The Rationalization of Mankind
“If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?” Luke 11:11
“Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins.” Proverbs 10:12
Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from my Father. For which of those works do you stone me?” John 10:32
“Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank You that You have heard me.’ ” John 11:41
“But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.” Rev. 9:20
“Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.” Philip. 2:14-15 NLT
“There is no limit to the rationalization of mankind concerning God’s Holy Word. This is especially true when it comes to the rationalization of the Trinity doctrine.” The Apostle Edward
Notice: This short book is free to read online at https://www.godandrationalization.org. This book is a 2026 update, now considered version 2, of the Author’s original Rationalization of Mankind, Chapter 9, found in God Does Not Change, Volume 2 of the Book of Edward: Christian Mythology, originally published and copyrighted in 2005.
I asked God why doctrines that were exactly opposite of His written word existed in Christianity. For example, when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Jesus lifted his eyes unto Heaven and said: “Father, I thank You that You have heard me.” [John 11:41] Jesus spoke words of thanksgiving to God. Thank you, God, for hearing and answering my prayer! That is what Jesus prayed. Note: Jesus did not say: “Thank you Jesus for hearing Jesus’ prayer.” That sounds stupid, doesn’t it? In other words, Jesus was Not talking to himself. He was praying to his God. You know, the God that Jesus told us that he was returning to, as cited in John 20:17. Remember, Jesus stated clearly and plainly that his Father and his God were also our Father and our God. This statement of Jesus is plain and clear, and it leaves nothing to the imagination from a communications point of view.
Jesus preceded his prayer of thanksgiving to God with the statement to Martha in John 11:40. Jesus said: “Did I not say to you that if you believe you would see the glory of God?” Once again, Jesus was not talking about Martha seeing his glory: he was talking about Martha seeing God’s glory.
Jesus prayed to his God. He did not pray to himself!
Jesus said it would be God’s glory that Martha saw. Not his!
So I asked God. “Why would the doctrine of the Trinity exist given this and other clear and plain words spoken by Jesus throughout the New Testament?” Obviously, those words teach the opposite of the Trinity doctrine. Why God?
God gave me understanding and told me: “It is the rationalization of mankind.” I have now studied this subject in depth, and I can conclude that there is no limit to mankind's rationalization. This is especially true when it comes to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.
If you actually believed in the Trinity doctrine, it seems that you might have to check your brain in at the front door of the church. That is because your Bible studies [assuming that you even read the Bible] would come up against the above words of Jesus and a whole lot more of Jesus’ teachings, given to him by God.
We know that God has given us “the power of a strong mind.” We also know that God meant for us to understand the Bible. Yet if Jesus is really God in the flesh, then there exist some weird and nonsensical verses in the Bible. In other words, if the Trinity doctrine were true, the Bible would not make intellectual sense and could not be read in its simple, plain, and easy-to-understand language. Verses like those above, where Jesus prays to God and demonstrates God’s glory to Martha, would then become unintelligible and cryptic messages. Comment: Isn’t it true that many churches prefer you do not read the Bible, and in many churches you are even discouraged from reading it?
If the Trinity doctrine were true, a lot of Jesus’ words would become weird, nonsensical, unintelligible, and even cryptic if not interpreted as outright lies. In fact, if the doctrine of the Trinity were true, Jesus would become a liar for teaching directly against it. The two verses above are examples of Jesus’ plain and clear words. However, Nikos Kazantzakis's acceptance of the doctrine of the Trinity may be the reason he wrote The Last Temptation of Christ 1. The book presents Jesus as a stupid and bungling idiot. The author could certainly have concluded that much if he had believed in the doctrine of the Trinity. Director Martin Scorsese took this author’s book and translated it into a cinematic apostasy in which Jesus was actually portrayed on the movie screen as a stupid and bungling idiot.
An Internet description of the movie states: “Despite controversy surrounding the production, Scorsese’s film is an honestly felt and in many ways sympathetic contemplation of Christianity.” The movie was so offensive in the first 10 minutes that I refused to watch it for several years. Having now watched the entire movie, I can tell you that it remained very offensive throughout.
