What does the doctrine of the Trinity according to the creeds of the church require? And what are the logical consequences of a nontrinitarian monotheistic position? The implications of assuming that the doctrine of the Trinity is false are investigated.
Those logical implications have bearing on the doctrines of the deity of Jesus, the incarnation via His virgin birth, the significance and necessity of a penal, vicarious, substitutionary atonement, and finally the significance of the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension doctrines -- all of which are based on and flow from the previous doctrines, the most important being the deity of Jesus Christ. The denial of the deity of Jesus Christ and thereby the doctrine of the Trinity will be seen to logically imply the denial of most, if not all of the doctrines of Christianity to the extent that even the doctrine espoused by nontrinitarians, monotheism, is brought into question, for it too is part of the whole.
This project is not seeking to prove the doctrine of the Trinity (or to reject it in favor of a monotheistic nontrinitarian system) but rather to show that its denial or rejection leads to the collapse of the entire system known as Christianity or Scripturalism – a position that according to this writer leaves one with nihilism as a worldview, (it being the rejection of all worldviews including nihilism).
One clear consequence: the system collapses.
"A developed Christian philosophical system proceeds by rigorous deduction from one axiom to thousands of theorems. Each of the theorems fits into the whole system. Each of the theorems, even though minor, is important. The revelation of God is perfect, and it is all profitable. Take one idea out and the remainder is less than perfect, and we suffer loss. Because Christianity is a system of truth, a person who accepts one of the theorems, must, on pain of contradiction, accept the whole."(Reference 1, p. 3)
Let us repeat. Christianity is a system of doctrines, true doctrines regarding God, man, creation, and reality. The truth of Christian doctrines is based on the Scriptures, the Word of God, the God of Truth who cannot lie. These doctrines are revealed truths, not discovered or in any sense created by philosophers, theologians, preachers, or teachers. Without the inerrant, infallible, verbal, propositional revealed truths of Scripture, disclosed by God Himself - thereby and therein concerning Himself, His attributes, His creation, and His Sovereign rule over all creatures and creation - there simply would not be any absolute truths known to man about himself and God. The doctrine of the Trinity is one of those truths. A faith without the Trinity is an empty faith, not the Christian faith of the Scripture.
In this thought-experiment, the author assumed the proposition that the trinity is false doctrine as the premise of an apagogic argument in order to show that this presupposition alone would result in the following:
1. It means negation of the deity of Jesus Christ;
2. It reduces the Incarnation to an irrelevance, and at its core, unnecessary;
3. It dismisses penal, substitutionary atonement;
4. It destroys the significance of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ; and
5. It denies the theological significance of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.
No attempt is made in this experiment to prove by either exegesis or logic that the doctrine of the Trinity is true. The project is strictly apagogic, not apologetic. There should be no doubt. The author holds that the doctrine of the Trinity is revealed-truth believed by faith simply because this is what the Bible proclaims without explanation of matters beyond those clearly stated in Scripture. Obviously, the Bible does not explain, as our minds may wish, the miracles of the virgin birth of Jesus, i.e., the incarnation; the numerous miraculous acts of the Old and New Testaments, including the atoning crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; and many other revealed doctrines of the faith.
What is of primary emphasis in this project is the truth that,
"Christianity is a comprehensive view of things; it takes the world, both material and spiritual, to be an ordered system. ... Instead of a series of disconnected propositions, truth will be a rational system, a logically ordered series, somewhat like geometry with its axioms and theorems, its implications and presuppositions. And each part will derive its significance from the whole." (Reference 2, p. 24f)
If the doctrine of the Trinity is not only central but unique to Christianity, as many theologians claim, then, if it is false, to paraphrase Paul, we who believe it have indeed been duped and are the most miserable. Our faith is in vain; we are still condemned sinners. In short, if the doctrine of the Trinity is indeed false, then Christianity is futile. As the apostle Paul reasoned:
"1 Corinthians 15:12. Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13. But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: 14. And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. 15. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. 16. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: 17. And if Christ be not raised, you faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins. 18. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. 19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. 20. But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept. 21. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."
Conclusion
From the denial of the truth of the doctrine of the Trinity, follows step by step the denial of the central doctrines of the Christian faith. Concurrent with these denials, the rejection of God's revealed truths yields a false faith, and belief in a god of one's own imagination.
"Consequently, there can be no doubt that failure to accept the Trinity will lead to fatal errors in the rest of one's theology." (Reference 3, p. 1)
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References
1. Robbins, John W. "The Promise of Christian Economics." The Trinity Review, No. 186, August 2000.
2. Clark, Gordon H. A Christian View of Men and Things: An Introduction to Philosophy. Unicoi, TN: The Trinity Foundation. 1991.
3. Parkinson, Joel. "The Intellectual Triunity of God." The Trinity Review, No. 83, January 1992.
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