The Trinity

Finally, my first post in some time. This is our first installment of a short series of selected topics on theology. Much of my material here is from Louis Berkhof, Stanley Grenz, and Millard Erickson.

1) What is theology?
- a term derived from "God" and "word/study," so formally it is the study of God.
- It has regretably grown out of style but essentially been replaced by words like "biblical" or "worldview," both of which incompass the same idea.
- Theology is what Christians believe and how it affects what they do in all aspects of life. Every Christians is a theologian and needs reflect on their God and their life theologically so we can be "in the world but not of the world." Jn 17:6-18

2) How do we do theology?
- Traditional there are four sources of theology, for protestants in order of importance: Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Experience
- Ours is an age where experience rules and tradition is culturally relative and this is where the order is important. The only constant in this entire process is Scripture and it needs the most prominence and all else is subjected to it. Experience itself should never become a means of interpreting something in isolation. That is, always speak with your church community about your experience with God so that you may gain from the wisdom God has provided you and not ruled by your emotions.
- The way I stated how theology is done at the present moment: Theology is the result of reflection on Scripture, clarified by Tradition, explained by reason and tested by experience.

For the trinity Grenz states it well in Theology for the Community of God. When he says that the early church had to reconcile the reality that the Bible teaches that there is one God and that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God.

3) What is the Trinity?
- A shorthand term for the reality of one God who exists in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- It is the very being of God and thus foundational for all other topics.
- A universal belief of all Christian traditions, on this we are clearly united.

4) Old Testament Support
- Gen 1:26; 11:7. The plural language is best understood as God's fullness being present in creation which upon the further revelation of the New Testament as the Trinity.
- "Angel of the Lord" or other theophanies. Gen 16:7-13; 18:1-21; 19:1-28; Mal 3:1
- God, Messiah, and Holy Spirit. Is 48:16; 61:1; 63:9-10

5) New Testament combined with Old
- God is savior of his people (OT) more clearly Jesus Christ is the Redeemer and Savior of all people. Mt 1:21; Lk 1:76-79; 2:17; Jn 4:42; Acts 5:3; Gal 3:13; 4:5; Ph 3:30; Tit 2:13-14
- God dwells among his people and moves their hearts (OT), more clearly, the Holy Spirit dwells in the Church (believers)
Acts 2:4; Rom 8:9-11; 1 Cor 3:16; Gal 4:6; Eph 2:22; Jas 4:5
- God sends the Son, Jn 3:16; Gal 4:4
- Father and Son send the Spirit, Jn 14:26; 15:26; Gal 4:6
- All three clearly seen in the baptism of Jesus and great commission, Mt 3:16, 17; 28:19
- Named together, 1 Cor 12:4-6; 2 Cor 13:14; 1 Pet 1:2

6) Summarizing the important points
- God is One, The Divine Being has one indivisible essence
Deut 6:4; Ex 20:2-3; Mt 22:34-40; Jas 2:19
- “Three-in-one-ness,” Three individual subsistences or persons
Mt 3:16-17; Mt 28:18-20; 1 Cor 12:4-6;
- Undivided and Equal in Belonging
- All are equally God and are equally holy, righteous, merciful, powerful, etc.
- Completely involved in all acts together, never separate
- Subordinate in how they relate or work in creation but not in essential being.
I understand this is a controversial topic these days which is basically the result of people thinking equality is an absolute term as if we cannot make distinctions in what a being does and what is its nature. These tendencies are seen in the homosexial debate and gender roles. The modal distincation of Francis Suarez helps us in this matter (for you metaphycians out there). What a being does is not identical to what it is, though its act is necessarily dependent upon its nature but its nature is not dependent upon its act (c.f. JP Moreland, Univerals). I believe that functional subordination and ontological equality can be maintained, and well trained theologians in philosophy do so without serious difficulty. Its symantics and culturally people do not like the term "subordination" because they ascribe to it a negative connotation of inequality.
- How Father, Son and Holy Spirit works together
- Thus “all things are out of the Father, through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit.”

Berkhof, “Just as human nature is too rich and too full to be embodied in a single individual, and comes to its adequate expression only in humanity as a whole so the divine Being unfolds itself in its fullness only in its three fold subsistence of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

7) Examples of Distinctions within the persons of God
-The Father is God (Mt 6:5-15; 1 Cor 8:4-6)
Designing creation and redemption, and knows the end of all things
-The Son is God (Jn 8:58; Lk 7:36-50; Ph 2:5-11)
Creation and redemption were done through Him, and will come again to do the work of the final judgment
-The Holy Spirit is God (Acts 5:3-4; Jn 16:5-16; 2 Sam 23:2)
Completes the work of creation and redemption, and will complete the work of uniting God to his people for all eternity

8)Essential Elements
- There is one God and He is one
- Father, Son and Holy Spirit are equally God
- They each have distinctive functions

7) Common Erros
-Absolute Monotheism, Islam/Monarchism, no indivisible persons
- Tritheism, Three gods
- Modalism, three different ways or manifestations of God at different times, i.e. God was the Father, then became the Son, and is now the Holy Spirit
- Arianism (Jehovah’s Witnesses), Jesus only a man adopted by God and the Holy Spirit an impersonal force or influence from God
- That any human being can fully understand it. It is a divine mystery which our finite minds can only undestand in part. Our knowledge is still sufficient for knowing the one true God

8) Significance
- God is a completely self-sufficient and independent personal being
- God created us out of his own freedom and not because he was lonely or lacked anything of any kind. How glorious is his love!
- We are created in his image and thus are intrinsically relational beings who live life in relationship to God and other human beings
- The Trinity is involved in all works of God (this is a modern insight from what I understand perhaps as a result of the work of Moltmann and Pannenberg)
- The church should reflect the unity and diversity of God in both the cooperation of all the gifts of spirit in one body, and of the diversity of humanity (all races and cultures) are to be united in worship and service to the one God
- We do not serve ourselves but each other as the each person in the Trinity seeks the glorification of the others.
- Some say that the family best reflects the Trinity. One man and one woman united who then give life to a child.


Blessings in our pursuit of God to know him as he is in all his fullness.