{"id":491,"date":"2020-01-10T14:19:41","date_gmt":"2020-01-10T21:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/35.193.62.183\/?p=491"},"modified":"2022-10-10T16:13:06","modified_gmt":"2022-10-10T22:13:06","slug":"trinity_evolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/integritysyndicate.com\/trinity_evolution\/","title":{"rendered":"The Evolution of the Doctrine of the Trinity"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Modern Christians owe a debt of gratitude to the early church. Her legacy of courage under persecution stands to this day as a bold testimony of faith. However, this legacy tends to overshadow the devastating impact of false teachers who crept into the fold shortly after the ascension of Christ. These purported Christians, better known as Gnostics, subtly twisted scripture using pagan Greek philosophy to establish the doctrine of the Trinity. <\/p>

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The fourth century church councils are said to have rooted out such heresies and safeguarded Christian doctrine from the encroachment of pagan philosophy. But a more careful investigation of the historical record reveals a very different story. This article highlights specific facts about persons and events surrounding the development of the Trinitarian doctrine that are vital to an accurate evaluation, yet are rarely \u2013 if ever \u2013 mentioned in popular teaching.<\/p>

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FIRST CENTURY<\/strong><\/h3>

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Ancient Israel always had the distinction of believing in one supreme God. This mono-theistic creed of Israel known as the Shema<\/em> is found in Deuteronomy 6:4: \u201cHear O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\"Shema<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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While there are a few times in Genesis where God says \u201cLet us,\u201d both the NIV and NET1<\/sup>\u00a0study Bibles recognize these as\u00a0God addressing his heavenly court of angels.\u00a0The consistent Old Testament use of the personal name Yahweh (YHWH) in association with\u00a0singular personal pronouns such as\u00a0I<\/em>,\u00a0me<\/em>, and\u00a0my<\/em>, should remove any doubt that ancient Israel believed God to be one singular personal being.<\/p>\n

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Jesus\u00a0himself affirmed the\u00a0Shema<\/em>\u00a0by quoting this ancient creed of Israel verbatim in Mark 12:29. Yet he did not suggest that\u00a0\u201cthe Lord is one\u201d<\/em>\u00a0meant anything other than what Israel had always understood it to mean \u2013 one singular personal being. Throughout his ministry, he identified the Father in heaven as God and routinely distinguished himself from this \u201conly true God\u201d whom he served (Jn 17:3).<\/p>\n

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Shortly after the resurrection and ascension, Peter preached an evangelistic sermon to his fellow Jews. But in this sermon Peter did not announce the Trinitarian nature of God. Instead, he identified God as the Father in heaven. He then described Jesus as a\u00a0man<\/em>\u00a0attested by God, and the Spirit as the\u00a0gift<\/em>\u00a0of God (Acts 2:14-40). This message was sufficient unto salvation for all who had ears to hear.<\/p>\n

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Likewise Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, identified the One God as the Father (Eph. 4:6), and declared him to be \u201cthe God of our Lord Jesus\u201d (Eph. 1:17). Jesus is thus \u201cseated at the right hand\u201d (Eph. 1:20) of his own God, who is the One God of Israel. Similar statements appear throughout Paul\u2019s letters. Moreover, without exception, the OT and NT identify the One God of Israel as the Father alone (e.g. Mal. 2:10, 1 Cor. 8:6; Eph. 4:6; 1 Ti. 2:5).<\/p>\n

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Although Jesus is referred to as \u201cGod\u201d a few times in the New Testament, this follows the Old Testament precedent in which the title \u201cGod\u201d (elohim<\/em>\u00a0in Hebrew,\u00a0theos<\/em>\u00a0in Greek) is occasionally applied to Yahweh\u2019s chosen agents to signify their status as his representatives.2<\/sup>\u00a0Hebrews 1:8-9 illustrates this principle well. Here, Psalm 45:6-7 is applied to Jesus, indicating that he is Yahweh\u2019s supreme representative and royal vice-regent:<\/p>\n

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But of the Son he says, \u201cYour\u00a0throne, O God, is forever<\/strong>\u00a0and ever… You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore\u00a0God, your God, has anointed you\u00a0<\/strong>with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Psalm 45:6-7<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Dr. Thomas L. Constable, professor of Bible exposition at Dallas Theological Seminary, comments on this royal wedding Psalm that many scholars believe was originally addressed to an earlier Davidic king:3<\/sup><\/p>\n

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The writer addressed his human king as \u201cGod\u201d (Elohim). He did not mean that the king was God but that he stood in the place of God and represented Him. Compare\u00a0Exodus 21:6;\u00a022:8-9; and\u00a0Psalm 82:1\u00a0where the biblical writers called Israel\u2019s judges gods because they represented God. This is an extravagant expression of praise for the king. God had blessed this king because he had represented the Lord faithfully by ruling as Yahweh does.<\/p>\n

