How did the doctrine of the Trinity come about?

Question

Please site sources.

Answer 1

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.

Many scholars, including Trinitarians, admit that the Bible does not contain an actual doctrine of a Trinity. For example, The Encyclopedia of Religion states:

“Exegetes and theologians today are in agreement that the Hebrew Bible does not contain a doctrine of the Trinity . . . Although the Hebrew Bible depicts God as the father of Israel and employs personifications of God such as Word (davar), Spirit (ruah), Wisdom (hokhmah), and Presence (shekhinah), it would go beyond the intention and spirit of the Old Testament to correlate these notions with later trinitarian doctrine. “Further, exegetes and theologians agree that the New Testament also does not contain an explicit doctrine of the Trinity. God the Father is source of all that is (Pantokrator) and also the father of Jesus Christ; ‘Father’ is not a title for the first person of the Trinity but a synonym for God.

“In the New Testament there is no reflective consciousness of the metaphysical nature of God (‘immanent trinity’), nor does the New Testament contain the technical language of later doctrine (hupostasis, ousia, substantia, subsistentia, prosōpon, persona). . . . It is incontestable that the doctrine cannot be established on scriptural evidence alone.”

Regarding the historical facts on this matter, The New Encyclopædia Britannica states: “Neither the word Trinity nor the explicit doctrine appears in the New Testament . . .
"The doctrine developed gradually over several centuries and through many controversies. . . . “It was not until the 4th century that the distinctness of the three and their unity were brought together in a single orthodox doctrine of one essence and three persons.”

The New Catholic Encyclopedia makes a similar statement regarding the origin of the Trinity: “There is the recognition on the part of exegetes and Biblical theologians, including a constantly growing number of Roman Catholics, that one should not speak of Trinitarianism in the New Testament without serious qualification. There is also the closely parallel recognition on the part of historians of dogma and systematic theologians that when one does speak of an unqualified Trinitarianism, one has moved from the period of Christian origins to, say, the last quadrant of the 4th century. It was only then that what might be called the definitive Trinitarian dogma ‘one God in three Persons’ became thoroughly assimilated into Christian life and thought. . . .
“The formula itself does not reflect the immediate consciousness of the period of origins; it was the product of 3 centuries of doctrinal development.”

Answer 2

Jesus instructed his disciples to baptize in this way---"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" Matthew 28:19
There are also other numerous scriptures that talk about differnt parts of the trinity.

Answer 3

in the 300's the council of nicea met & changed several biblical doctrines.... the doctrines Jesus & the apostles believed & taught.
this council later became the catholic church.

the Council:

1- created the trinity... made it up.
before this time, there was no "trinity" being taught, only the oneness of God.
the trinity is a made up term & it's not in the Bible.

this council never understood who Jesus really was.
they were afraid that Jesus would be worshipped more than the "Father or Holy Ghost". the council wanted each to get equal adoration. they believed God could be divided into 3 separate and "co-equal" beings. this belief in itself proclaims there are 3 dieties.
this false doctrine continues today in all catholic & protestant churches.

true Christians knew that God put on flesh in the form of man. Jesus was fully GOD ... and fully man. the apostles & the early church believed in the ONENESS of God.
they understood who Jesus was.

2 - the council changed the mode of baptism
from immersion to sprinkling.
if babies died, they felt this way they would be assured they would go to heaven

3- the council changed the wording of baptism
from "in Jesus' Name" or "in the name of the LORD Jesus"
to "in the name of the father, son & Holy Ghost".
(these are titles, not a name. there is no power to forgive sins in a title.)

all baptisms until the 300's were all done according to the "apostle's doctrine" which Jesus taught them.... the apostles & the early church baptized by immersion "in the name of Jesus".

apostolic churches today still believe & teach what Jesus & the apostles taught. nothing has changed b/c God is the same yesterday, today & forever.

the catholic church (the pope) thinks he is the christ on earth & that he has the power to change any biblical doctrine he sees fit. i can see why that would anger God.

all protestant churches (daughter harlots) are tied to the catholic church (mother harlot) by the false doctrine of the trinity & baptism.

