Doctrine of the Trinity

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Good morning.
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If I could have everyone's attention.
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We are going to continue our study of theology and doctrine.
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As you all know, this is a course that we have developed for you men.
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It is a 12-week course, rotating, which means if you missed weeks 1 and 2, and today is your first week here, you will get it on the next go-around.
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It is going to continue rotating every 12 weeks.
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We are going to go through the same material.
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Some of you will sit through the same class twice, and that is good, because repetition is the key to learning, and the key to learning is repetition.
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That is the way that you learn things, so that is important.
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I also understand that the subject today was something that Pastor Mark talked about yesterday and something that Mark Terrell is talking about in his series in Colossians.
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This is something that is going to build on to what you are already talking about.
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In our first two lessons, we have talked about the doctrine of revelation, not the book of Revelation, but the doctrine of how God reveals Himself.
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We talked about the fact that God reveals Himself in common and special revelation.
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Common or general revelation is that which all men receive by virtue of the fact that the world is orderly and we see all around us God's handiwork.
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And we talked about special revelation, which is God particularly interjecting into human history.
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And the most important piece of special revelation that we have received is God's Word, which we call the Bible.
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In our second lesson, we talked about theology proper.
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Theology proper is the doctrine of God Himself, and we talked about the existence of God and the attributes of God, particularly the holiness of God, the love of God, the mercy and justice of God, and we talked about those things last week.
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Well, a subset of theology proper is the doctrine known as the doctrine of the Trinity.
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As Christians, we hold to certain fundamental beliefs.
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And by the way, this 12-week program really is focused on the fundamental beliefs, the things that are really not negotiable, the things that have been taught and understood since the foundation of the church.
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And I would argue, having taught church history and having been a student of it for a long time, that the longest, most enduring, and most defended doctrine in Christian church history is the doctrine that we call the doctrine of the Trinity.
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And so today we are going to learn about the Trinity, we are going to define what we mean when we say Trinity, and we are going to defend the Trinity from sacred Scripture.
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But before we do that, I want to talk about the concept of theism.
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Because when we think of theism, we typically define theism in relation to its opposite, which would be atheism.
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We normally think of theism as a belief in some kind of supreme divine power, and then atheism is the lack of belief.
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We could even go as far as say theism is supernatural belief, and atheism is anti-supernatural.
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The lack of belief in anything that is supernatural.
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Well, under theism, there are several categories.
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I am going to look at three quickly, in the category of what we would call monotheism, henotheism, and polytheism.
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Alright, so monotheism, coming from the prefix mono, which means one.
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So monotheism is the belief in one God.
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Monotheism is one God.
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Poly means many, or at least more than one.
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And so many of you are familiar with such as the Greek pantheon of the gods, or the Roman gods of the different, you've all heard of the different gods, of Jupiter and Saturn.
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You know, that's the names of our planets, but that's also the name of ancient gods, and so this is where those terms come from.
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And so then we see, like I said, all of these various gods in the pantheon of the ancient world.
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And so that would be referred to as polytheism.
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Now, henotheism is a little different.
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The prefix heno is referring to the fact that the belief in one God who is superior with many gods that still exist.
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And what henotheism refers to is tribalism.
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I have a god, and he's the god of my tribe.
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You have a god, he's the god of your tribe, and my god's greater than your god.
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You still have your god.
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He still exists, and he's still real, but he's subservient, or he is lesser than my god.
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And so henotheism sort of strikes a distinction between monotheism, which says there is only one God, and polytheism, which says there's many gods.
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Henotheism says, yes, there's many gods, but only one that is the great, almighty God, and that is my god.
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My god's better than your god.
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My god is greater than yours.
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And we understand that from a tribal perspective.
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Think about even today.
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There are tribes all around the world.
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Many of them have their idols, and they make the distinction.
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My god is better than yours.
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And most people are familiar with monotheism, polytheism, but the reason why I bring up henotheism is because many people mistake Trinitarianism for henotheism.
