Question:  Dear Greg,

            I often hear you saying that belief in the Trinity is the foundation of authentic Christianity.  What do you think about people who claim to be Christians but say that the Trinity is false—perhaps even pagan and Satanic?

            Thanks,

            Jim

Answer:  Dear Jim,

            There are many in this world who say that they are Christian but are not.  It is not doing them a service to let them think that they are Christian.  One cannot call oneself a carpenter, a plumber, a lawyer, a judge, a doctor—and simply presume to be one.  There are accepted standards.  So too with Christianity.  The Trinity is an accepted standard.  The fact is that most cultic groups are vehemently anti-Trinitarian.

            These are standards that have been adopted by humans, who read and study the Bible, who have administered and protected the body of Christ in its many denominational permutations for almost two thousand years.  Could these humans be wrong?  Of course they could.  Could they have drawn the line too narrowly, excluding those who are anti-Trinitarian, and in so doing not properly reflected the will of God?  Of course the answer is “perhaps”—for all these folks have been human.  But for the Bible to be wrong, for Christians for almost 2000 years to have misunderstood the Bible to be wrong, without Jesus, the head of the body, the church, correcting them—well, that is a huge assumption.  A huge leap.  That is a leap that I do not care to take.

            If someone is wrong in their understanding of Christianity and God wants them to become authentic Christians, not simply one who claims the name of Christ (“many will say unto me, ‘Lord, Lord’”), then we can presume that God can do so.  We do not know why some cults are growing so quickly—that is, in terms of why God “allows” it.  We would rather not see that kind of growth, but it is a fact.  There are many things in this world that we, as Christians, would rather not see and things that we do not understand.  We do know that those who call themselves Christians, but do not accept the Trinity, as biblically revealed and historically authenticated, are not Christians—whether they think they are or not.

            Has God saved some that seem to be lost in cultic groups and we simply don’t know about it?  Has he saved some that we would not label as Christian?  We all hope and pray so.  Does that mean that there might be some children of God, born again, within the Watchtower and within the Mormon Church?  Perhaps.  Again, we hope so.  If there are, we must ask—why are they still there?  One valid reason would be because they hope to be a change agent—reformed from within.  One invalid reason would be because they don’t want to leave old friends, so in spite of being born again, they remain within a heretical and cultic group.  That would be incongruous and without biblical validation.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht