DISCIPLES DEFEND THE FAITH: THE HOLY TRINITY PART 2
BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS FOR THE TRINITY: AN INVITATION TO BEHOLD THE ETERNAL
We ultimately believe the Trinity because God has revealed Himself as a Triune Being. He bears witness to this in the Scriptures, which emphatically declare that there is one true God, and yet everything that is true of God is shown to be true three distinct persons: the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The attributes (e.g. eternality, omnipotence) and activities (e.g. creation, salvation) of Deity are ascribed to Them, as well as the worship and glory that is due God alone. How can this be? How can one God be three persons? Christians throughout the ages have embraced this truth, but have struggled to explain it. Further, there have been many errors perpetrated by those who attempt to distort or deny the Trinity.
The fact is, God is eternal and transcendent. There are many things about God that are difficult for our finite minds to comprehend, the Trinity being just one of many. Here is a humbling reminder:
Ecclesiastes 3:10-11
10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
1 Timothy 6:15b-16
God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.
Isaiah 40:28
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
Romans 11:33-36
33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay them?”
36 For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
Matthew 11:25-27
25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.
27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
Psalm 145:1-7
1 I will exalt you, my God the King;
I will praise your name for ever and ever.
2 Every day I will praise you
and extol your name for ever and ever.
3 Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
his greatness no one can fathom.
4 One generation commends your works to another;
they tell of your mighty acts.
5 They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty—
and I will meditate on your wonderful works.
6 They tell of the power of your awesome works—
and I will proclaim your great deeds.
7 They celebrate your abundant goodness
and joyfully sing of your righteousness.
PHILOSOPHICAL FORMULATIONS OF THE TRINITY
“How can God be three in one?” We ask this because the biblical revelation does not automatically compute without rational minds. This is a philosophical question that deserves a philosophical answer. We do not believe in the Trinity on the basis of philosophy, but it has philosophical implications. God is not the author of confusion and illogic. He does not create contradictions and He Himself is not a contradiction. We may, thus, us philosophical terms to explain how divine revelation is indeed rational and comports with reality as God made it.
Within the one Being that is God, there exists
eternally three coequal and coeternal persons,
namely, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.[1]
- One: One and only, unique, undivided, indivisible, the one true God.
- Being: Divine nature or essence, and possessing the qualities and attributes that belong only to the one true God.
- Three: Refers to the distinctness of each of the persons in the next part of the clause; the three in question can be identified and distinguished from one another.
- Persons: Personality, consciousness, mind, soul or self; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit each possess a unique personage and perspective. “…When speaking of the Trinity, we need to realize that we are talking about one what and three who’s. The one what is the Being or essence of God; the three who’s are the Father, Son, and Spirit.”[2]
- Coequal and Coeternal: The three persons “have eternally existed in this unique relationship. Each of the persons is said to be eternal, each is said to be coequal with the others as to their divine nature. Each fully shares the one Being that is God. The Father is not 1/3 of God, the Son 1/3 of God, the Spirit 1/3 of God. Each is fully God, coequal with the others, and that eternally. There never was a time when the Father was not the Father; never a time when the Son was not the Son; never a time when the Spirit was not the Spirit. Their relationship is eternal, not in the sense of having been for a long time, but existing, in fact, outside the realm of time itself.”[3]
HISTORICAL AFFIRMATIONS OF THE TRINITY
The Ecumenical Creeds are not authoritative in and of themselves. We do not believe in the Trinity on the basis of the creeds. They are not on the level of Sacred Scripture, which is God-breathed. Further, there has not been a consensus on the date and authorship of some of these creeds. The reason that they have been accepted by Christians the world over is mainly because of their content. The creeds are a useful guide to the extent that they (a) provide concise formulations of biblical teachings, and (b) bear witness to the beliefs of early Christians.
The Trinity was originally revealed through the incarnation of Christ and, later, in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. In the Old Testament, we learn that there is only God and Father of Creation. In the New Testament, we learn that the Father has a Son, who came in the flesh as Jesus of Nazareth, to dwell among us, and who later sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. The Bible contains no encyclopedic summary of this profound truth, but was unfolded throughout its historical narrative, was presupposed by its authors, and its implications abounded in the teachings of the New Covenant. Hence, in the course of time, Christians devised creedal statements to proclaim the mystery of the Trinity in plain language, and to distinguish truth from error as it relates to God’s nature.
Apostles Creed: A summary of the Apostles’ teachings, the earliest and most widely accepted statement of Christian orthodoxy. Its origin in unknown, but can be traced to baptismal formulas used as early as the 3rdcentury A.D.
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic* church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
Nicene Creed: Written in A.D. 325 at the Council of Nicaea (with later amendments in A.D. 381 and 589). The occasion was to debate, and ultimately refute, the false teachings of Arius, who said that Christ was the first created being.
We believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
begotten from the Father before all ages,
God from God,
Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made;
of the same essence as the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary,
and was made human.
He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered and was buried.
The third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again with glory
to judge the living and the dead.
His kingdom will never end.
And we believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life.
He proceeds from the Father and the Son,
and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified.
He spoke through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church.
We affirm one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look forward to the resurrection of the dead,
and to life in the world to come. Amen.
Athanasian Creed: Named for Athanasius (A.D. 293-373), who defended Christian orthodoxy at the Council of Nicaea. Although it is not likely to have been written by Athanasius himself, its value comes in its concise expressions of biblical truths regarding the nature of God in the Trinity.
Whoever desires to be saved should above all hold to the catholic faith.
Anyone who does not keep it whole and unbroken will doubtless perish eternally.
Now this is the catholic faith:
That we worship one God in trinity and the trinity in unity,
neither blending their persons
nor dividing their essence.
For the person of the Father is a distinct person,
the person of the Son is another,
and that of the Holy Spirit still another.
But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one,
their glory equal, their majesty coeternal.
What quality the Father has, the Son has, and the Holy Spirit has.
The Father is uncreated,
the Son is uncreated,
the Holy Spirit is uncreated.
The Father is immeasurable,
the Son is immeasurable,
the Holy Spirit is immeasurable.
The Father is eternal,
the Son is eternal,
the Holy Spirit is eternal.
And yet there are not three eternal beings;
there is but one eternal being.
So too there are not three uncreated or immeasurable beings;
there is but one uncreated and immeasurable being.
Similarly, the Father is almighty,
the Son is almighty,
the Holy Spirit is almighty.
Yet there are not three almighty beings;
there is but one almighty being.
Thus the Father is God,
the Son is God,
the Holy Spirit is God.
Yet there are not three gods;
there is but one God.
Thus the Father is Lord,
the Son is Lord,
the Holy Spirit is Lord.
Yet there are not three lords;
there is but one Lord.
Just as Christian truth compels us
to confess each person individually
as both God and Lord,
so catholic religion forbids us
to say that there are three gods or lords.
The Father was neither made nor created nor begotten from anyone.
The Son was neither made nor created;
he was begotten from the Father alone.
The Holy Spirit was neither made nor created nor begotten;
he proceeds from the Father and the Son.
Accordingly there is one Father, not three fathers;
there is one Son, not three sons;
there is one Holy Spirit, not three holy spirits.
Nothing in this trinity is before or after,
nothing is greater or smaller;
in their entirety the three persons
are coeternal and coequal with each other.
So in everything, as was said earlier,
we must worship their trinity in their unity
and their unity in their trinity.
Anyone then who desires to be saved
should think thus about the trinity.
“I LOVE THE TRINITY”
I love the Trinity. Does that sound strange to you? For most people, it should sound strange. Think about it: when was the last time you heard anyone say such a thing? We often hear “I love Jesus” or “I love God,” but how often does anyone say, “I love the Trinity”? You even hear “I love the cross” or “I love the Bible,” but you don’t hear “I love the Trinity.” Why not?
Someone might say, “Well, the Trinity is a doctrine, and you don’t love doctrines.” But in fact we do. “I love justification” or “I love the second coming of Christ” would make perfect sense. What’s more, the Trinity isn’t just a doctrine any more than saying “I love the deity of Christ” makes Christ just a doctrine.
So why don’t we talk about loving the Trinity? Most Christians do not understand what the term means and have only a vague idea of the reality it represents. We don’t love things that we consider very complicated, obtuse, or just downright difficult. We are more comfortable saying “I love the old rugged cross” because we think we have a firm handle on what that actually means and represents. But we confess how little we understand about the Trinity by how little we talk about it and how little emotion it evokes in our hearts.
Yet we seem rather confused at this point because most Christians take a firm stand on the Trinity and the fundamental issues that lead to it (the deity of Christ, the person of the Holy Spirit). We withhold fellowship from groups like the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses because they reject the Trinity and replace it with another concept. We hang a person’s very salvation upon the acceptance of the doctrine, yet if we are honest with ourselves, we really aren’t sure exactly why.
It’s the topic we won’t talk about: no one dares question the Trinity for fear of being branded a “heretic,” yet we have all sorts of questions about it, and we aren’t sure who we can ask. Many believers have asked questions of those they thought were more mature in the faith and have often been confused by the contradictory answers they received. Deciding it is best to remain confused rather than have one’s orthodoxy questioned, many simply leave the topic for that mythical future day “when I have more time.” And in the process, we have lost out on a tremendous blessing.”
.[4]
[1] White, James. The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief (Minneapolis, Bethany Publishing Group, 1998), 23.
[2] White, 24.
[3] White, 24.
[4] White, 9-10.