False teachers and False Teaching…
The Apostle John makes no mistake in his letter 1 John, in his identification of just Who Jesus Christ is. Jesus is the Son of the Father – the Son of God (1 John 1:3). John warns us several times in this letter not to listen to the false teachers who tell lies about who they say Jesus Christ is. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? (1 John 4:2-3). If a man is wrong about Jesus Christ, he is wrong about God, because Jesus Christ is the final and complete revelation of God to men. False teaching is so serious a matter that John wrote about it in his second letter as well, even warning believers not to invite false teachers into their homes (2 John 9-10). And he makes it plain that to deny Jesus is God is to follow the lies of the Antichrist – (1 John 2:22-23) This leads us to a basic doctrine that has puzzled many people – the doctrine of the Trinity.
John mentions in his letter the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For example, he says, By this know you the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God (1 John 4:2). Here are references in one verse to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And in 1 John 4:13-15 is another statement that mentions three Persons of the Trinity. The word trinity is a combination of ‘tri’ – meaning three and ‘unity’ – meaning one. Thus a three-in-one, or one-in-three.
The word ‘trinity’ is not in the Bible but the truth is taught there (Matt 28:19-20; John 14:16-17,26: 2 Cor 13:14; Eph 4:4-6}. Christians do not believe that there are ‘three gods’. They believe that one God exists in three Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Nor do Christians believe merely that one God reveals Himself in three different ways, much more as one man may be a husband, a father and a son. NO, the Bible teaches that God is ONE but that He exists in three Persons.
It is none other than the Apostle John himself who says, Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father – 1 John 2:23. No Person of the trinity is expendable! It was none other than Jesus Christ who said I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last..(which can only refer to the Lord God Almighty)..and Jesus went on to say, I am the first and the last..I am He that lives and was dead; and behold I am alive for evermore, Amen..Rev 1:11,17, 18. Heed John’s words and not those of the false teachers who in error deny the deity of Jesus Christ!