Even though it's one of mainstream Christianity's most widely accepted and revered doctrines, theologians admit that the Trinity is largely incomprehensible.

Surely a teaching as widespread and popular as the Trinity is scriptural, isn't it? Yet time and again, theologians and researchers admit it isn't found in the Bible.

Few understand how the Trinity doctrine came to be accepted - several centuries after the Bible was completed! Yet its roots go back much farther in history.

Many historians and religious scholars, some quoted in this publication, attest to the influence of Greek or Platonic philosophy in the development and acceptance of the Trinity doctrine in the fourth century. But what did such philosophy entail, and how did it come to affect the doctrine of the Trinity?

Many who believe in the Trinity are surprised, perhaps shocked, to learn that the idea of divine beings existing as trinities or triads long predated Christianity. Yet, as we will see, the evidence is abundantly documented.

Some Bible translators of past centuries were so zealous to find support for their belief in the Trinity in the Scriptures that they literally added it. A case in point is 1 John 5:7-8.

A true understanding of God comes from only one source - God's revelation to mankind, the Bible. What does it reveal about God the Father and Jesus Christ?

The preexistent Word, who later became Jesus Christ, was sent to earth by the Father in heaven. The Gospel of John bears record to this truth many times.

The apostle Paul affirms that the God the Israelites of the Old Testament knew - the One they looked to as their "Rock" of strength (see Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalm 18:2) - was the One we know as Jesus Christ.

The book of Hebrews speaks of the Son of God as the Being through whom God created the worlds (Hebrews 1:2) and who "sustains all things by his powerful word" (verse 3, NRSV). Only God is great enough to do such things.