Trinity

TRINITY & OTHER DOCTRINES OF GOD:
PROF. M. M. NINAN
• "In the Beginning was the Word" John 1:1 – The explanation is given, taken from
Lelio Sozzini's Brief explanation of John Chapter 1 1561 (and developed in Fausto
Sozzini's later work of the same name), that the Beginning refers to the Beginning
of the Gospel, not the old creation.
• "Before Abraham was I am" John 8:58 – is treated that the ego eimi refers to "I
am" before "Abraham becomes" (future) many nations in the work of Christ.
• "[I] came down from heaven" John 6:38 – is related to being "born of the Virgin"
• That Christ was literally dead in the grave for three days – as a proof of Christian
mortalism, resurrection and the humanity of Christ.
Most early Socinians accepted the infallibility of the New Testament and so accepted the
account of the literal virgin birth of Jesus, but many later Socinians (i.e., Unitarians) did
not.
Socianism and Modalism both believe in these:
Unitarian Menotheisrn
The Father alone is the only true God and alone eternal
The Son did not preexist His humannity
The Son was a plan/ an idea in the mind of God before His before his earthly life.
The Son is not the Creator, nor is He eternal
The Son received Godship and Lordship from the Father
The Son acts as God on earth
The Father-Son relationshp began at a point in time
The son is finite, human Messiah
Rejection of ‘God the Son.’
The Son reveals or manifests the Father
The Son is prayed to and worshiped
• Unitarian Christian Conference USA
• Unitarian Christian Emerging Church
• Universalist Church of America (consolidated with the American Unitarian
Association to form the Unitarian Universalist Association and Unitarian
Universalism)
Bible Student groups
• Christian Millennial Fellowship
• Dawn Bible Students Association
• Friends of Man
• Jehovah's Witnesses
• Laymen's Home Missionary Movement
• Pastoral Bible Institute
127