By Jimmy, United States
Editor’s note: The “Trinity” is one of the religious world’s conclusions about God. For nearly 2,000 years, this theory has been accepted and recognized by most Christians. Although some Christians are confused about the existence of the Trinitarian theory of God, it is hard to explain, and the Trinitarian God has become a mystery in the hearts of Christians. Does the theory of the Trinity stand up to scrutiny? What is the relationship between Jehovah and Jesus? I believe that the author’s experience below can help you solve the mystery.
Confusion About the Three-in-One God
Every time my pastor preached his sermons, we would sing the hymn “Gloria Patri.” The pastor said that we believe in the one true God of the Trinity, the Father Jehovah, the Son the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, which are the three different persons of the one true God. I was very confused about this: Since there is only true God, what is the relationship between Jehovah and the Lord Jesus? If the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three persons, how can They be one? I felt that this was illogical. I went to seek answers with my pastor, but each time he gave me excuses, or said he would talk to me after services, or that it was an inconvenient moment, and that I should ask him later. I realized that the pastor was deliberately avoiding me, so I didn’t ask him again, but I couldn’t make sense of the theory of the Trinity.
Does the Trinity Stand Up to Scrutiny?
On a weekend in June of 2017, my wife happily told me that the Lord Jesus has already returned, and invited me to a meeting, to which I happily agreed.
In New York in June, the sun was shining and the scenery was beautiful. We drove with our small baby to the meeting point, where I met Brother Liu, Sister Hao Jing, and Sister Lisa. The instant we met, we felt like old friends, and the meeting was relaxing and relieving. My brothers and sisters patiently fellowshiped with me about the questions I raised, and their answers were very helpful, so after that, I asked them the question about the Trinity that had been bothering me so long.
I said, “My pastor often tells us that God is the one true God in three persons, and that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the three persons of the one true God. I didn’t understand how there is only one true God if He has three different persons. Brother Liu, can you discuss your opinion of the Trinitarian God?”
Brother Liu excitedly said, “Brother, you’ve raised a very important question. To learn more about the Trinitarian theory, we must investigate the Bible, and if we do, we learn that this theory has no biblical basis, because these words were not spoken by God, nor by the prophets, nor was it revealed by the Holy Spirit. This theory was established 300 years after the Lord came, at the First Council of Nicaea. There, religious leaders from every nation had an intense debate on the singular or multifaceted nature of God, and finally, according to human notions and imaginings and logical theories, established the theory of the Trinity, after which people assumed that aside from the Lord Jesus, there also existed a Father in heaven. Therefore, we can see that the theory of the Trinity is a product of corrupt humanity, and did not come from God. Today, Almighty God has come to express the truth and revealed this mystery, so first let’s read a passage of Almighty God’s word.”
He opened a website and found a passage of God’s word for me to read, “If any among you says that the Trinity indeed exists, then explain what exactly is this one God in three persons. What is the Holy Father? What is the Son? What is the Holy Spirit? Is Jehovah the Holy Father? Is Jesus the Son? Then what of the Holy Spirit? Is not the Father a Spirit? Is not the substance of the Son also a Spirit? Was not the work of Jesus the work of the Holy Spirit? Was not the work of Jehovah at the time carried out by a Spirit the same as Jesus’? How many Spirits can God have? According to your explanation, the three persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one; if so, there are three Spirits, but to have three Spirits means there are three Gods. This means that there is no one true God; how can this kind of God still have the inherent substance of God? If you accept that there is only one God, then how can He have a son and be a father? Are these not all simply your notions? There is only one God, only one person in this God, and only one Spirit of God, much as it is written down in the Bible that ‘There is only one Holy Spirit and only one God.’ Regardless of whether the Father and the Son of which you speak exist, there is only one God after all, and the substance of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit you believe in is the substance of the Holy Spirit.”
After which, he fellowshiped, “Through the passage of God’s word you’ve just read, we can understand that Jehovah is God’s Spirit, and the Lord Jesus is the fleshly incarnation of God’s Spirit. In substance They are the same Spirit, which is to say that there is only one God. He does not exist in three persons, nor is there any such thing as a Trinitarian God. In the Age of Law, God worked as a Spirit, and in the Age of Grace, God worked as incarnate flesh, but no matter whether God works as Spirit or flesh, He is the same Spirit doing different work. But people didn’t understand that the Lord Jesus was the incarnation of God’s Spirit in heaven or that God’s incarnate flesh shared the same essence as God’s Spirit in heaven, and instead relied on their own notions and imaginings to split the one true God into three persons, three separate Spirits. Isn’t that blaspheming God? This is why the ‘three persons’ theory doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, and why the Trinitarian God doesn’t exist!”
