The Pressure on Those Who Denied the Trinity

One interesting point is that the various individuals and movements
which have opposedbelief in the Trinity and maintained that Jesus was
only a prophet of God were subjectedto great pressure during the
course of Christian history. Thesemonotheists fiercely opposed those
who said that Jesus was the son of God, and openly stated that this
was "ascribing partners" to God. For that reason, they were for
hundreds of years described as "heretics" and even "enemies of
Christianity," and those who supported them met with the same
reception. Yet those who believe in the oneness of God have always
been in a minority compared to the proponents of the Trinity in the
Christian world.
Even those neutrals who have researched the subject have established
that real Christianity is the monotheistic Christianity that was
suppressed throughout history. A large part of the independent Bible
researchers, which began in the 18th century in particular, concluded
that the Trinity, confession of sins and other Christian dogmas had no
place in true Christianity. In their studies of the Old and New
Testaments and other Christian sources, experts have revealed that
traditional Christianity has very different features to that of the
time of Jesus, and was shaped centuries after that time.
Christians Who Have Denied the Trinity
It is under the influence of thesesources that some Christian sects
today reject the Trinity. The Unitarian Church, for example, which
maintains churches all over the world, is one major Christian
community which rejects belief in the Trinity. Although they may hold
various different views, the members of that congregation deny that
Jesus is the son of Godand say that Christianity demands belief in a
single God. Many of them emphasize the mistaken nature of the claim
that Jesus was crucified to redeem the sins of the world.
One can find opponents of the Trinity among Christians of various
different persuasions and churches. The opponents of the Trinity are
growing in numbers, particularly in America, every day, and there is a
rapid rise in the numbers of people who are openly expressing the
truth in the Christian world. Among these, the "Worldwide Church of
God" is particularly noteworthy. Herbert W. Armstrong, the founder of
the church, maintainsthat the Trinity is a pagan doctrine which
entered Christianity from pagan cultures.
The most noteworthy point on this subject is that there is no trace of
the belief in the Trinity, portrayed as the foundation of
Christianity, anywhere in the Bible. It appears neither in the Old
Testament, the holy book of the Jews, nor in the New Testament, the
Christian sacred text. Belief in the Trinity depends on the
interpretation ofa number of statements in the Bible, and the word
itself was first used by Theophilus of Antioch at the end of the 2nd
century. This belief became fully incorporated into Christian
belieflong after that. For that reason, Bible researchers and those
opposed to the Trinity concentrate on the questions of "Should not
belief in the Trinity, described as the basis of the Christian
religion, be openly stated in the Bible?" and "If this belief were
really true, should not Jesus have openly spoken of it?" The answer
they provide is clear: No belief which does not appear openly in the
Bible and was thus unknown to the first Christians can form the basis
of Christianity. This is nothing morethan a myth which formed after
Jesus and under the influence of Greek culture. It has nothing to do
with the essence of Christianity.
This truth can be seen from a careful reading of the Bible.