Five major problems with the Trinity

The following are my notes from the video, Five Major Problems With The Trinity (duration 36:54). The video is also found here: ChristianMonotheism.com

#1. Jesus affirmed the theology of a non-trinitarian Jewish scribe. Jesus was a practicing Jew. Jesus was a Jew who believed the same about God as the Jews. As such, first century Jews did not believe in the Trinity. The Jewish Scriptures proclaimed radical monotheism.

• Deuteronomy 4:35: To you it was shown, that you might know that Yahweh is God; there is no other besides him.
• Deuteronomy 4:39: know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that Yahweh is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.
• Deuteronomy 6:4: Hear, O Israel: Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one.

Jesus did not alter the Shema Yisrael (i.e. Deuteronomy 6:4). If someone knew the Scriptures, it was a Jewish scribe. Before Jesus, a scribe asked concerning the greatest commandment (see Mark 12:28-34). This interchange is important because of verse 32 which reads: And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him." This was a perfect opportunity for Jesus to correct him or in some way alter his monotheistic viewpoint, but he didn't. Rather, Jesus affirmed it.

#2. The Bible never explains the Trinity. Sure, you can pull together a verse here and there in order to find support for an a priori theory, but this is not the same as something explicitly explained in Scripture. The Trinity is like an oral tradition taught alongside Scripture, never written down by the first century believers. The problem with "oral tradition" is that it puts it in the same category as the tradition of the Pharisees in Jesus' time.

• The Bible never uses the word "Trinity".
• The Bible never uses the phrases "God the Son" and "God the Holy Spirit".
• The Bible never mentions or explains the terms "co-eternal," "co-essential," and "co-equal."
• The Bible never explains the dual nature of Christ and His "two wills."

#3. Lack of controversy in the first century. There is no record of Jews who converted to Christianity (or not) ever challenging the Trinity doctrine in the first century. Yet, the New Testament is full of controversies, such as:

• Corinth was full of controversies, from factions to speaking in tongues to impropriety at communion, etc.
• Controversy over whether Gentiles could be accepted into Christianity.
• Controversy over whether justification came through the works of the law or by faith.

There are three options to possibly explain this lack of controversy over the Trinity:

1. The Trinity doctrine did not exist in the first century.
2. It existed but was not taught—i.e. it was not that important.
3. It was taught but it caused no controversy whatsoever among monotheistic Jewish communities (conspiracy theory).

However, after the first century, controversy over the Trinity occurred in abundance.

• [325] Nicea I: Is the Son eternal?
• [381] Constantinople I: Is the Holy Spirit the Third Person?
• [431] Ephesus: Was Mary the bearer of Christ's divine nature (theotokos)?
• [451] Chalcedon: Did Christ have one or two natures? How?
• [553] Constantinople II: How can we interpret the dual natures without dividing Christ into two?
• [681] Constantinople III: Did Christ have one or two wills? (monothelitism versus dyothelitism controversy)
• [787] Nicea II: Can icons of Christ be worshiped? How?

In everyone of the above controversies, the "loser" got kicked out of the church. Thus, debate over the Trinity was (and is) inherently divisive. So, we have a conundrum here:

• If the myth of Trinitarian primacy is true—that it always existed and was understood and taught since the time of the apostles—then why was there over four centuries of controversies?
• Why does this historical record look like the Trinity went through a slow evolution spanning centuries?

#4. God is always addressed in the singular. Singular pronouns exclude the notion of multiple persons of God.

• God is always addressed or spoken of using singular personal pronouns (you and he).
• God almost always speaks using singular personal pronouns (except for the four "us" texts in which God is including others in an action).

Here are the four "us" texts:

1. Genesis 1:26: Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...
2. Genesis 3:22: Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—
3. Genesis 11:7: Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.
4. Isaiah 6:8: And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

#5. Jesus was not omniscient. God knows everything that can be known. But, if the Trinity is true then Jesus is fully God, and so he should have full knowledge, right? The problem exists in Mark 13:32,

Mark 13:32: But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. [Note that in the Matthew account a scribe took out the reference to the Son.]

Did Jesus really not know, or did he know and didn't want to admit it? There are two options to this dilemma:

1. Jesus, as God, really did know, but pretended not to know.
2. Jesus, really did not know and therefore is not really God (at least, not in a trinitarian sense).

The trinitarian comeback is usually,

Jesus knew in his divine nature, but not in his human nature. So when he was speaking in Mark 13:32, he was speaking from his human nature.

The non-trinitarian response is,

• But, the Trinity teaches that there is only one person subsisting in two natures!
• He cannot have two minds, one that knew something and another that did not know something, unless we now want to make the absurd claim that mind and person are not correlated.

Additional Problems (not addressed)

#6. The Holy Spirit does not have a name.