How was Trinity created?

This is i think the deepest research ive done in my history of blogging^^ Finally, we will now know how they formulated TRINITY. Finding how trinity evolved is not so easy, i used 3 Encyclopedia Books (@1971 & @1974) for subjects: "Trinity", "Christianity" and "Creed". I also made a research here in the internet. (Note: if ive written a statement here that is not accurate, you can correct me.^^)

This will be a long post, but if you dont mind, please read them all, for us to be enlightened.

Let's start!


What is Trinity?

"The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons (Greek: ὑποστάσεις): the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial (Greek: ὁμοούσιοι)." source: wikipedia

What religions believe in Trinity?

"Trinitarianism, belief in the Trinity, is a mark of Roman Catholicism, Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy as well as of the "mainstream traditions" arising from the Protestant Reformation, such as Anglicanism, Baptist, Methodism, Lutheranism and Presbyterianism. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church describes the Trinity as "the central dogma of Christian theology". source: wikipedia


Is Trinity Biblical?

All of us knows that the answer is no. Church authorities knows and confesses that it is really not biblical. Read all Encyclopedia books in the world and you cannot find that "Trinity" can be seen in the bible, and that it is explicitly taught in the bible. We cannot see the word "Trinity" in any bible translations and versions.


When this doctrine showed?

All of us knows, it showed only in the 4th century, in 325 A.D, First Council of Nicaea. (note: after the death of the apostles)

Evolution of Belief

Apostles creed is said to be older than Nicene Creed(325 A.D), some says it dates back on the 3rd century (source: ehow.com) other says it dates back on 2nd century (source: google) and says it is the oldest one (source: reformed.org).

Apostles Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.


Nicene Creed (325 A.D)

We believe in one God the Father All-sovereign, maker of all things.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, only-begotten, that is, of the substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father, through whom all things were made, things in heaven and things on the earth; who for us men and for our salvation came down and was made flesh, and became man, suffered, and rose on the third day, ascended into the heavens, and is coming to judge living and dead.

And in the Holy Spirit.

And those that say 'There was when he was not,' and, 'Before he was begotten he was not,' and that, 'He came into being from what-is-not,' or those that allege, that the son of God is 'Of another substance or essence' or 'created,' or 'changeable' or 'alterable,' these the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematizes.


Nicene Creed also called Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (381 A.D)

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father.

Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven.

By the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried.

On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended in heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father.

With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.


Athanasian Creed also called Quicunque vult

Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith.
Which Faith, except a man keep whole and integral, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.

Now the Catholic Faith is this: that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity.
Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the substance.

For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost.

But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is all one, the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal.

For such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost.

The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate, the Holy Ghost uncreate; the Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible; the Father eternal, the Son eternal, the Holy Ghost eternal. And yet, there are not three eternals, but one eternal.

As also there are not three uncreated, nor three incomprehensibles; but one uncreated, and one incomprehensible.

So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty.
And yet there are not three Almighties, but one Almighty.

So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet there are not three Gods, but one God. So likewise, the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, and the Holy Ghost is Lord.

And yet there are not three Lords, but one Lord.

For, as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by Himself to be God and Lord; so we are forbidden by the Catholic religion to say there be three Gods or three Lords.

The Father is made by none, neither created nor begotten.
The Son is of the Father, not made, nor created, but begotten.
The Holy Ghost is of the Father, and of the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.

So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts.

And in this Trinity none is before or after the other.

None is greater or less than another, but the whole three Persons are co-equal and co-eternal together.

So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshiped.

He therefore that will be saved, must thus think of the Trinity.

Furthermore it is necessary unto eternal salvation that he believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For the right faith is, that we believe and confess, that our Lord Jesus Christ is God and man. God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the world; and Man of the substance of His Mother, born into the world.

Perfect God and perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Godhead as touching His Manhood.

Who, although He be God, and Man, yet He is not two, but one Christ.

One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of Person.
For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ.

Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead.

He ascended into heaven; He sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies, and shall give account for their works. And they that have done good shall go into everlasting life, and they that have done evil, into everlasting fire.

This, then, is the Catholic Faith, which except a man believe faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved.

source: thecatholictreasurechest.com

See those differences?

