a preacher about the trinity

Recently, in a Dutch daily newspaper, appeared a column written by the Reformed Pastor, Adrian Verbree. In it, he responded to theologians who thought to already perceive the Trinity in Genesis 1. He then writes:

… it seems to me very obvious that concerning the Trinity – a concept that thousands of years later, within Christianity, has been formulated in a halting a stammering manner – is not mentioned in Genesis.

Indeed, that is clear-cut. Not until several centuries after the apostles, was this concept, plus what is related to it, made a binding doctrine during the Council of Nicaea; such as: One Being, three persons. Or: God the Son. These are formulas that we do not find in the Bible. This is not an opinion, but a statement of fact. Also, the Reformed Adrian Verbree, who at the end of his blog writes to be sure of the Trinity, cannot escape that fact. Rightly, he writes:

Showing the Trinity in Genesis 1 (…), looked at from Adam and Moses perspective, is an anachronism. There seems to be nothing wrong with the conclusion that, based on what we know from the Bible, Adam nor Moses have known of God’s three-in-oneness. They believed, so to speak, still only in the One.

Very true! But not only for Adam and Moses. It was also very true for Jesus, who several centuries before Nicaea, without hesitation, spoke to His God and Father, saying:

Now it is eonian life that they may know Thee, THE ONLY TRUE GOD, and Him Whom Thou dost commission, Jesus Christ. -John 17:3-

And for Paul it was no different:

…nevertheless for us there is ONE GOD, THE FATHER, out of Whom all is, -1Corinthians 8:6-

Or as he writes elsewhere:

For there is ONE GOD, and ONE Mediator of God and mankind, a Man, Christ Jesus, -1Timothy-2:5-

They all believed “still only in the One”. Who or what has bewitched Christianity, that whoever still believes this, in their eyes, is a heretic? Why bow to what, by people, has been “formulated, haltingly and stammeringly”?

Delen: