Point 1: The Trinity--Is it or is it not sound biblical doctrine?
The doctrine of the trinity was declared to be an essential tenet of the Christian faith by the Athanasian Creed of the 5-6th century:
1. Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith;
2. Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.
3. And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;
4. Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance.
Prior to this date, no such statement of orthodoxy had been issued by any Christian council, nor any of the early Christian leaders.
It is reasonable to question the legitimacy of such a doctrinal statement, made by uninspired men who lived some 300 years after the apostolic era, which had no precedent in the first 400 years of Christian history. Under such circumstances, why should such a doctrinal statement, made by a council of however many men, be considered accurate and binding on all Christians?
If such a doctrinal statement as this is truly accurate and binding on all Christians, then why not other doctrinal statements made by other church councils, whether earlier or later?
Traditionally, the doctrine of the trinity has been assembled using the following syllogistic reasoning:
* The Father is God
* The Son is God
* The Holy Spirit is God
* There is only one God
* Therefore, the one God must constitute Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Such a syllogism is necessary because the Bible nowhere describes God in Trinitarian terms – nowhere is He described as three persons in one being.
The doctrine has to be assembled gradually by inference and a chain of syllogistic reasoning, taking a passage of Scripture from here, a passage from there, and cobbling them together into one formula in a way which Scripture itself never does, to describe a concept which Scripture does not contain.
It must be noted that this particular syllogism results in a logical fallacy, that A is X, B is X, and C is X, but there is only one X. This alone demonstrates that the reasoning is false. Accurate reasoning from the Scriptures should not result in logical fallacies which have to be dismissed with hand waving explanations such as ‘God can do anything’. If logic is to be used to formulate the doctrine, then the doctrine must submit to logic.
The syllogistic method by which the Trinity is assembled is useful as a demonstration that Trinitarians acknowledge that God is nowhere described in the Bible as three persons in one being. Since God is nowhere described in the Bible in this way, and since God is consistently described as one person, this definition of God cannot be accepted as accurate.
There are four important points to be made here:
* Nowhere does the Bible describe God as three persons in one being – on the contrary, He is consistently described as one person, the Father
* Nowhere in the Bible is the doctrine of the trinity said to be the central tenet of the Christian faith, and the doctrine itself (that God constitutes three persons in one being), is completely absent from the Bible, and on the contrary the Bible predicates salvation on knowledge of, and belief in, God as one person (the Father), and Jesus Christ His son, who is described as ‘the man, Christ Jesus’
* None of the earliest Christian creedal confessions contain the statement that the trinity is an essential tenet of the Christian faith
* The doctrine of the trinity as found in the Athanasian Creed (though not the Nicene Creed, which contains no formal definition of the trinity), is absent from the Christian writings of at least the first 300 years of Christian history, being the product of long and gradual development over time, amid decades of disputes, bickering, disagreement, and even violence
We shall address these points one by one.
The first is that the Bible repeatedly describes God as one person (the Father), not three persons. The personal pronouns ‘He’, ‘His’, ‘Him’, ‘I’, ‘Me’, ‘My’, and ‘Mine’ are used repeatedly to describe God, not ‘God the Father’ (one person of three in one being), and not ‘We’, nor are the Trinitarian distinctions ‘God the Father’, ‘God the Son’, and ‘God the Holy Spirit’ found in the Bible (the latter two are terms invented by Trinitarians).
We are told explicitly that ‘The Lord our God is one Lord’ (Deuteronomy 6:6, Mark 12:29), that ‘he is one, and there is no one else besides him’ (Mark 12:32), never ‘God is three in one’. The absence of the word ‘trinity’ from the Bible is completely unimportant, but the fact that the very concept of God being three persons in one being is found nowhere in the Bible, is of great significance.
Particularly in the New Testament, the apostles repeatedly distinguish God from Christ, not ‘God the Father’ from ‘God the Son’, indicating that ‘God’ and ‘Christ’ are two separate beings, and that ‘God’ is one person, the Father (quotes).
We look in vain in any of the preaching speeches of the apostles (see the Acts), or even their letters and epistles to mature Christians, for evidence that they taught people of a God who was three persons in one being. The concept is entirely absent from their teaching.
The second is that nowhere in the Bible is the doctrine of the trinity said to be the central tenet of the Christian faith. On the contrary, salvation is predicated on knowing that the Father is the ‘only true God’, and that Jesus Christ is His son:
John 17:3 Now this is eternal life—that they know you, [the Father] the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.
