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Is the Trinity Biblical?
The belief that God is one substance, yet three persons, is one of the central doctrines of mainstream Christianity. The concept of the Trinity is believed by most professing Christians, whether Catholic or Protestant.
A Gallup Poll taken in 1966 found that 97% of the American public believed in God. Of that number, 83% believed that God was a Trinity.
Yet for all this belief in the Trinity, it is a doctrine that is not clearly understood by most Christian laymen. In fact, most have neither the desire nor the incentive to understand what their churches teach. Few laymen are aware of any problems with the doctrine of the Trinity. They simply take it for granted, leaving the mysterious doctrinal aspects to theologians.
And if the layman were to investigate further, he would be confronted with discouraging statements similar to the following: “The mind of man cannot fully understand the mystery of the Trinity. He who would try to understand the mystery fully will lose his mind. But he who would deny the Trinity will lose his soul.” (Harold Lindsell and Charles J. Woodbridge, A Handbook of Christian Truth, pp. 51-52).
Such a statement means that the concept of the Trinity should be accepted or else. Merely accepting it as doctrine without first proving it would be contrary to Scripture. God inspired the Apostle Paul to write: “Prove all things hold fast that which is good” (I Thess. 5:21).
Peter further admonished Christians: “...be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you..” (I Peter 3:15). Therefore the Christian is duty bound to prove whether or not God is a Trinity.
Clear Explanation Difficult
If you were to confine yourself to reading the articles on the Trinity in popular religious literature for laymen, you would conclude that the Trinity is clearly taught in the Bible. However, if you read the Bible and what the more technical Bible encyclopedias, dictionaries, and books say on the subject, you would come to an entirely different conclusion. And the more you have studied the subject, the more you would find that the Trinity is built on a very shaky theological and philosophical foundation indeed.
The problems inherent in clearly explaining the Trinity are expressed in nearly every technical article or book on the subject. The New Catholic Encyclopedia begins: “It is difficult...in the second half of the 20th century, to offer a clear, objective, and straightforward account of the revelation, doctrinal evolution, and the theological elaboration of the mystery of the Trinity. Trinitarian discussion, Roman Catholic as well as other, presents a somewhat unsteady silhouette” (Vol. XIV, p. 295). (Emphasis ours throughout the booklet.)
But why should the central doctrine of the Christian faith be so difficult to understand? Why should such an important doctrine present an unsteady silhouette? Isn’t there a clear Biblical revelation of the doctrine of the Trinity? Didn’t Christ and the apostles plainly teach it?
Surely the Bible would be filled with teachings about such an important subject as the Trinity. Unfortunately, the word “Trinity” never appears in the Bible.
“The term ‘Trinity’ is not a Biblical term, and we are not using Biblical language when we define what is expressed by it as the doctrine” (The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, article “Trinity,” p. 3012). Not only is the word “Trinity” never found in the Bible, but there is no substantive proof such a doctrine is even indicated.
In a recent book on the Trinity, Catholic theologian Karl Rahner recognizes that theologians in the past have been “...embarrassed by the simple fact that in reality the Scriptures do not explicitly present a doctrine of the ‘imminent’ Trinity (even in the Apostle John’s prologue there is no such doctrine)” (The Trinity, p. 22).
Other theologians also recognize the fact that the first chapter of John’s Gospel the prologue—clearly shows the pre-existence and divinity of Christ, but does not teach the doctrine of the Trinity. After discussing John’s prologue, Dr. William Newton Clarke writes: “There is no Trinity in this; but there is a distinction in the Godhead, a duality in God. The distinction or duality is used as basis for the idea of an only-begotten Son, and as key to the possibility of an incarnation” (Outline of Christian Theology, p. 167).
The first chapter of John’s Gospel clearly shows the pre-existence of Christ. It also illustrates the duality of God and as Dr. Clarke explains, the key to the possibility of the incarnation—the fact that God could become man.
