The Trinity doctrine developed in the 3rd century and had its present form late in the 4th. The aim was to raise Jesus to the status of 'God' without being open to the charge of pagan polytheism.
The doctrine states: ‘The One God exists as three persons and one substance’ (
Oxford Dict. of the Christian Church) also phrased, ‘In the unity of the Godhead there are Three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, these Three Persons being truly distinct one from another’ (
Catholic Encyclopedia).
This means that none of the three persons is less than God, therefore each of the three persons is 100% of God. Which further means that the doctrine of the Trinity is incoherent ─ 100% + 100% + 100% = 300%, which necessarily means three gods.
This incoherence is acknowledged, not debated.
OxDCC calls it ‘a mystery in the strict sense’ ie the doctrine ‘can neither be known by unaided human reason apart from revelation, nor cogently demonstrated by reason after it has been revealed’. The
Cath. Encl. calls it an ‘absolute mystery’: ‘An absolute mystery is a truth whose existence or possibility could not be discovered by a creature, and whose essence (inner substantial being) can be expressed by the finite mind only in terms of analogy, e.g. the Trinity’ (which comes to the same thing as the first but not so bravely put).
The Tanakh never mentions God as a Trinity.
The NT never mentions God as a Trinity.
Jesus never once claims to be God.
Jesus repeatedly
>states that he is not God<, simply God's agent or envoy.
Not even Paul thinks Jesus is God. Paul thinks Yahweh is God and Jesus is Lord.
So it would seem rather odd for a follower of Jesus to ignore Jesus' own repeated message and think that Jesus required belief in the Trinity as an essential for salvation.
Perhaps the problem is that most Christians tend not to read their bibles critically, with the aim of understanding what is actually written, but rather know what they know of it through the pulpit ( a source not much famed for its objectivity).