1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we live, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we live.
Ephesians 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you too were called to the one hope of your calling,
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
These declarations are the complete opposite of the statement made by the Athanasian Creed.
The third is that none of the earliest Christian creedal confessions contain the statement that the trinity is an essential tenet of the Christian faith. It is not found in the earliest creedal statements such as the ‘Apostles’ Creed’ and the ‘Didache’ (proof), or the confessions of the Elders of Smyrna, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Marcellus or Rufinus (proof).
This is significant, because it demonstrates that this insistence on the Trinity as an essential tenet of the Christian faith was invented much later, and was not a part of the original gospel message, nor even a belief among the early Christians of the 2nd century.
The fourth is that the doctrine was as much an innovation as the doctrines of purgatory and transubstantiation, demonstrable from the fact that it underwent the same process of centuries of argument and development, remains disputed as to its details even among those who hold it, was nor declared to be an essential tenet of the Christian faith (still less the essential tenet), for the first 400 years of Christian history, and is derived by inference from Scripture, rather than being taught explicitly by Scripture, through a process of syllogistic reasoning.
A comparison of the ‘Apostles’ Creed’, the ‘Nicene Creed’, and the later ‘Athanasian Creed’ demonstrates clearly the development which took place over time. The ‘Apostles Creed’ (though preserved completely in the early creedal statements we have considered), was almost completely excluded from the later creeds. This demonstrates a clear departure from what was originally taught.
In summary:
* The Bible describes God as one person, the Father, and never as three persons
* There are no verses in the entire Bible which say that you are a heretic if you deny the trinity (there are plenty of verses in the Bible which say that you are a heretic if you deny that Jesus is a man)
* The teaching of the apostles was that to a true Christian there is one God, and that one God is one person, that one person is the Father, Jesus Christ is His son, and the man who is the mediator between God and men is his son.isHis son
* The Lord Jesus Christ himself says it is life eternal to know that the Father is the only true God
* The earliest Christian creedal statements make no mention of the doctrine of the Trinity whether explicitly or implicitly, describe God as one person (‘the Father Almighty’), Christ as His son, the Holy Spirit as simply ‘the Holy Spirit’ (not even a person), and say nothing of the doctrine of the Trinity being essential to the Christian faith
The doctrine of the trinity was declared to be an essential tenet of the Christian faith by the Athanasian Creed of the 5-6th century:
1. Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith;
2. Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.
3. And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;
4. Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance.
Prior to this date, no such statement of orthodoxy had been issued by any Christian council, nor any of the early Christian leaders.
It is reasonable to question the legitimacy of such a doctrinal statement, made by uninspired men who lived some 300 years after the apostolic era, which had no precedent in the first 400 years of Christian history. Under such circumstances, why should such a doctrinal statement, made by a council of however many men, be considered accurate and binding on all Christians?
If such a doctrinal statement as this is truly accurate and binding on all Christians, then why not other doctrinal statements made by other church councils, whether earlier or later?
Traditionally, the doctrine of the trinity has been assembled using the following syllogistic reasoning:
* The Father is God
* The Son is God
* The Holy Spirit is God
* There is only one God
* Therefore, the one God must constitute Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Such a syllogism is necessary because the Bible nowhere describes God in Trinitarian terms – nowhere is He described as three persons in one being.
The doctrine has to be assembled gradually by inference and a chain of syllogistic reasoning, taking a passage of Scripture from here, a passage from there, and cobbling them together into one formula in a way which Scripture itself never does, to describe a concept which Scripture does not contain.
It must be noted that this particular syllogism results in a logical fallacy, that A is X, B is X, and C is X, but there is only one X. This alone demonstrates that the reasoning is false. Accurate reasoning from the Scriptures should not result in logical fallacies which have to be dismissed with hand waving explanations such as ‘God can do anything’. If logic is to be used to formulate the doctrine, then the doctrine must submit to logic.
The syllogistic method by which the Trinity is assembled is useful as a demonstration that Trinitarians acknowledge that God is nowhere described in the Bible as three persons in one being. Since God is nowhere described in the Bible in this way, and since God is consistently described as one person, this definition of God cannot be accepted as accurate.