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They think of it that way.
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And so I'm making distinctions, and the first distinction is this.
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As Trinitarians, we are committed to monotheism.
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We believe in one God, and that is very important for the foundation of this course.
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Now, under this, we also have to make a secondary distinction, and the secondary distinction is the distinction between Unitarianism and Trinitarianism.
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So I'm making a distinction here.
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Everything below this line is monotheism, so we've left this conversation.
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You guys with me? Now we're going to talk about within the monotheism, there are two distinct categories.
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Unitarian and Trinitarian.
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Alright? So categorically, I'll move out of the way if you want to see, because I don't want anybody to miss anything.
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I'll take a sip of coffee if you want to write.
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This is my Calvinism cup.
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What's that, this? Yeah, heno is referring to one that's greater than the others.
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It's focused on the...
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There's one super God, who's the God of all gods.
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But there's still other gods.
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That's the key to henotheism.
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It does not deny the existence of other gods.
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They're just inferior.
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Okay? Now, under monotheism, the reason why I'm teaching you this is because a lot of people ask, well, you have the monotheistic religions of the world.
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There are three primary monotheistic religions.
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Does anybody know what they are? The three largest monotheistic religions in the world are what? Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.
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That's right.
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I heard him.
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Some of you probably said the same thing, but he was right here in my ear.
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Judaism would be the oldest.
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Okay? Christianity is defined as monotheistic.
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And so, it's the second oldest.
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Christianity.
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So, Judaism is the oldest.
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Christianity is the second oldest.
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And I will argue later that Christianity is actually the proper one.
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It's technically the oldest, but in regard to human history, we've got to be honest, Judaism, Christianity, and then Islam.
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Islam came on the scene in the 7th century.
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So, about 700 years after Christ is when Islam came on the scene.
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And so, we have three primary monotheistic religions.
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Judaism, which was, if you want to trace it back to the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses, those things, you go about 2,000 years prior to Christ.
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So, you're looking at about 4,000 to 5,000 years.
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And then Christianity, about 2,000 years.
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And then Islam, about 1,400 years.
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So, that's as far as how long, how old they are.
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So, under monotheism, you have Judaism, Islam, Christianity.
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Judaism is Unitarian.
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Islam is Unitarian.
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Christianity is Trinitarian.
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So, if you're not picking it up yet, what I'm doing is I'm showing you the distinction between the three largest monotheistic religions in the world.
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Within the three largest monotheistic religions in the world, because some people would say this, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are all essentially the same because they all believe in one God.
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They just call Him something different.
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The Muslims call Him Allah.
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The Jews call Him Yahweh.
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And the Christians call Him Jesus.
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Right? And so, they would say there's three equal religions and they just have different names for God.
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They're all going up the same mountain.
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They're all going to the same place.
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They're just getting there by a different road.
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Right? And that's the argument.
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The problem with that argument is that there is a fundamental difference between how Jews and Muslims see God and how Christians see God.
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And the distinction is this line right here, the line between Unitarian and Trinitarian.
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Christianity is Trinitarian.
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And so, if we are to be honest about the distinction between us and Muslims and us and Jews, the distinction lies in how we understand this doctrine known as the doctrine of the Trinity.
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This is why I say it's the most fundamental Christian doctrine.
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If you are a Christian and you do not believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, you've denied the doctrine of the Trinity, I would say this.
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And please don't get mad and start trying to throw things at me.
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You're not a Christian.
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Because if you are a Christian and you deny the doctrine of the Trinity, you're denying the most fundamental distinction of Christianity.
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You're saying that I know better about Christianity than 2,000 years of church history.
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You're saying I know more about the Bible than all of the Christian scholars who came before you.
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So that's one big issue of hubris, but it's also an issue of you're denying the most fundamental distinction about who we are as Christians.
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The most fundamental distinction about who we are as Christians is who is Jesus Christ and who is the Holy Spirit and how are they together within the Godhead.
