Welcome everyone to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. We’ve started looking at the doctrine of the Trinity from the Jehovah’s Witnesses magazine, “Should You Believe In The Trinity?” Before I get into that, I will state on a personal note that I did get a part-time job today. Of course, my wife and I still appreciate donations that can be made through Tektonics that are tax-deductible. However, we do have some breathing room.
Now let’s get to the matter at hand. The first point is one I in essence agree with the Watchtower on. It is important to know about the Trinity. If the Watchtower is right, then I say I am indeed committing blasphemy by saying Jesus is God when He is not. However, if I am right, then the Watchtower is denying who Jesus truly is and He made his identity the focus of his message and essential to salvation. There is a huge price to pay on both ends.
The Watchtower tells us that various Trinitarian concepts exist. The sad part is that they never list one other one rather than the orthodox one. I find this troublesome consider the last Witnesses that we had visit could not get my position straight. They’d give a modalist view and I’d say that’s not what the Trinity is and then they’d be saying later “So you don’t believe in the Trinity” and I had to correct them time and time again.
Unfortunately, I can understand them when they say many Christians they meet do give different descriptions and this is where we are falling short. Ask the average person at a church service to explain the Trinity and more likely than not, you’ll get a modalist interpretation, especially if they say “It’s like me being a father, a son, and a husband.”
Also interesting is how the magazine says “Others say that” and then goes on to list beliefs such as Jesus pre-existing as a spirit person created by God and the Holy Spirit as God’s active force and not a person. It’s not hard to wonder who these others are. The Witnesses don’t seem to mention “Watchtower” often, but go to their Kingdom Hall service and be amazed as you constantly hear about the “Faithful and Discrete Slave.”
Why do this? Most likely so that they will seem like Christians who believe the Bible just like you and I. The method has sadly worked. Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses get a gathering from Christians at churches. The Mormon church has claimed that they baptize a Baptist church every week.
The Witnesses also say the Trinity is of pagan origin using as a source Arthur Weigall’s “Paganism in our Christianity.” How many of you all have heard of that name? Very few. Why is that? For one thing, it dates from 1928. Keep in mind that this magazine was written in 1989. Why did the Watchtower go back 61 years? I’m not saying because it’s old, it’s wrong, but when dealing with this topic, you need the latest scholarship and if it’s believed by scholars, moderns will be saying it just as much.
But just taking this source, is there anything the Watchtower isn’t telling us?
You bet there is. Look at some other claims and see if the Watchtower will accept these.
On page 204 they say the only document in existence written by someone who personally knew Jesus is 1 Peter.
In the chapter on the virgin birth, he argues that this was common in pagan circles and that the belief should not be included in Christian creeds.
Various other beliefs in gods played a role in shaping Christian doctrine, especially the god “Mithras.”
For the sake of argument, and definitely for that as I think Weigall is entirely wrong, it could be that Weigall was correct in everything he said. The question however is why do the Witnesses write about the Trinity being pagan without taking to note everything else the same writer believes to be pagan, namely beliefs like the virgin birth.
Now of course, no scholar gets everything right. It could be he was right about the Trinity but wrong about everyone else. This wouldn’t help the situation however. Why did the Watchtower just mention him as an authority without stating the reasons for his believing the Trinity are pagan. That’s what we’re interested in.
Now the Witnesses we dealt with said that all of that is just man’s opinion anyway. To that I say that saying it is man’s opinion does not mean that it is wrong. It certainly means it’s not infallible. However, fallible human beings can be right. No one is completely wrong in what they believe. Someone can say it’s man’s opinion, but I want to know if this man’s opinion is right or not.
If his authority is not to be taken seriously, then why should he be cited at all? All we have is an appeal to authority, which is not always invalid, but if we are to believe on the basis of authority, then we need to deny that most of the NT was written by people who did not know Jesus personally and that the virgin birth is pagan. Do the Witnesses want to say that?
Please note also the poor citation given here. The Witnesses go far enough to tell where the artwork throughout the book comes from. They do not tell when they cite a book what page the information is found on and many times they don’t tell the author. If a book has had many editions. They do not tell that. It is almost as if they don’t want you to check their sources.
Let’s not be gullible with them however. I intend to hold their feet to the fire and tomorrow, we shall hopefully examine further claims.
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