Note: This article is from 2023, when I endeavored to defend a Monarchical Trinitarian position. I presently do not believe in any trinitarian theory but some have shown interest in arguments I presented during that time. — A. S. Sept. 15, 2024.
0. Introduction
I will explain how Gamaliel’s principle can be used to demonstrate Trinitarianism. The principle is stated in the book of Acts (5:35-39) by Gamaliel, a member of the Sanhedrin, and it essentially states that divine messages which God intends to be believed cannot fail or be overthrown. If God intends to reveal a message then he speaks clearly and he does not allow his words to be muted, or so severely misunderstood, corrupted, or neglected that they lose effect. The Unitarian claims amount to saying that God failed to reveal himself properly to the overwhelming majority of Christians throughout history and serve as an implicit denial of Gamaliel’s principle. It is hardly plausible that a God, who is a loving father, should so utterly fail to be clear about his identity to the vast majority of professing Christians.
1. The Principle Stated
The book of Acts records an occasion when some of the apostles were arrested by the Jewish Sanhedrin for their preaching of the Gospel. A certain member of the Sanhedrin, Rabban Gamaliel, the teacher of Saul of Tarsus, came to the defense. He said to his peers,
“Men of Israel, take care what you propose to do with these men. For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a group of about four hundred men joined up with him. But he was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census and drew away some people after him; he too perished, and all those who followed him were scattered. So in the present case, I say to you, stay away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or action is of men, it will be overthrown; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them; or else you may even be found fighting against God.” (Acts 5:35-39, NASB 1995)
The argument is supported with several historical examples. Theudas, a revolutionary who, according to Josephus, claimed to be a prophet, endeavored to free the holy land of Gentile rule. His claim to prophethood died along with his message because he was not supported by God. (Josephus, Ant. 20.97-98.) Consider any of the true prophets, such as Moses, Isaiah or Ezekiel, none of their prophecies ever failed and their teachings were not lost or severely corrupted. Likewise, Judas the Galileean led a failed revolt against the Roman empire and eventually the sect he funded, the Zealots, were overthrown. (Josephus, Jewish Wars 2.433; Ant. 18.1-10.)
The author of the Acts of Apostles endorses Gamaliel’s principle, after the apostles are freed the entire narrative which follows supports Gamaliel’s argument. The gospel preaching of the apostles is not halted even after facing severe opposition. St. Stephen is stoned (Acts 7:50-59), and St. James is beheaded (Acts 12:2), but the word of the gospel is still preached. The Judaizers try to corrupt the message of the Church (Acts 15:1-5) but God protects his Church from error and it continues to ‘expand daily’ in the face of persecution. (Acts 16:5) Even the final verses of Acts show an implicit endorsement of Gamaliel’s principle, as St. Paul is in house arrest, personifying the persecution of the Church; he continues to spread her message of salvation to all who will listen.
“[St. Paul] stayed two full years in his own rented quarters and was welcoming all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered.” (Acts 28:30, 31)
Darrel Bock argues in his commentary on Acts that Gamaliel’s speech is about “the ultimate success of the new faith, which is rooted ultimately not in where the faith stands now but where it is headed eschatologically in Jesus’s return and victory. This means that this movement will have staying power, as its content reflects the gospel given from God.” (Darrell L. Bock, Acts. Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Academic, 2007, p. 256.) In other words, the principle is not just a passing statement, it is something that St. Luke, the author of Acts himself, endorses and structures his narrative around. Similarly, Theodore Ferris wrote,
“Gamaliel is a personification of the elder statesman. His counsel is one of wise restraint… He is a perfect instance of the moderating influence of the judicial mind.” (Theodore F. Ferris. Acts, Interpreter’s Bible Commentary; Nashville: Abingdon Press. 1954, p. 86.)
The point being that the author of Acts considers Gamaliel’s argument to be a correct one. To let the Christians go free and see whether God will preserve and support the message they preach in the face of opposition. If God intends to found a religion, then the movement will not be overthrown and the message God intends to communicate through this religion will not become severely corrupted or lost to history. The principle might be summarized in terms of about three propositions:
Any religious movement that has the support of God will not be overthrown or fail. No opposition will be able to destroy it.
Any religious movement that does not have the support of God will be overthrown or fail. It will eventually crumble in the face of opposition or be destroyed.
Any divine revelation intended for all humans will be clearly communicated, a message which is commonly distorted or misunderstood is not the kind of revelation God would have given.
