S4 E9: The Trinity--Part 1

Season 4 of Spirit-Led Hope covers the Doctrine of God, or theology, from a Spirit-led perspective. In this episode, Glenn tackles the difficult concept of the Trinity. The episode looks at the Athanasian Creed, as well as the wisdom in using analogies to discuss the Trinity. Most importantly, Glenn stresses that we can experience the truth of the Trinity, even if we cannot fully understand this revelation of God.

This episode has a transcript. If your podcast player does not support transcripts, please go to the Transcripts section of https://spiritledhope.com/ . These transcripts have been edited for accuracy and are typically of higher quality than those produced automatically by many podcast apps.

Season 4 is part of a long term goal to study systematic theology from a Spirit-led perspective. If you want to know more about systematic theology, or expand your study, Glenn is using the following text as a helpful framework to make sure the main topics are covered:  Foundations of Pentecostal Theology, by Guy P. Duffield and Nathaniel M. Van Cleave.  The book is published by Foursquare Media and Glenn is using the Second Edition published in 2016.     

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Transcript

S4 E9 TRANSCRIPT 

THE TRINITY—PART 1

INTRODUCTION

Hello everyone and welcome to Spirit-Led Hope. My name is Glenn Erichsen, and in this episode, we are looking at:

     THE TRINITY—PART 1

When we started this Season, I knew that eventually the Trinity would be a topic. The reason is simple, you cannot talk about the God of the Bible without addressing his fundamental Three-in-One nature. The triunity of God is one of the major things that sets Christianity apart from other religious beliefs.

We are going to try and discuss the Trinity in two episodes. This episode will be more of a general discussion. The next episode will look at Scriptural evidence for the Trinity. If necessary, we will add a third episode.

WHAT IS THE TRINITY?

What does it mean when we say, “The Trinity?” First of all, the word “trinity” is not found in the Bible. But the Bible does teach about God’s fundamental nature, and we use the doctrine of the Trinity to help us understand what this teaching says about God’s very being.

If the concept of the Trinity is new to you, let me give a simple definition taken from Wayne Grudem’s book on systematic theology. I like the simplicity of this definition.

The doctrine of the Trinity may be defined as:  God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God.

That is what we are talking about when we discuss the Trinity. There is one God, in three persons. Not three Gods, but one God, in three persons. And these persons are God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Three-in-One.

If you are wondering how we can call God a person, please listen to Episode 6 where we discuss that God is personal.

THE TRINITY IS NOT ILLOGICAL

Now when we start talking about the Trinity, it is very easy to get lost and think that you are being asked to believe in something illogical. I mean, how can three be one, right?

But here, the words that we use are very important. Notice that we said three persons, and one God. That is not the same as if we said three Gods are one God. That would be an illogical statement because three of the same things do not equal one of them.

There is nothing illogical about saying three persons are one God. Is it hard to understand? Absolutely…and it should be!

What we are trying to do is describe what an infinite God is like. And we can describe what God has revealed about himself through Scripture. The problem is that even though we can describe the God of the Bible, we cannot fully understand our description!

We are finite and God is infinite. We will never fully understand God. And if we could, that would mean he is an invention of our minds. Personally, I am comforted by the Trinity because for me, it is one of the proofs that Christianity is not a man-made religion.

THE ATHANASIAN CREED

When we look through Scripture, we find that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are co-equal and co-eternal. They all have the same attributes, and they have all existed forever. Yet we also find there are distinctions in the roles of how each Person in the Trinity relates to us and the world. 

We will not look at the verses now but think about our salvation and how God rescues us from sin and death. From Scripture, we know the Father had a plan to save us and sent Jesus, the Son, to us. Out of obedience to the Father, the Son went to the cross. After the work of the Son was done, it was the Holy Spirit who came to live within us and make us new…and this was only possible when the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit. It becomes apparent, when we study Scripture, there is a voluntary authority structure within the Trinity, even though all three are God with all the attributes of God.

If this causes you to scratch your head in wonder, you are not alone. The Church has wrestled with this for centuries. Fortunately, we are the beneficiaries of those who have gone before us. There are creeds and statements that have been put together throughout history to try and summarize what is written in the Bible about the Trinity. These creeds are not Scripture themselves, but they are useful.

One of the most important creeds is the Athanasian creed which was written sometime around the fifth century. This creed discusses the Trinity as well as the deity and humanity of Jesus. It is not short, but I am going to read the section on the Trinity. This was most likely first written in Latin. The version I am going to read came from the Christian Reformed Church website. The Christian Reformed Church is an evangelical church, and I think the version they use captures the heart of the creed in modern language. This is not meant as an endorsement or criticism of the Christian Reformed Church…I just like how they did this creed.

As I read this, keep in mind that the word “catholic” does not mean the Roman Catholic Church. Instead, it just means “universal.” Also, if you read the whole creed, it stresses that certain beliefs are required for salvation, and that is open for a healthy discussion.

But the creed is useful. Here is how the Athanasian Creed summarizes the Trinity:

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.

That is a great summary, and it was developed by devout Christians trying hard to get it right. You may have noticed that at the end, there was a brief mention of how the Son was begotten of the Father, and that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Historically, there were large disagreements and divisions over how those words should be interpreted and used. I am not going to go into that here, but it is an interesting area for self-study.