Is Jesus a stupid and bungling idiot? Are the words Jesus spoke to us, given to him directly from God Almighty, meant to be understood in their plain and clear language? Or, given the Trinity doctrine, are Jesus’ words weird, nonsensical, unintelligent, and cryptic messages from God? It would appear that this is the basic choice you and I have got to make if we are going to study the Bible. Perhaps we should just give up on understanding? No, that is exactly what Satan wants you to do. “Don’t read your Bible" is a message that the Christian Orthodox church at large is very comfortable with. Why?
Do you remember the story of the transfiguration on the high mountain where Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother? Do you remember the thrilling moment when God Almighty looked down upon Jesus and said: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased?” Remember also that God told us to listen to Jesus? Hear him! In other words, take the words of Jesus to heart. This is a favorite passage of mine, and it never ceases to thrill me when I imagine myself with Jesus, hearing the words of God Almighty. Consider this verse.
“While he [Peter] was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘this is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear him!’ ” Matthew 17:5
It doesn’t take much Bible study to arrive at an important question about this verse. If Jesus is God in the flesh, then Jesus must have been talking to himself, right? I reasoned that this must be established as fact if the doctrine of the Trinity were to hold true. You cannot have such clear and plain language in the Bible and simply ignore it. Therefore, if you accept the Trinity doctrine, you must accept that Jesus was talking to himself. I speculated in my Bible studies that someone would eventually have to write about this and explain it within Christianity. Well …s
Years ago, when I was in Houston, Texas, on a business trip. I gave a presentation at the Energy Venture Fair II to seek investment capital for SolarAttic, Inc. This was a small energy technology company that I founded in 1986. God gave me an understanding of how to use the heat energy inside of attics. Today, several patents later, we know how to use the attic to heat homes, hot water, and swimming pools. I.E., the technology can heat a swimming pool for $10-20 per month in electricity, which can eliminate $500-600 per month in natural gas costs. Big energy savings are available for consumers. While I was in Houston, I stayed at the JW Marriott hotel. Directly across the street was a huge shopping mall covering several square blocks. It was called the Galleria.
The physical location of the JW Marriott and Galleria center looked like the graphic shown below. The map shows the circuitous path of a very interesting trip to the B. Dalton bookstore that God took me on just before I left Houston.
I checked out of the Marriott hotel at about 11 a.m., and I had two hours before the airport shuttle arrived. Now what?
The Concierge at the Marriott recommended that I go check out the Sharper Image store in the Galleria across the street. A couple of days earlier I had ventured out into the neighborhood to check out the lay of the land. This is fun just to find out what the local shopping area looks like. I had wandered down the street for four blocks, and just past halfway I had seen a huge Galleria sign [point “a”]. So that is where I thought the Galleria was located.
I wasn’t particularly interested in the Sharper Image store, albeit their catalog is filled with very interesting products. I entered the Galleria at point “a” and proceeded down towards the Neiman Marcus store. The Galleria turned out to be a sprawling three-level complex that occupies at least a four-block-by-two-block area. When I got down to point “b”, I found a directory and noticed that a B. Dalton bookstore was located near the Sharper Image store on the opposite end, past Saks 5th Avenue. Bookstores are among my favorite places to visit, so the B. Dalton bookstore became my primary destination. In Minnesota, we have some large B. Dalton bookstores, so I am familiar with them and their signage.
I never realized at the time that the direction I was heading was back towards where I came from. My wife is the navigator in the family. I am the adventurer. She likes to go boating, but my desire to check out the weedy lily patches and remote areas of the lake stresses her out. Likewise, when I want to go off the paved road onto the dirt road, she doesn’t get very excited. And often I am on cruise control, not really paying attention to the road's navigational details. Just enjoying the cruise and the visual aspects of local spots of interest. When I started walking towards the bookstore, I had no conscious awareness of its physical relationship to the Marriott. I didn’t even realize that the Saks 5th Avenue store was the same Saks’ sign that was directly across from the Marriott. Duh! I was just trying to pass some time away before the airport shuttle arrived.
