When was the Trinity concept invented?

[polonius]

“Regarding the New Testament, trinitarian scholar William Rusch has admitted:
“The binitarian formulas are found in Rom. 8:11, 2 Cor. 4:14, Gal. 1:1, Eph. 1:20, 1 Tim 1:2, 1 Pet. 1:21, and 2 John 1:13...No doctrine of the Trinity in the Nicene sense is present in the New Testament...

“There is no doctrine of the Trinity in the strict sense in the Apostolic Fathers...(Rusch W.G. The Trinitarian Controversy. Fortress Press, Phil., 1980, pp. 2-3).

“So, a trinitarian scholar admits that the New Testament uses what he calls binitarian formulas and no doctrine of the trinity was found in early post-apostolic times from those known as "Apostolic Fathers." This would include people such as Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna."

http://www.cogwriter.com/binitarian.htm#scholars

[2timothy316]

[Replying to post 9 by Overcomer]

This changes nothing. The idea of 3 gods together is nothing new. The trinity is the same pig with different colored lipstick. Sadly people still are following Babylon the Great with it's 3 in one god. That 'god' didn't exist then and the new '3 in one god' doesn't exist now. I can't wait until Jehovah vindicates His name from these lies. "To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things."--1 Corinthians 8:6.

[bjs]

[polonius]

[quote="DPMartin"]
[Replying to post 1 by polonius.advice]

Gen 1:1 In the beginning God (the power) created the heaven and the earth.
Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God (the Presence hence Holy Spirit) moved upon the face of the waters.

RESPONSE:

My high school football had great Spirit, but it was an aspect of the team and not a separate person. The Spirit of God is an aspect of God and not a separate person.

Shema: Hear O Israel, the Lord is One. Jesus is also quoted as saying that.

Christianity remained a Jewish sect until they added the teaching that Jesus was divine. This occurred about 85 AD and claims that there were two divine personages resulted in the Christians being expelled as apostates. (See the 12 Benediction on the web)

A Messiah was to be a man not a divine person. Read the Old Testament.

[polonius]

The doctrine of the Trinity was formulated sometime between 33 AD and 213 AD.

There was no one person or group we can point to as the author of this doctrine. It was formulated slowly, organically, as people studied the writings of the Apostles.

By the time Tertullian wrote Adversus Praxean in 213 AD the doctrine was so well established that he could describe it as something already accepted as truth.

Tertullian wrote “We define that there are two, the Father and the Son, and three with the Holy Spirit, and this number is made by the pattern of salvation . . . [which] brings about unity in trinity, interrelating the three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are three, not in dignity, but in degree, not in substance but in form, not in power but in kind. They are of one substance and power, because there is one God from whom these degrees, forms and kinds devolve in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit."

When and how the specific language of the doctrine (three in form but one in substance) was developed cannot be securely nailed down. It cannot be attributed to any one person or one moment. The slowly established consensus of the Apostolic Fathers is that, in accordance with the scriptures, there is one God who exists in three persons.

RESPONSE:
I'd be curious what reference you are using that the Trinity "doctrine" was formulated between between 33 and 213 AD. The earliest writings in the New Testament are those of Paul beginning about 55 AD. Have you discovered an earlier copy.?

"There was no one person or group we can point to as the author of this doctrine. It was formulated slowly, organically, as people studied the writings of the Apostles."

So you are now conceding that the existence of the Trinity is not a revelation or contained in scripture. It was created by men over time becoming firm in 381 AD.

[2timothy316]

[polonius]

[bjs]

RESPONSE:
I'd be curious what reference you are using that the Trinity "doctrine" was formulated between between 33 and 213 AD. The earliest writings in the New Testament are those of Paul beginning about 55 AD. Have you discovered an earlier copy.?

Christian doctrine started to develop before the Christian scriptures were written. Christianity, in its most basic sense, started at Pentecost. The scriptures were not written in a vacuum. They were written as the Apostles sought to understand the teachings of Christ in light of his resurrection.

"There was no one person or group we can point to as the author of this doctrine. It was formulated slowly, organically, as people studied the writings of the Apostles."

So you are now conceding that the existence of the Trinity is not a revelation or contained in scripture. It was created by men over time becoming firm in 381 AD.

I am saying what I have said many times before on this site. The doctrine of the Trinity is an effort to formulate the teachings of the Apostles (the Bible): There is one God, Jesus is not the Father, and Jesus is God.

[bjs]

[Replying to post 15 by 2timothy316]

Once again, if we research these religious pantheons on their own, instead of reading propaganda searching for connections to Christianity, we don’t find anything like this.

If we want to know about deities like Tammuz, then research Tammuz. We will find nothing similar to the Christian trinity. The only time connections between the Christian trinity are Babylonian religions are found is when someone makes it a conscious goal to find such connections. These connections are drawn at the expense of accuracy.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tammuz ... tamian-god

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiramis

[bjs]

[Replying to post 16 by polonius.advice]

Tertullian offered no proof save the teaching of the scriptures. There is a valid discussion about how much Greek philosophy became a part of Christian doctrine. You can even insist that Tertullian was just flat out wrong, or point to other things he did that you have a problem with.

None of that changes the fact that the trinity was a well-established doctrine by the time Tertullian wrote at the beginning of the third century.

[2timothy316]