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The three monotheistic religions-- Judaism, Christianity, and Islam-- all purport to share one fundamental concept: belief in God as the Supreme Being, the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe. Known as "tawhid" in Islam, this concept of the Oneness of God was stressed by Moses in a Biblical passage known as the "Shema", or the Jewish creed of faith: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord." (Deuteronomy 6:4)

It was repeated word-for-word approximately 1500 years later by Jesus when he said "...The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord." (Mark 12:29)

Muhammad came along approximately 600 years later, bringing the same message again: "And your God is One God: there is no God but He, ..." (The Qur'an 2:163).

Christianity has digressed from the concept of the Oneness of God, however, into a vague and mysterious doctrine that was formulated during the fourth century. This doctrine, which continues to be a source of controversy both within and without the Christian religion, is known as the Doctrine of the Trinity. Simply put, the Christian doctrine of the Trinity states that God is the union of three divine persons-- the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit-- in one divine being.

If that concept, put in basic terms, sounds confusing, the flowery language in the actual text of the doctrine lends even more mystery to the matter:

"...we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity...for there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Ghost is all one...they are not three gods, but one God...the whole three persons are co-eternal and co-equal...he therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity..." (excerpts from the Athanasian Creed).

Let's put this together in a different form: one person, God the Father + one person, God the Son, + one person, God the Holy Ghost = one person, God the What? Is this English or is this gibberish?

It is said that Athanasius, the bishop who formulated this doctrine, confessed that the more he wrote on the matter, the less capable he was of clearly expressing his thoughts regarding it.

How did such a confusing doctrine get its start?

Trinity in the Bible

References in the Bible to a Trinity of divine beings are vague, at best.

In Matthew 28:19, we find Jesus telling his disciples to go out and preach to all nations. While this "Great Commission" does make mention of the three persons who later become components of the Trinity, the phrase "...baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" is quite clearly an addition to Biblical text--that is, not the actual words of Jesus-- as can be seen by two factors:

1) baptism in the early Church, as discussed by Paul in his letters, was done only in the name of Jesus; and

2) the "Great Commission" was found in the first gospel written, that of Mark, bears no mention of Father, Son and/or Holy Ghost--see Mark 16:15.

The only other reference in the Bible to a Trinity can be found in the Epistle of I John 5:7. Biblical scholars of today, however, have admitted that the phrase "... there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one" is definitely a "later addition" to Biblical text, and it is not found in any of today's versions of the Bible.

It can, therefore, be seen that the concept of a Trinity of divine beings was not an idea put forth by Jesus or any other prophet of God. This doctrine, now subscribed to by Christians all over the world, is entirely man-made in origin.

The Doctrine Takes Shape

While Paul of Tarsus, the man who could rightfully be considered the true founder of Christianity, did formulate many of its doctrines, that of the Trinity was not among them. He did, however, lay the groundwork for such when he put forth the idea of Jesus being a "divine Son". After all, a Son does need a Father, and what about a vehicle for God's revelations to man? In essence, Paul named the principal players, but it was the later Church people who put the matter together.

Tertullian, a lawyer and presbyter of the third-century Church in Carthage, was the first to use the word "Trinity" when he put forth the theory that the Son and the Spirit participate in the being of God, but all are of one being of substance with the Father.

A Formal Doctrine Is Drawn Up

When controversy over the matter of the Trinity blew up in 318 between two church men from Alexandria--Arius, the deacon, and Alexander, his bishop-- Emperor Constantine stepped into the fray.

Although Christian dogma was a complete mystery to him, he did realize that a unified church was necessary for a strong kingdom. When negotiation failed to settle the dispute, Constantine called for the first ecumenical council in Church history in order to settle the matter once and for all.

Six weeks after the 300 bishops first gathered at Nicea in 325, the doctrine of the Trinity was hammered out. The God of the Christians was now seen as having three essences, or natures, in the form of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The Church Puts Its Foot Down

The matter was far from settled, however, despite high hopes for such on the part of Constantine. Arius and the new bishop of Alexandria, a man named Athanasius, began arguing over the matter even as the Nicene Creed was being signed; "Arianism" became a catch-word from that time onward for anyone who didn't hold to the doctrine of the Trinity.

