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Thursday, November 19, 2009

Why Don't Jehovah's Witnesses Believe in the Trinity?

Nowhere in the Bible is it mentioned that Jesus ever claimed to be God. Rather, he specifically called the "Father...the only true God." (John 17:1-3; Also see John 20:17; 2 Corinthians 1:3 and 1 Corinthians 8:6)

Nowhere in the Bible does it conclusively say that Jesus is God. Instead, the Bible repeatedly refers to Jesus as the "son of God". Because the Bible describes Jesus as the second oldest and second most important person in the universe, the Bible calls Jesus:

the "only-begotten Son" of God. (John 1:14; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9)

"the first-born of all creation". (Colossians 1:15)

"the beginning of God's creation". (Revelation 3:14)

The Bible shows that Jesus is subordinate to God: "The head of the Christ is God." (1 Corinthians 11:3) Jesus himself said: "The Father is greater than I." (John 14:28)

Concerning the supposed third person of the Trinity, nowhere in the Bible is the Holy Spirit called "God, the Holy Spirit." Instead, the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit is not a person, but rather is God's active force. Even many trinitarian scholars will admit this.

Not only does Biblical and historical evidence clearly not support the Trinity, but Historian Will Durant said that

"Christianity did not destroy paganism; it adopted it. . . . From Egypt came the ideas of a divine trinity."

And Arthur Weigall stated that

"Nowhere in the New Testament does the word `trinity' appear. The idea was only adopted by the Church three hundred years after the death of our Lord; and the origin of the conception is entirely pagan." - The Paganism in our Christianity, pp. 197, 198.

Some look to a few selected Bible texts as "proof" of the Trinity. However, not even so much as one of these "proof texts" says that the Father, Jesus, and the holy spirit are one in some mysterious Godhead and, very often, the true meaning of such a text is clarified by the context of surrounding verses.