So what is the Trinity? It is the theology that God exists in three persons: The Father (known in the Old Testament as YHVH) The Son (known in the New Testament as Jesus or Yeshua) and the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost.

Here below is from John 1:1 ESV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Here is more from John 1

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Here is Colossians 1:15-16

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶ For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

These are some scriptures showing that Jesus pre-existed creation itself.

First let us start with what is the trinity? It is the belief that the creator God YHVH, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are three persons of one essence and character. That God exists in three persons in a sense is a very abstract thing. Does one have to believe in the trinity to be saved though? Also is the trinity true doctrine, I will get to that also.

What do you have to believe to be saved first of all and do you have to believe in the Trinity to be saved?

John 14:6 New International Version

⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

This is clear, no one sees the Father except by the Son Jesus. However nothing here mentions a trinity explicitly nor is the trinity explicitly mentioned in the Bible in general as a concrete concept.

John 3.3

³ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

Here is Romans 10:9-10

  ⁹ “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”

It is clear the only way to see God’s kingdom is to have your spirit renewed by being born again and declaring Jesus as the only savior is the only way to that. I think that point is clear but the trinity is not specfically mentioned really. Some things to think about though is that if Jesus is not divine and God than in John 14.6 how can he keep the gate to the Father and Romans 9 makes it clear that you must declare Jesus as Lord. So far Jesus of Nazereth seems on par with the Father which implies a trinity. Jesus is called Lord in Romans explicitly, and if Jesus is a created being then how can he be on par with the Lord.

What if the Jesus and the Father are the same and Jesus is purely divine and Jesus is simply God. This is called Monophysitism, but here the problem lies that without Jesus having a human nature along with a divine nature than Jesus could not have suffered and shed blood for us. It is the blood Jesus shed that saved us.

Mathew 26.28 NIV

²⁸ This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Hebrews 9.12 NIV

¹² He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.

So the death, suffering and the blood of Jesus are most important parts to the plan of salvation and this requires a human nature and so not just the divinity but the humanity of Jesus are key. So those who deny Jesus’s human nature also deny his suffering and his suffering gives of redemption and life and healing. I think the belief that Jesus has a human side is very important. Once you fully deny the Father and make Jesus Lord without the Father that is the Gnostic and Marcion heresy that only believes in Jesus and denies the Father and Holy spirit. I am not saying that those who believe in a purely divine Jesus are not saved, I’m not a minister or theologian, I can’t tell you that, but if you are into gnosticism you are not saved though, that I can say. It is Biblical that our salvation came from the awful suffering Jesus endured and that requires a human aspect.

What about those who believe in a purely human nature(the Arian Heresy)

Let us start with what is the Arian heresy and no it’s not about nazi’s, Arius was a Libyan 4th century CE Greek speaking Bishop of the early church. This was before the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox parted ways. Arius purposed that Jesus was a fully subordinate created being and was not to be worshiped and only the Father (YHVH) should be worshiped. He was excommunicated as a heretic but a few Roman emperors embraced him along within a lot of Gothic tribes. The most similar to Arian theology today would be the Jehovah’s witnesses and Christadelphians. However although the Bible does indicate that Jesus does lack some of the Father’s knowledge in the incarnation, most notable in Revelation where it says “only the Father knows the day of the end”. But Romans makes it clear though that Jesus is Lord from what I quoted above in this article. Also that no one will ever see the Father except by the Son and also that Jesus rose to the right hand of God.

Romans 8:34 New International Version

³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

I do not believe that trivializing Jesus is wise and is counter to scripture.

Was the trinity pre cross era? In short yes ,there was a belief in two powers in heaven. For example the Priest Malkhi-Sedek or the King of Righteousness of the book of Genesis was thought to be Jesus. There was the character Metatron from the third book of Enoch (from the Ethiopic canon) Where Enoch had a vision of the throne of God. But sitting on the throne was not YHVH himself but YHVH katan (meaning small Lord). Many believe Metatron was a metaphor for a pre cross era Jesus. The late theologian Michael Heiser thought the angel Jacob wrestled with in Genesis was really Jesus and not an angel. The two powers in heaven theory was a common belief in Judaism until the second or third century CE until the Rabbi’s felt it looked to much like Jesus and the two powers in heaven theory was called heretical. However in books like the Zohar God existing in two persons in common in Jewish Kabalistic thought from ancient times. The belief that there were two powers in heaven was standard belief in ancient Israel and was not deemed a Jewish heresy until the second century ce with Rabbinical rulings at that time fearing conversion to Christianity.

Here is one more thing on Jesus in the Old Testament I forgot from the book of Daniel 7.13-14

¹³ “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. ¹⁴ He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”

Here is more from Genesis 19:24

²⁴ Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven.

You notice the use of the word Lord twice for no reason. For instance would you say: John went to the store and John bought a soda, why not just say: John went to the store and bought a soda. This is also why in ancient Israel they thought there were two powers in heaven

So a belief of God existing in two persons of one essence pre dated the incarnation of Jesus himself.

What are Christologies and why do they matter or does it matter?