The beliefs in the past were not stable, if you will look what was on Apostles Creed, it is simple as accepting God as the Father Almighty. On Nicene Creed (325) the creation or formulation of the Trinity began, but as you can see it doesnt say more about the Holy Spirit. On Nicene Creed (381) on the other hand, Christ was "incarnated" and was "made man" instead of saying "born on Virgin Mary", while the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. On Athanasian Creed, a much detailed beliefs, said that the Holy Spirit then is "of the Son" and "of the Father" instead of "proceeds from the Father" only.



Origin of beliefs

Antiochene school vs. Alexandrian school

"Historically in the Alexandrian school of thought (fashioned on the Gospel of John) Jesus Christ is the eternal Logos who already possesses unity with the Father before the act of Incarnation. In contrast, the Antiochian school views Christ as a single, unified human person apart from his relationship to the divine." source: wikipedia

Antiochene school

"From the beginning of the church different interpretations of the person of Jesus have existed alongside one another. The gospel according to Mark, for example, understands Jesus as a Man upon whom the Holy Spirit descends at the baptism in the Jordan and who is declared the Son of God through the voice of God from clouds. All later Christological attempts of the theological school of Antioch have followed this line of interpretation. They proceed from the humanity of Jesus and view his humanity divinity in his consciousness of God, founded in the divine mission that was imposed upon him by God through the infusion of the holy Spirit."

Alexandrian school

"Another view is expressed by the Gospel to john, which regards the figure of Jesus Christ as the divine Logos become flesh. Here, the divinity of the person of Jesus is understood not as endowment of the man Jesus with a divine power but rather as a result of the descent of the divine logos--a pre-existent human being- into the worl: Logos taking on human body of flesh so as to be realized in history. This view was adopted bu the cathedral school of Alexandrian theology. "

"Thus, it was that the struggle to understand the figures of Jesus Christ created a rivalry between the theologies of Antioch and Alexandria. Both schools had a wide sphere of influence, not only among the contemporary clergy but also in monasticism and among the laity. Characteristically, Nestorianism (a heresy founded in the 5th century) with its strong emphasis upon the human aspects of Jesus Christ, arose from the Antiochene school, whereas Monophysitism (a heresy founded in the 5th century) with its one sided stress upon the divine nature of Christ, emerged from the Alexandrian school of theology."


Gospel According to John vs. Gospel According to Mark

"According to the theology of the Gospel According to John, the divinity of Jesus Christ constituted the departure point for understanding his person and efficacy. The Gospel According to Mark, however, did not proceed from a theology of incarnation but instead understood the baptism of Jesus Christ as the adoption of the man Jesus Christ into the Sonship of God, accomplished through the descent of the Holy Spirit. The situation became further aggravated by the conceptions of the special personal character of the manifestation of God developed by a way of the historical figure of Jesus Christ; the Holy Spirit was viewed not as a personal figure but as a power and appeared graphically only in the form of the dove and thus receded, to a large extent, in the Trinitarian speculation." Encyclopedia


NOTE: The origin of beliefs about the Trinity is really difficult to trace because there are many influences about the concept of God. I will cite some examples, that influenced those people whom formulated Trinity:

• Neoplatonism/Platonism "is the philosophy of Plato or the name of other philosophical systems considered closely derived from it." source: wikipedia

• Hellenism "is a term used to describe the spread of ancient Greek culture, and, to a lesser extent, language." source: wikipedia

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Arian Controversy

"The controversy over Arianism began to rise in the late 3rd century and extended over the greater part of the 4th century and involved most church members, simple believers, priests and monks as well as bishops, emperors and members of Rome's imperial family. Yet, such a deep controversy within the Church could not have materialized in the 3rd and 4th centuries without some significant historical influences providing the basis for the Arian doctrines." source: wikipedia

Who is Arius? and what Arius believe?

"Arius belonged to the Antiochene school of theology, which placed strong emphasis upon the historicity of the man Jesus Christ. Arius was interested in maintaining a formal understanding of the oneness of God. In defense of the oneness of God, he was obliged to dispute the sameness of essence of the Son and the Holy Spirit with God the father, as stressed by theologians of the Neoplatonically influenced Alexandrian school." Encyclopedia


Arius' concern

"The basic concern of Arius was and remained disputing the oneness of essence of the Son and the Holy Spirit with God the Father, in order to preserve the oneness of God. The Son, thus became a"second God" under God the Father--he is God only in figurative sense, for he belongs on the side of creatures, even if at their highest summit. Here Arius joined an older tradition of Christology, which had already played a role in Rome in the 2nbd century--namely, the so called Angel-Christology. The descent of the Son to earth was understood as the descent to earth of the highest prince of the angels, who became man in Jesus Christ; he is to some extent identified with an angel prince Michael.

In old angel-christology the concern is already expressed to preserve oneness of God, the inviolable distinguishing mark of the Jewish and Christian faiths over against all paganism. The Son is not himself God, but as highest of the created spiritual beings he is moved as close as possible to God. Arius joined this tradition with the same aim--defending the idea of the oneness of the Christian concept of God against all reproaches that Christianity introduces a new, sublime form of polytheism." Encyclopedia



First Council of Nicaea (Nicene Creed 325 A.D)

"By 325, the controversy had become significant enough that the Emperor Constantine called an assembly of bishops, the First Council of Nicaea, which condemned Arius' doctrine and formulated the original Nicene Creed of 325." source: wikipedia

TRUE: the purpose of having the "First Council of Nicaea" is because of Arius' controversy, and it is in that time the doctrine of the trinity born. They say the council just DEFINED the teachings of the church, but agree about the formulation of the doctrine.

What is FORMULATION?
The formulation of something such as a policy or plan is the process of creating or inventing it. source: dictionary.reverso.net

What happened in the first council?

"The Nicene Creed's central term, used to describe the relationship between the Father and the Son, is Homoousios, or Consubstantiality, meaning "of the same substance" or "of one being". (The Athanasian Creed is less often used but is a more overtly anti-Arian statement on the Trinity.) The focus of the Council of Nicaea was the divinity of Christ.

Arius taught that Jesus Christ was divine and was sent to earth for the salvation of mankind but that Jesus Christ was not equal to the Father (infinite, primordial origin) and to the Holy Spirit (giver of life). Under Arianism, Christ was instead not consubstantial with God the Father since both the Father and the Son under Arius were made of "like" essence or being but not of the same essence or being.

Ousia is essence or being, in Eastern Christianity, and is the aspect of God that is completely incomprehensible to mankind and human perception. It is all that subsists by itself and which has not its being in another, God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit all being uncreated.

According to the teaching of Arius, the preexistent Logos and thus the incarnate Jesus Christ was a created being; that only the Son was directly created and begotten by God the Father, before ages, but was of a distinct, though similar, essence or substance from the Creator; his opponents argued that this would make Jesus less than God, and that this was heretical. Much of the distinction between the differing factions was over the phrasing that Christ expressed in the New Testament to express submission to God the Father. The theological term for this submission is kenosis.

This Ecumenical council declared that Jesus Christ was a distinct being of God in existence or reality (hypostasis), which the Latin fathers translated as persona. Jesus was God in essence, being and or nature (ousia), which the Latin fathers translated as substantia.

Constantine is believed to have exiled those who refused to accept the Nicean creed—Arius himself, the deacon Euzoios, and the Libyan bishops Theonas of Marmarica and Secundus of Ptolemais—and also the bishops who signed the creed but refused to join in condemnation of Arius, Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis of Nicaea." source: wikipedia



Continuing Controversy

The Arian Controversy doesnt end in the First Council, and about the formula of the Nicene Creed on the relationship of the Father and the Son, that's why there are more councils convened because many disputed the formula:

• Synods of Antioch 264-269, councils rejected the term homoousios
• Egyptian Council of Alexandria (318 or 319).
• Council of the party of Alexander of Alexandria at Nicomedia (c. 325).
• Council of the party of Alexander of Alexandria at Antioch (325).
• Nicaea (more than 300 bishops) (325).
• Church trial of Eustathius of Antioch at Antioch (c. 330).
• Council of Nicomedia (250 bishops) (c. 335).
• Church trial of Athanasius of Alexandria at Tyre (335).
• Council of Jerusalem (335).
• Church trial of Marcellus of Ancyra at Constantinople (336).
• Church trial of Athanasius of Alexandria at Antioch (338).
• Council of Antioch (Council of the Dedication) (90 bishops) (341)
• Another Council of Antioch (341).
• Western Council of Rome (342).
• Mostly Western Council of Sardica (342 or 343).
• Eastern Council of Philippopolis (342 or 343).
• Eastern Council of Antioch (344).
• Regional Council of Jerusalem.
• Mostly Western Council of Mediolanum (345).
• Mostly Western Council of Mediolanum (347).
• Council of Sirmium (347).
• Egyptian Council of Alexandria (c. 351).
• Council of Sirmium and church trial of Photinus at Sirmium (351).
• Council of Arelate (353).
• Mostly Western Council of Mediolanum (more than 300 bishops) (355).
• Council of Sirmium (357).
• Council of Ancyra (358).
• Fourth Council of Sirmium (359).
• Western Council of Ariminum (about 300 or more than 400 bishops) (359)
• Eastern Council of Seleucia (about 160 bishops) (359).
• Council of the Homoians at Nike (c. 359).
• First Council of Constantinople (360) (360).
• Church trial of Eunomius of Cyzicus at Constantinople (c. 360).
• Church trial of Eustathius of Sebaste at Gangra.
• Council of the Anomoeans in Constantinople (c. 361).
• Local council at Constantinople (c. 361).
• Council of Antioch (361).
• Council of the Anomoeans in Constantinople (c. 363).
• Council of the party of Theodosius of Lydia (c. 363 or 364).
• Local council at Antioch (c. 381).
• Council of Constantinople (381 or 383).
• Council of Toledo (Of the churches in Hispania) (589).

