What is the Trinity?

Most Christians today believe that the Trinity is taught in the Bible. Although majority affirm the teaching by faith, they really don't understand it. According Trinitarian apologist James R. White, the doctrine is "so misunderstood that a majority of Christians, when asked, give incorrect and at times downright heretical definitions of the Trinity."[1]

Norman Geisler, another Trinitarian apologist, contends that, although the term "Trinity" is not found in the Bible, the concept is taught in it as a logical conclusion. "The logic of the doctrine of the Trinity is simple. Two biblical truths are evident in Scripture, the logical conclusion of which is the Trinity.

1. There is one God.

2. There are three distinct persons who are God: Father, Son, Holy Spirit."[2]

Geisler suggests that God has one What and three Whos. "The three Whos (persons) each share the same What (essence). So God is a unity of essence with a plurality of persons. Each person is different, yet they share a common nature."[3]

White adds a third feature in defining the Trinity. He states that the belief is based on three biblical foundations.

1. Monotheism: There is only one God.

2. There are three divine persons.

3. The persons are coequal and coeternal.

White explains, "Christians believe in the Trinity not because the term itself is given in some creedlike form in the text of Scripture. Instead, they believe in the Trinity because the Bible, taken in its completeness, accepted as a self-consistent revelation of God, teaches that there is one Being of God (Foundation One) that is shared fully (Foundation Three) by three divine persons (Foundation Two), the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."[4]

A Representation of the Trinity

When I was a Trinitarian, I frequently ran in to this diagram. It is an attempt to illustrate the doctrine of the Trinity.

With the help of this diagram, I understood the doctrine a certain way. That understanding was drawn from what I gathered the Bible is teaching and what Trinitarian theologians, apologists and philosophers I read are saying. Here is what seems to be the best and simplest way the doctrine can be outlined.

A. There is one God.

B. The one God is three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

C. Individually,

1. the Father is the one God,
2. the Son is the one God, and
3. the Holy Spirit is the one God.

D. Collectively, these three persons are the one God.

E. Distinctly,

1. the Father is not the Son,

2. the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and

3. the Holy Spirit is not the Father.

Did I misrepresent the Trinity? If I did, offer a better model. It would be interesting to see how the Trinitarian model you offer differs from others'. We will see how it is able to withstand a close scrutiny.

An Objection to the Trinity

Of course the model above is not an exhaustive treatment—but merely an illustrative attempt—to explain my understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity. Now assuming that the model fairly represents the doctrine, if we want to be biblical Christians, ought we to believe the Trinity?

I submit that we ought not to believe the Trinity. In fact, we ought to reject the doctrine because it is unbiblical. In the next series of articles, I aim to provide good reasons for this.

Updated January 8, 2021

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[1] James R. White, The Forgotten Trinity (Minneapolis, Minn.: Bethany House Publishers, 1998), 16, emphasis in original.
[2] Norman L. Geisler, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1999), 730.
[3] Ibid., 732.
[4] White, 28-29, emphasis in original.