More on Trinity

One of the problems with the Trinity doctrine is that, most people seem to think that Trinity refers to three separate Gods. This can be a real stumbling block to someone who is already monotheistic. Sir Isaac Newton was considered to be somewhat heretical because he believed that Trinity and the First Commandment were in direct contradiction to each other. I can certainly see his point. Of course, Newton was given a lot of latitude because a) he was brilliant, b) in spite of the fact that he was arguing against something that a lot of people considered to be a fundamental part of their belief system, there was the understanding that what he believed wasn't really that much different than what they believed, and c) he wasn't overly vocal about it (many of his peers were completely unaware that he was 'anti-Trinitarian').

One of the problems with Oneness doctrine is that, as soon as one announces that one does not believe in the Trinity, the Trinitarians start trying to figure out which person, or persons, the Oneness-believer denies. The fact that the Jehovah's Witnesses are the best known 'non-Trinitarians' doesn't help. The Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus was the Christ, but that He was not, in and of Himself, divine. He was the Son of God, but He was not God the Son. Of course, the Jehovah's Witnesses are not generally considered to be part of the Oneness doctrine, but people who do believe in Trinity tend to lump together anyone who doesn't...

Christianity is, by definition, a monotheistic religion. We believe in One God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth... Sound familiar? John 4:24 tells us that God is a Spirit. So, which Spirit is the Father, and which Spirit is the Holy Ghost? Jesus said, in John 10:30, that, "I and My Father are One." Apostle Paul wrote, in 1 Timothy 3:16, that "...God was manifest in the flesh..." The bottom line is that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are all manifestations of our one God. Maybe somebody else can show me differently, but it seems to me that the Holy Ghost descended on Jesus at His baptism, and then Jesus sent the Holy Ghost to us after His Ascension, so, for the entire time of Jesus' ministry, the Holy Ghost dwelt exclusively in Jesus. So, for three years, those two manifestations were the same.

I do want to point out that Jesus was very careful about what He said as far as the identity of God. He knew who He was, but He also knew that His flesh was only temporary. Under normal circumstances, God is an invisible God. God doesn't want us making images of Him. Any image that we make of Jesus is really the flesh that He inhabited during His time among us. That would not be an accurate representation of Him, anyway.

My point is that most of us believe pretty much the same thing about God (well, except for the Jehovah's Witnesses), but we get caught up in terminology that we think expresses what we believe, but that maybe means something else to the person we are talking to. We should be clear about what we believe, so that we don't confuse those around us.

Is Trinity Biblical?

I have a book, written by a very intelligent man named Walter Martin, called "The Kingdom of the Cults." Very early on in this book, there is a list of things to help identify a cult. The very first thing on the list is that what the organization teaches must be biblical. If it's in the Bible, and the organization teaches against it, or if it's not in the Bible, but the organization does teach it, then that organization is a cult. That makes very good sense to me. That seems like a very solid proof. The second item on the list is that the organization must teach Trinity. That puzzles me. First of all, if Trinity is biblical, then that idea is covered under item 1, so item 2 is redundant; on the other hand, if Trinity isn't biblical, then item 2 contradicts item 1. Now, I've already mentioned that the late Walter Martin was a very intelligent man, but I have to wonder, why is this even listed?

I think that it's because the evidence for Trinity in the scriptures is somewhat tenuous. The Thompson Chain-Reference Bible lists 8 verses under the topic 'Trinity.' The word Trinity itself doesn't appear in scripture (of course, neither do a lot of other words that we use regularly in church). Really, it seems to me that there are eleven verses that could be used to support the Trinity doctrine: Matthew 28:19, John 14:26, John 15:26, Acts 7:55, Acts 10:38, Romans 15:16, 2 Corinthians 13:14, Galatians 4:6, Ephesians 1:17, 1 Peter 1:2, and 1 John 5:7. For something that so many people consider to be so important, that seems to be pretty thin. If God wanted us to believe in Trinity, wouldn't that be a bold statement somewhere in the Gospels ("Behold, I am the LORD, and my Name is Three!")?

I can come up with a lot more than eleven scriptures that could be used to argue the Oneness of God, as opposed to the Triune formula. Realistically, I could use some of the eleven scriptures listed above to argue against Trinity as easily as to argue in its favor. Some of them, taken together, can get pretty confusing: For example, in John 14:26, Jesus says that the Father will send the Comforter in Jesus' name, but in John 15:26, Jesus says that He himself will send the Comforter from the Father. So, did Jesus send us the Comforter, or did the Father send us the Comforter? And if that weren't confusing enough, in John 14:18, Jesus indicates that He (Jesus) is the Comforter, but 8 verses later, He tells us that the Comforter is the Holy Ghost.

Furthermore, what does Trinity really mean? To some people, Trinity is simply shorthand for the three major manifestations of God, to others, it means that there are three separate Gods; still others believe that the Father and the Holy Ghost are Gods, but the Son is simply the Son of God, and not really a God in his own right (but we can't ignore Him, because He died for our sins). The use of the term Trinity is very widespread, but there doesn't seem to be any real consensus as to what Trinity is. How can this be a defining point between a legitimate Christian church and a cult if we can't even decide what it is?