The Sacred Mystery of the Trinity

[Rachael1448]

The Sacred Mystery of the Trinity

Chapter 6 - The Handwriting of God
by Grant Jeffrey

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord." Deuteronomy 6:4

Many Christians and virtually all non-Christians acknowledge that the mystery of the Trinity is the most profound and difficult of all biblical doctrines to understand.
Admin Edit for Copyright
Continued:................
http://www.grantjeffrey.com/article/chphnwr.htm

[Changes]

The Sacred Mystery of the Trinity

Chapter 6 - The Handwriting of God
by Grant Jeffrey

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord." Deuteronomy 6:4

Many Christians and virtually all non-Christians acknowledge that the mystery of the Trinity is the most profound and difficult of all biblical doctrines to understand.
Admin Edit for Copyright
Continued:................
http://www.grantjeffrey.com/article/chphnwr.htm


Rachael, Hi & welcome to our board.

Hate to start off like this but they don't call me the Queen of Copyright fer nuthin'! :nails

Now I need to point out our Rules (http://www.prophecyfellowship.org/rules.php), specifically the one regarding copyright. (http://www.prophecyfellowship.org/faq.php?faq=rr_rules_clarification#faq_rr_rules2_copyright)

:copyright


We'd appreciate ya reading them :thankyou

[roadrunner570]

The Holy Trinity

by

Tim Miller

There are few teachings less understood by Christians than that of the Trinity. While Christians are very familiar with Jesus Christ, and God the Father, and to a lesser extent the Holy Spirit; we have a hard time understanding how the Three work together as One God. Through this paper, among the things we will examine are what the Trinity is, who it is, and what others think about it. After talking to other Christians about this topic recently, I came to the conclusion that we cannot truly understand our faith if we don’t even know exactly who our own God is.

Defining the trinity is not an easy task. How can we as humans describe Godly things in human language? This is why so many don’t understand it. How can a finite mind understand the infinite? One easy way humans learn is through example. Preachers do this every Sunday. They make a point, and then follow it up with a few examples. However, God is unique. There is only one God and only one Trinity.


One way we can start is with a simple definition. James R. White gives a brief one like this:
Within the one Being that is God, there exists eternally three coequal and coeternal persons, namely the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

While this is a simple way to put it, there are key things in this definition to point out. First, that there is only one God. The first few words delivers a vast amount of information by themselves. Second, the definition insists that there are three divine persons. The definition is careful not to say three beings. This is one argument often used by other religions against Christianity, that we worship three gods, or three separate beings. One problem lies in that when we think of “person” we are often thinking of a finite, self-contained human being. When discussing the Trinity, person takes on a whole new meaning.

Hank Hanagraaf has used an interesting example to illustrate this. He has said that we must realize we are talking about one what and three who’s. There is one Being or essence of God. There are three who’s in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We must be careful not to mix up the what’s and the who’s regarding the trinity.

Another thing to remember is that all three persons are eternal. They have eternally existed in this same relationship. Each person of the Trinity is eternal, each is said to be coequal with the others and their divine nature. Each fully shares the one Being that is God. There never was a time when God was not the Father, or the Son was not the Son or when the Spirit was not the Spirit. This can be shown in three foundations of the Trinity:

1.) Monotheism: There is only one God
2.) There are three Divine Persons
3.) The Persons are coequal and coeternal

Often when Christians discuss the Trinity with others, the discussion gets off track and goes in circles. A major reason for this is that Christians tend to lose sight of the above three foundations as biblical truths. While the word “Trinity” is not in the Bible, these three truths are clearly reflected.

One issue that arises with dealing with the Trinity is the rise of pluralism in our society. With the U.S. becoming more and more secularized, something like the Trinity can actually be perceived by some within the church as a problem of sorts, or even unpopular. Many talk about how Christians, Jews and Muslims actually worship the same God, yet the God of Christianity is distinctly different than the other two, especially Islam. For many Christians, this becomes a problem and has even caused many to either disregard the Trinity itself, or at least push it aside. However, scripturally, we can find building blocks of this doctrine that lay a groundwork for this belief in Mt 28:19; Acts 2:32; 2 Cor 13:14 and Eph 2:18 to name a few. Scripture attests to this throughout and shows us that God is in fact Triune.

In many areas of the Church today, the Trinity is not only denied materially, but formally as well. This denial occurs whenever the deity of the Son is challenged or impugned. This often happens when the phrase “Son of” is misinterpreted to mean “similar nature” as opposed to “same nature.” The problem with this is, if the Father is not identified with the activity of the Son, then all that the son said, suffered, and did is without saving significance and devoid of any redemptive power.