It wasn't until 451, at the Council of Chalcedon that, with the approval of the Pope, the Nicene/ Constantinople Creed was set as authoritative. Debate on the matter was no longer tolerated; to speak out against the Trinity was now considered blasphemy, and such earned stiff sentences that ranged from mutilation to death. Christians now turned on Christians, maiming and slaughtering thousands because of a difference of opinion.

Debate Continues

Brutal punishments and even death did not stop the controversy over the doctrine of the Trinity, however, and the said controversy continues even today.

The majority of Christians, when asked to explain this fundamental doctrine of their faith, can offer nothing more than "I believe it because I was told to do so." It is explained away as "mystery" -- yet the Bible says in I Corinthians 14:33 that "... God is not the author of confusion ..."

The Unitarian denomination of Christianity has kept alive the teachings of Arius in saying that God is one; they do not believe in the Trinity. As a result, mainstream Christians abhor them, and the National Council of Churches has refused their admittance. In Unitarianism, the hope is kept alive that Christians will someday return to the preachings of Jesus: "... Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." (Luke 4:8)

Islam and the Matter of the Trinity

While Christianity may have a problem defining the essence of God, such is not the case in Islam.

"They do blaspheme who say: Allah is one of three in a Trinity, for there is no god except One God" (Qur'an 5:73). It is worth noting that the Arabic language Bible uses the name "Allah" as the name of God.

Suzanne Haneef, in her book What Everyone Should Know About Islam and Muslims (Library of Islam, 1985), puts the matter quite succinctly when she says "But God is not like a pie or an apple which can be divided into three thirds which form one whole; if God is three persons or possesses three parts, He is assuredly not the Single, Unique, Indivisible Being which God is and which Christianity professes to believe in." (pp. 183-184)

Looking at it from another angle, the Trinity designates God as being three separate entities -- the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. If God is the Father and also the Son, He would then be the Father of Himself because He is His own Son. This is not exactly logical.

Christianity claims to be a monotheistic religion. Monotheism, however, has as its fundamental belief that God is One; the Christian doctrine of the Trinity -- God being Three-in-One-- is seen by Islam as a form of polytheism. Christians don't revere just One God, they revere three.

This is a charge not taken lightly by Christians, however. They, in turn, accuse the Muslims of not even knowing what the Trinity is, pointing out that the Qur'an sets it up as Allah the Father, Jesus the Son, and Mary his mother. While veneration of Mary has been a figment of the Catholic Church since 431 when she was given the title "Mother of God" by the Council of Ephesus, a closer examination of the verses in the Qur'an most often cited by Christians in support of their accusation, shows that the designation of Mary by the Qur'an as a "member" of the Trinity, is simply not true.

While the Qur'an does condemn both trinitarianism (the Qur'an 4:171; 5:73) and the worship of Jesus and his mother Mary (the Qur'an 5:116), nowhere does it identify the actual three components of the Christian Trinity. The position of the Qur'an is that WHO or WHAT comprises this doctrine is not important; what is important is that the very notion of a Trinity is an affront against the concept of One God.

In conclusion, we see that the doctrine of the Trinity is a concept conceived entirely by man; there is no sanction whatsoever from God to be found regarding the matter simply because the whole idea of a Trinity of divine beings has no place in monotheism. In the Qur'an, God's Final Revelation to mankind, we find His stand quite clearly stated in a number of eloquent passages,

"... your God is One God: whoever expects to meet his Lord, let him work righteousness, and, in the worship of his Lord, admit no one as partner." (the Qur'an 18:110)

"... take not, with God, another object of worship, lest you should be thrown into Hell, blameworthy and rejected." (the Qur'an 17:39)

-- because, as God tells us over and over again in a Message that is echoed throughout ALL His Revealed Scriptures,

"... I am your Lord and Cherisher: therefore, serve Me (and no other) ..." (the Qur'an 21:92)

Aisha Brown

Courtesy: iiie@cssn.net

2007-06-04 11:00:14 · 38 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture Religion & Spirituality

38 answers

man did! man invented the polytheism known as trinity

2007-06-04 11:04:00 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 9 12

Well, so you like Arianism. That's Ok but you could have just given a URL to the diatribe posted.

The fact is that the Trinity was the Christian belief from the beginning and the Council of Nicaea confirmed the teaching in no uncertain terms in response to the Arian heresy and also some Gnostic teaching.

