Since discovering the reality that the trinity doctrine is a contrivance of man, rather than a revelation of God, I have come to appreciate the necessity of critical thinking when using reference tools in my personal Bible study! All the books and reference tools in my Bible study library are fundamentally orthodox and traditional in their content. The fact is, a significant majority of the Bible reference works written, both past and present, were authored by Trinitarian scholars.
Our traditions have taught us that the orthodox view is THE correct view of the nature of God and Christ and therefore the ONLY acceptable view. All other views must therefore be false, even demonic. This tends to keep people from taking any other view seriously, much less actually reading literature which introduces an opposing view to their own. Yet, I know of no orthodox Christian who can satisfactorily answer for themselves, let alone those outside the household of faith, basic and reasonable questions regarding the conflict of the supposed “dual nature” of Christ. The patent answer to this obvious disparity is simply that “it’s a mystery”.
But the Bible makes no such conflicting statements. And if we allow ourselves to read with “new eyes” (that is, read without the filter of centuries of traditional teaching – as difficult as it may be) and do proper exegesis of the texts of Scripture, the Bible becomes a much more understandable, even believable book.
One of the Bible reference tools I use is the Nelson Study Bible. I haven’t thrown it away, nor will I. In fact, I still use all my reference works. But instead of taking their conclusions as the final authority, I’ve learned to be critical, and think for myself. Below is a reproduction of a table found in the Nelson Study Bible (NKJV) which I came across recently while reading in the book of Hebrews. The first column of the table gives the Scripture reference to Christ in Hebrews and the second column conveys the authors’ interpretation of it’s meaning. I have added a third column for my own commentary on each point.
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The Majesty of Christ
Hebrews is perhaps the greatest
Christological book in the Bible, giving
us a detailed description of the at-
tributes and accomplishments of
Jesus Christ. The following chart is a
summary.
| Christ is… | This means… | My commentary… |
| heir of all things (Heb 1:2) | As God’s “firstborn” Son, Christ will inherit infinite glory and honor. | Amen! In fact, he has already been “highly exalted” and given a “name above every name” (Phil 2:9-11) |
| the One through whom God made the worlds (Heb 1:2) | Christ was the Agent who created the universe. | Not so! The idea that Christ created the world comes from two false assumptions. The First false assumption is, that Christ is part of a triune God. If this is so, then the Father God was apparently not capable of creating the world on His own. The fact is, God alone created the world (Isa 44:24, ) and even Jesus agrees (Mat 19:4; Mk 10:6; Luke 11:40). The Second false assumption is, that the correct translation of the Greek word aion is world, or universe! Actually, an aion is an age. It was “through” Christ that God made the ages. He is the focal point of every age, past, present, and future. It makes no sense, within the following context of chapter one (esp. v9), to speak of Jesus as being the creator of the physical world. |
| the brightness of God’s glory (Heb 1:3) | Christ reflects the majesty of God. | Amen to that! |
| the express image of His person (Heb 1:3) | Christ is God made visible, in the flesh. | Now that is quite a leap from what the text says! Although Christ is the “exact” representation of God, he is still a “representation”! He IS the image of God we were meant to be had it not been for the fall of Adam. Jesus was the perfect man because he represented/reflected God’s glory, perfectly! |
| upholding all things by the word of his power (Heb 1:3) | Christ holds the universe together (Col 1:17) | Most Bible versions say “all things” rather than universe in both Hebrews and Colossians. The “all things” being held together is a reference to the new creation, not the physical universe. |
| seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Heb 1:3) | Christ is reigning and ruling with God the Father as Lord over all. | According to Acts 2:36, Jesus Christ has been “made” lord and Christ by God the Father. His lordship is now over the church – his body (Eph 1:22) – but will one day be over all the earth! (Rev 19:15) Then, when all his enemies are subdued, he will hand over the kingdom to God, that “God may be all in all.” (1 Cor 15:25-28) |
| better than the angels (Heb 1:4) | Christ is to be exalted more than the angels, no matter how glorious and awe-inspiring they are. | Duh! The Jews were not angel worshippers and didn’t need an exhortation to worship Christ above angels. The whole point of Hebrews is to show that God did a better thing in speaking through a son! Christ, although man, re-presented God better than any angel. |
