Why New Encyclopædia Britannica refuted the pagan dogma of trinity?

Question

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.

Answer 1

This is more Constantinian meddling.

Answer 2

There are SO many things in the Bible to refute the Trinity doctrine! Most of them you just have to read with logic.
And the scripture at Matthew 28:19 is not talking about God being one-in-three. What if you said, "Pam and Sarah and I are going to the mall." Does that mean that we are all the same person? No, we are all going to be in the same place, but we are not the same. Or what if Linda and I agree on the same things, are we not in union with each other?
And another thing to think about is - Why would Jesus pray to himself while on earth? The holy spirit is not a person, how could it be equal to God or Jesus?
Acts 7:55, 56 reports that Stephen was given a vision of heaven in which he saw “Jesus standing at God’s right hand.” But he made no mention of seeing the holy spirit. (See also Revelation 7:10; 22:1, 3.)
The New Catholic Encyclopedia admits: “The majority of
N[ew] T[estament] texts reveal God’s spirit as something, not someone; this is especially seen in the parallelism between the spirit and the power of God.” (1967, Vol. XIII, p. 575) It also reports: “The Apologists [Greek Christian writers of the second century] spoke too haltingly of the Spirit; with a measure of anticipation, one might say too impersonally.”—Vol. XIV, p. 296.
Another question - Why doesn't Jesus know "the hour and day?" Mark 13:32, RS: “Of that day or that hour no ones knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Of course, that would not be the case if Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were coequal, comprising one Godhead. And if, as some suggest, the Son was limited by his human nature from knowing, the question remains, Why did the Holy Spirit not know?)
I hope I have helped you to logically see that the doctrine of the Trinity is false.

Answer 3

It is true that the word Trinity is not in the Bible. So are the words Bible and rapture. And yet we use these terms to define something. What term will you give for the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as one and the same Lord God? Matthew 28:19 states: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

Did you know that the Father and Jesus are one and the same? (John 10:30) Did you know that even after three years that Jesus was with His apostles, they still did not know that Jesus and the Father are one and the same? At the Last Supper, Philip asked Jesus in John 14:8: “Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” Jesus replied in verse 9: “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?”

Did you know that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one and the same? Did Jesus not say in John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”? So Jesus is the truth. Did Jesus not say that the Holy Spirit that He would send is named also the Spirit of truth? John 16:13 states: “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.”

There is only one true God and this God made Himself into three as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is what we call Trinity. Encyclopedia Britannica should therefore know that this is what is referred to as the Trinity.

Answer 4

Only those who are blinded cannot see that Jesus Christ of the New Testament is very Jehovah of the Old Testament. He is also the Holy Spirit who abides with us. He is my Lord, meaning my Father, my brother being a Son, and my mother and sister being the Holy Spirit that abides in me.

As the prophet Isiah noted: And his name, speaking of Jesus, shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the EVERLASTING FATHER, the Prince of Peace.

Knowing this the early Christians, including Peter, baptized all followers saying: "I baptize thee in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." It took 300 years for the pagan and apostate group at Rome to move the pagan trinity doctrine into place; usurp the titles of Father, Son and Holy Ghost; and put themselves in place of God as the only true church.

They rejected the teaching and practice of St. Peter with regard to Matthew 28:19; and many such things have they done.

The Lord Jesus Christ has no more place among organized churches, their priests, preachers and prelates, then He did in the Temple at Jerusalem and the Sanhedrin when He was on earth in the flesh.

Answer 5

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, 0 Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord" (Deut. 6:4).... ... The earliest Christians, however, had to cope with the implications of the coming of Jesus Christ and of the presence and power of God among them-i.e., the Holy Spirit, whose coming was connected with the celebration of the Pentecost. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were associated in such New Testament passages as the Great Commission: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28:19); and in the apostolic benediction: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all" (II Cor. 13:14). Thus, the New Testament established the basis for the doctrine of the Trinity... ... The doctrine developed gradually over several centuries and through many controversies... ... Initially, both the requirements of monotheism inherited from the Old Testament and the implications of the need to interpret the biblical teaching to Greco-Roman paganism seemed to demand that the divine in Christ as the Word, or Logos, be interpreted as subordinate to the Supreme Being. An alternative solution was to interpret Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three modes of the self-disclosure of the one God but not as distinct within the being of God itself. The first tendency recognized the distinctness among the three, but at the cost of their equality and hence of their unity (subordinationism); the second came to terms with their unity, but at the cost of their distinctness 'as "persons" (modalism). 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 Council of Nicaea in 325 stated the crucial formula for that doctrine in its confession that the Son is "of the same essence [homoousios] as the Father," even though it said very little about the Holy Spirit. Over the next half century, Athanasius defended and refined the Nicene formula, and... ... by the end of the 4th century... ... under the leadership of Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus (the Cappadocian Fathers)... ... the doctrine of the Trinity took substantially the form it has maintained ever since." (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1979, Trinity, Vol. X, p.126) beware watchtower ellipses. they make it seem to say the opposite of what it really says.

