Philippians 2 is not a trinity admission at all.....read it carefully. I posted this in another reply....
Philippians 2:5-11....
"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
This is often presented as a proof text for the trinity but on closer inspection it becomes just the opposite.
Jesus was "existing in God's "form".....what is God's form? John says that "God is a spirit"....so Jesus was a spirit too before coming to earth to be born as a human child. All who dwell in heaven are spirits.
He had no desire to grasp equality with God even though some may have wanted to give him that status because he could perform miracles. Emptying himself willingly of his glorious spiritual form and taking the humble form of men he 'became obedient to the point of death"......obedient to whom? Can one part of God be obedient to an equal part of himself?
But what else do we see here? "God highly exalted him" and "bestowed a name that is above every name"....how is that even possible if he is God? One part of the Almighty exalts an equal part of himself and then gives him a name above every other? Yahweh already has the highest name in existence (Psalm 83:18KJV)
Then we have every knee bowing to Jesus, both angels and humans, but does the glory go to Jesus? NO! Confessing Jesus Christ as Lord is "to the glory of God the Father".
On closer investigation, there is no trinity there at all.
You can read into scripture what is not there by looking for things that imply what you want to believe.....unless you have a direct statement from either God or his son stating that they are equal parts of a triune godhead.....then it is an assumption, not a Biblical fact. Even the Catholic church admits that the trinity is not in the Bible.
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Although the following Bible has plenty of mistranslations, it has rendered this part of Phil. 2:6 correctly:
“He did not think that
by force [harpagmos] he should
try to become equal with God” -
GNB.
The reason is because of the clear meaning of the New Testament (NT) Greek word
harpagmos (ἁρπαγμὸς).
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (by trinitarian writer and trinitarian publisher) tells us that
harpagmos means “
plunder” and that it comes from the source word
harpazo which means: “to
seize ... catch away, pluck,
take (
by force).” - #725 & 726, Abingdon Press, 1974 printing.
“725 harpagmós – to
seize, especially by an
open display of
force. See
726 (
harpazō).” - HELPS Word-studies,
copyright © 1987, 2011 by Helps Ministries, Inc.
And the
New American Standard Concordance of the Bible (also by trinitarians) tells us: “
harpagmos; from
[harpazo]; the act of
seizing or the thing
seized.” And, “
harpazo ... to
seize, catch up,
snatch away.” Notice that all have to do with taking something away
by force. - # 725 & #726, Holman Bible Publ., 1981.
In fact, the trinitarian
The Expositor’s Greek Testament, 1967, pp. 436, 437, vol. III, tells us:
“We cannot find any passage where
[harpazo] or any of its derivatives [which include
harpagmos] has the sense of ‘
holding in possession,’ ‘retaining’ [as preferred in many trinitarian translations of Phil. 2:6]. It seems invariably to mean ‘
seize’, ‘snatch violently’. Thus it is
not permissible to glide from the true sense [‘snatch violently’] into one which is totally different, ‘hold fast.’ ”
Even the very trinitarian NT Greek expert, W. E. Vine, had to admit that
harpagmos is “akin to
harpazo, to
seize, carry off
by force.” - p. 887,
An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words.
And the trinitarian
The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology tells us that the
majority of Bible scholars (mostly trinitarian, of course)
“have taken
harpagmos to mean a thing
plundered or
seized..., and so spoil, booty or a prize
of war.” - p. 604, vol. 3, Zondervan, 1986.
The key to both these words
(harpagmos and its source word,
harpazo) is: taking something away from someone
by force and against his will. And if we should find a euphemism such as “prize” used in a trinitarian Bible for
harpagmos, it has to be understood
only in the same sense as a pirate ship
forcibly seizing another ship as its “prize”!
)