source: wikipedia


Formulas (about the relationship of God the father and Christ) debated for the doctrine:

• Homoousia- the Son is of the same substance as the Father, i.e. both uncreated.
• Homoiousia- the Son is of a similar substance to the Father.
• Homoia- the Son is similar to the Father, either "in all things" or "according to the scriptures," without speaking of substance.
• Heteroousia- the Son is of a different substance from the Father, i.e. created.
• Marcellus of Ancyra and Photinus of Sirmium- Christ was a mere man.

source: wikipedia



Second Ecumenical Council also called First Council of Constantinople

(Nicene Creed 381 A.D)

"In 381, at the Second Ecumenical Council in Constantinople, a group of mainly Eastern bishops assembled and accepted the Nicene Creed of 381,which was supplemented in regard to the Holy Spirit, as well as some other changes. This is generally considered the end of the dispute about the Trinity and the end of Arianism among the Roman, non-Germanic peoples." source: wikipedia
"The Council of Nicaea did not end the Arian controversy which it had been called to clarify. By 327, Emperor Constantine I had begun to regret the decisions that had been made at the Nicene Council. He granted amnesty to the Arian leaders and exiled Athanasius because of Eusebius of Nicomedia. Even during numerous exiles, Athanasius continued to be a vigorous defender of Nicene Christianity against Arianism. Athanasius then famously said "Athanasius against the world". The Cappadocian Fathers also took up the torch; their Trinitarian discourse was influential in the council at Constantinople.

Up until about 360, theological debates mainly dealt with the divinity of the Son, the 2nd person of the Trinity. However, because the Council of Nicaea had not clarified the divinity of the Holy Spirit, the 3rd person of the Trinity, it became a topic of debate."


As a New Version of Nicene Creed 325 A.D

"This council condemned Arianism which began to die out with more condemnations at a council of Aquileia by Ambrose of Milan in 381. With the discussion of Trinitarian doctrine now developed and well under agreement to orthodox and biblical understanding, it led to Christology, which would be the topic of the Council of Ephesus of 431 and the Council of Chalcedon of 451. At the Council of Chalcedon (451) a new version of the Nicene Creed was produced and attributed to this council of 381."

"The version that became attributed to the council of 381 added an explicit statement of the Father's generation of the Son 'before all ages', a mention of the Virgin Mary, and a full article on the Holy Spirit, describing Him as "the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, and Who spoke through the prophets". The statement of proceeding from the Father is seen as significant because it established that the Holy Spirit must be of the same being (ousia) as God the Father. This gave explicit expression to the concept of the Trinity." source: wikipedia



Athanasian Creed

"The most likely time frame is in the late fifth or early sixth century AD – at least 100 years after Athanasius. The theology of the creed is firmly rooted in the Augustinian tradition, using exact terminology of Augustine's On the Trinity (published 415 AD)." source: wikipedia

"Thus, each person of the Trinity is described as uncreated (increatus), limitless (Immensus), eternal (æternus), and omnipotent (omnipotens). While ascribing the divine attributes and divinity to each person of the Trinity, thus avoiding subordinationism, the first half of the Athanasian Creed also stresses the unity of the three persons in the one Godhead, thus avoiding a theology of tritheism. Furthermore, although one God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct from each other. For the Father is neither made nor begotten; the Son is not made but is begotten from the Father; the Holy Spirit is neither made nor begotten but proceeds from the Father and the Son (filioque)." source: wikipedia

Athanasian creed is believed to be an account of Athanasius, the great defender of the doctrine trinity, but it came to question by scholars and then believed that he is not the author of it. And the origin of the creed is untraceable, it is estimated to be in existence between late fifth or early sixth century.

