why do christians call themselves monotheists when they believe in the trinity?

Question

The word monotheist refers to one god in one form, the trinity was not even embraced after the roman ideology, so why do christians call themselves one of the abrahomic relgions? only honest answeres please.

Answer 1

True Christians don't believe in the trinity, because there is no trinity. Not once in the Bible does it have that word. God cannot be 3 people, he cannot be his own son.

Answer 2

Tertullian, one of the early church fathers, coined the term "Trinity." The word actually means "three-ness." Tertullian was an ardent supporter of orthodoxy in the church, and was one of the greatest defenders of the historic Christian faith.

The term "Trinity" is not found in the Scriptures, but the doctrine is clearly displayed. There are many times where Jesus said of Himself that He was God. He applied the name of God, "I AM," to Himself in several passages. Here's a few examples: Matthew 14:27, Mark 6:50, Mark 13:6, Luke 21:8, John 4:26, John 6:20, John 8:24, 28, 58, and John 13:19. There are several others I have not listed. Besides this, Jesus said that He & the Father were one (John 10:30). This describes a unity, even though there are two.

The Trinity has an underlying appearance in the Old Testament as well. In Genesis, we see during creation that God said, "Let us make man in our image." and also when man sinned, God said, "...man has become as one of us, to know good and evil..." Who was He speaking to? The other persons of the Trinity. We also see that the Spirit of God hovered over the waters in the beginning, and in John 1:1-3, it clearly states that Jesus (the Word) made everything.

Another angle to pursue is the various Scriptures that demonstrate that God's attributes are present in Jesus as well as the Holy Spirit. For example, the Father is eternal (Psalm 90:2), and so is the Son (John 1:2), and so is the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 9:14). Another shared attribute is their holiness. Only God is truly holy. The Father is holy (Revelation 15:4), so is the Son (Acts 3:14), and so is the Spirit (Acts 1:8).

An ancient diagram of the Trinity can be helpful in getting your hands around the doctrine, and can be found at the link in the SOURCE list.

The Trinitarian doctrine requires much more depth of discussion than can occur here. It is important to know that we only have to believe, not necessarily understand, the Trinitarian nature of God. It is a bedrock doctrine of the Christian church. Anything else is heresy.

Answer 3

The Trinity is definitely a unique form of Monotheism. It is understood that there is one God who has relations within himself. His will is undivided. Father, Son, and Spirit always work together to fulfill one will. This is unheard of in any ancient form of a Trinity. There are passages in the Bible for instance that speak of the Father raising the dead, another of Christ, and another of the Spirit. In many ways, what one has done can be attributed to the whole. Jesus' incarnation was an exception, and pretty much unexplainable deviation from this. In this he had a human will, which at times differed the will of God, though it always submitted. And no one says that the Father or Spirit died upon the Cross.

Jesus does say that he and the Father are one, and he tells Thomas that if he has seen him, he has seen the Father. It is also understood that the Son is from the Father eternally, and the Spirit is from the Father and Son eternally.

A strange form of Monotheism no doubt. God is complex. We have a difficulty understanding how he works, because we do not exist in the same way. We do not have relations within ourselves, though we might talk to ourselves. All of our relations are outside of ourselves. Yet this certainly makes sense of why we have such a relational God, who created such relational creatures.

Answer 4

The three forms of God in Christianity are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; all are technically the same god, just in different states. It's sort of like there are three divisions that have come from one source. Wikipedia states that the nature of God is in the Holy Trinity, whereas the three forms are God in different "persons," creating one "substance" of God. So that "substance" is where the monotheism comes in.

Answer 5

Hmm...*takes off Christian hat and puts on "general knowledge" hat*...first off there is only one God, the idea of the trinity is correctly thought of as a pagan idea, but that is not the way it is supposed to be. The idea was that God existed in three parts, not faces not aspects just ideas,

Father: The head of the house who makes rules and enforces punishment.

Son: Innocense made flesh and Gods understanding of human action through his son.

Holy Spirit: The connection to the spirit world that Christ walked through durring the resurection, God showing his full understanding of both the living and the dead. Also the spiritual embodiment of his power on Earth through those that believe, basicly its the "How" of the whole equasion.

In the end God is not one thing...he is not just Love, or Vengence or The Harvest or The Earth he is all of it at once and this was a tool to teach that idea unfortunatly when going out to preach the word things were twisted or misinterprited and then merged with pagan beliefs to help their transition into christianity..kind of how Wicca takes things from real pagans and twists it to try and make everyone one big happy pagan family...it happens everywhere...but in the end its just one God with more then a one track mind....*puts back on Christian hat*

Answer 6

The holy trinity, the father, the son and the Holy ghost are the same thing, according to most christians Jesus was not the son of God but god in human form. He is the holy spirit as well.

