Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Another Example of Trinitarian Discomfort with, and Eisegesis of John 17:3 from Charles Ross


While reading a work form 1888, based on a series of sermons the year previous, we have this rather amazing comment about John 17:3, a genuinely anti-Trinitarian text wherein there is a numerical distinction between “only true God” and the person of Jesus made by the person of Jesus himself!

And who does not see here also another evidence, by implication, of the Eternal Godhead of Jesus? The juxtaposition, in which he is here placed with the Father, as the object of that knowledge, which is not only the source, but the very essence of eternal life, is to us the clearest evidence that this is the true God and eternal life. (Charles Ross, The Inner Sanctuary: An Exposition of John 13-17 [originally published 1888; London: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1967], 207)

One is reminded of Augustine’s mutilation of the text to preserve the belief in creedal Trinitarianism in tractate CV of his Tractates on the Gospel of St. John:

"And this," He adds, "is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." The proper order of the words is, "That they may know Thee and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent, as the only true God."

Further Reading



If the Father is "the only true God" does that mean Jesus is an idol?

James McGrath, The Trinity Debate and John 17:3