Trinity in Christianity irrelevant?

The Doctrine of Trinity in Christianity irrelevant?

All Christian religions claim to get their basic beliefs and doctrines for their religion from the Bible. But when it comes to the trinity, it's a mystery of faith that cannot be understood. Why would such a basic foundation of Christianity be so confusing and hard to explain? In view of the statement that God is 'not a God of confusion' (1 Corinthians 14:33), Is God responsible for a doctrine about him that is so confusing that even Hebrew, Greek and Latin scholars cannot really explain? The trinity doctrine has been an extremely controversial subject. The word 'trinity' does not appear in the Bible anywhere. How then, did it become a major part of modern-day religion?

Trinity Explained

The explanation of the trinity by Trinitarians is extremely confusing. Trinitarians teach that there are three persons, but one essence – all equal. The most distinctive doctrine of the trinity is that of the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit. The term 'trinity' is not a Bible term; it is a man-made term. To believe in the trinity is to believe that there is a unity of the heavenly beings. There are three co-eternal, co-equal persons, the same in substance, but different in individuality. There are three persons – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now these three are truly distinct one from another, and yet they are all one. The Nicene Creed reads that '...the Heavenly Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three Gods, just one.'

This consideration of the trinity would lead one to believe that the Father must be His own son, and the Son must be His own Father, and that the third entity, the Holy Spirit, is equal to the first two, the three being one, yet different.

Origin of The Trinity

All Pagan religions from the time of Babylon have adopted (in one form or another) a Trinity doctrine or a triad or trinity of gods. Long before the Christian era, numerous variations of the trinity existed, and they were found in a host of pagan religions and mythologies. As with so many other pre-Christian traditional customs and practices, the revival of this doctrine in the Christian era was predictable. It was essential that followers be able to see Christianity – their 'new' religion – in familiar terms.

Triad deities (the worship of a three-in-one god) first appeared in ancient Egypt about three centuries after the Great Flood of Noah's time. These Egyptian deities came to be worshiped as Osiris, Isis and Horus.

 After the destruction of the Tower of Babel, Nimrod and his mother-wife Semiramis, the first rulers of Babylon, fled to Egypt. There, Nimrod (known as Ninus or Athothis, among numerous other names) shared rulership with his father Cush (Menes) in the first dynasty. After Nimrod's death, Semiramis claimed his son Horus to have been Nimrod reincarnated. These three – Osiris (Nimrod), Isis (Semiramis) and Horus (the son) – came to be exalted as a triad of deities

The Trinity began in Ancient Babylon
with Nimrod, Semiramis and Tammuz(Horus)

There is no evidence the Apostles of Jesus ever heard of a Trinity. The Bible does not teach the doctrine of the Trinity. Neither the word Trinity itself, nor such language as one in three, three in one, one essence or substance or three persons, is biblical language. The language of the doctrine is the language of the ancient Church, taken not from the Bible but from classical Greek philosophy.

Long before the founding of Christianity the idea of a triune god or god-in-three persons was a common belief in ancient religions. Although many of these religions had many minor deities, they distinctly acknowledged that there was one supreme God who consisted of three persons or essences. The Babylonians used an equilateral triangle to represent this three-in-one god. The Greek triad was composed of Zeus, Athena and Apollo. These three were said by the pagans to 'agree in one.' One of the largest pagan temples built by the Romans was constructed at Baalbek (situated in present day Lebanon) to their Trinity of Jupiter, Mercury and Venus. In Babylon, the planet Venus was honored as special and was worshipped as a Trinity consisting of Venus, the moon and the sun. This triad became the Babylonian holy Trinity in the fourteenth century before Christ. Although other religions for thousands of years before Christ was born worshipped a triune god, the Trinity was not a part of Christian dogma and formal documents of the first three centuries after Christ. That there was no formal, established doctrine of the Trinity until the fourth century is a fully documented historical fact. Clearly, historians of church dogma and systematic theologians agree that the idea of a Christian Trinity was not a part of the first century church. The twelve apostles never contributed to it or received revelation about it. It gradually evolved and gained momentum in late first, second and third centuries as pagans, who had converted to Christianity, brought to Christianity some of their pagan beliefs and practices.

The modern belief in the trinity originated in the 4th century at the Council of Nicaea in approximately 325 C.E. King Constantine, the Roman Emperor and an adherent to paganism, presided over the Council. Its main purpose was to unite the Roman Empire by achieving agreement on Christian doctrine. This would promote a universal consolidation within the church.