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And what do we mean when we say Godhead? And what do we mean when we use the term essence versus person? All of these are important distinctions that if you don't make them, the Bible doesn't make any sense.
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Particularly the New Testament and more particularly the Gospel of John, which is where we're going to spend some time in just a little while because a lot of the defense for the doctrine of the Trinity comes from our understanding of John.
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Sorry, coffee didn't go down right.
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Where we understand the Gospel of John and of course the other writings of Paul and Peter and the other apostles.
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Yes, sir, you had your hand up.
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I didn't mean to ignore you.
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Yes, let me say this.
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Catholicism is technically Christianity, but during the Middle Ages particularly and even before, there were aberrant beliefs that came into the Roman Catholic Church.
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Primarily, I believe, a lot had to do with the rise in the authority of the Roman Catholic Church and with power often comes corruption.
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You know, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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And so what we see particularly in the...
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well, you can trace it back further, but particularly in the 7th, 8th century, you begin to see a divergence in their theology and then you see a major shift in the Middle Ages.
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There's the Great Schism which happened between the Eastern and Western Church.
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That happened in 1056.
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And then you have the Protestant Reformation which happened...
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well, you could say it began in the 14th century but really had its heyday in the 16th century.
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And the reason for that was because the church had so far strayed, the Catholic Church had so far strayed from the teachings of the Bible that the Renaissance, one of the things that the Renaissance did was it brought to light the ancient works that had many been put away and it brought to light the desire for scholarship and study and learning.
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And so men like Martin Luther and John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli and all of these reformers, they were men who went back to the original languages, back to the sources.
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What happened? Are you okay? Did you get your toy? Get back up there now.
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You scared me for a second.
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So my point is, I would say today the Roman Catholic Church has many false doctrines that would divide it from biblical Christianity.
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The veneration of Mary, the veneration of the Pope, the transubstantiation of the Mass, all of these things I would say would divide it from biblical, historic Christianity.
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But they do believe in the Trinity, so there's at least a common ground there.
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One thing that the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestants do agree on is the doctrine of Trinity.
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This is why I say it's the oldest doctrine.
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It's one that anybody who claims to be a Christian, this is it.
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And the ones who really divide are the ones who come and try to take this part and change it.
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I'll give you an example.
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In the 16th century, there was a man by the name of John Calvin.
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You've probably heard of Calvin.
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Calvinism.
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He was in Switzerland.
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Geneva, Switzerland.
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And there was a man by the name of Michael Servetus.
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Now if you've never heard of Michael Servetus, he was a genius.
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Michael Servetus was a very smart man.
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If I remember correctly, I think he discovered...
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He was a doctor, so he discovered some kind of physical...
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I think it might have been circulatory system or something.
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He was a smart man.
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But he didn't believe in the Trinity.
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And he tried to argue against the Trinity.
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And he wrote a letter to Calvin.
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And he said, I'm coming to Geneva and I want to explain to you why the Trinity is wrong.
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And Calvin said, Don't come here because that's foundational.
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You're not going to change my mind.
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Not only that, you're wrong.
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Not only that, you're a heretic.
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In the 17th century, heretics were not...
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They didn't have a long shelf life.
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Heretics didn't live very long.
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And so he decides to come anyway.
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He comes to Geneva.
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And when he came to Geneva, he was discovered and the town council burned him at the stake as a heretic.
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Now I'm not supporting the burning of heretics today.
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I'm simply describing to you how serious this matter was.
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And it wasn't Calvin who burned him.
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It was the council because they saw him as a danger to the church.
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So this is...
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My point simply being this, is this doctrine has been so important throughout the history of the church that it was willing to be contended for.
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The very first ecumenical council of the church, 325, was held in Nicaea.
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And the very first council of the church was for the bishops of the various regions to come together.
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And there was over 300 bishops that came to Nicaea.
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And they came to argue this point because there was a man by the name of Arius.
