Decepto-Meter

False Dilemma: Trinitarian

Creates a false dilemma in the mind of the reader by projecting the false illusion that if Jesus is subordinate to the Father, that he cannot be God!

Quoted by Anti-Trinitarians

"There is no theologian in the Eastern or the Western Church before the outbreak of the Arian Controversy [in the fourth century], who does not in some sense regard the Son as subordinate to the Father." (The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God, R. P. C. Hanson, as quoted by Anti-Trinitarians)

Deception Exposed:

1. We totally agree! Arians don't understand that many Trinitarians openly teach the subordination of Jesus and the Holy Spirit to the Father.
2. Biblical Trinitarians teach that the Divine, eternally pre-existent Jesus, is subordinate to the Father.
3. They misrepresent Grant by failing to note that he clearly states Jesus is divine.
4. Anti-Trinitarians create a false dilemma in the mind of the reader by projecting the false illusion that if Jesus is subordinate to the Father, that he cannot be God! A wife is subordinate to her husband, but is equal in nature. Her rank is lower, but she is made of the identical stuff as the man!

What else they failed to quote:

"A characteristic exegetical ploy of the Arians was to invoke texts in the interests of what might be called 'reductionism', that is to say they would try to reduce the value of the titles given (or thought to be given) to Christ in the Bible by showing that they were also applied in the Bible to quite ordinary people or things. Asterius played this game extensively in a well-known passage: "'Like" (the Son to the Father): well, it is written about us that "man is the image and is the glory of God" (1 Cor 11:7); as for (the Son existing) ."always", it is written "while we live we are always ..." (2 Cor 4:11); as for (the Son being) "in him", (it is written) that "in him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28); as for (the Son being) "unchanging", it is written "nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ" (Rom 8:35). On the subject of (the Son being) the power (of God), (it is written) that the caterpillar and the locust are called the "power" even the "great power" of God (Joel 2:25 LXX), and the same is often said about the people, for instance, "all the power of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt" (Ex. 12:44 LXX), and there are other heavenly powers for it says "the Lord of the powers is with us, the God of Jacob is our champion"' (Ps 46 (45):8). Greg and Groh, (Early Arianism, p107-108) give a list of texts used by Arians to reduce the significance of the Son's partaking in God. (R. P. C. Hanson, The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God, The Arian controversy 318-381, p838)