Article published in The Watchtower 1/11/1991
Image: "Preaching of Saint Paul" by Le Sueur
Jesus and his disciples have they taught doctrine of the Trinity? Over the centuries followed, the Church leaders have they taught? How did it come about? And why is it important to know the truth about this belief? This first part introduces a series of articles in The Watchtower will devote to these issues.
those who acknowledge the Bible as the Word of God admit they have a duty to communicate to their peers taught about the Creator. In addition, they understand that what they teach about God must be true.
God took over the "comforters" of Job for failing to meet this requirement. "Jehovah said to Eliphaz the Temanites: 'My anger became fierce against you and your two companions, because you do not say about me, what is true, as my servant Job. "- Job 42:7.
Speaking of resurrection, the apostle Paul said that we would be be "false witnesses of God" if we taught her about the things he did not do (1 Corinthians 15:15). That being the teaching of the resurrection, we must be very cautious when it comes to teach anything about the identity of God.
The doctrine of the Trinity
Almost all churches of Christianity teach that God is a trinity. The Catholic Encyclopedia (Eng.) said that the Trinity is "the fundamental doctrine of Christianity," and defines it thus:
"In the unity of the Godhead there are three persons: Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, three persons are really distinct. Thus, as the Athanasian Creed, 'the Father is God, God the Son, and Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three Gods but one God. (...) The people are co-eternal and co-equal: they are the same way, and uncreated omnipotentes1. "
The Baptist Encyclopedia (Eng.) gives a similar definition. It reads:
"[Jesus] is (...) the eternal Jehovah. (...) The Holy Spirit is Jehovah. (...) The Son and the Spirit are on a strictly equal footing with the Father. If Jehovah is, they are aussi2. "
Opponents are anathematized
In 325 the Council of Nicaea, Asia Minor, has formulated a creed affirming that the Son of God is" truly God ", of As the Father is "truly God". In this Creed, it declared:
"As for those who say that there was [a time] where [the Son] was not born before he was not, and was born of nothing, or assert that the Son of God is of another hypostasis or substance, or was created and is subject to change; these, the Catholic Church anathématise3. "
Therefore, anyone who believed the Son and the Father are not co-eternal, or that the Son was created was delivered to eternal damnation. Imagine the influence that this may exert on the mass of believers.
In 381, another council met in Istanbul and said that we should worship and glorify the Holy Spirit, just as the Father and the Son. A year later, in 382, held a synod in Constantinople in which it affirmed the full divinity of the spirit saint4. That same year, before a council which was held in Rome, Pope Damasus introduced a collection of teachings to be condemned by the Church. The document, called the Tome of Damasus, contained the following statements:
"Whoever denies the Father eternal, the Son is eternal and that the Holy Spirit is eternal, this one is a heretic. "
" Whoever denies the Son of God is truly God as the Father is truly God, having all power, and knowing all the equal of the Father, this one is a heretic. "
" Anyone who denies that the Holy Spirit is truly God (...) (...) has all power and knows all, (...) this one is a heretic. "
" Anyone who denies that three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit are real people, they are equal, eternal, containing all things visible and invisible, and they are all-powerful (...) This one is a heretic. "
" Whoever says that [the Son who has been] made flesh was not in heaven with the Father when he was on earth, this one is a heretic ".
" Whoever, recognizing that the Father is God, God the Son and the Holy Spirit is God, (...) does not say they are one God, one (...) there is a hérétique5. "
Jesuits who translated these passages from the Latin have made this remark:" Pope St. Celestine I (422-432) seemed to take these guns for law and can be regarded as definitions of foi6. "The Bible scholar Edmund Fortman says, meanwhile, that the Tome is a" solid trinitaire7 doctrine. "
If you belong to a church that accepts the teaching of the Trinity, can tell you that these statements are definitions of your faith? On the other hand, did you know that to accept the doctrine of the Trinity taught by the churches he had to believe that Jesus was in heaven when he was on earth? This teaching is similar to that expounds Athanasius Church of the fourth century, in a book entitled De l'Incarnation:
"The Word [Jesus] was not locked in His body and His presence in the flesh did not prevent him from being present elsewhere as well. When he moved, he also did not cease to lead the world, thanks to his intelligence and his power. (...) It is still the lifeblood of the entire universe, present in everything and yet outside the tout8. "
What is the doctrine of the Trinity?