Certainly the Jew's have another understanding as do the Muslims but the nature of the God that Muslims worship is quite different than the Judeo-Christian God. Of course, the Jews deny the deity of Jesus as do the Arians and the Gnostics but they also deny the Christian understanding of Christ.

The fact is that for Christians there is no other understanding that can be reconciled with the whole body of Scriptures and that is why the Arians and the Muslims oppose the doctrine as they believe their doctrines based on human reason and carnal knowledge where Christians base their belief on the teaching of Jesus and the apostles as contained in Scriptures and Sacred Tradition. such teaching compells true Christians to accept the miracles and mysteries of God on faith. To a Christian we know by Jesus' words that faith is more important than knowledge as the discourse between St. Thomas and Jesus reveal. Jesus is the God of the apostles and the God of all Christians understood as a Trinity. Of this there can be no doubt lest we deny our Lord and Savior on a clear path to destruction. May the LOrd have mercy on those who do not believe that Jesus is our Lord and our God.

In Christ
Fr. Joseph

2007-06-04 11:23:24 · answer #2 · answered by cristoiglesia 7 · 4 1

It is true that the word Trinity isnt in the Holy Bible but that word wasn't known when the Bible was written. We got that word from the concepts written in the Bible. But Trinity is God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. All three are mentioned in the Bible, so it's Trinity. God is all. Christ is God's son, human form of God, therefor Christ is also God. Thank you for your information on the Koran. I never read it but I'm sort of interested in Islam because I have a friend who's Muslim. I read some of the answers to this question and I myself have a question. What does inshallah mean??

2007-06-04 23:37:55 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1 1

Dad and Son covered every aspect of the great controversy of the doctrine of Holy Trinity and summed up a brilliant point of view into a perfect nutshell. I was amazed to find some very interesting points of view in Dad and Son’s opinion as well as to be able to really learn some important things in the dissection of the Trinity. We are only redeemed through Christ Jesus. Whether we follow the Qur'an or the Holy Bible, Christ is our Holy Savior and God is our Creator.

I was glad to see an intellectually rewarding question posed on Yahoo! Answers for it is seldom seen. Those who did not have the patience to read the question as well as the answers through, give evidence to lack of diligence in faith and want to understand to our Father. For by closeness, we can achieve greater faith, wisdom and understanding of Him through the Holy Spirit.

Also! Notice that the religious section of Yahoo! Answers is usually heavily populated by atheists and agnostics putting down the Christian religion, but none took the time nor the effort to actually extend their so called correct beliefs and offer an intelligent, well conceived answer. Though our religions are split, we both have one common belief and that belief is in God.

2007-06-04 18:31:24 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 3 0

Great question! My answer: every individual has different aspects of their personality, or identity - the same person can be "student" "thinker" "peaceful" "father". So the way I saw the trinity was three ways of understanding the same God. I think the Christian Church has taken this a bit far - so that it is almost as if there are three Gods, three individuals. In the churches' favour - it must have been tricky to reconcile the concept of one whole/complete God, when there was also a son of God (who was also God) who became human and prayed to God.
I pray to Jesus/God pretty much interchangeably. I don't pray to the holy spirit (would that be possible?). I consider them all pretty much they same - Jesus is the same as God, and the holy spirit is like a manifestation of God to me.

2007-06-05 15:59:31 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0 1

Thank you for posting such an important and well-thought out Q. It is a privilege to be given the opportunity to answer it. Already you have been given some profound answers that reply to most of your points so I won't repeat those, but I would like to take you back to your own understanding of what the Trinity doctrine teaches.

By using the formula, "1 person God the Father + 1 person God the Son + 1 person God the Holy Ghost = One person, God the What? Is this English or is this gibberish?" you show failure to grasp what the Trinity doctrine has taught. If any formula can be used it is, "1 x 1 x 1 = 1". Is there any argument against that?

By using the wrong formula, you end up perplexed, but that is not the fault of the Trinity doctrine! Your misunderstanding is compounded by the declaration: "The Trinity designates God as being three separate entities... [God] would therefore be the Father of himself because he is his own Son". Such nonsense finds no basis in the Trinity doctrine but badly misrepresents it. Jesus the Son is not the Father. The Father is not the Son. It's a complete waste of time arguing that they cannot be the same because the Trinity doctrine never suggests that they are! What does it teach?

