In Original Christianity the Deity of Christ and the Trinity Were Neither Promoted or Even Taught

Despite the overwhelming emphasis on the importance of the deity of Christ and the Trinity by most Christian groups since the Council of Nicaea, neither of these concepts was promoted or even taught by original, primitive Christianity. While Trinitarians have argued that verses like “I and my Father are one”, and “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God” mean that the deity of Christ and the Trinity was always taught, there are no scriptures where these concepts are promoted as the faith was birthed.

Many Original Christians Believed That the Son Was Subordinate to the Father

It is understood by many theologians that original, primitive Christians did not accept the deity of Christ and the Trinity. For example, look at this:

“Undoubtedly, many of the first Christians, if asked to describe the relationship between Jesus and the father, would have done so in adoptionistic terms.”[1] Adoptionism, or dynamic monarchism, “holds that Jesus is the man endowed with a special power from God and thus in a way adopted as God’s son.”[2]

So we have Harold Brown’s book on heresies, where a substantial amount of material is focused on the deity of Christ and the trinity as requirements for orthodoxy from the fourth century on, candidly stating that this wasn’t always the case.

There Is No Evidence That the Deity of Christ or the Trinity Was Promoted At All

Most Trinitarians will readily admit that the word “Trinity” is not in the scriptures. They will then go on to show how that is despite the deity of Christ and the Trinity being taught from verses like “I and my father are one” and “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God”

My point is that even if verses like this do build a case for the deity of Christ and the trinity (which I am not necessarily saying is a valid argument), the gospels, the Book of Acts, and pastoral epistles have many references to what Christ and the Apostles taught the masses, and the Deity of Christ and the Trinity are not central to what they taught.

Jesus taught people simple parables about the Kingdom of God and how citizens of the Kingdom acted. The book of Acts is redundant in examples of teachings of how Christ fulfilled the law and the prophets and is the messiah. In Acts, big concerns were the teaching of resurrection and whether the new disciples received the holy spirit when they believed. Paul’s epistles are treatises, but even he himself says that he writes differently than he speaks in person. (2 Cor 10:10) We see from Acts that when Paul was with followers and prospective converts, he argued that Jesus was the Christ in fulfillment of the scriptures. There Is absolutely no talk on the importance of the deity of Christ, or the Trinity like there was from the fourth century on.

Paul, as his custom was, went in unto them, and for three sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
opening and alleging that it behooved the Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom, said he, I proclaim unto you, is the Christ.[ Acts 17:2-3 ]

Conclusion

The Orthodox contingent of the Christian church has changed the emphasis of doctrine from that of the original apostles, and this is acknowledged even by writers like Brown, who write authoritatively on heresies.

Today, the Orthodox contingent of the church both teaches and emphasizes the supreme importance of the Trinity, which is nowhere to be found in the apostles’ writings. The word Trinity itself is not in Scripture, and, as we’ll see in other articles, it can only be constructed using unscriptural techniques like adding words like homoousias and formulating doctrines like that Jesus had two wills to overcome the contradiction that Jesus was tempted in all points like as we are yet God cannot be tempted. Furthermore, in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus clearly differentiated his will from that of God with his words, “Not my will but thine be done.”

[1] HERESIES, Heresy And Orthodoxy In The History Of The Church, Harold O. J. Brown, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, 1988, p.96
[2] ibid.

Original Christianity

This web is a look at primitive, original Christianity, how it developed over time into innumerable denominations and divisions and how original Christiianity compares to current practices. It is a resource for looking systematically at the beliefs and practices in the original Christian church, numerous movements and churches since, the modern Christian church, with discussion about how all these changes happened and especially focusing on how well each of these compares to scripture.

Why?

"Jesus Christ is Lord" is the common belief of billions of Christians. But there are tens of thousands of denominations. (Denominations are not just the big guys like Roman Catholic and Southern Baptist, they include all the little groups of churches under the same authority even if they claim to be nondenominational.) While ancient denominations like the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox claim to be the original and consequently "true" church, innumerable churches and denominations have started citing error in these ancient bastions and/or the leading of the spirit to reform the church and restore the church.

There are numerous disputed issues. Cessation doctrine (prophecy and the gifts of the spirit ended with the apostles), infant baptism, the inerrancy of Scripture, the form of Church government, the role of women in the church, and currently, the acceptance of homosexuality are just some of the many disputed doctrines that cause the Christian body to be so divided.

The Reformation movement performed an invaluable service. But instead of simply reforming the church or simply working to create one more correct alternative church the Reformation movement worked to increase the number of disputes over scripture and consequently the number of splits has increased exponentially.

The problem with looking at all the denominations is that it can become confusing to just compare this church or denomination to that one. The complexity of looking at all the theological implications can become overwhelming. For many busy people that means just making the best, less than fully educated decision they can, and staying with the church of their heritage or finding a church where they feel they can grow. Just finding the information can be an overwhelming task. Putting it into some understandable framework is an even more complicated task.

This web site, rather than trying to just compare all the current positions on the differences goes back to the beginning (primitive, original Christianity) and evaluates Christianity starting at that point. This includes looking at the gospel accounts, but also includes looking at early church documents as well as other ancient documents, both secular and religious. (There is also a section on Philosophy because its profound impact on Christian theological development.) The articles have numerous references to works both in print and online.

Next the web site looks at the developments in Christianity from original Christianity forward to see how the church developed over time comparing each development with what we know about original Christianity. The goals are:

To trace the development of the church from start to now to see how the church at large wound up with all these competing churches/denominations today, and

To equip people with the knowledge of original Christianity to enable people to make an informed decision on what is the true faith and practice of the church Jesus Christ started.

For an overview of the articles by category, go to the Table of Contents Page.

This is a work in progress. My prayer is that sharing my journey is helpful to you and that together we can grow in the faith that Jesus Christ made available some two thousand years ago.

Also Please Pardon our Dust. There are hundreds of posts and some of them still have typos. If you find typos You can contact Mark at webmaster@originalchristianity.net. Please be so kind as to mention the name of the post as well as to copy and paste the section with errors. Thank you and God Bless You.

In Original Christianity the Deity of Christ and the Trinity Were Neither Promoted or Even Taught

Many Original Christians Believed That the Son Was Subordinate to the Father

There Is No Evidence That the Deity of Christ or the Trinity Was Promoted At All

Conclusion

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