Does the modern concept of the Trinity coincide with the Bible?
I lovingly invite you to read and prayerfully reflect on the many Bible verses and information contained in this article, and see how you feel about this important question.
True Facts: Our church has several great Bible scholars who know the Bible inside and out. Even more importantly, we are blessed with true prophets and apostles of God who help give us guidance and clarity. If you study the Bible carefully and prayerfully, I am convinced that you will not find a church that teaches and follows the Bible more closely than The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There are many verses in the Bible that Christian churches interpret differently, which is why there are so many different Christian denominations.
True Story: Regarding the teaching or concept of the Trinity which we interpret differently than many Christian churches: A nice young Bible-believing couple, who were long-time insurance clients of mine, knew that I also had a deep love for the Bible and Jesus Christ as our Savior, and we discussed this on occasion. They knew and trusted me, and their doctor and dentist were also members of our church along with several other people they knew and trusted. One day, the wife asked me if we believed that our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ were two separate individuals or one person – – – as in the doctrine of the Trinity which began to be taught in the Catholic Church by majority vote after much disagreement and debate in the Nicene Creed in 325 AD. If you will prayerfully and carefully study the Bible, I think you will see that such a doctrine was never taught in the Bible by Jesus Christ, nor by any of His apostles or prophets. Anyway, the wife wanted to know what our church believes about this because she and her husband had been studying the Bible on their own extensively for the past few months, and they had observed that there are many scriptures that make it very clear that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are two separate individuals. I agreed with her that if you study the Bible carefully, it becomes quite clear that they are separate individuals. I don’t want to offend anyone, but I hope you won’t mind if I quote a few of the many scriptures that, to me, make it very clear that our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, are two separate persons, who are one in unity and purpose as we were taught to be, such as the following Bible verses and dozens of others:
When Jesus was baptized, the people heard “a voice from heaven, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son , with whom I am well pleased.’” (Matthew 3:17) – – (Notice that Jesus was being baptized, and a voice was heard from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased – – – not this I, with whom I am well pleased.)
Jesus said while praying as recorded in Luke 22:42: “ Saying , Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; nevertheless, not My will , but Yours be done.” – – – That sounds like two separate individuals with two separate wills, doesn’t it? Jesus said He always did the Father’s will. How can He do the Father’s will if He and the Father are one and the same individual?
John 4:34: “Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work .’”
John 5:30: “I can do nothing on my own; as I hear, I judge; and my judgment is righteous, because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me. ”
Take a pause to consider when Jesus prayed to His Heavenly Father on the cross, “Father, forgive them , for they know not what they do .” Luke 23:34. Why does Jesus pray to His Father to forgive them, if He and His Father are one and the same individual?
When Stephen was stoned, as described in Acts 7:55-56, it says, “But Stephen, being full of the Holy Spirit , looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God . And he said, ‘Look, I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God! ’” – – – (How can you see Jesus standing at the right hand of God if they are both the same individual? What if neither of them has a physical body as many in modern Christianity teach?)
John 10:17 : “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again .” – – – Please note that Jesus is not saying: For this reason I love myself, because I lay down my life…
Yes, there are some Bible verses that say Jesus and His Father are one in unity and purpose, just as Jesus taught His apostles and disciples to be. “One” in unity, not one in the same individual or physical body, right? Consider these words of Jesus below in John 10:30:
And in John 17:20-22 “Not only do I pray for these, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one ; even as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory that You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one.” Jesus is clearly asking His disciples to be united in one, as He and His Father were united in one.
Acts 4:32: “Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common .”
Romans 12:5 “so we, being many, are one in Christ.” Clearly, Jesus Christ teaches all of His followers to be “of one heart and of one soul” – – – in purpose, unity, etc., as Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father are, but not to be the same individual person, right?
