My Evolution on the Trinity Doctrine

From 2002 to 2010, I strongly believed, defended, and argued in favor of the Trinity Doctrine (and the belief that Jesus was Yahweh) online. I was convinced it was the absolute truth. It was logically consistent (internally), seemed to be the best explanation for several mysteries of the Bible, and many parts of the Bible seemed to contradict each other unless the Trinity was true.

I was even convinced (based upon a faulty interpretation of John 8:24) that people would be condemned by God for rejecting the belief that Jesus was Yahweh.

I was able to build elaborate, very sound, logical arguments which on the surface appeared airtight. But I had to "customize" the traditional Trinity Doctrine to fit what I was reading in the Scriptures. Right from the beginning, I had to throw out the traditional Trinitarian doctrine that says Jesus was always "co-equal" with God the Father. Many Scriptures prove that to be false. (1 Corinthians 11:3, Philippians 2:6-8, John 14:28, Revelation 3:12, 1 Corinthians 15:24-28)

The version of the Trinity Doctrine I subscribed to, is known as "Functional Subordinationism." It simply means that The Son has always been in willing subjection to The Father.

However, as I read the Scriptures, even this customized version of the Trinity Doctrine didn't seem to fit all the Bible verses. But I kept ignoring and avoiding the passages which I couldn't explain (such as Mark 10:18, John 10:34-35, 2 Peter 1:4, Acts 2:36).

In 2011 and 2012 I began having some doubts on the Trinity Doctrine, but again, based on my faulty interpretation of John 8:24 (and the fear of being labelled a "heretic" or "apostate" by my Christian friends online), I suppressed and denied these doubts.

It wasn't until February of this year that I began to re-read the Gospel of John (and those other passages I had been ignoring) in the NASB (New American Standard Bible), in order to re-examine my views on the Trinity and on the Deity of Christ. I chose the NASB because it is recognized by many as the most literally accurate Bible translation in existence (outside of an interlinear). And after comparing its word choices and phrasing to Greek dictionaries and lexicons, it does indeed appear to be the least doctrinally biased mainstream translation on the market.

I had always believed that the Gospel of John was the biggest evidence in favor of Jesus being Yahweh, and the Trinity Doctrine. I now know the truth is the exact opposite.

After studying the Trinity verses in the NASB for two months, I came to the conclusion that I could no longer believe the Trinity Doctrine or that Jesus is Yahweh, and still be honest to myself and others.

I now have a much clearer, much more nuanced view of God and Jesus, which I will explain in my next blog post.