To those who do NOT believe in the deity of Jesus, I leave you with these Scripture passages:
Exodus 1:13-15:
13) And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name/ What shall I say unto them?
14) And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
15) And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.
Do you believe the scriptures above to be true? If you do than believe also the following Scripture passages below.
Deuteronomy 32:39-40:
39) See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
40) For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.
John 8:24:
I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if you believe NOT that I AM HE [the great I AM], ye shall die in your sins.
To God Be The Glory
Those verses are all true. How about the following verses:
John 20:17,
Jesus saith to her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended unto the Father: but go unto my brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your God.
1 Pet 1:3,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
Assuming you believe these verses, who is God's Father and God? It says Jesus (supposedly God also) had both a Father and God. I could give you 4 more verses that plainly declare Jesus had a Father and a God. Revelation 3:12 says Jesus had a God 4 times. God having a God just doesn't ring true to me.
Matt 4:1,
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
Heb 2:18,
For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.
James 1:13 says God can't be tempted. I wish someone would make up their minds! Can God be tempted or not? What a conundrum. Wait...if we just say Jesus is not God the problem vanishes.
- Fact 1: Jesus can be tempted
- Fact 2: God can not be tempted
- Conclusion: Jesus is God?????????????? Does not compute!
Heb 4:15,
For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as [we are, yet] without sin.
Well, if Jesus is God, this verse has to go. I for one sure don't feel like a god-man when I'm tempted. I mean, how in the world could it be said Jesus was tempted just like me if he were God or a god-man? This verse has no place in the Trinity doctrine. On the other hand, we could get rid of the trinity doctrine and everything would fit like a hand in a glove.
One more. Do you believe this one?
1 Cor 11:3,
But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman [is] the man; and the head of Christ [is] God.
Do you believe the head of Christ (supposedly God) is God? That's a real imagination twister.
I know there are some verses that could be taken as a trinity. I also know there are oodles more than the ones above that all make it quite impossible for Jesus to be God. As you insinuated, we must accept all scripture. I've looked at this issue for many years. I was Trinitarion at one time even though I knew deep down it didn't make any sense. I am convinced that it is much easier to make the few unclear verses fit with the many clear verses. Honestly, most verses used to prove the Trinity say nothing of the sort. Matthew 28:19 is a good example.
Matt 28:19,
Go [therefore] and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;
What is it about this verse that justifies saying the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one person? In any normal grammatical construction this would be seen as three people? Why is the norm abandoned in Matthew? Having said that, the truth is that Matthew 28:19 was added to the original. That is well known. Even if it was there, why didn't the Apostles follow through instead of baptizing in the name of Jesus, period. You won't find an account that says the baptized according to the forgery in Matthwe 28:19.
Another one that is used that actually says nothing about the trinity:
Col 1:15,
who is image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation;
Note it does not say, "...who is God..." It says he is the
image of God. Remember whose
image was on the coin one of the Apostles showed Jesus? Caesars. So are we to say the coin actually
IS Caesar? I'm thinking not. So why should Jesus, the image of God, actually be God? Why do we break away from the normal use of words, grammar, and logic?
Thanks for your ear my brother! God bless