If you're a Christian of some sort, and you still feel the need to wax profound about the Trinity not being in the Bible, or some such nonsense, then there's the door. We'll validate your parking on your way out. I'm frankly sick of the arguments. I've heard 'em over and over again for twenty-five years or more, and they don't impress me.
Further, nobody asks 'Say, I don't see the Trinity in the Bible. How'd you come up with that?', with a desire to learn from those who know what they're talking about. O no no no, dear reader, you can be assured that question is meant to demonstrate how intelligent, and pure, your profound interlocutor really is. You may assert that the Scriptures are all important - and really, everyone does that, from your most fervent free-will Baptist to that elderly monk on Mt. Athos - but the guy wielding the question is having none of it. Like Milton of old, but without either the courage or the learning, he has seen through the schemes of the putatively orthodox. He won't be cudgeled by the illusions we cherish. He's read a few passages in the Bible, and dammit, his proof texts outweighs yours. So vanquished, you can slink off with him to the nearest Unitarian coven, or better yet, sleep in of a Sunday without remorse.
I refuse to argue with these people anymore. I don't care about their questions. There is, by the by, no proof text that will trump theirs - the whole scope of the Scriptures leads inevitably to the doctrines of the Trinity, and to the classical Christological confessions, but this or that text can always be distorted in one way or another. So, apart from teaching them how to read in the first place, I see no way to talk to anyone who, while claiming to be a Christian of some sort, defies reason and the confessional authority of Scripture. I just don't have the patience for it.
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