If you’re an orthodox Christian, already familiar with the doctrine of the Trinity, you might like to head somewhere else right now. This article will probably be, as they say, preaching to the converted.
But if that’s not you, and the idea of the Trinity is new, challenging, confronting, downright heretical, or, as far as you’re concerned, completely unbiblical…just hear me out.
I grew up being told all these things about the Trinity. I can confidently say now that not only do I believe I was misinformed about what the doctrine endeavours to articulate, I was also misinformed about the historical background and context of this doctrine, what the early church taught regarding the nature of Jesus, and what scripture itself teaches.
Several things resulted in a massive shift in my perspective, understanding, and belief of this doctrine, which I’d like to share in this article and which I hope will be helpful to anyone wrestling with this topic. It’s not necessarily everyone’s conversation of choice, but it’s come up several times with different individuals in the past few months, and so now seemed like the right time to share some thoughts on this one.
The Context Of The Council Of Nicea
In the spring of 325AD, a council of Christian bishops convened in the city of Nicaea (now known as the town of İznik, in modern-day Turkey). They met to deliberate over a theological dispute that had arisen concerning the nature of Jesus, his origins, and his relationship to God the Father.
Known as the Arian controversy – named for the presbyter and priest (Arius) to whom the controversy is attributed – the gathering was not so much an argument about whether Jesus was God, but rather, a dispute over whether Jesus was eternal; and therefore without beginning, or whether he had been created before time and was therefore subordinate to the Father.
This is an important distinction: the Council was not arguing over whether ‘Jesus was God‘ (God the Son), as I had always been taught. This was a dispute over whether he had always existed (and was therefore of the same substance as the Father) or whether he had been begotten/created (and was therefore similar but not the same as God the Father).
“Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God the Father with the difference that the Son of God did not always exist but was begotten/made before time by God the Father; therefore, Jesus was not coeternal with God the Father, but nonetheless Jesus began to exist outside time.“
This was an ontological argument. Who was Jesus before he was Jesus, did he always exist before time or was he created before time? Was the Son equal with the Father or subordinate? Was he the same as or different from the Father?
What Did The Early Church Teach?
The reason the Arian theology was so controversial is because it was a change to the status quo. The early church taught and believed in the divinity of the Son, and that his nature was the same essence and substance as God the Father. They believed that Jesus, as the Word of God, was eternal, was from God Himself, and therefore was of the same substance as God.
“According to its [Arianism’s] opponents, especially the bishop St. Athanasius, Arius’ teaching reduced the Son to a demigod, reintroduced polytheism (since worship of the Son was not abandoned), and undermined the Christian concept of redemption, since only he who was truly God could be deemed to have reconciled humanity to the Godhead.” | Britannica
We have not just the writings of well-known apostles like Paul and Peter and John, but also those who came after them – extra-biblical sources – who taught about Christ as the Word of God, the virgin birth, and the incarnation. Names such as Ignatius, Clement of Alexandria, Polycarp, and Ireneaus, many of whom were contemporaries and disciples of the apostles, wrote and taught extensively on this subject. You can read, for example, Ignatius’ letter to the Ephesians (written some time between 107–110 CE) here.
It is an egregious misrepresentation to say that the divinity of Christ was invented in the fourth century; what is actually true is that the accepted understanding of the nature of Christ was being challenged. The intention of the Council of Nicene was, therefore, to define, in written form, what the church already believed and taught regarding Jesus, binding Christendom together in unity across different traditions and practices.
The Nicene Creed used the same three-fold structure as the more simple and earlier creeds, such as the Apostles’ Creed, which had touched very little on this topic, and, because of this particular controversy, went into more depth and detail in relation to Christology – that is, the nature and origin of Jesus Christ.
Is ‘Trinity’ In The Bible?
The early church fathers taught and believed in the divinity of Jesus, his existence before time, and his incarnation as the Word-Made-Flesh. But perhaps they had deviated significantly in doctrine in the first few years of the church’s existence?
