Can You Be a Christian and Deny the Trinity?

Pulpit Magazine October 13, 2009

(By John MacArthur)

Note: Today's post is adapted from a Q&A session that John did at Grace Church several years ago.

Question: A Mormon asked me this question a number of years ago, and through the years here at church, I’ve asked a number of people this question, and I wanted to get your opinion. Can you become a Christian if you deny the Trinity?

Answer:

I would answer, "No." If you don’t believe in the Trinity, then you don’t understand who God is. You may say the word “God” but you don’t understand His nature. Second, you couldn’t possibly understand who Christ is--that He is God in human flesh. The Incarnation of Christ is an essential component of the biblical gospel, as John 1:1-14 and many other biblical passages make clear. To deny the Trinity is to deny the Incarnation. And to deny the Incarnation is to wrongly understand the true gospel.

In saying that, I realize that such an answer is going to not only impact people that you may have witnessed to (like Mormons), but it also applies to some in the broader Pentecostal movement, called United Pentecostals or "Jesus-Only" Pentecostals. Such individuals hold to a kind of modalism, where God is sometimes in the mode of the Father or the mode of the Son or the mode of the Spirit, but He’s never all three at the same time. That too is a deficient and heretical view of the Trinity. It denies the distinct Personhood of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The same question sometimes arises about the Virgin Birth. I think it is possible for a person to become a Christian before learning about the details of the Virgin Birth, though that person would certainly assume that Jesus Christ must have had a unique birth since He is both God and man. But, if someone knows about the Virgin Birth and says, “I deny the Virgin Birth,” then he is simultaneously denying the deity of Christ, and also the Trinity. Such a person betrays the fact that they do not understand the gospel, and therefore cannot have truly been saved.

Categories: Apologetics |  Salvation | 


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1 Charles Holland Wed, Oct 14, 2009 05:59.36 AM

I would agree with the negative form of "deny the Trinity." However, if you were not taught the doctrine of the Trinity, I can see how the layperson can miss it by reading the New Testament. I think there are more people in that boat than we think. I was surprised by a new convert questioning, "what do you mean Jesus is God?" He had heard Trinity all his life, but was never taught it. I thought everybody knew what it was.

So what about those people?

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2 Drew Sparks Wed, Oct 14, 2009 07:33.26 AM

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3 Drew Sparks Wed, Oct 14, 2009 07:39.62 AM

John 8:24 makes it clear that if you do not believe that Jesus is God, than you will die in your sins. If you do no know who He is, than you cannot know what He did, and if so, you will never understand what you accepted. If you were dying and a doctor gave you medicine, it would do you no good if you put it in your ear instead of your mouth. Having the remedy does not do you good, you have to apply it correctly.

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4 Paul Betts Wed, Oct 14, 2009 08:46.4 AM

I agree that a person cannot be saved if he denies the Trinity or the Virgin Birth. To deny either is to deny the deity of Christ. I also agree that one might hear of Christ's atoning sacrifice for sin and trust in Him alone for salvation without ever hearing about the doctrine of the Trinity or Virgin Birth; however, once he is taught these truths, he will readily accept them if the Holy Spirit dwells in him.

Another question I raise is does the whole gospel include talking about the Virgin Birth and explaining the Trinity? Acts 2 records Peter's sermon on the Day of Pentecost and 1 Corinthians 15 records the gospel that Paul preached; in both, Peter and Paul focus on the death and resurrection of Christ; nowhere do they speak of the Virgin Birth.

With that being said, I do think it is important to teach these two doctrines in our churches. People need to know why we believe Jesus is unique among all other "religious" leaders. We can trust the Scriptures' teaching on the deity of Christ and His unique birth. It is hard to understand how a person could attend a Bible believing church for any length of time and not hear these truths at least mentioned, if not taught.

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5 cedric harris Mon, Nov 2, 2009 02:34.89 PM

Belief in the Trinty is fundamental, it is esential to our faith as christians.

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