OK, the site's Statement of Faith and most Christians affirm the doctrine of the Trinity. But surely it is fair to ask whether this doctrine is fundamental or essential to being a Christian? This is the same point I have been attempting to get at with my thread on the Apologetics forum, "Give us your absolute bottom-line Christian essentials." So far, no one there has suggested that the Trinity is an absolute bottom-line essential, even though I have expressly invited them to do so.
While I accept the doctrine of the Trinity, it’s difficult for me to see it as
essential for a variety of reasons:
- The Old Testament Jews had utterly no concept of a triune God. It seems odd that God would not have clearly revealed this core fact about His nature. Christians can convince themselves they see hints of the Trinity in the OT, but the Jews certainly didn't.
- The doctrine is not explicitly stated in the Bible. No serious scholar tries to argue that it is. This likewise seems odd if it is an essential doctrine.
- The most explicit indications of Jesus as divine are found in the Gospel of John, which is very different from the Synoptic Gospels and has Jesus making claims He makes nowhere else. (On the other hand, scholars have shown that Jesus’ divinity was indeed one of the core beliefs of the earliest Christian community.)
- Scholars accept that the first use of the term Trinity was by Tertullian, who lived circa 145-200 A.D. As stated by the New Catholic Encyclopedia, “The formulation ‘one God in three Persons’ was not solidly established into Christian life prior to the 4th Century. Among the Apostolic Fathers, there has been nothing even remotely approaching such a mentality or perspective.”
- If you read the history of the events leading to the Fourth Century creeds, the deity of Jesus and the doctrine of the Trinity were hotly debated and negotiated - it wasn't just a matter of extinguishing obvious heresies.
- The doctrine itself is fundamentally unintelligible even if one fully accepts it. I question whether it really adds anything to the depth of one’s faith.
- And, of course, we have the troubling verses on which non-Trinitarians rely – for example, Luke 18:19 (And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.”) and Colossians 1:15 (“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”). (Both verses from the NASB.)
You certainly
can derive the doctrine of the Trinity from the Bible, and I accept it as probably the best understanding without viewing it as essential. What I see as essential is an acceptance that Jesus is the one and only Son of God, had and has a unique relationship with the Father, was and is the Father’s chosen means for reconciling the world to himself, and is our means of salvation. As summarized in my thread about absolute bottom-line Christian essentials, I believe the essentials are “You are a created being in a created universe, wholly dependent on the creator God” (not necessarily or essentially on a triune God) and “God offers forgiveness and reconciliation through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus” (not necessarily or essentially through the Third Person of the Trinity Jesus).
I've posted mine. 
