Prophet Jesus is not the only “Son of God”
Blessed are the peace-makers, for they will be called sons of God.[18]
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you that ye may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.[19]
Biblical association of the Trinity
Since the New Testament neither mentions the word “trinity” nor states the doctrine, there is no Biblical basis for belief in the Trinity.
So instead, a tenuous proof for the doctrine of the Trinity is offered with the association of the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit:
- in the Great Commission:
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.[20]
- in the apostolic benediction:
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.[21]
However, the association of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit only proves an association of purpose, not an association of divinity, because the Christian Bible unambiguously confirms Unity, rather than Trinity.
It would, therefore, be non-Christian, pagan Neoplatonism that would provide the theological basis for the Trinity.
Neoplatonic origins of the Trinity
The doctrine of the Trinity developed gradually over the centuries from the need to accommodate a Greco-Roman pagan perspective in biblical teaching, in particular Neoplatonism. Therefore, the doctrine of the Trinity is a deviation in the Christian, and Jewish, belief in the Oneness of God.
Any reconciliation with monotheism is by default contrived, to which the following brief summary of the evolution of the doctrine attests.
Neoplatonism is a form of Platonism developed by Plotinus, an ancient Roman philosopher of the third century CE. Platonism was a pagan Ancient Greek philosophy derived from the teachings of Plato, an ancient Greek philosopher of the fourth century BCE. Neoplatonism is, therefore, the final form of pagan Ancient Greco-Roman philosophy.
Under Neoplatonism, there are multiple levels of being which are arranged in hierarchical descending order of increasing multiplicity, separateness and limitation, until the spatiotemporal universe is reached. Each level of being is derived from its superior by a process independent of time or space.