Understanding The Doctrine Of The Trinity In Christian Theology

The Trinity: One God in Three Persons

Question:

Describe And Explain The Doctrine Of The Trinity?

In this essay, it has been stated that Trinity does not mean a belief in three Gods Management. There is only one God but this God is present in the form of three Persons. These three persons are not a part of God, but every one of them is fully God. In the undivided being of one God, there is relating in three interpersonal relations like that there are three Persons. The difference in Godhead is not the distinctions of core, and similarly they are not something that has been supplemented into his essence but they can be described as the unfolding of undivided being of one God in three interpersonal relations. Therefore it cannot be said that God is one person was taken three consecutive roles. The Father becomes the Son and of the same way, the Son did not become the Holy Spirit. It needs to be noted that there have always been three distinct persons in Godhead and they always will be.

The doctrine of Trinity can be described as being foundational for the Christians. This doctrine is important for comprehending what God is similar to and how He is related to us and how we ought to communicate to Him. But at the same time, this doctrine also results in several different questions. How can God be one and three at the same time? Is the Trinity a contradiction? If Jesus is God, why there are instances is in the Gospel, where he prayed to God? But it is not very easy to complete the understand regarding the Trinity but it is indeed possible to answer the questions mentioned above and require a solid grasp of what is the meaning of God to be three in one (Bell and Velvet, 2005).

The meaning of the doctrine of Trinity is that there is one God. He is present eternally in the form of three Persons, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. However, in essence, God is one and in person, God is three. The above mentioned definition reveals the important truths. First of all, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are different Persons. Each of these Persons is fully God and there is only one God (Blackwood, 2008).

In the Bible, Father has been spoken as God, Jesus as God and Holy Spirit has also been spoken as God. Therefore the question arises if these three are simply the different ways to look at God or if merely the ways to refer to the three different roles played by God (Bruce, 1990). The answer should be known as it has been clearly indicated in the Bible that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are different.

An example can be given from the Bible as the Father sent the Son in the world, it cannot be said that He the similar being as the Son. In the same way, after the Son returned to the Father, they send the Holy Spirit on the planet. In this way, it can be said that Holy Spirit is also dissimilar from the Father and Son (Duncan, 2005). Another example is present in the baptism of Jesus. We see in this case that the Father was talking from heaven, and the Holy Spirit had descended from the heaven as a dove when Jesus comes out of the water. The Bible confirms that Jesus is God, but simultaneously, he was “with God”. This indicates that Jesus is different from God the Father. In John 16:13-15, it can be seen that even if close unity is present between these three, the Holy Spirit has to be considered as being diverse from the Father/Son. On the basis of the fact that these three are distinct persons, it can be said that. Father is not the Son and Son is not Holy Spirit. Similarly, the Holy Spirit is not Father. Although Jesus is God, but He is not Father and similarly, he cannot be described as the Holy Spirit. In the same way, the Holy Spirit is also God, but he is not the Father or the Son (Erickson, 2003). Therefore, these are not the three dissimilar behavior of looking at God, but they are diverse.

Importance of the Doctrine of the Trinity

The truth that each member of the Trinity is a separate person means that each of them has a separate axis of consciousness. Therefore, each member of Trinity is related to each other individually. While the father consider himself as “I” and he considers the Son and the Holy Spirit as “you”. In the same way, the Son considers himself as “I” and on the other hand, he considers the Father and Holy Spirit as “you”. Generally an objection is raised that if Jesus is God, in such a case, he should have prayed to Himself when he was on world. However, the answer to this question can be given by simply applying what has been already discussed. Therefore, although the Father and Jesus are both God but they are also different persons. As a result, Jesus had prayed to God the Father and he had not prayed to himself. Hence, it is exactly the continuing dialogue that took place between the Father and Son, which provides the best evidence regarding the fact that these two are distinct persons and have different centers of consciousness.

