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Omega Ministries Acts 2:17
Serving the living Christ through the Power of the Holy Spirit

TRINITY

Why address this issue?

First the Bible tells us to seek God and to learn more about him. (Acts 17:27 NKJV) "so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for (draw conclusions about) Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;

Second: "The doctrine of the Trinity is crucial for Christianity. It is concerned with who God is, what he is like, how he works, and how He is to be approached." To have a personal relationship one must know and at least partially understand God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. An understanding of the Trinity is a key ingredient of know how to pray and to whom to pray.

Finally the Holy Spirit has driven me to search for an understanding of the Trinity. This is in spite of the fact that almost all theologians that hold the view that I am questioning would agree with Louis Berkhof who stated: The Church confesses the Trinity to be a mystery beyond the comprehension of man. The Trinity is a mystery, not merely in the Biblical sense that it is a truth, which was formerly hidden but is now revealed; but in the sense that man cannot comprehend it and make it intelligible.

What is the issue

For me the issue has boiled down to what is the correct view of the Trinity. I would suggest that if it was acceptable in God's site for the view of the Trinity to evolve from the Economy view to Modalism to the present day doctrine then maybe God is not through revealing Himself and would agree the quotation above that we do not fully understand the Trinity.

The apparent problems with today's "Trinitarian" doctrine of the Trinity

The first problem is the stated fact by it's proponents that: "The Bible does not explicitly teach the Trinitarian view of God, but the teaching that God is one and that the three persons are God clearly imply this view."

The second problem is that this doctrine appears to be in conflict with many of the statements in the bible. And the proponents make no attempt to explain these conflicts. As an example (Mark 16:19 NKJV) So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. How can he sit at His own right hand/  In Stevens vision just before he was stoned he saw two separate persons. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, (Acts 7:55 NKJV) If God and Jesus are one (the same) person how did he see two?  Is it a false vision that is recorded?  I think not! Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 8:6 "yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist." Clearly Paul is identifing two seperate persons. The first is God and the second is Christ. In John 14:28 Christ Himself says: "... I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I."

The third problem that stimulated me to search the Bible and what it said about the Trinity is: all of the Preachers that I have heard teach the Trinitarian doctrine went on to treat the trinity as three separate persons in the rest of their sermons. Because it would have been aquward and confusing to do otherwise.  This dichotomy made me question the doctrin.

The most frequent argument I hear is found in John 10:30 "I and My Father are one" But the greek word en from the root word eiuv is translated agreement or alike not the same. It is unfortunate but I believe Christins have miss translated the term "one" and have gone through all sorts of distortions to justify both Christ and "one God".

In a teaching by David Regan he taught (Paraphrased) "If the plain truth makes sense, it makes the most sense" I ask the question why not go by what the Bible says first and not what it implies "The plain sense makes the most sense"

A view of the Trinity to be considered

If you disagree with the postulated view of the Trinity presented below I would challenge you to point out where it is in disagreement with the Bible. The view of the Trinity that most closly fits the Bible is the one used by Dr. Henry Cloud in his book "Changes that Heal" (pg94) "God is a bonded person. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are always connected; they have an eternal 'oneness.' However, just as unity is the most basic quality God possesses, he has diversity within this unity. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct, separate persons. They are not 'fused' in a way that they lose their individual identity. They have boundaries between them. They each have their own talent, responsibilities, wills, and personalities. They can be in different places at the same time, and they can be dong different things without losing relationship."

He says it so much more elegantly that I.  I would say that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are three individual and seperate beings.  They are in such accord that they think, feel and act the same.  God the Father is supreme and through out the Bible Jesus and the Holy Spirit submit themselves to God.  "I speak only what I hear from the father"  "I do only what He telles me".

How the Bible supports this view of the Trinity.

[In the following the term translated is in 'bold' and the original Greek is in italics. The number is "Strongs Reference"

There are many passages where Jesus said "The Father sent me". If they were one and the same the father could not have sent him. He says He (Jesus) will set at the right hand of the Father. One can not set at their own right hand. Jesus said He was from the Father. You can not be from your self.

Foot Notes: Reference
  • Millard Erickson Introducing Christian Theology Pg. 107
  • Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology Pg 89
  • Erickson pg112
  • Berkhof pg87,88
  • Erickson pg 106



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