1) That within the ONE Being that is God there exists eternally three co-equal and co-eternal Persons.
2) That the one Being of God is shared by THREE Persons.

God is One Being. Within that One Being are Three Persons. You cannot take any of those Three Persons out of the equation (i.e. separate them) and still have the Being of God, because God is, in his entirety, comprised of Three Persons. You would hardly expect the Almighty God to be simple, would you? You surely don't imagine he can be summed up as easily as a human being can? The Creator has to be greater than even his 'highest' creation! But all systems that rail against the Trinity are, in essence, trying to bring God down to a humanly understandable level. They are trying to boil God down to an essence that finite human minds can 'deal with'. My God is too great for that! He is infinite! The whole of eternity will be insufficient to grasp the measure of him!

No-one seems to have responded to your comments about claimed misunderstandings of the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in trinitarian thinking. It is true that many Christians think Muslims have misunderstood the Roman Catholic title "Mother of God" as implying that Roman Catholics believe Mary is part of the Trinity, and that Muslims therefore imagine the Trinity must mean she is God's "wife". This misunderstanding is largely due to Muslim failure to realise that the Bible's designations of Christ as "Son of Man" and "Son of God" in no way involve sex between God and any human. The Greek words about Christ being "the only-begotten of God" translate poorly into English but this is not the place to explain. Suffice to say that by the time the Qur'an was being written, veneration of Mary was not confined to Roman Catholics - see Qur'an 3:37f; 19: 16f - though Qur'an 5:116 has Jesus denying he ever said he or his mother were to be worshipped as gods. So although Mary-worship is rightly abhorrent to Muslims, it is only too easy for Muslims to think (wrongly) that giving Mary the title "Mother of God" implies union with God. Millions of Christians likewise abhor the very idea of Mary-worship. Muslims need to have this spelled out clearly to them because many of them are labouring under a misunderstanding. Ability to grasp what the Trinity doctrine teaches requires the clearing away of a lot of confusing clutter. How prepared are Muslims to do this, or will they keep throwing up misleading arguments that have no bearing on the deity of Christ? Intellectual honesty is required. It admits that Catholics go too far in their veneration of Mary (because to pray to Mary - and the Saints - is to worship them) yet that is another issue, and not related to the Trinity doctrine.

Besides, at the time the Qur'an was given, the Christian Church did not believe in the papacy, or the Immaculate Conception of Mary, or her Bodily Assumption, or purgatory, or indulgences, or transubstantiation. The Church of 325 (at the time of the Council of Nicea when the relationship between the Father and the Son was clarified) had none of these things. It could never have been recognised as the Roman Catholicism of later centuries. I trust these clarifications have been helpful.

2007-06-05 05:57:55 · answer #6 · answered by Annsan_In_Him 7 · 1 0

It is the Words of Jesus Christ to preach the Gospel to all nations, baptizing them in the Name (singular) of the Father, Son & Holy Ghost...

Not added as you falsly accuse.

Only people who reject Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God & reject Jesus shed His own blood for remission of our sins & reject that Jesus raised from the dead for our justification - find peace in religions that deny Christ.

According to 1Jn2:22 the Koran is clearly antichrist & so is all others who deny Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God.


As a Christian who fell away & got into some cult concepts, but repented for a drunken black-out that I then went into a 1 yr breakdown. At the end of the breakdown I went forward at a Christian Church where the Pastor prayed for me and the anointing of God came strong on me that I reached my hands to heaven & praised God in tongues. Then I went home & the anointing I received led me to toss the Mormon book out. Then to a verse in a Christian book. The verse was that I received the anointing, the Spirit of Truth who leads me into all truth and brings to mind what the Lord has said. So that verse is in 1Jn2:27. So also I was confused about the Trinity at first, but people gave me information, I purchased a Strongs Exhaustive concordance to go with my King James & asked God. The anointing led me in the bible & now I see pretty clearly the concept of the trinity & it is in creation itself. Air, water & earth. Us when in the image of God; body, soul & spirit. A 3 leaf clover is one plant with 3 leafs. God is Father, Word & Holy Spirit, 1Jn5. The Name Father, Word & Holy Spirit. So that could be Yahweh Elohim the Father, Word/Son & Holy Spirit. The Son of God was totally new 2000 yrs ago. The Word of God is the Creator with the Father & the Spirit.

