dear Tammy...
you said: "There is nothing like that in the bible. The trinity is an extrapolation and interpretation. No one who believes that has any right to look down on those who do not. "...
I'm not looking down on you...I think that you are worth time and effort to help you understand. I think that the nature of God is very important in knowing God...don't you? Isn't wanting to know and understand the details of a persons life the difference between wanting a friend as opposed to wanting an acquaintance?
the scriptural evidence that can be obtained regarding the nature of God as three persons is there for a reason...if there was no scriptural evidence to extrapolate then we could be confident that the triune nature of God is false...but there is evidence and it can't be dismissed.
I don't think that the nature of God was questioned in the first church of the apostles(col 1:15-18)...by the time they were called "the church" they knew who and what they were talking about and this most important doctrine would have been the first to be elucidated in order that the congregation would be of the same mind and speak the same thing as disciples who would spread the gospel(1 cor 1:10)...paul made it his duty to remove and spoke about people who were not of the same mind as the apostles. why is it that you believe that somewhere between the apostles and the nicene council there was or might have been some kind of dramatic move toward apostasy? the church was interested in the truth and relaying the truth in the manner that they received it...it was taught from one disciple to another to another...the gospels and epistles were an additional reminder in which one could confirm that what the other/later disciples were teaching was correct(col 4:16)...there was a continuity of thought and practice...a unity of the body.
love michelle