The Trinity is really teaching there are three gods

RevJP · Moderator Joined: 18 Apr 2003 Posts: 6886 Location: USA

By definition the Trinity doctrine teaches that there is only one God. Nevertheless, there are those who assert that the Trinity is really teaching three separate gods. They claim it is either impossible for God to exist in three persons and/or that the Trinity is really borrowed from pagan three-god figures. Many add that a person is by necessity an individual being. Therefore, they conclude, that the Trinity really teaches three gods.
The problem with this criticism is that it denies the very nature of the doctrine. First of all, Trinitarianism by definition denies that there is more than one God. It is clearly monotheistic in spite of what the critics want to claim.
Second, there is a word used to describe a unity of three separate gods. It is the word "triad." A triad is not a trinity. A triad is three separate gods -- as in Mormonism. A Trinity is one God in three persons. A triad is polytheistic. A trinity is monotheistic.
Third, there is no logical reason to deny the possibility that three persons can exist in one God. Critics may not like it, but it is not a logical impossibility. God is infinitely complex and we cannot understand His vastness nor simply claim He can't exist in three persons. Instead, we should look at the Bible to see what it says about God and see if the Trinity is taught. But, that is another subject.
Theologians admit that the word "person" is not the perfect word to use because it carries with it the idea of individuals who are different beings. This is what we are familiar with and this is one of the problems with using the term "person" when describing the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But this is what we must use when we see that when the Bible speaks of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each are called God, each speak, and each have a will. They exhibit attributes of personhood. In describing what we observe, we are forced to use words that we are familiar with. "Person" is just such a word. But it does not necessitate here that each person is an individual being.
And fourth, trinities are known and accepted by people as observed in nature. By analogy we see that creation itself is Trinitarian. Time is past, present, and future. There are not three times. Each part of the whole of time is by nature time yet there are not three times but one. Likewise, space is height, width, and depth. Matter is solid, liquid, and gas. The Bible says that God's invisible attributes are made known in creation

Rom. 1:20: "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made."

When the critics of Trinitarianism say it really teaches three gods, they demonstrate their lack of understanding of the doctrine and they either purposefully or mistakenly confuse it with something it is not. Trinitarianism denies and opposes the idea that there is more than one God. It is by definition, monotheistic.
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apocatastasis · King of the Jungle Joined: 15 Feb 2004 Posts: 1827

RevJP, did you write this article for CARM? If not, you must cite your source!
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"Overcome anger by love. Overcome evil by good. Overcome the miser by giving. Overcome the liar by truth."

Mattathias · Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 5:43 pm Post subject:

apocatastasis · King of the Jungle Joined: 15 Feb 2004 Posts: 1827

Eeeggggcellent questions, Mattathias. This place needs more of that.
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"Overcome anger by love. Overcome evil by good. Overcome the miser by giving. Overcome the liar by truth."

Steven3 · Lion King Joined: 10 Jul 2007 Posts: 1205 Location: UK

Mattathias · Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 6:11 pm Post subject:

Thank you.

Here's hoping that I don't turn out to be a one trick pony. Laughing

apocatastasis · King of the Jungle Joined: 15 Feb 2004 Posts: 1827

I agree, Steven. RevJP's plagiarized cut-and-paste is a very poor example of a defense of the Trinity.
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"Overcome anger by love. Overcome evil by good. Overcome the miser by giving. Overcome the liar by truth."

RevJP · Moderator Joined: 18 Apr 2003 Posts: 6886 Location: USA

apocatastasis · King of the Jungle Joined: 15 Feb 2004 Posts: 1827

TwoPutt

apocatastasis · King of the Jungle Joined: 15 Feb 2004 Posts: 1827

TwoPutt · Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 6:26 pm Post subject:

Colter · Rabid Pit Bull Joined: 20 Mar 2007 Posts: 409

Forum,

The Trinity is only philosophically comprehensible by man, it is actually impossible for man to fully understand the divine oneness of three eternal deities functioning as one Father.

Although there is an evolution to the God concept in the OT from plural deities, OT Jews during the times of Christ had no concept of God having an only son (an eternal I AM). Their concept of the coming of the savior was gleaned from the hazy presentations of the prophets. The Jews, as had been their habit, interpreted the coming of a Messiah as exclusively for them, exclusively Jewish in theology and to be a kind of priest, prophet, king. He would sit on David's corrupt seat of power and rule the earth, as a Jew on behalf of Judaism.

So in many ways the Jews were not at all prepared for the coming of, and introduction to, "God the Son". It wasn't so much that the world had not been told of his coming but rather the concept of the Messiah is the product of "his coming" translated through the "eye" of the Hebrew mind, it's distorted. The Jewish converts to Christianity who wrote the NT further complicated the problem by writing from the perspective of Jesus being the perfect foretelling of the OT scriptures. They thought he was only absent for a short time but would return and take up David's seat.

So, there is no chapter to the Trinity in the Bible, it's an idea that is "realized" in the pre-existence of Jesus, before this world was, and his current place at the right hand of the Father with all power and authority in heaven and on earth. As Jesus promised, his spirit was poured out upon all flesh. Because the spirit is not doing the initial "start up miracles" but is more anonymous, some feel that it was "retracted" and not available to believers now. I testify that the spirit is and will always be present for those who seek God "in spirit" rather then in mind/doctrine/theology. And then there is something distinctly named "the holy spirit".

Christidelphians go to great lengths to point out the inconsistencies in the logic of mans attempt to explain the trinity from a biblical perspective but at the end of the day they have us being ruled by a 33 year old carpenter from Nazareth, still fully human, only preexisting as an idea in Gods mind from the foundation of the world. Illogical doesn't begin to describe this theory.

BTW, I've had extensive discussions with the Christadelphians, they are no more a "cult" in the pejorative sense then any other religious group. There are many great and sincere individuals among them. You will not find a more committed group of Bible students.

Colter
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Micah denounced "the rulers who judge for reward and the priests who teach for hire and the prophets who divine for money." He taught of a day of freedom from superstition and priestcraft, saying: "But every man shall sit under his own vine, and no one shall make him afraid, for all people will live, each one according to his understanding of God."

apocatastasis · King of the Jungle Joined: 15 Feb 2004 Posts: 1827

Steven3 · Lion King Joined: 10 Jul 2007 Posts: 1205 Location: UK

Colter,
Hello hello. Thank you for your nice comment