Athanasian Creed contains more detailed beliefs about the concept of their God, if you will compare that to Original Nicene Creed 325 A.D and to Nicene Creed 381 A.D. If you also noticed, it is in this creed, said that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and Son (filioque), and contradicts the Nicene Creed 381 A.D which is stated that the Holy Spirit proceeds only from the Father.

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Development of the doctrine Trinity

As we may notice, this doctrine only showed in the Nicene Creed 325 A.D, the next formulation dated on Nicene Creed 381 A.D that resulted many debates about the relationship of God the Father to Christ, and to define about the Holy Spirit. It took them 56 years formulating (other words: CREATE or INVENT) this doctrine. And the idea of filioque, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son also, only showed in the Athanasian Creed (time frame is in the late fifth or early sixth century AD) means the complete "definition" (as they claim) or FORMULATION of the doctrine trinity took 100 years and more!



Key People on the development of the doctrine Trinity

• Athanasius
• Church Fathers
• Augustine
• Cappadocian Fathers
• Tertullian "a Latin theologian who wrote in the early 3rd century, is credited with using the words "Trinity", "person" and "substance" to explain that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are "one in essence—not one in Person". source: wikipedia

and etc.



What they say about the formulation of the doctrine

On Platonism/Neoplatonism
"Platonism influenced Christianity through Clement of Alexandria and Origen, and the Cappadocian Fathers. St. Augustine was heavily influenced by Platonism as well, which he encountered through the Latin translations of Marius Victorinus of the works of Porphyry and/or Plotinus." source: wikipedia

"In the Johannine understanding, Christ as the logos, under the influence of Neoplatonic Logos philosophy, became the subject of a speculative theology; there thus developed a speculative interest in the relationship of the oneness of God to the triplicity of his manifestations." Encyclopedia


On Hellenism
"Hellenistic thinkers, who influenced Christian theologians, had already been attracted by the emphasis in later Judaism on monotheism and transcendence. this tendency was sketched out earlier in Plato and later Stoicism, but it came to its mature development in Neoplatonism in the 3rd centuryA.D. In the first century Philo of Alexandria had interpreted the old testament concept of God in terms of the logos idea of Hellenistic philosophy, but this Hellenization led to a characteristic tension that was to dominate the entire further history of ideas." Encyclopedia

"During the 19th century, protestant historians, notably F.C Baur and Adolf von Harnack, sought to show that the Trinity was a result of "Hellenization of the gospel" while Friedrich Schleiermacher declared that a species of modalism was the only meaningful version of the doctrine. " Encyclopedia

"Initially, both the requirements of the monotheism inherited from the Old Testament and the implications of the need to interpret biblical teaching to Greco-Roman paganism seemed to demand that the divine Christ as the Word or Logos be seen as subordinate to the Supreme Deity. An alternate solution was to interpret the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as three modes of the self-disclosure one God, but not as distinct within the being of God itself." Encyclopedia

“It was when Christianity spread out into pagan world that the idea of jesus as a savior God emerged.” (The meaning of the dead Sea scrolls)


On Nicene Creed 325 A.D
"Under Constantine's influence, this belief was expressed by the bishops in what would be known thereafter as the Nicene Creed." source: wikipedia

"The Emperor carried out his earlier statement: everybody who refused to endorse the Creed would be exiled." source: wikipedia

"In fact, Constantine had little theological understanding of the issues at stake, and did not particularly care which view of Christ's nature prevailed so long as it resulted in a unified church." source: wikipedia

"Saint Athanasius, who was a participant in the Council, stated that the bishops were forced to use this terminology, which is not found in Scripture, because the Biblical phrases that they would have preferred to use were claimed by the Arians to be capable of being interpreted in what the bishops considered to be a heretical sense." source: wikipedia

“The council could not agree and after two years, impatient at the delay, the emperor Constantine appeared and addressed the assembly, ordering them to agree on the divinity of Christ…” (Challenge of a liberal Faith)
 
“Once this “Nicene Creed” had been publicly signed by all the bishops and promulgated by Constantine, it became the official creed for all Christians. To deny the divinity of outside of the Christian community and was a crime against the state.” (The emerging Church: Part one)


"The victor at Nicaea was not the Church, but an Emperor who believed in the sun god as one of several deities, and who did not mind twisting Christianity to conform to his own ideas."

