Quote of the Week: The Gloria Patri

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

–The Gloria Patri

The Trinity’s Biblical Basis

Some people challenge the idea that the Bible supports God’s Triune nature. However, six simple statements show how this doctrine is indeed derived from Scripture:

Quote of the Week: Cornelius Plantinga Jr., 3

Self-giving love is the dynamic currency of the trinitarian life of God. The persons within God exalt each other, commune with each other, defer to one another. Each person, so to speak, makes room for the other two. I know it sounds a little strange, but we might almost say that the persons within God show each other divine hospitality.

—Cornelius Plantinga Jr., Engaging God’s World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 20.

The Trinity and the Creator-Creature Distinction

According to the Bible, the Creator of the universe is an infinite and morally perfect being. However, the same scriptural text states that human beings are (by nature) creatures, which means they are finite and, because of sin, imperfect. Yet, for the creature to encounter the Creator, the creature must first acknowledge his or her limitations, boundaries, and imperfections. Thus, from a biblical perspective, human beings must become acquainted with mystery if they are to come to know the infinite, eternal, and unchanging God. For as evangelical theologian Bruce Milne states in Know The Truth, p. 52:

The Trinity: Isn’t It a Contradiction? Part 2 (of 2)

A student in the logic class I was teaching said that the Trinity doctrine was contradictory. He argued the following: Since the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; and since the Father is not the Son, the Father is not the Holy Spirit, and the Son is not the Holy Spirit; then the result is that each person is simultaneously God and not God. This is, he reasoned, a violation of the law of noncontradiction (A cannot equal A and equal non-A).

The Trinity: Isn’t It a Contradiction? Part 1 (of 2)

Do the truths of Christianity have to make logical sense? The law of noncontradiction (the foundational principle for all logical thinking) asserts that two contradictory statements cannot both be true at the same time and in the same respect (A cannot equal A and also equal non-A). But how does logic apply to the Trinity doctrine?

What the Trinity Is and Isn’t, Part 2 (of 2)

First, the members of the Trinity are qualitatively equal in attributes, nature, and glory. While Scripture reveals a voluntary subordination among the divine persons in terms of position or role (for example, the Son submits to the Father; the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son), there exists absolutely no subordination (or inferiority) of essence or nature. The persons are therefore equal in being, but subordinate only in role or position.

What the Trinity Is and Isn’t, Part 1 (of 2)

Because the Christian vision of God is unique, mysterious, and inscrutable to the finite mind, it is often misunderstood and misrepresented. Let’s briefly examine what the doctrine of the Trinity does and does not teach by underscoring three points.

Why Is the Doctrine of the Trinity Important? Part 2 (of 2)

Let’s consider two more reasons for the critical importance of the historic Christian doctrine of the Trinity.

First, the Trinity doctrine sets the Christian view of God apart from all other religious perspectives, including other monotheistic viewpoints (such as Judaism and Islam). Only the Christian God is one in essence but three in personhood (in philosophical terms: one What and three Whos). This triune nature means that God is superpersonal (more than merely a personal being).

Why is the Doctrine of the Trinity Important? Part 1 (of 2)

Too many Christians, living as functional Unitarians, fail to recognize the Trinity’s relevance to their Christian faith and life. The Trinity doctrine is crucial because it reveals What and Who God is (one God in three persons), and this insight allows Christians, though in an obviously limited way, to view the inner working of God’s nature and personhood.