17/09/2023
CBM MEDIA ORG / NEW BASIC TOPIC PREACHING VIDEO SERIES
SCRIPT FOR VIDEO "IS GOD A TRINITY?"
- 1600 Words English
- finished video time in English approx 13 minutes
https://vimeo.com/414233521/2204bb5094
Paragraph 1
Greetings. This is a short video which asks the question "Is God a Trinity?"
There are millions of Christians in the world today and nearly all of them believe in the Trinity.
So what is the trinity?
Well there are hundreds of definitions but in broad terms it is.
God eternally exists in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that these three are one God, co-equal and co-eternal.
Basically, they are all one entity, which no one really seems to understand so most religions cover it by saying that it is a mystery.
Someone put it this way.
If you try to explain the Trinity, you will lose your mind. But if you deny it, you will lose your soul.
We should ask ourselves a question?
Why would an ever loving, all powerful God do that to us on such a fundamental issue?
Para 2
Christadelphians don’t believe in a Trinity which puts us at odds with many other Christian bodies.
Hopefully at this point you will be asking “why is it that Christadelphians don’t believe in the concept of the Father Son and Holy Spirit as being one person or a trinity”?
Well the first thing is that we believe that the Bible is Gods inspired word and that it is the only source of understanding and that it actually does support the trinity concept.
So what does the bible have to say about it? Lets have a look!
Para 3
Before Jesus was born the angel told Mary:
Luke 1:31,32 “You will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son and shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest”
Little is recorded about Jesus until the age of 30 when it records his baptism. There we are told this in Matthew 3:16-17.
And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.
Just like all good fathers are pleased with obedient children so was God pleased with his son Jesus. We know in our own experience that a father and son cannot be the same person, neither is God the same as His Son, Jesus.
Para 4
There are some difficult verses like John 10:30 where it says ‘I and the Father are one’ but it goes on the say 6 verses later ‘I am God’s Son’
So it’s just like any of us saying a husband and wife are of one mind
What Jesus is trying to say is that he is the image of his Father and as such is
reflecting God’s character to men.
He explains it like this in Hebrews 1:3
‘The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being’
Para 4
We can think about it like this:
When you look in a mirror, you see your image. But, the image is not you: it is a reflection.
In the same way Jesus is not the same being as God. He reflects God’s character to men.
Fathers always exist before their children. God has always existed. But Jesus, as His Son, has not.
Peter who was one of Jesus’s closest disciples tells it like this in 1 Peter 1:20
‘He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake’.
Para 5
Jesus did not exist until he was born. He was born because
“God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Could the words be simpler?
Just as God called Jesus his “beloved Son”, so also Jesus often called God his Father. He said:
“I am going to the Father, for my Father is greater than I” (John
14:28).
So , If God is greater, how can He and Jesus be the same being? It just doesn’t make sense does it?
Again - When asked about the end of the age, Jesus said:
“Of that day and hour no one knows, neither … the Son, but only the Father” (Mark 13:32).
So, if God knows, and Jesus doesn’t, how can they be the same?
Para 6
Let’s think about a few more scriptures in this way.
In Marks gospel 13:32 talking of the end of the age Jesus says.
“Of that day and hour no one knows, neither … the Son, but only the Father”
In 2 Corinthians 11:31. The Apostle Paul also calls God,
“The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” - God and Jesus are separate beings.
In 1 Corinthians 11:3. The Apostles Paul understood the relationship between God and Jesus. When he said
“The head of every man is Christ … and the head of Christ is God”
Thinking about that for a minute:
When Paul said The head of every man is Christ … and the head of Christ is God”
Jesus had been crucified, raised from the dead, made immortal, and ascended into heaven and yet still not equal with God.
That just couldn’t make sense if they were one in the same could it?
So it couldn’t be clearer when it says that the head of Christ is God.
Para 7
In fact, Its Paul who tells us in 1 Timothy 2:5,
“There is one God and one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus”
The apostle John in 1 John 4:15, says
“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God”
Scripture gives us the answers if we look for them, and the answer in this case is that “Jesus is the Son of God”. And they are not the same.
Going into this a bit deeper – what can we learn from the name of Jesus
Often, he is called “Jesus”, “Christ”, “Lord” and “teacher”. Also:
(a) Son of man (81 times);
(b) Son of God (27 times);
(c) Son of David (17 times);
(d) Beloved Son (8 times).
Jesus is called the “Son of man” because he was born of a human mother;
the “Son of God” because God was his Father;
the “Son of David” because he is descended from King David and will return to the earth as king to sit on David’s throne (Luke 1:32,33);
and, the “beloved Son” because he was obedient to God, his Father.
In all these 133 references Jesus is called the Son. He is distinct from God, the Father.
Para 8
We must accept the evidence the Bible so abundantly provides.
So now lets look at why JESUS CANNOT be God.
Although God and Jesus are at one in purpose, their work is different.
In the Garden of Eden God gave Adam and Eve a rule to follow which was not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And for a while they kept the rule – BUT in time they couldn’t help thinking that there was something about what this tree had to offer that they desired, so they took the fruit and eat it.
They had a choice, but they broke the rule, in the bile that is called sin and as a result, they and all humans that were to follow them would suffer and eventually die
God’s purpose was not, and still is not, that men and women should suffer and die as a result of sin, but a gap had been created between God and man by sin.
Para 9
God ‘s purpose is that the world and human beings should come together with him and to be like him.
So to bring about this purpose - a sinless man had to restore man to God or to bridge the gap created by sin.
That man is Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:20-23,42-49).
God could not do that work Himself, because He is immortal and sinless. .its
James in 1:13 tells us without doubt that God cannot be tempted with evil
But unlike God, Jesus was mortal,
In fact it tells us in Hebrews 4:15.
That he was tempted in every way just like us, and he might have sinned, but he didn’t, unlike us.
You see God gave his Son, “that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17).
Again in Romans 5:8
“While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”,
It was not, and still is not, possible for God to sin, or die.
Para 10
So, He brought salvation through Jesus Christ, who died for us.
If Jesus and God were the same, it means Jesus couldn’t sin, and therefore his victory over sin as an example to us and a sacrifice for all mankind would have no meaning or purpose.
Our conclusion so far then is that is they are two separate and now immortal beings in heaven, then the theory of the trinity is blown apart.
We know that God and Jesus are not two parts of a “Trinity”.
So the Holy Spirit can- not be the third part of something which does not exist.
The Bible clearly says the Holy Spirit is the power of God. It is not a person.
In Luke 1:35
The angel said to Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the “power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that holy one who is to be born will be called the Son of God”
The truth is simply stated. God used His power to bring into being Jesus, His Son.
Para 11
So, in conclusion.
Although Jesus is now immortal, his role is and will be different from that of God.
The bible tells us in Zechariah 9:9,10; Matthew 25:31
That God will soon send Jesus back to the earth to establish His Kingdom on earth just like it says in the Lord’s Prayer which most of us learnt as children:
Thy Kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus will reign as King, until finally he hands the Kingdom to God.
Jesus, as God’s immortal Son, will still be subject to Him – “that God may be all in all”
As it says in 1 Corinthians 15:20-28
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.
Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he “has put everything under his feet.”
Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ.
When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
We, too, can be in God’s Kingdom. To be blessed with everlasting life when
Jesus comes, all we have to do:
Is to Believe God’s Word and be baptised into the saving name of Jesus, and to try to live like he did, always remembering to ask for forgiveness when we fail and fall prey to sin.
If we do that, God promises us that we can be forgiven and be a part of his kingdom when he sends his son Jesus back to the earth to set it up .
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