As the council proceeded, there were two distinct sides, which the Archdeacon Athanasius of Alexandria, Egypt upheld regarding the trinity. Arius fought for the opposition; but after long weeks of debate, the admitted pagan, Pontifex Maximus Constantine, ruled in favor of the Trinitarian teaching of Athanasius, the Egyptian. Egypt, one of the oldest civilizations in the world, had long before adopted the pagan belief of the trinity. One of the most famous Egyptian trinities was that of Horus, Isis, and Osiris, a trinity that consisted of father, mother, and son, and a concept that also traces back to Babylonian ancestry. The word ‘trinity’ was not coined until Tertullian, more than 100 years after Christ’s death, and the key words (meaning substance) from the Nicene debate, homoiusios and ousios,  are not biblical, but from Stoic thought.

History teaches that much later, after instituting a mandatory belief in the trinity, Constantine tried to be more tender and merciful with the decision, but it was too late. The Nicene Creed (also known as the Athenasian Creed) had taken hold. All who did not believe in the trinity doctrine were persecuted and killed. Every available instrument of torture was used on the nonbeliever. Constantine invited Arius to a conference six years later; did not interfere with Athanasius’ expulsion by the Eastern bishops; had an Arian bishop, Eusebius of Nicomedia, baptize him; and had his son and successor, Constantius, raised as an Arian. The Nicene was not a popular creed when it was signed. Majority of Eastern bishops sided with Arius in that they believed Christ was the Son of God ‘neither consubstantial nor co-eternal’ with his Father. Arianism has never been truly quenched. The West accepted the Athanasian view of the Trinity, and the East accepted the Trinity of the Cappadocian fathers. Problems that arose from the Council at Nicea summarizes that period with a dreadful verdict: ‘Probably more Christians were slaughtered by Christians in these two years (AD 342-3) than by all the persecutions of Christians by pagans in the history of Rome’

The Nicene Creed has since been amended, but it is still read today in many of the Protestant and Catholic churches. Those churches that associate themselves with the World Council of Churches now require belief in the trinity doctrine.

Does the Bible Support the Idea of the Trinity?

The Encyclopedia of Religion Vol. 15 1987 admits: 'Theologians today are in agreement that the Hebrew Bible does not contain a doctrine of the Trinity.'

The New Catholic Encyclopedia: 'The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is not taught in the Old Testament.'

The Encyclopedia of Religion says: 'Theologians agree that the New Testament also does not contain an explicit doctrine of the Trinity.'

The Encyclopedia Britannica 1976 observes: Neither the word Trinity nor the explicit doctrine appears in the New Testament.'

Protestant theologian Karl Barth (as quoted in The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology 1976) similarly states: 'The New Testament does not contain the developed doctrine of the Trinity. The Bible lacks the express declaration the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is of equal essence.'

What Does The Bible Teach?

While Jesus is often called the Son of God in the Bible, nobody in the first century ever thought of him as being 'God the Son'. Even the demons, which 'believe there is one God', knew from their experience in the spirit realm that Jesus was not God. For, they addressed Jesus as the separate Son of God. Matthew 8:28, 29 refer to the demons speaking to Jesus through a possessed man, saying, 'What have we to do with you, Son of God?' They did not refer to Jesus as 'God the Son'. Also, when Jesus died, the pagan Roman soldiers that were standing by said, 'Certainly this was God's Son.' (Matthew 27:54).

The disciples viewed Jesus as the 'one mediator between God and men,' (1 Timothy 2:5) not as God himself. A mediator by definition is someone separate from those who need mediation.

The apostle Peter clearly makes the distinction of Father and Son and that Jesus had a God that resurrected him, by saying (1 Peter 1:3). The apostle Paul similarly states, 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in union with Christ.' (Ephesians 1:3)

If Jesus were equal to the Father, He would know all the things that God knows. But that is not the case in Jn 5:19. “the Son cannot do a single thing of his own initiative, but only what he beholds the Father doing”. (Mtt 24:3) when his disciples asked Jesus, he says: 'Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father.' (Mtt 24:36)

John 14:28, 'You have heard that I said to you, I am going away and I am coming back to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going my way to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am.' Jesus is very clear in the fact that He is NOT equal with His Father.

Jesus did say, 'I and the Father are one.' (John 10:30) that statement does not even suggest a 'Trinity', since he spoke of only two as being one, not three. This statement can be better explained by the expression that he himself made clear later when he prayed regarding his followers that, 'they may be one just as we are one.' (John 17:22) Jesus and his Father are 'one' in that Jesus is in full harmony with his Father. He prayed that all his followers might also be in harmony with his Father, with Jesus and with one another.

