Last post on the theology track, I covered several bad arguments to support a Trinitarian reading of God in the Bible. This post will cover several more of such arguments, and my closing thoughts.

Claim 3: Jesus must be God because Jesus receives worship, and only God is to be worshipped

Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” (Matthew 4:10 NRSVUE)

Dozens of times, Jesus is portrayed to be worshipped. In none of these occasions did He reject worship, unlike the occasion where the angels in Revelations 19:10 decline the worship by John of Patmos.

Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers and sisters who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” (Revelations 19:10 NRSVUE)

Does this confirm Jesus is God?

Firstly, the word “worship” is a translation of the Greek term “προσκυνέω” (proskuneó). While the term could mean worshipping God, it does not implicitly imply the subject being worshipped is God, and the term could flexibly be used to indicate any form of prostration or reverence towards another greater being/figure (perceived or real). For example, Revelations 13 speaks of people worshipping great beasts and even a dragon. In the Septuagint (Greek translation of the OT), proskuneó often serves as a translation of the Hebrew term שָׁחָה (shachah), and there are numerous references to people of God offering shachah (prostrating) to representatives of God (e.g. Abraham and the three men), kings (e.g. the prophet Nathan to King David), or to both kings and the Lord (1 Chr 29:20).

The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them and bowed down (shachah) to the ground. (Genesis 18:1-2 NRSVUE)

While she was still speaking with the king, Nathan the prophet arrived. And the king was told, “Nathan the prophet is here.” So he went before the king and bowed (shachah) with his face to the ground. (1 Kings 1:22-23 NRSVUE)

Then David said to the whole assembly, “Bless the Lord your God.” And all the assembly blessed the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and bowed their heads and prostrated (shachah) themselves before the Lord and the king. (1 Chr 29:20 NRSVUE)

In other words, one cannot simply infer the subject is God after seeing the word “προσκυνέω” – the divinity of the subject has to be inferred or evaluated in each context individually. While I do agree that the gospel writers do portray Jesus as divine in some sense, there is nothing in the gospel text that forces one to read Jesus as coequal to God simply because He accepted proskuneó. If representatives of God in the OT like the three men before Abraham and King David could receive prostration because they represented God’s presence, why can’t the same be said for Jesus in the NT?

Claim 4: Jesus must be God because Jesus is a preexistent being who rules over all Creation

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. (John 1:1-3 NRSVUE)

This argument isn’t nearly as bad as the previous ones, but I think it is worth mentioning considering how overused the prologue of John is to establish Jesus’s equality with God the Father.

I already covered in the previous post why John 1:1 on its own cannot be used to immediately conclude Jesus’s equality with God the Father (aka read the WHOLE gospel!). This argument here utilizes a different claim where Jesus has existed since the beginning of time and so must share a nature with God the Father (who also existed prior to the Creation).

For one, this portrayal of God is found ONLY in the gospel of John. If that eternal nature of Christ was indeed something true and important to His message, it bewilders me that no other gospel mentions it.

Secondly, assuming John 1:1-2 is factually true, could He have overseen Creation while still being subservient to, and distinct from the Father? I don’t see why not. Other books in the NT also capture similar ideas about Jesus’s role in Creation (see Col 1 and Heb 1). Even in those books, one can see the logic (Logos!) of God’s Creation process – all things are created through Christ, and subsequently Christ is anointed ruler of said Creation. Who does the anointing?

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:15-17 NRSVUE)

but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. (Hebrews 1:2 NRSVUE)

God (the Father) did!

If Jesus was already a similar nature to God the Father, there would have been no need for such anointing. The reason why modern believers immediately equate Jesus’s preincarnate existence to a shared nature with God the Father is because our understanding of the divine realm does not match with our ancestors, who thought of divinity as a continuum. Instead, we think of divinity as a single-level status – one is either God or mortal.

Does this all matter?

At the end of the day, judging solely from our gospel material, I don’t think there is good evidence to suggest the earliest Christians believed Jesus shared a nature with God the Father, nor was this a teaching that went back to Jesus. The Trinity, as we know it today, came out of centuries of theological development – not a fact baked into Scripture. Is it factually true that God is triune? I don’t think we’ll ever know until we meet Him – certainly not on this mortal plane!

Does this all matter? It depends on who you ask. For me, I think it hardly matters to most believers. For one to follow Christ today, it is to believe in the redemptive power of His sacrifice and resurrection, and to participate actively in God’s Will – however that may look like. Rarely in the Synoptics do we see Jesus nitpicking about people’s beliefs – He was far more concerned with people living God-aligned lives and doing the will of the One True God – the Father.

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not defraud. Honor your father and mother.’ ” (Mark 10:17-19; Luke 18:18-20 NRSVUE)

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. (Matthew 7:21 NRSVUE)

There is one group whom I think might find this concerning (and loudly complain about it) – these are the people who choose to gatekeep the faith by professing additional “requirements” to “be a Christian”, and mock those who carry doubts, unorthodox beliefs or worship in contrasting denominations. To those gatekeepers I’ll say – who made you judge and jury? Only the Lord knows each of our hearts – let Him be the judge of that!

There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor? (James 4:12 NRSVUE)

For the rest of us, I don’t see how it would matter practically what level of divinity Jesus stands in your mind, as long as one acknowledges He is divinely anointed within the Father’s heavenly kingdom. Whether one rationalizes Jesus has to be God-God, or a divine representative of God, anyone is free to pray to Jesus the same way you pray to the Father.

I’m sure He won’t mind!