I really must have no life; I just said I didn't feel like debating Imagician, but my mood changed.
I probably wouldn't have ever used the word "Trinity" if I based my religious vocabulary on the vocabulary used in the Bible. However, I would have come to the conclusion that somehow the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are the one God, and then, so I wouldn't always have to write out "Father and Son and Spirit," I probably would've come up with a shorthand like "the Threefold One" or something.
But if you TRULY believe what you offer so far as your 'biblical conclusion', SHOW us the EVIDENCE. Show us where in the Bible, or ANY WHERE ELSE, God offered inspiration to use ANY Bible to illustrate the relationship between Father, Son, and Spirit.
But since there was no Bible when the New Testament was written, well, God couldn't have told us to use the Bible to interpret the New Testament.
Apparently, a lot of Trinitarianism derives from the hypermonism of the Gnostics. This is very strange and actually incoherent in ways, but goes to show how it wasn't just outsiders to the early Christian movement who believed in things that led to the official declaration of the Trinity.
You make it TOO easy. You say one thing, but ALL the evidence points to something DIFFERENT.
I posted scripture EXPLAINING the use of the term ONE directly FROM the Bible. The ONLY way one could confuse this word would be to IGNORE what is offered IN THE BIBLE as explanation.
When Christ says that those that had 'seen Him had seen the Father', this is NOT LITERAL. Not MEANT to be literal. Since NO MAN has EVER SEEN God, it is OBVIOUS that it cannot be LITERAL. Doesn't matter what you WANT to believe, the TRUTH is OBVIOUS. You are FORCED to IGNORE what is offered that EXPLAINS the error of 'trinity' in order to maintain it.
While there was indeed, no Bible in the beginning of 'the Church', it is pretty clear that the 'books' or 'writing' that BECAME the Bible DID exist. As well as the epistles written to the 'Churches'.
But since it wasn't until HUNDREDS of years AFTER the DEATH of Christ that the RCC introduced the IDEAS that lead to 'trinity', it is CLEAR that 'trinity' didn't EXIST until it was "CREATED" by MEN hundreds of years AFTER the death of Christ.
There is absolutely NO EVIDENCE of 'three persons in one God' in ANY writings UNTIL 'trinity' came INTO the picture. NOT ONE apostle taught it. Christ NEVER even MENTIONED it so far as what was recorded in the Gospels.
And the important part of this discussion in TRUTH is that the HISTORY of 'trinity' DOES exist. The RCC's history plainly records the EVENTS and PEOPLE involved with it's FORMATION and INTRODUCTION into the RCC. Only those that CHOOSE to be ignorant of it's history ARE ignorant by CHOICE. The FACTS are easily obtainable to any that are willing to do just a BIT of research.
But that is NOT the NATURE of 'trinity'. The 'Church' itself openly ADMITS that there is ABSOLUTELY NO PROOF of 'trinity'. That is MUST be divinely inspired and even then, NO ONE can TRULY understand it. It IS a 'mystery'.
But the funny part, the Bible offers "Godhead" as a 'mystery' that is TRULY divinely INSPIRED. That word does exist in the Bible and it IS a 'mystery' of sorts'.
But what a NUTTY conception, replace a legitimate 'mystery' with one of YOUR OWN. But even when replacing ONE with another, realize that the NEW mystery doesn't explain the OLD mystery any better than the OLD mystery. And then LOOK at how the NEW mystery ALTERED understanding. Look at ALL the FALSE TEACHINGS that were brought into play BY inventing and inserting 'trinity' into 'Christianity'.
And the MOST profound part of it is this: Most Protestant denominations OPENLY admit that they DO NOT agree with the practices of the Catholic Church. Yet the ENTIRE concept of 'trinity' was introduced into 'Christianity' BY the RCC.
You SAY that you would have come to the IDEA of 'three persons in one god' regardless of 'trinity'. I don't BELIEVE it. For I have NEVER MET anyone that wasn't INTRODUCED to it. I read the Bible about four or five times before I had EVER heard of it and I had found NOTHING in the Bible that would indicate that Jesus IS God. That God is THREE PERSONS in ONE God. NOTHING. I was absolutely DUMBFOUNDED when I heard someone say, Jesus is God. And they acted like they were JUST as dumbfounded that I had NEVER heard of 'trinity'.
I had 'heard' the word. there are 'churches' that use the name. I kind of had a feeling that it had something to do with THREE. But I had NEVER heard ANYONE speak of 'trinity' so far as THREE PERSONS in ONE GOD. And at the time I FIRST heard it I was about 30 years old.
now YOU can say God simply didn't LOVE me enough to reveal it to me. But I KNOW that I have had a relationship with God like few I have ever witnessed. I UNDERSTAND things that MOST that have been led in misunderstanding by the 'churches' can't even FATHOM.
Yet God didn't LOVE me ENOUGH to reveal the TRUTH to me that He is REALLY 'three persons in ONE God'. A person after His own heart, yet He REVEALED to MURDERERS and TORTURERS and RAPISTS and CHILD MOLESTERS that He is "THREE persons in ONE God". But to His SINCERE child STARVING for understanding, He just HID this from me?????? You've GOT to be JOKING.
Do you believe in MORE than ONE 'trinity'? Does God reveal a DIFFERENT 'trinity' to DIFFERENT PEOPLE? If the answer is yes, then THAT 'god' is a deceiver. If NO, then you offer by your own admission that you are deceiving yourself and maybe even others.
For those that "CREATED TRINITY" STATE that it can ONLY be KNOWN by Divine Revelation. And even when Revealed, it CANNOT be understood.
So HOW would you have come to the conclusion, ON YOUR OWN, that 'trinity' or the CONCEPT of 'trinity' exists when those that CREATED it state that it can ONLY be known through Divine Revelation? And even then, it is STILL incomprehensible to ANY 'created intellect'?
So you see, the ONLY way you KNOW of 'trinity' according to the doctrine itself, is either through DIVINE Revelation, or someone TAUGHT it to you. And even if someone taught it to you, you STILL can't understand it.
And what kind of 'God' would introduce such 'double speak' and EXPECT anyone to accept it? I don't serve some 'holy idol'. I serve a LIVING and LOVING God. A God that is MY Creator, my Heavenly Father. And He loves me as HIS CHILD. His Son.
No, don't follow some UNKNOWN God. I follow and KNOW the LIVING God. The Father of both Jesus Christ and all who LOVE Him and abide in His commandments.
I do NOT follow a "MYSTERY god". Here is what Paul had to say about the subject:
Acts 17:
22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens,
I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription,
To The Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
25
Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
29
Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
30 And
the times of this ignorance God winked at;
but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men,
in that he hath raised him from the dead.
Read it a COUPLE of times. And NOTE: Paul offered WARNING that the Godhead is something that we shouldn't even THINK we are able to 'create' through 'art' or any other of man's DEVICES. Wisdom is a DEVICE of men. But more often than not their OWN wisdom ONLY leads them into FALSE pretense and FALSE assumption.
Blessings,
MEC