This is often one of the criticisms leveled at the Trinity from those who reject it, a two-fold dismissal if you like; firstly, that the word ‘trinity’ isn’t mentioned in the Bible and, secondly, that its ‘official introduction’ in the fourth century (a claim shown to be a misrepresentation, at best) was ‘the great apostasy’ the church had been warned about (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3).
It’s suggested that as early as AD98, only a generation on from the incredible outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2), the church had veered wildly off-course and into heresy, even with the Holy Spirit as guide and teacher, the very recent reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the powerful witness of those who had walked with him, many of whom were still alive.
Honestly? I find that extremely unlikely.
I trust not only the teaching of the apostles themselves, who were radically transformed by their experience of the resurrection, but also the work of the Holy Spirit, active and powerful, in growing the church and supporting the new believers in their faith. It just doesn’t seem credible to me that something so important, so vital, so life-changing could be corrupted and derailed so early on.
Certainly, the church began to face challenges as time went on, particularly as the apostolic age drew to a close. It experienced great periods of persecution, followed finally by a shift in fortune in the form of open favour from Rome’s pagan Emperor, Constantine, the emperor of the Nicene Creed. Yet it was during the early years of persecution and struggle that we find the orthodox doctrines being taught and written about, not formulated later under, as is sometimes asserted, pagan influences.
You can research any of the early church fathers and their teaching for yourself. Ignatius, for example, an early Christian writer and later Patriarch of Antioch, wrote many letters which serve as examples of early Christian theology. He, along with Polycarp, another apostolic father, are traditionally held to be disciples of John of the Revelation, and demonstrated their ‘trinitarian’ consciousness in their writings.
Just as the word ‘omnipotence’ isn’t found in the Bible, and yet we understand the concept of God’s supremacy and power to be taught throughout scripture, so, too, you won’t find the word ‘trinity’, and yet the concept of One God, revealed to us in three distinct persons, completely unified with each other, can be found throughout the New Testament.
Here are several biblical passages which teach this concept regarding the Christology of Jesus. Take some time to read through them for yourself: John 1:1–5, John 1:1–5, John 5:17–18; John 10:33–38, Hebrews 1:1–4, Colossians 1:18-20, Colossians 2:9, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Philippians 2:6-11, John 17:5, 2 Corinthians 8:9, John 8:58.
While the word ‘trinity’ is not explicitly used in the New Testament letters and epistles, the concept of the trinity was certainly expressed by biblical authors and was the understanding of the early church, as can be seen by the extensive writings of the early church fathers. It was this understanding that the Nicene Creed attempted to articulate and document in 325AD.
God Is ‘One’ So The Trinity – ‘Three Gods’ – Can’t Be Right. Can It?
One of the huge misconceptions that non-Trinitarians hold to is the belief that the doctrine of the Trinity teaches there are three gods. In reality, the Trinitarian doctrine actually affirms biblical monotheism and rejects the heresy of ‘three gods’ (polytheism).
The Bible teaches that God is One, but not in the numerical sense that is often used by non-Trinitarians. God is One in the sense that there is no other. He, alone, is the singular God in all the universe.
The ancient Jewish prayer – known as the Shema – recites this truth “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. And as for you, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength“.
The meaning of this famous prayer is that the people of Israel were to learn to listen and love God fully, above all else, with all their hearts. The Shema wasn’t making a statement about God’s essence but rather His preeminence. It wasn’t intended to function as a negation of the idea of the Trinity but as a statement of allegiance to the only true God, particularly relevant for a people who had been steeped in polytheism for generations.
“This prayer has been one of the most influential traditions in Jewish history, functioning both as the Jewish pledge of allegiance and a hymn of praise.” | The Bible Project
Interestingly, Jesus quotes the Shema on two occasions in the synoptic gospels, in Matthews 22 and Mark 12. In Matthew, he follows up immediately with questions about the origins and paternity of the Messiah, the Messiah’s relationship to the great king of Israel, David, and the title given to the Messiah of ‘Lord’; an interesting progression of thought from Jesus, and one which had the effect of reducing his audience to silence.