There are four important points to be made here:
* Nowhere does the Bible describe God as three persons in one being – on the contrary, He is consistently described as one person, the Father
* Nowhere in the Bible is the doctrine of the trinity said to be the central tenet of the Christian faith, and the doctrine itself (that God constitutes three persons in one being), is completely absent from the Bible, and on the contrary the Bible predicates salvation on knowledge of, and belief in, God as one person (the Father), and Jesus Christ His son, who is described as ‘the man, Christ Jesus’
* None of the earliest Christian creedal confessions contain the statement that the trinity is an essential tenet of the Christian faith
* The doctrine of the trinity as found in the Athanasian Creed (though not the Nicene Creed, which contains no formal definition of the trinity), is absent from the Christian writings of at least the first 300 years of Christian history, being the product of long and gradual development over time, amid decades of disputes, bickering, disagreement, and even violence
We shall address these points one by one.
The first is that the Bible repeatedly describes God as one person (the Father), not three persons. The personal pronouns ‘He’, ‘His’, ‘Him’, ‘I’, ‘Me’, ‘My’, and ‘Mine’ are used repeatedly to describe God, not ‘God the Father’ (one person of three in one being), and not ‘We’, nor are the Trinitarian distinctions ‘God the Father’, ‘God the Son’, and ‘God the Holy Spirit’ found in the Bible (the latter two are terms invented by Trinitarians).
We are told explicitly that ‘The Lord our God is one Lord’ (Deuteronomy 6:6, Mark 12:29), that ‘he is one, and there is no one else besides him’ (Mark 12:32), never ‘God is three in one’. The absence of the word ‘trinity’ from the Bible is completely unimportant, but the fact that the very concept of God being three persons in one being is found nowhere in the Bible, is of great significance.
Particularly in the New Testament, the apostles repeatedly distinguish God from Christ, not ‘God the Father’ from ‘God the Son’, indicating that ‘God’ and ‘Christ’ are two separate beings, and that ‘God’ is one person, the Father (quotes).
We look in vain in any of the preaching speeches of the apostles (see the Acts), or even their letters and epistles to mature Christians, for evidence that they taught people of a God who was three persons in one being. The concept is entirely absent from their teaching.
The second is that nowhere in the Bible is the doctrine of the trinity said to be the central tenet of the Christian faith. On the contrary, salvation is predicated on knowing that the Father is the ‘only true God’, and that Jesus Christ is His son:
John 17:3 Now this is eternal life—that they know you, [the Father] the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.
1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we live, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we live.
Ephesians 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you too were called to the one hope of your calling,
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
These declarations are the complete opposite of the statement made by the Athanasian Creed.
The third is that none of the earliest Christian creedal confessions contain the statement that the trinity is an essential tenet of the Christian faith. It is not found in the earliest creedal statements such as the ‘Apostles’ Creed’ and the ‘Didache’ (proof), or the confessions of the Elders of Smyrna, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Marcellus or Rufinus (proof).
This is significant, because it demonstrates that this insistence on the Trinity as an essential tenet of the Christian faith was invented much later, and was not a part of the original gospel message, nor even a belief among the early Christians of the 2nd century.
The fourth is that the doctrine was as much an innovation as the doctrines of purgatory and transubstantiation, demonstrable from the fact that it underwent the same process of centuries of argument and development, remains disputed as to its details even among those who hold it, was nor declared to be an essential tenet of the Christian faith (still less the essential tenet), for the first 400 years of Christian history, and is derived by inference from Scripture, rather than being taught explicitly by Scripture, through a process of syllogistic reasoning.
A comparison of the ‘Apostles’ Creed’, the ‘Nicene Creed’, and the later ‘Athanasian Creed’ demonstrates clearly the development which took place over time. The ‘Apostles Creed’ (though preserved completely in the early creedal statements we have considered), was almost completely excluded from the later creeds. This demonstrates a clear departure from what was originally taught.
In summary:
* The Bible describes God as one person, the Father, and never as three persons
* There are no verses in the entire Bible which say that you are a heretic if you deny the trinity (there are plenty of verses in the Bible which say that you are a heretic if you deny that Jesus is a man)
* The teaching of the apostles was that to a true Christian there is one God, and that one God is one person, that one person is the Father, Jesus Christ is His son, and the man who is the mediator between God and men is his son.isHis son
* The Lord Jesus Christ himself says it is life eternal to know that the Father is the only true God
* The earliest Christian creedal statements make no mention of the doctrine of the Trinity whether explicitly or implicitly, describe God as one person (‘the Father Almighty’), Christ as His son, the Holy Spirit as simply ‘the Holy Spirit’ (not even a person), and say nothing of the doctrine of the Trinity being essential to the Christian faith
