Question to Trinitarians?

Question

Why, for thousands of years, did none of God's prophets teach his people about the Trinity? At the least, would Jesus not use his ability as the Great Teacher to make the Trinity clear to his followers? Would God inspire hundreds of pages of Scripture and yet not use any of this instruction to teach the Trinity if it were the "central doctrine" of faith?

I have received many different answers which shows how ad-hoc this issue is. What was the commandment that went like Your Lord is One? I am sorry sun but if you have to do word studies to figure out the Trinity then it's obviously not clear. Do you think the Israelites knew about the Trinity?

Answer 1

The doctrine of the Trinity took centuries to develop, but the roots of the doctrine can be seen from the first century.

The word "Trinity" is not found in the New Testament, nor is the doctrine explicitly taught there. However, foundations of the concept of the Trinity can be seen in the New Testament, especially in the Gospel of John, one of the latest and most theologically developed of the New Testament books. (Matthew 28:19; John 1:1)

Hints of Trinitarian beliefs can also be seen in the teachings of extra-biblical writers as early as the end of the first century. [Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians (Ante-Nicene Fathers 1.58); The Martyrdom of Polycarp 14 (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, 1.42)]

However, the clearest early expression of the concept came with Tertullian, a Latin theologian who wrote in the early third century. Tertullian coined the words "Trinity" and "person" and explained that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were "one in essence - not one in Person." (ANF 3.621; c. 213 AD)

About a century later, in 325, the Council of Nicea set out to officially define the relationship of the Son to the Father, in response to the controversial teachings of Arius. Led by bishop Athanasius, the council established the doctrine of the Trinity as orthodoxy and condemned Arius' teaching that Christ was the first creation of God. The creed adopted by the council described Christ as "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance (homoousios) with the Father." (William Placher, Readings in the History of Christian Theology, 53)

Nicea did not end the controversy, however. Debate over how the creed (especially the phrase "one substance") ought to be interpreted continued to rage for decades. One group advocated the doctrine that Christ was a "similar substance" (homoiousios) as the Father. But for the most part, the issue of the Trinity was settled at Nicea and, by the fifth century, never again became a focus of serious controversy.

Most post-Nicene theological discussion of the Trinity consisted of attempts to understand and explain such a unique concept. Gregory of Nyssa, in his treatise, “That There are Not Three Gods”, compared the divinity shared by the three persons of the Trinity to the common "humanness," or human nature, that is shared by individual human beings. (Ironically, this initially promising explanation has been seen by some to yield a conclusion quite opposite than the title of his work.)

Saint Augustine, one of the greatest thinkers of the early church, described the Trinity as comparable to the three parts of an individual human being: mind, spirit, and will. They are three distinct aspects, yet they are inseparable and together constitute one unified human being.

There are many differences in doctrine between various Christian denominations, but the Trinity is not one of them. Non-Christian cults dispute the Trinitarian doctrine.

The Jehovah's Witnesses, a non-Christian sect, teach a doctrine similar to that of Arius in the fourth century - Christ is the Son of God, a special being, created by God before the beginning of time, but not equal with God. Witnesses regard Arius as a forerunner of Charles Taze Russell, their movement's founder.

A Jehovah's Witness brochure entitled "Beliefs and Customs that God Hates" includes the Trinity, saying:

“Is Jehovah a Trinity-three persons in one God? No! Jehovah, the Father, is "the only true God." (John 17:3; Mark 12:29) Jesus is His firstborn Son, and he is subject to God. (1 Corinthians 11:3) The Father is greater than the Son. (John 14:28) The holy spirit is not a person; it is God's active force.-Genesis 1:2; Acts 2:18.”

In addition to the Bible verses cited above, JWs point out that it was the secular Emperor who proposed the doctrine of Christ as "same substance" with God, not the bishops present, and that the doctrine of the Trinity (i.e., including the divinity of the Holy Spirit) was not actually brought forth at Nicea at all. Jehovah's Witnesses also argue that the Athanasian Creed, which sets forth the doctrine more clearly, was not only probably not written by Athanasius himself, but may not have been composed until the fifth century. Finally, they note the presence of Trinitarian-type beliefs in pagan religion, and argue that paganism is the source of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity as well.

Another non-Christian group, the Mormons, do not believe that Christ is God. Instead they hold that Christ was the first spirit to be born in heaven. (Mormon Doctrine, page 129.)