Answer 4

In Christianity, the doctrine of the Trinity states that God is one being who exists, simultaneously and eternally, as a mutual indwelling of three persons: the Father, the Son (incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth), and the Holy Spirit. Since the 4th century, in both Eastern and Western Christianity, this doctrine has been stated as "three persons in one God," all three of whom, as distinct and co-eternal persons, are of one indivisible Divine essence, a simple being. Supporting the doctrine of the Trinity is known as Trinitarianism.......

Answer 5

Scripture:

There is a Person in Scripture called The Father - and He is called God.

There is a Person called The Son - and He also is called God.

There is a Person called the Holy Spirit - and He also is called God (see the Book of Acts and the story of Annanias and Saphira)

Tradition:

The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, declard it so.

Reason:

If there are three Persons and all Three are Called God, and yet there are not three Gods but one God - the Trinity is the answer.

See the Creed of St. Athanasius the Great:

Answer 6

1 Corinthians 15 is the earliest known Biblical reference to the trinity, and contains the first explicit statement about the Trinity, and was written at about 45 AD.

The historical sources for this are too many to be listed here, but a simple googling should suffice.

Answer 7

THE Trinity was defined more fully in the Athanasian Creed. Athanasius was a clergyman who supported Constantine at Nicaea. The creed that bears his name declares: “We worship one God in Trinity . . . The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God; and yet they are not three gods, but one God.”

Well-informed scholars agree, however, that Athanasius did not compose this creed. The New Encyclopædia Britannica comments: “The creed was unknown to the Eastern Church until the 12th century. Since the 17th century, scholars have generally agreed that the Athanasian Creed was not written by Athanasius (died 373) but was probably composed in southern France during the 5th century. . . . The creed’s influence seems to have been primarily in southern France and Spain in the 6th and 7th centuries. It was used in the liturgy of the church in Germany in the 9th century and somewhat later in Rome.”
THIS disreputable history of the Trinity fits in with what Jesus and his apostles foretold would follow their time. They said that there would be an apostasy, a deviation, a falling away from true worship until Christ’s return, when true worship would be restored before God’s day of destruction of this system of things.

Regarding that “day,” the apostle Paul said: “It will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness gets revealed.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3, 7) Later, he foretold: “When I have gone fierce wolves will invade you and will have no mercy on the flock. Even from your own ranks there will be men coming forward with a travesty of the truth on their lips to induce the disciples to follow them.” (Acts 20:29, 30, JB) Other disciples of Jesus also wrote of this apostasy with its ‘lawless’ clergy class.—See, for example, 2 Peter 2:1; 1 John 4:1-3; Jude 3, 4.

Paul also wrote: “The time is sure to come when, far from being content with sound teaching, people will be avid for the latest novelty and collect themselves a whole series of teachers according to their own tastes; and then, instead of listening to the truth, they will turn to myths.”—2 Timothy 4:3, 4, JB.
WHY, for thousands of years, did none of God’s prophets teach his people about the Trinity? At the latest, 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?

Are Christians to believe that centuries after Christ and after having inspired the writing of the Bible, God would back the formulation of a doctrine that was unknown to his servants for thousands of years, one that is an “inscrutable mystery” “beyond the grasp of human reason,” one that admittedly had a pagan background and was “largely a matter of church politics”?

Answer 8

The idea of the trinity does have some biblical basis but the way we see it today as a theological doctrine is largely influenced by St. Augustine's work.

To read the actual work: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1301.htm
To learn more about Augustine:
http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/50.html

Answer 9

From 1 John 5:7-8: 6This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7For there are three that testify: 8the[a] Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.

And from Baptizing in the NAME of the Father, the Son and The Holy Spirit and not "NAMES"

Trinity means 3 in One... there is no doubt that scripture supports 3 aspects of one God.