Anyway, if you read the New Testament very carefully and prayerfully, I believe you will come to know that although our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are both perfect, and are two separate persons, They love you very much as a beloved child of God. Even if we do not agree on the interpretation of some Bible verses like the ones above; I am convinced that we can all feel the same things: love, happiness, and inner peace, etc., from the same heavenly sources , and that we can feel within our spiritual part, through the Christ Light or inner conscience guidance system, which helps us to know the difference between good and evil, light and darkness, right and wrong, that we will be blessed if we choose to follow that guidance and the commandments and principles that Jesus, his apostles and prophets taught us in the Bible.
Some questions to ponder about the thief on the cross next to Jesus , whom most Christian pastors today learned about in Bible college, will go to heaven to receive the ultimate eternal heavenly reward for accepting Jesus Christ as his Savior on his deathbed:
The thief believed Jesus was praying to himself? – – – or to our Heavenly Father? – – That is, did he believe they were the same individual or two separate individuals? – – In other words, did he believe in the doctrine of the Trinity that was approved as official Catholic doctrine some 300 years later in the Nicene Creed in 325 AD by a majority vote after much debate by church leaders attending the conference? And remember, all the apostles and prophets had been killed or martyred by that time, so none of them were around to clarify God’s truth on the subject.
If the thief on the cross got that question wrong, would our loving and just Heavenly Father send him to suffer forever in hell instead of sending him to heaven because of that technicality of interpretation? If you or I answered wrong, would our loving and just Heavenly Father send us to suffer forever in hell because of that interpretation? As the loving parent you are to your own children, would you send one of your children to suffer forever in hell because of a technicality of interpretation of some Bible verses? Of course not, would you? And isn’t our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ, even more loving and just than any of us?
If our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, are actually the same individual or two separate individuals, would the influence we would feel from either of them be different? In other words, if they are two separate individuals, united on the same Heavenly team and both perfect, wouldn’t we feel the same uplifting light, love, joy, inner peace, goodness, etc. from either of them?
And when we feel the influence of the devil or any evil henchmen of his crew at any time in our lives, then we feel darkness, fear, evil, lack of light, love, joy, and inner peace, etc. – – don’t we? Obviously, our loving Heavenly Father wants us to prayerfully seek His uplifting light, His love, His joy, His inner peace, etc., and to avoid the devil and those on his crew who tempt us to do evil and to be in wrong places of darkness and evil. However, can you see that our loving Heavenly Father will not, of course, punish any of us forever in hell for innocent technicalities of Bible interpretation, such as whether we believe that Jesus Christ and His Heavenly Father are one and the same individual, or two separate individuals, who are one in purpose and unity, as Jesus taught His disciples and followers to be?
In Joseph Smith, History 1, verses 16 and 17, the Prophet Joseph Smith testified:
“ I saw a column of light , brighter than the sun , directly above my head; and this light gradually descended until it rested upon me.
No sooner had he appeared than I felt free from the enemy who had held me fast. As the light fell upon me, I saw in the air above me two figures, whose brilliance and glory defy description. One of them spoke to me, calling me by name, and said, pointing to the other, ” This is my beloved Son : Listen to him!”
In Articles of Faith #1, Joseph Smith taught: “We believe in God the Eternal Father, and in his Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost .”
In Doctrine and Covenants, section 130, verse 22, the Prophet Joseph Smith taught: “The Father has a body of flesh and bones, tangible like unto man; so also the Son; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of the Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us.”
Please pause to consider that death is the separation of the spirit and the body, and resurrection is the reunification of the spirit with a more perfect, eternal body that will never die again.
Luke 23:46 teaches us: “Then Jesus cried with a loud voice, and said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit .” And when he had thus spoken, he breathed his last .
In Luke 24:36-43 the Bible teaches: “ 36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “ Peace be with you.”
37 Then they were terrified and frightened, and thought they had seen a spirit.
38 But he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?
39 Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.
40 And saying this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
41 And while they still did not believe it for joy and were amazed, he said to them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”
42 Then they gave him part of a broiled fish and a honeycomb.
43 And he took it and ate it before them.”
Did Jesus Christ ever die again after being resurrected? No, therefore, he still has a perfect body of flesh and bones, which will never die again.
Elder Charles Hunt