Answer 6

If Jesus taught the trinity, why was it not fully established until 300 years after his death, according to the New Catholic Encyclopedia? And when you look at the Catholic Athanasian Creed's definition of the trinity, it does declare polytheism. Consider: In part, it says: "So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God." That'sTHREE Gods! Of course, they try to explain it away by saying: "They are not three Gods but one God." Does that make sense to you?

The New Catholic Encyclopedia vol. 10, page 335 admits: "From the middle of the 4th century onward, however, Christian thought was strongly influenced by Neo-platonic philosophy and mysticism."

A Dictionary of Religious Knowledge records that many historians believe that the Trinity "is a corruption borrowed from the heathen religions, and ingrafted on the Christian faith."

Edward Gibbons's History of Christianity notes: "If Paganism was conquered by Christianity, it is equally true that Christianity was corrupted by Paganism. The pure Deism of the first Christians . . . was changed, by the Church of Rome, into the incomprehensible dogma of the trinity. Many of the pagan tenets, invented by the Egyptians and idealized by Plato, were retained as being worthy of belief."

Arius and his followers believed that Jesus was created and thus inferior to the Father. The Council of Nicea ruled in favor of Athanasius and his supporters who believed that Jesus was equal to the Father (which was not true). This was written up in a document called the Nicene Creed. After carefully reading the Nicene Creed, it is interesting to note that in it the Trinity is not yet completely defined. The Father and Son are asserted to be of the same substance, and the Holy Ghost is called “Lord and Giver of Life,” but these three are NOT said to be “one God.”

According to "A Catholic Dictionary": “The true divinity of the third Person was asserted at a Council of Alexandria in 362, . . . and finally by the Council of Constantinople of 381.”

This was three and a half centuries after the holy spirit was poured out at Pentecost 33 C.E.!

The reason the Bible does not clearly teach the Trinity doctrine is simple: It is not a Bible teaching. Had God been a Trinity, he would surely have made it clear so that Jesus and his disciples could have taught it to others. And that vital information would have been included in God’s inspired Word. It would not have been left to imperfect men to struggle with centuries later.

Take a look at Martin's trinity "proof texts" and see if any of them prove the trinity.

"John 10:30 I and the Father are one."

John 14:1 "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

John 14:8 Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us."

9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?"

Martin, how can you prove a trinity the verses that mention only TWO persons? "Tri" in "trinity" means "THREE," not "TWO."

Answer 7

This is really true, hsistory tell the same and text from biblesimilar changes and development so that ordinal feels forgotton.

Christianity was defined and decided by Councils of Nicaea:

Jesus Christ pbuh was regarded as an exalted man in the first centuries but later Christian started believing divinity of Christ and only this idea prevailed and original idea was banned as heresy by Roman authorities and Councils of Nicaea held in 325. This first ecumenical council was convened by Constantine I, emperor of Rome, to settle the Arian dispute concerning the nature of Jesus Christ. Of the 1,800 bishops in the Roman Empire, 318 attended the council. The Nicene Creed, which defined the Son as consubstantial with the Father, was adopted as the official position of the Church regarding the divinity of Christ. And in the Second Council of Nicaea held in 787 and convened by Irene, empress of the East, and it was attended by 350 bishops, most of whom were Byzantine. In spite of strong objections by the iconoclasts, the council validated the veneration of images and ordered their restoration in churches throughout the Roman Empire.

Answer 8

possibly because the author of the article didn't understand the topic, or chose to give a wrong answer to deceive generations of undergraduates, or chose to give one opinion on an issue with other interpretations. encyclopedia britannica is better than wikipedia, but still not a primary or even secondary source.

Answer 9

So what? That kind of stuff only influences rational people. Do you think that it would have any effect on people who believe that a cosmic Jewish zombie, who is his own father, can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced to eat from a magical tree by an infinitely sadistic being, disguised as a talking snake with legs...???

Answer 10

The Early Church never claimed that a term has to be in the Bible to be biblical. The trinity is not a pagan concept but the heart of the Christian realization that the One God is the Eternal God of Love for He would not be so if He were only one person in all eternity.

Answer 11

Christians know the Trinity is another lie invented by men centuries ago.