The Matter of the Father and the Son in the Bible
I said, “Brother Liu, I very much agree with your fellowship. God as Jehovah and the Lord Jesus were doing different work in different eras. Their work was different and Their names were different, but in essence They did the work of the same Spirit, so Jehovah and the Lord Jesus were the same God. But, even though Jehovah and Jesus were the same God, why does the Bible record that after the Lord Jesus was baptized, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’ (Matthew 3:17). Why did God call Jesus His beloved Son? And what about the Lord Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane, where He called God in heaven Father? Why does the Bible have the titles of Father and Son?”
Brother Liu smiled as he answered, “You’ve asked a critical question. Because so many people don’t see this question clearly, they use imaginings and theories as a basis for the theory of the Trinitarian God, and believe that the Lord Jesus has a Father. Is it right to say this? The Bible records a conversation between the Lord Jesus and Philip, ‘Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us. Jesus said to him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known me, Philip? he that has seen me has seen the Father; and how say you then, Show us the Father? Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak to you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwells in me, he does the works’ (John 14:8–10). From this conversation, we can see that Philip thought the Lord Jesus was the Son of Jehovah, that the Lord Jesus had a Father in heaven, but the Lord Jesus refused to confirm that. Instead, the Lord only said, ‘he that has seen me has seen the Father,’ and ‘I am in the Father, and the Father in me.’ The Lord Jesus said very clearly that the Father is the Son and the Son is the Father, that the Son and the Father are one in the same. But why don’t we understand it after hearing it? Primarily because we don’t know the essence of the incarnate God, and don’t understand the aspect of truth concerning God’s Spirit realizing in the flesh. Let’s read another passage of God’s word.”
I read, “There are still those who say, ‘Did not God expressly state that Jesus was His beloved Son?’ ‘Jesus is the beloved Son of God, in whom He is well pleased’ was certainly spoken by God Himself. That was God bearing witness to Himself, but merely from a different perspective, that of the Spirit in heaven bearing witness to His own incarnation. Jesus is His incarnation, not His Son in heaven. Do you understand? Do not the words of Jesus, ‘The Father is in Me and I am in the Father,’ indicate that They are one Spirit? And is it not because of the incarnation that They were separated between heaven and earth? In reality, They are still one; no matter what, it is simply God bearing witness to Himself. Owing to the change in ages, requirements of the work, and the differing stages of His management plan, the name by which man calls Him also differs. When He came to carry out the first stage of work, He could only be called Jehovah, shepherd of the Israelites. In the second stage, the incarnate God could only be called Lord, and Christ. But at that time, the Spirit in heaven stated only that He was the beloved Son of God, and made no mention of His being the only Son of God. This simply did not happen. How could God have an only child? Then would God not have become man? Because He was the incarnation, He was called the beloved Son of God, and, from this, came the relationship between Father and Son. It was simply because of the separation between heaven and earth. Jesus prayed from the perspective of the flesh. Since He had put on a flesh of such normal humanity, it is from the perspective of the flesh that He said: ‘My outer shell is that of a created being. Since I put on a flesh to come to this earth, I am now a long, long way from heaven.’ For this reason, He could only pray to God the Father from the perspective of the flesh. This was His duty, and that which the incarnate Spirit of God should be furnished with. It cannot be said that He is not God simply because He prays to the Father from the perspective of the flesh. Though He is called the beloved Son of God, He is still God Himself, for He is but the incarnation of the Spirit, and His substance is still the Spirit.”
Brother Liu then fellowshiped, “God’s word clearly tells us that the Lord Jesus is the incarnate flesh of God’s Spirit in heaven. When God in heaven called the Lord Jesus His beloved Son, it was God testifying His own incarnate flesh from a spiritual perspective, because there is only one God and one Spirit in heaven. To be more specific, the incarnate God was the fleshly appearance of Jehovah, which is to say that Jehovah’s Spirit humbled Himself and hid Himself inside a tangible, fleshly body and took the form of an ordinary Son of man. When the Lord Jesus prayed and spoke of the Father in heaven, He was only giving God’s Spirit a title from the perspective of a created being, which is to say, man. But this does not prove that the Lord Jesus was actually the Son of God’s Spirit in heaven. Before the Lord Jesus was crucified, He was the Son of man, the Christ, not the embodiment of glory, so when the Lord Jesus called God in heaven Father from the perspective of a created being, it demonstrated the Lord Jesus’ humbleness and obedience. But also, of all the apostles who followed the Lord Jesus Christ, aside from Peter, who was enlightened by the Holy Spirit of the fact that the Lord Jesus was Christ, none knew that Jesus Christ was the incarnate God, which is why God’s Spirit testified His fleshly body from His spiritual perspective, calling God in the flesh the Son, while the incarnate God called the Spirit in heaven His Father from the perspective of the flesh. This is the origin of the phrases Father and Son. But these phrasings were only suited to the period of work in which the Lord Jesus came incarnate. After He left, there was no longer any Father and Son, which is why we cannot allow ourselves to believe in a Trinitarian God because of the saying of the Father and the Son. The theory doesn’t stand!”