I meandered down the sprawling retail complex. Along the way toward B. Dalton, I stopped for a white hot chocolate at the local cappuccino cafe and also to observe some ice-skating in a lower-level ice rink.
I visited the Sharper Image store [point “d”] and spent some time looking at all the gadgets they had. Suffice to say that if you are rolling in money, you can get a lot of physical gadgets. A wise man once taught me to watch out for assets because someone has to take care of them. It is wise advice, and I didn’t buy anything. The B. Dalton bookstore was supposed to be in the same area, but I could not find it. B. Dalton stores in Minnesota are rather large ones, and I was looking for a big bookstore sign.
I couldn’t find the big B. Dalton sign I was looking for, so I walked up to the next level thinking it was upstairs. I still couldn’t find it, so I said “tough” and left the complex. I walked halfway back on the second level to where I started from and studied another directory to locate a bathroom. I found that the nearest bathroom was back towards the Sharper Image store, but in a hidden hallway next to Macy’s second-floor entrance. The map above doesn’t convey store layouts and the hidden hallway well.
After a brief restroom visit [2nd floor point “e”], I realized that I must be directly over the B. Dalton store if it even existed. So I went back downstairs, just before Macy’s, and, hidden behind a very small sign, I found the bookstore [point “f”]. It was the smallest B. Dalton bookstore I’ve ever seen.
I remember commenting to myself how small the store was. As I walked in, my eyes started to scan the limited shelves for books of interest. Immediately I spotted the book. It had a big cross on its cover for Christ. I approached the book with a strong and compelling spiritual sense that I had to see it. When I arrived, I found that the title read:
It was written by an ex-Jesuit Priest named Jack Miles and published by Alfred A. Knoft, 2001. Jack is now a journalist. Think objectivity here or the lack of it depending upon your perspective of journalists. He also wrote another book entitled “God: A Biography.”
I started pondering why God was supposed to have had a “crisis” in His life. I flipped to the very back of the book for a summary statement. That is when I almost got knocked off my feet in sheer amazement. Less than two weeks earlier, I had concluded that if you believed in the Trinity doctrine and were intellectually honest, you would have to conclude that God is talking to Himself.
Here inside of Jack Miles’ book on page 244 3 is written:
“At the start of His public ministry as a human being, God submitted to a rite of repentance in the waters of the Jordan and, speaking from Heaven, with His Holy Spirit hovering visibly over His human brow, He declared Himself well pleased with what He had done and who He had become. He had become a lamb, and He was pleased, as He had not been since the last day of creation.”
“Repentance in the Greek of the Gospels is metanoia, a changing of the mind. The changing of the mind of God is the great subject, the epic argument, of the Christian Bible.”
Get the picture? Jack Miles writes that God is talking to Himself and repenting while getting baptized via immersion by John the Baptist. If this author thinks God talks to Himself during baptism, I must conclude that he also believes it happened during the transfiguration.
After some further explanation, Miles writes: “So He [God] broke His promise.” Miles reasons that God failed to save the entire nation of Israel at the time He had promised. Therefore, the only thing God could do would be to repent on the cross for His [God’s] sin.
What is right about this book is that it provides an honest intellectual rationale for the doctrine of the Trinity. What is wrong with this book is that it ignores and distorts the simple, plain language of the Bible from God and Jesus to accomplish its objective.
Therefore, the author’s arguments are without merit or foundation when it comes to God’s Word in these two regards. Then there are the crystal-clear words of Jesus concerning his Father and God. Remember, Jesus telling us that his God is also our Father and God? Remember Jesus telling us that we are his brothers and sisters if we, too, will do God’s will? Well then, what gives with this book?
What gives is the need within established Christianity to provide a plausible intellectual rationale that fully supports the doctrine of the Trinity, since Scripture itself does not support such a doctrine.
