Struggling with the Nicene Creed/Trinitarianism
Hi OpenChristian, I'm currently going though a spiritual crisis and could use some advice. I was raised Southern Baptist, became a Christian (Purgatorial) Universalist in my late teens and am currently interested in Mainline Protestantism. I'm pretty progressive in my views, as I reject legalism, reject inerrancy, support LGBTQ+, the aforementioned universalism, and am skeptical of the three-omnis (I think either God's omnipresence may be limited or that his omniscience is not fixed i.e. God changes his mind).
That said, I am still very attached to the Nicene Creed, to the point of being reactionary. I'm not proud of it, and would really like to see if there an alternate view. In Peter's statement of faith, all he says is “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (Matt 16:16) and in the Lord's Prayer, nothing explicitly refers to the Trinity. And it's not like I can't still believe personally Jesus is God while accepting that others may have a different relationship/interpretation of Christ.
I think my biggest fear is that if turns out Nicene Creed is true, that somehow makes me a carnal Christian who let "worldly influences persuade him" (did mention I was Southern Baptist) and have doomed my non-Trinitarian brethren to Hell. But that's an immature "Pascal's Wager" approach to faith. To paraphrase something a fellow Universalist told me "If God damns people who didn't have all the puzzle pieces together but made an honest attempt to seek Him out, is that truly a God worth serving?" And I think that applies here as well. I've seen the faith many Mormons, JWs and Quakers have portrayed and they honestly put many Nicene Christians to shame, myself included.
TL;DR: Have doubts about the Trinity; afraid I may be dooming people by allowing them to reject it.
Posted Jun 12, 2026, 11:55 PM UTC