Isn’t The Trinity Doctrine ‘Catholic’?
If, by ‘catholic’, you mean ‘universal’, then yes. For the first fifteen hundred years of the church’s history, there was only one, ‘universal’ church and early creeds will often refer to the church in this way. The church’s official position in relation to the nature of Christ had been documented in the Nicene Creed in 325AD and it remains the official, orthodox, (accepted) doctrinal position.
However, I suspect what is actually being asked is, “isn’t the Trinity doctrine part of the Roman Catholic Church?” (ie ‘a Catholic thing’) and the short answer is no. The Trinity isn’t only specific to the Roman Catholic Church. All three branches of Christianity (Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Protestantism) subscribe to the doctrine of the Trinity.
Even after the Protestant Reformation swept through Europe, beginning with the nailing of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses to the castle church in Wittenberg, the resultant split between the Catholic Church and its Protestant offspring largely revolved around the idea that people should be independent in their relationship with God, taking personal responsibility for their faith and referring directly to the Bible for guidance, instead of priests or popes. The Reformation rejected the doctrine of papal supremacy, among other things, and arrived at different views on ecclesiastical polity, apostolic succession, and the nature of salvation, however disagreement on the Trinity was not one of the areas of argument.
That being said, there are a few exceptions; some further religious movements arose out of the Protestant movement which rejected the doctrine of the Trinity; these branches of Christianity are known as ‘Unitarian’ but are Socinian rather than Arian in theology.
What Does It Mean To Be God?
The Bible gives us many descriptions of Who and What ‘God’ is, endeavouring to help us understand the concept of God, as best we can, from our limited human experience.
The Bible teaches that God is the Creator of all things, the source of all life, sovereign over all, powerful, and perfect. Without beginning and without end, He is eternal, holy, clothed in light, glorious as the sun. Yet He is also tender, loving, forgiving, as compassionate as any mother to her children, and as protective as any father defending His family.
We are created in His image, bearing many of His attributes, yet because of the fall, bound by mortality and constrained by sin. The fall in Eden resulted in brokenness in our relationship with God, creating an impenetrable barrier that we couldn’t cross (Exodus 33:18-23). As the popular worship song, ‘Jesus, My Living Hope’ laments, “How great the chasm that lay between us, how high the mountain I could not climb.“
Until Jesus came, no one had ever seen God face to face. Yet as Timothy writes (1 Timothy 3:16), the invisible God was made visible in Jesus, “this is, without question, the great mystery of our faith; God was revealed in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.“
If we could not come to God (and we couldn’t – see below: ‘God Does The Saving’), then God would come to us.
“The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.” | John 1:14
John, writer of the fourth gospel, offers a more insightful perspective, opening with the otherwordly prologue regarding Jesus and his origins; specifically, the identification of Jesus as the Word, who was with God and was God in the beginning.
Through Jesus, he says, all things have been brought into being; he is the light and life of humanity, who became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen his glory – face-to-face at last – as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
God came to us, wrapped in the perishable, temporary covering of flesh and bone, the full intensity and glory hidden within Jesus. We have a hint of what that glory was like in Luke 9:29-32, where the veil was lifted momentarily and his appearance was altered, an event the Bible calls ‘the transfiguration’.
Jesus himself declared that only he could reveal God fully, in his words, “no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Matt 11:27b) and that “the person who has seen him [Jesus] has seen the Father.” (John 14:8-9).
The gospel of John offers more: seven ‘signs’ culminating in the resurrection of Lazarus (proof of Jesus’ power over even death itself), and seven ‘I am’ discourses, culminating in the declaration by Thomas concerning Jesus as “my Lord and my God”. The first instance, in John 8:58, leaves no doubt that Jesus’ claimed to be God incarnate, because the Jews were infuriated by his reply and took up stones to kill him.
“John’s “high Christology” depicts Jesus as divine and preexistent, defends him against Jewish claims that he was “making himself equal to God”, and talks openly about his divine role and echoing Yahweh’s “I Am that I Am” with seven “I Am” declarations of his own.” | Stephen L Harris, Understanding the Bible
Jesus was fully God; the invisible God made visible in a way that we could draw near to, touch, walk with, and eat with. Yet Jesus didn’t count his equality with God as something to be held onto, but rather something to be set down, for our sakes, and did so ‘by becoming a man like other men’ (Philippians 2:7-9, Weymouth NT).
Nothing Is Impossible With God
Those who reject the doctrine of the Trinity often do so on the basis that it’s impossible; how could God become human or how could God die? And who was ‘left in heaven’ if God came to earth? (yet another misunderstanding about who was sent and who was the sender: “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.”)
Yet we also accept many other impossibilities in scripture: that life can be created from nothing, that sickness can be completely healed, that water and wind can be controlled, that time can be stopped, that water can be turned into wine, that bread and fish can be multiplied, that death itself can be overcome and vanquished.
Nothing, literally, nothing is impossible with God and if we learn anything from scripture, it’s that we should be ready to entertain any possibility and expect any outcome. Though we might not always understand how something could be possible, that shouldn’t stop us from believing that it could. Our cry should always be, ‘Lord, I believe, help me in my unbelief.’
God is Spirit. He is not limited by shape, force, boundaries or time. The same, however, cannot be said of humanity. We are limited; by time, by physicality, by mortality, by sin. There are things we simply cannot do.
What shifted in my perspective in this particular area was the realisation that without the doctrine of the Trinity, the concept of redemption becomes humanly impossible.
While Jesus had to be truly human – atonement was required on behalf of humanity and only a human could make this restitution (and I’ve written about Jesus’ humanity elsewhere) – if he had been only human, it would have been impossible for him to have overcome sin.
Limited in the same way that we are, even with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, he couldn’t have lived a perfect, sinless life and, therefore, successfully ‘made atonement’ for sin, or have overthrown the greatest enemy, death itself.
This was the entire point of the giving of the Old Covenant; it was intended that humanity should realise through their failure to keep the Law, despite even the best of intentions, their complete inability to atone for or redeem themselves and restore their relationship with God.
Humanity was in an awful bind, a catch-22 situation of epic proportions: atonement must be made by a human…but no human perfect enough or powerful enough existed to make such an atonement. That is the very definition of humanly impossible.
“But behold“, God says, “I will make a way in the desert. I am about to do something new. Prepare the way of the Lord…” While impossible with humanity, nothing was impossible with God.
The Word Who was in the beginning, Who called life into being, Who is the source of life and light of humanity stepped in the very creation He had made in order to save and redeem it. The Word – truly God – became human, He became the representative of us all and in his human body, the war against sin and death would be waged and won.
What was impossible for us became possible with God. Jesus Christ – truly human and truly God; the One and Only Begotten Son of the Father had come to save the world and reconcile us back to God.
God Does The Saving
It seems to me that once you start paying attention, you realise the Bible is telling the same story over and over again, but just in different ways, and it can perhaps be summarised in one simple sentence: “God Does The Saving.”
“Praise the Lord, who carries our burdens day after day; he is the God who saves us. Our God is a God who saves; he is the Lord, our Lord, who rescues us from death.” | Psalm 68:19-20
At every turn, humanity’s inability to overthrow the curse of Eden is demonstrated, as chapter after chapter of the Bible lays out the moral bankruptcy of the human race. Humans were unable to wage war against sin and win, or to overthrow death. The separation that had resulted from the fall in Eden couldn’t be healed just by human power, it needed divine intervention.
It would be God, and it was always going to be God, who would do the saving.
I think this raises another significant point, and one which is worth spending some time on: the difference between a grace-framed salvation theology and a works-framed salvation theology.
Grace tells us that God saves because of Who He is, not because of who we are. We are saved by grace through faith – and this is not of ourselves – it is a gift of God. Human endeavour played no part in the work of saving or redeeming humanity back to God. (Ephesians 2:4-10). And this ‘work of saving’ took place long before we ever turned to God, even, as Romans comments, “while we were still sinners.“
Jesus showed us the kind of human we were intended to be, and the kind of holy life we were purposed for, an exact representation of the divine. He didn’t achieve this through grit, sheer willpower, or determined asceticism, but because he was also truly God. Nothing of his life should convince us that we can ever be like him, by our own resolve, strength, or determination or that by doing good we are contributing to our salvation.
Even the most steadfast, committed, faithful Christian does not add anything to the victory won by Jesus and it is only the work of Christ-in-us that we are able to become more like God (our works, however, do prove our faith is real – and I’ve written more about that here).
Irenaeus, an early church father, puts it like this: ”For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God.”
I think the problem with making Jesus human and only human is that we are making the work of salvation a human endeavour. We are in danger of seeing Jesus’ life as a model for good behaviour (that will somehow make us right with God), and we are framing our Christian life as an exercise of our own determination and willpower which will enable us to overcome. Unspoken but implicit in this theology is the idea that “if you try hard enough, you too can overcome like Jesus”.
But it is only in Christ that we are more than conquerors; we are graciously invited into his victory, and it is only because, in Christ, who was divine, God raising us up to partake in the divine nature (theosis) becomes possible.
In Conclusion (And Not To Be Considered Exhaustive!)
If you’ve been wrestling with this topic, the best place to start is always, of course, with scripture. And the best way to start is by asking questions.
I would suggest you take some time to read through the New Testament letters and gospels and notice what the writers are telling you about Jesus. If the idea of ‘the Trinity’ is new or challenging for you, simply set that aside for now; you’re not seeking to prove or disprove the doctrine, only to hear what scripture has to say. Begin the exercise with a willing mind, an open heart, and a prayer for God to reveal Himself.
Read about church history, particularly the first 300 years, for yourself, and seek out the writings of the early church fathers (pre-Nicene era). Is the language used or are the concepts described by them compatible with scripture? Or do they introduce ideas thoroughly at odds with the Bible?
Familiarise yourself with the background and context of the Council of Nicea. What was the reason they gathered? Does this reshape your understanding of the creed and provide better explanation to the language used within it? Are the conclusions of the Council (irrespective of their ‘wordiness’) consistent with your journey through scripture and history?
Consider the reason for Jesus’ coming: why was he sent and what did he accomplish? Jesus himself told us when only just a young boy that “he must be about His Father’s business” (Luke 2:49). What was “this business”? Of particular relevance to these questions is Jesus’ discourse in John 8:12-58.
Don’t try to arrive at a resolution or conclusion in a single moment and allow yourself the freedom to acknowledge that there are things you may not know or understand now, or ever. Our hope rests not in our complete comprehension but in our posture of trust in the One who saves.
And finally, I would respectfully encourage you to consider this: our theology – what we think about God – is important. How can we begin to know and understand ourselves and our place in this expansive creation if we have no sense of the One who made us and the purpose for which we’ve been made?
However, a robust and living theology will spring from understanding and experiencing who God is and what He has done for us, in Jesus, not simply by giving agreement to a statement or creed of ‘theological beliefs’.
To know God is to know Jesus, whom He sent (John 17:3), and, therefore, the true starting point of our theology as Christians is looking to Jesus and, fundamentally, to God, in Jesus, crucified. It is in this that we see the extent to which God was prepared to go in order to rescue and redeem us.
Although deeply theologicial in its language, I believe the Trinity doctrine boldly endeavours to affirm and clarify this reality, underscoring the deep committment of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit to rescuing, redeeming and restoring creation.