I suggest you start there to dig deeper into this topic using proper hermeneutics and looking at the entire bible messages. Here is where I recommend you begin your studies:
http://www.carm.org/doctrine/trinity.htm
http://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/robert_bowman/trinity.html
http://www.ldolphin.org/Names.html (see sections near bottom of this very long web page)

Jesus: Whom do Men say that I am?

Authentic Trinitarianism may be viewed as a delicate balancing act between modalism and tritheism.

Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints/Mormons
* Christ is the product of a sexual relationship between the Father and a goddess. Satan is his brother.

Jehovah’s Witnesses
* Jesus (also known as Michael the archangel) is a creation and the Holy Spirit is a force.

Muslims
* Christ was a great prophet.

The True Orthodox Christian Definition of the Trinity:
** One God who eternally exists in three different persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all of whom are fully God, all of whom are equal.

Answer 2

The first person is kinda right. The bible does say that the Word (who is Jesus) was the creator of the world. It doesn't talk much about the Spirit until Jesus says that he will send it after his death.

The problem here is that the concept of the Trinity is a deep one to explain the Godhead. And it is not something that every person can grasp. Theologians get into very deeply philosophical ideas when they write and talk among themselves. Then the average person gets confused if they try to take these ideas too literally. Don't get hung up on it. Just know that God is one God and Jesus died for you. God is Love and Jesus came to show us what that looks like so that we can follow his example. Simple as that.

Answer 3

The Old Testament was the New Testament hidden. The New Testament was the Old Testament revealed.
In other words, scpripture states that many things were veiled to the prophets of the OT. They were under the Mosaic law, not grace.
I don't know if the prophets would've really understood the message of grace and the trinity in light of the law.
Once Jesus arrived, it became clearer to understand the trinity in light of the cross and God's grace.
I don't believe any one of us can truly grasp the concept and meaning of the trinity or truly understand it. It surpasses our ability to reason and our logic.
You just can't figure God out. It shows us how human, finite and frail we can be.

Answer 4

How come nobody ever looks for a Greek immigrant to read it in the original and get their opinion? I did that to several. That's even better than your pastor. Here's what I learned: Ancient Bible Greek compares to modern Greek in the same way an English speaker can read both modern English and King James English, that's how close they are. All of my contacts affirm that ONE God is being referred to and the endings of the nouns demonstrate that both the Logos and God are the subject, as opposed to one being the subject and the other being the object. In the JW's NWT there is only one place, John 1:1 where they mistranslate the noun 'theos' without the particle as 'a god'. The same Greek noun 'theos' is used ten times in the Westcott and Hort Greek text without the particle 'ho' (the) and the NWT consistently translates it as 'God' except in John 1:1 where they want it to be 'a...god'. Both my own knowledge of Greek and the confirmation by Greek persons, I have been made aware that if they want to translate that verse back into Greek, they have to change the Greek in order to make the Logos the subject and 'a god' the object of the phrase. That is, if they want it to read 'a god' the Greek MUST read 'theon'. But it doesn't. It says 'theos' and has no need of the particle. The Watchtower translation of that verse is wrong and it disregards completely the experience of a natural Greek speaker. Translations, almost universally, agree that it should most literally be translated as 'and God was the Word'.

Answer 5

If the christian church had included the inspired text The Apocryphon of John, and excluded the obviously uninspired old testament, there never would have been a trinitarian doctrine. Ask the Spirit of truth within for confirmation on this.

Answer 6

He did where have you been...........

all through the word of God

trinity is not written

Father, God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost

you have to do word studies

John 1:

In the beginning was the word and the word was with God, the same(word) was with God

Answer 7

If god,the holy spirit and jesus are one and the same and the bible teaches that god made mary pregnant through the holy spirit,then it follows that jesus impregnated his own mother.
The bible teaches some very strange things.

Answer 8

Your wrong. Isaiah calls the Messiah "Mighty God"

Answer 9

He did teach it but they did not understand it at first. The trinity is all over the new TESTAMENT. YOU DON'T KNOW BEACUSE YOU DON'T SEEK HIM, AND WHEN YOU SEEK HIM YOU DON'T SEEK HIM FOR THE RIGHT REASON.

Answer 10

the trinty didn't show up until christ, so really they couldn't teach the people about it. but jesus DID show the trinty. he said he was of god and then gave the disples the holy ghost