Theology Thursday: God is Trinitarian

Nick Horton

TrinityShield

 

One of the more confusing and mysterious bits of Christian orthodoxy is the doctrine of the Trinity. On this point Muslims and others accuse Christians of being polytheistic. Errors in this doctrine have led to numerous heretical beliefs and even heretical denominations such as Oneness Pentecostals who disavow the Trinity.

Sabellius said there was no actual Trinity. He said that God showed himself in the three different persons singularly. In other words, they were modes that God revealed himself as but they did not simultaneously exist. We call this Modalism. Modalism can’t survive first contact with scripture however, as at the baptism of Jesus by his cousin John in the Jordan river had all three present. “And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”” (Matt. 3:16-17)

Others claim that Jesus never said he was God, that it was merely mythology instilled in later years. That doesn’t survive first contact with the Bible, notably Christ’s own words in the Gospels. John 14 is a remarkable discourse in the revelation of the Trinity. Here Jesus tells his disciples if they have seen Him, they have seen the Father. If they know Him, they know the Father. Not only knowledge and sight, but Christ says that the Father is in Him, and he is in the Father. These are not things men or angels can accomplish. Who can abide in the Father but God himself? He goes on to promise the Spirit of truth who will be with them forever. Only God can promise eternity.

Arius claimed the Son, Jesus, was created by God. How can God be one (Deut. 6:4) and yet the Son be the firstborn? (Col. 1:15) The objections were numerous, from which many heresies flow forth. Mormonism, for example, is an anti-trinitarian heresy as their faith teaches Jesus was a man who became God. Their heresy abounds, and the fundamental lack of understanding of the Trinity, of God as he has revealed himself, is at the center.

The Church catholic (catholic meaning universal, not papists) went through much debate on this subject before the Doctrine was fully distilled. We can today see this and say, if it is not perfectly spelled out in the Bible why do we believe it? Bavinck says, “Scripture alone does not provide a fully developed trinitarian dogma but gives us its essential ingredients.” (Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, Vol 2. Page 257.) Indeed, Scripture is replete with references to the divine nature of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is undeniable. The debates centered around what they were; modes, independent gods, creatures, etc.

(I am skipping through a LOT of history and debate here, by necessity. This is a rich doctrine to mine. I highly recommend you read up on it. I intend to read more.)

Eventually the Church landed on the Athanasian creed as a formulation of the Doctrine of the trinity. Here is part of the creed:

And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;
Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance.
For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit.
But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.
Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit.
The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated.

We arrive here, in the post. I have made a poor case for the Trinity as an argument, yet I don’t think I have to convince you of it. God is three persons. “We must not lose sight of the important point: In the dogma of the Trinity the word “person” simply means that the three persons in the divine being are not “modes” but have a distinct existence of their own.” (Bavinck again, Page 258)  God is triune. He is eternally so.

Where does that leave you and I? We are to worship God in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24) We cannot choose a God of our own making, crafted in our image. Good effort and sincerity isn’t enough. Truth matters. To bludgeon the Mormons a bit more, they are often sincere folks. However, they are sincerely going to hell. They do not worship the one true God. Same with Muslims. Same with Jews.

God is trinitarian. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The same essence, different persons. Eternal. Uncreated.

We are separated from the Father by sin. Jesus atoned for that sin on the cross. The Holy Spirit regenerates us whereby we believe in Christ and are united again to the Father. Salvation is trinitarian because God is trinitarian.

 

To end on a light note, watch this video on the Trinity.

A Change in Writing For 2016

Mike Leake 2 Comments

I was happy to see Brown-shorts. A couple days prior Amazon sent me a little present in the form of a gift card, and I dutifully ordered two books I was looking forward to reading. One of them was The Imperfect Pastor by Zack Eswine. I really loved Eswine’s book, Sensing Jesus and so I was excited for a new book on a topic he nailed a couple years ago.

Brown-shorts gave me the package and I ripped it open and started reading Eswine’s book. It was a breath of fresh air. Encouraging. What I needed to hear that day. I couldn’t wait to feed my soul for another couple hundred pages.

Then it happened.

The paragraphs started feeling more and more familiar. I realized that I had read this book before under a different title. After a bit of research I discovered this was just a repackaging of Sensing Jesus. I felt duped. Ripped off. But more than anything saddened that there was only a bit of new material from my favorite author. I wish I had known before buying it.

I’m getting more and more uncomfortable with this thing I just call the machine. I’ve called it an echo chamber in the past. I’ve confessed my boredom with blogs that all sound the same. Books which have the same titles and the same things. That’s the machine. It’s the thing that I’m becoming increasingly wary of, and something I want to distance myself further and further from. I doubt the machine even desires to swallow me up—but I don’t want to give it a chance. I want to keep my voice.

