Christians::: How long has the Trinity existed? Since infinity or approx 2000 years?

[Norrrm]

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. You ask an interesting question.

Before man, would the trinity have been binary?

[JoseBalow]

2. It's bad writing

[odins folly]

3. 1,700 years

First Council of Nicaea?

[Voltaire2]

5. This is the correct answer.

And while it is the majority belief, nontrinitarian sects existed before trinitarianism became dominant through the intervention of the Roman Empire, and after being apparently completely repressed by the 5th century, reappeared hundreds of years later. There are now many nontrinitarian sects.

[Norrrm]

7. Seems deliberately over-complicated with both sides making up highly intellectual theories to back the result they want

instead of arriving at a result based on logical analysis.

With each side, it's your fault if you don't understand.

One viewpoint is reminiscent of Eve constructed out of part of Adam.

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

[mikelewis]

9. Yes... it was very complicated as they were trying to reconcile beliefs across an Empire

Lot's of different sects had sprung up all over the place. Christianity wasn't a monolithic idea at the time and everyone had their own idea of what sacred texts were sacred. It was a nightmare of diplomacy as these would be a very contentious issues... not much different than it would be today actually.

So the Council of Nicaea must have been very interesting. Christianity was filled with Mysticism and strange interpretations that were and are hard to define. While creating the Bible was important, they were also trying to create the doctrine and make it as palatable to the majority of people as possible. Don't forget, this was to be the new state religion for everyone... not just a reorganization of christianity as a church but this was a new form of government as well.

So was it perfect? Nope. Was it an attempt to do good... Yup though it was also an attempt to redefine the right to rule. Don't forget. The Jesus Movement was proclaiming a new King... and the Emperor just agreed that Jesus and God were King... and guess who was chosen to rule over them all?

[Norrrm]

11. Yeah! Think of the folks who want a Constitutional Convention to write a new one.

The first one was contentious enough without the religious folks.

[mikelewis]

12. Pretty certain this is why they agreed to a separation of Church and State...

What is interesting is that they understood that they needed to leave religion out of state affairs. This was the equal and opposite reaction to figureheads like Henry taking over a new Church and setting himself as it's divine leader. It wasn't that the people at the convention weren't God fearing... hell, Jefferson rewrote his own bible... but they wanted the freedom to believe what they believed and the right for others to do the same. That was unique in history. No other government has really adopted such a view. Rome was inclusive. Greece was inclusive but they appropriated those other religions as extensions of their own and used that as a justification for their right to rule.

Catholicism derived it's authority by intertwining with the Empire and well... that experiment seemed to work for a very long time, didn't it? However, it didn't allow for the freedom of expression that made Christianity so appealing in the first place. That's why centuries later, you have figures like Calvin and Martin Luther able to capture the angst of all these disparate groups and start a reformation. There wasn't one monolithic idea against Catholicism, as always, each group had their own concerns, their own Godly needs. What religion offered was a way for the individual to matter to the whole. When that religion failed to fulfill that need, the individuals broke that system.

[Norrrm]

13. Oftentimes the method of religion is more important than the God of religion.

We have plenty of folks who want to be the Christian Ayatollah of America.

[Earl_from_PA]

4. 2 Peter 3:8

Last edited Wed Feb 26, 2025, 09:54 PM - Edit history (1)

A day with the Lord is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day.

[mikelewis]

10. He does drone on... nt

[Easterncedar]

6. Funny, just reading H.G. Well's autobiography

He says he was about 6 when he realized it was all nonsense, to the distress of his pious mother.

“I was unable to feel as my mother wished me to feel. I sensed it was a silly story long before I dared to admit, even to myself that it was a silly story.“
.
“ Jesus was some fine sort of man perhaps, the Jewish Messiah was a promise of leadership, but Our Savior of the Trinity is a dressed up inconsistent effigy of amiability, a monstrous hybrid of man and infinity, making vague promises of helpful miracles for the cheating of simple souls, an ever absent help in times of trouble.“

[mikelewis]

8. I have been researching Isaac Newton...

And he had some very similar beliefs in the Trinity. He even went so far as to find biblical proof invalidating the concept of the Trinity but decided not to publish it. Instead he hid his religious convictions in his notes and kept his religion to himself though he actually Trojan Horsed a few into his published works. I won't go into that here but I do cover it in a blog post

Isaac Newton, the renowned scientist, held deep religious convictions that diverged from mainstream Christianity, particularly regarding the doctrine of the Trinity. Through his extensive study of the Bible and early Christian texts, Newton became convinced that the concept of the Trinity—viewing God as three persons in one—was a distortion introduced after the original teachings of Christianity. He believed that only God the Father was the supreme deity, with Jesus Christ, the Son, being distinct and subordinate. Fearing backlash, Newton kept these beliefs private during his lifetime.

The idea of the Trinity wasn't always a staple in Christian belief. Early Christians, emerging from a Jewish background, were staunch monotheists, acknowledging one God. However, they also recognized the divinity of Jesus Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit. This raised questions about how to reconcile these beliefs with monotheism. The term "Trinity" itself wasn't used until around AD 213 by the theologian Tertullian.

The formal establishment of the Trinity as a central doctrine occurred during the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325. This council was convened to address various theological disputes, including differing views about the nature of Christ. The resulting Nicene Creed declared the Son to be "of the same substance" as the Father, laying the foundation for the Trinitarian doctrine. This was further refined in AD 381 at the First Council of Constantinople, which expanded the creed to include the Holy Spirit, solidifying the concept of one God in three persons.

In summary, while the roots of Trinitarian thought can be traced back to early Christian attempts to understand the roles of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, it wasn't until the 4th century that the Trinity became a defined and required belief within mainstream Christianity.