I don't think that's accurate else why would our current understanding of the trinity have taken so long to develop and be finalized? it took over 300 years after the death of Christ to develop it...
>>I don’t think that’s accurate else why would our current understanding of the trinity have taken so long to develop and be finalized? it took over 300 years after the death of Christ to develop it...
I think that’s utter bull. Apparently every direct follower of Christ (except for the exiled John) was willing to die through torture and crucifixion for Christ. This not only speaks to His authority, but also to the finality of His law.
Christ came to earth and was God’s law on earth. To deny that is to make smarmy excuses for development simply shows that you want to contort your own beliefs to make people accept them. I don’t think any Bible reader can do that.
Theodosius called a council at Constantinople in 381, and this council decided that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father. Theodosius, the younger, assembled another council at Ephesus to ascertain who the Virgin Mary really was, and it was solemnly decided in the year 431 that she was the Mother of God.
In 451 it was decided by a council held at Chalcedon, called together by the Emperor Marcian, that Christ had two natures -- the human and divine. In 680, in another general council, held at Constantinople, convened by order of Pognatius, it was also decided that Christ had two wills, and in the year 1274 it was decided at the Council of Lyons, that the Holy Ghost proceeded not only from the Father, but from the Son as well.
Had it not been for these councils, we might have been without a Trinity even unto this day. When we take into consideration the fact that a belief in the Trinity is absolutely essential to salvation, how unfortunate it was for the world that this doctrine was not established until the year 1274. Think of the millions that dropped into hell while these questions were being discussed.
- Robert G. Ingersoll
John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God."
It may have taken 300 years to form a formal doctrine, but the gospel of John (and other books of the New Testament) have been teaching it all along.
It is interesting to note that the writings we now know as the New Testament weren't formalized as "scripture" until about 300 years after the death of Christ either. Would you also say, then, that since it took 300 years to formalize, the selection of books included is somehow in error?