The Apostle Peter was NOT a Trinitarian (If the Bible is right, God is NOT a

In previous episodes, we saw that no one in the Bible - not Jesus, not Moses, not Isaiah or any other prophet, not Peter, not Paul or any other apostle – no one proclaimed or described that God is three in one. Rather, we saw specifically that God is the Father alone. God is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We looked at Paul’s description of God and the Lord Jesus Christ in Ephesians 1. To Paul, God is not the Trinity, but the Father alone. And, Paul says the Lord Jesus Christ has a God. The Lord Jesus Christ’s God is the Father. The Lord Jesus Christ is not God since he has a God and Jesus is someone other than God.

Previous episodes:
If the Bible is Right, God is NOT a Trinity (Part 1)    • If the Bible is Right, God is NOT a Trinity  
If the Bible is Right, God is NOT a Trinity (Part 2)    • Part 2) If the Bible is Right, God is NOT ...  

It is simple reading comprehension. When reading the Bible, nowhere is God a Triune being. I want to make one more simple reading example in the Bible where, in this case, we will see if the Apostle Peter believed that God was a Trinity, or that the Lord Jesus Christ was God.

Again, through simple reading comprehension, we will be able understand that the Apostle Peter’s God was not the Trinity, and the Lord Jesus Christ was not Peter’s God.

Peter DID NOT declare that “God is a Trinity”
Peter DID NOT declare that one must believe that God is a Trinity.

Peter DID declare that someone else other than the Lord Jesus Christ is God, that is, that the Lord Jesus Christ is not God.

Peter DID declare that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

We will look at a couple of corroborating statements from Peter in the Gospels and one of his epistles, but I want to focus on Peter’s Pentecost sermon in Acts Chapter 2.

A couple of reasons Acts 2 is important:
1. Immediately after the coming of the spirit upon believers, when by God’s spirit the believers proclaimed the greatness of God in languages that they had apparently never learned.

Trinitarian scholars believe that God as a Triune being is not described in the pages of the Bible, but that God as Trinity was revealed by the coming of the Son and the coming of the Spirit, or the “missions of the Son and Spirit”. The claim is that early believers didn’t need to have revelatory words (written in the Bible) describing God as Triune, but 1st century believers were somehow able to perceive or understand that God is a Trinity since Jesus and the Spirit came.

But is this what Peter says. Is this how Peter interpreted the coming of the Messiah Son of God and spirit of God in his day? The answer, again, through simple reading comprehension of the biblical record, is no. No Trinity, no deity of Christ. No requirement to believe in the Trinity, no requirement to believe in the deity of Christ. Peter says something very different than these things.

Acts 2:2224
"Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with powerful deeds, wonders, and miraculous signs that God performed among you through him, just as you yourselves know– 23 this man, who was handed over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you executed by nailing him to a cross at the hands of Gentiles. 24 But God raised him up…

Is God triune in Peter's declaration? Is Jesus God?

Acts 2:30-33
“So then, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne, 31 David by foreseeing this spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did his body experience decay. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and we are all witnesses of it. 33 So then, exalted to the right hand of God, and having received the promise of the holy spirit from the Father, he has poured out what you both see and hear.”

Acts 2:36
Therefore let all the house of Israel know beyond a doubt that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ."

Mark 8:29, He asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Christ."
Luke 9:20, Then he said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered, "The Christ of God."
Matt. 16:16, Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." (Mat 16:16 NET)

1 Peter 1:3,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he gave us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

1 Peter 20-21
20 He (Christ) was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was manifested in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you now trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Peter never describes God as being triune, and never declares that Jesus is God.

If the Bible is right, God is not a Trinity.
If Peter is right, God is not a Trinity.
If your God is the Trinity, you have a different God than Peter.