Question about trinity

[Kristoffer]

Many who believes in the trinity uses the following Bible-verse to "prove" that God (in the Bible) must be understood as an trinity:

- Matthew 28:19-20New International Version (NIV):
"19 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 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”"

Can someone please explain to me how this can be understood without including the trinity?

Does JW openly/explisitly support Arians perspective on the trinity? Or is this more like a kind of inspiration/likeness?
- In that case; where can I read about this on the JW homesite

Does JW have some published Arianistic teachings/doctrines?

 

[rusra02]

Many who believes in the trinity uses the following Bible-verse to "prove" that God (in the Bible) must be understood as an trinity:

- Matthew 28:19-20New International Version (NIV):
"19 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 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”"

Can someone please explain to me how this can be understood without including the trinity?

Does JW openly/explisitly support Arians perspective on the trinity? Or is this more like a kind of inspiration/likeness?
- In that case; where can I read about this on the JW homesite

Does JW have some published Arianistic teachings/doctrines?

JW.ORG has extensive information. Just go to home page and search on trinity.
Here is a quote from W12 3/1:
"▪ The Trinity doctrine is defined this way, although there are many variations: “Three divine Persons (the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost), each said to be eternal, each said to be almighty, none greater or less than another, each said to be God, and yet together being but one God.” Is this a Bible teaching?

Matthew 28:19 is usually cited to prove the doctrine. The text from the King James Version quotes Jesus: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” True, the Father, the Son, and the holy ghost (or spirit) are all mentioned in this text. However, nothing is said about their being one. Jesus was commissioning his Jewish followers to teach and baptize people in the name of the Father, the Son, and the holy spirit. As a nation, what did the Jews believe?

When the nation of Israel received the Law covenant, which forms part of the Bible, they were commanded: “You must never have any other gods against my face.” (Deuteronomy 5:7) How many persons were speaking here? Without any confusion, Deuteronomy 6:4 reads: “Listen, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah”—not three in one. Israel had just been liberated from Egypt, where Osiris, Isis, and Horus (shown at left)—one of a number of triads of gods—were worshipped. Therefore, Israel was commanded to worship just one God. How important was it for people to understand this command? According to Dr. J. H. Hertz, a rabbi: “This sublime pronouncement of absolute monotheism was a declaration of war against all polytheism . . . The Shema excludes the trinity of the Christian creed as a violation of the Unity of God.”*

Since Jesus was a Jew by birth, he was instructed to follow this same command. After his baptism, when tempted by the Devil, he said: “Go away, Satan! For it is written, ‘It is Jehovah your God you must worship, and it is to him alone you must render sacred service.’” (Matthew 4:10; Deuteronomy 6:13) We can learn at least two things from this incident. First, Satan was trying to entice Jesus to worship someone other than Jehovah, an attempt that would have been absurd if Jesus were part of the same God. Second, Jesus made it clear that there is just one God who must be worshipped when he said “him alone,” not “us,” which he would have said if he were part of a Trinity.

When people come to an accurate knowledge of God and want to serve him, they are baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit.” (Matthew 28:19) They understand and accept the authority of Jehovah and the role of Jesus Christ in the outworking of Jehovah’s purpose. (Psalm 83:18;Matthew 28:18) They also comprehend the function and activity of God’s holy spirit, which is his active force.—Genesis 1:2; Galatians 5:22, 23; 2 Peter 1:21.

The Trinity doctrine has confused people for centuries. On the other hand, Jesus enlightened his followers and directed them to “the only true God,” Jehovah.—John 17:3."

 

[Kolibri]

I looking up "Arian" in my library, I noted an article from Sept 1, 1984 Watchtower. Iirc, the Online Library does not go back that far.

The article on page 25 was titled "We Worship What We Know" based on Jesus' words found at John 4:22.

Here is an except of the first 3 paragraphs:

“THE Father Incomprehensible, the Son Incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost Incomprehensible. The Father Eternal, the Son Eternal, and the Holy Ghost Eternal and yet they are not Three Eternals but One Eternal. As also there are not Three Uncreated, nor Three Incomprehensibles, but One Uncreated, and One Incomprehensible.” One or three, Christendom’s God, as here defined by the Athanasian Creed, is truly a mysterious, incomprehensible, unknown God.