Jesus, when speaking to Mary Magdalene said, 'Stop clinging to me. For I have not yet ascended to the Father. But be on your way to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God.'' (John 20:17).

The apostle Paul expresses it best as he introduces the true God of the Bible: 'For even though there are those who are called 'gods', whether in heaven or in earth, just as there are many gods and many lords, there is actually to us one God the Father, out of whom all things are, and we for him and there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and we through him.' (1 Cor. 8:5-7). It is interesting that Paul references 'the Father' and 'Jesus Christ,' thus differentiating them from all other 'gods' and 'lords,' but, missing the perfect opportunity, he fails to mention the Holy Spirit, the supposed third member of the trinity.

Summary

In summary, the common culture of the day was one filled with triune gods. From ancient Sumerian’s Anu, Enlil, and Enki and Egypt’s dual trinities of Amun-Re-Ptah and Isis, Osiris, and Horus to Rome’s Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva the whole concept of paganism revolved around the magic number of three. In Greek philosophy the number three was used as an unspecified trinity of intelligence, mind, and reason.

It should be noted as a questioning chapter in sacred history that the numerous divine Trinities which have constituted a part of nearly every religious system ever propagated to the world were composed of male Gods. No female has ever yet been admitted into the triad of Gods composing the orthodox Trinity. Every member of the Trinity in every case is a male, and an old bachelor -- a doctrine most deliberately at war with the principles of modern philosophy. The endowment of a being with either male or female organs, accepts the existence of the other sex; and that either sex, without the other would be an unreasonable irregularity, and a foolish distortion of nature unparalleled in the history of science. The Trinity was constituted of males simply because woman has always been considered a mere nobody in society -- a simple tool for man's convenience, a supplement to his requirements.

There can be no doubt: Jesus was a stranger to all sides of the political proceedings in Nicea. He never claimed to be God, but was content to be God’s son. His creed was not of words that must be followed to the letter, but rather of spirit: ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’. (Mt 4:8) He did not require wealthy and learned bishops to mingle philosophy and pagan polytheism with his simple truth, but blessed the ‘poor’ and the ‘meek’.(Mt 4:1-12)It was not from Jesus that the dogma of the Trinity came.

Jesus was a Jew from the tribe of Judah. He claimed to be sent to the ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’. His message was one of love, righteousness, and salvation, and he despised the religious dogma of tradition. What a contrast from the proceedings of the Council of Nicea and the murders that followed! He gave the good news of his coming kingdom to the poor and meek: the lowly of this world. He did not require dogmatic creeds that had to be believed to the word, but rather said, ‘Follow me’ (Mt 9:9)

Finally, the concept of the Trinity finds its roots in Pagan theology and Greek philosophy: it is a stranger to the Jewish Jesus and the Hebrew people from which he sprang.

References

Carl, Harold. F., Against Praxeas-How far did Tertullian advance the doctrine of Trinity? Internet file retrieved from ‘How Far Did Tertullian Advance The Doctrine.pdf.’

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. III: Elucidations - Against Praxes. Retrieved from http://www. tertullian. org /anf/anf03/anf03-44.htm updated 27 July 2012.

Did Justin Martyr have the same TRINITY concept as Tertullian? Retrieved from http://forums. carm.org/vbb/showthread.php?81366-Did-Justin-Martyr-have-the-same-TRINITY-concept-as-Tertullian updated 03 August 2012.

Guthrie, Donald. New Testament Theology, England: IVP.1992.

Hagensick, Cher-El L., The Origin of the Trinity: From Paganism to Constantine. Retrieved from http:1//www.heraldmag.org/olb/Contents/doctrine/The%20Origin%20of%20the %20Trinity.htm1

Horton, David ed. The Portable Seminary, Michigan: Bethany House.2006.

Horton, Stanley.M & William W. Menzies. Bible Doctrines-A Pentecostal Perspective, Missouri: Logion Press.2004.

Lane, Tony. The Lion Concise Book of Christian Thought, Thiruvalla: Suvartha Books, 1986.

The Trinity Doctrine, Retrieved from http://www.2001translation.com/Trinity.html updated 08.08.2012.

McGiffert, Arthur Cushman. A History of Christian Thought.Vol.1. New York: Scribner’s. 1932.

Nash, Ronald. Was the New Testament Influenced by Platonism?  Article ID: DA242   Retrieved from http://www.equip.org/articles/was-the-new-testament-influenced-by-platonism/