The Trinity

Text: Selected Scriptures

Introduction:
  1. Need For "Deep Stuff"
    1. Needed to get "somewhere" with God
      1. Illus.

        2. Some will argue that "I've felt God while in the wilderness or out in nature or on the battlefield." Or you might hear "I had an experience of such and such. I don't need your creeds, dogmas, or doctrinal dissertations." How do you respond to such people?

      2. Maybe they did "feel" or "experience" God, but they need to keep a few things in mind
        1. You MAY have had ONE experience, but you are not experiencing it now and you can't live solely on past experience
        2. You have no way of knowing for sure that what you "felt" or "experienced" was really God without something objective to base your experience on.
        3. Illustration of a map of the ocean. The map may not be the ocean but
          1. It is based on several men's experience of the ocean; not just an isolated experience you may have had
          2. It is necessary if you actually want to get anywhere on the ocean. If you just want to enjoy a walk on the beach, you won't need a map, but neither will you get far. If you want to get anywhere you will need the map.
          3. Reading maps may be boring, but they are necessarily boring for arriving at your destination
    2. Needed to know God
      1. Doctrines are not God, but they help in knowing Him
      2. They keep us from misconceptions and false views of God
        1. Polytheism
        2. Pantheism
        3. Modalism
  2. The Doctrine of the Trinity
    1. Definition of the Trinity
      1. Definition: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three co-eternal and co-equal persons who experience interpersonal relationships existing as one divine essence with each person sharing the entire essence
      2. Key Points
        1. Three persons (Trinity)
          1. Not personalities, but distinct persons
          2. Each is a unique person that shares the Divine essence
        2. One essence (Unity)
        3. Each person is eternal and equal
        4. The "subordination" is one of function, not ontology
      3. The word "trinity" is not mentioned in the Bible
        1. Neither is rapture, omniscient, ecclesiology, eschatology
        2. These are words we use to help define concepts we find in Scripture
      4. It is a purely revealed doctrine, not discoverable by natural revelation
        1. If God is beyond creation, then some things about Him must be beyond natural revelation
        2. Some things about God must be beyond our reason as well as beyond creation, if God is God
      5. Analogies
        1. No perfect analogy because nothing in nature could describe God who is beyond nature. Every illustration breaks down at some point. They will be either tritheistic or modalistic.
        2. These illustrations, while insufficient, at east help us understand the WRONG conceptions of the Trinity
          1. Egg: Three distinct parts. It does not share the same essence (tritheism)
          2. Water: It can be either solid, liquid, or vapor, but not all three at once (modalism)
    2. Wrong Views
      1. Modalism
        1. Operated in different modes at different times in history
        2. Operates in different modes all of the time and the mode of operation determines which "person" is operating
        3. Three manifestations of one God
        4. Problem: The three persons of the Godhead appear together and interact at times
      2. Unitarianism
        1. Accuse trinitarians of having a monstrous three-headed God
          1. Shows their complete misunderstanding of the correct view
          2. Their view is an attempt to make God comprehensible, which, as I stated earlier, is impossible
      3. Unity of Purpose
      4. Tritheism
        1. Denies a unity of essence
        2. Supports three distinct gods
        3. Sees a unity of purpose
    3. Scriptural Support
      1. Verses
        1. Gen. 1:26; 3:22; 11:7
          1. Some argue that this is a "plural of majesty"
          2. The fact that in Genesis there is a deliberate switch from singular to plural and that there are places where deity talks to deity seem to refute that idea
        2. Hosea 1:7
        3. Gen. 19:24
        4. Is. 6:3 "holy, holy, holy"
      2. Deity of each member of the trinity
        1. Deity of the Father is usually not questioned
        2. Deity of Christ
          1. Direct references
            1. John 1:1
            2. He. 1:6, 8
            3. John 5:17-18
            4. John 8:58
            5. John 10:30-33
            6. John 20:28
            7. Rev. 17:14
            8. Isaiah 9:6
            9. Matt. 1:23
            10. Col. 2:9
            11. Col. 1:15
            12. Rev. 1:8
          2. Quotes of OT verses referring to God that are applied to Jesus
            1. Isaiah 40:3 with Matthew 3:3, Luke 3:4, John 1:23
            2. Isaiah 44:6 with Rev. 1:17, 17:14
            3. Joel 2:32 with Ro. 10:13, Acts 4:12
            4. Exodus 3:13-14 with John 8:56-58
            5. Isaiah 6:10 with John 12:41
            6. Isaiah 8:13 with 1 Peter 3:15
            7. Isaiah 41:4 with Rev. 1:8, 17
            8. Isaiah 45:23 with Ro. 14:10-11, Phil. 2:10
            9. Zechariah 12:10 with Rev. 1:7
            10. Zechariah 14:9 with Rev. 11:15; 17:14
