Apologetics

The Trinitarian view vs the Unitarian concept of God

by Volodya S
02/06/16
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     Historic Christians, who hold to the Nicene Creed, posit that God is One Being Who eternally exists in Three Persons- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, also called the Trinity. According to Unitarians, there is only One Person in the Godhead. So, how then is the Trinitarian understanding of God superior to the Unitarian understanding?
     One way in which the Trinitarian understanding of God is superior to  a Unitarian concept of God, is that it answers the philosophical problem of the one and the many. Since pre-Socratic times, individuals have grappled with the phenomenon that there are a plethora of objects in the world and yet, there seems to be an underlying unity. The problem of finding the one thing that is behind all things in the uni-verse is called the problem of the one and the many. In our universe, there are not only a multiplicity of objects, but also a diversity between objects, which brings us to the question of whether a Trinitarian Being or a Unitarian being makes better sense of the one and many. It seems more reasonable to conclude that the Trinity makes sense of the one and many since the Trinity posits one eternal being, who Exists in three Persons- hence one, and yet more than one. The plurality of Persons in one God, can explain why there is plurality in the Universe.
     A second way in which the trinitarian understanding of God is superior to a Unitarian concept of God is in the idea of love. Love, according to one definition, is the "profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person." If God is only one Person, then before the universe was created, God was unable to truly love, since love assumes another person or object for it's affection. In the trinitarian understanding of God, there existed an eternal expression of love between the Three Persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thus explaining why there can be love between more than one person.
     The third way in which the trinitarian understanding of God is superior to a Unitarian concept of God, is that it  can explain phenomena which is fundamentally comprised of threeness. For example: atoms consist of protons, neutrons, and electrons, we perceive our universe in three dimensions,  a person is made up of mind, body, and spirit, time is divided into the past, the present, and the future, three is the first number that forms the first geometric shape, the triangle, and other similar examples. "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matthew 28:19).