“As individuals, individual ideas of what scripture means abounds”
Yes. And we will be JUDGED by God as individuals.
“Again, one man thinks some days of more importance than others. Another man considers them all alike. Let every one be definite in his own convictions. If a man specially observes one particular day, he does so “to God”. The man who eats, eats “to God”, for he thanks God for the food. The man who fasts also does it “to God”, for he thanks God for the benefits of fasting. The truth is that we neither live nor die as self-contained units. At every turn life links us to God, and when we die we come face to face with him. In life or death we are in the hands of God. Christ lived and died that he might be the Lord in both life and death.
10-12 Why, then, criticise your brother’s actions, why try to make him look small? We shall all be judged one day, not by each other’s standards or even our own, but by the standard of Christ. It is written: ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God’. It is to God alone that we have to answer for our actions.” - Romans 14
As for the Trinity...that there is one God and one God only is explicit and obvious. That God the Father is not Jesus, and Jesus is not the Holy Spirit, and that the Father, Son & Holy Spirit are referred to as persons is also obvious.
How that works out is not taught or discussed by scripture. I take that to mean it isn’t very important to our salvation or to becoming like Christ - and those are apparently more important in God’s eyes than our being able to dissect God.
“If a person says that Christ was a man, “adopted” as God’s son, do you believe that has no effect on their salvation?”
That would suggest Christ is not eternally God, which contradicts scripture. At some point, believing in Jesus means believing accurately enough to be believing in the REAL Jesus, and not a fake.
What matters for salvation is getting the right Jesus. When I converted at 12, I didn’t have a clue about any discussion of the Trinity - but I had met the real Jesus. With time, my theology - knowing about God - has hopefully improved. Had I believed in the ‘wrong’ Jesus, either the scriptures and teachings of men gifted by the Holy Spirit to teach would have converted me to the real Jesus, and THEN I would be saved, or I would have rejected the REAL Jesus and insisted in following the fake.
When discussing a CHURCH, I find the Trinity to be one of the most accurate ways of discerning if the church is true or false. Three Persons, One God - that makes no sense to me, or to anyone really. It is beyond my imagination. I have never seen a church or teacher who denied the Trinity who wasn’t also in error in many other areas. I believe the Catholic Church is in error in many areas, but it has held firm to the basics of the Trinity...although it may have also tried to add to what little God has revealed. Still, it gets that right, and that is why I believe that there are still many Christian Catholics. It is knowing God that saves us, not getting high scores on a systematic theology test.
But an individual may be saved without having clue one about what is meant by the Trinity, or to what extent it is taught in scripture. I was. In time, God used both the scriptures and godly men to teach me that Three Persons / One God is true, even if it makes no sense to me.
But I trust the concept because it is revealed in scripture. I do not trust the more detailed explanations offered by church councils.
From my perspective, there is ample truth about God and how He would have me live revealed in scripture that I am not living by right now. That is sin. God wants me to take that sin seriously, and to change me into the image of Jesus Christ. “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” - Romans 8
I am more concerned about the sin in my life that shames God than I am in a detailed, intellectual description of the nature of God Himself. The God-breathed scriptures make it obvious that God cares more about that as well.
Religion makes salvation way more complicated than God intended it to be.
Romans 10:8-13 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Amen and Amen! Well put!