The Doctrine of the Trinity - Introduction and What is it?

This is going to be a short series of blogs on the Trinity, what the doctrine of the Trinity is, why it is important, and the practical effects. There will be three following posts over the next three days covering:

• Love and the Trinity
• Salvation and the Trinity
• Living and the Trinity

These three will be more application based, today’s post will be more theological (though the next three are equally theological really, just in a more applied sense). As always, I am reliant on others for much of my knowledge, and on God for everything. Two main sources of information are:

Systematic Theology - Wayne Grudem

The Forgotten Trinity - James White

This will only be a very brief study, and you can go to these sources if you want something much more in-depth.

First, what is the doctrine of the Trinity. There are three essential elements (quite appropriate really!):

• There is One God, God is one being.
• God exists as three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
• The three persons are eternally co-equal, fully God, and are distinct.

The first element means what it says! There is only one God. This is particularly important with regard to Islam. Muslims think, and the Koran mistakenly teaches, that Christianity is polytheistic.

The second means that although God is one being, He exists as three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is perhaps the hardest thing to grasp. We are each one being and one person, so how can God be one being, but three persons? Well we should not really be so surprised that God is a bit different from you or I. Have you created a universe recently? No, of course not. So it is entirely reasonable that God should be much greater than us. Also, in a later blog we will see more of why God existing as three persons is so important.

The third item means that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all fully God. They are also distinct. A common error is modalism, which sees God as sometimes acting as Father, sometimes as Son, and sometimes as Holy Spirit. This is not what the Bible teaches. The three are distinct, but they work together in complete harmony. Cults like Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses see Jesus as a created being. He is not created. In 325 AD the central issue at the Council of Nicea was the doctrine of the Trinity, and the Nicene Creed came out of that council.

Some opponents of the Trinity say that the word Trinity never appears in the Bible. Indeed it doesn’t, but then neither does the word Bible! The doctrine of the Trinity sums up what the Bible teaches about the God. If you look at the New Testament you will find that none of it makes sense if Jesus isn’t divine, or the Holy Spirit isn’t divine. We also find that they are distinct. Jesus prays to the Father, the Father sends the Son, the Father and Son send the Holy Spirit. The Spirit bears witness to the Son.

Anyway, that is enough for now.