2007-06-04 15:31:07 · answer #7 · answered by t_a_m_i_l 6 · 3 0

"this concept of the Oneness of God was stressed by Moses in a Biblical passage known as the "Shema", or the Jewish creed of faith: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.' (Deuteronomy 6:4)"
And the word used in the Shema for "one" is "ehad" (a compound one), not "yahed" (a unique or single one).

"one person, God the Father + one person, God the Son, + one person, God the Holy Ghost = one person, God the What?"
And you were doing so well up to this point. No, the three Persons of the Trinity = one God.

"It is said that Athanasius, the bishop who formulated this doctrine, confessed that the more he wrote on the matter, the less capable he was of clearly expressing his thoughts regarding it."
That doesn't make it any less true.

"References in the Bible to a Trinity of divine beings are vague, at best."
While there is no formulation of the Trinity in the bible, the bible clearly teaches that:
1) there is one God;
2) that the Father is God;
3) that Jesus is God (Thomas' confession, prologue to the Gospel of John, referring to Jesus by attributes applicable to God alone, Jesus' "I AM" statements [which were clearly taken by his audience as claims to deity]);
4) that the Holy Spirit is God and is capable of talking (and using the personal pronoun), testifying, glorifying Christ, disclosing future events, etc.

"Christians now turned on Christians, maiming and slaughtering thousands because of a difference of opinion."
No, they were heretics, and it was a difference of doctrine. Not that it makes what they did right, but get the facts straight.

"As a result, mainstream Christians abhor them...."
Christians no more abhor Unitarians than Muslims abhor Christians. We do believe that their teachings are in error though.

"In Unitarianism, the hope is kept alive that Christians will someday return to the preachings of Jesus: '... Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.' (Luke 4:8)"
Trinitarians cannot "return" to the preachings of Jesus for the very fact that we never left them. We worship one God and one God alone.

2007-06-04 11:33:01 · answer #8 · answered by Deof Movestofca 7 · 3 1

JESUS REVEALED the TRINITY
Jesus and the apostles' teaching matches reality in the spirit, but you have to become a christian to know its true, as otherwise a strict monotheism like Islam looks logical. The word trinity isn't used in the gospels and epistles, but the components of the doctrine are there. It was defined when proud heretics challenged the gospel, and were leading people astray.

People made all sorts of logical sounding deductions about space, before men went up there, but of course the reality they found didn't match their initial human reasonings. Thus with the Trinity. Its a reality that you need to born into the Kingdom of God to know the truth of; this comes when we put faith in Christ - John 3:5-8, John 3:16. Christ is the gate to life. When you believe Him you do indeed come from spiritual darkness to light.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Actually faith in God without the Holy Spirit's enlivening influence seems pointless religion to me ... your position to me is like a person denying the existence of water. And I was forgiven when I believed in Jesus, the Son of God and Saviour - the salvation experience was the most intense and real in my life up to that point, and was no illusion.

2007-06-04 11:16:52 · answer #9 · answered by Cader and Glyder scrambler 7 · 5 1

Not to give to brief of an answer.

You may think of it as me.

I am an uncle, brother, son and one day dad and the grand-day.
All the same person. (me)
Has has seperate beings in one,

When the Holy Spirit enters you, it's not Jesus, it's the Holy Spirit and you can feel it.

When Jesus, speaks to you and you know it is him, that is Jesus.

When you pray to God and your prayers are answered, that is the Holy God working in yout life.

As humans, we are not able to understand what God does, we are so limited, we can not start to understand his thinking.

All the bible in the world, Jesus telling point for point what to do, Moses a servant of God and all the other in the bible did what God wanted.

We still have seperation in the world as people seem to cling to what their cutlure provides and accepts are correct or to forward their own means.

God is one, there is a Jesus walked on this earth and still helps he people everyday and every second of the day.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit God uses to touch his people on his earth.

When I stand before God in Heaven, there will be God upon his throne.

God is who I will bow to and no other.

2007-06-05 10:26:36 · answer #10 · answered by Johnny L 2 · 0 1

No, the tricycle actually works. Old people in Florida use them a lot. The trinity doesn't even make sense. One was smart (tricycle) the other was completely non-Christian (Constantine) making no sense whatsoever. Big difference.

2016-04-01 02:11:27 · answer #11 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

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