The Trinity doctrine is that there are three Gods in one person, not three Gods, three Gods in
one, or three Gods in one God. As described by the Athanasian Creed, "the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three Gods
but one God."
The Watchtower makes a habit of inaccurately defining the
Trinity as "three gods in one".
This is a straw man technique, as
that is not the doctrine of the Trinity.

“The Watch Tower of June 1882 stated: “At this time, therefore, the doctrine of three Gods was invented …”” Proclaimers p.125

“The disgusting idolatry of the religions of Christendom and
pagandom has been set aside by Jehovah's restored people. Their
worship is not distributed to three gods in one, the so-called godhead of some mysterious
Trinity, but they are united as the one people who worship the one
God, Jehovah.” Watchtower 1984
Mar 1 p.23

“… a trinity of three gods in one,…” Awake! 1998 Dec 8 p.11

“… teach that God is a trinity of three gods in one, …” Awake!
1989 Jan 22 p.23

“Christendom has copied the heathen, pagan nations of Asia in
teaching that God is a trinity, three Gods in one Person.”
Watchtower 1962 Apr 15 p.235
(see also w88 4/1 p.19; w89 3/15 p.18; w75 11/1 p.651; w63 8/1 p.461; w63 8/15 p.488)

When quoting, the meaning of
the original quote should be
apparent, even when using
ellipses (…). A classic source of
misquotes is the Watchtower
publication Should You Believe in the Trinity? (ti), using ellipses to hide words like "but", "however",
"therefore" to present a
completely different point from
that being made by the source.
Furthermore, provision of only
partial references to the source
of quotes make it difficult and
time consuming to locate the
original quote. Examples of
misquotes follow.

A favourite quote in regular use
in Watchtower publications is:

""The formulation 'one God in three Persons' was not solidly established, certainly not fully
assimilated into Christian life and its profession of faith, prior to
the end of the fourth century. . . .
Among the apostolic Fathers, there had been nothing even
remotely approaching such a mentality or perspective." -New
Catholic Encyclopedia." Should You Believe in the Trinity? p.7

This quote is from New Catholic Encyclopedia p.299 (1967, Volume XIV). The inaccuracy of
the context can be seen when continuing to read on page 300:

"If it is clear on the one side that the dogma of the Trinity in the
stricter sense of the word was a late arrival, product of three centuries' reflection and debate,
it is just as clear on the opposite side that confession of Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit - and hence an elemental Trinitarianism -
went back to the period of Christian origins "

SOURCE
Encyclopaedia of
Religion and Ethic,
James Hastings,
Trinity, p.461

TRINITY BROCHURE
"At first the Christian faith was not Trinitarian . . . It was not so in the apostolic and sub-apostolic ages, as reflected in the N[ew] T[estament] and
other early Christian
writings."-Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics. (ti pp. 6-7)

FULL QUOTE
"At first the Christian faith was not Trinitarian in the strictly ontological reference."

SOURCE
The Triune God,
Edward Fortman

BROCHURE
"Jesuit Fortman states: "The New Testament writers . . .
give us no formal or
formulated doctrine of the Trinity, no explicit teaching that in one God there are
three co-equal divine
persons. . . . Nowhere do we find any trinitarian doctrine of three distinct subjects of divine life and activity in the same Godhead."" (ti p.6)

FULL QUOTE
"They give us no formal or formulated doctrine of the Trinity, no explicit teaching that in one God there are three co-equal divine persons. But they do give us an elemental
trinitarianism , the data from which such a formal doctrine of the Triune God may be formulated."

SOURCE
The Encyclopedia
Americana

BROCHURE
"The Encyclopedia Americana notes that the doctrine of the Trinity is considered to be ''beyond the grasp of human
reason." (ti p.4)

FULL QUOTE
"It is held that although the doctrine is beyond the grasp of human reason, it is, like many of
the formulations of physical science, not contrary to reason,
and may be apprehended
(though it may not be
comprehended) by the human mind".

SOURCE
The Catholic Encyclopedia
(newadvent.org/cathen/15047a.htm21/12/2006)

BROCHURE
"The Catholic Encyclopedia also
comments: "In Scripture there is as yet no single term by which the Three Divine Persons are denoted together.
The word ?? [tri´as] (of
which the Latin trinitas is a translation) is first found in Theophilus of Antioch about A.D. 180. . . . Shortly afterwards it
appears in its Latin form of trinitas in Tertullian."" (ti p.5)

FULL QUOTE
"The word [tri'as] (of which the Latin trinitas is a translation) is
first found in Theophilus of Antioch about A. D. 180. He speaks of "the Trinity of God [the
Father], His Word and His
Wisdom" ("Ad. Autol.", 11, 15, P.G., VI, 1078). The term may, of course, have been in use before his time. Shortly afterwards it
appears in its Latin form of trinitas in Tertullian."

.