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Who made the doctrine of the trinity? Was it made in the fourth century? Thanks
The Bible reveals that there is only one true God, but it also reveals that Jesus is God, and that the Holy Spirit is God. In other words, that this one true God is three in 'Persons'. But the understanding of the relationship between the three Persons who are identified as God in the Bible - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is something that took time to develop and mature. While the word 'trinity' (trinitas) is not found in the Bible, but was coined by Tertullian around the year 200 AD., it is terminology which pertains to the relationship of the three 'Persons' who are the one true God.
In the time period between 100-150 AD., the church fathers were not concerned with discussions about the relationship between the 'Persons' who are identified as God in the Bible. John D. Hannah writes;
There is no structured explanation of the plurality of persons in a single existence to be found in the earliest Fathers of the church. It is a doctrine that is complex and difficult; it required the development of distinct vocabulary and years of critical reflection undergirded by intense study in the Scriptures. The Fathers did not enter into the speculative aspects of theology. They were not called upon to explain the apparent contradiction in their proclamation that God is one and yet more than one. [Our Legacy, the History of Christian Doctrine; p. 74]
It was in the years between 150-300 AD. in defense against attacks on the church from gnostics with regard to the nature of God and who denied the deity of Jesus that the church was compelled to focus on the relationship between the Father and the Son. As the church struggled to define the relationship between them various ideas developed such as dynamic and Modalistic Monarchianism which were responses to the teachings of the heretic Marcion and the Gnostics.
As time went on, the understanding concerning the relationship of the 'Persons' declared to be God in the Scriptures matured and the result is what is theologically called the Trinity. Quoting Dr. Hannah again;
The development of the doctrine of the Trinity during the ancient church period provides a perfect case study for how the church developed doctrine according to need. As the church underwent its rapid growth and spread in the early centuries, it came up against diverse ideas about the nature of God. Church leaders had to hammer out a doctrine of God that would be faithful to the evidence of Scripture, and they did so. [Our Legacy, the History of Christian Doctrine; p. 73].
The church did not invent the Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity simply recognizes the Biblical revelation that the one true God is in three 'Persons' with the word 'Persons' not to be thought of in the sense of three persons who have separate existence, but who are inseparately united. Lewis Sperry Chafer writes;
The term personality as applied to God is not to be understood or taken in its strict philosophical sense, in which case wholly distinct beings are indicated. God is one Being, but He is more than one Being in three relations. Well-defined acts which are personal in character are ascribed to each Person of the Three. These acts unequivocally establish personality. Language labors under difficulties at this point. The Persons are not separate, but distinct. The Trinity is composed of three united Persons without separate existence---so completely united as to form One God. The divine nature subsists in three distinctions---Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. [Systematic Theology, vol. 1, p. 276]
As I pointed out to you in post # 2 of your other thread - https://www.city-data.com/forum/chris...irit-mean.html, the fact that the Holy Spirit is God is seen in Acts 5:3-4 where Peter tells Ananias that in lying to the Holy Spirit he did not lie to men, but to God.
And the fact that the Holy Spirit is distinct from the Father is seen in Romans 8:27 where it is said that God (the Father) knows the mind of the Spirit.
Rom. 8:27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
The Holy Spirit has a mind which the Father knows. And the Holy Spirit intercedes for the saints. Intercession is between two parties. The Holy Spirit intercedes between God the Father and man with groanings too deep for words as per Rom. 8:26.
So it is seen that the Holy Spirit is God, but that He is distinct from the Father.
And the fact that He is distinct from Jesus Christ who is the Second Person of the Trinity is seen in passages such as John 14:16-17 and John 16:7-15.
And so it is seen from Scripture that God is one in one way, but three in another way. He is one in nature or essence, but He is three in 'Persons.' And the doctrine of the Trinity recognizes this Biblically revealed truth.
Mike555: «While the word 'trinity' (trinitas) is not found in the Bible, but was coined by Tertullian around the year 200 AD.». «The church did not invent the Trinity». So Tertullian made up the word. So you mean it was invented as time went on after 150-300 when Church leaders had to hammer out a doctrine of God that would be faithful to the evidence of Scripture, and they did so. So no one has got an exact time for when the doctrine about the trinity was made, or when it was started to be used? Thanks
Just like the Christian trinity, these are not three separate gods, but three manifestations of the one god Brahman.
Makes me wonder if Christians somehow borrowed this concept from the Hindus (which is a much older religion). Or, was this a divine revelation to both religions?
Who made the doctrine of the trinity? Was it made in the fourth century? Thanks
Dear Laila,
The Council of Nicaea, in 325 A.D. was tasked by the Roman emperor Constantine, to settle the multiple god head concept, which was causing some disunity within his empire. Even with Constantine's edict of 331 A.D., which was an order of execution to anyone holding writings contrary to that decided by his council, the official clarification of the Trinity came from another emperor of Rome, Theodosius, in 381 A.D.
"In addition, if any writingcomposed by Arius should be found, it should be handed over to the flames, sothat not only will the wickedness of his teaching be obliterated, but nothingwill be left even to remind anyone of him. And I hereby make a public order,that if someone should be discovered to have hidden a writing composed byArius, and not to have immediately brought it forward and destroyed it by fire,his penalty shall be death. As soon as he is discovered in this offence, heshall be submitted for capital punishment....." Arianism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
— Edict by Emperor Constantine against the Arians
#629650dosius. 'Weauthorise followers of this law to assume the title of orthodox Christians; butas for the others since, in our judgement, they are foolish madmen, we decreethat they shall be branded with the ignominious names of heretics.' -Emperor
In AD 381, Theodosius, emperor of the eastern Roman empire, issued a decree inwhich all his subjects were required to subscribe to a belief in the Trinity ofthe Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This edict defined Christian orthodoxy andbrought to an end a lively and wide-ranging debate about the nature of theGodhead; all other interpretations were now declared heretical.
Moreover, for the first time in a thousand years of Greco-Roman civilizationfree thought was unambiguously suppressed. Not since the attempt of the pharaohAkhenaten to impose his god Aten on his Egyptian subjects in the fourteenthcentury BC had there been such a wide sweeping programme of religiouscoercion.Yet surprisingly this political revolution, intended to bring innercohesion to an empire under threat from the outside, has been airbrushed fromthe historical record. Instead, it has been claimed that the Christian Churchhad reached a consensus on the Trinity which was promulgated at the Council ofConstantinople in AD 381. In this groundbreaking new book, acclaimed historianCharles Freeman shows that the council was in fact a shambolic affair, whichonly took place after Theodosius' decree had become law. In short, the Churchwas acquiescing in the overwhelming power of the emperor. Freeman argues thatTheodosius' edict and the subsequent suppression of paganism not only broughtan end to the diversity of religious and philosophical beliefs throughout theempire but created numerous theological problems for the Church, which haveremained unsolved. The year AD 381, Freeman concludes, marked 'a turning pointwhich time forgot'.
The Trinity is a noun coined by the early church as a word beyond Godhead to alternatively describe God in three forms
three persons (I prefer Godhead as its scripturally correct and three manifestations of the ONE God or His three roles. At the risk of manufacturing a doctrine or creating a replacement theology (which I will never do) its interesting that we apply a gender neutral God as HE. Traditionally this is the case why? I believe as a result mainly due to Jesus (man or male or a HE) is in the IMAGE (Male HE) of God or the Father. Since there is a THIRD form of God a third manifestation "some" bible scholars are still debating over the gender of the Holy Spirit why? In the original Hebrew the Holy Spirit is translated Ruach Ha'Kodosh which has a FEMALE connotation or meaning in Hebrew ( not to be confused with Mary the mother of Jesus THAT is replacement theology. Ruach Ha'Kodesh (Kodosh) is linked to YHWH, Yahweh, wind, Holy Spirit, breath, birth, spirit of Elohim. Ref: Ruach ha'Kodesh identiy revealed (You Tube). It's interesting, but for now I believe the spirit of God is HE based on Jesus being male (if that is enough) . The Holy Spirits is His spirit so for now He is appropriate?
Last edited by Inattentive; 04-06-2014 at 02:37 PM..
Reason: formating
The New Encyclopedia 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' (Deuteronomy 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."
The New Catholic Encyclopedia states: "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."
God made the doctrine of the trinity as Father God could not come as He is and be the son of Man , so God created a substitute of Himself and brought Lord Jesus to the earth to be the deliverer of man ....Holy Spirit was always God`s Spirit in the earth and part of God .............A Prophetic Word from God of Jesus the messiah to come and inherit the power of God is from Isaiah 53: 10-12......... ``There for will I divide him {Jesus]a portion with the Great [God ] and he will divide the spoil with the strong , because He has poured out his soul unto death and was numbered with the transgressors , and he bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors ``............ See God comes into unity the His only begotten son and makes Him God through Father God ............... People who deny the trinity doctrine usually do not Have the evidence of Holy Spirit and his baptism and have listen to Catholic deniers or Jesus deniers fallen churches , and have a under developed understanding of the right plan and character of God
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