There are many works, such as Martin Scorsese’s film and Jack Miles’ book, that seek to understand and rationalize the Trinity [and some other false church doctrines]. In the Bible, it is stated that understanding is a gift from God or Jesus. You’ve learned that the plain and clear language of the Bible can stand on its own. And you don’t need a Ph D to understand that these two works are humanistic and filled with apostasy. Anytime someone writes or speaks in any way that contradicts God’s written word, it is apostasy. No exceptions. Not even in this author’s writings. To do so shows a lack of understanding.
I could cite a lot of Scripture that contradicts the Trinity doctrine of mankind here, but I will save it for another chapter. This chapter mainly points out the nature of mankind’s rationalization of the doctrine of the Trinity and why it exists.
I’ll never quit being amazed at the absolute rationalization and sheer fantasy of people who write books about God. How can they ignore what God has told us in plain and simple terms? Unless it is Satanic?
No, I am sorry to have to tell Martin, Jack, along with the others who would perpetuate this nonsense, that: “Jesus is not God and never was.” He was the first of God’s creation, and he is only God’s Son. Jesus is not even on the same “power level,” since he said, “God is greater than I am.”
So—who is Jesus? Why not just pick up a red-lettered New Testament and read the words of Jesus in red? Skip everything not in red letters and let Jesus tell you God’s story! Then obey the words of Jesus, and God will open your mind to understanding all of His Word.
What I suggest is that you get the answers from Jesus by skipping everything that is not in red letters. Jesus explains quite nicely who he is and who God is, and he speaks in plain, clear language. I heard God telling me for months: “Ed, everything is in the words of My Son Jesus!” And why not? Christ told us that he spoke only what God told him to say and did only what God told him to do. He was God’s spokesperson on earth. Read and understand the words of Jesus, and you will find yourself understanding God and His intent for mankind. Then, maybe you will obey the simple commandments of God Almighty.
I didn’t buy Jack’s book at the time. I didn’t want to lug it home, so I reasoned that I could buy it when I got back from the trip. I was still a little disoriented from a navigational standpoint, so I walked all the way back and out of the Neiman Marcus store [point “g”] and down to point “h”. As I got closer to the JW Marriott hotel, I glanced across the street at the building. That is when my eyes caught another Galleria sign hidden behind some trees. This smaller Galleria sign was not visible from a direct line of sight at the front of the Marriott. My mind started to put two and two together. Was that the place where I had finally found the bookstore? Was the B. Dalton bookstore actually just across from the Marriott behind that Saks’ sign?
I decided to go up to the doors and check it out. I knew by now that God had me on another spiritual quest, and I needed to know. Yes, both the Sharper Image store and the B. Dalton bookstore were accessible through the doors directly across from the Marriott. I had walked a circuitous route of almost a mile to find a book that God wanted me to find. I almost quit before I found the bookstore, but God guided me to it. That little voice inside gave me a nudge to keep going.
Then, as a way of ensuring that I would never forget, God showed me the crazy circuitous route that I traveled to get to that book. I knew before I got on the airport shuttle that I had just walked with God once again, and He gave me an answer to the doctrine of the Trinity. God confirmed to me that the doctrine of the Trinity is the rationalization of mankind. It was man's need to morph Jesus into God. A god better suited for a created Church structure needing a doctrine to exercise control over people, even though Jesus came to set them spiritually free.
How did the Trinity doctrine develop? Where did it come from? I can’t say for sure, and it is not the purpose of this particular writing to delve into the history and development of Christian apostasy. Instead, this text is written for Christians to enlighten them on whom Jesus is referring to when he says: “I never knew you.” By now, you should be getting the bigger picture of God's and Jesus’ expectations for our behavior. That salvation is a gift from God’s grace cannot be denied. Yet the recipients of that gift demonstrate an understanding that they have received it and know how precious it really is. Our acknowledgment and demonstration of God’s grace are evident in our new behavior. Indeed, if we are “In Christ” — we have truly become a new person with new awareness of God and new behavior.
