Trinity on Trial : Act III

...continued from Trinity on Trial : Act II

There is no term in Scripture that bears any resemblance to 'trinity'

According to a Catholic Encyclopaedia Article titled The Blessed Trinity:

"In Scripture there is as yet no single term by which the Three Divine Persons are denoted together. The word trias (of which the Latin trinitas is a translation) is first found in Theophilus of Antioch about A.D. 180. He speaks of "the Trinity of God [the Father], His Word and His Wisdom ("Ad. Autol.", II, 15).

The term may, of course, have been in use before his time. Afterwards it appears in its Latin form of trinitas in Tertullian ("De pud." c. xxi). In the next century the word is in general use. It is found in many passages of Origen ("In Ps. xvii", 15).

The first creed in which it appears is that of Origen's pupil, Gregory Thaumaturgus. In his Ekthesis tes pisteos composed between 260 and 270 AD, he writes:

'There is therefore nothing created, nothing subject to another in the Trinity: nor is there anything that has been added as though it once had not existed, but had entered afterwards: therefore the Father has never been without the Son, nor the Son without the Spirit: and this same Trinity is immutable and unalterable forever (P. G., X, 986).'

In stark contrast to the theological and philosophical ramblings and postulations of the 'fathers,' the scriptures tell us that the Israelites worshipped only YHWH. Nowhere in the Old Testament is there any indication that this was to change at the time of the 'Messiah' or 'Anointed One'. (In texts such as John 9:38 where the blind man worshipped Jesus, the Greek word used denotes an act of reverence, whether paid to a creature [as here] or to the Creator.)

Nowhere in the Old Testament or the New is there any statement that the 'Messiah' was to be born of any other than the seed of David.

Nowhere is it indicated that the "good thing promised to Israel and Judah" (Jer. 33:14) was to be equal to God, except as it pleased God to make him so.

The writers of the Old Testament testified that YHWH is the Judge, Lawgiver and King of the Universe and that YHWH delegates authority to whom he chooses(For an instance of kingly delegation compare Psalm 29:10 with Jer. 30:9). Though the Pharisees and others "would not that this man should reign over them" they will have no choice in the matter: the appointment of a king is YHWH's prerogative.

It is not the non-existent and newly-popularised 'Triune' God of the theologians who has chosen Jesus...it is YHWH who has anointed him and it is YHVH who has made him king (Psalm 2:6).