“We worship what we know,” said Jesus. (John 4:22) He was speaking as a member of a people to whom Moses had said: “Listen, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah.” Yes, faithful Jews worshiped a God they knew. As to Christians, not subject to the Jewish Law covenant but brought into a new covenant, it was prophetically said of them: “They will by no means teach each one his fellow citizen and each one his brother, saying: ‘Know Jehovah!’ For they will all know me, from the least one to the greatest one of them.” Such Christians do indeed know their God.—Deuteronomy 6:4; Hebrews 8:11.

Because they do not believe in the Trinity dogma, it has been said of Jehovah’s Witnesses that they practice “a form of Arianism.” But the fact that they are not Trinitarians does not make them Arians. In one of the few writings of Arius that has survived, he claims that God is beyond comprehension, even for the Son. In line with this, historian H. M. Gwatkin states in his book The Arian Controversy: “The God of Arius is an unknown God, whose being is hidden in eternal mystery. No creature can reveal him, and he cannot reveal himself.” Jehovah’s Witnesses worship neither the “incomprehensible” God of the Trinitarians nor the “unknown God” of Arius. They say, with the apostle Paul: “There is actually to us one God the Father, out of whom all things are.”—1 Corinthians 8:6.

Quoting the Aug 1, 1984 Watchtower page 24 under the title "A Trinitarian 'Unknown God'” there was also this under the subheading "The Arian Controversy".

The Trinity controversy came to a head at the beginning of the fourth century C.E. The main protagonists were three philosopher-theologians from Alexandria, Egypt. On the one side was Arius, with Alexander and Athanasius on the other. Arius denied that the Son was of the same essence, or substance, as the Father. He held the Son to be really a son, who therefore had a beginning. Arius believed the Holy Spirit was a person, but not of the same substance as the Father or the Son and in fact inferior to both. He did speak of a “Triad,” or “Trinity,” but considered it to be composed of unequal persons, of whom only the Father was uncreated.

Alexander and Athanasius, on the other hand, maintained that the three persons of the Godhead were of the same substance and, therefore, were not three Gods but one. Athanasius accused Arius of reintroducing polytheism by separating the three persons.

The head of the Roman Empire at that time was Constantine, who was anxious to use apostate Christianity as “cement” to consolidate his shaky empire. For him, this theological controversy was counterproductive. He called the Trinity quarrel a “fight over trifling and foolish verbal differences.” Having failed to reconcile the two opposing parties by a special letter sent to Alexandria in 324 C.E., Constantine summoned a general church council to settle the matter either way. At this First Ecumenical Council held at Nicaea, Asia Minor, in 325 C.E., the assembled bishops eventually came out in favor of Alexander and Athanasius. They adopted the Trinitarian Nicene Creed, which, with alterations believed to have been made in 381 C.E., is subscribed to up to the present day by the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church and most Protestant churches. Thus it was that Christendom came to worship a mysterious, incomprehensible, three-in-one “unknown God.”

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By the time "Christianity" got to the First Ecumenical Council, neither side of the dispute represented the truth.

 

[Pegg]

Many who believes in the trinity uses the following Bible-verse to "prove" that God (in the Bible) must be understood as an trinity:

- Matthew 28:19-20New International Version (NIV):
"19 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 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”"

Can someone please explain to me how this can be understood without including the trinity?

Does JW openly/explisitly support Arians perspective on the trinity? Or is this more like a kind of inspiration/likeness?
- In that case; where can I read about this on the JW homesite

Does JW have some published Arianistic teachings/doctrines?

Baptizing in the 'name of ' simply means to baptize a person based on who each of the three represent.

We can think of it in very simple terms. What does the name Jehovah represent? It represents the True God Almighty. So a person being baptized must know who this powerful Almighty God is....he must know what Jehovah represents and what he expects of him.

What did Jesus represent? He represented Jehovah God. So someone being baptized in the name of Jesus should likewise be prepared to represent Jehovah and, like Jesus, be devoted to the cause of Jehovah in obedience and submission to the Will of Jehovah.

The holy spirit represents all of the good qualities of Jehovah God. Galatians 5:22 mentions these to be " the fruitage of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,*kindness, goodness,+ faith, 23 mildness, self-control So being baptized into such a spirit means one would be determined to cultivate such qualities in his own personality...putting on such qualities as it were and being determined to submit to them just as Christ submits to God.