The Apostle John makes plain the unmistakable fact that Jesus Christ is God (John 1:1-14). Yet we find no Trinity discussed in the chapter. WE do not find even a mention of the Holy Spirit in John’s inspired revelation—only a duality of God the Father and the Son, who was God before the incarnation.
Seeking More Biblical “Proof for the Trinity”
Probably the most notorious scripture used in times past as “proof of a Trinity is I John 5:7. However, many theologians recognize that this scripture was added to the New Testament manuscripts probably as late as the eighth century A.D.
Notice what Jamieson, Fausset and Brown wrote in their commentary: “The only Greek MSS. [manuscripts], in any form which support the words, ‘in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.’ And there are three evidently from the modern Latin Vulgate; the Ravianus copied from the Complutensian Polyglot; a MS. [manuscript] at Naples, with the words added in the margins by a recent hand; Ottobonianus, 298, of the fifteenth century, the Greek of which is a mere translation of the accompanying Latin. All old versions omit the words.”
The conclusions arrived at in their commentary, written over 100 years ago, are still valid today. The more conservatively oriented The New Bible Commentary (revised) agrees, though quietly with Jamieson, Fausset and Brown. “...The words are clearly a gloss and are rightly excluded by RSV [Revised Standard Version] even from its margin” (p. 1269).
The editors of Peake’s Commentary on the Bible wax more eloquent in their belief that the works are not part of the original text. “The famous interpolation after ‘three witnesses’ is not printed even in RSV, and rightly... It cites the heavenly testimony of the Father, the logos, and the Holy Spirit, but is never used in the early trinitarian controversies. No respectable Greek MS contains it. Appearing first in a 4th century Latin text, it entered the Vulgate and finally the NT [New Testament] of Erasmus” (p. 1038). Scholars clearly recognize that I John 5:7 is not part of the New Testament text. Yet it is still included by some fundamentalist Christians as biblical proof for the Trinity doctrine.
Even the majority of the more recent New Testament translations do not contain the above words. They are not found in Moffatt, Phillips, the Revised Standard Version, Williams or the Living Bible (a paraphrase).
It is clear, then, that these words are not part of the inspired canon, but rather were added by a “recent hand.” The two verses in I John should read: “For there are three that bear record, the Spirit, and the water and the blood: and these three agree in one.”
Three things bear record. But to what do they bear record? A Trinity? We shall see.
Bear Record to What?
The Spirit, the water and the blood bear record of the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is living His life over again in us. John clarifies it in verses 11-12.
“And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”
But how do these three elements—the Spirit, the water and the blood—specifically bear witness to this basic biblical truth?
“The Spirit beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Rom. 8:16). (We will see more about the part the Spirit plays in Chapter Three.)
Water is representative of baptism, which bears witness of the burial of the old self and the beginning of a new life (Rom. 6:1-6).
The blood represents Christ’s death by crucifixion, which pays the penalty for our sins, reconciling us to God (Rom. 5:9, 10).
Now understand why Christ commands the apostles to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). First of all Jesus did not command the apostles to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as an indication that God is a Trinity. Such a relationship is not indicated in the Bible.
They were to baptize in the name of the Father, because it is the goodness of God that brings us to repentance (Rom. 2:4), and because the Father is the One “of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named” (Eph. 3:15). We are baptized in the name of the Son because HE is the one who died for our sins. We are baptized in the name of the Holy Spirit, making us the Father’s begotten sons (Rom. 8:16).
Many theologians have misunderstood the part that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit play in each person’s salvation. The doctrine of the Trinity is the result of that misunderstanding.
The Trinity is not a biblical doctrine. It has no basis in biblical fact. Then how did this doctrine creep into the Church? Pagan theology, about the nature of God, was used to interpret scripture. God tells us that scripture is to interpret scripture, not pagan mythology.
History of the Trinity
The ancient idea of monotheism was shattered by the sudden appearance of Jesus Christ on the earth. Here was someone who claimed He was the Son of God. But how could He be? The Jewish people believed for centuries that there was only one God. If the claims of “this Jesus” would have been accepted, then in their minds, their religion would have been no different from that of the polytheistic pagans around them. If HE were the Son of God, their whole system of monotheism would have disintegrated.
