IS GOD A TRINITY?: SYNOPSIS
It has been requested I provide a synopsis of my sixteen part series on this website entitled, Is God A Trinity? In this series I examined Trinitarian and Incarnational theology and drew certain conclusions based on my investigation. This synopsis provides the basis for those conclusions . For much greater detail regarding the issues discussed in this synopsis, please read my sixteen part series which includes addendum's one through three.
MY PREMISE:
My examination of Trinitarian and Incarnational theology led me to conclude there is only one Almighty Supreme Creator God who is identified in Biblical Scripture as the Father. Everything that exists derives from this God, including Jesus. Jesus, as a human agent of this one and only God, fulfilled his Father’s will and was granted immortality, glory, power and authority at the right hand of this one and only God. The Holy Spirit is the power and cognitive function of this one God whereby He creates and sustains all things and interacts with His creation.
WHY THE TRINITY IS PROBLEMATICAL:
The word Trinity is used to define God as a single entity who exists eternally as consubstantial (of the same substance), coequal and coeternal persons of Father, Son and Spirit. God is defined as being of one substance, differentiated as three persons. All three persons are seen as a single entity of single substance but able to be separately distinguished, while never losing the one single substance and identity called God. The three persons, while being of the same substance, are not viewed as separate entities of identical substance but as one single entity having one single substance yet distinguishable as three persons.
After a systematic and comprehensive examination of this concept, as delineated in my sixteen part series, I have been forced to conclude this concept of God is not supported by the scriptures. I see the scriptures teaching there is one undifferentiated Supreme Creator God, who is referred to as the Father. All other living entities, including those who may be called god, derive their existence from this one and only Supreme God. During his ministry, Jesus plainly taught
Mark 12:29: Hear, O Israel, the Lord (kurios) our God (Theos), the Lord (kurios) is one. (There is no scriptural reason to conclude Jesus was seeing himself as one and the same with the God of Israel or that
This monotheistic view of God is sometimes referred to as Unitarian (not to be confused with the
I believe Jesus made it very clear during his ministry that the oneness of God did not include himself or anyone else and therefore Jesus understood God as Unitarian. Consider the following statements made by Christ: (All scriptural quotes from the NIV unless otherwise indicated).
John 17:3: Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (Here Jesus is speaking of the Father and showing the Father to be the only true God in distinction from himself as being sent by the only true God. There is no reason to believe Jesus includes himself in the designation “only true God”).
John 14:28: "You heard me say, `I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. (This passage should make it self evident the Father and Son are not coequal).
John 5:26: For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. (If Jesus is consubstantial, coequal and coeternal with the Father, he would have life in himself and would not have to have such life granted to him).
John 5:43-44: I have come in my Father's name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God? (In the Greek it is “The one and only God” and is so translated in other versions such as the New American Standard. Here Jesus again speaks of the Father as the only true God).
John 20:17: Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, `I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God' ''NKJ. (How can the Father be the God of Jesus if Jesus is also this God?
Hebrews 1:9. Therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. (The writer sees God as the God of Jesus. How can Jesus be this same God?).
Matthew 27:46: My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? (If Jesus is God as God is God, this outcry while on the cross makes no sense. This outcry shows Jesus was experiencing a momentary separation from God which would be impossible under the Trinitarian perspective).
Acts 7:55-56: But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." (How can Jesus be the God He is standing next to? Also see Romans 8:34).
1 Corinthians 11:3: Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. (How can God be the head of Christ and Christ be equal with that God? Also see 1 Corinthians 3:23).
At one point during his ministry, Jesus asked his disciples who they thought he was. Peter answered in the following manner:
Matthew 16:13: Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.
Here we see Jesus identified as the Christ, the Son of the living God. There is nothing explicit or implicit in Peter’s statement as to Jesus being God. Peter does not identify Jesus as God. In Scripture, Jesus is never referred to as God the Son. Peter identifies him as the Son of God and we see Jesus validates Peter’s statement. Jesus shows the God he is the Son of, is his Father who at that very moment was residing in heaven while he, as the Son of the Father in heaven, was residing on earth.
Apostle Paul made many statements that clearly show Jesus to be a separate entity from the one God who is the Father.
I Corinthians 8:6: Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
Paul expressly writes there is one God who is the Father. Paul does not write there is one God who is the Father and the Son. He does not write there is one God who is Father, Son and Spirit. There is nothing in this statement to tell us that Jesus is also the one God the Father is. Paul consistently speaks of God as Father and Jesus as Lord in his writings. Paul consistently distinguishes between the one God and Jesus, the son of this one God. Paul consistently opens his letters by speaking of the God and Father of Jesus.