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Arius taught that Jesus was not fully divine, but that Jesus was created.
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He was a created being.
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And Arius made his argument and the other bishops, over 300 of those bishops, challenged him with Scripture and defeated his arguments.
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And Arius became known as the arch-heretic Arius.
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In history, that's what he became known as.
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Today, modern example of the Arian movement would be the Jehovah Witnesses.
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They hold to the same beliefs as Arius did in the 4th century.
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So, a lot of history, right? And I'm not trying to spin your minds around.
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This just happens to be a subject that I'm very passionate about.
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I've spent a lot of time lecturing on it.
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I've spent a lot of time writing on it.
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I've debated this subject.
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This is a very important thing.
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And I'm trying to help you understand that within Christian history, there are few things as weighty as this.
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There are few things as important as this.
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So, with that in mind, let's go to our defense of the Trinity.
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This is Part 1 of your handout.
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Part 1 of your handout is define the Trinity.
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Now I'm going to erase my board.
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Does anybody need anything before I erase it? Hey, get down there and get it.
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Thank you.
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Quit bothering me.
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Alright.
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Now, we're going to define the Trinity.
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And to define the Trinity, you have a handout, and I've given you some help by not having to make you write everything.
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The historic formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity is this.
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God is one in essence.
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God is one in essence.
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But what do we mean by the word essence? In your handout, I gave you a few additional words.
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The word could be being or the word substance.
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I don't like the word substance, but it's an important word.
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Historically, it was used by the early Christians to help them understand.
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But the reason why I don't like the word substance is we normally think of substance as something you can hold.
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A substance is a liquid or a solid.
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It's something that you have in your hand.
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I don't like the word substance because God is spirit, and therefore He is not substantial in the same way that creation is substantial.
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And so I use that word only to help you understand essence is referring to what God is.
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What God is is one.
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And I like this word, and this isn't on your handout, but you might think I'm being childish.
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But sometimes I think childish language is clearer language.
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You know, my kids are small and little, but when they say things, sometimes it's very clear because they don't know any fancy ways of saying it, so they just say it.
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I think of the essence of God as the stuff.
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The stuff.
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Whatever God is, it's only one stuff.
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And it's only one.
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And maybe somebody says stuff is too childish.
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For me it's helpful because what we're saying is the essence of God is one, and this is where we categorize our monotheism.
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God is one in essence.
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Now, we're not going to defend these.
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I'm only going to define it.
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We'll defend it in the second part.
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Right now I'm just making my definition because we're going to look at some Scripture in a moment, but for now, God is one in essence, being, substance, or stuff.
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Okay.
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Number two, God is three in person.
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And when we say person, this is where the word substance becomes distinct because we use substance to distinguish between subsistence.
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And now we're going to have a little philosophical conversation because this is helpful.
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You are being, and you are person, but those two things are not the same thing.
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Let me say that again.
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You are being, and you are person, but those two things are not the same thing.
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Let me explain why.
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If I had a rock, and I was holding that rock, that rock would have being.
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It would have substance.
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And if you don't believe that, I would just throw it at you.
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And when the substance of the rock came in contact with the substance of your head, you would say, that hurt, and I would say that was the substance reminding you that it do exist.
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See, that's the substance.
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That's the stuff.
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So rocks have substance, or essence, or being, and you have substance, or essence, or being.
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That's what came in contact with the rock.
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Right? But what the rock doesn't have, that you do have, is person.
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You can't sit down and talk to a rock.
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Well, I guess you could sit down and talk to a rock, and maybe you have.
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No telling what you do when you're out of your mind.
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You never know.
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You might have had a long conversation with the rock.
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Maybe the rock talked back, but I'll tell you that was your imagination.
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But you understand a rock does not have person.
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And you can even take that further.
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A cow.
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A cow has essence.
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It's got a heart.
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It's got multiple stomachs.
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It's got blood vessels.
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It's got meat.
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It's got bones.
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It's got substance.