Dr. Thomas Constable,\u00a0Constable’s Notes on the Bible<\/em>\u00a0(Psalm 45:6)<\/a><\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Old Testament scholar Walter Bruggemann further explains that in Psalm 45,\u00a0\u201c[t]he king is joyfully anointed with oil by God, signifying that God has chosen the king as an intermediary figure. The king represents God in ruling over the people in Jerusalem and speaking to them. The king also represents the people in speaking to God in prayer. The poet celebrates the ideal king, who has a special relationship with God and who brings justice and honor to the kingdom.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>4<\/sup><\/p>\n

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The New Testament confirms that the word \u201cGod\u201d is applied to Jesus in this\u00a0representational<\/em>\u00a0sense by emphasizing that Jesus\u00a0has<\/em>\u00a0a God over him, namely the One God of Israel.5<\/sup>\u00a0The\u00a0superiority of Jesus over all other representatives of YHWH is indicated by his virgin birth as the sinless second Adam, and confirmed by his exaltation to the \u201cright hand of God\u201d \u2013 a position that clearly places him over the entire created order while at the same time\u00a0distinguishing<\/em>\u00a0him from the One God whom he worships to this day as his own God (e.g. Rev. 1:6; 3:2, 12).<\/p>\n

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Platonism vs. Biblical Judaism<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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\"Strong<\/figure>\n

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The year 70 AD was a dramatic turning point for the fledgling church. Jerusalem was sacked by the Roman army, scattering the surviving Jews and disconnecting Christianity from its Jewish birthplace. Most of the apostles had been martyred by this time, and the church was soon driven underground by Roman persecution.<\/p>\n

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Christianity nevertheless continued to spread outward from Jerusalem and into a pagan Greco-Roman society saturated in the ideas of the famous Greek philosopher Plato (428 BC). Plato wrote a mythical account of creation called\u00a0Timaeus<\/em>\u00a0which included metaphysical theories about the nature of man that would later dramatically influence post-apostolic Christian doctrine. The Catholic Encyclopedia observes:<\/p>\n

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Moreover, Plato\u2019s interest in nature is dominated by a teleological view of the world as animated with a World-Soul, which, conscious of its process, does all things for a useful purpose. . .he believes the [human] soul to have existed before its union with the body.\u00a0[Plato\u2019s] whole theory of Ideas<\/strong>,\u00a0in so far, at least, as it is applied to human knowledge, presupposes the doctrine of pre-existence<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Catholic Encyclopedia,\u00a0Plato and Platonism<\/em><\/a><\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Plato\u2019s \u201cWorld-Soul\u201d was also known as the Logos, which simply means\u00a0word<\/em>. In Platonic philosophy, the Logos refers to a conscious, rational organizing principle of the universe. It is portrayed as a second god made by the Supreme God at the dawn of creation. This Logos demiurge goes on to create both the material world and all immaterial human souls.6<\/sup><\/p>\n

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According to Plato, human souls consciously pre-exist, dwelling with the gods in the heavens until they descend to earth and enter the womb to be born as human beings. They are then perpetually reincarnated as other humans (or animals) until they acquire enough wisdom to be released from a bodily existence in order to ascend back to the heavens as eternally disembodied souls.7<\/sup><\/p>\n

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In stark contrast to the Greeks, the Hebrew scriptures teach that human beings begin to exist when they are conceived in the womb. Genesis 2:7 indicates that the human soul (nephesh<\/em>\u00a0in Hebrew) is not purely immaterial but rather consists of\u00a0two<\/em>\u00a0things in combination: the breath of God and the dust of the earth. Thus, the only sense in which a person\u2019s soul can \u201cpre-exist\u201d is in the eternal plan of God, a concept more commonly known as\u00a0predestination<\/em>. E.C. Dewick says of this contrast:<\/p>\n

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When the Jew said something was \u201cpredestined,\u201d he thought of it as already \u201cexisting\u201d in a higher sphere of life. The world\u2019s history is thus predestined because it is already, in a sense, preexisting and consequently fixed.\u00a0This typically Jewish conception of predestination may be distinguished from the Greek idea of preexistence by the predominance of the thought of \u201cpreexistence\u201d in the Divine purpose<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

E.C. Dewick,\u00a0Primitive Christian Eschatology,\u00a0<\/em>pp. 253-254<\/a><\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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This idea is found throughout the scriptures and also in the extra-biblical rabbinic writings of the Second Temple period. Some examples include:<\/p>\n

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