Nontrinitarianism

===Terminology===
{{More citations needed section|date=July 2010}}
"The term 'Trinity' is not in the Bible",<ref>{{cite book|editor1=Stephen T. Davis|editor2=Daniel Kendall|editor3=Gerald O'Collins|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2002|title=The Trinity: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Trinity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TSnyL06y0LYC&pg=PA357|isbn=978-0-19-924612-0|page=357}}</ref> and some nontrinitarians use this as an argument to state{{citation needed|date=May 2017}} that the doctrine of the Trinity relies on non-biblical terminology, and that the number three is never clearly associated with God necessarily, other than within the [[Comma Johanneum]] which is of spurious or disputed authenticity. They argue{{citation needed|date=May 2017}} that the only number clearly unambiguously ascribed to God in the Bible is one, and that the Trinity, literally meaning three-in-one, ascribes a co-equal threeness to God that is not explicitly biblical.

Nontrinitarians cite other examples{{citation needed|date=May 2017}} of terms or phrases not found in the Bible; multiple "persons" in relation to God, the terms "[[God the Son]]", "[[God-man (Christianity)|God-Man]]", "[[Holy Spirit (Christianity)#God the Holy Spirit|God the Holy Spirit]]", "[[God the Son|eternal Son]]", and "[[Trinity#Eternal generation and procession|eternally begotten]]". While the Trinitarian term [[Hypostasis (religion)|hypostasis]] is found in the Bible, it is used only once in reference to God<ref>{{bibleverse|Heb|1:3}}</ref> where it states that Jesus is the express image of God's person. The Bible does not explicitly use the term in relation to the Holy Spirit nor explicitly mentions the Son having a distinct hypostasis from the Father.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}

The [[First Council of Nicaea]] included in its Creed the major term ''[[homoousios]]'' (of the same essence), which was used also by the [[Council of Chalcedon]] to speak of a double [[consubstantiality]] of Christ, "consubstantial with the Father as touching his Godhead, and consubstantial with us as touching his manhood".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pages.uoregon.edu/sshoemak/321/texts/chalcedonian_definition.htm|title=The Chalcedonian Definition|access-date=5 March 2015}}</ref> Nontrinitarians accept what Pier Franco Beatrice wrote: "The main thesis of this paper is that ''homoousios'' came straight from [[Constantine the Great|Constantine's]] [[Hermeticism|Hermetic]] background. ... The Plato recalled by Constantine is just a name used to cover precisely the Egyptian and Hermetic theology of the "consubstantiality" of the Logos-Son with the Nous-Father, having recourse to a traditional apologetic argument. In the years of the outbreak of the Arian controversy, [[Lactantius]] might have played a decisive role in influencing Constantine's Hermetic interpretation of Plato's theology and consequently the emperor's decision to insert ''homoousios'' in the [[Nicene Creed|Creed of Nicaea]]."<ref>[http://noemon.net/noesis/The%20word%20Homoousios%20from%20Hellenism%20to%20Christianity.pdf ''The Word'' "Homoousios" ''from Hellenism to Christianity''], by P.F. Beatrice, ''Church History,'' Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Society of Church History, Vol. 71, No. 2, (Jun., 2002), pp. 243–272. (retrieved @ noemon.net) {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723224453/http://noemon.net/noesis/The%20word%20Homoousios%20from%20Hellenism%20to%20Christianity.pdf |date=July 23, 2011}}</ref>

Trinitarians see the absence of the actual word "Trinity" and other Trinity-related terms in the Bible as no more significant than the absence in the Bible of the words "monotheism", "omnipotence", "oneness", "Pentecostal", "apostolic", "incarnation" and even "Bible" itself.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://carm.org/christianity/christian-doctrine/word-trinity-not-bible|title=The word Trinity is not found in the Bible|work=CARM – The Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry|access-date=5 March 2015|date=2008-11-24}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J4fZeuyXWXEC&q=trinity+word+%22not+in+the+Bible%22+incarnation+omnipotence&pg=PA222|title=The Voice..|access-date=5 March 2015|isbn=978-1-4196-1730-0|last1=McQuick|first1=Oneil|date=2005|publisher=L.I.M }}</ref> They maintain that, 'while the word ''Trinity'' is not in the Bible, the substance or drift of the doctrine is definitely biblical, if not explicitly than at least implicitly.'<ref name=Kelly/><ref name=Barclay/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://irr.org/biblical-basis-of-doctrine-of-trinity-introduction|title=Institute for Religious Research – The Biblical Basis of the Doctrine of the Trinity – Introduction|work=Institute for Religious Research|access-date=5 March 2015}}</ref>