Christians: can you explain to me the concept of 'trinity'??

Answer 1

Did Jesus and his disciples teach the doctrine of the Trinity? Did church leaders of the next several centuries teach it? How did it originate? And why is it important to know the truth about this belief? THOSE who accept the Bible as God’s Word recognize that they have a responsibility to teach others about the Creator. They also realize that the substance of what they teach about God must be true.

God rebuked Job’s “comforters” for not doing that. “Jehovah proceeded to say to Eliphaz the Temanite: ‘My anger has grown hot against you and your two companions, for you men have not spoken concerning me what is truthful as has my servant Job.’”—Job 42:7. The apostle Paul, when discussing the resurrection, said that we would be “found false witnesses of God” if we were to teach something about God’s activities that was not true. (1 Corinthians 15:15) This being so with the resurrection teaching, how careful we ought to be when we approach our teaching about who God is!

The Trinity Doctrine

Nearly all churches of Christendom teach that God is a Trinity. The Catholic Encyclopedia calls the Trinity teaching “the central doctrine of the Christian religion,” defining it this way:

“In the unity of the Godhead there are Three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, these Three Persons being truly distinct one from another. Thus, in the words of the Athanasian Creed: ‘the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three Gods but one God.’ . . . The Persons are co-eternal and co-equal: all alike are uncreated and omnipotent.”1

The Baptist Encyclopædia gives a similar definition. It says:

“[Jesus] is . . . the eternal Jehovah . . . The Holy Spirit is Jehovah . . . The Son and Spirit are placed on an exact equality with the Father. If he is Jehovah so are they.”

Anathemas Pronounced on Opposers

In 325 C.E., a council of bishops in Nicea in Asia Minor formulated a creed that declared the Son of God to be “true God” just as the Father was “true God.” Part of that creed stated:

“But as for those who say, There was [a time] when [the Son] was not, and, Before being born He was not, and that He came into existence out of nothing, or who assert that the Son of God is of a different hypostasis or substance, or is created, or is subject to alteration or change—these the Catholic Church anathematizes.”

Thus, anyone who believed that the Son of God was not coeternal with the Father or that the Son was created was consigned to everlasting damnation. One can imagine the pressure to conform that this put on the mass of ordinary believers.

In the year 381 C.E., another council met in Constantinople and declared that the holy spirit should be worshiped and glorified just as the Father and Son were. One year later, in 382 C.E., another synod met in Constantinople and affirmed the full divinity of the holy spirit. That same year, before a council in Rome, Pope Damasus presented a collection of teachings to be condemned by the church. The document, called the Tome of Damasus, included the following statements:

“If anyone denies that the Father is eternal, that the Son is eternal, and that the Holy Spirit is eternal: he is a heretic.”

“If anyone denies that the Son of God is true God, just as the Father is true God, having all power, knowing all things, and equal to the Father: he is a heretic.”

“If anyone denies that the Holy Spirit . . . is true God . . . has all power and knows all things, . . .  he is a heretic.”

“If anyone denies that the three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, are true persons, equal, eternal, containing all things visible and invisible, that they are omnipotent, . . .  he is a heretic.”

“If anyone says that [the Son who was] made flesh was not in heaven with the Father while he was on earth: he is a heretic.”

“If anyone, while saying that the Father is God and the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God, . . . does not say that they are one God, . . . he is a heretic.”

The Jesuit scholars who translated the foregoing from Latin added the comment: “Pope St. Celestine I (422-32) apparently considered these canons law; they may be considered definitions of faith.” And scholar Edmund J. Fortman asserts that the tome represents “sound and solid trinitarian doctrine.” If you are a member of a church that accepts the Trinity teaching, do these statements define your faith? And did you realize that to believe in the Trinity doctrine as taught by the churches requires you to believe that Jesus was in heaven while he was on earth? This teaching is similar to what fourth-century churchman Athanasius stated in his book On the Incarnation:

“The Word [Jesus] was not hedged in by His body, nor did His presence in the body prevent His being present elsewhere as well. When He moved His body He did not cease also to direct the universe by His Mind and might. . . . He is still Source of life to all the universe, present in every part of it, yet outside the whole.”

