Editorial July 25, 1931 Issue

Doctrine of the Trinity

Clifford P. Smith

One of the most curious facts in history is that a majority of all Christians have assented to a doctrine which declares that God consists of three persons called Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. "We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity—neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance—for there is one person of the Father, Godhead of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is all one; the glory equal; the majesty coeternal." This quotation is from the Athanasian Creed, which was formulated in the fifth or sixth century.

"The doctrine is not found in its fully developed form in the Scriptures. Modern theology does not seek to find it in the Old Testament. In the New Testament the elements out of which it has been constructed are sought in the Trinitarian formula of baptism, the general character of the claims and prerogatives of Jesus Christ by which his deity is established, and in the functions attributed to the Holy Spirit" (New International Encyclopaedia). This authority adds the following information: "At the time of the reformation the Protestant church took over the doctrine of the Trinity without serious examination."

The Christians who attempt now to justify the doctrine of the Trinity appear to depend chiefly on Matthew 28:19: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Although this saying presents a trinity of related terms, it does not declare that they are equal, nor express the thought that God consists of three persons. Then, too, these quoted words must be construed consistently with John 14:15—26; 15:26; 16:12—15, a more explicit statement which furnishes a different meaning for the term "Holy Ghost."

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