| Captain of our salvation (Heb 2:10) | Christ is the founder of the effort to “bring many sons to glory” (Heb 5:9) | The word “founder” is translated from archegos, and is rendered in various versions as prince, leader, author, pioneer, and captain. The “founder” of our salvation is God the Father. God alone is the designer, the originator, of the plan of salvation. Jesus fulfilled God’s will in making His plan of salvation a reality. In bringing “many sons to glory”, it must be understood that Jesus is the “firstfruits” of those that sleep. (1 Cor 15:20) As archegos of salvation, he is the first to fully experience that salvation because God raised him from the dead. He is now leader of all who follow after him by faith. When he appears again (his second coming), “we will be like him” for we will “see him as he is” (1 Jn 3:2). This phrase “see him as he is” must be a reference to the fact that he is a glorified human being, otherwise John would be saying that we will become God when we see him. Even Trinitarians do not believe that! |
| the destroyer … of … the devil (Heb 2:14) | In dying for our sins, Christ overcame our greatest enemies – death and the devil. | How true! He is victor over sin and death, and in him, we are also overcomers in every way. (1 Jn 5:4, Rom 8:37) |
| a merciful and faithful high priest (Heb 2:17) | Christ brought the ultimate sacrifice before God – his own blood – so that we might have fellowship with God. | Praise God, the sacrifice of his life’s blood did indeed make it possible for us to have fellowship with God! However, it should be noted that the bible doesn’t really say that Jesus presented his blood before the Father. This is conjecture based on the pre-sumption that he is the God-Man of the trinity. It is true that the role of high priest was to take the blood into the holy of holies once a year, on the day of atonement, and this is where the symbolism comes from; however, the point the writer wants to make here is that as high priest, Jesus had to be human in order to atone for humanity.(Heb 10:4-5) |
| worthy of more glory than Moses (Heb 3:3) | Unlike Moses, who was merely a servant in the house of God, Christ is the “Son over His own house” (Heb 3:6). | That’s right, Jesus is worthy of more honor than Moses, and that is because he is more than a servant or great prophet, but a unique son! The better translation of v6 is “faithful over God’s house as a son” This is in line with v4 which reads “the builder of all things is God.” Otherwise, it sounds as if the house is the son’s, when in fact, it is God’s! Notice also that in v2, Jesus was “faithful to him who appointed him” just as Moses was also appointed and faithful. And who appointed Moses? The same God, the only true God (Jn 17:3), that appointed Jesus. (Acts 10:42, 17:31; Heb 1:2) |
| a high priest who can sympathize with our weak-nesses (Heb 4:15) | While on this earth, Jesus experienced the temptations and trials of living in a fallen world. He understands the struggles we face and has com-passion for us. | He understands us perfectly because he is one of us! (Heb 2:17) Yes… Jesus is no longer on the earth, he is in heaven. But prefacing the statement with “While on this earth”, and the use of the word “experienced” leads one to think that Jesus pre-existed his life on earth and merely experienced humanity. This kind of manipulation robs this text, and others, of it’s full impact |
| always alive to make intercession (Heb 7:25) | Christ’s priesthood is eternal. We will always have a perfect represent-ative for us before the throne of God. | He’s always alive now, but he is not eternal in the sense that he always lived before! The first part of this verse says he is able to fully save those who come to God “through” him. |
| Mediator of a better covenant (Heb 8:6) | The old covenant with its earthly tabernacle and imperfect priests has been super-seded by the sinless Christ. He is our high priest who is interceding for us before God in heaven. | It is true! But Christ mediates a better covenant because it is founded upon better promises, not because he is sinless and the priests of the old covenant were not. Notice also that the verse declares that Christ’s ministry as high priest has been "given” him, or “obtained” by him. How did he obtain it unless it was given to him? And who gave it? It was God who gave him the better ministry! (1 Tim 2:5) |
| our model for enduring hostility from sinners (Heb 12:2-3) | When we are discouraged, we can find strength and inspiration in Christ’s willingness to persevere. | Amen to that! But as soon as we consider Christ to be more than a man – to be God as well as man – the inspiration is lost! We cannot fully relate to a person who, although touted to be human like us, is at the same time, God! It is here that the similarity ends and the analogy breaks down. Notice that in the referenced Scripture, it was because of the “joy that was set before him” that he endured the cross and the hostility of sinners. What was that joy? Was it not the in-heritance of God’s kingdom on earth, where it was promised that he would reign supreme? Was it not the promise of the highest exaltation, that he should sit at the right hand of God? Similarly, our motivation, our inspiration, to endure hostility is that, we also will be exalted (James 4:6,10) and will reign with him, (Rev 5:10, 20:5) |
| that great shepherd of the sheep (Heb 13:20) | Christ will care for us and lead us to our eternal home. | Amen! He is indeed the great shepherd of the sheep. It seems, however, to be far too easy to overlook the part of this Scripture that says of God that He “brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus.” As shepherd, he knows the way, because he has been there; and he has both the power and authority to lead us, because it has been given to him! |
