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  1. Matthias

    Barna Poll: Most Americans - Including Church Members - Reject the Trinity

    Great. Now please show us an English translation from any standard Bible translation of your choosing - which renders the passage in English as you say it does. If you have time, would you also post for us the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word elohim?
  2. Matthias

    Barna Poll: Most Americans - Including Church Members - Reject the Trinity

    While we wait, the Shema is the creed of Judaism and the Messiah’s creed (which I’ve documented elsewhere using the New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology.) As I mentioned earlier, it is also popularly known as “The Jesus Creed” (see Scot McKnight). It is also my creed. I...
  3. Matthias

    Barna Poll: Most Americans - Including Church Members - Reject the Trinity

    Here it is in Hebrew. Now please show us an English translation, using any Bible of your choosing, which renders it in English as you say it should read. If you really want to knock it out of the park, use an English translation published by JPS.
  4. Matthias

    Barna Poll: Most Americans - Including Church Members - Reject the Trinity

    Since no trinitarian member has come forward to do it, I’ll post it for us on their behalf - “We believe in one God, the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten, begotten of the Father...
  5. Matthias

    Barna Poll: Most Americans - Including Church Members - Reject the Trinity

    I’ve never tried this before, and I don’t recommend it to anyone, but … What would happen if someone went to a Jewish synagogue and announced to the rabbi and his (or her) congregation - “We all believe in the Gods of Israel!” I think that person would, in some form or fashion, be stoned by...
  6. Matthias

    Barna Poll: Most Americans - Including Church Members - Reject the Trinity

    It does to many (most?) trinitarians but not all trinitarians, and doesn’t at all to Jewish monotheists. Is Moses a Jewish monotheist or is Moses a trinitarian? Does making the concession to the historical constraint damage trinitarianism? I don’t think it does.
  7. Matthias

    Barna Poll: Most Americans - Including Church Members - Reject the Trinity

    There are also those who do believe in the Trinity and say that God is including the angelic court when he says us and our. It is a concession that they make to Jewish monotheism and the constraint of history.
  8. Matthias

    Barna Poll: Most Americans - Including Church Members - Reject the Trinity

    How would a Jewish monotheist understand the passage? It wouldn’t be in the same way that a trinitarian might understand it. (The commentary in NET is helpful for us on that.) Moses is a Jewish monotheist. That is a constraint of history. That is why I asked @Eternally Grateful if he believed...
  9. Matthias

    Barna Poll: Most Americans - Including Church Members - Reject the Trinity

    That’s true. (It was the case with me growing up in the Southern Baptist Church.) I would like to rectify that. Would doing so harm trinitarians? I don’t think so. Would doing so harm non-trinitarians? Again, I don’t think so. Why would a trinitarian not support that? That is what I was...
  10. Matthias

    Barna Poll: Most Americans - Including Church Members - Reject the Trinity

    When trinitarians read scripture they see and understand nouns. Right?
  11. Matthias

    Barna Poll: Most Americans - Including Church Members - Reject the Trinity

    Trinitarianism doesn’t deny that a shift in theology occurred. It asserts that such a transition took place. It documents that it happened. This is simple and straightforward church history. Non-trinitarians should know it, should accept it; not dispute it. The same, I’m calling for, goes for...
  12. Matthias

    Barna Poll: Most Americans - Including Church Members - Reject the Trinity

    Thank you for your contribution to this thread.
  13. Matthias

    Barna Poll: Most Americans - Including Church Members - Reject the Trinity

    All singular. All plural - Gods, gods, deities. Yes. It is what scholars call “intensive”, or “a plural of majesty”. That is called “translator bias”. In English it is written in singular. Trinitarianism wouldn’t have gotten far if it had taught that the Trinity is ”the Gods”. That’s...
  14. Matthias

    Barna Poll: Most Americans - Including Church Members - Reject the Trinity

    I’ve heard you. I understand that is an essential part of trinitarian theology. Elohim isn’t literally “the Gods”. That would be more than one God - and that by definition is polytheism. By definition, neither Jewish monotheists nor trinitarians are polytheists. That’s fine. I don’t...
  15. Matthias

    Barna Poll: Most Americans - Including Church Members - Reject the Trinity

    What Hebrew Lexicons report is that elohim is singular for one God, or god. Elohim is only plural in scripture when the subject is a grouping of pagan deities, or a grouping of angels, or a grouping of human beings.
  16. Matthias

    Barna Poll: Most Americans - Including Church Members - Reject the Trinity

    That’s true in Hebrew too. Elohim is a Hebrew word which is always plural in form, but can be either singular or plural in meaning. The context it is used in is critical to our being able to understand which is meant. When it is plural in meaning it is always translated ”gods”. When it is...
  17. Matthias

    Barna Poll: Most Americans - Including Church Members - Reject the Trinity

    I‘m trying to understand why a trinitarian might think a Jewish monotheist who lived in the 14th century B.C. would think of his God not as a Jewish monotheist would but as a trinitarian would. Moses wrote (in Genesis 1:27) that God created man in his image, not in their image. I take your...
  18. Matthias

    Barna Poll: Most Americans - Including Church Members - Reject the Trinity

    If the Hebrew word elohim is plural, why do you not render it plural in English?
  19. Matthias

    Barna Poll: Most Americans - Including Church Members - Reject the Trinity

    Just to give me an idea of your perspective on history in general, are you opposed to history being taught to educate people?
  20. Matthias

    Barna Poll: Most Americans - Including Church Members - Reject the Trinity

    Do you think Moses, a Jewish monotheist, believed that his God is the Trinity? Roman Catholic trinitarianism is historical orthodox trinitarianism. I’ve spoken with people who have told me that they believed Moses was a Catholic, but that rejects the constraints of history. If I were to say...