Many have adopted this accusation as the main complaint of hindrance to believing in
evangelical Christianity. There is no other concept of God attacked more than this subject.
There are many things about God that are not understood immediately, I've heard the same
for predestination. I’ve heard it said "people don’t join the Evangelical
church because they can’t understand the teaching on the Trinity". This is just
one of many straw man arguments. People do not come to Christ because they don’t
understand the numerous doctrines. They refuse to because they cannot admit they are
sinful and are in need of help outside themselves. Turning over their control to God is an
act of faith. Instead faith is substituted with the carnal mind wanting to understand
something from strictly a human perspective. If I can't fully understand it I will not
believe, but this is only an excuse. As Jesus stated in Jn.3:19-21" Men love darkness
rather than light, they don't come to Christ because their deeds will be exposed".
Both Jews and Muslim's emphatically deny that God has a Son, if one is going to find a
doctrine offensive to them, I think this would be it. No one preaches the Trinity in
salvation but what is preached is that Jesus is the Son of God, he is Lord. We learn about
the nature of God and other basic doctrines as we grow in the faith, not before. The
simple reason is we need the Holy Spirit to be our teacher in the deeper things of God.
Is the Trinity pagan? The pagan religions had what we call trinities however on closer
examination they are not the same in concept or substance. In the same way we would not
agree with all the other religions that have a strict monotheistic view of God to be
embraced as the same God of the Bible. (Islam, Bahai) The pagan concept was encapsulated
with a Father, Mother, giving birth to a Son. They were three major Gods with many minor
god's as well. Their trinity was comprised of three Gods not one. The Greek triad
of Zeus, Athena, and Apollo, the Hindu triad of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva the Egyptian
triad of Isis, Horus, and Sub bear no resemblance to the Biblical Trinity. They were all
separate not united as the one God and almost unanimously had a mother involved as in a
heavenly family. This was really tritheism, which has more in common with Mormonism
than a triune God. Anti Trinitarians make usage of the statues with three heads and saying
that is our pagan God. If one is going to discount the Trinity because of some
similarities in name only and not in substance. Then maybe they should be looking at their
own pagan similarities. One can still be in idolatry, if their one God is not the God of
the Bible.
Anti Trinitarians make usage of the statues with three heads and saying that is our
pagan God. If one is going to discount the Trinity because of some similarities in name
only and not in substance. Then maybe they should be looking at their own pagan
similarities. One can still be in idolatry, if their one God is not the God of the Bible.
Where did the pagans get a concept of three ? Why not two or four ? Where did they get
the idea of a God in heaven anyway? What about their belief in a virgin and a son, where
did that originate from ? Rom.1:20-25 tells us that man from the beginning knew
God."... 'and their foolish hearts were darkened" vs.25 "they exchanged the
truth for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator."
When mankind fell into darkness of sin, they still retained some elements of the truth but
distorted its meaning and it became lost.
As Walter Martin wrote "In order to find out if the doctrine of the Trinity is
true, we do not look to see if it resembles paganism, but to the bible, to see if God
teaches it in his word. Pagans also believe in the concept of God. does this mean that God
must not be true? Pagans sleep. Does that mean sleeping is wrong ? We must not dismiss an
idea merely because it is held in common with those whom we may not approve."
(the New
Cults p.49) Lets not try to find all kinds of perversions from the outside that have
nothing to do with the Biblical record, lets go to the Scripture to prove our major
points.
Alexander Hislop, in his book, "the two Babylon's", traces the history of the
practices and traditions of the Roman Catholic church. He writes on pg. 18, "All
these forms have existed from ancient times, while overcome with idolatry, the recognition
of the Trinity was universal, proving how deep rooted in the human race was the doctrine
on the subject , which comes out so distinctly in Genesis" Robert watts in New
Apologetic says "The Pagan triads are "residuary fragments of their lost
knowledge of God, not different stages in a process of evolution. But evidence of a moral
and spiritual degradation" (Augustus H. Strongs systematic Theology p.352)
While their are Pagan Trinities which can be traced back to Babylon, instead of
supporting anti Trinitarian views such as the Watchtower literature promotes, it is
evidence for the tri-une God. Lets not try to find all kinds of perversions from the
outside that have nothing to do with the Biblical record, lets go to the Scripture to
prove our major points
Hislop writes that many pagan religions held to one infinite God the creator.
Strict monotheism is found in Islam and a few other religions. Are we now to accept their
view because God is called one (singular).
If we are to reject the concept of the triune God, a unified one, because of the pagan
distortions, then we must reject much more than this. The pagan cultures also had a virgin
birth and some even had a resurrection, Tammuz died and raised 40 days later. The pagan
religions had a priesthood and sacrifices, this too became distorted with human sacrifices
for Gods blessings. Some Pagans believed that certain gods became men. They had Biblical
symbology such as a dove, the lamb, altars, their are many religions that have distortions
of the Bibles account of the flood. Are we now to reject Genesis because of their
misrepresentations. They also practiced tongues- ecstatic babble. All of these are
counterfeits and distortions of truth, yet we are told since they have a counterfeit
Trinity, we are to reject the Biblical Trinity on the same grounds. If you are going to do
that, then you must reject all of it on the basis of it being found in some form in
ancient paganism. You then annihilate the doctrine of Christ as the God/man, virgin birth,
his sacrifice etc. All these are the proof of what Paul explained of what happened in
history in Romans one, that mankind had a true knowledge but refused to worship him and
sank into idolatry.
The God of the Bible is unique. He is tri-une, which is neither polytheistic nor is it
tri-theistic. God is one in nature and is composed of three distinct eternal persons. They
are one in substance with a difference in position. What makes all three the one God is
that they share the same nature. This is the simple description of the God of the Bible.
There is one choice from the Bibles revelation, if one denies the tri-une God, they are
either left with atheism or polytheism.