This is meant to initiate conversation and not confrontation. …
I have been consistently challenged about the trinity by others (including some that state I do not have salvation without the trinity doctrine), so I laid out a few lists. This is my list on what I would need to defend if I believed in the trinity.
Feel free to fill the answers in, even if it is only for one. But please try to use biblical references, and no external creeds or statements of faith that come centuries later.
Trinitarians need to Defend
1. The Trinity is NEVER explained in scripture
2. Jesus NEVER claims to be God
3. Monotheistic Jews NEVER once questioned the trinity in the 1st century church
– Jesus constantly recites portions or entirety of Shema
(Mark 12:28-34, Matthew 22:36-38, Luke 10:25-28)
– Jesus commends those who believe God is one
(Mark 12:28-34, Matthew 22:36-38, Luke 10:25-28)
4. God Cannot Die/Jesus Died (Romans 5:10; Acts 5:30; 1 Corinthians 15:3; Habakkuk 1:12; Numbers 23:19; Psalms. 90:2; Daniel 6:25-26)
5. God Cannot be Tempted/Jesus was Tempted (James 1:13)
6. Jesus Has a God/Even at post-resurrected and ascension states (Micah 5:4; Psalms 45:6, 7; 89:26; John 20:17; Rom. 15:6; 2 Cor. 1:3; Ephesians 1:3; Colossians 1:3; Mark 15:34;
John 17:1-3; Also in heaven, Rev. 1:6; 3:2, 12)
7. Jesus is NOT all knowing (omniscient)
– Does not know the end time/restoration of kingdom/second coming
(Mark 13:32, Matthew 24:36)
– States “only the Father knows”
– which ALSO means the holy spirit does not know!
– Fig Tree (Mark 11:12-14, Matthew 21:18-19)
– Haemorrhaging Woman (Luke 8:43-45)
– He gained in Wisdom (Luke 2:52)
– Jesus Learned (Hebrews 5:8)
– Jesus Instructed by Father (John 8:28)
– Ascended Jesus still requires God’s Instruction (Also Revelation 1:1)
8. Visions/Prophecies of Heaven ALWAYS contain ONE God only
– Prophecies show Son of Man entering (Daniel/Revelation)
– Who is at the right hand of God? (Luke 22:69; Acts 7:55; Rom. 8:34)
– Where is the Holy Spirit in all the Visions?
9. Jesus is below God
– “The Father is Greater Than I” – Jesus (John 14:28)
– Only the Father knows – Jesus (Matthew 24:36, Mark 13:32)
– God cannot be put into subjection/Jesus is put into subjection
(1 Corinthians 15:27-28)
– NOTE: This is a post-resurrected/ascended Jesus
– Why is Jesus not powerful enough to subject things to himself? (Ephesians 1:22)
– The head of Christ is God (1 Corinthians 11:3)
– The life he lives he lives to God (Romans 6:10)
10. Who is Jesus’ Father? Holy Spirit or God the Father. (Matthew 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35)
– If Holy Spirit begot Jesus, why does he say God is his Father (God the Father)
11. Christ=Messiah=Anointed. Anointed by who? God anointed God?
12. God’s name is YHWH, the son’s name is Yeshua or Jesus, what is the holy spirits name?
13. If the commission by Jesus in Matthew 28:19 was to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, why did the Apostles (who had their minds opened to understand all scriptures Luke 24:45) proceed to baptize every New Testament Church convert in the name of Jesus Christ?
( See Acts 2:38; 8:16; 10:48 ;19:5 ;22:16; Rom. 6:3; 1 Corinthians 1:13)
14. If God the Son existed eternally and physically (or even spiritually) with God the Father before time began, how did they get the relation of Father and Son? How did a “son” exist without a mother? And how was God the Holy Spirit related to them?
15. If the Son and Spirit are coequal, why is blasphemy against the Son forgivable but not against the Spirit (Luke 12:10, Matthew 12:31-32)?
– NOTE: Also, excludes the Father
16. Why does the Son not have any power other than that which the Father gives Him? (Matthew 28:18; 11:27; John 3:35; 5:19; 5:22; 17:2; 2 Peter 1:17)
– Additionally, why could Jesus not raise himself from dead if he was God? (Acts 2:24)
17. Define Begotten, and then define “eternally begotten”.
– Begotten – To bring into existence
– Eternally – forever, permanently, perpetually
– Eternally Begotten = To Perpetually bring into existence
-NOTE: “Eternally Begotten” – Not in the bible & A Nonsense word
18. Why does the Bible consistently identify God by singular person pronouns: “I, “Me,” “He, and “Him” instead of “We”, “Us”, “They” or “Them”?
19. Explain these verses:
-Why did Jesus call the “Father…the only true God”? (John 17:3)
-Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.”
(Mark 10:18) (Luke 18:19)(Matthew 19:17)
-“Now a mediator involves more than one party; but God is one” (Galatians 3:20)
-Explain this in comparison to 1 Timothy 2:5
-Why can we see him if “no man has seen God at any time”? (John 1:18)
-Additionally, no one can see God and live. (Exodus 33:20)
20. How can Jesus be a mediator between God and man?(1 Timothy 2:5) Especially, since he himself is “God”.
21. Why doesn’t “The Holy Spirit” receive worship or have a throne?
Age To Come 