The dogma of the Trinity is of relatively recent date. There is no reference to it in the Old Testament .... One can even say that it is a conception foreign to primitive [first century A.D., at least] Christianity. - Professor Louis Reau of the Sorbonne (France¡¯s leading university), in Iconographie de l¡' Art Chretien, p. 14., Vol. 2, Book 1.
...the doctrine of the Trinity was of gradual and comparatively late formation; that it had its origin in a source entirely foreign from that of the Jewish and Christian scriptures; that it grew up, and was ingrafted on Christianity, through the hands of the Platonizing Fathers; that in the time of Justin [c.100-165 A.D.], and long after, the distinct nature and inferiority [in comparison to the Father (God alone) only, of course] of the Son were universally taught; and that only the first shadowy outline of the Trinity had then become visible. - The Church of the First Three Centuries, p. 34.
Famous U. S. Founding Father, scholar, and U.S. President, Thomas Jefferson, restates the above in even stronger terms - pp. 631-632, 693-694. He sums it up in a Dec. 8, 1822 letter:
Yes, by the end of the fourth century A.D. the trinitarians had completely taken over the Roman Church (which controlled Christendom for more than a thousand years) and have dominated Christendom ever since. By wielding the power of the secular government (starting with the Roman Emperor Constantine) and enforcing terrible persecutions on those who attempted to retain the original non-trinitarian teachings they have ruthlessly stomped out non-trinitarian opposition until very recent times.
The council of Nicaea, which ... formulated the [trinitarian] creed upon which all the existing Christian churches are based, was one of the most disastrous and one of the least venerable of all religious gatherings. - H. G. Wells, author and historian, God, the Invisible King.
The trinity of persons within the unity of nature is defined in terms of 'person' and 'nature' which are Gr[eek] philosophical terms; actually the terms do not appear in the Bible. The trinitarian definitions arose as the result of long controversies in which these terms and others such as 'essence' and 'substance' were erroneously applied to God by some theologians. - Dictionary of the Bible (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1965), p. 899.
Christian thought had early [long before the Nicene controversy of the 4th century] learned to express its monotheistic stance by insisting that God is the sole agennetos ('underived,' 'ungenerated' ['unbegotten']): that is, the unique and absolute first principle. By contrast with God, all else that exists - INCLUDING THE LOGOS ['The Word', Jesus Christ], GOD'S SON - was described as generated. This implied, of course, not only that the Logos was subordinate to God (as any 'image,' even an exact image, is secondary to the reality it represents), but also that the Logos had something in common with creatures which God did not - some quality of 'generatedness'. - p. 132, A History of the Christian Church, 4th ed., Williston Walker (trinitarian), Scribners, 1985.
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. - New Catholic Encyclopedia (trinitarian), p. 299, Vol. 14, 1967.
Jesus Christ never mentioned such a phenomenon, and nowhere in the New Testament does the word 'trinity' appear. The idea was only adopted by the Church three hundred years after the death of our Lord; and the origin of the conception is entirely PAGAN. - Paganism in our Christianity, pp. 197, 198, Arthur Weigall.
If Paganism was conquered by Christianity, it is equally true that Christianity was corrupted by paganism. The pure Deism of the first Christians (who differed from their fellow Jews only in the belief that Jesus was the promised Messiah) was changed by the Church at 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. - The History of Christianity, Peter Eckler.
Christianity did not destroy Paganism; it adopted it .... From Egypt came the idea of a divine trinity. - The Story of Civilization: Part III, by historian Will Durant.
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NOTES
1.
In fact, it would be even more 'reasonable' to conclude that all the three things found in question #3 above are a 'trinity' than that some of the things found in three separate questions represent a trinity. But, of course, even though the three things in question #3 are all in the same question (and even connected by "and" in the very same breath)## and are necessarily related in some respect, there is absolutely no proper reason to claim they are a trinity: co-equal, co-eternal, of equal power, authority, and importance. It is even less proper to insist on some trinity connection for the three separate questions (or statements) of the earliest creeds!
For a scriptural comparison, let's look at the "three-in-one" aspects of 1 John 5:8. It would be best to use most modern Bible translations here since the King James Version (and the very few modern Bibles based on it) has been proven to have spurious material added at 1 John 5:7 (even trinitarian scholars freely admit this). - See the 1JN5-7 study paper.
If
the three separate statements of the earliest Creeds really add up to three things being equally one God, then 1 John 5:8, which includes the Spirit, is a much more certain proof of a three-in-one God! There's only one slight problem: the two other "persons" who are equally one with the Spirit have unexpected "names"!
"And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is the truth." - 1 John 5:7 ASV. The Spirit IS God, trinitarians say, and, being a person, He can bear witness here. But let's read on:
"For there are three who bear witness [this is the only place in the entire Bible where we find a 'trinitarian' formula that even mentions the word 'three'], The spirit [which is God according to trinitarians], and the water, and the blood: and the THREE [are] in ONE." - ASV.
This is by far the clearest "trinitarian" statement in the entire Bible!! It is the only one that even mentions "three" (although by using trinitarian-style "evidence" we could easily work in "seven" at Rev. 4:5 or "four" at Rev. 4:6 which has 4 living creatures "in the midst of" God's throne). And to top it all off it says "THE THREE ARE IN ONE". (The ASV renders "agree in one," but the word "agree" is not really found in the Bible manuscripts here. It literally says "the three are in one." - Compare the MLB: "the three are one.")
And who are these three equal "persons" (who bear witness) who are equally God himself (since, trinitarians insist, the holy spirit is God and the three are all "in one")? Why these three "persons" who are equally God are the Spirit, the Water, and the Blood! (Notice how verse 9 also shows that these three are "really" God: the witness of these three is really the witness of God!)
Obviously this scripture is really saying that three things are "witnesses" to (or "testify to") Jesus being the Christ, the Son of God: "the Spirit (Greek, to pneuma: singular, neuter - a thing) and the water (Greek, to hudor: singular, neuter - a thing) and the blood (Greek, to haima: singular, neuter - a thing)." And these three things are "one" (Greek, hen, singular, neuter - 'one thing') in that they all "witness" to the same fact that Jesus is Christ. The Spirit "testified" to Jesus being the Christ by visibly descending upon him at his baptism. "Water symbolizes Jesus' baptism, and the blood symbolizes his death" (NIVSB f.n.) These 3 things, then, all "testified" to the same thing. But they are all things! This is why trinitarian copyists in earlier centuries actually added the words of 1 John 5:7 as found in the KJV to the inspired words of John in the translations and copies of manuscripts they were making. They were desperate to find actual scriptural evidence of the trinity concept. And since it didn't honestly exist, they had to manufacture it!
Of course an honest, clear statement of a trinity would be: "For there are three persons who are the only true God: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And the three are the One [heis, singular, masculine] God." (You see, it isn't a difficult statement for anyone to write, let alone an inspired Bible writer. Even "God is three" would be honest, clear evidence, but you will never see even that in the inspired scriptures. In fact, "three" is never used in any description concerning God. And the number "three," in strong contrast to such numbers as "one," "seven," "twelve," and "forty" has little or no importance in the religious content of the Bible! - pp. 565, 566, Vol. 3, A Dictionary of the Bible, Hastings, ed., Hendrickson Publ. - - -and see the IMAGE study, f.n. #8.) But 1 John 5:8 is, by far, the closest the Bible ever comes to such a statement!
Therefore, this clearest of trinitarian "proofs" (1 John 5:8) shows "conclusively" that if the Holy Spirit is God, His two equal partners are not Jesus and Jehovah, but the "persons" of "the Holy Water" and "the Holy Blood"!
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## Here is the highly significant credal statement of St. Clement of Rome (ca. 90 A.D.): "Have we not one God and one Christ and one Spirit of grace (which was poured out upon us) and one calling in Christ?" - 1 Clement 46:6 (see original Greek text).
Clement lists four things, and only one of them (the first listed, of course) is God, and, in fact, God cannot be Christ, the Spirit, or the Calling which are all listed in addition to God!
2. Another early Eastern Creed, which is dated variously between 280 A.D and 350 A.D., and "originated probably in Antioch" translates as:
3. The Nicene Creed was developed at this time in this form:
- In one God, the Father Almighty Maker of all things visible and invisible.
- And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father [the only-begotten; that is, of the same essence of the Father, God of God], Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made [both in heaven and on earth]; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man; he suffered and the third day he rose again, ascended into heaven; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
- And in the Holy Ghost.' - See pp. 28, 29, The Creeds of Christendom, Vol.1, Schaff, Baker Book House.
[Bracketed material above contains material not found in the Received Text.]
This was only a partial statement of the still-developing trinity doctrine for the Church because the Holy Spirit was not described as God in any sense, let alone as a person who was equally God. This statement, however was finally completed 60 years later at the Council of Constantinople where the phrase "the Lord and giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified...." was added after "And in the Holy Ghost." - p. 29, The Creeds of Christendom.
4.
Apparently even as early as 268 A.D. this term had come to have different meanings for different Christians. Noted scholar (and trinitarian) Robert M. Grant tells us that the Bishop of Antioch, Paul of Samosata, "seems to have been willing to speak of the Logos [the Word] as homoousios with the Father; this notion too was condemned at the final synod of 268." Grant tells us that this same Council or Synod of 268 A.D. also excommunicated Paul! - Augustus to Constantine, p. 218, Harper & Row, 1970.
It would be strange indeed if those Christians who condemned this doctrine believed that homoousios meant what it did for Origen (and other early Christians). They surely would not disagree with the statement that the Word (Logos) was united in will [homoousios] with the Father as Origen and others taught.
Therefore these Christians must have known that the heretical Bishop was intending a new meaning that God and the Word were of one substance in a more literal sense that suggested that Jesus was equally God (and they most emphatically denied that teaching!). At any rate, it is certainly significant that this council so strongly condemned the concept that the Logos was homoousios in a literal sense with God as late as 268 A.D.!
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