[boatbums]

They have nothing in common with God’s actual truth. The Bible and all of Creation witness to God’s infinite majesty and sense of structure and organization. And sense of humor, too. The trinity doctrine, OTOH, could be best described as a hot mess.

Where do you think the early Christians got the idea of a Trinity? What you call a "hot mess" may communicate your view of how clumsily the doctrine may have been explained in the past, but that is only the fault of finite human minds trying the best they can to explain something of the infinite. Regardless, there is no escaping the truth that Scripture DOES teach the triune nature of God.

Now, you may not believe in the doctrine - and only you can relate why you reject it - but it is a solid fact that the early doctrinal disputes with sects such as Docetists and Gnostics were disputed BY the appeal to Holy Scripture. Men such as Athanasius presented a better argument than they could and it is why the belief in the Trinity has remained a central tenet of the Christian faith.

Here's the argument...we believe in only one God. Jesus is God in the flesh as prophesied, by his own words and by the words of the Apostles in the writings of the New Testament. Those same sources say that the Holy Spirit is God. Ergo...we have ONE God who is manifested in three persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There are far too many passages of Scripture one would have to ignore to assert Christians just "read into" or made up the doctrine without Scriptural warrant.

[Elsie]

Here's the argument...

 

And here is the bottom line:

 

 

John 6:28-29

Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

 

[metmom]

Some verses that support the Triune nature of God.

Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

Romans 8:9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

1 Corinthians 12:4-6 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

Ephesians 4:4-6 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.