Trinity Belief at All-time Low

Trinity Sunday is a day when Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist and Reformed Christians celebrate and reflect on the belief that God is triune, three persons consubstantial in one coeternal essence. Western liturgical churches celebrate Trinity Sunday on June 15 this year, yet opinion polls show most American Christians do not believe in the trinity.

According to the Cultural Research Center (crc) at Arizona Christian University, only 11 percent of American adults surveyed believed that God is “three distinct but inseparable and equal persons in one infinite being.”

Belief in the trinity increased to 16 percent among self-identified Christians, but it was still the minority view.

American skepticism: crc director of research George Barna pointed to these statistics as evidence that Americans were drifting away from a biblical worldview, but the truth is that belief in the trinity has always been weaker in America than in Europe.

At least four of the Founding Fathers rejected the trinity doctrine, and First Lady Abigail Adams (1744–1818) spoke for many when she said, “There is not any reasoning which can convince me, contrary to my senses, that three is one, and one, three.”

False “scripture”: The trinity doctrine was formalized 1,700 years ago at the Council of Nicaea, but it is nowhere mentioned in the Bible.

Words to support the trinity were added to 1 John 5:7-8 “by editors to the Latin Vulgate translation probably in the early fourth century,” wrote Herbert W. Armstrong. “They do not appear in any of the older Greek manuscripts nor in other modern English translations. They were added to the Latin Vulgate during the heat of the controversy between Rome and Dr. Arius and God’s people.”

Learn more: For a biblical explanation about God’s nature, read “Who and What Is God?” in the late Herbert W. Armstrong’s landmark book Mystery of the Ages.