The position of Christ in the Godhead

by JW Answers 20 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Lost in the fog
    Lost in the fog

    I think it boils down to this. If you believe in the Trinity you'll interpret verses to back up your beliefs.

    If you don't believe in the Trinity you will point out verses to back up your belief.

    I've heard arguments both for and against.


    A lot of it is like circumstantial evidence rather than factual proof.

    From a historical perspective, respected scholars report that first century Christians didn't believe that Jesus was God Almighty. They acknowledge it took several centuries for the idea to develop and percolate down through the catholic church.


    ONLINE ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA: "Neither the word “Trinity” nor the explicit doctrine appears in the New Testament, nor did Jesus and his followers intend to contradict the Shema in the Hebrew Scriptures: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:4)."


    I wish I could access my personal library of history and theology books which unfortunately are packed away in boxes for us moving house although I was able to dig out my notes on Origen's First Principles here, QUOTE "The God and Father, who holds the universe together, is superior to every being that exists, for he imparts to each one from his own existence that which each one is; the Son, being less than the Father, is superior to rational creatures alone (for he is second to the Father); the Holy Spirit is still less, and dwells within the saints alone. So that in this way the power of the Father is greater than that of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and that of the Son is more than that of the Holy Spirit. (Origen, FP, 33,34)


    Now he was a lot closer to source (people who had known Christ and the apostles or whose parents had) than any of us!

    Origen's expression reminds me of the principle for family headship as set forth in Scripture. Each one being below the next tier upwards.

    (Do people who believe that the F, S, + HS are equal, dismiss 1 Corinthians 11v3? I'd love to hear how they interpret it. But that will have to be a question for another day!)

    Going back to the Encyclopaedia Britannica's online article - "It was not until LATER in the 4TH CENTURY that the distinctness of the three and their unity were brought together in a single orthodox doctrine of one essence and three persons."


    Hardly blindingly obvious from Scripture if it took 400 years for such learned men to formulate a doctrine that continued to be argued over - and as the posts here on Jehovah's Witnesses Discussion show - continue to be argued over to this very day.

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