Trinity

TRINITY & OTHER DOCTRINES OF GOD:
PROF. M. M. NINAN
Gal 2:20, Acts 20:28, John 1:18, Colossians 2:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:12, 1John 5:20,
Romans 9:5, and 2 Peter 1:1
Texts “where clearly Jesus is called God” are
Hebrews 1:8-9, John 1:1, and John 20:28.
Trinitarians (who hold that Jesus Christ is distinct from God the Father ), and
nontrinitarians who hold Jesus Christ as Almighty God (such as the Modalists), say that
these statements are based on Jesus' existence as the Son of God in human flesh; that
he is therefore both God and man, who became "lower than the angels, for our sake,"
(Hebrews 2:6-8) and that he was tempted as humans are tempted, but did not sin
(Hebrews 4:14-16). Hence in these descriptions Jesus is given as a subordinate Elohim,
both to the Father and even to angels
Some nontrinitarians counter the belief that the Son was limited only during his earthly
life by citing "the head of Christ is God" (1 Corinthians 11:3), placing Jesus in an inferior
position to the Father even after his resurrection and exaltation.
They also cite Acts 5:31 and Philippians 2:9, indicating that Jesus became glorified and
exalted after ascension to heaven, and to Hebrews 9:24, Acts 7:55, and 1 Corinthians
15:24, 28, regarding Jesus as a distinct personality in heaven, still with a lesser position
than the Father, all after Christ's ascension.
John 1:1
John 1:1 –
was God.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
The contention with this verse is that there is a distinction between God and the Logos
(or "the Word").
Trinitarians contend that the third part of the verse (John 1:1c) translates as "and the
Word was God", pointing to a distinction as subjects between God and the Logos but an
equivalence in nature.
Some nontrinitarians (Jehovah's Witnesses, specifically) contend that the Koine Greek
("kai theos ên ho logos") should instead be translated as "and the Word was a god", or
as what they see as the more literal word-for-word translation from the Greek as "and a
God was the Word", basing this on the contention that the section is an example of an
anarthrous, that is, "theos" lacks the definite article, meaning its use was indefinite - "a
god", which could denote either Almighty God or a divine being in general.
Nontrinitarians also contend that had the author of John's gospel wished to say "and the
Word was God" that he could have easily written "kai ho theos ên ho logos", but he did
not. In this way, nontrinitarians contend that the Logos would be considered to be the
pre-existent Jesus, who is actually distinct from God. The argument being that the
distinction between the Logos and the Father was not just in terms of "person", but also
in terms of "theos” Meaning that not only were they distinct persons, but also distinct
"Gods", given the fact that the second occurrence of "theos" was an indefinite noun; and
that only the Father was treated as the absolute "Theos" in John 1:1. The argument
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