When Jesus plainly told certain Jews of His day that He was the Son of God, some were ready to stone Him for blasphemy (John 10:33).
To get around the problem of the plurality in the Godhead, the Jewish community simply rejected Jesus. And to this day, Orthodox Judaism will not accept Jesus’ Messiahship. However, the more liberal Jews will at least admit that He was a great man, maybe even a prophet.
But the “new” Christian religion still faced a problem. How could proponents explain that there was only one God, not two?
“The determining impulse to the formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity in the church was the church’s profound conviction of the absolute Deity of Christ, on which as on a pivot the whole Christian concept of God from the first origin of Christianity turned” (International Standard Biblical Encyclopedia, article “Trinity,” p. 3021).
The deity of Christ does not mean that the doctrine of the Trinity is necessary, as we shall see in Chapter Two.
Roots in Greek Philosophy
Many of the early church fathers were thoroughly educated in Babylonian, Egyptian and Greek philosophy, from which they borrowed such non-biblical concepts as dualism and the immortality of the soul. However, most theologians, for obvious reasons, are generally careful to point out that they did not borrow the idea of the Trinity from the Triads of Greek philosophy or those of the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians.
But some are not so careful to make such a distinction. Notice: “Although the notion of a Triad or Trinity is characteristic of the Christian religion, it is by no means peculiar to it. In the Indian religion, e.g., we meet with the trinitarian group of Brahma, Siva, and Visnu; and the Egyptian religion with the trinitarian group of Osiris, Isis, and Horus, constituting a divine family, like the Father, Mother and Son in medieval Christian pictures. Not is it only in historical [not biblical] religions that we find God viewed as a Trinity. One recalls in particular the NeoPlatonic view of the Supreme or Ultimate Reality, which was suggested by Plato...” (Hastings Bible Dictionary, Vol. 12, p. 458).
Of course, the fact that someone else had a Trinity does not in itself mean that the Christians borrowed it. McClintock and Strong make the connection a little clearer.
“Toward the end of the 1st century, and during the 2nd, many learned men came over both from Judaism and paganism to Christianity. These brought with them into the Christian schools of theology their Platonic ideas and phraseology” (article “Trinity,” Vol. 10, p. 553).
In his book, A History of Christian Thought, Arthur Cushman McGiffert shows that the main argument against those who believed that there was only one God and that Christ was either an adopted or created being was that their idea did not agree with Platonic philosophy (ibid., p. 240).
In the latter half of the third century, Paul of Samosata tried to revive the adoptionist idea that Jesus was a mere man until the Spirit of God came upon Him at baptism, making him the Anointed One or Christ. In his beliefs about the person of Jesus Christ, he “rejected the Platonic realism which underlay most of the Christological speculation of the day” (ibid., p. 243).
At the end of his chapter on the Trinity, McGiffert concludes: “...It has been the boast of orthodox theologians that in the doctrine of the Trinity both religion and philosophy come to highest expression” (Vol. I, p. 247).
The influence of Platonic philosophy on the Trinity doctrine can hardly be denied. However, trinitarian ideas go much further back than Plato. “Though it is usual to speak of the Semitic tribes as monotheistic, yet it is an undoubted fact that more or less all over the world his deities are in triads. This rule applies to eastern and western hemispheres, north and south. Further, it is observed that, in some mystical way, the triad of three persons is one...The definition of Athanasius [a forth-century Catholic] who lived in Egypt, applied to the trinities of all heathen religions” (Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought, by James Bonwick, F.R.G.S., p. 396).
It was Athanasius’ formulation for the Trinity, which was adopted by the Catholic Church at the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. Athanasius was an Egyptian from Alexandria and his philosophy was also deeply rooted in Platonism.
