I am here to teach all people, but especially the "body of Christ" (the Church), that the bible is sufficient for what we believe. Throughout the centuries, men have brought many doctrines into the church that have caused confusion and separation. My desire and goal is to clarify some of these errors and bring all Christians back to the basics of [...]
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (Latin: trinus "threefold") holds that God is one God, but three coeternal consubstantial persons or hypostases. These being the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit - as "one God in three Divine Persons". The three Persons are distinct, yet are one "substance, essence or nature" (homoousios).
Babylon was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq. This is about 85 kilometres (53 miles) south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-speaking region of Babylonia. Its rulers established two important empires in [...]
Nimrod is a biblical figure mentioned in the Book of Genesis and the Books of Chronicles. The son of Cush and thus the great-grandson of Noah, Nimrod was described as a king in the land of Shinar (Lower Mesopotamia). The Bible states that he was "a mighty hunter before the Lord ... began to be mighty in the earth". Nimrod became a symbol of [...]The pagan Triadic dieties were shown as a single-head with 3 faces, 3 mouths but only 4 mouths. Such images were preserved across the Roman Empire.
Does the Christian Trinity come from pagan Triadic dieties?
Yes. The core teachings of the Trinitarian Christian churches
today do not come from Jesus.
The three-in-one Gods are pagan concepts that existed long before
Jesus arrived. Later on, Christians adopted this concept and
instantly made Christian doctrine an appealing alternative to the
pagan God worshipping masses.
"It is not a biblical doctrine in the sense that any formulation of it can be found in the Bible."
(Illustrated Bible Dictionary)
Trinitarians have been looking for Bible texts and even twisting verses to find support for the Trinity teaching.
The concept of a dual human and divine nature in the person of Jesus is known as the Hypostatic Union, an essential component of modern Trinitarianism.
Yet it wasn’t until the Council of Chalcedon that we see the emergence of an official doctrine of the Trinity in a form that is recognisable with what Christian Trinitarians believe in today. This took place in the fifth century, over 400 years after Jesus!
The evangelical theologian and Professor Wayne A. Grudem sums this up as follows:
"A precise understanding of how full deity and full humanity" argues Grudem, "could be combined together in one person was formulated only gradually in the church and did not reach the final form until the Chalcedonian Definition in 451 AD
Source: [Grudem, Systematic Theology: Chapter 26 – The Person of Christ, 1994, p. 554.]
This verse mentions the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Ghost) in the King James Version Bible (KJV). Bible critics agree the KJV verse is a forgery that was added into the Bible. More modern, accurate Bibles give different text:
And the Spirit is the witness, because the Spirit is the truth - (RSV Bible)
And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is the truth - (ASV Bible)
For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. (NIV Bible)
The Old Testament does not teach the Trinity, or even set forth the Messiah would be God. There is no evidence of anyone knowing about, or believing in, the Trinity in all the Jewish literature before Christ, including the Old Testament, the Jewish targums and commentaries, the Apocrypha or other apocryphal literature, or the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Orthodox Christian theologians define the doctrine of the Trinity is that the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, and together these 'three Persons' make one God; and these three are co-equal and co-eternal, the Son having been 'eternally begotten' of the Father, and Jesus being simultaneously 100% God and 100% man.
Today, many Christians think they are Trinitarians simply because they believe in the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit - but that is not the Trinity!
The distinguished Trinitarian scholar Bertrand de Margerie in his book The Christian Trinity in History (p.3) writes:
"…contemporary exegetes [Bible teachers] affirm unanimously that the Old Testament did not bring to the Jewish people a clear and distinct Revelation of the existence of a plurality of persons in God. In this they agree with the clear and frequent affirmation of Fathers such as Irenaeus, Hilary, and Gregory of Nazianzus: that the doctrine of the Trinity is revealed only in the New Testament."
So any person who lived before Jesus' ministry did not have to believe in the Trinity to be saved because the Trinity is not mentioned in the Old Testament.
Scholars freely admit that the Trinity is never presented as a complete doctrine in the New Testament, but rather is built from scattered Bible verses.
In the NT there is no explicit statement of the doctrine….
Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (p. 1112)
…it is not a Biblical doctrine in the sense that any formulation of it can be found in the Bible….
New Bible Dictionary (p.1221)
The New Testament does not present a systematic presentation of the Trinity. The scattered segments from various writers that appear throughout the New Testament reflect a seemingly accepted understanding that exists without a full-length discussion.
Holman Bible Dictionary (p.1372)
Theologians admit the New Testament does not define the Trinity. Furthermore, there is no clear teaching that salvation depends on the belief in the Trinity.