Because of this I’ve decided to change something with my writing ministry. In the past I’ve had something of an open-door policy with my content. If somebody wants it I’ll give it to them free of charge to cut and paste on their own site. My thinking is that I want to make Jesus the only boast of this generation and if somebody wants what I’ve written and they believe it will help their audience, then I’m happy to serve. I still feel the same way and have the same goals but I’ve been mulling over whether or not this is the best policy.

Starting in January 2016 I’m not going to just cut and paste articles for various sites (or give them free reign to cut and paste my articles). I’m doing that first and foremost because reprints feel cheap. Proverbs 25:16 is a great reminder that too much of anything can make one throw up. I’ve structured my personal blog in such a way as to hopefully keep our audience here from throwing up. But I don’t have any control over this if I give open scissors to anyone to cut and paste for their site.

I don’t want anyone to have read an article on my site and then find it repackaged on another one and get that same ripped off feeling that I felt when reading The Imperfect Pastor. And I don’t want to do anything to feed the machine.

I still plan on doing outside writing but I’m becoming increasingly convinced that I need to hold my content more closely. This allows me to better serve the audiences who read my stuff. (All twelve of you). I might, on occasion, republish some articles for various sites in order to give it a bit longer shelf life. But this will be rare. For the most part I want to generate new content for outside writing. I feel like I owe that to the places I write for and their audiences.

This policy change won’t really impact you, the reader. But I wanted to share this for the sake of receiving some kickback. Perhaps I’m insane and making a critical blogging mistake. If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Or maybe other writers will read this and it will prove helpful and together we can stop feeding the machine.

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Photo source: here

Today in Blogworld 12.30.15

Mike Leake

Sunday Mornings As The Definition of Insanity

Yep. And yet we joyfully do it Sunday after Sunday.

What’s the Big Deal With Plagiarizing Pastors

I agree completely.

3 Simple Ways to Encourage People in a World of Negativity

I do love the simplicity of this.

Is Biblical Faith a Kierkegaardian Leap?

I appreciate Jim Hamilton’s work here. I hear all the time that faith is a leap—but its really  not.

Here is a hopping goat to get you through the day:

Top Posts of 2015

Mike Leake

2015 brought about many changes for our family. When 2015 started I was an associate pastor at a church in Indiana. Now I am a lead pastor at a church in Southwest Missouri. As I scrolled through all of the articles I wrote in 2015 I see how the changes in our life impacted my writing here. In 2014 I remember feeling after compiling this list that I owed our readers an apology. I almost feel the same way in 2015. Some months were real clunkers—others I think I was able to recover my writing voice. Either way I pray that 2015 honored the Lord and that what we do here worked towards making Jesus the only boast of this generation.

Here are 10 of my favorite articles from 2015—not necessarily the most popular ones.

10. On Those Missing Verses in Your ESV and NIV Bible—This has been the most viewed article on the blog. And its something I just threw together.

9. Why Our Churches Need Wilberforce’s Slave Ship—Talking about abortion in church is a sticky topic, but one we must not shy away from.

8. A Few Thoughts on Church Revitalization—This is something I’m really passionate about. I think we’ll see more on this front in 2016.

7. When An Orange is Green—I was honored to have this one linked to by Monergism. I also think it’s a helpful apologetic.

6. Brothers, There is a Kind Which Only Comes Out By Prayer—I’ve been convicted about my inadequacy in praying for people and for our church. I’ve pursued growth in this area in 2015.

5. Exceptionally Ordinary—I’ve appreciate Nick Horton continuing to write at Borrowed Light this year. I’m also happy when his work gets picked up by others (I think Challies linked to this one).

4. Pray For Your Church—I hadn’t done a 31 day prayer challenge in a while. I was happy to have started one up again in November.

3. Seeds Project On Sale Today—Finally. It was difficult getting this one out into the world and our returns haven’t been what I had hoped. Yet, I pray that those who have purchased this kids devotional have been helped.

2. A Goodbye to Youth Ministry—This was bittersweet to write. I’ve known that my heart was moving out of youth ministry for a bit. But it was such a great joy for many years.

1. How the Gospel Ended My Same Sex Relationship: I friend volunteered to share her story. I was honored she chose Borrowed Light to share this. And I think so many people were helped by this article in 2015.

I would love to hear if there were any articles which were particularly helpful/meaningful to you in 2015. Thanks again for reading and I pray that 2015 honored Christ and that we’ll continue to make His glory our aim in 2016.

Thanks!

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Image source: here