Trinity

The Trinity is God, according to the teaching of the churches which represent the majority of Christians. According to this doctrine, God is a single being existing simultaneously as three distinct persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit.

Dissent from the doctrine

Most Christians believe that the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity is so central to the Christian faith, that to deny it is to reject the Christian faith entirely. However a number of nontrinitarian groups, both throughout history and today, identify themselves as Christians but reject the doctrine of the Trinity in any form, arguing that theirs was the original pre-Nicean understanding. Some ancient sects, such as the Ebionites, said that Jesus was not a "Son of God", but rather an ordinary man who was a prophet. Many modern groups also teach a nontrinitarian understanding of God. These include The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Christadelphians, the Living Church of God, Christian Scientists, the Unification Church, Unitarian Universalists, American Unitarian Conference, Branhamists, Frankists, Oneness Pentecostals and the splinter groups of Armstrongism, among others. These groups differ from one another in their view of God, but all alike reject the doctrine of the Trinity.

Related Topics:
Nontrinitarian - Ebionites - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - Jehovah's Witnesses - Christadelphians - Living Church of God - Christian Scientists - Unification Church - Unitarian Universalists - American Unitarian Conference - Branhamists - Frankists - Oneness Pentecostals

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Criticism of the doctrine includes the argument its "mystery" is essentially an inherent irrationality, where the persons of God are claimed to share completely a single divine substance, the "being of God", and yet not partake of each others' identity. Critics also argue the doctrine, for a teaching described as fundamental, lacks direct scriptural support, and even some proponents of the doctrine acknowledge such direct or formal support is lacking. The New Catholic Encyclopedia, for example, says, "The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is not taught in the Old Testament", and The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia adds, "The doctrine is not explicitly taught in the New Testament", although these sources contend the doctrine is implicit. The scriptural question, however, was sufficiently important to 16th century historical figures such as Michael Servetus as to lead them to argue the question. The Geneva City Council condemned Servetus to be burned at the stake for this, and for his opposition to infant baptism.

Related Topics:
Old Testament - New Testament - Michael Servetus - Burned - Infant baptism

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Debate over the biblical basis of the doctrine tends to revolve chiefly over the question of the deity of Jesus (see Christology). Proponents find plurality in Old Testament details like the term "Elohim" and argue for example that Jesus accepted worship, forgave sins, claimed oneness with the Father, and used the expression "I am" as an echo of the divine name given to Moses on Sinai. Those who reject the teaching for their part offer different explanations, arguing among other things that Jesus also rejected being called so little as good in deference to God (versus "the Father"), disavowed omniscience as the Son, and referred to ascending unto "my Father, and to your Father; and to my God, and to your God". They also dispute that "Elohim" denotes plurality, noting that this name in nearly all circumstances takes a singular verb and arguing that where it seems to suggest plurality, Hebrew grammar still indicates against it. They also point to statements by Jesus such as his declaration that the Father was greater than he or that he was not omniscient, in his statement that of a final day and hour not even he knew, but the Father. In Theological Studies #26 (1965) p.545-73, Does the NT call Jesus God?, Raymond E. Brown wrote that Mk10:18, Lk18:19, Mt19:17, Mk15:34, Mt27:46, Jn20:17, Eph1:17, 2Cor1:3, 1Pt1:3, Jn17:3, 1Cor8:6, Eph4:4-6, 1Cor12:4-6, 2Cor13:14, 1Tm2:5, Jn14:28, Mk13:32, Ph2:5-10, 1Cor15:24-28 are "texts that seem to imply that the title God was not used for Jesus" and are "negative evidence which is often somewhat neglected in Catholic treatments of the subject."

Related Topics:
Jesus - Christology - Raymond E. Brown

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Trinitarians claim that these statements are summed up in the fact that Jesus existed as the Son of God in the human flesh. Thus he is both God and man, who became "lower than the angels, for our sake" (Hebrews 2:6-8, Pslam 8:4-6) and who was tempted as humans are tempted, but he did not sin (Hebrews 4:14-16).

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The teaching is also pivotal to ecumenical disagreements with two of the other major faiths, Judaism and Islam; the former reject Jesus' divine mission entirely, the latter accepts Jesus as a human prophet just like Muhammad but rejects altogether the deity of Jesus. Many within Judaism and Islam also accuse Christian trinitarians of practicing polytheism, of believing in three gods rather than just one.