Some think that believing in the Trinity is only to give the divinity of Jesus. Others simply believe that it is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
However, careful examination Creed of Christendom reveals that these views do not correspond at all to the official definitions. These show clearly that the Trinity is not a simple idea. It is instead a complex set of independent ideas that have been associated over the centuries as to form a system.
design that could be done in Trinidad after the Council of Constantinople (381), the Tome of Damasus (382), the Athanasian Creed, which came some time later, and other documents are still all of which allow us to determine precisely what this doctrine of Christianity. We distinguish the following ideas:
1. There in the Godhead three divine persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
2. Each of these different people would be eternal, none occurred before or after the other.
3. Each would be almighty, none greater or less than the other.
4. Each would be omniscient, knowing everything.
5. Each is truly God.
6. However, there would not three Gods but one God.
Clearly, the doctrine of the Trinity is a complex set of ideas which we have mention the most important, because a detailed examination would reveal more. However, it is clear that if we left out one of these fundamental ideas, which would no longer be the Trinity of Christianity. To get a complete view of this doctrine, we must take them all. Including
better what is meant by the word "Trinity", we ask: Was This doctrine taught by Jesus and his disciples? If this is the case, it should be fully formed from the first century AD. And since what Jesus taught his disciples and is in the Bible or the doctrine of the Trinity is exposed in the Bible, or it is not. If it is, it must be clear.
can not reasonably believe that Jesus and his disciples have been taught about God without saying who he really is, especially knowing that the believers would have to give up their lives to God. Jesus and his disciples would have had to give priority to the teaching of this fundamental doctrine. Let the Scriptures
In Acts chapter 17, verse 11, we told some people they are "noble" because they "scan the Scriptures daily to see if this is so, what the Apostle Paul tells them. It encourages people to check the scriptures to the teachings of Paul, yet an apostle. That's what we should do.
us remember that the Scriptures are "inspired by God 'and must be used to" put things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, that man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work ". (2 Timothy 3:16, 17.) Therefore, the Bible is perfect or complete in its doctrinal teaching. If the Trinity exists, it must be stated in the Bible.
We invite you to scrutinize the Bible, especially the 27 books that constitute the Christian Greek Scriptures, to see if Jesus and his disciples taught any trinity. During your research, ask yourself the following questions:
1. Is there a single passage that contains the word "Trinity"?
2. Is there a single passage that says God is three distinct persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and these three are one God?
3. Is there a single passage that says the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are equal in everything, so in eternity, power, position and wisdom?
You can search, you will not find any Scripture passage that contains the word "Trinity" nor any passage that says the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are equal in everything, so in eternity, power, position or wisdom. There is not a single passage saying that the Son is equal with the Father in these areas, and even if it was this passage does not prove the Trinity, because this doctrine entails a whole, not two, but three elements, and nowhere does the Bible of the holy spirit the equal of the Father.
What say many biblical scholars
Many biblical scholars, including Trinitarians acknowledge that the Bible contains no doctrine formal Trinity. Here, for example, what we read in The Encyclopedia of Religion (Eng.):
"Today, scholars and theologians agree that the Hebrew Bible contains no doctrine of the Trinity. (...) Although the Hebrew Bible calls God the father of Israel and it personifies God by using words such as Word (Davar), Spirit (Ruach), Wisdom (hokhmah) and Presence (Shekhinah), this would force the intent and spirit of the Old Testament to link these notions with the doctrine of the Trinity appeared later.
"In addition, exegetes and theologians agree that the New Testament contains no explicit doctrine of the Trinity. God the Father is the source of all that is (Pantokrator) and the father of Jesus Christ, 'Father' is not a title given to the first person of the Trinity but a synonym for God.
(...) "In the New Testament, there is no reflexive consciousness of the metaphysical nature of God ('immanent trinity'); it lacks either the technical language in which this doctrine subsequently exposed (hupostasis, ousia, substantia, subsistentia, prosopon, persona). (...) It is undeniable that this doctrine can be proved by relying solely Écritures9. "
respect to the history of this doctrine, here is what we read in the New Encyclopaedia Britannica:
" The word Trinity does not appear in the New Testament. The doctrine means that there is never stated explicitly. (...)
"This doctrine took shape gradually over several centuries and through many controversies.
