Hard Facts

“There is some warrant for asserting that the propensity to believe evident nonsense increases rather than decreases with higher education.”2

“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:17-18).

We have come to the firm personal conclusion that no amount of bluster or scholarly waffle about “wasting God’s time” can hide the fact from a reasonable mind that some things believed by churchgoers are in fact nonsense.

The sordid history of orthodoxy does not do honor to the Name of the One they claim to know and teach. One has only to apply Jesus’ test, that one does not draw sweet water from a polluted well or grapes from a thorn bush. Unfortunately, few are willing to forgo the acceptance of their peers and make a stand for what they suspect to be true in their own minds, but rather they imagine ignorance or embrace “mystery” to salve a troubled conscience and agree with the crowd. Truth then fails!

It is easier for Christians to go along with popular opinion, as was ably explained by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860): “There is no opinion, however absurd, which men will not readily embrace as soon as they can be brought to the conviction that it is generally adopted.”

An example of the sort of dogma that is proclaimed by orthodoxy to keep the unlearned “in submission” goes like this: “The Son of God died; it is absolutely to be believed because it is absurd. And he was buried and rose again; the fact is certain because it is impossible.”3 That sort of argument must be either blindly believed (“by faith”) or thrown out as nonsense, which unfortunately, most of the world do. The Bible never speaks like this, but indeed, the son of God (not God the Son) did die and his Father raised him from the dead and exalted him. In plain language see Acts 2:14-36.

Even Albert Einstein gave homage to Isaac Newton, the great physicist and theologian who perceived God’s hand in Creation and refused to confess the Trinity; therefore many of Newton’s theological works are kept unavailable to the public.

Newton wrote that “the human race is prone to mysteries, and holds nothing so holy and perfect as that which cannot be understood,” but advised that:

“Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in multiplicity and confusion of things.” How true!

William Tyndale said that scholars who argued about the meanings behind the apparent meaning of words were “idle disputers and brawlers about vain words, ever gnawing on the bitter bark without and never attaining the sweet pith within.”

To Tyndale, the Bible is to be read as a whole, and the words accepted for what they are, “for it tells a tale that any man or woman can understand, without being ordained, or studying theology.” Not long before the Church burnt Tyndale for his faith he wrote, “Cleave fast to the rock of the help of God and commit the end of all things to Him” and “Be not overcome by men’s persuasions.”4

Isaac Watts, the great logician and hymn writer (“When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” “Joy to the World,” “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” and over 500 more), pointed out in his classic textbook on logic, “The power of reasoning was given us by our Maker, for this very end, to pursue truth; and we abuse one of His richest gifts if we basely yield up to be led astray by any of the meaner powers of nature or the perishing interests of this life. Reason itself, if honestly obeyed, will lead us to receive the divine revelation of the Gospel, where it is duly proposed, and this will show us the path to life everlasting.”5

It is evident that there is a close connection between Isaac Watts’ study of logic and his rejection of the Trinity. After devoting 20 years to intense scriptural study on the nature of God, Watts wrote: “But how can such weak creatures ever take in so strange, so difficult and so abstruse a doctrine as this [the Trinity], in the explication and defense whereof multitudes of men, even men of learning and piety, have lost themselves in infinite subtleties of dispute and endless mazes of darkness? And can this strange and perplexing notion of three real persons going to make up one true God be so necessary and so important a part of that Christian doctrine, which, in the Old Testament and the New, is represented as so plain and so easy, even to the meanest understandings?”6

In the light of the foregoing, my question is: On what grounds does an organization claiming to be Bible-based and “Christ-centered” uphold doctrine never mentioned by Jesus or the Apostles, unless it follows the Roman creed of inerrancy and superiority of the Church's teaching and tradition over the Bible? To be honest before God you must answer that question and act.

Consider these passages. Read them as they are; don’t try and “interpret” them according to some preconceived doctrine:

John 14:28: “I go to the Father, for my Father is greater than I.”

John 20:17: “I ascend to my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.”

Ephesians 4:6: “One God and Father of all, who is above all.”

Jesus prays: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give new age life to all those you have given him. Now this is new age life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. [“Sent” does not suggest “from heaven”, John the Baptist and the prophets where all “sent.” It means “commissioned.”] I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:2-4, NIV).

The words in bold are strange statements between coequal, co-eternal beings, are they not?

“Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and declared to them…‘Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in your midst...being delivered by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death, but God raised him up, putting an end to the agony of death…This Jesus God raised up, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this which you both see and hear…

Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made that same Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah” (Acts 2:14- 36).

Later Stephen testified: “But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened up, and the son of man standing at the right hand of God [two separate and distinct beings] …They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the lord and said, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!’ Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, ‘lord, do not hold this sin against them!’ Having said this, he fell asleep” (Acts 7:55-60).

And there are many more such clear statements in Scripture that exclude any idea of Jesus being God or of God being three Persons:

2 Corinthians 11:31: “The God and Father of the lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.”

Ephesians 1:3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our lord Jesus Messiah, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in the Messiah.”

1 Peter 1:3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Messiah, who according to his great mercy has caused us to born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Messiah from the dead.”

Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God is one LORD.”

2. Peter Berger, A Far Glory: The Quest of Faith in an Age of Credulity, Free Press, 1992, p. 163.

3. E.G. Bewkes, The Western Heritage of Faith and Reason, Holt, Rinehart, 1971.

4. From William Tyndale: If God Spare My Life by Brian Moynahan.

5. Logic, first published in 1724, reprinted by Soli Deo Gloria Publications, Morgan, PA, 1996, p. 325.

6. Quoted in William G. Eliot, Discourses on the Doctrines of Christianity, American Unitarian Assn., 1877, pp. 97, 100.

Written by Keith Relf, New Zealand