After I heard Brother Liu’s fellowship, my heart felt light. I said, “Amen! Thank you for your fellowship, brother! The Lord Jesus called God in heaven Father because He was speaking from the perspective of a created being, which demonstrates God’s humble and hidden nature. The truth is that God is a Spirit, in heaven He is called Jehovah, and incarnate He is called Jesus, but His essence is still the Spirit, which is why the Lord Jesus said to Philip, ‘He that has seen me has seen the Father.’”
Brother Liu smiled and said to me, “Praise be to God! That’s absolutely right. It’s because we don’t understand the truth of God’s incarnation that we separate God into three persons.”
My wife said, “Yes! If God hadn’t personally told us, we never could have understood.”
Brother Liu said, “Yes, it’s just like the prayer we recite every day, ‘Our Father which are in heaven, Hallowed be your name’ (Matthew 6:9). The Lord Jesus was teaching us to pray to His Spirit. We may see ourselves as adults with knowledge and experience, but in God’s eyes we are still babies who understand nothing. Let’s read another few passages of God’s word. Jimmy, you go ahead.”
I read in earnest, “God is a Spirit, but He is able to become flesh and live among men, as well as to be above all things. His Spirit is all-inclusive and omnipresent. He can simultaneously be in the flesh and throughout the universe. Since all people say that God is the only one true God, then there is a single God, divisible at will by none!” “The Spirit within Jesus, the Spirit in heaven, and the Spirit of Jehovah are all one. It can be called the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the sevenfold intensified Spirit, and the all-inclusive Spirit. The Spirit of God alone can carry out much work. He is able to create the world and destroy it by flooding the earth; He can redeem all mankind, and moreover, conquer and destroy all mankind. This work is all carried out by God Himself and cannot have been done by any other of the persons of God in His stead. His Spirit can be called by the name of Jehovah and Jesus, as well as the Almighty. He is the Lord, and Christ. He can also become the Son of man. He is in the heavens and also on the earth; He is on high above the universes and among the multitude. He is the only Master of the heavens and earth!”
Brother Liu said, “God’s word clearly tells us that God is one Spirit, and that God’s Spirit is everywhere and omnipotent. God’s Spirit can incarnate as flesh and live among men, and can control everything in the universe. God’s Spirit can do many works. He can create people, guide people, and save people, yet can also conquer people, perfect people, and extinguish people. No matter whether God works in heaven or on earth, no matter whether He is Spirit or Christ, He is God the Creator. In the past, because we had no knowledge of the essence of the incarnate God, we could only follow the religious world and separate God, but today, Almighty God’s analysis of the religious world’s separation of God is that it is the most absurd of theories. Today, we understand that there is only one God, and no matter how we pray or what title we give Him, God’s Spirit and God’s incarnate flesh are one God and one Spirit, not three Spirits or three persons. This is a fact, and no one may doubt it!”
After that, Brother Liu further fellowshiped on the aspects of the truth regarding the incarnate God and the three stages of God’s work to save mankind. This is when my wife asked if I could be sure whether Almighty God was the appearance of the Lord Jesus, and I answered with certainty, “I believe! Because I believe that these words are all the words of God. I have found answers to all of my questions in these words, so I believe that Almighty God is the appearance of the Lord Jesus.” My brothers and sisters were very happy when they heard me say this. My brother said, “Thanks be to God! All of God’s sheep can hear His voice.”
After this, I began normally attending meetings with my brothers and sisters …
Dining at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb
Winds, snow, and rain came and went, along with spring and autumn, and in the blink of an eye, it had been more than a year since I accepted the new work of Almighty God. In that year and more, through reading God’s word at meetings with my brothers and sisters, watching gospel films, and seeing videos of the experience and testimony of my brothers and sisters, I came to understand some of the truth, and now, I do what I can in the church to fulfill my duties as a created being. Thanks be to God that His love came to me and that I was fortunate enough to follow the footsteps of God and dine at the wedding feast of the Lamb. All glory be to Almighty God!
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