What the Trinity Doctrine Means? Some have concluded that simply ascribing deity or godship to Jesus is all that the Trinity teaching means. For others, belief in the Trinity simply means belief in Father, Son, and holy spirit. However, a close examination of Christendom’s creeds exposes how woefully inadequate such ideas are in relation to the formal doctrine. Official definitions make it clear that the Trinity doctrine is not a simple idea. Instead, it is a complex set of separate ideas that have been brought together over a long period of time and interlocked into one another.

From the picture of the Trinity doctrine that appeared after the Council of Constantinople in 381 C.E., from the Tome of Damasus in 382 C.E., from the Athanasian Creed that came some time later, and from other documents, we can clearly determine what Christendom means by the Trinity doctrine. It includes the following definite ideas:

1. There are said to be three divine persons—the Father, the Son, and the holy spirit—in the Godhead.

2. Each of these separate persons is said to be eternal, none coming before or after the other in time.

3. Each is said to be almighty, with none greater or lesser than the other.

4. Each is said to be omniscient, knowing all things.

5. Each is said to be true God.

6. However, it is said that there are not three Gods but only one God.

Clearly the Trinity doctrine is a complex set of ideas including at least the above vital elements and involving even more, as revealed when the details are examined. But if we consider only the above basic ideas, it is apparent that if any are removed, what remains is no longer Christendom’s Trinity. To have the complete picture, all these pieces must be present. With this better understanding of the term “Trinity,” we can now ask: Was it a teaching of Jesus and his disciples? If so, it should have appeared fully formed in the first century of our Common Era. And since what they taught is found in the Bible, then the Trinity doctrine is either a Bible teaching or it is not. If it is, it should be clearly taught in the Bible.

It is not reasonable to think that Jesus and his disciples would teach people about God and yet not tell them who God is, especially when some believers would be asked to give up even their lives for God. Hence, Jesus and his disciples should have given the highest priority to teaching others about this vital doctrine.

Examine the Scriptures

At Acts chapter 17, verse 11, people are called “noble-minded” because they were “carefully examining the Scriptures daily as to whether these things were so,” things taught by the apostle Paul. They were encouraged to use the Scriptures to confirm the teachings even of an apostle. You should do the same.

Keep in mind that the Scriptures are “inspired of God” and are to be used for “setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17) So the Bible is complete in doctrinal matters. If the Trinity doctrine is true, it should be there.

We invite you to search the Bible, especially the 27 books of the Christian Greek Scriptures, to see for yourself if Jesus and his disciples taught a Trinity. As you search, ask yourself:

1. Can I find any scripture that mentions “Trinity”?

2. Can I find any scripture that says that God is made up of three distinct persons, Father, Son, and holy spirit, but that the three are only one God?

3. Can I find any scripture that says that the Father, Son, and holy spirit are equal in all ways, such as in eternity, power, position, and wisdom?

Search as you may, you will not find one scripture that uses the word Trinity, nor will you find any that says that Father, Son, and holy spirit are equal in all ways, such as in eternity, power, position, and wisdom. Not even a single scripture says that the Son is equal to the Father in those ways—and if there were such a scripture, it would establish not a Trinity but at most a “duality.” Nowhere does the Bible equate the holy spirit with the Father.

Answer 2

The concept is pretty easy to explain, but understanding that concept is pretty impossible. God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit are one in the same being, although seperate in their actions and their identities.

The Father is the lawgiver and the judge. The Son is the giver of grace, salvation and acts as the intermediary between man and the Father. The Holy Spirit is the part of the Trinity the creates the bond between God and man, acts as the voice of the Trinity and brings the salvation offered by the Son.

That's basically what the Trinity is. Wrapping your brain around the concept that three individual beings exist as one and as three will melt your brain. =P

Answer 3

Trinity

Definition: The central doctrine of religions of Christendom. According to the Athanasian Creed, there are three divine Persons (the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost), each said to be eternal, each said to be almighty, none greater or less than another, each said to be God, and yet together being but one God. Other statements of the dogma emphasize that these three “Persons” are not separate and distinct individuals but are three modes in which the divine essence exists. Thus some Trinitarians emphasize their belief that Jesus Christ is God, or that Jesus and the Holy Ghost are Jehovah. Not a Bible teaching.

