These chapters shows how questions about death influenced the gradual development of the doctrine of the Trinity.
The problem is that the Trinitarian belief is illogical. God only is immortal. But Jesus died. So how could he be God? Why did Jesus pray? If Jesus was God, how could he "grow in favor with God?" etc. etc. These chapters also examine difficult texts.
Sample text
In 357 A.D. Constantius held a council at the royal residence which published a declaration that there should be no mention of the terms substantia, ousia, or homoousios, which were unscriptural, or of phrases suggesting that the Son was “subordinated to the Father.”4
In 359 A.D. Constantius held a series of councils, and the next year, he held another one in Constantinople. He supported the Arian cause and allowed the terms “like the Father” (homoios), but he was against Aetius who held that the Son is “unlike the Father” (anomoios).
Martin Luther tried to reform the Catholic Church from within. His views became the Reformation Movement. He disliked the term “Trinity.” He wrote, “The word Trinity is never found in the Divine Records, but is only of human intervention, and therefore sounds altogether cold.”
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) and John Locke (1632-1704) protested the creation of mystifications which are not found in the Bible. They both acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, not God. John Knox said we can have a human Jesus without pre-existence, or a pre-existent Jesus who is not human, but we can’t have both.34
Blaise Pascal, a famous scientist, believed Jesus was a separate being and wrote “God! The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! The God of Jesus Christ!”36
In the late 1700s Thomas Jefferson read the works of Joseph Priestley who quoted Saint Augustine and Constantine as both saying that Plato was the source of their knowledge of the Incarnation of God in Christ.
Sample text showing how illogical the doctrine of the Trinity is...
The Athanasian Creed first appeared in Gaul, France, during the sixth or seventh century in the school of Augustine. Athanasius was long dead before it was written. People who wouldn’t sign the Athanasius creed were banished, and their books burned publicly. Below are some points of the creed which refer to the Trinity.
8. The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, the Holy Ghost is uncreated.
9. The Father is immeasurable, the Son is immeasurable, the Holy Ghost is immeasurable.
10. The Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, the Holy Ghost is eternal.
11. And yet there are not three eternals; but one eternal.
12. As also there are not three uncreated, nor three immeasurable, but one uncreated and one immeasurable.
13. So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Ghost almighty.
14. And yet there are not three almighties, but one almighty.
15. So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God.
16. And yet there are not three Gods, but one God.
17. So the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Ghost Lord.
18. And yet not three Lords, but one Lord.
21. The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten.
22. The Son is of the Father alone not made, nor created, but begotten.
23. The Holy Ghost is of the Father and the Son, not made, neither created, nor begotten, but proceeding.
24. Therefore there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts.
25. And in this trinity none is before or after another, none is greater or less than another.
26. But the whole three Persons are co-eternal together and co-equal.
29. Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation that we believe also rightly in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
30. Now the right faith is, that we believe and confess, that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man.
31. God, of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and Man, of the substance of His mother, born in the world.
32. Perfect God; perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting.
33. Equal to the Father as touching his Godhead; inferior to the Father as touching His Manhood.
34. And although He be God and Man; yet He is not two, but one Christ.
35. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh; but by assumption of the Manhood into God.
36. One altogether, not by confusion of substance; but by unit of person.
37. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and Man is one Christ.
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