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Nontrinitarianism

Main article: Nontrinitarianism

Some Christian traditions either reject the doctrine of the Trinity, or consider it unimportant. Persons and groups espousing this position generally do not refer to themselves as "Nontrinitarians." They can vary in both their reasons for rejecting traditional teaching on the Trinity, and in the way they describe God.

Criticism and Debate

{{copypaste}} Following is an outline of basic objections raised by critics of the Trinity and a theologian's defense of each:

1. The word Trinity is not found in the Bible. Response: This has no bearing on whether or not the Bible teaches the doctrine. The word "monotheism" is also not in the Bible and yet the concept is clearly taught in scripture.
2. There is no single verse in the Bible that, all by itself, teaches the Trinity. Response: Various verses teach that the Father is God Phil. 1:2, the Son is God (John 1:1,14, and the Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:3–4). There are verses that suggest the Trinity since they mention all three together: Matt. 3:16–17. Matt. 28:19, 2 Cor.13:14 NIV
3. The Trinity is three separate Gods. Response: The Trinity doctrine, by definition, is monotheistic. The Shema of the Old Testament (Deut. 6:4) is seen in the New Testament ("The Lord our God is one." Mark 12:29). The New Testament knows God as Father, as Son, and as Holy Spirit.
4. Three gods cannot be one God. Response: The Trinity is not three gods. The Trinity is one God in three persons, or three aspects of a single God.
5. Three persons cannot be one person. Response: The Doctrine of the Trinity does not state that God is one person. The Trinity is one God in three Personal dimensions.
6. The Trinity is illogical. Response: There is no logical contradiction in the orthodox doctrine. A physical analogy to the spiritual concept would be a sphere: 100% is wide, 100% tall, 100% deep; they are not parts, but individual dimensions of a single essence. Width is not depth, depth is not height, and height is not width, and yet the single sphere is all three. The logical problems that humans have with the doctrine are not in Trinitarianism itself, but in our inability to grasp infinite Being.
7. The Trinity is a pagan idea. Response: Other religions have included triads (three separate gods) in their theology. The Trinity is one God. Moreover, to avoid all similarity would require us to abandon all ideas we have in common with other religions: theism, justice, morality, etc. Each would intersect with paganism at some point, giving us nothing left to believe in. The objection, at its core, is thus both irrelevant and invalid.
8. Jesus cannot be God because He did not know all things, slept, grew in wisdom, said the Father is greater than I, etc. Response: This objection fails to take into consideration the Hypostatic Union which states that Jesus had two natures: divine and human. As a man, Jesus cooperated with the limitations of His humanity. Jesus would sleep, grow in wisdom, and say the Father was greater than He. These do not negate that Jesus was divine since they refer to His humanity and not His Deity. God the Son, as Son of Man, demonstrates and models the obedience that each of us should exhibit towards God. This objection speaks against Sabellianism, but not Trinitarianism.
9. God is exclusively referenced as "I," "Him," "He," and "His," and is therefore a single person. Response: The doctrine teaches that God is a single being. "I" and "He" are appropriate pronouns for a single being. This objection speaks against Tri-theism, but not Trinitarianism.
10. Jesus cannot be God because this would mean that God died and God can't die. Response: God cannot die. Humans can, and do, die. Jesus was both, and though His Deity did not cease to exist, he did, as the Son of Man, die. This objection speaks against Sabellianism, but not Trinitarianism.

1. Jesus asked on the cross "My God, my God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?" And earlier, he says "Father, let this cup pass from me." A person cannot forsake himself. A person cannot ask a favor of himself. These passages clearly describe one person talking to another. This is a subset of the previous objection. The doctrine teaches that God is three persons (or personal dimensions). The three persons relate to each other, as should be expected. This objection speaks against Sabellianism, but not Trinitarianism.

Nontrinitarian groups

Since Trinitarianism is central to so much of church doctrine, nontrinitarians have mostly been groups that existed before the Nicene Creed was codified in 325 or are groups that developed after the Reformation, when many church doctrines came into question

In the early centuries of Christian history adoptionists, Arians, Ebionites, Gnostics, Marcionites, and others held nontrinitarian beliefs. The Nicene Creed raised the issue of the relationship between Jesus' divine and human natures. Monophysitism ("one nature") and monothelitism ("one will") were early attempts, considered heretical by trinitarians, to explain this relationship.

During more than a thousand years of Trinitarian orthodoxy, formal nontrinitarianism, i.e., a doctrine held by a church, group, or movement, was rare, but it did appear. For example, among the Cathars of the 13th century. The Protestant Reformation of the 1500s also brought tradition into question. At first, nontrinitarians were executed (such as Servetus), or forced to keep their beliefs secret (such as Isaac Newton). The eventual establishment of religious freedom, however, allowed nontrinitarians to more easily preach their beliefs, and the 19th century saw the establishment of several nontrinitarian groups in North America and elsewhere. These include Christadelphians, Jehovah's Witnesses, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Unitarians. Twentieth-century nontrinitarian movements include Iglesia ni Cristo and the Unification Church. Nontrinitarian groups differ from one another in their views of Jesus Christ, depicting him variously as a divine being second only to God the Father (e.g., Jehovah's Witnesses), Yahweh of the Old Testament in human form, God (but not eternally God), Son of God but inferior to the Father (versus co-equal), prophet, or simply a holy man.

Included in this are Oneness Pentecostals, who deny the Trinitarian doctrine, though affirming their belief that God came to Earth as man (i.e., manifested Himself) in the man Jesus Christ. Like Trinitarians, Oneness Pentecostals believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. One can understand Oneness Pentecostals by replacing the Trinitarian term "person" with the term "mode" or "manifestation" when discussing the Christian Godhead. Many Oneness Pentecostals can recite the first Nicene Creed, as it rejects Arianism, yet preserves the oneness of God and divinity of Jesus Christ. Yet Oneness Pentecostals are regarded by all orthodox Christians groups as subscribing to the heresy of Modalism, teaching that God displayed Himself in the Old Testament as Father, in the Gospels as the Son, and after the Ascension as the Holy Spirit, which is not the accepted orthodox view of three distinct persons in one divine essence. Oneness Pentecostalism teaches there is only one person displaying Himself in different ways.