An Outline of the Christian Doctrine
of the Trinity in Scripture
An accurate understanding of the Scriptural origins of Trinitarian teaching is important because there is a very common misunderstanding (one I shared in my youth) that views the teaching of God as three-in-one as a creation of church tradition instead of being the teaching of the Bible. It's important that one not fall prey to that misunderstanding (as I did in my youth) for it can completely alienate one from true church and true faith. Such a view of church history will, if it doesn't totally isolate one from church, will at the very least make one susceptible to all kinds of dysfunctional teachers (in not only a doctrinal sense but covering the whole gamut - spiritual, social, psychological - see 2 Timothy 3 and 2 Peter 2), and lead one into strange churches that aren't really churches at all. I know this, unfortunately, by sad personal experience.
This article is, by the way, only a first cut of the first part of a projected eBook I hope to write and publish here in PDF and mobile formats and on Amazon in Kindle format. The eventual book will have two parts, "The Trinity in Scripture" and "The Trinity in History." So this article will continue to change and grow (frequently, I hope) as I continue to work on this project.
If the Christian doctrine of the Trinity is so clearly wrong, as increasing numbers of people claim, why can't those opponents give me a coherent explanation of what the Bible means instead when it speaks of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? In this article we take a look at one of the places where the Bible explicitly calls Jesus God, and the conflicting ways the various opponents of Trinitarian teaching explain that identification.
One doesn't peruse "Unitarian" writing for long without encountering references to the book When Jesus Became God by Richard E. Rubenstein, which is about the Arian controversy and the council called by the Church to deal with it. Interestingly enough, it gets a lot right about Arianism and explicitly puts into evidence the sources of opposition to the Trinity, sources that I've found "Biblical" Unitarians—i.e., those who think the Bible is inspired, inerrant, and authoritative but doesn't show God to be triune—either are ignorant of or are actively engaged in covering up.
A look at one case that shows what opponents of the Trinity have to do to history when they try to explain why the Christian church has consistently rejected their claims about who the Bible shows the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to be.
One of the anti-Trinitarian sites on the Web calls itself ChristianMonotheism.com. Currently (February 2011), there is a video there that challenges Christians with a series of questions that they think show the Bible's monotheism excludes Trinitarian belief. I answer those questions here.
A few opponents of the Trinity have voiced that suspicion. This article looks at their claim and at the primary source they've used to try to make it appear credible.
- "The Father is the Only True God" (John 17:3).
- "God can't be tempted, yet Jesus was."
- "John 20:28 ("My Lord and my God") doesn't mean Jesus is God."
- "In John 20:28, Thomas was referring to the indwelling Father who is God, not to Jesus himself."
- "In John 20:17, Jesus calls the Father his God. Any supposed 'co-equality' of Father and Son breaks down completely here."
- "Trinitarian doctrine makes God into a 'what,' an impersonal essence, instead of a person."
- "Church history is irrelevant to who the Scriptures say God is."
- "2 Corinthians 5:19, 'God in Christ,' adequately explains Biblical references to Jesus' deity."
- "Colossians 2:9, 'God dwells in Christ,' adequately explains Biblical references to Jesus' deity."
- "The Son can't be true God because He doesn't know as much as the Father."
- A Response to Some Folks Who Think They Are "Christian Monotheists."
- "Trinitarians can't teach their doctrine from the Bible. They teach that their doctrine is a mystery that can't be understood and so must be accepted by faith on the authority of Church tradition."
- "The Trinitarian baptismal formula is not a part of the Bible but was inserted into Matthew 28:19 by the Catholic Church."
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