There are those of us who believe in Jesus (pbuh) as having said to his disciples:

“Go forth therefore and make all nations my disciples; baptise men everywhere in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. And be assured I am with you always, to the end of time” [Matthew 28:19-20].

These verses are clearly a later addition for many reasons and not what Jesus (pbuh) himself had said. Let’s just start by looking at what Jesus (pbuh) was telling his disciples “and teach them to observe all that I have commanded you”.

It’s clear that Jesus (pbuh) could not have said this because in John 16:7-14 Jesus (pbuh) is quoted as saying “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. That being the case the disciples were not taught everything by him and as a result he did not command everything to them.

Now, further proof that these are not Jesus’ (pbuh) words can be seen by the point that if we were to read the Bible we would find many verses throughout the Bible wherein Jesus (pbuh) bemoans the lack of understanding he was constantly greeted with from his disciples throughout his ministry:

Matthew 8:26 “And he (Jesus) saith unto them (the disciples).....O ye of little faith.”

Matthew 14:31 “...and (Jesus) said unto him (Peter), O thou of little faith.”

Matthew 16:8 “he (Jesus) said unto them (the disciples), O ye of little faith.”

Luke 8:25 “And he (Jesus) said unto them (the disciples), Where is your faith?”

Notice that these are not common Jews who he is saying these words to, but his own elect disciples. The Bible vividly illustrates how he is constantly going out of his way to simplify matters for them and to speak to them as one speaks to little children.

However, even at that, they still misunderstand. He is finally driven to frustration and made to say:

Matthew 15:16 “And Jesus said, Are ye even yet without understanding?”

Luke 9:41 “And Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you?”

Then there is the issue concerning the setting for this instruction on a mountain in Galilee AFTER the resurrection of Jesus (pbuh). Now, it would be strange indeed for Jesus (pbuh) to introduce the doctrine of trinity in the next-to-the-last verse in the book without it being mentioned earlier and bearing in mind the lack of understanding shown by the disciples.

Another point that indicates that Matthew 28:19 is not commanded by Jesus (pbuh) is when he told the apostles that he would always be with them to the end of time, this contradicts an earlier passage where Jesus states “… but you will not always have me” as per Matthew 26:11.

The fact that it appears in Mark 14:7, the earlier gospel, it was copied by Matthew’s author but because Matthew 28:19 is a later addition, it now contradicts this earlier verse. Not only this it contradicts Acts 1:4 “While he was in their company, he told them not to leave Jerusalem ‘You must wait’ he said”.

In addition, it was Arius who was against the trinity concept and the sticking point at the Council of Nicea was a concept found no where in the Bible: homoousion. Arius thought that Father, Son and the Holy Spirit were materially separate from each other, that the Father created the Son and as such subordinate to God. Again, if this was not in the original, Arius would not have argued over the concept or the doctrine itself.