I was a Trinitarian Christian for twenty-two years until I read myself out of that belief in the Bible. That is, I came to believe the Bible does not say God is three persons, as in the doctrine of the Trinity that was not believed until it was formulated in the latter fourth century. And along with that, therefore, I came to believe that Jesus never said he was God and that the Bible does not teach that he was or is God. Yet I have always continued to believe all of the church’s other major teachings about Jesus because they are affirmed in the Bible, such as that he was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, did miracles, healed many people, was Israel’s promised Messiah, died on the cross, arose from the dead, ascended to heaven, and awaits his return to earth with his kingdom.
Because I made this change in theology forty years ago, I have suffered much rejection and therefore persecution from my spiritual brothers and sisters in the faith. But I knew this would happen when I was considering this change in theology. I lost over half of my closest Christian friends, many of them in full time Christian ministry. When they learned of my theological change, they usually no longer had anything to do with me. I was like a pariah to them. I lost Christian ministry. Churches would not have me. All regarded me as worse than a non-Christian. They considered me as a heretic.
After much study about this subject for thirty years, I wrote a 568-page book about it in which I cite over 400 scholars. The title has recently been changed to The Restitution: Biblical Proof Jesus Is Not God, and it is available on amazon.com or my website kermizarley.com. And those former friends who then rejected me certainly wouldn’t look at my book.
The interesting thing about it was that once they learned about my change in theology–which I pretty much kept to myself and did not go public with it for thirty years–they would not initiate any conversation with me to actually learn what it was I believed and why. I believe that in doing so, they were not practicing the love of God in Christ. Plus, they violated a principle that Nicodemus alerted the Sanhedrin about when they were trying to get Jesus arrested and killed.
Nicodemus was one of the seventy members of the Jewish Sanhedrin (council) who came to Jesus at night to inquire about him. Jesus immediately told him he needed to be “born again” to enter the kingdom of God (John 3.3). Nicodemus didn’t understand. Jesus even acknowledged that he was a leading Torah teacher (v. 10). We do not know what happened to Nicodemus, that is, if he believed Jesus was the Messiah. But we do know that he had enough respect for him that he and Joseph and Arimathea took Jesus’ deceased body from the cross and entombed it (John 19.38-39).
But before that, Nicodemus had said to some judgmental Pharisees who had sent the police to arrest Jesus and try to get him killed, “Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it” (John 7.51).
Due to what the Bible says, it is a sobering thing to contemplate about Trinitarian Christians rejecting people as Christian because they don’t believe Jesus is God, yet they believe he is the Messiah and the Son of God. The author of the Gospel of John reveals the purpose for writing his gospel by saying, “these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name” (John 20.31). It doesn’t say anything about Jesus being God. Then 1 John echoes likewise by saying, “God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 Jn 4.15). And it adds, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God” (1 Jn 5.1). So, believing Jesus is the Messiah/Christ and the Son of God results in being born again and thus inheriting eternal life.
Yet, 1 John also has some sobering words about not loving our spiritual brothers and sisters who share this common faith. It says, “All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them” (1 John 3.15). It also says, “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate a brother or sister are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen” (1 Jn 4.20).
I think Trinitarians should think seriously about this warning. These texts say that people who truly believe Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God are born again. Yet Trinitarians say that is not enough to be born again, that people also must believe Jesus is God. And if they don’t, Trinitarians say they are not born again, thus, they are not Christians.
Is that hating their brothers and sisters? Are they murderers? What do you think?
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