Formal denial within the Church may not be blatant. Often it is more subtle than anything. When questions like “Is Jesus the Son of God?” is answered with something like “Of course he is, all of us are sons and daughters of God,” the Incarnation is denied and the Trinity with it.

Knowing these things, we can glance at some anti-Trinitarian doctrines. There are a good number of them, but we will just touch on the main ones. Part of knowing what the Trinity is, would include knowing what it isn’t.
1.) Monarchianism: God the Father was the only Person who became incarnate, the Monarchians referred to God as the Son. In this, they believe that God the Father was born as the Son and died.

2.) Nominal Trinitarianism: Form of Monarchianism which held Christ was divine, but not a true deity. But that God united himself with the man Jesus at his birth.

3.) Humanitarianism: The Trinity is God the Father, the man Jesus Christ (denying his deity) and the divine influence known as the Spirit of God.

4.) Sabellianism: Form of Monarchianism adopting the Modal Theory of the Trinity, in which there is one God, and three successive and different manifestations of him in history or one person with three aspects or modes.

5.)Arianism: The Trinity is God the Father, Christ a highly exalted creature and the Holy Spirit a less exalted creature.

6.) Swedenborgianism: The Trinity is one God with soul (the Father), body (Son), and operation (Holy Spirit)

However, much of these doctrines have their own problems. The Christian view offers the following.

Revelation: John 1:1-4; 14:9; 2 Tim 3:15-16; 2 Pet. 1:21
Redemption: John 3:16; Heb 9:14
Communication: John 16:7,8; Lk 24:49; Acts 2:16, 39
Communion: 2 Cor 13:14

We’ve seen some building block scriptures for the Trinity, but lets take a look at the Bible as a whole. We can see, the Trinity is not just a New Testament concept, but Old Testament as well. In the OT, the Jewish people worshipped YHWH as the one true God. This set them apart from other cultures of their time in that they were monotheistic. Many surrounding cultures were pantheistic, or had many gods.

While even today, Jewish people may argue that Christians worship three Gods, evidence for God’s triunity can be found in the OT. In dealing with the OT, a few questions do arise. Christians often wonder just how to deal with the OT. Is it merely history? Do the rules and laws of the OT still apply? Are their doctrines in the OT still useful for today? Well, we won’t get into all of those questions, but there are two main ways to read the OT. The first is the historical-critical method. This method is most common among modern Old Testament scholarship. In this method, an attempt is made to understand their content solely or primarily in terms of its own times and context. This approach dominates the reading and study of the Bible in virtually all academic circles in the Western world.

The other method is the one used by major biblical exegetes of the early church. This method views the Old Testament as preparation for the New Testament. Here it is understood that the One and Same living God revealed himself by word and deed through history; so what he reveals in the later revelation was already eluded to in the earlier revelation.

The NT can reveal some clues as to where to find the Trinity in the OT. 2 Pet 1:10-12 is a good example. Christ is viewed as being already alive in the prophets, and the Holy Spirit who brings the Word from heaven is nothing less than God himself. Now, in reading the OT all by itself using historical-critical method, literary criticism or even redaction criticism, one would not come up with a Triune Godhead. It can be found reading the OT through the lens of the NT.

The first clear example we see of Trinity in the OT is in Genesis 18, when the three strangers visit Abraham and Sarah. One interesting thing to note in this encounter, is how Abraham only addresses one of the strangers, while showing hospitality to all three. One is eventually identified as Yahweh, and announced the forthcoming birth of Isaac. Later, Yahweh tells Abraham of his plans for Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham gives a moving intercession for the cities. Next we hear of the visit of the two angels to Sodom where they meet Lot, enter his home, strike intruders with blindness, cause Lot and his family to leave and then execute the judgement onto the cities.

One of the more interesting OT stories of God revealing himself is in Genesis 32:22-32, where he wrestles with Jacob. While we will not get into a full exegesis of this passage, it is clear that Jacob only became Israel after he recognized his adversary as God himself. Jacob left this confrontation crippled. However, he had a better knowledge of God after this encounter.

A key manifestation of God in the OT is the “Angel of the Lord”. He appears several times in the OT.

