Nontrinitarianism


Nontrinitarianism is a form of Christianity that rejects the Christian theology of the Trinity—the belief that God is three distinct hypostases or persons who are coeternal, coequal, and indivisibly united in one being, or essence. Certain religious groups that emerged during the Protestant Reformation have historically been known as antitrinitarian.
According to churches that consider the decisions of ecumenical councils final, trinitarianism was definitively declared to be Christian doctrine at the 4th-century ecumenical councils, that of the First Council of Nicaea, which declared the full divinity of the Son, and the First Council of Constantinople, which declared the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
In terms of number of adherents, nontrinitarian denominations comprise a small minority of modern Christians. After the denominations in the Oneness Pentecostal movement, the largest nontrinitarian Christian denominations are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jehovah's Witnesses, La Luz del Mundo, and Iglesia ni Cristo. There are a number of other smaller groups, including Christadelphians, Church of the Blessed Hope, Christian Scientists, Dawn Bible Students, Living Church of God, Assemblies of Yahweh, Members Church of God International, Unitarian Christians in the UK, US (notably the very traditional and historic King's Chapel, Boston, Romania and Hungary and elsewhere, Unitarian Universalist Christians, The Way International, the Philadelphia Church of God, The Church of God International, the United Church of God, Church of God General Conference, Restored Church of God, Christian Disciples Church, and Church of God of the Faith of Abraham.
Nontrinitarian views differ widely on the nature of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Various nontrinitarian philosophies, such as adoptionism and monarchianism, existed prior to the codification of the Trinity doctrine in AD 325, 381, and 431, at the Councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, and Ephesus. Nontrinitarianism was later renewed by Cathars in the 11th through 13th centuries, in the Unitarian movement during the Protestant Reformation, in the Age of Enlightenment of the 18thcentury, and in some groups arising during the Second Great Awakening of the 19thcentury.
The doctrine of the Trinity, as held in mainstream Christianity, is not present in the other major monotheistic Abrahamic religions. Also some mainstream trinitarian Christians dispute labeling nontrinitarian groups as members within Christianity. However, unitarian Christians have long been found in some mainline Protestant churches. In the Church of England, Thomas Firmin in the 17th century, Bishop John Colenso in the 19th century and Professor G.W.H.Lampe could be called unitarian Christians.