"As one Church Historian, Bernhard Lohse, writes in Motive im Glauben (Motivation for belief): 'Arius remind us that Jesus, as he is described in the Gospels, was not a God who walked this earth, but truly a human being. Of course, by his very humanity Jesus proved his full community with God'"

"Arius desired nothing else, but the Church chose a different road; as it had done so often, it condemned what was right and retained what was false" (Lehmann, Johannes. The Jesus Establishment. Garden CIty, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc, 1974)

"The decision of the council did not terminate the controversy, but was rather only the beginning of it. A settlement found upon the Church by the strong hand of the emperor could not satisfy and was also of certain duration. It made the determination of the Christian faith dependent on imperial caprice and even on court intrigues." (Berkhof, Louis. The History of Christian Doctrines. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Barker Book House, 1981)


"The Council of Nicaea set many precedents. The Emperor called it, influenced its decision-making and used his civil power to give its decrees virtually status of imperial law. The Council introduced a new kind of orthodoxy, which for this time gave non-biblical terms critical importance. The Creed's own form of expression was influenced by the heresy outlawed..."

"Nicaea was followed by more than half century of discord and disorder in the Eastern CHurch , which at times spilled over into the West." (Dowley, Tim, et al. [editors]. Eerdmans' Handbook to the History of Christianity. Carmel, New York, USA: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997)


On Nicene Creed 381 A.D
"It was not until the 4th century that the distinctness of the three taught by subordinationism and their unity taught by modalism were brought together in a single orthodox doctrine of one essence and three persons." Encyclopedia

"But Augustine also developed a trinitarian theme that was to become the most important dogmatic difference between the Eastern and Western Churches: the idea that the Holy Spirit proceeds both from the Father and from the Son (filioque) ,rather than from the Father only, as the East maintained." Encyclopedia


Others...

"Some nontrinitarians also find a link between the doctrine of the Trinity and the Egyptian Christian theologians of Alexandria, suggesting that Alexandrian theology, with its strong emphasis on the deity of Jesus, served to infuse Egypt's pagan religious heritage into Christianity. They charge the Church with adopting these Egyptian tenets after adapting them to Christian thinking by means of Greek philosophy.As evidence of this, they point to the widely acknowledged synthesis of Christianity with Platonic philosophy evident in Trinitarian formulas appearing by the end of the 3rd century. Hence, beginning with the Constantinian period, they allege, these pagan ideas were forcibly imposed on the churches as Catholic doctrine rooted firmly in the soil of Hellenism." source: wikipedia



Conclusion:

It is true that in the early centuries, Christians had many interpretation about Christ, one of the many example is the different formulas debated for the doctrine trinity (see above). Others believe that Christ is mere human, some says he is God and so on. Meaning, before the first council of Nicaea (325 A.D) every bishops/priests/teachers or whatsoever taught Christians different interpretations about Christ (see above) depends on their understanding about it. As to unite these divisions, Constantine I formed the first council of Nicaea (325 A.D), to "define" the relationship of God the father and Christ. Then, how they come up with the interpretation that the Father is of the same substance with Christ? And the result of all the debate, that the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit is equal and so on, IF, again, IF, they had different interpretations about it?

Then, i therefore conclude that it is because of the things that influenced them, like Hellenism, which is the spread of Greek culture and so on. And the influence of Plato, also called as Platonism/neoplatonism about the Logos. It is also the result of the wrong understanding quoting John's statement: "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God".

If trinity is really a belief that can be traced in the 1st century, that the early christians believed that Jesus is God, Father is God, Holy Spirit is God and so on, then there will be no heresies /different interpretations about Christ in the past!

The complete "definition" of this doctrine took them 100 years and more, and this is now what MOST CHRISTIANS believe nowadays. Remember: Christianity is a monotheistic religion, meaning: is the belief in the existence of one and only one god. (source: wikipedia)

The God in the Old Testament is also the God in New Testament. Ask yourself: Is it Christ the God in both Testament?

It is written in the bible that there is only ONE GOD, the FATHER.


Articles that may help you:
Who said that Jesus is God?
The original belief of the early christians to Jesus
Authoritative testimonies on Trinity