We respect all who accept Jesus as their savior. The following is offered in the spirit of dialog.
Our Trinitarian friends define the Trinity as one God in three persons—Father, Son, and holy Spirit—who are co-equal and all three are without beginning and end.
If the Apostles believed in the Trinity, why was it 285 years after the death of the Apostles, AD 381, before the holy Spirit was finally officially declared a person. The noted Trinitarian historian Adolph Harnack observed that up to 325 AD the majority of Christians insisted the holy Spirit was not a person.
If the Apostles believed in the Trinity, why is it that neither their associates, who survived them nor their descendents (the so called early Church Fathers) believed the trinity? Why did it take 285 years after the Apostles died before the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD finally recognized the Trinity.
If the Apostles believed in the Trinity, three Gods in one, why was it that not until 229 years after their death, the Nicene Council (325 AD), under the extreme pressure of Emperor Constantine, ruled that only the Father and Son were two parts of one deity? The two main antagonists were Arius who believed Jesus had a beginning and Athanasias argued Jesus had no beginning. Most Arians dared not challenge Emperor Constantine by refusing to sign the creed. The trinity was not discussed since most still believed the holy Spirit was not a person. But Arius did refuse and was exiled.
anonymous,
Whether or not, belief in the trinity is adding to the bible, is for God to determine, not me. there are a lot of things taught in reference to the bibles message that may or may not have been intended by it’s author. The teaching about 144,000 anointed ones going to heaven, the teaching that there are types and anti types represented in the bible, the point that there are multiple fulfillment’s of bible prophecies, that there is a composit, or singular “faithful and wise servant” that would appear in the last days and many, many more. All of them made to seem plausible, but none of them clearly presented in the bible.
sidgi