Relating To Trinitarians

The pattern serves an alternative to the trinity as a description of the nature of God. Unlike many other non-trinitarian systems, the pattern endeavors to challenge the trinity on exclusively biblical grounds, and build an alternative system of theology from scripture alone. This Bible-centered approach makes the question of unity between trinitarians and patternists more difficult than that with other non-trinitarian groups. What exactly are the biblical criteria for unity among professing Christians and churches, and how do they apply to those with different understandings of the nature of God?

This is a complicated issue that incorporates several lines of reasoning. First, there are several distinct reasons that trinitarians will  cite to justify disfellowshipping with non-trinitarians. Second, ambiguity in the question of critical vs non-critical doctrine makes discussion difficult, as different people (even in the trinitarian camp) have different views on which doctrines must be believed for someone to be truly considered Christian. Thus a positive argument needs to be made on how to frame that issue generally, before answering the question of whether or not the trinity is among the critical.

So instead of a single article making a case for unity between trinitarians and patternists, we really need a series of articles that develops this question along its different, branching points of discussion. Each point can be tapped or clicked below, to see a brief description of the claim. Further information and biblical backing can then be found at the linked article.