Why should Christians believe in the Trinity?
Rev. Steve Marlowe
The early church in Jerusalem believed that YAHSHUA was and is the Messiah. They were called Nazareans (Acts 24:5). The Apostle Paul was associated with the Nazareans. There was no concept of “the three in One God, the Trinity,” which is why there is no such doctrine of the Trinity taught or found in the New Testament, nor would such a belief in the church, led by the Apostles, be considered a prerequisite to our salvation and eternal life in Christ. Christ never revealed to His disciples that they must believe in the Trinity in order to be saved, and because this never came from God, then it came from man alone and is of “the traditions of men, which makes void the word of God (Mark 7:6-8). ”The Nazareans, who referred to themselves as “people of the Way”, knew YAHSHUA as their Messiah and Savior, and they believed that He was their God, the Lord YAH, “and that every tongue should confess that YAHSHUA the Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11). The Father gave all things to the Son (Matthew 11:27).
Later in Antioch, Syria, they were called Christians. First, what defines one as a Christian? “A dictionary definition of a Christian would be a person professing belief in Christ or in the religion based on the teachings of Christ, hence Christian.” The word “Christian” is used three times in the New Testament (Acts 11:26; 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16). Followers of Christ were first called “Christians” in Antioch (Acts 11:26) because their behavior, activity, and speech were like Christ. The word “Christian” literally means, “belonging to the party of Christ” or a “follower of Christ.” Trinitarians want to define a Christian as one who believes in the Trinity, however, a Christian is one who believes in Christ, and His teachings alone.
The Trinity is for many the litmus test for who is and who is not a Christian. The word “Christian” comes from the Greek word “Christos” meaning “anointed one” or “Messiah”. The Protestant consensus is, “We hang a person’s very salvation upon the acceptance of the doctrine… No one dares question the Trinity for fear of being branded a ‘heretic’...We must know, understand, and love the Trinity to be fully and completely Christian” (James White, The Forgotten Trinity, pp. 14-15). “The dogma of the Trinity is the central dogma of Catholic faith. Only with belief in it can one grasp and explicitly believe other central Christian teachings” (The Teaching of Christ: A Catholic Catechism for Adults).
Can we truly understand the Trinity?
“The mind of man cannot fully understand the mystery of the Trinity. He who has tried to understand the mystery will lose his mind, but he who would deny the Trinity will lose his soul” (Harold Lindsell and Charles Woodbridge, A Handbook of Christian Truth, pp. 51-52). One theologian says, “We must know, understand, and love the Trinity to be fully and completely Christian.” And another says, “The dogma of the Trinity is an absolute mystery which we do not understand even after it has been revealed” by the Trinitarian clergy (Karl Rahner, The Trinity, p. 50). Man, not God, has made the Trinity a prerequisite for our salvation and therefore is of the “Traditions of Men,” and not of God.
Does belief in the Trinity save us?
The Bible never teaches that one must believe in the Trinity in order to receive salvation that affords us of eternal life. The Bible teaches that the good works we do cannot make us acceptable to God. Titus 3:5 says, “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy, and thus salvation is a free gift to all those who believe on His name.” We must know and believe in the true name of the Savior, and it is our faith in His name that saves us. He saved us by our faith, the washing, baptismal rebirth, and renewal by God’s Holy Spirit. So, a Christian is someone who has been born again by God (John 3:3; John 3:7; 1 Peter 1:23) and has put faith and trust in YAHSHUA the Christ. Ephesians 2:8 tells us that it is “…by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” A true Christian is a person who has put faith and trust in the Person and the name (Acts 4:12), of YAHSHUA the Christ, by His death on the cross as payment for our sins and His resurrection on the third day. John 1:12 tells us, “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, he gave the right to become children of God.” The mark of a true Christian is love for others and obedience to God’s Word (1 John 2:4, 10). A true Christian is indeed a child of God and one who has been given new life in YAHSHUA the Christ. The name Jesus has only existed since the 17th century, and therefore, was never given by God as the name of our salvation, but has evolved and transformed from other names according to linguistic evolution, accordingly, Jesus transformed from Iesus, which transformed from Iesous, which is a transliteration of Yeshua. God revealed YAHSHUA, a name that has the name {YAH}which is “the name which is above every name” (Philippians 2:9). The Apostle Paul heard this name on the road to Damascus in Hebrew (Acts 26:12-15). The Savior never said the name “Jesus,” which is not a Hebrew name, therefore, the name Jesus was placed into the New Testament by man, and not by the revelation of God.
What is the Doctrine of the Trinity?
The Trinity, “It has proved impossible for Christians actually to understand the doctrine or to explain it in any comprehensible way. The Doctrine of the Trinity… supasses our human ability to understand…” (Harold Brown,Heresies: Heresy and Orthodoxy in the History of the Church, p. 128). Historian H. G. Wells has stated, “There is no evidence that the apostles of Jesus ever heard of the Trinity–at any rate from him” (The Outline of History, Vol. 2, p. 499). The Trinity Doctrine is totally of confusion, and God is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33).
