A. Trinity is Biblical

The Hebrews worship one true God. How can we justify to worship Jesus as God? Although the term "Trinity" does not appear in the New Testament, it is evident that the dogmas of Trinity and the divinity of Jesus are embedded in the Bible (2 Cor. 13:13, 1 Cor. 12:3, Matt. 28:19, John 10:30 ...etc).

B. Trinity is Confirmed by Creeds

During the first few centuries the church fought against two types of heresies, which denied the deity (e.g. Arius) or the human nature of Jesus (e.g. Gnosticism). In order to protect the church against heresies, several creeds were declared by the church council (e.g. Nicaean Creed, Athanasian Creed--see Appendix).

C. Arguments against Trinity

• Trinity is a contamination of Greek philosophy to pure faith

  The Jehovah's Witness argues that Trinity is from Greek philosophy rather than from the Bible. It is said that in the first few centuries the church moved away from the pure Bible origins and instead clothed itself with pagan Roman customs and became imbued with Greek philosophy, and thus it came the Trinitarian doctrine (Mankind's search for God, 1990).
  

  The Christian faith did not come out of a vacuum. Instead God reveals Himself through history and cultures. During the age of the Old Testament it is obvious that Hebrews were cultivated by the Egyptian culture (Bock, 1986). As mentioned in the previous chapter, although early Christianity grew with Greek philosophy, the Greek concepts were thoroughly transformed during the first four or five centuries of the Christian era in the light of Biblical teaching.
  

• Trinity is illogical

  Several radical and liberal philosophers such as John Hick denied incarnation (God becomes a man in Jesus) and Trinity , because to say God can be a man as Jesus is like saying a squared circle.
  

  To deny anything that can't be explained by logical language is inappropriate. In natural sciences quantum physics appear to be contradictory and is difficult to be explained by common languages.
  

  As mentioned in the previous lesson, human words are subject to God but not the other ways around. Nonetheless, God reveals Himself to us by words. Indeed, Trinity is not totally incomprehensible, otherwise God would not reveal this to us. There are many analogies between Trinity and our finite human experience. Take a loving couple as an example. When a beloved and loved are mutually absorbed, the two persons become one.

D. The Meaning of Trinity to Us

God exists in community. The three persons of the Trinity have their distinctive identity only in the deepest relationships with each other. God is a sharing and loving one (Migliore, 1992) Perhaps the ideal marriage and human relationships are also "becoming one."