        3. Deity of the Holy Spirit
          1. He possesses divine attributes
            1. Omniscience (1 Co. 2:10-11)
            2. Omnipresence (Psalm 139:7)
            3. Omnipotence (Zech. 4:6)
            4. Unsearchable greatness (Is. 30:18)
            5. Eternal (He. 9:14)
          2. He is equal with Jesus and the Father
            1. We are to baptize in the name (singular) of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
            2. Jesus is a "Comforter" and calls the Spirit "another Comforter" (John 14:16)
            3. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Co. 6:19)
            4. The Spirit works with Jesus and Father in giving gifts (1 Co. 12:4-6)
          3. Direct References
            1. 2 Co. 3:17
            2. John 4:24
            3. Acts 5:3-4
          4. Old Testament passages that refer to God that are applied to Holy Spirit in New Testament
            1. Is. 6:8-10 with Acts 28:25-27
            2. Ex. 16:7 with Heb. 3:7-9
    4. Logical Support
      1. It is not illogical
        1. There is no problem believing in three-in-one as long as the three and the one do not refer to the same things
        2. It is not contradictory, just incomprehensible. There is a difference.
      2. What God begets is God
        1. Man begets man, he makes things
        2. God begets God, He makes men and creation
        3. What God makes is not God, what He begets IS God
      3. Begetting
        1. In human experience begetting implies prior existence
        2. Since God is beyond time, His begetting "God" does not require prior existence
        3. Pros and cons of "Eternal Generation"
          1. Pros
            1. Logical
            2. Classical view through the years
          2. Cons
            1. Language is oxymoron
            2. Names of God do not seem to be ontological as much as functional
    5. Answering Objections
      1. Remember that we should expect God to be incomprehensible
        1. Most objections come from those trying to make God comprehensible
        2. They do not point to any faulty logic, only incomprehensible facts
      2. Dimensional illustration
        1. A one dimensional object would exist only on a straight line
        2. A two dimensional object would exist in a square on a flat sheet of paper
        3. A three dimensional object like us exists in space
        4. Now, a one dimensional object, if it could think, could not conceive totally and correctly about tow or three dimensions because its existence is in only one dimension
        5. We can conceive of a fourth or more dimensions, but not totally or fully because we live and exist now in a three dimensional world.
        6. God is beyond the conventions of both time and space. We cannot comprehend that type of existence.
        7. Beyond time and space it is conceivable, though not comprehendible that there exists a being that is three persons in one essence.
  3. Practical Conclusions
    1. Love
      1. "God is love"
        1. Note: It does not say that "love is God"
        2. This is an eternal attribute of God
        3. Love requires at least two persons
        4. Logically this suggests at least two persons in the Godhead
        5. Practically, the Trinity is the basis for the existence of "love"
        6. God did not become love after He created something to love. He was always love from the very beginning.
      2. Practical Admonition
        1. For us, this means that the way we can best know how to love is to better know the One who is love, God.
        2. No one truly knows about love without knowing God
        3. We can love imperfectly without God, but not perfectly
        4. "For God so loved..."
          1. Suggests that we can love the unlovable
          2. Suggests we can love our enemies
          3. Suggests we can love those who don't like us or who we don't like
    2. Eternal Security
      1. Once we become "sons of God" "in Christ Jesus" we are made "partakers of the divine nature."
      2. Once we are partakers of the Divine nature, how can we not live forever?
    3. Obedience to the Son and His nature
      1. We are being made "in His image"
      2. Inside out prospect of changing who we are, not just what we do. Conversion, not reformation
      3. Illus. Rats in the basement

        4. If you have rats in the basement, you are more apt to see them if you surprise them. If you make noise before coming, they will scatter. You will still have rats, but you won't see them. Many of us realize that we are pretty "ratty" on the inside. We are full of jealousy, hatred, selfishness, pride. But, we have trained ourselves to push those rats out of the way and show a more "Christian" side. However, when we are caught off guard, maybe we are tired or some extenuating circumstance catches us, we "let our guard down" and the rats appear showing us for what we really are. We excuse it saying that we are really not like that but our tiredness caused it. The truth is, how we are at unguarded moments is closer to what we really are. If we weren't like that by nature, we wouldn't have acted that way when we were left to our nature rather than our training.

      4. The Trinity reminds us that we can be like God only as we are like His Son through the regenerating work of the Spirit