Trinity

Christadelphians firmly reject the doctrine of the Trinity as a post-biblical development derived from Greek philosophy rather than Scripture. In their view, God is strictly one person — the Father — described in the Hebrew Shema ('Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one,' Deuteronomy 6:4). Jesus is the Son of God, not a co-equal second divine person, and the Holy Spirit is not a distinct third person but the power or energy of the Father.

Christadelphians trace their rejection of the Trinity to a careful reading of the New Testament in which they see no evidence that the disciples or early believers worshipped Jesus as God or understood the Holy Spirit as a separate divine person. They point to texts like John 17:3 ('the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent') as evidence that the Father and Son are distinct and that only the Father bears the title 'the only true God.'

This Trinitarian rejection places Christadelphians in continuity with Socinianism and other historically anti-Trinitarian movements. They regard Trinitarian doctrine as the product of the Nicene councils of the 4th century — a corruption of original Christian teaching — and see themselves as restoring the faith of the apostles. Most mainstream Christian bodies regard Christadelphians as outside orthodox Christianity on this foundational point.