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Trinitarian History

"The trinity of God is defined by the Church as the belief that in God are three persons who subsist in one nature. That belief as so defined was reached only in the 4th and 5th centuries AD and hence is not explicitly and formally a biblical belief." --The Dictionary of the Bible, John L. McKenzie, S.J., p. 899.

Notes on the trinitarian history

  • The Catholic "Athanasian Creed" (c. 5th - 7th century) reads something like the following: We worship one God in a Trinity and a Trinity in unity. Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the substance. For one person is of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Spirit. But the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is one divinity, equal in glory, and coeternal in majesty.
  • "It is difficult in the second half of the 20th century to offer a clear, objective and straightforward account of the revelation, doctrinal evolution, and theological elaboration of the Mystery of the trinity. Trinitarian discussion, Roman Catholic as well as other, present a somewhat unsteady silhouette. Two things have happened. 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. . .it was the product of 3 centuries of doctrinal development" --The New Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIV, p. 295
  • "Because the Trinity is such an important part of later Christian doctrine, it is striking that the term does not appear in the New Testament. Likewise, the developed concept of three coequal partners in the Godhead found in later creedal formulations cannot be clearly detected within the confines of the canon. . . . While the New Testament writers say a great deal about God, Jesus, and the Spirit of each, no New Testament writer expounds on the relationship among the three in the detail that later Christian writers do." --The Oxford Companion to the Bible, Bruce Metzger and Michael Coogan, p. 782
  • "In Christian doctrine, the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead. Neither the word Trinity nor the explicit doctrine appears in the New Testament, . . . The Council of Nicaea in 325 stated the crucial formula for that doctrine in its confession that the Son is 'of the same substance [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." --The Encyclopaedia Britannica, on the heading "Trinity"
  • Augsburg Confession, A.D. 1530. "And the term 'person' they [Protestant churches] use as the Fathers have used it, to signify, not a part or quality in another, but that which subsists of itself."
  • The SDA 28 Fundamental Beliefs (2015 ed.) - The Trinity: "There is one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a unity of three coeternal Persons..."
  • The Formulation of the Trinity Doctrine by Lynnford Beachy. (Or read in Adobe Acrobat Format.)
  • The Pagan Influence Upon the Development of the Doctrine of the Trinity by Michael F Blume.
  • Triquetra. "The symbol has been used by Christians as a sign of the Blessed Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), especially since the Celtic Revival of the 19th century....It has been used on the title page and binding of some editions of the New King James Version." The symbol of the Trinity in Catholicism is taken from witchcraft. It is composed of three sixes. It is discussed in detail here: Who is on the Lords side? (about 30 minutes into the video). How to draw the Triquetra.
  • The Gods of Babylon. Duration 1:26:45. Restitution Ministries. Babylon is the source of triune gods in most world pagan religions. It was based on the "sun" god, at its sunrise, zenith (noon day), and sunset.
  • Quotations from Robert H. Pierson, president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 1966 - 1979. "Perhaps no other truth in all of Holy Scripture comes to us so marked with the blood of controversy as does the Bible doctrine of the Trinity. History records that ancient nations staked their very existence upon their conception of the Godhead." (Robert H. Pierson, The Message, January 1948, 'God the Father'). "Three kingdoms, the Heruli, the Vandals, and the Ostrogoths, were blotted from existence during the latter part of the fifth and the early part of the sixth centuries because they refused to accept the orthodox teaching of the ruling [Catholic] church concerning this dogma. Clergymen have been persecuted, exiled, and slain as the tide of favor regarding certain aspects of this subject ebbed and flowed in the early church." (Pierson - Ibid). See The Establishing of Trinitarianism Within Christianity for further references on the uprooting of these three kingdoms by the "little horn" power.
  • The Trinity Delusion. Website of Brother Kel.

Not proven by Scripture

  • The New Catholic Encyclopedia (1967 Vol. XIV, p. 299: 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.
  • Basic Theology by Charles Ryrie, 1999, p. 89-90: Many doctrines are accepted by evangelicals as being clearly taught in the Scripture for which there are no proof texts. The doctrine of the Trinity furnishes the best example of this. It is fair to say that the Bible does not clearly teach the doctrine of the Trinity. In fact, there is not even one proof text, if by proof text we mean a verse or passage that “clearly” states that there is one God who exists in three persons. The above illustrations prove the fallacy of concluding that if something is not proof texted in the Bible we cannot clearly teach the results . . . If that were so, I could never teach the doctrine of the Trinity.