Free The Forgotten Trinity by James R. White

to this divine truth have been mistranslated, twisted,
and in various other ways undermined by nearly every false prophet
and false teacher over the past seventeen hundred years.
    Just as the writers of the New Testament and the early Christians
did not hesitate to confess Jesus as their God, so we, too, must be bold
in our profession of this divine truth. We will, in this chapter, see how
the early Christians called Jesus "God." Each passage has been attacked
in almost every imaginable way; thus, we will have to explain why we
believe these passages proclaim the deity of Christ, and why others
should accept this truth.
    There are many extensive and exhaustive works on each of these verses of Scripture, and we will not seek to recreate those works here.
Instead, I desire my fellow servants of Christ to be encouraged in their
faith in our Lord and to be strengthened in their faith and their testimony to the Lord of glory, the one Thomas called "my Lord and my
God."

    RIGHT AT THE START
    It seems an appropriate time to settle one of the most important
issues regarding the Trinity and the text of Scripture. If all Christians
would simply understand the following statement, their task of explaining and defending the Trinity would be much easier. Here is a
basic, simple truth that is lost in the vast majority of discussions (or
arguments) on this topic:
    Difference in function does not indicate inferiority of nature.
    Not exactly an earth-shattering concept? It isn't, but the vast majority
of material produced by those who oppose the deity of Christ ignores this
basic truth. What do I mean? It's really quite simple. Let's take a common argument against the deity of Christ: "The Father is the Creator
of all things. He creates through Jesus Christ. Therefore, Jesus Christ
is not fully God." Or here's another argument against the deity of the
Spirit: "The Spirit is sent to testify of Jesus Christ and convict the world
of sin. Since the Spirit is sent by the Father, the Spirit cannot truly be
God." Both arguments share the same error: they ignore the above
cited truth, difference in function does not indicate inferiority of nature.
That is, just because the Father, Son, and Spirit do different things does
not mean that any one of them is inferior to the others in nature.'
    Think of it this way: in eternity past' the Father, Son, and Spirit
voluntarily and freely chose the roles they would take in bringing about
the redemption of God's people. This is what is called the "Eternal Covenant of Redemption." The Father chose to be the fount and source of
the entirety of the work; the Son chose to be the Redeemer and to enter
into human flesh as one subject to the Father; and the Spirit chose to
be the Sanctifier of the church, the indwelling Testifier of Jesus Christ. Each took different roles of necessity-they could not all take the same
role and do the same things.

    The large portion of arguments against the deity of Christ and the
Trinity make one major unspoken (and false) assumption: that for either the Son or the Spirit to be truly and fully God, they have to do the
exact same things as the Father in the exact same way. That is, they assume there cannot possibly be any differentiation in the persons of the
Trinity without introducing an automatic inferiority on the part of
those who do something "different" than the Father. Any difference in
function, they assume, results in an inferiority of nature. To put it simply, they assume a unitarian view of God (as opposed to the Trinitarian
view), and assume that God could never do what He has revealed He
has done in the work of redemption.
    The truth of the matter is, however, that just because the Son takes
a different role in the eternal covenant of Redemption, it does not follow that He is inferior in nature to the Father or the Spirit. The different role He takes distinguishes Him from the Father and the Spirit,
but it does not make Him less than