Bible Discussion Thread

A Theological Investigations, reputed Catholic scholar Karl Rahner states that �in
St.�John�s First Epistle ὁ θεός [�the God�] so often certainly means the Father that it must be understood of the Father throughout the Epistle.� Also, the French Protestant Bible du Centenaire concedes in a footnote that the Greek allows for a non-Trinitarian translation. Incidentally, it not be forgotten that, probably in the fourth century�C.E., an overzealous Trinitarian Latin scribe added to 1� John 5:7 the words �the Father, the Word and the holy spirit; and these three are one.� This addition, known technically as the �Johannine Comma,� was protected by the Vatican until
1927, in spite of the fact that even some Catholic scholars had raised doubts about its authenticity
as early as the sixth century. This dishonest insertion shows the lengths to which Trinitarians will
go in their efforts to prove their doctrine

God�s Name and the Trinity
Something that makes God very real to Jehovah�s Witnesses is their knowledge and regular use of his personal name, Jehovah. ( Psalm 83:18) When a member of one of Christendom�s churches reads in his Bible the anonymous expression �the name of the Lord,� it means little or nothing to him. Similarly, when he prays �hallowed be thy name,� the chances are that he does not know what name he is praying about. Jehovah�s Witnesses know their God, they know his name and, like the psalmist and Jesus himself, they love their heavenly Father�s name.� Psalm 5:11,�12; John 12:28; 17:6,�26.
Since God�s personal name appears literally thousands of times in the original-language Bible, why has it been expunged from many of Christendom�s Bible translations, and why is it never used by the hundreds of millions of Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant �Christians�? Could the dogma of the Trinity have anything to do with this most extraordinary religious fact?
Interestingly, the Catholic Jerusalem Bible renders Deuteronomy 6:4: �Listen, Israel: Yahweh our God is the one Yahweh.� And a footnote, after giving another possible translation, states: �But it is more likely that we have here a declaration of monotheistic faith.� This, then, is the one God of whom Jesus, speaking as a Jew, stated: �We worship what we know.� ( John 4:22) And this Catholic Bible admits that the name of that one God is Yahweh, or Jehovah. Now, according to Trinitarian theology, Yahweh, or Jehovah, is the name of the God of the Hebrew patriarchs and the Jews, the God whom Jesus came to reveal as �the Father,� or �God the Father.� It follows that for Trinitarians the divine name Yahweh, or Jehovah, designates only one of the supposed �Three Persons� of the �Godhead.� The �Second Person� has a name (Jesus), but the �Third Person� is the anonymous �Holy Spirit.� Christendom�s churches cannot logically use a name for God that does not designate the entire �Godhead.� So their members are condemned to worship a mysterious triune God that has no name.Yet, instinctively, many Catholics feel the need to worship someone they can know and name. This, no doubt, explains why many of them worship Jesus or even Mary. This same instinct to worship a God one can name is even reflected in religious architecture. In scores of Catholic chapels, churches and cathedrals in France and other countries, above the high altar or elsewhere there is a gilded, rayed nimbus representing divine glory. In the center is a triangle, symbolizing the Trinity. Paradoxically, inside the triangle is the Tetragrammaton, the four Hebrew consonants of God�s name, Jehovah. But how many Catholics today realize that it is God�s name?
�One Lord, Jesus Christ�
After having stated: �There is actually to us one God the Father, out of whom all things are, and we for him,� the apostle Paul added: �And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and we through him.� (1�Corinthians 8:6) Jehovah�s Witnesses subscribe to that further statement. Jehovah, the Father, is the Source; Jesus, God�s �only-begotten son,� the �firstborn of all creation,� is the means by which the Father accomplishes His will.� John 1:2, 3,�14; Colossians 1:15,�16.