There are some cases when the Personhood of Father and Son is acknowledged, however there is a neglect of the personhood of Holy Spirit. These are the instances is when the Spirit is considered more like a "force" instead of being a Person. However, it needs to be noted that the Holy Spirit is not an “it” but it is a “he”. In view of the fact that the Holy Spirit has to be considered as a Person and not as an impersonal force, it needs to be noted that speaks, reasons and thinks and understand. Similarly, the Holy Spirit wills, feels, and gives personal fellowship. All of which are the qualities of personhood. A few of the above mentioned texts like Corinthians 2:10–1 and Ephesians 4:30 it can be established that the Holy Spirit has a distinct Personhood that is separate from the personhood of the Father and the Son. In this way, the three members of the Trinity are real persons and not merely the three roles played by God.

Generally people also make a common but serious error. When they think that the Father became the Son, and eventually the Son became the Holy Spirit. As against this view, in the above mentioned messages, it can be clearly implied that God always was and will always remain the three Persons. Therefore, at no time, even one of the Persons of Godhead were not present. The reason is that all of them are eternal.

As mentioned above, all the three members of Trinity are different, but this does not mean that any one member is inferior to the others. However the reality is that all the members have identical attributes. As a result, all the three have equal powers, love, mercy, knowledge, justice and other qualities.

The question arises, if God is three Persons, can it be said that each person is one third of God. Similarly, is it the meaning of Trinity that God has been alienated into 3 parts? According to the doctrine of Trinity, God has not been divided into three parts. It has been clearly stated in the Bible that all these 3 persons are each fully God. Therefore, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit are each 100 percent God. In this regard, it has been stated in Colossians 2:9 regarding Christ that. "In him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form." Therefore, we should not consider God as a pie that has been cut into three pieces and each piece represents a Person. The reason is that in such a case, each person will become less than fully God and therefore not God it all. Instead, it needs to be mentioned that the being of each Person can be compared to the whole being the God. Similarly, the divine essence cannot be described as something that has been divided in three persons, but it is fully present in each of the three persons and has not been divided into parts (Kostenberger and Swain, 2008).

In this way it can be said that the Son is not 1/3 of God instead, he is fully God. The same is the case with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Therefore it is worth mentioning that when we're talking of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, we are not talking about any greater being as compared to the situation when we only talking about the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit alone.

There is only one God: Another question that may arise is if each Person of Trinity is separate and fully God, then can it be concluded that there is more than one God? However, this conclusion cannot be made as it has been clearly written in the Scripture that there is only one God. In this way, after going through, the fact that the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit are distinct persons, and at the same time, they are also fully God, and still there is one God, a conclusion can be made that all these three persons are the same God. Hence it can be said that there is one God, but He exists in the form of three separate Persons (McFarlane and Turner, 1996).

This conclusion has been clearly stated in Matthew 28:19. When it states, “make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit”. First of all it needs to be noticed that here, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have been mentioned as separate persons. Secondly, it also needs to be noticed that each of these Persons must be a deity as all three have been placed at the same level. Hence, each person into whose name we baptize should be a deity. At third base, it also needs to be noticed that even if these three divine Persons are different from each other, we are baptized in the name and not in their names. Therefore even if these three divine persons are distinct but they constitute one name. The reason is that they share one essence.

References

Bell, Rob, Velvet Elvis, 2005, Repainting the Christian faith, Michigan: Zondervan

Blackwood, Dotha, (2008) God’s three-in-Oneness: The Doctrine of the Trinity, Moorlands College  

Bruce, F. F., (1990) The Epistle to the Hebrews, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Culver, Robert Duncan, (2005) Systematic Theology Management; Biblical & Historical, Great Britain: Mentor Imprint  

Erickson, Millard J., (2003) Christian Theology, 2nd ed., Grand Rapids: Baker Books

Kostenberger Andreas J., and Swain, Scott R., (2008) Father, Son and Spirit: The Trinity and John’s Gospel, Nottingham: Apollos

McFarlane, G., and Turner, M., (1996) ‘Trinity’, in I. H. Marshall et al. (ed.), New Bible Dictionary, 3rd ed., Nottingham: Inter-Varsity-Press