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An honest, clear statement of the Trinity Doctrine would be:
"For there are three persons who compose the only true God: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And these three persons are the One God."
It isn't a difficult statement for anyone to write, let alone an inspired Bible writer. But you will never see that (not even once) in the inspired scriptures.
The Trinity is considered to be "one God in three Persons", yet many sincere believers have found it to be confusing, contrary to normal reason, unlike anything in their experience. How, they ask, could the Father be God, Jesus be God, and the holy spirit be God, yet there be not three Gods but only one God?
This confusion is widespread. The Encyclopedia Americana notes that the doctrine of the Trinity is considered to be "beyond the grasp of human reason."
Many who accept the Trinity view it that same way:
"The most sublime mystery of the Christian faith is this: 'God is absolutely one in nature and essence, and relatively three in Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) who are really distinct from each other." - p. 584, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers, 1976.
"The doctrine of Three Gods in One, each separate and distinct, yet each totally God, is claimed by Christians to be a mystery and is accepted on faith." - pp. 79-80, Celebrations - The Complete Book of American Holidays, Robert J. Myers, Doubleday & Co., 1972.
Pope John Paul II even regarded it as "the inscrutable mystery of God the Trinity."
A Dictionary of Religious Knowledge says: "Precisely what that doctrine is, or rather precisely how it is to be explained, Trinitarians are not agreed among themselves."
"The Trinity is a mystery . . . in the strict sense . . . , which could not be known without revelation, and even after revelation cannot become wholly intelligible." (By Catholic scholars Karl Rahner and Herbert Vorgrimler in Theological Dictionary)
However, contending that since the Trinity is such a confusing mystery, it must have come from divine revelation creates another major problem. Why? Because divine revelation itself does not allow for such a view of God: "God is not a God of confusion." -1 Corinthians 14:33 (RSV)
With that Scripture in mind, would God really be responsible for a doctrine about Himself that is so confusing that even Hebrew, Greek, and Latin scholars cannot really explain it?
Furthermore, do people have to be theologians 'to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent'? (John 17:3, JB) If that were the case, why did so few of the educated Jewish religious leaders recognize Jesus as the Messiah? The disciples of Jesus were the humble common people, not the religious leaders. His faithful disciples were, instead, humble farmers, fishermen, tax collectors, housewives. Those common people were so certain of what Jesus taught about God that they could teach it to others and were even willing to die for their belief. (See Matthew 15:1-9; 21:23-32, 43; 23:13-36; John 7:45-49; Acts 4:13)
If the nature of God truly is a "mystery", then scriptures like John 17:3 become very confusing: "And this is the way to have eternal life...to know you, the only true God," (NLT)
God is not so cruel as to tell us that we need to know Him in order to gain eternal life but then not be able to receive it because His very nature is a "mystery"!
Also, given that Man was made in God's image (Gen. 1:26), then shouldn't Man naturally understand God's nature? If man is made in God's image, then why does Man not display any kind of a tri-nature about him whatsoever? Certainly if God possessed such a tri-nature, and such a fundamental tri-nature aspect is conspicuously absent in Man, how then could it be said that Man was made in God's image? He could have easily been created with three personalities. But God expressly made him in his image with one mind, one personality: one person.
The real mystery is why the Trinity Doctrine is still such an accepted teaching despite the relative ease to demonstrate it's pagan and unscriptural history.
Further reading:
Dozens of Questions For Those Who Believe in the Trinity (Examining the Trinity)
"For there are three persons who compose the only true God: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And these three persons are the One God."
It isn't a difficult statement for anyone to write, let alone an inspired Bible writer. But you will never see that (not even once) in the inspired scriptures.
The Trinity is considered to be "one God in three Persons", yet many sincere believers have found it to be confusing, contrary to normal reason, unlike anything in their experience. How, they ask, could the Father be God, Jesus be God, and the holy spirit be God, yet there be not three Gods but only one God?
This confusion is widespread. The Encyclopedia Americana notes that the doctrine of the Trinity is considered to be "beyond the grasp of human reason."
Many who accept the Trinity view it that same way:
"The most sublime mystery of the Christian faith is this: 'God is absolutely one in nature and essence, and relatively three in Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) who are really distinct from each other." - p. 584, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers, 1976.
"The doctrine of Three Gods in One, each separate and distinct, yet each totally God, is claimed by Christians to be a mystery and is accepted on faith." - pp. 79-80, Celebrations - The Complete Book of American Holidays, Robert J. Myers, Doubleday & Co., 1972.
Pope John Paul II even regarded it as "the inscrutable mystery of God the Trinity."
A Dictionary of Religious Knowledge says: "Precisely what that doctrine is, or rather precisely how it is to be explained, Trinitarians are not agreed among themselves."
"The Trinity is a mystery . . . in the strict sense . . . , which could not be known without revelation, and even after revelation cannot become wholly intelligible." (By Catholic scholars Karl Rahner and Herbert Vorgrimler in Theological Dictionary)
However, contending that since the Trinity is such a confusing mystery, it must have come from divine revelation creates another major problem. Why? Because divine revelation itself does not allow for such a view of God: "God is not a God of confusion." -1 Corinthians 14:33 (RSV)
With that Scripture in mind, would God really be responsible for a doctrine about Himself that is so confusing that even Hebrew, Greek, and Latin scholars cannot really explain it?
Furthermore, do people have to be theologians 'to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent'? (John 17:3, JB) If that were the case, why did so few of the educated Jewish religious leaders recognize Jesus as the Messiah? The disciples of Jesus were the humble common people, not the religious leaders. His faithful disciples were, instead, humble farmers, fishermen, tax collectors, housewives. Those common people were so certain of what Jesus taught about God that they could teach it to others and were even willing to die for their belief. (See Matthew 15:1-9; 21:23-32, 43; 23:13-36; John 7:45-49; Acts 4:13)
If the nature of God truly is a "mystery", then scriptures like John 17:3 become very confusing: "And this is the way to have eternal life...to know you, the only true God," (NLT)
God is not so cruel as to tell us that we need to know Him in order to gain eternal life but then not be able to receive it because His very nature is a "mystery"!
Also, given that Man was made in God's image (Gen. 1:26), then shouldn't Man naturally understand God's nature? If man is made in God's image, then why does Man not display any kind of a tri-nature about him whatsoever? Certainly if God possessed such a tri-nature, and such a fundamental tri-nature aspect is conspicuously absent in Man, how then could it be said that Man was made in God's image? He could have easily been created with three personalities. But God expressly made him in his image with one mind, one personality: one person.
The real mystery is why the Trinity Doctrine is still such an accepted teaching despite the relative ease to demonstrate it's pagan and unscriptural history.
Further reading:
Dozens of Questions For Those Who Believe in the Trinity (Examining the Trinity)