(...) "It was not until the late fourth century that the distinction between the three and their unit were collected in the same doctrine Orthodox one essence and three people.10. "
One reads about the same in the New Catholic Encyclopedia (Eng.) on the origin of the Trinity:
" The exegetes and theologians, including a number growing Catholics, recognize that it is inappropriate to speak of the Trinitarian doctrine in the New Testament without serious reservations. Specialists in the history of dogma and systematic theologians agree, each for their part, that when we speak of a doctrine of the Trinity completed, we move from the period of the origins of Christianity than, say, the last quarter of the fourth century. It is only then that what might be called the definitive doctrine of the Trinity, one God in three Persons' became part of life and Christian thought. (...)
"The formula itself does not reflect the immediate consciousness that we had at the time of origin and is the product of 3 centuries of training doctrinale11."
"Implicitly"? The Trinitarian
may say that the Bible speaks of "implicit" in a trinity. But this statement is far post the writing of the Bible. It is an attempt to make the Bible say that the church has, over time, arbitrarily decided what would this doctrine.
Ask yourself this question: Why the Bible she would be content to speak of "implicit" in his most important lesson, one that relates to the identity of God? The Bible is clear on other key issues, why would she not on it, the most important? If it were a trinity, the Creator of the universe would have it not clearly revealed in the book he was writing? The reason
that the Bible does not teach clear doctrine of the Trinity is simple: it is not a biblical teaching. If God was a Trinity, he would have made it clear that Jesus and his disciples might reveal it to others. And this essential knowledge have been recorded in the inspired Word of God. God would not have left it to imperfect men to grapple with this issue in later centuries.
That shows us an honest examination of biblical texts which, according to Trinitarians, speak "implicitly" in the Trinity? What do these passages not speak of the Trinity taught by Christianity. Theologians forcing Scripture to try to make them express their preconceived ideas about the Trinity. But these ideas are not Trinitarian in texts. Indeed, they are inconsistent with the testimony that emerges from the Bible in its entirety.
One of the texts cited in support of the Trinity is found in Matthew 28:19, 20, which speaks both of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Some see an allusion to the Trinity. But read these verses. Y is said somewhere that the three are one God and they are equal in eternity, power, position and wisdom? No. It is the same with other texts that speak to both of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
As for those who, in Matthew 28:19, 20, would be tempted to draw conclusions from the use of the word "name" in the singular, referring to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we pray for examine the use of the same word in the plural, about Abraham and Isaac, which is made in Genesis 48:16. - Jerusalem, New World Translation. The Trinitarian
also argue the passage from John 1:1, where in some translations, it is called the "Word" as being "with God" and as "God". Note that other versions say that the Word was "God" or was "a divine being", which do not necessarily refer to God, but to be powerful. Moreover, this biblical verse states that the "Word" was "with" God. She could not reasonably be the same God. And whatever conclusion one draws about the "Word", the fact is that in this verse, it speaks only of two persons, not three. Thus, when examining in good faith the texts used in support of the Trinity we find that they prove absolutely nothing.
We can consider another factor: whether the doctrine of the Trinity was taught by Jesus and his disciples, the famous church that came immediately after them would have, too, surely taught. These men, now called the Apostolic Fathers, they taught the Trinity? That this be discussed by the second part of this series of articles that will appear in an upcoming issue of The Watchtower.
Bibliography 1. The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1912, Volume XV, page 47.
2. The Baptist Encyclopaedia, edited by William Cathcart, 1883, pages 1168, 1169.
3. A Short History of Christian Doctrine, Bernhard Lohse, 1980 edition, page 53.
4. Ibid., Pages 64, 65.
5. The Church teaches, according to the translation of John Clarkson, SJ, John Edwards, SJ, William Kelly, SJ, and John Welch, SJ, 1955, pages 125 to 127.
6. Ibid., P. 125.
7. The Triune God, Edmund Fortman, 1982 Edition, page 126.
8. Of the Incarnation, according to the translation of Penelope Lawson edition 1981, pages 27, 28.
9. The Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade, head, 1987, volume 15, page 54.
10. The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th edition, 1985, Volume 11, Micropaedia, page 928.
11. New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1967, Volume XIV, page 295.
[Note]
For a more detailed examination of these biblical texts, see the booklet Are we to believe in the Trinity? published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc..
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