In considering the trinitarian doctrine it is helpful to first establish some indisputable facts: 4 - Athanasian Creed (extract) The doctrine of the Trinity – undisputed facts And yet there are not three eternals but one eternal. But the Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one: the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal… The Father is eternal: the Son eternal: the Holy Spirit eternal. For there is one person of the Father: another of the Son: another of the Holy Spirit. This is very long and repetitive, but here is a sample of its main teaching: We worship one God in trinity, and trinity in unity neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance. 3 - Nicene Creed (extract)Ībout 200 years later the views were elaborated in the Athanasian Creed. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made… And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.
For our purpose the relevant points of this Nicene Creed are: We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. The first attempt to formally define it was in the year 325, at the Council of Nicea, nearly 300 years after Christianity was first preached. Let’s start by defining the doctrine of the Trinity as outlined in church creeds today. Is it, to use Rusch’s words, biblical revelation or an imported foreign system? So we clearly need to have an impartial look into this basic belief. In outlining the development of the doctrine of the Trinity since New Testament times, William Rusch, an American Christian theologian, writes in his book The Trinitarian Controversy that: some have seen the developments traced in this volume as a capitulation of the biblical revelation to a foreign system from which Christianity has still not yet escaped.
On the other hand, some recognise that the earliest Christians knew nothing of the doctrine. It is almost universally held in Trinitarian Christianity, that denial of the Trinity is a renunciation of Christianity and salvation. For example, many would say of the Trinity: Belief in the Trinity defines a Christian. This is considered to be so basic to Christianity that any who deny this doctrine are by definition not Christian. 1 The vast majority of Christians believe that God is composed of three persons, all co-equal and co-eternal. Now we come to the really big challenge – the Trinity. Chapter 7: Is the doctrine of the Trinity a biblical concept? Chapter 7 Is the doctrine of the Trinity a biblical concept?