LoveRain said:

I agree with you LoveRain. 1+1+1=3 I thought it referred to making babies. In addition, the song taught my child how to add three individual numbers together. Thank u Prince.

Face it, cultish religion killed TRC. It's his choice, of course, but in my opinion the wacky, preachy lyrics robbed the music of more widespread acceptance and appreciation.

***

The track concerns the theocratic order or Jesus, man and woman. The husband answers to Jesus and the wife answers to the husband.



Why should the wife have to answer to the husband?
[This message was edited Thu May 29 22:39:45 PDT 2003 by meow85]

TheMax said:

I don't think "cultish religion" robbed TRC from a more widespread acceptance, unless by "widespread acceptance" you mean more people here at P.org...lol...from what I've observed and witnessed firsthand, very, VERY few people who aren't members of some online Prince group (like we are) cared one way or the other about the lyrics on TRC...of all the people that I played parts of the album for (family members, coworkers, etc), all of them seemed to love what I played...especially "She Loves Me 4 Me" and "Last December" and "Digital Garden" (up until the guitar, anyway)...nobody felt insulted when prince sang "In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son"...nobody felt offended when he yelped "Accurate knowledge of Christ and the Father.."...Generally speaking, they seemed to like it far more than I would have ever guessed.

Hey folks,
Sorry if this is a over-discussed issue, but I had to chime in here. My dad is a JW. I am a Christian. I love my Dad...I don't agree with the 'doctrine' he follows. My Dad and I have discussed the Trinity many times. JW's don't believe in the Trinity. They say it is confusing and God is not a confusing God. They also believe that the idea Trinity originated from pagan (sp?) beliefs. Anyway, he would always say "How can 3 enities be the one and the same?" Another way of saying 1+1+1=3 The debunking of the Trinity is one of the Watchtower Soceity's (the theological/governing/publication head of the JW religion)primary concerns and have even gone as far as re-writing the Bible (or their version of the Bible) to remove references to the Trinity. So, when I saw the title of "1+1+1=3" I had a hunch as to what he was going to sing about. When I heard the song, my hunch was confirmed. He is indeed singing about the Trinity.
-T Bone72

P.S. There is a great book called "Reasoning through the Scriptures with Jehovah's Witnesses" if you are interested about all this JW stuff.

meow85 said:

Not in my house.I'd get beat down if i tried that shit!

wellbeyond said:

No big deal, our families and friends are different. All of mine thought I'd either "converted" or worse, was trying to convert them! Total embarrassment for me. All I wanted to do was share the music. For me, the lyrics killed my ability to share TRC. I consider that a lost opportunity - perhaps more for me, than Prince. After all, it's his music, his choice.

In actuality, Jehovah's Witnesses do NOT believe in Jesus as the Son of God in the same concept of the Scriptures or of the Hebrew mind. Son of God is a declaration of his Deity. Of being equal with God. This is what so scandalized the Sanhedrin and Jewish leaders of his day, and why Christ was accused of blasphemy.
The terms son of God and sons of God have various connotations throughout scripture, and as always, context determines the meaning, but in regards to Jesus, it is a unique designation.
Bible scholars tell us that this expression "Son of God" conveys Christ's inherent Deity, especially in view of the Pharisees' reaction to it (John 10:31-36; 19:7).
John19:7: The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
If Son of God merely means that Jesus is a creature, then there were no grounds for him being accused of blasphemy. The Jewish leaders would not have "reacted" to the delcaration because they too were sons or children of God.
John5:17-18: But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.
So while JW's give lip service to the title, Son of God, and claim to know him, in actuality, they have denied the Father and the Son. They claim to have an "accurate knowledge" of Christ and the Father, but they need a revelation of who Jesus, the Son, is- a revelation that comes from the Father through his Word by the Spirit.
Whether you can, by mere fallen, sinful human reasoning, "figure it all out" and "understand" it, is not the criteria for determining if the Trinity is a Biblical truth. The criteria is the Scriptures themselves alone, the Word of God, by inference and clear revelation. If indeed the Scriptures themselves(the Hebrew and Greek texts) espouse it, it is a matter of FAITH. JW's have thus denied the Christian faith. The person of Jesus Christ is central to what distinguishes Christianity(the faith) from all other world religions.
Isaiah:55:8-9: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
How then can you depend on "mere faulty human reasoning" to come to a conclusion regarding the nature of God? You are confused because
you don't know the Scriptures or the power of God.
Matt:11:27: All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knows the Son, but the Father; neither knows any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
Matt:16:17: And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed are you Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
John:5:23: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.
Jehovah's Witnesses, by re-interpreting what Son of God means, do NOT honor the Son even as they honor the Father. Don 't be fooled by the claim, that they "believe" that Jesus is the Son of God.