Answer 10

The doctrine of Trinity, defined as "one God in three persons" and therefore a Triune Deity, has its roots in Scripture, particularly the co-incidence and implied inseparability of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Trinitarian Formula; see Matt 28:19 and 2 Cor 13:14 and Heb 9:14). However, there is no explicit citation in Scripture that says "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are co-equals and three persons in one being," although this was likely not an issue in the early Church during which the epistles were written. In particular,
Paul's address in the 2nd epistle to the Corinthians presupposes that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were held to be Divine (else the address would make little sense), and may explain why there was no debate in Scripture over competing theologies on the nature of God. Note that Scripture's silence does not testify against the doctrine. For instance, at no point either does Jesus actually declare Himself to be Divine, but few Christians would dispute His Divinity.

Sometime within the first two centuries, there arose two competing theologies, named unitarianism (God is one, and He is Jesus, or God is one and Jesus is not divine) and binitarianism (God and Jesus are co-equals, but the Spirit is not Divine). We know this from the writings of the Early Fathers (capitalized much as historians capitalize Founding Fathers to refer to George Washington and his cohorts) who wrote against unitarian and binitarian doctrine, which supports that the doctrine of the Trinity held wide acceptance in the early days of the Church.

The Didache, a document dating within 90 years of Christ's Resurrection, reflects that the Trinitarian Formula was used in baptism.

Clement of Rome (4th Pope, died ca. 100 a.d.) also invokes a Trinitarian blessing in his first epistle which is dated in the 90s. Note that the historical value of this and other writings of the Early Fathers does not require a belief in their inspired authority (indeed, the Catholic Church does not consider them on par with Scripture in terms of inspiration), but does reflect the mindset of early church leadership.

Theophilus of Antioch (d. ca 185 a.d) was the first to use the word "Trinity" in a response to the Marcion Heresy which held that there were two gods - one that created the universe, one that created Jesus - and these two were at war.

Polycarp of Smyrna (who was discipled by John the Apostle) and his disciple Iraneaus of Antioch, a contemporary of Theophilus, also both combatted binitarianism in the Marcion and Valentinian heresies.

Tertullian (d. 230 a.d.) wrote: "They are three, however, not in condition, but in degree; not in being, but in form; not in power, but in kind; of one being, however, and one condition and one power."

Origen (d. 254 a.d.) wrote extensively on the Trinity, although his belief in a hierarchy within the Trinity (as well as other beliefs) were declared incorrect in later years.

Pope Dionysius (d. 268 a.d.) refuted a heretical sect that considered the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to be three separate deities, and reasserted the Triune nature of God.

Hippolytus (d. 235 a.d.) refuted the unitarian followers of Noetus and reasserted Trinity. Note that at one point he was considered a Gnostic, but later reconciled to the Church and was martyred by pagan Rome.

The doctrine of Trinity was first formalized in the Nicene Creed (325 and 381), the latter version of which is still in use among many mainstream Christian churches, including the Catholic Church. This formalization was not the end of debate, however.

The Arian and Semi-Arian Heresies continued to pop up across Europe, proclaiming that Jesus was purely created and not Creator, effectively invoking a unitarian doctrine. Other heretical groups (Cathars, Bogomils, Waldensians) challenged the Trinity during the Medieval era.

Augustine of Hippo (d. 430 a.d.) and Thomas Aquinas (13th century) are probably the best-known writers on the Trinity following the end of the Roman persecution against the Church, at least in the West. John of Damascus (d. 8th century) wrote an entire volume on the "dogma" of the Trinity.

The Trinitarian doctrine has been challenged in the past few hundred years notably from the Latter-Day Saints, Quakers and Unitarians. Some branches that consider themselves Restorationists (spiritual heirs of "authentic Christianity" sometimes cited as the Waldensians or Bogomils) also reject Trinity, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses and Oneness Pentecostals. Some branches of Protestantism adhere to a very strict Sola Scriptura interpretation and do not believe that anything not specifically spelled out in Scripture is required for salvation, and therefore hold ambivalence towards the Trinity. All Orthodox (Catholic, Coptic, Eastern, Greek, Russian, etc), most Reform (Presbyterian, Southern Baptist, Anglican, Episcopal) and many Evangelical churches adhere to a "dogmatic" understanding of the Trinity, ie that there is no ambivalence as to the Triune nature of God.