If you want to understand aberrant Christian doctrine [apostasy] that does not line up 100% with Scripture, consider the following graphic and its implications. For over two millennia now, mankind has been digging in a mining site called Christianity. Modern theological schools now teach the doctrines that have evolved from this old dig [a mining site for God’s truth].
Think back 2,000 years and consider what prospective theologians had to work with. In those days and under the best of circumstances, you would have been lucky to get your hands on a copy of some Hebrew or Greek text. Therefore, it was a rare individual that could search the word of God for spiritual truth. Next, consider how that individual would have searched the word of God. Did he or she have a concordance? How about some computer software? What about some reference books like this one pointing to various Scriptures?
Two thousand years ago, the Bible was searched by hand and read sequentially. Connecting the various Scriptures in a cohesive manner, as a Chronological Bible 6 or a Parallel Bible 7 does today, would have been impossible. In fact, one would have to rely mainly on one's memory of where various teachings were located. That and any notes they might have written to guide their teachings. Finding printed reference works such as this to guide their studies would have been impossible.
That is the condition that existed as various doctrines emerged in the Christian Church. It is the condition that existed when the doctrine of the Trinity emerged. A few select people postulated the Trinity doctrine early in the first millennium after Christ, taught for purposes I would only consider as Satanic in nature. While that may sound harsh, you will have to keep reading to fully understand the gravity of what the doctrine represents to mankind. Now fast-forward 2,000 years.
Today, there is a fresh dig underway concerning Scripture. God has many small groups of people, armed with incredible resources, to search for His truth. As I look at the resources on my desktop, I find I have at least 70 different Bible translations. Most of these are in computer software for ease of searching and studying. When I study a word like “understanding,” I simply input the word into the Bible’s search engine and search away. I can locate every single use of the word throughout the Bible. I can even isolate the study to one of the books in the Bible, to one of the three major sections of the Old Testament, the Apocryphal, or the New Testament. I can readily compare what the Word says in any book or section with what it says in the others.
In addition to 70+ Bible translations, I have Today’s Dictionary of the Bible 8, a Hebrew Dictionary 9, a Greek Dictionary 10, software that converts Hebrew or Greek to English, at least 18 Bible commentaries, four physical parallel Bibles, more than one concordance, Bible lists, etc. I could go on and on, but you get the picture. In addition to a massive religious library, I have high-speed internet access to a substantial computer network of eight computers and 6 printers, along with several Ai’s at my disposal. From a communications perspective, I can be reached 24/7 via email or voicemail. I have 32 websites on my own cloud-based secure server, and I use the Internet itself as a massive virtual library to find anything I want. I haven’t stumped the Internet yet. I.E., if I want to research one of the so-called lost books of the Bible, such as the Book of Thomas 11, I can locate it with ease and obtain it immediately on a moment's notice.
Now, who do you think can search the word of God for truth better? Someone armed with an individual Bible, or someone armed with the resources listed above? It is simply no match.
Today, the average Christian carries a single Bible and only opens it to the passage the pastor tells them to read. They are like lambs led to slaughter because the tiny glimpse of truth they do get is never followed up with a more complete Bible study, and verses are often taken out of context or out of the context of God’s eternal nature, which does not change. This book cites a lot of Scripture. If you want to debate or argue with me about its contents, you had better get some resources. And I can tell you that you will find yourself arguing with the word of God very fast. That is because it is not my opinion I seek to enlighten you with. It is God’s Holy Word that I seek to enlighten you with.
If you want to understand why the Trinity doctrine and other apostasies are in trouble, you only need to look at the incredible resources now available to anyone who will simply acquire them. If you don’t want to spend money, you can go to a library and use their Internet connection to search through many different Bibles for free. Therefore, money should not be a concern to those who are serious about mining God’s Word for truth. Just reading the Entire Bible would surprise you. Try it!