What is the origin of the Trinity doctrine?

The New Encyclopædia Britannica says: “Neither the word Trinity, nor the explicit doctrine as such, appears in the New Testament, nor did Jesus and his followers intend to contradict the Shema in the Old Testament: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord’ (Deut. 6:4). . . . The doctrine developed gradually over several centuries and through many controversies. . . . By the end of the 4th century . . . the doctrine of the Trinity took substantially the form it has maintained ever since.”—(1976), Micropædia, Vol. X, p. 126.

The New Catholic Encyclopedia states: “The formulation ‘one God in three Persons’ was not solidly established, certainly not fully assimilated into Christian life and its profession of faith, prior to the end of the 4th century. But it is precisely this formulation that has first claim to the title the Trinitarian dogma. Among the Apostolic Fathers, there had been nothing even remotely approaching such a mentality or perspective.”—(1967), Vol. XIV, p. 299.

In The Encyclopedia Americana we read: “Christianity derived from Judaism and Judaism was strictly Unitarian [believing that God is one person]. The road which led from Jerusalem to Nicea was scarcely a straight one. Fourth century Trinitarianism did not reflect accurately early Christian teaching regarding the nature of God; it was, on the contrary, a deviation from this teaching.”—(1956), Vol. XXVII, p. 294L.

According to the Nouveau Dictionnaire Universel, “The Platonic trinity, itself merely a rearrangement of older trinities dating back to earlier peoples, appears to be the rational philosophic trinity of attributes that gave birth to the three hypostases or divine persons taught by the Christian churches. . . . This Greek philosopher’s [Plato, fourth century B.C.E.] conception of the divine trinity . . . can be found in all the ancient [pagan] religions.”—(Paris, 1865-1870), edited by M. Lachâtre, Vol. 2, p. 1467.

John L. McKenzie, S.J., in his Dictionary of the Bible, says: “The trinity of persons within the unity of nature is defined in terms of ‘person’ and ‘nature’ which are G[ree]k philosophical terms; actually the terms do not appear in the Bible. The trinitarian definitions arose as the result of long controversies in which these terms and others such as ‘essence’ and ‘substance’ were erroneously applied to God by some theologians.”—(New York, 1965), p. 899.

Answer 4

There are purely too many scriptures on the end of Christs ministry, while he pleads with the father. His pleading with the father is what fairly isn't clever. If he's the father, then why plead with him? there may well be purely no good judgment to it. additionally all of us comprehend that God, is the father of Jesus, so once you have faith interior the trinity, you assume that Jesus is his very own father- he Fathered himself. i'm getting what you're saying in regards to the Miracles, yet it particularly is the place faith is provided in incredibly. he's a God and he could make those issues take place. i think particularly some the Christian international has been taught that God is complicated and incomprehensible and that we would desire to continuously now no longer attempt to correctly known him- purely settle for Him as our carry close and do His will. That makes it no longer elementary to grasp the commerce theory that possibly there is a few good judgment to God and his life. it is the equivalent techniques-set that i think of interior the manufacturing over Evolution and great Bang, thinking the progression is an entire lot greater logical to me that the different 2 theories. Miracles are purely diverse to me. The miracles were accomplished to help human beings evaluate in God and interior the Deity of Jesus. that they were accomplished to be certain that he's the Son of God. there substitute into as quickly as a explanation for them. i assume the single technique to observe of for valuable, is to ask the Lord. for people who ask in faith and open your mind to the solutions the Lord needs you to have, he will testify to you if the Trinity is right or now no longer. he will tutor you the wonderful way.

Answer 5

No.

The Trinity is a concept that we Christians accept on faith, it is not prove-able. We Christians believe that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are three persons in one God. Jesus said "I and the Father are one."

It's a difficult concept to grasp, I think, since we have nothing else like it in our frame of reference.

Answer 6

Water has three forms. Solid, liquid and gas. God has three forms, Father Son and Spirit. Water is one, God is one.

Answer 7

Here is a good explanation: