Trinitarianism

[Williams]

Isn't trinitarianism a form of polytheism? How is the doctrine connected to Judaism and early Christianity? I just don't see evidence for it in scripture. Can anyone help? Maybe we can end up discussing it more in-depth in the debate forum.

[Cedar Tree]

Isn't trinitarianism a form of polytheism? How is the doctrine connected to Judaism and early Christianity? I just don't see evidence for it in scripture. Can anyone help? Maybe we can end up discussing it more in-depth in the debate forum.

Polytheism is the belief in many gods. The Trinity is One God in Three Persons. Christians and Jews both believe in One God -- the difference lies in what Christians and Jews believe about God. Christianity arose as a sect within Judaism (the apostles, remember, were Jewish). The first Christians were Jews (they were "Christianized Jews"). Of course, those Jews who did not accept Jesus did not become Christian.

You can see clear evidence of Christian belief in the Trinity in many of the early Christian writings. Consider:

The Didache

"After the foregoing instructions, baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in living [running] water. . . . If you have neither, pour water three times on the head, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Didache 7:1 [A.D. 70]).


Ignatius of Antioch

"[T]o the Church at Ephesus in Asia . . . chosen through true suffering by the will of the Father in Jesus Christ our God" (Letter to the Ephesians 1 [A.D. 110]).

"For our God, Jesus Christ, was conceived by Mary in accord with God’s plan: of the seed of David, it is true, but also of the Holy Spirit" (ibid., 18:2).


Justin Martyr

"We will prove that we worship him reasonably; for we have learned that he is the Son of the true God himself, that he holds a second place, and the Spirit of prophecy a third. For this they accuse us of madness, saying that we attribute to a crucified man a place second to the unchangeable and eternal God, the Creator of all things; but they are ignorant of the mystery which lies therein" (First Apology 13:5–6 [A.D. 151]).


Theophilus of Antioch

"It is the attribute of God, of the most high and almighty and of the living God, not only to be everywhere, but also to see and hear all; for he can in no way be contained in a place. . . . The three days before the luminaries were created are types of the Trinity: God, his Word, and his Wisdom" (To Autolycus 2:15 [A.D. 181]).


Irenaeus

"For the Church, although dispersed throughout the whole world even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and from their disciples the faith in one God, the Father Almighty . . . and in one Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became flesh for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit" (Against Heresies 1:10:1 [A.D. 189]).


Tertullian

"We do indeed believe that there is only one God, but we believe that under this dispensation, or, as we say, oikonomia, there is also a Son of this one only God, his Word, who proceeded from him and through whom all things were made and without whom nothing was made. . . . We believe he was sent down by the Father, in accord with his own promise, the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the sanctifier of the faith of those who believe in the Father and the Son, and in the Holy Spirit. . . . This rule of faith has been present since the beginning of the gospel, before even the earlier heretics" (Against Praxeas 2 [A.D. 216]).

"And at the same time the mystery of the oikonomia is safeguarded, for the unity is distributed in a Trinity. Placed in order, the three are the Father, Son, and Spirit. They are three, however, not in condition, but in degree; not in being, but in form; not in power, but in kind; of one being, however, and one condition and one power, because he is one God of whom degrees and forms and kinds are taken into account in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (ibid.).

"Keep always in mind the rule of faith which I profess and by which I bear witness that the Father and the Son and the Spirit are inseparable from each other, and then you will understand what is meant by it. Observe now that I say the Father is other [distinct], the Son is other, and the Spirit is other. This statement is wrongly understood by every uneducated or perversely disposed individual, as if it meant diversity and implied by that diversity a separation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" (ibid., 9).

"Thus the connection of the Father in the Son, and of the Son in the Paraclete, produces three coherent persons, who are yet distinct one from another. These three are, one essence, not one person, as it is said, ‘I and my Father are one’ [John 10:30], in respect of unity of being not singularity of number" (ibid., 25).


Origen

"For we do not hold that which the heretics imagine: that some part of the being of God was converted into the Son, or that the Son was procreated by the Father from non-existent substances, that is, from a being outside himself, so that there was a time when he [the Son] did not exist" (The Fundamental Doctrines 4:4:1 [A.D. 225]).

"No, rejecting every suggestion of corporeality, we hold that the Word and the Wisdom was begotten out of the invisible and incorporeal God, without anything corporal being acted upon . . . the expression which we employ, however that there was never a time when he did not exist is to be taken with a certain allowance. For these very words ‘when’ and ‘never’ are terms of temporal significance, while whatever is said of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is to be understood as transcending all time, all ages" (ibid.).

"For it is the Trinity alone which exceeds every sense in which not only temporal but even eternal may be understood. It is all other things, indeed, which are outside the Trinity, which are to be measured by time and ages" (ibid.).


Hippolytus

"The Word alone of this God is from God himself, wherefore also the Word is God, being the being of God. Now the world was made from nothing, wherefore it is not God" (Refutation of All Heresies 10:29 [A.D. 228]).


Novatian

"For Scripture as much announces Christ as also God, as it announces God himself as man. It has as much described Jesus Christ to be man, as moreover it has also described Christ the Lord to be God. Because it does not set forth him to be the Son of God only, but also the son of man; nor does it only say, the son of man, but it has also been accustomed to speak of him as the Son of God. So that being of both, he is both, lest if he should be one only, he could not be the other. For as nature itself has prescribed that he must be believed to be a man who is of man, so the same nature prescribes also that he must be believed to be God who is of God. . . . Let them, therefore, who read that Jesus Christ the son of man is man, read also that this same Jesus is called also God and the Son of God" (Treatise on the Trinity 11 [A.D. 235]).


Pope Dionysius

"Next, then, I may properly turn to those who divide and cut apart and destroy the most sacred proclamation of the Church of God, making of it [the Trinity], as it were, three powers, distinct substances, and three godheads. . . . [Some heretics] proclaim that there are in some way three gods, when they divide the sacred unity into three substances foreign to each other and completely separate" (Letter to Dionysius of Alexandria 1 [A.D. 262]).

"Therefore, the divine Trinity must be gathered up and brought together in one, a summit, as it were, I mean the omnipotent God of the universe. . . . It is b.asphemy, then, and not a common one but the worst, to say that the Son is in any way a handiwork [creature]. . . . But if the Son came into being [was created], there was a time when these attributes did not exist; and, consequently, there was a time when God was without them, which is utterly absurd" (ibid., 1–2).

"Neither, then, may we divide into three godheads the wonderful and divine unity. . . . Rather, we must believe in God, the Father Almighty; and in Christ Jesus, his Son; and in the Holy Spirit; and that the Word is united to the God of the universe. ‘For,’ he says, ‘The Father and I are one,’ and ‘I am in the Father, and the Father in me’" (ibid., 3).


Gregory the Wonderworker

"There is one God. . . . There is a perfect Trinity, in glory and eternity and sovereignty, neither divided nor estranged. Wherefore there is nothing either created or in servitude in the Trinity; nor anything superinduced, as if at some former period it was non-existent, and at some later period it was introduced. And thus neither was the Son ever wanting to the Father, nor the Spirit to the Son; but without variation and without change, the same Trinity abides ever" (Declaration of Faith [A.D. 265]).


Sechnall of Ireland

"Hymns, with Revelation and the Psalms of God [Patrick] sings, and does expound the same for the edifying of God’s people. This law he holds in the Trinity of the sacred Name and teaches one being in three persons" (Hymn in Praise of St. Patrick 22 [A.D. 444]).


Patrick of Ireland

"I bind to myself today the strong power of an invocation of the Trinity—the faith of the Trinity in unity, the Creator of the universe" (The Breastplate of St. Patrick 1 [A.D. 447]).

"[T]here is no other God, nor has there been heretofore, nor will there be hereafter, except God the Father unbegotten, without beginning, from whom is all beginning, upholding all things, as we say, and his Son Jesus Christ, whom we likewise to confess to have always been with the Father—before the world’s beginning. . . . Jesus Christ is the Lord and God in whom we believe . . . and who has poured out on us abundantly the Holy Spirit . . . whom we confess and adore as one God in the Trinity of the sacred Name" (Confession of St. Patrick 4 [A.D. 452]).


Augustine

"All the Catholic interpreters of the divine books of the Old and New Testaments whom I have been able to read, who wrote before me about the Trinity, which is God, intended to teach in accord with the Scriptures that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are of one and the same substance constituting a divine unity with an inseparable equality; and therefore there are not three gods but one God, although the Father begot the Son, and therefore he who is the Son is not the Father; and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son but only the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, himself, too, coequal to the Father and to the Son and belonging to the unity of the Trinity" (The Trinity 1:4:7 [A.D. 408]).


Fulgence of Ruspe

"See, in short you have it that the Father is one, the Son another, and the Holy Spirit another; in Person, each is other, but in nature they are not other. In this regard he says: ‘The Father and I, we are one’ (John 10:30). He teaches us that one refers to their nature, and we are to their Persons. In like manner it is said: ‘There are three who bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit; and these three are one’ (1 John 5:7). Let Sabellius hear we are, let him hear three; and let him believe that there are three Persons. Let him not b.aspheme in his sacrilegious heart by saying that the Father is the same in himself as the Son is the same in himself and as the Holy Sprit is the same in himself, as if in some way he could beget himself, or in some way proceed from himself. Even in created natures it is never able to be found that something is able to beget itself. Let also Arius hear one; and let him not say that the Son is of a different nature, if one cannot be said of that, the nature of which is different" (The Trinity 4:1–2 [c. A.D. 515]).

"But in the one true God and Trinity it is naturally true not only that God is one but also that he is a Trinity, for the reason that the true God himself is a Trinity of Persons and one in nature. Through this natural unity the whole Father is in the Son and in the Holy Spirit, and the whole Holy Spirit, too, is in the Father and in the Son. None of these is outside any of the others; because no one of them precedes any other of them in eternity or exceeds any other in greatness, or is superior to any other in power" (The Rule of Faith 4 [c. A.D. 523).

[Cathar1950]

Isn't trinitarianism a form of polytheism? How is the doctrine connected to Judaism and early Christianity? I just don't see evidence for it in scripture. Can anyone help? Maybe we can end up discussing it more in-depth in the debate forum.

Polytheism is the belief in many gods. The Trinity is One God in Three Persons. Christians and Jews both believe in One God -- the difference lies in what Christians and Jews believe about God. Christianity arose as a sect within Judaism (the apostles, remember, were Jewish). The first Christians were Jews (they were "Christianized Jews"). Of course, those Jews who did not accept Jesus did not become Christian.

You can see clear evidence of Christian belief in the Trinity in many of the early Christian writings. Consider:

The Didache

"After the foregoing instructions, baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, in living [running] water. . . . If you have neither, pour water three times on the head, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Didache 7:1 [A.D. 70]).


Ignatius of Antioch

"[T]o the Church at Ephesus in Asia . . . chosen through true suffering by the will of the Father in Jesus Christ our God" (Letter to the Ephesians 1 [A.D. 110]).

"For our God, Jesus Christ, was conceived by Mary in accord with God’s plan: of the seed of David, it is true, but also of the Holy Spirit" (ibid., 18:2).


Justin Martyr

"We will prove that we worship him reasonably; for we have learned that he is the Son of the true God himself, that he holds a second place, and the Spirit of prophecy a third. For this they accuse us of madness, saying that we attribute to a crucified man a place second to the unchangeable and eternal God, the Creator of all things; but they are ignorant of the mystery which lies therein" (First Apology 13:5–6 [A.D. 151]).


Theophilus of Antioch

"It is the attribute of God, of the most high and almighty and of the living God, not only to be everywhere, but also to see and hear all; for he can in no way be contained in a place. . . . The three days before the luminaries were created are types of the Trinity: God, his Word, and his Wisdom" (To Autolycus 2:15 [A.D. 181]).


Irenaeus

"For the Church, although dispersed throughout the whole world even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and from their disciples the faith in one God, the Father Almighty . . . and in one Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became flesh for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit" (Against Heresies 1:10:1 [A.D. 189]).


Tertullian

"We do indeed believe that there is only one God, but we believe that under this dispensation, or, as we say, oikonomia, there is also a Son of this one only God, his Word, who proceeded from him and through whom all things were made and without whom nothing was made. . . . We believe he was sent down by the Father, in accord with his own promise, the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the sanctifier of the faith of those who believe in the Father and the Son, and in the Holy Spirit. . . . This rule of faith has been present since the beginning of the gospel, before even the earlier heretics" (Against Praxeas 2 [A.D. 216]).

"And at the same time the mystery of the oikonomia is safeguarded, for the unity is distributed in a Trinity. Placed in order, the three are the Father, Son, and Spirit. They are three, however, not in condition, but in degree; not in being, but in form; not in power, but in kind; of one being, however, and one condition and one power, because he is one God of whom degrees and forms and kinds are taken into account in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (ibid.).

"Keep always in mind the rule of faith which I profess and by which I bear witness that the Father and the Son and the Spirit are inseparable from each other, and then you will understand what is meant by it. Observe now that I say the Father is other [distinct], the Son is other, and the Spirit is other. This statement is wrongly understood by every uneducated or perversely disposed individual, as if it meant diversity and implied by that diversity a separation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" (ibid., 9).

"Thus the connection of the Father in the Son, and of the Son in the Paraclete, produces three coherent persons, who are yet distinct one from another. These three are, one essence, not one person, as it is said, ‘I and my Father are one’ [John 10:30], in respect of unity of being not singularity of number" (ibid., 25).


Origen

"For we do not hold that which the heretics imagine: that some part of the being of God was converted into the Son, or that the Son was procreated by the Father from non-existent substances, that is, from a being outside himself, so that there was a time when he [the Son] did not exist" (The Fundamental Doctrines 4:4:1 [A.D. 225]).

"No, rejecting every suggestion of corporeality, we hold that the Word and the Wisdom was begotten out of the invisible and incorporeal God, without anything corporal being acted upon . . . the expression which we employ, however that there was never a time when he did not exist is to be taken with a certain allowance. For these very words ‘when’ and ‘never’ are terms of temporal significance, while whatever is said of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is to be understood as transcending all time, all ages" (ibid.).

"For it is the Trinity alone which exceeds every sense in which not only temporal but even eternal may be understood. It is all other things, indeed, which are outside the Trinity, which are to be measured by time and ages" (ibid.).

I suppose you think that all makes sense to you and that is because it is a doctrine, one that was not officially formed until the forth century and fought over for centuries after. The orthodox position was more of Jesus being under God and God son while being God.
The Trinitarian doctrine was the innovation and most of the church father before including some of your example didn’t see it as a problem. The official church under the Christian emperors vacillated with the empires until one, who happened to be Trinitarian or at least influenced by them succumbed t the mystery. I say mystery because it doesn’t make sense especially as it is reinterpreted by modern Catholics, Evangelicals and Bible Believers.
Basically it was God with three masks.
Of course it might not be three God unless you say Cerberus Three Headed Dog is three dogs.

But you quotes hardly show us that all Christians saw the Trinity and the first 300 they don’t really talk about the Trinity as God doctrine, they are more or less just repeating two doctrines about God and Jesus that through Greek thought and dogma forced them to invent the Trinity.

I tend to think the Jewish Christians didn’t see Jesus as God but as the adopted son of God as David was and later misunderstood by Gentiles as they competed with other Gods and sons of God such as the Emperors.
The doctrines hey were stuck with were ones developed as they fought various heresies(alternatives) on all fronts painting themselves into a corner with one wall being Jesus was fully human on one side and Jesus was God on the other wall while not wanting to turn back to being Jewish Gentiles after the Jews kicked them out because they just didn't get it. The God of the OT was not a human even after he was called a man of war because traditions evolved and were brought together.
The Christian God is not the same God if you understand Judaism, But it has been reinterpreted and reinvented.

[Skyangel]

So Jesus is a God not God? Distinct.
OR Jesus is God but not a God? Unified.

He is absolutely God in the fullest of God's nature. God made flesh through Incarnation. How that worked, I'm not quite sure.

Jesus said He was a god, the Son of God.

Matt 27:43 He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.



Psalm 82:6 I have said, Ye [are] gods; and all of you [are] children of the most High.

John 10:34-36 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?

A son can not be His own Father. He can be like His Father. He can be the image of his Father and he can be a Father to His own children.

Jesus is the Son of God and never claimed to be God. He said ALL Sons of God are also gods but we should worship none of them individually but worship the whole family of gods as ONE GOD who is ALL and IN ALL not just in three.

God is ONE family made up of many innumerable members not just three members.

[Cathar1950]

So Jesus is a God not God? Distinct.
OR Jesus is God but not a God? Unified.

He is absolutely God in the fullest of God's nature. God made flesh through Incarnation. How that worked, I'm not quite sure.

Jesus said He was a god, the Son of God.

Matt 27:43 He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.



Psalm 82:6 I have said, Ye [are] gods; and all of you [are] children of the most High.

John 10:34-36 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?

A son can not be His own Father. He can be like His Father. He can be the image of his Father and he can be a Father to His own children.

Jesus is the Son of God and never claimed to be God. He said ALL Sons of God are also gods but we should worship none of them individually but worship the whole family of gods as ONE GOD who is ALL and IN ALL not just in three.

God is ONE family made up of many innumerable members not just three members.

Interestingly enough the Elohim were not only the gods where El and where both heads and Yahweh was a son of El. The Elohim were also the ancestors going back to the practice of ancient ancestor worship. The some of the gods end up in the Hebrew stories as ancestors much like the Goddess Eba ends up as Eve the mother of all living.
It is nice to see God and the gods are still evolving.

[Skyangel]

Interestingly enough the Elohim were not only the gods where El and where both heads and Yahweh was a son of El. The Elohim were also the ancestors going back to the practice of ancient ancestor worship. The some of the gods end up in the Hebrew stories as ancestors much like the Goddess Eba ends up as Eve the mother of all living.
It is nice to see God and the gods are still evolving.

Exactly. The word God is referring to the ultimate authority. That ultimate authority is the one to which you give your respect and allegiance, whether that be your parents or grandparents or any other ancestor, person or principle that you respect enough to follow their example.
The God ( ancestor or originator ) of the plants is plants
The God ( ancestor or originator ) of the animals is animals.
The God ( ancestor or originator ) of nature is nature.
The God ( ancestor or originator ) of mortals is mortals.
The God of Life is life
The God of Light is light.
The God of Truth is truth
The God of lies is lies.
The God of evil is evil
The God of good is good.
etc.

ALL things reproduce after their own kind. That is the very simple principle of all life which can be easily seen and observed in reality past present and future. Nothing complicated or mysterious about it. It just IS what it IS.

[Cathar1950]

Interestingly enough the Elohim were not only the gods where El and where both heads and Yahweh was a son of El. The Elohim were also the ancestors going back to the practice of ancient ancestor worship. The some of the gods end up in the Hebrew stories as ancestors much like the Goddess Eba ends up as Eve the mother of all living.
It is nice to see God and the gods are still evolving.

Exactly. The word God is referring to the ultimate authority. That ultimate authority is the one to which you give your respect and allegiance, whether that be your parents or grandparents or any other ancestor, person or principle that you respect enough to follow their example.
The God ( ancestor or originator ) of the plants is plants
The God ( ancestor or originator ) of the animals is animals.
The God ( ancestor or originator ) of nature is nature.
The God ( ancestor or originator ) of mortals is mortals.
The God of Life is life
The God of Light is light.
The God of Truth is truth
The God of lies is lies.
The God of evil is evil
The God of good is good.
etc.

ALL things reproduce after their own kind. That is the very simple principle of all life which can be easily seen and observed in reality past present and future. Nothing complicated or mysterious about it. It just IS what it IS.

My how you obfuscate
It is amazing how you can take anything and turn it in to nothing just to spiritualize it.
Your post is great example of what Zz means by obfuscation. Making the plain unintelligible and then call it spiritual and you make it so subjective it isn't even recognizable.

[Cedar Tree]

I suppose you think that all makes sense to you and that is because it is a doctrine, one that was not officially formed until the forth century and fought over for centuries after. The orthodox position was more of Jesus being under God and God son while being God.
The Trinitarian doctrine was the innovation and most of the church father before including some of your example didn’t see it as a problem. The official church under the Christian emperors vacillated with the empires until one, who happened to be Trinitarian or at least influenced by them succumbed t the mystery. I say mystery because it doesn’t make sense especially as it is reinterpreted by modern Catholics, Evangelicals and Bible Believers.
Basically it was God with three masks.
Of course it might not be three God unless you say Cerberus Three Headed Dog is three dogs.

But you quotes hardly show us that all Christians saw the Trinity and the first 300 they don’t really talk about the Trinity as God doctrine, they are more or less just repeating two doctrines about God and Jesus that through Greek thought and dogma forced them to invent the Trinity.

I tend to think the Jewish Christians didn’t see Jesus as God but as the adopted son of God as David was and later misunderstood by Gentiles as they competed with other Gods and sons of God such as the Emperors.
The doctrines hey were stuck with were ones developed as they fought various heresies(alternatives) on all fronts painting themselves into a corner with one wall being Jesus was fully human on one side and Jesus was God on the other wall while not wanting to turn back to being Jewish Gentiles after the Jews kicked them out because they just didn't get it. The God of the OT was not a human even after he was called a man of war because traditions evolved and were brought together.
The Christian God is not the same God if you understand Judaism, But it has been reinterpreted and reinvented.

I am not sure why you think Christians didn't believe in the Trinity until the fourth century. The Didache is believed to have been written around 70 A.D. and clearly names the three persons of the Trinity. It would be blasphemous to baptize in any name other than God's. St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote the Letter to the Ephesians around 110 A.D. and identifies "Jesus Christ our God" and that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. We do not describe any other man as "our God," just Jesus. St. Justin wrote his First Apology in 151 A.D. and describes that Christians are accused of madness for belief that Jesus ("a crucified man") is the second person of the Trinity and further states that these accusers "are ignorant of the mystery which lies therein." It seems clear that if others (such as Jews) merely thought that Christians meant that Jesus was not God but a son of God as we are all sons of God, then they would not have been accused of madness. These are the just the first three examples I quoted from early Christians from just the first two centuries.

Of course, there were people from the beginning who did not accept what Jesus was telling them (the NT shows that Jesus lost disciples), let alone believe that Jesus was God.

The Gospel of John describes Jesus (the "Word") thus: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." (John 1:1-5) The parts I have underscored clearly do not describe mere man. The Gospel of John further states that Jesus "was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:10-14)

As for the Orthodox Churches, they do believe in the Trinity. They did object to saying that the Holy Spirit proceeds "from the Father and the Son" but did accept that the Holy Spirit proceeds "from the Father through the Son." (The Catholic Church recognized these expressions mean the same thing, just different translations, and so the Orthodox Churches are really not in disagreement with the Catholic Church over the filioque.)

[Goat]

I am not sure why you think Christians didn't believe in the Trinity until the fourth century. The Didache is believed to have been written around 70 A.D. and clearly names the three persons of the Trinity. It would be blasphemous to baptize in any name other than God's.

Yes, the Didache is fairly early, however, that does not mean they were considered the SAME godhead.

[Cedar Tree]

I am not sure why you think Christians didn't believe in the Trinity until the fourth century. The Didache is believed to have been written around 70 A.D. and clearly names the three persons of the Trinity. It would be blasphemous to baptize in any name other than God's.

Yes, the Didache is fairly early, however, that does not mean they were considered the SAME godhead.

Christians only believe in ONE God.

[Goat]

I am not sure why you think Christians didn't believe in the Trinity until the fourth century. The Didache is believed to have been written around 70 A.D. and clearly names the three persons of the Trinity. It would be blasphemous to baptize in any name other than God's.

Yes, the Didache is fairly early, however, that does not mean they were considered the SAME godhead.

Christians only believe in ONE God.

That is what they say. However, the Didache does not say that 'The holy spirit' is god, nor does it say 'the son' is god. You have to assume that from later theology.