ANALOGIES

By now, I hope you understand the basics of what we mean by the Trinity. But just because we have a concept of Three-in-One, that does not mean we can fully grasp the complete nature of God. God is truly beyond our ability to understand fully, and there is a sense of awe and wonder when we try to think deeply about him.

Even though we cannot fully grasp the Trinity, we still try to come up with analogies to help our thinking. But here is the problem, there is no analogy that is correct. In fact, some analogies are dangerous. Let us look at a few of the analogies you might hear.

A common one is to view the Trinity like an egg. We have the shell, the white, and the yolk. Together, we get the whole egg. You cannot remove any one of those parts and still have an egg because they are one together. 

Now that is useful to give the idea of three in one, but it falls short due to something called partialism. The egg analogy makes us think that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are parts of God. And this is wrong. The Father is fully God, the Son is fully God, and the Holy Spirit is fully God. There are no parts of God. There is another similar analogy where we view God as a three-leaf clover…three leaves that make up one shamrock. But that also suffers from the same problem.

Another common analogy is to view the Trinty like water. With water we have one substance but three possible states of gas, liquid, and solid. In other words, three-in-one. But this is also a problem because with water you can change from one state to the other. In other words, liquid water can become a solid or a gas. But the Father can never become the Son, or the Holy Spirit. No Person of the Trinity can ever become the other. I suppose someone versed in physics might argue that at the triple point of water, all three states exist simultaneously. But you still have the same problem because at the triple point, individual molecules can flip from one state to the other. And this is not something we can ever see with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This type of analogy exhibits what we call modalism.

One of the most dangerous forms of modalism is the analogy that a person exhibits three-in-one traits. For example, I am myself, but I am also a father, and I am also a husband. In other words, my three-in-oneness comes from the mode in which I am operating. This analogy has led to some very severe heresy in the Church. If you apply this type of analogy to Jesus, you end up denying the distinctions between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This is exactly what has happened with what is called Oneness Pentecostalism. I once spent many hours carpooling with a devout Oneness Pentecostal, and he preached his gospel to me every chance he had. Sometimes you will hear this referred to as “Jesus only” doctrine. Basically, Jesus is the Father, and Jesus is the Holy Spirit. There is no distinction of Persons in the Trinity.

Does this mean it is wrong to use analogies to help us explain the Trinity? No, it is not wrong…it just means we need to be cautious and careful which analogies we use. I think it is also wise if we use an analogy, to explain why it falls short.

Personally, I think it is extremely healthy to just admit that at the end of the day, there is nothing we can think of, to properly represent God’s true nature. We can explain how God represents himself in Scripture, and we can use helpful summaries like the Athanasian Creed. And yes, we can use analogies if we are careful how we do it.

EXPERIENCING THE TRINITY

One thing I want to make sure of in this episode, is that we do not confuse understanding the Trinity with experiencing the Trinity. It is true that our brains cannot and never will, grasp the triunity of God. But that does not stop us from experiencing a relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And this relationship is so rewarding, that we can fully accept the triunity of God, even if we do not understand it.

I suspect we will talk about this more in the next episode, but have you ever noticed that none of the New Testament writers ever formulated a teaching on the Trinity? And this is almost shocking. Why? Because most of them were Jewish and they were raised hearing the Shema. They would have consistently heard these verses which are found in Deuteronomy 6:4,5.

“Listen, Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

Deuteronomy 6:4,5 CSB

One of the things God did for the Israelites when he gave them the Law was to teach them of his Oneness. And this automatically distinguished him from the polytheistic beliefs which Israel had learned in Egypt. 

But none of the New Testament writers felt the need to say, “Hey, it turns out that God is really Three-in-One.” Instead, they moved forward with the confidence that they were serving the God of their fathers.

The explanation for this, I think, is Pentecost. At Pentecost, the disciples experienced the power and the Presence of the Holy Spirit. In the second chapter of Acts we read that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. 

I think it is very possible that the Holy Spirit’s Presence, along with the disciple’s understanding of the Old Testament, and the time they spent with Jesus, made the triunity of God evident to them.

One thing is clear…for some reason, the Holy Spirit chose not to inspire any more Biblical writing about the triunity of God than what we have. Apparently, what we have in Scripture is enough.  We will look more at that in the next episode.

LOVE IN THE TRINITY

I want to end this episode by saying that we can have the same confidence in the triunity of God the disciples had. Anyone can be filled with the Holy Spirit if they put their faith and trust in Jesus.

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have been in a loving relationship for eternity. And God offers us an incredible opportunity to join him. I know from experience that when I was filled with the Holy Spirit, I became more aware of the love of the Father, the freedom I have in the Son, and the power of the Holy Spirit. Of course, I had read these things in the Bible, but the Holy Spirit gave me fresh confirmation of how each Person of the Trinity loves me and helps me. My relationship with God became much deeper. That is available to all of us. 

If anything I have said about the Holy Spirit is new to you, please listen to Season 1 and it should answer a lot of your questions.

CLOSING

In our next episode we are going to look at the Trinity—Part 2.

As always, you can send me comments, suggestions, or questions, by email at glenn@spiritledhope.com, or simply use the Contact Form at spiritledhope.com. That is spiritLEDhope.com. You can also send me a one-way text message by going to the episode show notes and clicking on the link with your smart phone. That is one of the ways you can encourage me.

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As you think about these things…

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit.  

Until the next episode, take care.

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