While the Father is also seen as Lord in scripture, the Father is Lord in the context of being the one and only Almighty, Supreme God of all existence whereas Jesus is seen as Lord in the context of being granted great glory, power and authority by his Father God. In Luke 2:26, Jesus is referred to as the Lord’s Christ showing Jesus is the anointed of the Lord God the Father.
Ephesians 4:4-6: There is one body and one Spirit-- just as you were called to one hope when you were called-- one Lord (kurios), one faith, one baptism; one God (Theos) and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. ( (Here Paul writes of there being one God who is the Father in distinction to the one Lord who we know is a reference to Christ from Paul’s other writings. Jesus as Lord is distinguished from God who is the Father).
Ephesians 1:17: I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. (God is seen as the God of Jesus. How can Jesus be that God?)
1 Timothy 2:5: For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. (After Jesus had ascended to be with the Father, Paul clearly states there is one God and Jesus is the mediator between this one God and man. Paul does not say Jesus is the mediator between the Father and man but between God and man. How can Jesus also be this God when it is said he is a mediator between this God and man?).
Galatians 1:3-4: Grace and peace to you from God (Theos) our Father and the Lord (kurios) Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God (Theos) and Father. (Paul again identifies the Father as God in distinction from Jesus as Lord).
Romans 15:5-6: May the God (Theos) who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God (Theos) and Father of our Lord (kurios) Jesus Christ. (Paul again identifies God as the God and Father of Jesus. How can God be the God of Jesus and Jesus also be that God?
Romans 16:25-27: Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him-- to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen. (Here the only wise God is distinguished from Jesus. The distinction is not between the Father and the Son as believed to be the case in a Trinitarian relationship, but between God and the Son. We are to glorify the one and only God through Christ. This shows God is a separate entity from the Son. The Son is the agent of the one eternal God through whom we worship this one God because it is through the sacrifice of the Son we have been given access to the one God who is the Father. Paul consistently distinguishes, not between the Father and Jesus but between God and Jesus).
1 Corinthians 15:27-28: For he "has put everything under his feet." Now when it says that "everything" has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all. (This passage clearly shows everything is subservient to the one and only Supreme God, including Jesus. God the Father is the one and only Supreme God. Whatever the “everything” is that God placed under Jesus, this scripture makes it clear there is subordination of the Son to God the Father. This shows Jesus is not equal to the Father. This passage alone makes the Trinitarian concept of God highly improbable).
2 Corinthians 1:3: Praise be to the God (Theos) and Father of our Lord (kurios) Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God (Theos) of all comfort.
Paul repeatedly, in his letters, refers to God as not just the Father of Jesus but the God of Jesus. If God is a Trinity and Jesus is a person of such Trinity, Paul would be virtually saying “the Father, Son and Spirit” and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which makes no sense at all. If you simply substitute the word Trinity or the phrase Father, Son and Spirit for the word God in any or all of the passages of scripture we have discussed
If God is Father, Son and Spirit, then when Jesus speaks of the Father being the only true God, Jesus is really saying the Father is Father, Son and Spirit. When Paul writes that there is one God who is the Father, Paul is really saying there is one Father, Son and Spirit who is the Father. When Paul writes that we should praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul is saying we should praise the Father, Son and Spirit and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The problems with seeing God as a Trinity in the context of scripture should be apparent.
Apostle John distinguishes between the true God and His Son Jesus. This dichotomy is found in all the writings of the Apostles.
1 John 1:5-7: This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him (God) yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (It should be apparent from the context that John is speaking of the Father as God in distinction from Jesus his son who at the time of this writing was at the right hand of God).
1 John 5:1: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. (John identifies God as the Father in distinction from His son Jesus. There is nothing here to suggest Jesus is also this God).
1 John 5:20: We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him (God) who is true. And we are in him (God) who is true--even in his Son Jesus Christ. He (God the Father) is the true God and eternal life. (This passage is sometime used by Trinitarians to try and show Jesus as the one true God. This is an erroneous use of this passage which I discuss in detail in my sixteen part series. This passage clearly shows separation between God and Jesus).
2 John 1:3: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father's Son. (John identifies God as the Father in distinction from the Father’s son Jesus. This is after Jesus has ascended to the Father’s right hand. There is nothing here to suggest Jesus is also God).
James 1:1: James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings. (James writes in terms of there being a dichotomy between God and Jesus. He doesn’t say of the Father and Jesus but of God and Jesus. Trinitarians sometimes argue that when NT writer’s write of God they really mean the Father which allows for Jesus to be included in the term God. This approach is negated by the many passages that speak of the God and Father of Jesus which shows the Father is not only the Father but the God of Jesus.