Jehovah's Witnesses: JESUS IS CALLED THE ONLY-BEGOTTEN SON, MEANING HE IS BEGOTTEN, OR CREATED.
Answer:The Greek word monogenes has the more literal meaning of "only," or "of a single kind," especially in NT passages using it as a title for Christ. It is only distantly related to the Greek gennao, which means "to beget." The meaning of monogenes "is centered in the Personal existence of the Son, and not in the Generation of the Son" according to Greek scholar B. F. Westcott (The Epistles of St. John, p. 170). Jesus' Sonship is unique, which means he has a relationship with the Father impossible with others, and that he IS Deity and was with the Father before time began (John 1:1,2).
JOHN 1:18: No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. Dr. Kenneth S. Wuest interprets this verse,

This combination of deity and humanity in one Person, Jesus of Nazareth, John speaks of again in the words: "Deity in its invisible essence no one has ever yet seen, God only begotten, the one who is constantly in the bosom of the Father, that One has fully explained God" (1:18). The words "God only begotten" refer to Jesus of Nazareth. He is God only begotten, proceeding by eternal generation as the Son of God from the Father in a birth that never took place because it always was. This one, John says, fully explained Deity. The Greek word translated "fully explained" means literally "to lead out." Jesus in the incarnation led Deity out from back of the curtain of its invisibility, showing the human race in and through a human life, what God was like. . . . In the incarnation, Jesus of Nazareth fully explained God so far as a human medium could explain the infinite, and human minds and hearts could receive that revelation. And He could do that only because He was God Himself. (Great Truths To Live By, p.30)

Hebrews 1 Jesus, the Son, is referred to as the express image of God's person...the exact image, the exact representation, stamp, of God's Person or substance/nature...to see Jesus is to see God the Father(John 14:1-ff.).

The Father calls the Son, God. This verse alone refutes the JW's lessening of Christ to mere creature-hood.
Hebrews:1 But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.
This comes from Psalms:45:6: Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.
The whole first chapter of Hebrews contrasts the Son ( his relationship to the Father and what the Father says of him) with the angels. For Jehovah's Witnesses to have said that Jesus was Michael, the archangel, is absurd.

Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation.
JW's cite this verse as "proof" that Jesus is not God but a creature, the first angel that God created.
Does the term, firstborn, denote first created being? No. The term is often used to signify rank or pre-eminence rather than actual birth order.
Turn to Psalm 89:27. This verse is about King David. God calls him and places him as firstborn even though he was not the literal firstborn son of Jesse. David was elevated in rank.
Jeremiah 31:9 They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
God calls Ephraim his firstborn, however Manassah was Joseph's literal firstborn son. Ephraim had the pre-eminence over Manassah. Jacob recognized this when he blessed Joseph's sons, by crossing his hands, laying his right hand on Ephraim's head instead of Manassah's.
Genesis 48:13: And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near unto him.
Ge:48:14: And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn.
Ge:48:17: And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head.
Ge:48:20: And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
Now look at Colossians 1:15 and read it in the CONTEXT(verses before and after). Verse 18 identifies Christ as "the head" and the firstborn and it says it's for the purpose that in everything he might be preeminent.
So this verse in no way is denying the Deity of Jesus and making him a mere creature/created being or the first created angel.
Paul could say that in Christ dwells all the fullness of the GODSHIP(Godhead/Deity) (Col. 2:9) in a body.

I recommend that you read and study the following books to help you to come to faith in what the Scriptures teach concerning the Deity of Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

Heresies:The Image of Christ in the Mirror of Heresy and Orthodoxy from the Apostles to the Present by Harold O.J. Brown
Why You Should Believe In the Trinity:An Answer to Jehovah's Witnesses by Robert M. Bowman Jr.
Jehovah's Witnesses Answered Verse By Verse by David A. Reed
Witnesses of Jehovah: A Shocking Expose of What Jehovah's Witnesses Really Believe by Leonard and Marjorie Chretien
Kingdom of the Cults by Walter Martin
The Four Major Cults by Anthony Hoekema

also, http://www.freeminds.org Look under doctrinal issues.

Excellent Comments MisterMcGee...thank U