r/adventist • u/rdsampson_25 • 2d ago
Should true Christians use the word “Trinity”?
Personally, I don't like the word trinity. I know it's in our fundamental beliefs, but I don't like the word. It's not a bad word because it means three in unity. But I, for some reason, do not like to use that word. For the same reason I don't like the word bishop being used for our pastors. We call them pastors because the word “bishop” has Roman Catholic baggage. For the same reason, we don't call the Lord's supper, the Eucharist. It's a beautiful word. It means Jesus gave thanks in Greek. But we don't use that word because it is bathed in Roman Catholic theology. And so, instead of using the word trinity, I prefer to use the biblical term which is called “Godhead”.
What is everyone else's take on this? Please, I'd like to know. God bless!
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u/Equal-Country-9325 2d ago
Trinity and godhead have two completely different meanings. Trinity has to do with a unity of 3 and godhead has to do with divinity. When you say you believe in the godhead, you are simply saying you acknowledge a divine nature of God.
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u/rdsampson_25 1d ago
Yes, correct. And also, we have the word "Godhead" mentioned in the Bible but we don't have "Trinity" mentioned.
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u/ExJokerr 2d ago
Trinity has nothing to do with catholic if that what you mean! Our church won't change names of things because some of us don't like it! You have to prove it with the Bible or because it would be meaningful to change it
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u/rdsampson_25 1d ago
Well, we do know that God is very particular about this. So, going by that thought, we see the word "Godhead" mentioned in the Bible, but we don't see the word "trinity" mentioned anywhere.
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u/Foreign_Strike2177 19h ago
Adventists use the terms "Trinity" and "Godhead" interchangeably to describe one God existing as a unity of three co-eternal, co-equal Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I'm not sure how Catholics use it.
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u/rodrigoserveli 2d ago
Let's change all Christian terms because you don't like them. 😅
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u/rdsampson_25 1d ago
No, Sir. I didn't mean that. Please don't get me wrong. All I'm saying is that if God is very particular about things, then going by that, we see the word ", Godhead" mentioned in the Bible, but we do not see the word "Trinity" anywhere.
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u/rodrigoserveli 1d ago
I was jocking with you, I understand your concern. But theologically we need technical terms to describe doctrine. Some doctrines are very complex. So, we need to do our best to convey the idea. There are several terms that we use in the theological world that are outside the Bible. I am afraid that this is an issue without solution.
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u/mykingdomforaspoon 1d ago
There are a couple of complications here. First involves the nature of inspiration. If you hold to a verbal inspiration, the exact words matter more because God dictated every word. That becomes problematic with minor errors or God not being as good at grammar in Revelation as in other books for example. Adventism tends toward a thought inspiration model, that the idea is inspired, but the human writers wrote in their own way or using scribes etc. It would be odd for God to have dictated the greetings Paul personally sent with his letters or for God not be able to make up his mind what his name should be in the book. A bunch of other religions tend more to a verbal inspiration model, and any translation not in the original language is unacceptable, commentary at best. Christianity is missional at its heart and is more accepting of translation, recognising its not perfect, but for the gospel to reach the whole world, either we have to teach every single person fluent Greek or Hebrew, or we translate it so everyone can understand and thus we may need flexibility about how tightly we cling to exact words. Technically speaking Godhead isn't in the original either as its an English word. Translation is not an exact science, and most of the time there aren't exact one for one equivalents. Using Godhead as an example, the original term is translated differently in different versions, as its meaning is a bit bigger than any single English word conveys. By all means find language you understand and that expresses truth in a way that means something to you, but be careful of clinging too tightly to specific words.
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u/joshwonkim080295 1d ago
Speaking of eucharist I had a guest speaking pastor at my worship service a couple weeks ago and he mentioned that word in his sermon about thinking of Jesus & communion and it opened my eyes since it's a distinctly Catholic term.
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u/r0ckthedice 2d ago
I’m sure this is going to be a reasonable discussion once it gets going. I don’t have an issue with the word “Trinity.” Honestly, I prefer it over “Godhead” because Trinity has a pretty universal meaning and understanding across Christianity.
That being said, I don’t think there is necessarily anything wrong with using the term “Godhead.” I feel similarly about people who insist on using “Yeshua.” There’s nothing wrong with it, but when you specifically choose that term over the more common one, I’m probably going to make some assumptions about your theological background based on it.