Some Trinity Questions Answered
by Richard C Condon
These questions were posted on a Bulletin Board in an attempt to prove the existence of the Trinity. Would YOU have fallen for the simplistic reasoning? How would YOU have answered them? Here's how I answered them.
1. Who raised Jesus from the dead?
The Father (Romans 6:4. Acts 3:26, 1 Thessalonians 1:10)?
The Son (John 2:19-21; 10:17, 18)?
The Holy Spirit (Romans 8:11)?
Or God (Hebrews 13:20; Acts 13:30, 17:31)?
It looks impressive, and very simplistic, - this trinitarian logic that is. If some ability, or act, or power, etc. are all attributed to Jesus, to the Father, and to the Holy Spirit; then presto! the Trinity!
I'm sorry, but the Trinity cannot be proven by such simplistic means, especially since it took 300 years for the church fathers and theologians to DEVELOP the doctrine (or deduce the doctrine, if you insist). Christians prior to Tertulian's time did not have a fleshed out concept of "One God eternally existing in three persons." That concept grew out of theological discussions within the church and with unbelievers, but also developed against the backdrop of the Hellenistic, pagan, mythological, philosophical education and cultures of the times. It wasn't done in a vacuum, and it wasn't done strictly from Scripture.
What do you say about the Christians who believed prior to Nicea, who simply loved and believed in the Jesus they read about or heard about in the Scriptures they read, or had read to them more probably. I guess they weren't Christians, right? And everyone didn't agree with the findings of the councils (like Nicea). And the Arians of that day were just as able Bible students as the theologians in the "orthodox" camp. It is amazing to me that the greatest single doctrine which is used to judge a person's "orthodoxy" is one which clearly is not explicitly taught in Scripture, but was only DEDUCED, and it took 300 years to DO THAT!
And what about today, when a person is saved, accepts Christ as personal Saviour? Is he/she saved based on WHAT they believe or understand ABOUT Jesus? Isn't the Gospel simply to believe that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised the third day (1 Cor 15:1-4)?
Now, to get to those questions you asked, and the answers you suggest.
1. Who raised Jesus from the dead?The Father (Romans 6:4. Acts 3:26, 1 Thessalonians 1:10)?
The Son (John 2:19-21; 10:17, 18)?
The Holy Spirit (Romans 8:11)?
Or God (Hebrews 13:20; Acts 13:30, 17:31)?
All of these verses say one and THE SAME THING, that the Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead by God, Who was His Father. Unfortunately a few of the verses do not say what you imply them to say.
Regarding the first group, there is little to dispute: the Father raised Jesus from the dead.
Romans 6:4 - "as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father"
Maybe this verse proves too much - it says Jesus was raised by the GLORY of the Father. What's this ANOTHER PERSON in the Godhead? or simply as you probably understand it to be, a metaphor for the mechanism or means by which the Father raised Jesus from the dead.
Acts 3:26 - "God, having raised up His Son Jesus"
1 Thes 1:10 - "His (the true God's - v9) Son ..., whom He raised from the dead"
The last group says the same: God raised Jesus from the dead.
Heb 13:20 - "the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus"
Acts 13:30 - "But God raised Him (Jesus - v23,33) from the dead"
Acts 17:31 - "He (God - v30) raised Him (that man, v30-Jesus) from the dead"
BUT the second and third group of references DO NOT SAY what you assert.
You assert that the Son raised Himself from the dead, which the Scripture does not teach.
John 2:19-22 - "Jesus answered, and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I WILL RAISE it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and WILT THOU REAR it up in three days? But He spake of the temple of His body. When therefore HE WAS RISEN from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this unto them;" [BTW - I included verse 22 - context, you know!, especially when the verse left off disproves the verses quoted!]
Three times the word raise is used. According to my Analytical Greek New Testament the first time it is parsed as follows: verb, indicative, future, active, 1st person, singular = I will raise. The second use is parsed as follows: verb, indicative, future, active, 2nd person, singular = you will raise. The third use is parsed as follows: verb, indicative, aorist, PASSIVE, 3rd person, singular = He WAS RAISED (i.e. by Someone Else - God). The dead cannot raise themselves. Jesus DIED. He was dead. He had first to be roused from death by God before He could actively take up, or raise up, His body that had fallen. If Jesus literally raised Himself from the dead, then He wasn't really dead, not in the same way you and I die (I mean Biblical death, not the theological fiction of "separation from God," - Biblical death, the absence of life, the dissolution of the person, the cessation of his thoughts and consciousness).