The NT writers always write from the perspective of the Father being God and Jesus being the son of this Father God. There are dozens of NT passages that show this. Never is Jesus called God the son.
John in the Revelation clearly states we are to serve the God of Jesus and that the Father is the God of Jesus. If the Father is the God of Jesus, how can Jesus be that God and be coequal with that God?
Revelation 1:4-6: John, To the seven churches in the province of
The above is a sampling of the many scriptures that show how the concept of Jesus being God as God is God, consubstantial, coequal and coeternal, is very problematical. These are all straightforward statements. There is nothing ambiguous here. These are not statements that can be understood to convey meanings other than what they plainly convey. These are foundational statements as to who God is versus who Jesus is.
CAN GOD DIE?
If Jesus is God as God is God, Jesus could not have died. An eternal Being cannot die. Yet the scriptures plainly teach Jesus died. Jesus plainly says he was dead and is now alive.
Revelation 1:18: I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever!
In order to die, Jesus had to be mortal. Incarnational theology teaches Jesus was fully man and fully God which is to teach Jesus was fully mortal and fully immortal. This is an oxymoron. Being fully mortal excludes being fully immortal and vice versa. The whole focus of the Gospel is our being given eternal life through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Peter, along with other NT writers, exhorts us to praise the Father for facilitating eternal life by resurrecting Jesus from the dead, not from the living.
1 Peter 1:3: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
The Son of God died. This should by itself tell us Jesus is not the eternal God. There is nothing in scripture that gives evidence to only the human Jesus dying while his incarnational eternal self was untouched by death. Jesus plainly says he was dead. God resurrected His Son to eternal life. Jesus was the first born from the dead (Revelation 1:5). Jesus was the first human born to eternal life. All other resurrections (Lazarus for example) were resurrections to mortal life. The resurrection of Jesus was to immortal life. Jesus moved from being mortal to being immortal. By moving from mortal to immortal, Jesus facilitated and established our own movement from mortality to immortality.
THE HUMAN JESUS:
It is sometimes argued that God is the God of Jesus in the person of the Father who is God as the Son and Spirit is God. All three persons of the Godhead are seen as experiencing a mutual indwelling and thus relating to each other as God. Therefore, it is believed Jesus refers to God as His God within the relational oneness that is God. This argument, however, assumes God is a Trinity of Father, Son and Spirit. The scriptures nowhere speak of God the Son or God the Spirit. They only speak of God the Father. The few scriptures where the Greek Theos is associated with Jesus, the context suggests nothing about Jesus being part of a Triune God. These scriptures can easily be seen to identify Jesus as a god (small g) in the sense of having been granted great power and authority by the one and only Divine God of the universe.
Some Trinitarians teach that all references by Jesus to his Father God are to be seen through the eyes of the human Jesus and not through his Divine eyes. When Jesus speaks of the Father as the only true God, he is doing so from his human perspective. It is believed that all the scriptures showing Jesus to be subservient to the Father are to be viewed in terms of his human relationship with God. These are believed to be statements describing how Jesus relates to God as a human. Even after His resurrection and ascension, it is believed that Jesus maintains his dual nature of Divinity and humanity and in this capacity is able to act as a mediator between God and man. The Son’s Divinity and incarnation is believed to be identified in the “pre-existence” statements found in the Gospel of John and in some of Paul’s letters. Therefore, Jesus is seen as both human and Divine.
This approach is highly problematical. For Jesus to have taught the Father is the only true God (John 17:3 & 5:44) while knowing He too is the true God would have been highly misleading. For Jesus to teach his Father is greater than he from only a human perspective would be superfluous. It is obvious the Father is greater than any human. There is every scriptural reason to believe Jesus taught the Father was greater than he in an ontological sense and always has been. Paul clearly shows Christ to be subservient to God in His glorified state as seen in 1 Corinthians 15:27-28. This passage alone should make it plain that Jesus is not God as God is God.
The scriptures provide very strong reasons to believe Jesus was not God incarnate but was only human just as we are.
Hebrews 5:7-8: Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.
When the author of Hebrews wrote this, it was some years after Jesus had left the flesh and ascended to be with the Father. Yet while Jesus was a human, He is seen as having to work hard at maintaining the necessary ability to remain sinless and to actually learn obedience. This is not a picture of an inherently Divine Being. The scriptures consistently show Jesus to have been dependent on His Father for all He did. Some will argue that the fleshly part of the Son was dependent on the Godly part of the Son that was incarnate in the dueled natured Jesus. Jesus, however, is consistently shown as praying to His Father in heaven and addressing God as His Father in heaven, not some alter ego of his own self.
