Is God a Trinity - Herbert W. Armstrong Library and Archives

Is the Trinity Biblical? 17
I
such non-biblical concepts as dualism and the immortality
of the soul. However, most theologians, for obvious reasons,
are generally careful to point out that they did not
borrow the idea of the Trinity from the Triads of Greek
philosophy or those of the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians.
But some are not so careful to make such a distinction.
“Although the notion of a Triad or Trinity is
characteristic of the Christian religion, it is by no means
peculiar to it. In Indian religion, e.g., we meet with the
trinitarian group of Brahma, Siva, and Visnu; and the
Egyptian religion with the trinitarian group of Osiris, Isis,
and Horus, constituting a divine family, like the Father,
Mother and Son in medieval Christian pictures. Nor is it
only in historical religions that we find God viewed as a
Trinity. One recalls in particular the Neo-Platonic view of
the Supreme or Ultimate Reality, which was suggested by
Plato . . .” (Hasting’s Bible Dictionary, Vol. 12, p. 458).
Of course, the fact that someone else had a Trinity
does not in itself mean that the Christians borrowed it.
McClintock and Strong make the connection a little
clearer.
“Toward the end of the 1st century, and during the
2nd, many learned men came over both from Judaism and
paganism to Christianity. These brought with them into
the Christian schools of theology their Platonic ideas and
phraseology” (article “Trinity,” Vol. 10, p. 553).
In his book, A History of Christian Thought, Arthur
Cushman McGiffert points out that the main argument
against those who believed that there was only one God
and that Christ was either an adopted or a created being
was that their idea did not agree with Platonic philosophy.
Such teachings were “offensive to theologians, particularly
to those who felt the influence of the Platonic philosophy”
(ibid., p. 240).
In the latter half of the third century, Paul of Samosata
tried to revive the adoptionist idea that Jesus was a
mere man until the Spirit of God came upon Him at
baptism making him the Anointed One, or Christ. In his
beliefs about the person of Jesus Christ, he “rejected the