I've been a Christian for well over thirty years, and I am the treasurer and a trustee of the Pentecostal Christian church that I've been attending for about 32 years, but I've recently been banned from taking part in discussions in all the 'Christians Only' forums, because the CyB Team think that my "theological position" is "contrary to the historic Christian understanding of the person and nature of Jesus Christ as revealed in scripture". So my understanding of Scripture is not the same as theirs, and because discussion participants can't defend from Scripture their belief in the Trinity doctrine, they resort to requesting that the people with a different understanding of Scripture are banned from posting. This doesn't seem to obeying Paul's direction in 2 Timothy 2:24-25 WEB:
(24) The Lord’s servant must not quarrel, but be gentle towards all, able to teach, patient,
(25) in gentleness correcting those who oppose him: perhaps God may give them repentance leading to a full knowledge of the truth,
So because my "doctrinal position falls outside the boundaries of the forum’s Christian Statement of Faith", my account has been moved to the "Other Faiths" membership group. I was informed by a private discussion, to which I replied, but for some reason my reply was deleted from the private discussion some days later. Hmm.
I don't understand, or approve of, banning someone from discussions just because their "beliefs are incompatible with the biblical doctrine upheld by this forum". Why shouldn't anybody be allowed to suggest different interpretations of Scripture to how you interpret it? There is only one true interpretation, and we should all be seeking to find that truth, and we should be able to defend what we believe the truth to be using the Bible - 2 Timothy 3:16-17 UASV:
(16) All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
(17) so that the man of God may be fully competent, equipped for every good work.
Paul preached the simple Gospel, which he declares as - 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 WEB:
(1) Now I declare to you, brothers, the Good News {Gospel} which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand,
(2) by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
(3) For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
(4) that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
(5) and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
(6) Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep.
(7) Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles,
(8) and last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also.
So to be a Christian you simply need to believe that Jesus, the Messiah (Christ), died to pay for our sins so that we may have eternal life, and that God raised Jesus to life again three days later.
Now Paul also wrote that Jesus will not return for the Church until after there has been a falling away from the truth (apostasy) - 2 Thessalonians 2:3 UASV:
(3) Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,
A large part of that apostasy is the teaching of the Trinity, teaching a new Gospel different from what the Apostles taught. Paul warned, Galatians 1:6-9 WEB:
(6) I marvel that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different “good news”;
(7) and there isn’t another “good news.” Only there are some who trouble you, and want to pervert the Good News of Christ.
(8) But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you any “good news” other than that which we preached to you, let him be cursed.
(9) As we have said before, so I now say again: if any man preaches to you any “good news” other than that which you received, let him be cursed.
But even in the early days of the Church, people started adding other requirements in order to be a Christian, e.g. Acts 15:1 WEB:
(1) Some men came down from Judea and taught the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised after the custom of Moses, you can’t be saved.”
Jesus condemned the Jewish religious leaders for adding to God's Word and imposing additional requirements upon the Jews, e.g. Mark 7:6-13 WEB:
(6) He answered them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
(7) But they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
(8) “For you set aside the commandment of God, and hold tightly to the tradition of men — the washing of pitchers and cups, and you do many other such things.”
(9) He said to them, “Full well do you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.
(10) For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother;’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.’
(11) But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban, that is to say, given to God”;’
(12) then you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or his mother,
(13) making void the word of God by your tradition, which you have handed down. You do many things like this.”
Imposing the requirement to believe in a Trinitarian doctrine that did not exist in the early Church, and was not taught by Jesus and the Apostles, is the religious leaders making the same kind of mistakes that the Jewish religious leaders made.
This might be my last post on this forum. I'm going to sign up on another Christian forum that does allow discussion of the Trinity.
Romans 10:8-9 WEB
(8) But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart;” that is, the word of faith, which we preach:
(9) that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
2 Timothy 4:2-4 WEB
(2) preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all patience and teaching.
(3) For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts;
(4) and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn away to fables.
Note that the genius Sir Isaac Newton deduced that the Trinity was a false doctrine. From Google AI Overview:
Sir Isaac Newton rejected the Trinity because his rigorous scriptural analysis convinced him that God the Father is one supreme, singular deity, Jesus Christ is a subordinate created being, and the traditional Trinitarian doctrine was a deliberate fourth-century corruption of early Christian history.
Scriptural and Historical Analysis
- Strict Monotheism: Newton believed that the Bible teaches absolute monotheism, identifying only the Father as the supreme "One True God".
- Subordination of Christ: He viewed Jesus as the Son of God and Savior, but argued that Christ was subordinate to, created by, and entirely dependent upon the Father.
- Historical Corruption: Newton concluded that 4th-century church leaders—specifically citing Bishop Athanasius—falsified historical documents and texts (such as 1 John 5:7) during the Arian controversy to invent the Trinity at the Council of Nicaea.
Implications of His Beliefs
- Secret Writings: Because denying the Trinity was illegal and considered heresy in England during his lifetime, Newton kept his extensive theological manuscripts strictly private.
- Evading Ordination: His unorthodox views caused him to refuse holy orders in the Church of England, a requirement for Cambridge fellows that he was uniquely granted a royal exemption to bypass.