Was Jesus able to sin? If Jesus was God in the flesh he would be unable to sin because God can’t sin. God cannot be tempted by evil (James 1:13). Therefore, God cannot sin because He can’t be tempted. Yet we clearly see in Hebrews that Jesus was tempted. In the wilderness, Jesus was tempted by the epitome of evil, Satan. Yet if Jesus could not sin, his temptation by Satan in the wilderness is a sham. It’s meaningless. Being tempted presupposes the risk of surrendering to such temptation. What do the scriptures say about Jesus?
Hebrews 4:15: For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin.
To repeat, being tempted presupposes the risk of surrendering to temptation. If there was no chance that Jesus could have succumbed to temptation and sinned, then what we read in Hebrews is meaningless. If Jesus was God in the flesh, He would have been unable to sin because He would have been unable to be tempted. The writer says Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death. If Jesus was God in the flesh, why would He be praying to God to save Him from death? (Eternal death {separation from God})
Hebrews 2:17-18: For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
If Jesus was made like his brothers in every way he was not a god/man. We are not god/men. We don’t have a dual nature or composition. Granted, Jesus was supernaturally conceived which is obviously different from how we are conceived. But it is apparent he had to struggle with temptation as we do which indicates he experienced the same humanity we do. The dual nature concept of Jesus does not fit with what we see in the scriptures.
It should be quite apparent Jesus was tempted and was at risk to sin and be condemned to eternal death (separation from God). Jesus was able to resist temptation, not because He was God, but because He had the fullness of God’s spirit from birth due to his Divine conception and because he maintained a strong relationship with his Father through prayer as seen in these passages in Hebrews.
When we see Jesus struggling to remain sinless, it speaks loudly of the extraordinary man He was and should elicit great love for what He accomplished as the human Son of God. On the other hand, if Jesus was God in the flesh, his accomplishment does not have the same impact. I personally developed a greater love for Christ as a result of coming to the conclusions I have.
THE HOLY SPIRIT:
The Spirit of God is spoken of in ways that clearly show it is not a distinction in a Trinitarian Godhead but the mind and power of God the Father. Scripture shows the Spirit can be quenched (1 Thessalonians 5:19), fanned into flame (2 Timothy 1:6-7) and given out in portions or in full amounts (1 John 4:13 &. John 3:34). This is not language conducive to defining the Spirit as a person of a Trinitarian Godhead. This is seen as language that depicts the Spirit as God’s influence upon our lives through his power and mind and yet an influence that can be mitigated by our human ability to exercise free choice.
In Isaiah 40:13 the prophet says, “Who hath directed the spirit (Hebrew ruah) of the Lord, or being his counselor hath taught him?" (KJV). Apostle Paul quotes this passage when he says, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counselor?" (Romans 11:34). Paul uses the Greek word nous (Septuagint rendering of Isaiah 40:13) which means the faculty of intellect, perceiving, understanding, feeling, judging and determining, etc. Here Paul is seen as equating the Spirit of God with the mind of God. It is also apparent that the Septuagint translators (Hebrew to Greek) understood the Spirit to be the mind of God and rendered ruah as nous. This clearly shows the Spirit of God is identified with the mind of God and not a person within a Trinitarian Godhead. Many others scriptures give evidence to the Spirit of God being the power of God.
Spirit is regularly seen in scripture to signify power, mind and presence. In Luke 1:17, John the Baptist is seen as coming in the spirit and power of Elijah. No one would conclude the spirit of Elijah was a person. Paul wrote to Timothy that God has given us a spirit of power, love and sound mindedness (1st Timothy 1:7). These are all attributes of God’s Spirit with no hint of them coming from and through a third person of a Trinity. God’s Spirit is seen as a manifestation of God’s power and mind throughout the universe and is expressed in thousands of ways. It is through God’s Spirit that Mary became impregnated with Jesus. God the Father is the Father of Jesus, not through the action of a person called the Holy Spirit, but through the action of His innate mind and power that is called Holy Spirit.
Luke 1:35: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
It is through God's Spirit that all things exist and continue to exist. God’s Spirit is a Spirit of life, wisdom, understanding, love, power and all attributes of righteous character. God has given of His Spirit to His Son commensurate with the position of authority that has been granted to Christ by the Father. God gives of His Spirit to humans at a level commensurate with our humanity. Nowhere is there instruction in scripture to actually pray to the Holy Spirit as being God as is the practice in some Christian fellowships. The scriptures teach the Holy Spirit facilitates our ability to have a relationship with God and not that the Holy Spirit is God.