In short, if these three propositions are true then the very triumph of Nicene orthodoxy over rival positions such as Photinianism, Sabellianism, Gnosticism, and Arianism, are strong evidence that it is true. The message supported by God which has endured every attempt to overthrow it. The first two propositions are evident in the fact that all of the ancient Churches, and all of the other common Churches are Trinitarian. The apostolic Churches and all of the mainstream Protestant churches affirm the Nicene definition. If God does not protect his religion from being overthrown and corrupted, it inevitably will be due to human error, this is where the necessity of the doctrine of the infallibility of the church lies, as Newman argued,
“In proportion to the probability of true developments of doctrine and practice in the Divine Scheme, so is the probability also of the appointment in that scheme of an external authority to decide upon them, thereby separating them from the mass of mere human speculation, extravagance, corruption and error, in and out of which they grow. This is the doctrine of the infallibility of the Church.” (John Henry Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. 1st pub. 1845; 1878 edn., Longman, Green, & Co., 1906, p. 78.)
To my mind, the most pressing is the third proposition. Consider that most humans know very little about philosophy or theology. Many have families, jobs, or other responsibilities which do not afford them the liberty to study theology in great detail. It would indeed be very unwise for God to reveal himself in cypher. To make a statement of himself in such a way that only through carefully and critically studying theology or history that he can be known. Would God make himself so difficult to see? Most of mankind have never engaged in careful theological study involving ancient languages and intricate philosophical elucidations. For most of history books were costly and few were literate. For all of history, most of mankind has had to focus upon other more practical pursuits to attain the needs of daily life, such as food, clothing, and a safe home. If God is not careful to ensure that most of his people have a clear picture of his identity, then the vast majority of people (who would otherwise worship him) would instead end up worshiping a false God which bears a vague similarity to the true God. As Swinburne has stated,
“The third test is that the church has developed the original revelation in a way which plausibly brings out what was involved in it, and applies it to new situations in a natural way. A revelation intended for all humans which gets distorted beyond recognition is not the kind of revelation which God would have given.” (Richard Swinburne, Revelation: From Metaphor To Analogy 2nd Edition. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2004, p. 108.)
The vast majority of Christians throughout history did not have access to written Bibles or a collection of writings by the fathers of the Church. They had the living unwritten tradition of the Church in their ears. The consensus of the beliefs which filled the Churches on Sundays are what the average Christian believed. The faith recited in the creeds, hymns, and sermons of the Church are what constituted the deposit of faith that the average Christian believed. If God did not safeguard something so basic as his identity in such sources of faith, then it seems he did not wish the vast majority of Christians to know him.
“If the revelation is to be public, it must consist of publicly accessible unwritten or (better) written traditions. But it cannot consist solely of original documents or other proclamations; continuing guidance is required, a mechanism which helps translators of the original revelation to get their translation correct.” (R. Swinburne, Revelation. p. 103.)
To say that unitarianism is true is to claim that God permitted the teaching of the church to be massively distorted, corrupted, and misunderstood for centuries and that even in the present day the overwhelming majority of Christians are in grave error concerning the identity of God. This is the precise opposite of a continuing guidance for the Church such as is promised in John 16:13 and elsewhere.
2. The Central Argument
All of the churches that exist today broke off from or descended directly from a Trinitarian Church that affirmed the Nicene Creed. None of the Unitarian, Sabellian or Arian movements of today have any continuity with history. None can trace their lineage to the apostles. And those churches which are altogether new could not be the same ancient faith founded thousands of years ago by the Lord Jesus.
“A new society of people who came together in the nineteenth century out of an interest in applying the teachings of Jesus but did not result from any breakaway from a previous society cannot be part of the Church.” (R. Swinburne, Revelation. p. 182.)
Historically, the movements founded by Paul of Samosata, Marcellus of Ancyra, and their successors were all overthrown. The churches who supported Arius of Alexandia and Eunomius of Cyzicus, were all overthrown. All the modern Churches that endorse similar non-trinitarian theologies broke off from Trinitarian churches. All the unitarian churches claim to “restore,” “recover,” “rediscover,” or “re-establish” some lost truth which was neglected for most of Church history. But the central problem is—that they were overthrown at all. For centuries these heresies died, or ceased to exist. For hundreds of years there was no church on earth endorsing these heresies.
1. The principle of Gamaliel is true and when applied to the history of the Christian church, it implies that the true church has a message and a movement which will not be overthrown or corrupted.
2. If the true Church has a message and a movement which will not be overthrown or corrupted, then it will have a historical continuity i.e. the movement will endure through time and will not cease to exist, hence the lineage of successors should be traceable to the apostles.
3. All non-trinitarian movements were overthrown (e.g. Photinianism, Sabellianism, Gnosticism, Arianism, Marcionism, Ebionism, etc.) and any modern counterparts are restorationist movements who broke off or descended from Trinitarian churches, which have no historical continuity.
C. None of the non-trinitarian movements are the true Church.
Let us take for example the Arians, who even succeeded briefly in gaining the favor of an emperor Valens, to their perverse views. They were quickly thrown out of the Churches by his successor Theodosius I, and Arianism in the Roman empire soon died. It survived for a time among the Germanic kings, but the last Arian King was Garibald of Lombardy, who lived in the seventh century. After his conversion, Arianism died in Europe and was lost to history until, subsequent to the protestant reformation, individual restorationists and reformists started to revive this dead heresy.
