that God is three in one are heretics, then what about Jesus Christ himself? He repeated the above words of Deuteronomy 6:4: “The Lord our God is one Lord.” (Mark 12:29, King James Version) Jesus also said: “The Father is greater than I am.” (John 14:28) So who are the heretics? Those who stick to what Jesus taught or those who cling to a doctrine developed centuries after his death?​—Compare 1 Corinthians 4:6 with 2 John 9.

“Fortress” City

“Sydney today is a city under siege,” began an editorial in The Sun-Herald, a Sydney, Australia, newspaper. “Its residential suburbs are barred, double deadlocked and electronically-guarded fortresses. Its night trains are vandalised, graffiti-scarred and ominously empty. Its streets after dark are becoming increasingly unsafe.”

Although the above could be a distressing portrait of many large cities around the world, it sets off alarms of deep concern for Australians. Yet, Bible students are not surprised to see lawlessness spreading. Why? Because they recall Jesus’ prophetic words about conditions in our day. Jesus said that “because of the increasing of lawlessness the love of the greater number will cool off.” (Matthew 24:12) And while the editorial in The Sun-Herald bewails the pall of fear affecting what has been called the Lucky Country’s luckiest city, “luck” will not bring an end to wickedness. Only Jehovah, by means of his heavenly government, will. Psalm 5:4 assures us that Jehovah is “not a God taking delight in wickedness; no one bad may reside for any time with you.”

Fatal Ironic Twist

The Bible commands Christians to ‘abstain from blood.’ (Acts 15:29) Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that this Scriptural injunction applies to the eating of blood as well as to blood transfusions. AIDS, a fatal disease that attacks the body’s immune system, can be contracted from blood transfusions. In a sad but ironic twist, a baby born with a rare and deadly immune-deficiency disease called reticular dysgenesis was given a bone-marrow transplant at the age of six months. The procedure involved blood transfusions. The transplant appeared to be a success until doctors discovered that the transfusions used gave the infant another deadly disease. “At 2 1/2 the patient is doing well except for one thing,” reports Physician’s Weekly. “The child was given posttransplant platelets before screening for (the AIDS virus) became mandatory and he now has AIDS.”