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Originally posted by RJHindsits not found in scripture but its an entirely Jewish concept, mmmm, you think they
http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Names_of_G-d/Trinity/trinity.html
might have mentioned it in passing in scripture, you know, a sniffle here, a sniffle
there. But no, not even a slither of a mention.
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No it isn't.
The word appears nowhere in the Bible and is a pagan construct (multiple gods)
Dive, are you saying that because I believe in the Trinity I believe in "multiple gods" ?
If that is what you are insisting then I have to tell you that the "Trinity" that you complain is not biblical is not the Trinity that I see as biblical.
Are we able to first dispense with strawmen arguments and misconceptions before we fellowship on the Trinity ?
which was adopted by the emerging and evolving Roman catholic church established by Emperor Constantine approx 300 years AD.
Before 300 AD the writings of these Christians reveals that they were in the experience of what we call the Trinity. And their writings about the matter was in the way of experience.
Clement of Rome (A.D. 90-100)
Ignatius of Antioch (A.D. 98-135)
Polycarp of Smyrna (A.D. 70-155)
Hermas (A.D. 40-150?)
Experiencial references to the Trinity also are found in -
The Epistle of Barnabus (A.D. 100)
The Didache (also called the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) (A.D. 70-165)
The testimony concerning the Triune God is absolutely related to experience. The Trinity was considered a fact of the Christian experience rather than a subject of investigation and exact definition.
The point here is not that everything in these writings is as reliable as the word of God itself. The point is neither that men make no mistakes.
The point is that long before 300 A.D. Christians wrote about their experience of the Triune God in a matter of fact way, taking for granted that the basic concepts of God being Father, Son, Holy Spirit was a common realization in the Christian community.
H.B. Swete in "The Holy Spirit and the Ancient Church" writes on page 31
"During the period of the Apostolic Fathers, there was as yet no formal theology of the Spirit and no effort to create it; nor was there any conscious heresy. But the presence of the Spirit in the Body of Christ was recognized on all hands as an acnowledged fact of the Christian life; while each writer dealt with the fact as it presented itself to his own experience or the experience of the local church in which he lived."
To give one example of this from the writings of the Christian writers/writings listed about we look at Hermas (A.D. 40-150?). He wrote of the trinitarian concept that the Holy Spirit is the Son of God:
" I wish to explain to you what the Holy Spirit that spake with you in the form of the church showed you, for that Spirit is the Son of God"
The Shepherd of Hermas, Similitude 9:1