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The GOD Family open or closed?

Remember back to your high school days when there was a particular group you wanted to break into. Maybe it was the athletic clique, or perhaps the scholar's corner, or the popular cheerleader's circle. How painful it was when you were rejected because you didn't quite meet their standards. What an empty feeling to be in the "out group," to feel unwanted, rejected, not good enough.

But do you know what's supposed to be the universe's most exclusive club — the clique from which all mankind is utterly excluded?

It's the "trinity"!

Let's look at two verses in the Bible that supposedly mention the trinity and see what they really say. Be prepared for quite a shock.

It's I John 5:7-8. Notice how these verses read in the King James Version: "For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one."

Virtually all scholars agree that the words "the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost," are wrong words that have been inserted into the text in an attempt to bolster arguments for the trinity.

The Interpreter's Bible states, "This verse (I John 5:7) in the KJV [King James Version) is to be rejected . . . It appears in no ancient Greek MS [manuscript] nor is it cited by any Greek father; of all the versions only the Latin contained it, and even this in none of its most ancient sources."

Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's commentary shows that the only Greek manuscripts containing this "trinity reference" are either "copied from the modern Latin Vulgate," "added in the margin by a recent hand," etc. "All the old versions omit the words . . . [I John 5:7] was therefore first written as a marginal comment to complete the sense [which is the trinitarian rationalization], then, as early, at least as the eighth century, was introduced into the text of the Latin Vulgate. . . . Luecke notices as internal evidence against the words, John never uses the Father' and `the Word' as correlates, but, like other New Testament writers, associates 'the Son' with 'the Father,' and always refers `the Word' to God as its correlate, not the Father.' "

Even Adam Clarke, an avowed trinitarian, states: "Though a conscientious believer in the doctrine of the ever blessed, holy and undivided Trinity . . . I CANNOT HELP DOUBTING THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE TEXT IN QUESTION."

Now you are going to find out what I John 5:7-8 really means. We're going to see that the very section in God's Word which has been tampered with to try to prove the trinity in fact proves just the opposite.

First, here's how I John 5:7-8 should read: "For there are three that bear record, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these three agree in one." So there are indeed three things that bear record or give testimony, the Spirit, the water and the blood.

But what do they bear record to? To a closed Godhead clique of three beings? NO? Just the opposite!

The record of what they are witnessing to is clearly given in verses 11-12: "And this is the record, that God haft given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son had. life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." So what is witnessed to is the fact that if we have Jesus Christ living His life in us, then we have eternal life residing in us right now. And it will remain in us as long as we allow Christ to continue living His life in us, and at Christ's second coming it will be given permanently to those who remain faithful (II Tim. 4:8).

In other words, to use the analogy given throughout I John and elsewhere in the Bible, we are now begotten sons of God and, if we don't abort ourselves in this growth process, we'll later become born sons of God. That is, we'll actually become members of the greatly expanded Family of God. (For a further explanation of the Family of God, write for our free booklet Just What Do You Mean . . .the Kingdom of God?)

There can be only three God-beings in the trinity idea. But isn't it ironic that the place where a verse has been inserted to try to establish a God-clique, a closed trinity, is the very place where God is showing how He is adding to His Family?

The three that "bear record" in I John 5:7-8 are:

1) God's Spirit, which is not a person but the power of God, the "down payment" of begettal, given by God to show that He means business and will later finish the payment when you're born into the Kingdom of God with a wholly spiritual body (Eph. 1:13-14).

2) The water — baptism, which symbolizes our burial and death so that a new entity can begin to exist (Rom. 6:4), an entity that can grow into a Son of God.

3) The blood — Christ's death, which reconciles us to God, by paying our death penalty incurred for our sins, thereby enabling us to go on to become a Son of God (Rom. 5:10).

Every Christian who is on the way to becoming a member of the. Family of God must partake of the three things that witness to the fact God wants all mankind to join Him in His eternally ruling Family — baptism, the receiving of the Holy Spirit, and the yearly Passover that commemorates Jesus Christ's death. These three unique occurrences in one's life prove powerfully that you are another Son of God on the way to becoming born of God.

God is a Family — not a trinity. God's Family will not be limited to an intractably closed circle of three. This is one group you don't have to be excluded from!

You can be put into the greatest group of all.

God's Family is open!