Related Topics:
Muhammad - Polytheism

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Other Views of the Trinity

There have been numerous other views of the relations of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; the most prominent include:

Related Topics:
Father - Son - Holy Spirit

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• Ebionites believed that the Son was subordinate to the Father and nothing more than a special human.
• Marcion Who believed that there were two Deities, one of Creation / Hebrew Bible and one of the New Testament.
• Arius Who believed that the Son was subordinate to the Father, firstborn of all Creation. However, the Son did have Divine status. (see also Nicene Creed)
• Modalism states that God has taken numerous forms in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, and that Jesus was no different than the burning bush that appeared to Moses.
• Eutychianism holds that the divinity of the Son became human and the human became divine. Orthodox Trinitarianism holds these parts of the Son distinct.
• Nestorianism holds that there were two distinct persons in Christ: one man and one Divine.
• Mormons hold that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three separate and distinct individuals, but can and do act together as one Godhead, a single and unified administrative unit, which is occasionally referred to as the Trinity in some church publications.
• Docetism holds that the Son is not man, but wholly and only divine.
• Adoptionism holds that Jesus was chosen on the event of his baptism to be annointed by the Holy Spirit and became divine upon resurrection.
• Rastafarians are the only non-Christian group to theorise about the Holy Trinity.

Alleged pagan origins and influences

Nontrinitarian Christians have long contended that the doctrine of the Trinity is a prime example of Christian borrowing from pagan sources. A simpler idea of God was supposedly lost very early in the history of the Church, through accommodation to pagan ideas, and the incomprehensible doctrine of the Trinity took its place. As evidence of this process, a comparison is often drawn between the Trinity and notions of a divine triad, found in pagan religions and Hinduism. Modern Hinduism also has a trinity, i.e., Trimurti.

Related Topics:
Nontrinitarian - Hinduism - Trimurti

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As far back as Babylonia, the worship of pagan gods grouped in threes, or triads, was common. That influence was also prevalent in Egypt, Greece, and Rome in the centuries before, during, and after Christ. It is alleged that, after the death of the apostles, these pagan beliefs began to invade Christianity. (First and second century Christian writings reflect a certain belief that Jesus was one with God the Father, but anti-Trinitarians contend it was at this point that the nature of the oneness evolved from pervasive coexistence to identity.)

Related Topics:
Babylonia - Egypt - Greece - Rome - Apostle - Christianity

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Some find a direct link between the doctrine of the Trinity, and the Egyptian theologians of Alexandria, for example. They suggest that Alexandrian theology, with its strong emphasis on the deity of Christ, was an intermediary between the Egyptian religious heritage and Christianity.

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The Church is charged with adopting these pagan tenets, invented by the Egyptians and adapted to Christian thinking by means of Greek philosophy. As evidence of this, critics of the doctrine point to the widely acknowledged synthesis of Christianity with platonic philosophy, which is evident in Trinitarian formulas that appeared by the end of the third century. Catholic doctrine became firmly rooted in the soil of Hellenism, it is alleged; and thus an essentially pagan idea was forcibly imposed on the churches beginning with the Constantinian period. At the same time, neo-Platonic trinities, such as that of the One, the Nous and the Soul, are not a trinity of consubstantial equals as in orthodox Christianity.

Related Topics:
Platonic - Philosophy - Third century - Catholic - Hellenism

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Nontrinitarians allege that Catholics must have recognized the pagan roots of the trinity, because the allegation of borrowing was raised by some disputants during the time that the Nicene doctrine was being formalized and adopted by the bishops. For example, in the 4th Century Catholic Bishop Marcellus of Ancyra's writings, On the Holy Church,9 : "Now with the heresy of the Ariomaniacs, which has corrupted the Church of God...These then teach three hypostases, just as Valentinus the heresiarch first invented in the book entitled by him 'On the Three Natures'. For he was the first to invent three hypostases and three persons of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he is discovered to have filched this from Hermes and Plato." (Source: Logan A. Marcellus of Ancyra (Pseudo-Anthimus), 'On the Holy Church': Text, Translation and Commentary. Verses 8-9. Journal of Theological Studies, NS, Volume 51, Pt. 1, April 2000, p.95 ). Such a late date for a key term of Nicene Christianity, and attributed to a Gnostic, they believe, lends credibility to the charge of pagan borrowing. Marcellus was rejected by the Catholic Church for teaching a form of Sabellianism.

Related Topics:
Nontrinitarian - Sabellianism

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The early apologists, including Justin Martyr, Tertullian and Irenaeus, frequently discussed the parallels and contrasts between Christianity and the pagan and syncretic religions, and answered charges of borrowing from paganism in their apologetical writings.

Related Topics:
Justin Martyr - Tertullian - Irenaeus - Syncretic religion - Apologetical

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