The Origin of the Trinity Belief
Most systems of religion propound belief in what is termed the Trinity. They set forth the doctrine that God is both one and three, and is made up of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. This doctrine is not drawn from the Bible (where the term “Trinity” never appears) but from what is known as the Athanasian Creed, which was drawn up by Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, in the fourth century after Christ. It defined the Godhead in the following terms:
“The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not three Gods; but one God.”
The Trinity is further defined thus:
“There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker and Preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”
A careful analysis of that definition will reveal contradictions and confusion.
For example, how can “one God” be three persons, each one a god? How can the Son be “begotten” and yet be from eternity? How can the Father be separate from His “Holy Spirit”?
In short, to believe in what most churches teach concerning the Godhead is to believe an impossibility, a contradiction.
Paul taught that “God is not the Author of confusion” (1 Corinthians 14:33), but the doctrine that teaches that God is both one and three is an obvious error of logic and is confusion.
Test it yourself. Ask any clergyman how God can be both three and one; how He can be “without body parts and passions”, and yes be “one substance”, how the Son can be from all eternity, and yet, at the same time, be God’s “only begotten son” (John 1:18)?
You will be told it is a “mystery”, beyond the scope of mankind to understand; or you will be advised not to concern yourself with such “unimportant” matters.
Yet the doctrine of the Trinity is part of the faith, concerning which, the Church of England Prayer Book states: “Except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.”
The word Trinity is not found in the Bible. Mosheim, in his History of the Church, and Gibbon, in his The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Ch 21), both acknowledge this. Apparently the word was first used in an apologetic work of Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch in Syria, in the latter half of the second century. The Trinity of this Bishop, however, was not the modern doctrine of co-equality, but rather a trinity of attributes rather than of persons, and he says expressly, “The True God (ie, the Father) is alone to be worshipped,” It was not until the fourth century, at a time of great apostasy from the pure Apostolic faith, that the doctrine of the Trinity was actually introduced. It caused heated controversy, for many still adhered to the teaching of the one God. But gradually the new doctrine prevailed, and ultimately became accepted as basic Christian teaching, fulfilling the prophecy that religious leaders would “make the Word of God of none effect through their tradition” (Mark 7:13, 2 Timothy 4:3).
Consider the following timeline showing the gradual declension in the early church teaching:
- AD120 – The Apostles Creed says,”I believe in God the Father Almighty.”
- AD150 – Justin Martyr begins to corrupt Christianity with the philosophy of the Greeks.
- AD170 – The word Trias first occurs in Christian literature.<b< li=””>
- AD200 – The word Trinitas is first used by Tertullian.
- AD260 – Sabellius teaches: Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three names for the same God.
- AD300 – No Trinitarian forms of prayer yet known to the church.
- AD310 – Lactantius (orthodox teacher) writes: “Christ never calls himself God.”
- AD325 – The Nicene Council agree to call Christ, “God of God, the God of very God.”
- AD350 – The Doxology, “Glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,” composed, and complained of as a novelty.
- AD381 – The Council of Constantinople gives the finishing touch to the doctrine of “three persons in one God.”
- AD383 – The Emperor Theodosius threatens to punish all who will not believe in and worship the Trinity.
- AD519 – The Doxology is ordered to be sung in all the churches.
- AD669 – The Clergy commanded to commit to memory the Athanasian Creed incorporating the doctrine of the Trinity.
- AD826 – Bishop Basil orders the Clergy to repeat this creed every Sunday.
Many theologians have been frank enough to admit that the doctrine is not taught in the Bible, and that it cannot be logically explained. They acknowledge that the teaching is incomprehensible, and that it propounds a contradiction in terms. They cannot explain how one God can be also three Gods and vice versa; how God can have substance, and yet no form; or how the Son of God can at the same time, be his own Father!
The doctrine is one of confusion, because it is drawn not from the Bible, but from pagan mythology. One edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica states:
“The propositions constitutive of the dogma of the Trinity were not drawn directly from the New Testament, and could not be expressed in New Testament terms. They were the products of reason, speculating on a revelation to faith…They were only formed through centuries of effort, only elaborated by the aid of the conceptions and formulated in the terms of Greek and Roman metaphysics.”
In short they were developed, not from the Bible, but from pagan mythology.
That is confirmed by a statement made by Mr F J Wilkin, MA, DD, Professor of Theology, Baptist College of Victoria, Australia. In a book attacking Christadelphian teaching, he made the following revealing comment:
“In the Old Testament, the Unity of God was clearly affirmed. The Jewish creed, repeated in every synagogue today, was ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord’ (Deuteronomy 6:4). This was the faith the first Christians, so Paul writes “There is one God and Father of all, Who is above all and through all and in you all” (Ephesians 4:6). But gradually some addition or modification of this creed was found necessary. Christians were fully persuaded of the Deity of Jesus Christ and later of the Deity of the Holy Spirit, and they were compelled to relate these convictions with their belief in the Unity of God. During many years, the problem was discussed and many explanations were attempted. One advanced by Sabellius, that became fairly popular was that Christ and the Holy Spirit were successive manifestations of the Supreme Being, but finally, the belief prevailed that the words Father, Son, Spirit, declared eternal distinctions in the Godhead. That is, that the Trinity of Manifestation revealed a Tri-unity of Being. In other words, that Christ and the Holy Spirit were co-eternal with the Father. With the exceptions of the Unitarians, this is the belief of Christendom today…But Christadelphianism denies the Trinity…In this denial it challenges all Christian Churches” (From Christadelphianism published by The Australian Baptist, Victoria).
This clergyman’s statement is staggering in its frankness. It confesses that the doctrine of the Trinity is not to be sought for in the Bible, that it differs from the teaching of the Apostles, and that it was only “adopted” by the Church after many years of contention, because members were “fully persuaded of the Deity of Jesus Christ, and later of the Deity of the Holy Spirit”.
Are sincere worshippers prepared to jeopardise their eternal salvation by resting their hopes, by establishing their worship, upon such vague foundations?
The writer charges Christadelphians with challenging “all churches” by refuting the doctrine of the Trinity.
Placing their confidence on the Bible, however, Christadelphians gladly take up the gauntlet and meet the challenge.
They do so, bearing in mind the importance of the doctrine so stressed by the Lord himself, and the prediction of Paul. Christ taught: “This is life eternal that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent” (John 17:3). Paul forewarned “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears” (2 Timothy 4:3).
The reader owes it to himself, and to his God, to search out the truth of the matter. Remember, Christ taught: “True worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship Him” (John 4:23).