Does one have to embrace one ? These are questions this article will try to answer. Christology is the theory of the nature of Christ and so first what does Christ mean? It is from the Greek word christos meaning anointed which evolved from early Jewish followers of Jesus who saw Jesus as the Jewish mashiach (that is messiah) meaning also anointed. The term anointed came to significance because in ancient Israel any number of important people were anointed with holy oil. So hence they were called Mashiach (anointed) these included Kings and Priests and other important people of Israel and ancient Judah. It came to be in Jewish theology that the ultimate King of the Jews and redeemer who would restore Israel to it’s former glory was called Mashiach or Messiah. Hence Greek speaking believers in Messiah called Jesus of Nazareth christos or that is messiah or anointed. So Christ means Messiah or Mashiach. Let us go into different speculation on the nature of Jesus or Yeshua.

Monophysitism

This means Jesus has one nature that is divine and that even though in scripture Jesus is clearly human these advocates sort of said that the humanity of Jesus was absorbed or an illusion during the incarnation period.This theology was deemed heresy at Council of Chalcedon in 451 CE and there are no major churches today that teach this. Most of those who denied the humanity of Jesus went to gnosticism which is a occult mixture of Christianity, Greek mythology and paganism.

Dyophysitism

This is most standard and common and is the official stance of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church and a lot of common protestant denominations like Lutherans and Episcopals (Anglicans)

This belief is that Jesus is both divine and human in either or two natures or two persons depending on how you define nature or person. So that Jesus is both fully human and divine and fully human but in two different aspects. Here is Wikipedia on the issue. This means that the divinity and humanity of Jesus are separate and distinct, they may interact with each other but are separate.

Dyophysitism (/daɪˈɒfɪsaɪtɪzəm/; from Greek δύο dyo, “two” and φύσις physis, “nature”) is the Christological position that Jesus Christ is one person of one substance and one hypostasis, with two distinct, inseparable natures, divine and human.

This is soundly Biblical here is Romans 10.9

Romans 10:9-10 New International Version

⁹ If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Here is Colossians 2.9

⁹ For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.

Also read the Book of John from chapter 1.1-14 which explains how Jesus is both God and man also.To save space in the article I won’t post the whole 14 verses.So it is clearly Biblical that Jesus is both fully human and divine but does Jesus have to be divine and human in two natures ?

This next belief had beginnings at Nicaea but was formalized  Council of Chalcedon when The Catholic Church and the Armenian Church (now the Oriental Orthodox Church) parted ways in 451.

Miaphysitism

This perspective echoes the Biblical point of view of Jesus being both human and divine like the Dyophysitism. The difference is that in Miaphysitism it is believed that the divinity and humanity are in one person or nature. Or that they are mixed in a single personality as opposed to the clear separation in Dyophysitism. Miaphysitism is embraced by the Oriental Orthodox Church which includes The Armenian, Assyrian, Coptic and Ethiopian Churches and other central Asian, Middle Eastern and North African Churches. I guess this means that the divinity and humanity of Jesus is all part of his personality and not separarate. To me the difference here with Miaphysitism and Dyophisitism does not matter to me as long as one understands Jesus is both divine and human.

I don’t know of any Biblical passage that states whether the divinity and hunamity of Jesus must exist in a single nature or in two different natures. I am not sure I know or understand the difference or that it matters at all.As long as we know Jesus suffered as a human and is also Lord I do not see a problem in my own judgement.

Modalism

This is a belief that God exists in modes and plays different roles.The idea is that the only God is the Father YHVH and that in modes he acts as the Father or the Son-Jesus or the Holy Spirit at appropriate times. Although this does not seem to have the historically occult and gnostic deviations that other non trinitarian groups have, I don’t see scriptural support for this theology. No known modern Churches teach this anymore.

The Arian heresy

This has nothing to do with Aryan or anything Nazi or Germanic. Arius was a later 3rd early 4th century Libyan Bishop in the early Catholic Church. He purposed that Jesus was a created and lesser being than the Father, sort of the opposite of the gnostic heresy. He was popular with a lot of the Gothic tribes of late Rome mainly as a means to spite Romans.After the fall of Rome to the Germanic tribes in 476 CE most Goth’s converted to Catholicism. The belief in Jesus having a single human nature and not a divine nature is still found today in sects like the Christadelphians or Jehovah’s. There are serious doubts as to whether these groups teach true salvation or that their beliefs are Biblical in any way. Although not as dangerous as gnostics but I do not think they preach the true Gospel.

There are some other Christologies we could go into but they are not significant or rehash ones already talked about. So what should we believe? Clearly we have to believe based on holy scripture that Jesus is both divine and human but whether that is in a single mixed nature or two different natures I do not know if that is important. Stay away from anything that says that either the Son is a illusion of the Father for a short period or only accept the Son and deny the Father(that gnosticism).Stay away from groups like The Jehovah’s Witnesses who trivialized or outright deny the Son and only worship and honor the Father(the Arian heresy).

You can never go wrong if you stick with scripture and make Church doctrine fit scripture not color scripture to fit a church you may like. I do not think it is super important to formally embrace a Christology if you are rooted in scripture but Dyophysitism and Miaphysitism are the most accurate which is why they are still taught where has others have faded away.

I think it is well established that the Trinity is true and backed up well by New Testament and Old Testament along with mystical traditions of ancient Israel. But must one have to believe in it to be saved? First I would say that I am not a Pastor or a Minister or a Messianic Rabbi, I am a historian of the Bible and ancient Hebrew linguistics. I cannot give a definite spiritual answer, I would not recommend ever going to any Church or getting involved in any Christian organization that does not confirm the Trinity. I would risk not believing in the Trinity. In the end God judges the heart and there may be those who are true believers in Jesus but they do not have the intellectual capacity to understand the Trinity. But to those who do understand it but still reject it it makes you wonder if they are saved!