Beliefs

and other Church Fathers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, having adopted and formulated the Logos Christology, considered the Son of God as the instrument used by the supreme God, the Father, to bring the creation into existence. Justin Martyr, Theophilus of Antioch, Hippolytus of Rome and Tertullian in particular state that the internal Logos of God —his impersonal divine reason—was begotten as Logos uttered, the Word personified, becoming an actual person to be used for the purpose of creation.
The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition states: "to some Christians the doctrine of the Trinity appeared inconsistent with the unity of God.... they therefore denied it, and accepted Jesus Christ, not as incarnate God, but as God's highest creature by whom all else was created.... view in the early Church long contended with the orthodox doctrine." Although the Trinitarian view became the orthodox doctrine in mainstream Christianity, variations of the nontrinitarian view are still held by a relatively small number of Christian groups and denominations.
Various views exist regarding the relationships between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
  • Those who believe that Jesus is not Almighty God, nor absolutely equal to God, and not the co-eternal or co-equal with Father in everything, but was either God's subordinate Son and Servant, the highest Angel and Son of God that eventually became a perfect Man, God's true firstborn before ages, a perfect messenger sent from God, the greatest prophet of Israel, and the Jewish Messiah, or the perfect created human:
  • * Adoptionism holds that Jesus became divine at his baptism or at his resurrection ;
  • * Arianism – Arius believed that the pre-existent Son of God was directly created by the Father, before all ages, and that he was subordinate to God the Father. Arius' position was that the Son was brought forth as the very first of God's creations, and that the Father later created all things through the Son. Arius taught that in the creation of the universe, the Father was the ultimate creator, supplying all the materials and directing the design, while the Son worked the materials, making all things at the bidding and in the service of God, by which "through all things came into existence". Arianism became the dominant view in some regions in the time of the Roman Empire, notably the Visigoths until 589. The Third Council of Sirmium in 357 was the high point of Arianism. The Seventh Arian Confession held that both homoousios and homoiousios were unbiblical and that the Father is greater than the Son in all things, and that the Father alone is infinite and eternal, and that the Logos is God's true firstborn and subservient Son who was made perfect flesh for our sakes and for the glory of the Father : "But since many persons are disturbed by questions concerning what is called in Latin substantia, but in Greek ousia, that is, to make it understood more exactly, as to 'coessential,' or what is called, 'like-in-essence,' there ought to be no mention of any of these at all, nor exposition of them in the Church, for this reason and for this consideration, that in divine Scripture nothing is written about them, and that they are above men's knowledge and above men's understanding";
  • * Psilanthropism – Ebionites observed Jewish law, denied the literal virgin birth and regarded Jesus as the Jewish Messiah and the greatest prophet of God only;
  • * Socinianism – Photinus taught that Jesus was the sinless Messiah and redeemer, and the only perfect human son of God, but that he had no pre-human existence. They interpret verses such as John 1:1 to refer to God's "plan" existing in God's mind before Christ's birth, and that it was God's plan that "became flesh", as the perfect man Jesus;
  • * Unitarianism views Jesus as the son of God, subordinate and distinct from his Father;
  • * Many Gnostic traditions held that the Christ is a heavenly Aeon but not one with the Father.
  • Those who believe that the Father, the resurrected Son and the Holy Spirit are different aspects of one God, as perceived by the believer, rather than three distinct persons:
  • * Modalism – Sabellius stated that God took numerous forms in both the Hebrew and the Christian Greek Scriptures, and that God has manifested himself in three primary modes regarding the salvation of mankind. He contended that "Father, Son, and Spirit" were different roles played by the same divine person in various circumstances in history; thus God is Father in creation, Son in redemption, and Holy Spirit in regeneration. In this view, God is not three distinct persons, but rather one person manifesting himself in multiple ways. Trinitarians condemn this view as a heresy. The chief critic of Sabellianism was Tertullian, who labeled the movement "Patripassianism", from the Latin words pater for "father", and passus from the verb "to suffer", because it implied that the Father suffered on the cross. It was coined by Tertullian in his work Adversus Praxeas, ChapterI: "By this Praxeas did a twofold service for the devil at Rome: he drove away prophecy, and he brought in heresy; he put to flight the Paraclete, and he crucified the Father." The term homoousion later adopted by the Trinitarian Nicene Council for its anti-Arian creed had previously been used by Sabellians.
  • Those who believe that Jesus Christ is Almighty God, but that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are actually three distinct almighty "Gods" with distinct natures, acting as one divine group, united in purpose:
  • * Tri-theism – John Philoponus, an Aristotelian and monophysite in Alexandria, in the middle of the 6th century, saw in the Trinity three separate natures, substances, and deities, according to the number of divine persons. He sought to justify this view by the Aristotelian categories of genus, species and individuum. In the Middle Ages, Roscellin of Compiegne, the founder of Nominalism, argued for three distinct almighty Gods, with three distinct natures, who were one in mind and purpose, existing together eternally, interacting together from times past, in perfect cooperation, acting together as one divine group or godhead over the universe, in creation and redemption. And that the Logos took on a subservient role, but was equal in power and eternity with the One called Father. Roscellin said, though, like Philoponus, that unless the three persons are tres res, the whole Trinity must have been incarnate. And therefore, since only the Logos was made flesh, the other two persons must have had distinct "natures", separate from the Logos, and so had to be separate and distinct Gods, though all three were one in divine work and plan and operation. In this view, they would be considered "three Gods in one Godhead". This notion was condemned by St. Anselm.
  • Those who believe that the Holy Spirit is not a person:
  • * Binitarianism – Adherents include those people through history who believed that God is only two co-equal and co-eternal persons, the Father and the Word, not three. They taught that the Holy Spirit is not a distinct person, but is the power or divine influence of the Father and Son, emanating out to the universe, in creation, and to believers;
  • * Dualism;
  • * Marcionism – Marcion believed there were two deities, one of creation and judgment and one of redemption and mercy.