Suppose Arianism were true. Would God have let it almost utterly vanish from the earth for so long? If Eunomius and Aetius had the true gospel, why did their movements fail? God decided to let their rivals, the supporters of the Nicene definition, spread the gospel across the earth? Is such a theory truly credible? The triumph of Nicene orthodoxy is itself strong evidence of its truth. “If it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them; or else you may even be found fighting against God.” (Acts 5:39) Which position was overthrown? In the search for the true Church, it is safe to rule out any movement which does not have a historical continuity and which does not affirm a Trinitarian doctrine of God.
3. The Great Apostasy
To dodge the force of this argument the only substantive rebuttal is to appeal to the doctrine of the “great apostasy.” The Mormons and the Adventists cry out in the streets!
Firstly, for reductio assume that the great apostasy was indeed the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. The principle of Gamaliel would still be endorsed in the New Testament and this would just be a massive internal contradiction within Christianity. Only Trinitarian Christianity meets the requirements of the principle of Gamaliel, therefore if trinitarianism is somehow apostate then there just is no true form of Christianity according to the principle. It is a self-defeating rebuttal.
But upon examination it is evident that the texts about apostasy which they appeal to are about events in the long distant future during the eschaton, or last days shortly before the return of Christ. They have nothing to do with events during our present age. St. Jude explained.
“Beloved, remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following their ungodly lust.”” (St. Jude 1:18)
St. Paul warns that Christ will not return until “The man of Sin” or the Antichrist appears, “the apostasy comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction.” (2 Thess. 2:1-4) Has the antichrist come? Where is he? Are people prohibited from buying and selling unless they take the mark of the beast and the false prophet? (Rev. 13:17) The antichrist is going to do public miracles that cause the vast majority of mankind to worship him, “all power and signs, and false wonders,” (2 Thess. 2:9) out of his mouth “are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and the whole world, and gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.” (Rev. 16:13) The “apostasy” foretold in the New Testament is not a long period of thousands of years, starting shortly after the first century. It is an event subsequent to the appearance of the Antichrist, which takes place shortly before “the war of God,” or Armageddon. (Rev. 16:13-16) It is not a slow and gradual process starting after the last apostle died and ending when almost two thousand years later Joseph Smith finds some gold plates. The apostasy is not an event which begins when the last Arian bishop dies and ends when Charles Taze Russell founded a publishing company. It is an event the New Testament authors clearly place in the last days. When Christ gives his parable of the wheat and the weeds, the language is apocalyptic and culminates in “the tares” being gathered and burnt in the flames of hell. (St. Matt. 13:39-43) Notice that even in this parable, the wheat is never overthrown, it does not cease to exist for a period. It endures with a historical continuity, from the time it is planted until the final judgment.
4. He Will Guide You
The Lord Jesus promised the exact opposite of immediate apostasy for his church. He promised that after he departed from the Earth, he would send the Holy Spirit to guide his followers into all truth.
John 16:13 (NASB1995):
“But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”
The Holy Ghost would not be a poor teacher or a distant guide, “but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” (St. John 14:17) the Spirit of truth will be “in” the church, abiding in her life and operations and history. The Councils are not merely meetings of bishops, but there the Holy Spirit dwelt, guiding the history of the Church so that the decrees can state with the same confidence as the first council, “it pleased us and the Holy Spirit to write to you.” (Acts of Apostles 15:29) The Holy Spirit will reside with the church “forever” to guide and teach her. (St. Joh. 14:26; 15:26) The restorationist claims of a “great apostasy” in the early centuries stand in stark opposition to these promises. Christ asks in the parable of the wise judge,
“When the Son of Man returns, will he find the faith upon the earth?” (St. Luke 18:8)
The answer to this question must be yes. The Lord Jesus promised “the gates of hell shall not prevail” against his Church. (St. Matt. 16:18) This promise surely means, at the very least, that the true church will not disappear for centuries after being defeated by human opposition. “I am with you until the end of the world.” (St. Matt. 28:20) In the epistles of Saint Paul, the church is called the body of Christ, and all of its members have a vital function. (1 Corinthians 12:14-23; Colossians 1:18 et al) To say that the true church was overthrown and ceased to exist for the time is to imply that the body of Christ was not on earth for a time. The unitarian must either say that during the vast majority of Christian history that trinitarians constituted the earthly body of Christ, or that for centuries there was no body of Christ upon earth.
5. Conclusion
The principle of Gamaliel is true and when applied to the history of the Christian church, it implies that the true church will have a message and a movement which will not be overthrown or corrupted. Therefore the true church today must have a historical continuity with the movement found by Jesus and his apostles. This movement and its teachings must persevere through time in the face of all human opposition. None of the non-trinitarian churches pass this test. All of them descended from trinitarian churches. There is no Unitarian movement that can trace a line of successors back to the first century.
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