The Trinity made easy

[Pancho Frijoles]

Unitarianism is strictly monotheistic and does not contain the germ of polytheism like your beliefs do. The earliest example of Unitarianism in the Bible is the entire Old Testament. The only explicit statements about who God is refers to Him being a singular being or person or whichever word you want to use for convenience. What is clear, though, is that God is never described as a three person being. Not only do we have the entire Old Testament that says God is just one person, but we have thousands of years of Jewish literature that states that God is not a trinity.

Hi Runningman

I think it would be interesting to know whether any respected Trinitarian theologian would support the idea that Jews believed in the Trinity at any time in their history. I suppose none of them would.
If that's the case, our Trinitarian friends should start by acknowledging that the Trinity was unknown by those who listened the preaching of Jesus Christ and his disciples.

It would be much more proper from our Trinitarian friends of the Forum to claim the Trinity to have been revealed by the Holy Spirit to the disciples of the disciples (what we could call the second generation of Christian leaders), at some point during the second century AD.

The Catholic Church would have no problem with accepting that, since it believes in progressive revelation to the Church.
The ones struggling are those who claim to uphold Sola Scriptura, without accepting that their theology has a post-biblical basis.

 

[mikesw]

Hi Runningman

I think it would be interesting to know whether any respected Trinitarian theologian would support the idea that Jews believed in the Trinity at any time in their history. I suppose none of them would.
If that's the case, our Trinitarian friends should start by acknowledging that the Trinity was unknown by those who listened the preaching of Jesus Christ and his disciples.

It would be much more proper from our Trinitarian friends of the Forum to claim the Trinity to have been revealed by the Holy Spirit to the disciples of the disciples (what we could call the second generation of Christian leaders), at some point during the second century AD.

The Catholic Church would have no problem with accepting that, since it believes in progressive revelation to the Church.
The ones struggling are those who claim to uphold Sola Scriptura, without accepting that their theology has a post-biblical basis.

The general history of Israel had been rather dismal. Christ Jesus was sent to give those who follow him stability in their faith. So it would not have made sense to give fuller revelation of God to them. But they do have the record of the Angel of the Lord also being Yahweh.
Pancho Frijoles does not watch what I write but share this with him.
The Jewish writings show them contending about the way God and the Angel of the Lord both were Yahweh. The issue actually was resolved with recognition of the divinity of Christ. But for the Unitarian, these ideas cannot be discussed and the controversy of the Angel of the Lord just left a mystery. They just ascribe this to polytheism.