John 10:17 - "Therefore doth my Father love Me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father."
Be careful how you interpret these words. You aren't suggesting that Jesus committed suicide are you? These verses delve right into the very heart of Calvary and what happened there. The death of Jesus on the cross had little to do really with the Jews, or Rome, or Caiaphas or Pilate, or Judas or Peter. At its heart Calvary is a transaction between God and His Son, a literal re-enacting of what was only done in symbol by Abraham and Isaac, when God stepped in and provided a ram for sacrifice. On Calvary God smote His own Son for our sins. The Son willingly submitted to His God and Father and thereby gave up His life. But having died, how was He to live again? By "the commandment" He had previously received from His Father, the permission to take up His life again after He had laid it down. Apart from this "commandment" from God He couldn't have taken up His life again, because the dead can't raise themselves! This certainly goes to show not the equality existing between God, Jesus and the Spirit, as the Trinity teaches, and as your questions and their intended answers tried to prove, but the subordination of Christ Jesus to His God and Father.
You assert that the Holy Spirit raised up Jesus, as if to imply the act of a separate person/personality/individuality within the Godhead.
Romans 8:11 - "But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you."
This says the same as Romans 6:4 above. It was God Who raised Jesus from the dead. The Spirit is here mentioned as being the MEANS by which God raised Jesus from the dead, and the means by which God will raise US from the dead, at the resurrection. It DOES NOT say the Spirit raised up Jesus. Otherwise go back to Rom 6:4 and be prepared to worship the Glory of the Father as a 4th member of the Godhead. You quote Rom 6 to show it was the Father, rather than His glory, that raised Jesus. Now you quote Rom 8 to show it was the Spirit, not God, that did it. Get you rules of exegesis consistent, please.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead by His God and Father, by means of the same Holy Spirit which resides in His Church and by which He will raise up those who are His own at our Lord's advent.Here are a whole set of questions which are intended to prove, by the same simplistic logic that God is a trinity, i.e. One God eternally existing in three persons. If it were really this simple and obvious, WHY did it take the Church 300 years to formulate this doctrine???? Don't be deceived by this kind of "smoke and mirrors."
1. Who raised Jesus from the dead?
The Father (Romans 6:4. Acts 3:26, 1 Thessalonians 1:10)?
The Son (John 2:19-21; 10:17, 18)?
The Holy Spirit (Romans 8:11)?
Or God (Hebrews 13:20; Acts 13:30, 17:31)?2. Who does the Bible say is God?
The Father (Ephesians 4:6)?
The Son (Titus 2:13; John 1:1, 20:28)?
The Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3-4)?
The one and only true God (Deuteronomy 4:35)?
3. Who created the world?
The Father (John 14:2)?
The Son (Colossians 1:16, 17; John 1:1-3)?
The Holy Spirit (Genesis 1:2; Psalm 104:30)?
Or God (Genesis 1:1; Hebrews 11:3)?4. Who saves man?
The Father (1 Peter 1:3)?
The Son (John 5:21; 4:14)?
The Holy Spirit (John 3:6; Titus 3:5)?
Or God (1 John 3:9)? 5. Who justifies man?5. Who regenerates man?
The Father (Jeremiah 23:6, cf. 2 Corinthians 5:19)?
The Son (Romans 5:9; 10:4; 2 Corinthians 5:19,21)?
The Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:11; Galatians 5:5)?
Or God (Romans 4:6; 9:33)?6. Who sanctifies man?
The Father (Jude 1)?
The Son (Titus 2:14)?
The Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1:2)?
Or God (Exodus 31:13)?7. Who propitiated God's just anger against man for his sins?
The Father (1 John 4:14; John 3:16; 17:5; 18:11)?
The Son (Matthew 26:28; John 1:29; 1 John 2:2)?
The Holy Spirit (Hebrews 9:14)?
Or God (2 Corinthians 5:1; Acts 20:28)?