Answer 7

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity is not of three separate gods, but of one god in three aspects or incarnations--Creator (Father), Savior (Son), and Comforter (Holy Spirit). A (seriously flawed) human metaphor for this might be someone with multiple personalities. The person is one person, but they can seem like very different people at different times depending on which personality is in control. Please, no flames -- I am not implying that the Christian God is mentally ill!

Our language makes expressing the Christian three-in-one concept difficult, especially when we seem to address two beings in one prayer (We pray in the name of Your (God the Father) only Son our Lord, Jesus Christ (God the Son)).

If you are interested, several Hindu gods are also understood as having multiple aspects or incarnations in one being.

As for Christianity being an Abrahamic religion, according to Wikipedia, "an Abrahamic religion is any of those religions deriving from a common ancient Semitic tradition and traced by their adherents to Abraham,,, [comprising] a large group of largely monotheistic religions..." Note that the definition does not exclude polytheistic doctrines. It only says that the majority of Abrahamic religions teach monotheism.

Answer 8

Excellent question.

Christians (specifically Catholics) believe that God is divided up into a trinity: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Technically, you are right; by strict definition, it is actually a form of polytheism and not monotheism.

Answer 9

This is where you're wrong friend. Monotheism is "The doctrine or belief that there is only one God". The dictionary definition in the 4 I checked said nothing about "one God in one form".
Therefore, monotheism is the belief if one God. Christians believe in one God (in 3 forms). Hm, Christians are monotheists. I love logic! :)

Answer 10

We believe in the One True God who is reveled in three different persons. Father, Son and the Holy Spirt. We believe in the God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. The God of the Jews is our God as well. We differ because we have futher revelation found in Hebrews 1:1-2 "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe." We believe that Jesus Christ is the revleation of God in human form. He is the only begotton son of God. Jewish people don't believe that. They are still awaiting their "messiah" But we know as Christians he has already come and is coming again. God hasn't revealed to the Jews yet. But there time is soon coming. I know many Christian Jews from living on the East Coast. As well as Orthodox Jews, they are very supprised to find out that Christians know their bible as well as they do.

Answer 11

Hello. It's a good question. First, in a social and historic sense, Christianity develops in the context of the Judaism of the first century, Herodian temple period. That Judaism is clearly monotheistic. It is clear that Jesus of Nazareth is monotheistic, worshipping and seeing himself as doing the work of the one God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and the prophets. Even the apostle Paul says that there is only one God.
The issue is with Jesus himself. The unique qualities of his ministry, combined with his resurrection, caused him to be seen by his followers as having a unique relationship to God, as seen in the phrases "Messiah" and "Son of God". Old Testament prophets contribute to the notion that the messiah would in fact be God himself. The Gospel of John, regarded by scholars of all stripes as being later first century, in John 1:1-14 and in the postresurrection appearance to Thomas, in chapter 20, indicate the acceptance of Jesus as God, not "a god." The rest of the New Testament bears this out: The title "Lord" (kyrios) was used by the Jews to refer to Yahweh, even in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, mad almost 200 years before Christ. "Lord"was used by the gentiles to refer to deity/deities.
The Christian perspective is that Yahweh took on human flesh in Jesus of Nazareth, that Jesus was God before he Became human, and that there is but one God.
The problem is one of definitions. The issue is, from the Biblical Data, that God is complex, beyond previous understandings (or for that matter, current understandings) and that this understanding of complexity has as its source the person and work of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah of God, the Son of God, the risen Lord.
I would reject the definition of monotheism as you have it: one god in one form. Why in one form? If there is such a thing as a personal god, and if no such other exists, why force your predetermined definitions on that reality and then reject the reality because it did not fit your a priori definition? Logically, one wants to let the nature of the reality determine the definitions or descriptors used of it. So with God: if God is complex, his revealed nature in the Hebrew Scriptures, in Jesus, and in the New Testament witness, should determine our definitions and subsequent reflection.
The New Testament teaching on the relation between Father, Son, and Spirit, is called by some theologians an implicit or functional view. It is clear that the term trinity, nor a definite passage on the teaching, is found in the NT. That is due to the concerns and aims of the documents, the mission of the movement and the new life lived in the Spirit.
The necessary data and earliest formulations date from the earliest days of the church, and as such, are the foundation of later reflection, definition and debate by the church. It is not accurate to say that it was not embraced at some later point, as though a new idea.
The Abrahamic Nature is reflected as well in the fact that in Jesus, all God's promises to Abraham are seen as fulfilled, and that the new requirement of being a son of Abrahem is to have the same faith in the announcements of God that Abraham himself had. (Romans 8)