Gen 16:7-14. The angel finds Hagar and calls to her. She realizes that it is Yahweh.
Gen 18:1-22. The three visitors that we mentioned earlier are addressed as “My Lord..”
Gen 19. The two messengers in Sodom, also addressed as “My Lord.”
Gen 21:17-19. The angel who is identified with God, visits Hagar
Gen 31:11-13. The angel declares to Jacob that he is God.
Gen 32:24-30. Jacob wrestles with God
Gen 48:15-16. Jacob blesses his sons and declares that it was an angel who had redeemed him from evil. Later, Isaiah declared that “Yahweh became their savior” (Isa 63:8-9).
Exodus 3:2-6 The call of Moses by the Angel of the Lord (Yahweh).
Exodus 14:19-22. The Angel of the Lord here is distinguished from Yahweh, but in the previous chapter (13:21) it is Yahweh himself who goes before the camp in a pillar of smoke or fire.
Joshua 5:13-16. Joshua meets a man who is the “captain of the host of Yahweh.” The man tells Joshua he is standing on holy ground, which indicates the presence of Yahweh.
Judges 2:1-5 The Angel of the Lord speaks as the One who has brought the Israelite tribes out of Egypt and as the One who will not annul his covenant with them.
Judges 6:11-14. Gideon’s heavenly visitor is separate from Yahweh at first, but then becomes Yahweh.
Judges 13:2-23. Manoah’s heavenly visitor brings good tidings of the birth of a son, and is never identified with Yahweh, however, after the visitor has left, Manoah states, “We are doomed to die, for we have seen God. (Elohim).”

Here are a few scriptures from the postexilic period.

Ezekiel 40:1-47:12. The angel guides Ezekiel on a tour of the new temple, periodically it is Yahweh himself speaking.
Zechariah 1:1-6:8 Here also the angel is speaking and addresses Yahweh, the same angel speaks as a mouthpiece for Yahweh.

continued next post....

[roadrunner570]

Now that we have seen what the Old Testament says regarding the Trinity, we can look to the New Testament. While the OT gives various allusions to God taking different forms to interact with man, the NT is a bit more clear in representing the different persons of the Godhead. One thing that sets the God of Israel apart from gods of other cultures was his attributes as The Father.


Within many other religions of the time, gods were highly sexual and fertility was divinized. These gods were sexual beings who would lust, mate and give birth. In contrast, Yahweh’s fatherhood is removed from the notion of physical procreation. It has often been said that loudest silence of the Hebrew Bible is the absence of a partner for Yahweh. His solitude is his most distinct characteristic.


However, while God does not have a partner as we know it, he is still three in one. There are many verses in the NT that point to this. Here is a list of verses from the NT that support the trinity:


Matt 28:19. Jesus gives the great commission.
1 Cor 12:4-6. Paul explains the various gifts and how the Spirit, the Lord and God all work through them.
2 Cor 13:14. Paul gives his closing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Phil 1:2. The Father is called God
John 1:1, 14. The Son is called God.
Acts 5:3-4. The Holy Spirit is called God.
Regarding the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, each has a will:


Luke 22:42-The Father and Son
1 Cor 12:11- Holy Spirit
Each speaks:


Matt 3:17- The Father
Luke 5:20- The Son
Acts 8:29; 13:2- Holy Spirit


Having examined the whole of scripture, we can see that the three foundational truths we discussed earlier are in fact supported by scripture. This isn’t a teaching that jumps right out in one or two verses, but is woven firmly into the fabric of scripture. The Trinity is not a doctrine revealed in just words, but in every action of the Triune God. The Father sent the Son, who sent the Holy Spirit to conform us to the image of Christ.


There are many other areas of the New Testament we could cover, but simply do not have room on this one study. Hopefully, this information provides an overview of who and what the Trinity is. It is an often contested doctrine, even among some Christians. However, this is not a doctrine derived from one verse. The Bible does not say “And God is three persons in one Trinity.” However, as we have shown here, it is a doctrine arrived at systematically by looking at the Bible in its entirety.

Because of these things, the Trinity often becomes ignored or overlooked by Christians. Even growing up in my Baptist church, I never did have a complete understanding of the Trinity. While many Christians feel this isn’t an essential doctrine, it can quickly become one when an unbeliever asks about the Trinity and we don’t have a satisfactory answer. This kind of thing is addressed in 1 Peter 3:15.

From doing this project, I will most likely continue to study the Trinity in depth. I didn’t realize when I began this paper just how much information there was. The more information I dug through and found for this project, the more questions I had and the more I want to learn about it. I feel this is something we should all know and understand. Not just for the reasons mentioned above, but so that we all might know more about the nature of the God we worship.



References

Stirling, Andrew. The Trinity: An Essential for Faith in Our Time. Nappanee, IN: Evangel Publishing House, 2002.
Toon, Peter. Our Triune God. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996.
White, James R. The Forgotten Trinity. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 1998.
Article: Some Factors in the Christian Doctrine of the Trinity. No author or publisher stated.

[Rachael1448]

Very good roadrunner! :)