Posted on 03/13/2019 7:10:06 AM PDT by Gamecock
“As for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.”
- Titus 2:1
In the history of Christian theology, we often find that the church comes to its clearest understanding of the Word of God when it is forced to confront error. To sufficiently answer the heretics’ distortion of the Bible and its meaning, church leaders dig deep into the Scriptures and come up with vocabulary that is able to summarize all of what God’s Word teaches. When it comes to the doctrine of the Trinity, the battle with heresy played a particularly important role in the early church, and it was in confronting various heresies that much of the language we use to define Trinitarian doctrine was developed.
Since the doctrine of the Trinity requires us to affirm that in one sense God is one and that in another sense God is three, it is not too surprising that most Trinitarian heresies tend to emphasize God’s oneness at the expense of His threeness or His threeness at the expense of His oneness. This was certainly true during the first few centuries of church history. One of the earliest heresies emphasized God’s oneness so much that it had no room left for God’s threeness. This heresy, which is often called modalism, collapses the three persons of the Godhead into one person. In modalism, God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but He is not simultaneously Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There is no eternal fellowship between Father, Son, and Spirit; rather, at one point in history God was the Father, then He switched to being the Son, and now He is the Holy Spirit.
The church rejected modalism because Scripture clearly teaches that the three persons are eternal. Psalm 110, for example, has two of the persons speaking to one another, not one setting aside His identity and picking up another. Furthermore, that the Son can pray to the Father (John 17) indicates that the incarnation was not a matter of the Father exchanging His identity and becoming the Son. Otherwise, how could the Son speak to the Father during the Son’s earthly ministry?
A second major Trinitarian heresy in the early church was Arianism. Named for its chief proponent, Arius, this heresy said the first and greatest creation of God is the Son of God, by whom God made all other things. So, the Son has an exalted place in Arian theology over all creation. However, as exalted as the Son might be in Arianism, He is still a creature and not eternally God. Given that the full deity of Christ is clearly taught in passages such as John 1:1–18, it is not surprising that Arianism was finally rejected by biblical Christianity.
Coram Deo
The church rejected modalism and Arianism centuries ago, but that has not stopped these ideas from recurring from time to time. Unitarians and some Pentecostals affirm a form of modalism. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are modern-day Arians. Even many people in evangelical churches may unwittingly affirm one of these heresies. We must study doctrine so that we can recognize heresy and keep ourselves from believing it.
Passages for Further Study
Micah 5:2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
Acts 20:28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. 32 And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
Romans 9:5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
Ping
Interestingly, Arius argued his position chiefly from scripture, and his argument was defeated at Nicea with the use of the non-scriptural term “homoousious.”
Where is the doctrine of the Trinity dealt with explicitly in the Bible?
Heretics are infamous for using Scripture to “prove” their points, but fail to set that scripture in context or in harmony with other scriptures. Proper biblical study looks at context and scriptural harmony to ensure we understand what God is telling us.
And with scripture readily available, anyone who truly wants to understand the scripture, can do so.
A very telling point of heretical beliefs is the disappearance of scripture from their services, or the minimization of scripture for something else; i.e. spiritual feelings, logical fallacies, etc.
As far as heretics using the Scripture ought not to come as a surprise. After all, the devil used it to tempt our Lord in the wilderness.
It’s a clear and obvious fact that the trinity is NOT found in the bible and was not the belief of the first Christians or of biblical figures. It’s an evolved doctrine. This is completely documented and provable through the history of the Christian church.
“It’s a clear and obvious fact that the trinity is NOT found in the bible and was not the belief of the first Christians or of biblical figures” etc...
You don’t believe in the Trinity?
What do you believe? The binary?
The implications of Matthew 28:19 are pretty clear, I think. Only God has the power to remit sins, and we are told to baptize people in all 3 names of God, as they all have the same power.
The fact that the Trinity cannot be fully understood is itself a testimony to the authenticity of God’s revelation. It isn’t a New Testament concept and the scriptures doesn’t explain it. It starts in Genesis 1 with “Let US make man...” and further complicate the matter in Exodus with “The Lord God is one God...”
The scriptures simply gives us bread crumbs sprinkled throughout of who God is.
If it's clear, then why the need for the Council of Nicea? Why nearly four centuries of confusion and infighting?
In the sense that the bible teaches that the Godhead is composed of the father and son, yes. The trinity theory has elevated the holy spirit to a third "person". The bible teaches that the holy spirit is the presence of God (father and son) in our reality.
400 years of "evolution". Some might say devolution.
Actually Matthew 28:19 is a baptismal formula, shorted to convey essential thoughts.
Mat 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
This is how the first Christians saw it:
Act 2:38 Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Repent: Turn back to God the father and his ways. Be baptized in the name of Jesus. And then receive the holy spirit.
That's the three steps to becoming a Christian.
Not much ‘Trinitarian Doctrine’ in this teaching of Christ’s oneness with God:
John 17:21-23 King James Version (KJV)
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
Notice, Christ wanted his disciples to be one .... just as he and the Father are one! In other words, One in purpose, nor one in actual entity!
I should clarify that the name of Jesus is really a statement about the power and authority of Jesus. There is no other name by which we can be saved...or no other authority.
What we say when we baptize or get baptized should be said with this understanding. Unfortunately the trinity doctrine has clouded even this straight forward understanding of Matthew 28:19.
“Why nearly four centuries of confusion and infighting?”
Because we’re human and humans tend to muck things up whenever they get a chance.
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