The doctrine of the Trinity is a popular doctrine for the cults to attack. The reason of course is that if Christ is brought down to a lower level, then His authority crumbles. His death, burial and resurrection are meaningless. The fundamentals are destroyed, so the whole house crumbles! In essence those who argue against the Trinity argue from their own reason. They ignore their observations of the Bible. They define their doctrine instead of letting the Bible define their doctrine. The argument can be summarized by the claim that man makes god in his own image. At the opposite end of the theological spectrum, that is, one end of the spectrum is one's own reason, at the opposite end, is mysticism. If the cult is not of an intellectual bent, the cult usually turns to mysticism making the person of Christ and the Holy Spirit into some impersonal force!
This paper addresses the history of the controversy of the Trinity, its definition, the persons of the Trinity, and the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Introductory Remarks
What makes the denial of the Trinity so much more difficult to understand is that those who oppose the doctrine are usually from within Christianity! This should, however, not be surprising since the Scriptures warn of false Christs, false teachers, and deceiving doctrines of Satan (Matt 24:24; Mk. 13:22; 2 Pet. 2:1).
One of the greatest cult researchers of the twentieth century, Dr. Walter Martin writes, "Since the central doctrine of almost all cults is the denial of both the Deity and Saviorhood of the Lord Jesus, we must exert renewed effort in preaching and teaching these major doctrines of our Christian heritage."
Dr. Martin has identified and categorized the beliefs of the major cults of his day as follows: "The Jesus of the Christian Scientist, the Mormons, the Jehovah's Witnesses, and of all the cult systems, is but a subtle caricature of the Christ of divine revelation, In cult theology, He becomes an abstraction (Christian Science, Unity, Metaphysics, New Thought), a second god (Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism, Theosophy, Rosacrucianism, Baha'ism), or a pantheistic manifestation of deity (Spiritism, the Great I Am); but He is still incontrovertibly "another Jesus," who represents another gospel and imparts another spirit, which by no conceivable stretch of the imagination could be called holy."
The Doctrine Defined
The Trinity is not a word that is found in the Bible. One cannot go to a concordance and find the word "Trinity," then search out a systematic and clear understanding of the doctrine. One can, however, pick up a concordance and find the word "God" and come to the conclusion of our Triune Godhead. That is, the Father is called God (1 Cor. 8:6), the Son is called God (Heb. 1:8-10), and the Holy Spirit is called God (Acts 5:3-4)! This is what the "scientist" of the Word must do. The student of the Word must come to the source of knowledge, namely, the Bible, "observe," then characterize or systematize what has been observed. The key is to let the Bible define the terms while letting the context help in what is being observed.
The word Trinity comes to the English from the Latin 'trinus' or 'trinitas' meaning "three together." The earliest use of the word in found in the writings of Theophilus of Antioch (c. 181 A.D.) who remarked, "the three days which were before the luminaries are types of the Trinity (To Autolycus 2.15). The term 'triad' is employed by Plotinus (c. 270 A.D.) and Proclus (c. 485 A.D.). Tertullian (c. 220 A.D.) uses the term 'trinitas'. Origen (c. 250 A.D.) uses 'trias'". Dr. Ryrie provides a modern definition as: "In the one living and true God there are three coeternal and coequal Persons, the same in substance but distinct in existence."
Since any doctrine is sometimes better defined using negatives Dr. Waterhouse notes, "The Scriptural teaching about God is that there is one God who exists in three equal persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is not true that there are three gods, nor that there is one god who manifests himself at various times in three different forms. It is not that God consists of three parts, for God cannot be divided. Some aspects of the Godhead are capable of being understood; others are inscrutable."
Whether one defines the doctrine of the Trinity in the positive or negative, it is a fact of Scripture. One cannot examine the facts and conclude anything different. The nineteenth century theologian Dr. Augustus Strong does an excellent job of observing the following from Scripture concerning the Trinity, "I. In Scripture there are three who are recognized as God. 2. These three are so described in Scripture that we are compelled to conceive of them as distinct persons. 3. This tripersonality of the divine nature is not merely economic and temporal, but is immanent and eternal. 4. This tripersonality is not tritheism; for while there are three persons, there are but one essence. 5. The three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, are equal. 6. Inscrutable yet self-contradictory, this doctrine furnishes the key to all other doctrines."
The Historical Setting for a Definition
History shows that there were those in the early church that had problems both describing and understanding the relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For example, such men as John Ascunages and John Philoponus taught tri-theism, namely, that there are three who are God but they are only related in loose association. "The error of this teaching was that its proponents abandoned the unity within the Trinity with the result that they taught there were three Gods rather than three Persons within one Godhead."
Another scheme of sorts is called Sabellianism or Modalism taught by Sabellius (c. A.D. 200). Sabellius taught that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are simply three modes of existence or three manifestations of one God. The best known teachers of this doctrine today are the Oneness Pentecostals.
The third major unorthodox view of the Trinity is that of Arian. In this view the Son is subordinate to the Father in respect to essence. Thus, Arianism denies the deity of Christ and says God was uncreated, but because Christ was begotten of the Father, Christ was created by the Father.
The confusion over the deity of Christ was the first doctrine to cause such a stir within the early church that Constantine thought it best to call the first universal church council. "In worship and other activities the Christians did not necessarily feel any tension between these two basic beliefs [that is, Christ as Lord, Yahweh; and the Lord our God is one]. But both Jews and pagans such as Celsus accused Christians of having two gods. Some Christians were also making unacceptable statements about Christ. The issue of the Trinity (a later term) became an unavoidable problem…. Docetists and Jewish Christians, such as the Ebionites, saw no problem. The Docetists regarded Christ as merely a temporary appearance of God disguised as a human. The Ebionites saw Jesus as an ordinary person indwelt by God's power at his baptism. Neither believed that Jesus Christ was truly God."
With the great growth of Christianity in the early church came the growth of heresy. This was, after all, the time of the third generation believers. As hard as it was for the first generation believers such as the apostle Paul to address heresy, how much more for the third generation! Arius was a native of Libya, but came to reside at Alexandria as a presbyter of the Church there. About the year 320, his views denying the true deity of Christ attracted sufficient attention to cause the summoning of a council of Egyptian and Libyan bishops, by which he and his followers were excommunicated. But Arius was not to be silenced. He gained support from other bishops. And as the great historian, Dr. Schaff writes, "The controversy soon involved, through the importance of the subject and the seal of the parties, the entire church, and transformed the whole Christian East into a theological battle-field. Constantine, the first emperor who mingled in the religious affairs of Christendom, and who did this from a political, monarchical interest for the unity of the empire and of religion, was at first inclined to consider the contest a futile logomachy, and endeavored to reconcile the parties in diplomatic style by letters… but without effect…Then, in pursuance, as he thought, of a 'divine inspiration,' and probably also with the advice of bishops who were in friendship with him, he summoned the first universal council, to represent the whole church of the empire, and to give a final decision upon the relation of Christ to God, and upon some minor questions of discipline, the time of Easter, and the Meletian schism in Egypt." So it was that "Near the beginning of the fourth century a 'strong party' within the church, under the leadership of Arius, maintained that Christ was a created angel. Athanasius championed orthodoxy and secured the condemnation of Arianism at the Council of Niceae in A.D. 325. The decision was repeated and the Nicene Creed received its final form at the Council of Constantinople in A.D. 381. The Creed is thus stated:
I believe in one God the Father Almighty; Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by Whom all things were made;… And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life; who proceedeth from the Father; who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified.
Next week the doctrine will be defended and the deity of the Father will be established.