“The Alexandria catechetical school, which revered Clement of Alexandria and Origen, the greatest theologians of the Greek Church, as it heads, applies the allegorical method to the explanation of Scripture. Plato influenced its thought: its strong point was [pagan] theological speculations. Athanasius and the three Cappadocians had been included among it members...” (Ecumenical Councils of the Catholic Church, by Hubert Jedin, p. 29).
In order to explain the relationship of Christ to God the Father, the church fathers felt that it was necessary to use the philosophy of the day rather than the scriptures. They obviously thought that their religion would be more palatable if they made it sound like the pagan philosophy that was extant at the time. These men were versed in philosophy, and that philosophy colored what understanding of the Bible they had.
It was the doctrine of the Trinity - colored by the philosophy of the time—that was accepted by the Catholic Orthodox Church in the early part of the fourth century, over 300 years after Christ’s death.
Even theologians recognize that the Trinity is a creation of the fourth century, not the first! “There is a recognition on the part of the exegetist and Biblical theologians, including a constantly growing number of Roman Catholics, that one should speak of Trinitarianism in the New Testament without serious qualifications. There is also the closely parallel recognition—that when one does speak of unqualified Trinitarianism, one has moved from the period of Christian origins to say, the last quadrant of the 4th century. It was only then that what might be called the definitive Trinitarianism dogma ‘one God in three persons’ became thoroughly assimilated into [professing] Christian life and thought” (New Catholic Encyclopedia, article “Trinity,” Vol. 14, p. 295).
The Council of Nicaea
It was at the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325 that two members of the Alexandrian congregation—Arius, a priest, who believed that Christ was not a God, but a created being, and Athanasius, a deacon, who believed that the Father, Son and Spirit were the same being living in a threefold form (or in three relationships, as a man may be at the same time a father, a son and a brother) presented their cases.
The Council of Nicaea was not called by the church leaders, as one might suppose, but by the Emperor Constantine. He had a far-fromspiritual reason for wanting to solve the dispute.
“In 325 the Emperor Constantine called an ecclesiastical council to meet at Nicaea in Bithynia. In the hope of securing for his throne the support of the growing body of [professing] Christians he had shown them considerable favor and it was to his interest to have the church vigorous and united. The Arian controversy was threatening its unity and menacing its strength. He therefore undertook to put an end to the trouble. It was suggested to him, perhaps by the Spanish bishop Hosius, who was influential at court, that if a synod were to meet representing the whole church both east and west, it might be possible to restore harmony. Constantine himself of course neither knew or cared anything about the matter in dispute but he was eager to bring the controversy to a close, and Hosius’ advice appealed to him as around” (A History of Christian Thought, Vol. I, p. 258).
The decision as to which of the two men the church was to follow was more or less an arbitrary one. Constantine really didn’t care which choice was made. All he wanted was a united church. (Arius was banished, but later recalled by Constantine, examined and found to be without heresy.)
The majority of those present at the Council were not ready to take either side in the controversy. “A clearly defined standpoint with regard to this problem—the relationship of Christ to God—was held only by the attenuated group of Arians and a far from numerous section of delegates, who adhered with unshaken conviction to the Alexandrian [Athanasius’] view. The bulk of the members occupied a position between these two extremes. They rejected the formulea of Arius, and declined to accept those of his opponents.. .the voting was not criterion of the inward conviction of the council” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed., article “Nicaea, Council of,” p. 641).
The Council rejected Arius’ views and rightly so, but they had nothing with which to replace it. Thus the ideas of Athanasius—also a minority view—prevailed. The rejection of Athanasius’ view was not a blanket acceptance of Arius’ view. Yet, the church in all the ensuing centuries has been “stuck,” so to speak, with the job of upholding— right or wrong—the decision made at Nicaea.
After the Council, the Trinity became official dogma in the church. However, the controversy did not end. In the next few years, more Christians were killed by other Christians over that one doctrine then were finally killed by the different pagan emperors of Rome. Yet, for all the fighting and killing, neither of the two parties had a Biblical leg on which to stand.
