The Errors of the Trinity

CHAPTER 4

THE MYSTERY OF GOD AND OF THE FATHER AND OF CHRIST

Paul writes to the Church at Colosse about this mystery of God.  “That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;” (Colossians 2:2).  Paul goes on to say that in Jesus Christ is hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3).  Divinity is hidden in humanity; God is in a human being manifesting the Father to the world. Paul warns the church about this mystery of God, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.  This word “beguile” is the Greek word “paralogizomal” meaning “to misreckon, delude, deceive” Paul alludes to the mystery of God should be reckoned with as truth and guarded so as not to water it down or mix it with error.  Paul continues:  “For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ.  As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him; Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.” (Colossians 2:5-7).  Carefully examine the use of pronouns describing the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.  Paul does not use the plural personal pronoun “them”, but, rather uses the singular personal pronoun “him”.  This is not by accident, because Paul definitely has the revelation of Jesus Christ given unto God’s holy apostles and prophets.  “Them” would connote a “Trinity” or at least “two” in the Godhead.  But Paul knows that there is only “One” in the Godhead therefore, he uses the personal singular pronoun “him”.  Paul does the same when referring to the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, in Colossians 2:3, he uses the singular personal pronoun, “whom”.

Paul continues with his plea of exhortation:  “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ”. (Colossians 2:8).  This teaching of the Godhead requires the closest scrutiny so as not to be deceived, and Paul is elaborating on this precise point of deception.  He warns in verse four, again in verse eight, that we should not be deceived concerning the Godhead.  Paul then lists three areas in which man would be deceived, not holding to the truth of the Godhead.  The first area of deception is by philosophy, which is defined by Strong’s Greek Dictionary as “philosophia” meaning Jewish “sophistry”, “fond of wise things”.  Philosophy is the study of the processes governing thought and conduct, theory or investigation of the principles or laws that regulate the universe and underlie all knowledge and reality.  Solomon writes in the Book of Proverbs:  “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Proverbs 14:12).  But this philosophy goes beyond the normal, into passing or going beyond the mark into sophistry.  “Sophistry” is “unsound or misleading, but clever, plausible and subtle argument or reasoning”.

The next area of deception comes from vain deceit, after the rudiments of the world. This is the idle fancies and nonsense after the principles or man’s idea of the material world rather than the spiritual world.  Paul recites this again to the church at Corinth:  “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?  Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:11).  The summation of this revelation of God is this; the revelation of God has to be revealed by God, by the Spirit of God, otherwise man cannot receive it by man’s revelation according to his understanding of the principles of the world.  It seems correct to a man to perceive God in the earthly or worldly realm and not after the spirit realm.  “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5).  If we trust in our earthly understanding and wisdom, we will miss God and His revelation of Himself to us.

The third deception comes from the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.  There is a revelation according to the principles of the world.  These are notions following the fundamental and elementary teachings of the universe to which disregard the teachings of Jesus Christ.  This philosophy after the rudiments of the world and tradition of men makes vain deceit, makes the Word of God to come to nothing.  The tradition of man passes down, from generation to generation, his belief on the revelation of God.  The receiving generation accepts it believing the same way their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents believed concerning their perception of God.  Jesus said:  “And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free.  Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.” (Matthew 13:6).  Another account of the same is in the gospel of Mark:  “Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.” (Mark 7:13).  The Greek word for “tradition” is “paradosis” meaning “transmission”, a precept, and has a gematria of “666”.  Isn’t it interestin