Class notes
Theo 104 Understanding The Trinity Notes
- Course
- THEO 104
- Institution
- Liberty University
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UNDERSTANDING THE TRINITYOne of the most misunderstood ideas in the Bible concerns the teaching about the
Trinity. Although Christians say that they believe in one God, they are constantly
accused of polytheism (worshiping at least three gods).
The Scriptures do not teach that there are three Gods; neither do they teach that God
wears three different masks while acting out the drama of history. What the Bible does
teach is stated in the doctrine of the Trinity as: there is one God who has revealed
Himself in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and these three persons
are the one God.
Although this is difficult to comprehend, it is nevertheless what the Bible tells us, and
is the closest the finite mind can come to explaining the infinite mystery of the infinite
God, when considering the biblical statements about God’s being.
The Bible teaches that there is one God and only one God: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our
God, the LORD is one! (Deuteronomy 6:4). “For there is one God” (I Timothy 2:5). “Thus
says the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the First
and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God. (Isaiah 44:6).
However, even though God is one in His essential being or nature, He is also three
persons. Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;"
(Genesis 1:26). Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us
(Genesis 3:22).
God’s plural nature is alluded to here, for He could not be talking to angels in these
instances, because angels could not and did not help God create. The Bible teaches that
Jesus Christ, not the angels, created all things (I John 1:3; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:2).
In addition to speaking of God as one, and alluding to a plurality of God’s being, the
Scriptures are quite specific as to naming God in terms of three persons. There is a person
whom the Bible calls the Father, and the Father is designated as God the Father
(Galatians 1:1).
The Bible talks about a person named Jesus, or the Son, or the Word, also called God. "In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John
1:1). Jesus was “also calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God” (John
5:18).
There is a third person mentioned in the Scriptures called the Holy Spirit, and this
person—different from the Father and the Son—is also called God (“Ananias, why has
Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?… You have not lied to men but to God”
(Acts 5:3, 4).
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