THE WORD OF GOD:
The phrase “word (Greek: logos) of God” occurs dozens of times in the NT narrative. By context this phrase is seen to express the words (speech) of God and does not in any way convey the idea the word of God is a person called the Son. The very word logos means to speak. In John 17:17, Jesus said His Father’s word (logos) is truth. In Luke 4:4, Jesus said, man should live by every word (logos) of God. There is nothing here to indicate Jesus was referring to Himself as the literal word (speech) of God in these passages. In Ephesians 6:17, Paul likens the word (logos) of God to being the sword of the Spirit. The writer to the Hebrews says something similar.
The word of God is the wisdom, knowledge, understanding, purpose and overall will of God. Jesus Christ, as the humanly begotten Son of the One God, was the human agent through whom the Father’s word was perfectly expressed. This doesn’t make Jesus that word but the vehicle through whom such word is expressed. Jesus is the personification of the Father's word. One dictionary definition of personify is to be “the perfect example of something.” Another definition is “to perfectly represent something.” Jesus perfectly represented the word of his Father God. The scriptures symbolically picture the word of God as a sword. The scriptures picture the word of God as a sword coming out of the month of Jesus because Jesus represents the logos of God. Representing something, however, does not make you that something.
It is through and by the word of God that all things were created, including the Son. Because of the Son's direct begettal by the Father, the Son became the human personification of His Father's word. The Father's word is not a literal person called the Son. The word of the Father is the expression of His attributes of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, will, purpose, light, truth, love and life. Jesus personifies these attributes. Jesus is not intrinsically these attributes. Only the one God, the Father, is intrinsically these attributes. These attributes define the very nature of the Father. Christ was a reflection of these attributes. Jesus mirrored these attributes of His Father. Jesus was the image of these attributes as scripture teaches. This is why Jesus could say, "If your have seen me you have seen the Father." Jesus also said His Father was greater than He showing Jesus clearly understood He was not God as God is God.
CONCLUSION:
I have been forced by the scriptures to conclude there is only one Unitarian Almighty Supreme Creator God from which all else derives, including Jesus. Jesus was the human agent of this one and only God. Upon fulfilling his Father’s will, He was granted immortality, glory, power and authority at the right hand of this one and only God. Therefore, Jesus is worthy of worship commensurate with who he is just as the Father is worthy of worship commensurate with who He is.
The weight of scripture is very heavy in support of there being one Unitarian God. Jesus clearly identifies his Father as the one and only true God. Paul identifies the Father as the one and only God. Paul and other NT writers consistently identify the Father as the God of Jesus. Jesus identifies God as his God both before and after his ascension. In view of such revelation in scripture, there is no scriptural reason to believe Jesus is coequal, coeternal and consubstantial with this God. When factoring in the fact the eternal God can’t die and Jesus clearly died, it should be apparent the idea Jesus is God as God is God is highly problematical.
Jesus reveals the Father as Lord of heaven and earth (Matthew 11:25). Jesus constantly directs attention to the Father in His teachings. Jesus taught that by honoring Him we honor the Father. While the scriptures show Jesus as being worshiped and at times prayed to, we find Jesus directing worship and prayer toward the Father (Matthew 6:6, John 4:23, Hebrews 7:25). While we pray to the Father in the name of Jesus, we still pray to the Father. That should say a lot about who the one and only God is and where our relational focus should be.
Having said all this, I don’t have a problem seeing Jesus as god (small g) as long as I maintain the understanding that Jesus is not the one and only Supreme God. The Hebrew and Greek words for god do not intrinsically mean the one and only Supreme God of the universe. How the word god is understood in scripture must be determined by the overall context wherein this word is found and the overall context of scripture. I discuss this in detail in my sixteen part series.
What I have presented in this synopsis are some of the fundamental reasons for taking the position I take relative to the nature of God and Jesus. I feel the scriptures I have cited are clear cut and straightforward delineations of the differentiation between the one and only Supreme God and the man Jesus. I believe it is clear scriptures such as these that must define our doctrine of God and Christ. Scriptures that appear to say something different as to the nature of God, Jesus and the Spirit must be examined in light of these clear and concise passages and dealt with accordingly. In my sixteen part series I address all such passages, including John, chapter one, Philippians, chapter two, Colossians one and dozens of other scriptures used by Trinitarians to support their position.
Please be reminded that this synopsis is only a brief overview of what I have covered in much greater detail in my sixteen part series as found on this website. For a much more in-depth discussion of the issues addressed in this synopsis, please go to Is God a Trinity?