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But it doesn't have person in the same way you have person.
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In the sense that it doesn't have the characteristics of personality that you would have.
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For instance, the ability to think in an abstract sense.
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Can you think outside yourself? Like right now, can you imagine what your home looks like? You have kids.
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Can you put their picture in your mind and think about what your kids look like? Maybe some of you are married.
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You can think about the face of your spouse.
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I remember my wedding day 21 years ago.
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I remember what my wife looked like.
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I remember what it felt like.
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So I have person, and it's distinguished from my essence.
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And so we would define essence as substance, and we would define person as subsistence.
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Those are just two words that have been used historically to define the distinction between being and person.
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So now, if I am one in essence and one in person, I am the ratio of one to one.
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I got one of these and one of these.
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Make sense? That's the ratio.
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One to one.
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I'm one being, one person.
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And that's all anybody gets.
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One being, one person.
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And don't ask about schizophrenia.
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That's not the same thing.
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I'm not going there.
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Because it's still only one person.
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Their mind is just as confused as to who they are.
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But it's still only one person.
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Alright? So the category of man is a one to one ratio.
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The category of rock is a one to no ratio.
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Because they got one essence but no person.
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Right? So the ratio is one to nothing for a rock.
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One to one for a man or a woman.
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When we refer to God, one essence, three persons.
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And that's what we mean when we say God is one and three.
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We are not contradicting ourselves.
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We would be contradicting ourselves if we said God is one essence and three essences.
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Because we would be contradicting ourselves.
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Or if we said God is one person and three persons.
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We would be contradicting ourselves.
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But we are not.
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We are categorizing how we understand the distinction between being a person.
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And please don't go to sleep guys.
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I know this is tough stuff.
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This is seminary level stuff.
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This is the type of stuff.
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I tell you what.
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I'll give you a story.
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Maybe I'll wake you up with a story.
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I was asked to go and be on the testing board for a man who wanted to be a pastor.
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Not the testing board.
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What do they call the...
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Well...
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Yeah, it was a panel.
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But basically this guy wanted to be a pastor.
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It was an ordination board.
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Thank you.
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An ordination board.
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And so they asked me to come sit on the panel.
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So that he could be asked questions.
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Everybody else asked him questions.
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They weren't bad questions.
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But it was like, how would you handle a divorce situation? You know, it was very practical stuff.
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Everybody else asked.
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And it came my turn.
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And I said to the man, I said, listen.
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I want to ask you this question.
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You are going to stand before the people of God.
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Proclaim the Word of God.
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You're going to be the teacher of God's Word among God's people in the church that you're in.
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I said, now imagine somebody comes to your church.
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And they grew up as a Jehovah Witness.
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And they've been taught their whole life that the Trinity is false doctrine.
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I said, can you explain to me in simple terms the Christian doctrine of the Trinity? And why I should believe it? The room went dead silent.
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The guy being examined was stone white.
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Three seats down.
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The guy who's on the panel with me turns to me and says, that's a hard question.
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And I said, well, it should be a hard question.
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We're not examining this man to be a postman.
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We're not examining this man to make pizzas.
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We're examining this man to teach and preach the Word of God.
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And if you can't explain the doctrine of the Trinity, and you can't help people understand that the Bible teaches the doctrine of the Trinity, you don't need to be teaching the Word of God.
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So that's how serious I take this.
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And so if you think I'm going too deep, understand this is so important, that of all the twelve lessons I'm going to teach in this doctrine series, this is the most important.
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You need to understand this.
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Now, thirdly, we said there are three persons.
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There's one God.
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There are three persons.
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These three persons, there are three words.
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There's only two on your sheet, so I'm going to add one.
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The first word is co-equal.
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What is co-equal? It means they share equality, right? Co-eternal, that means they share eternality.
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What is eternality? Forever, right? The word eternal means forever, and so they're all forever.
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That's the second one.
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And the one thing that's not on your list, but it should be, I just noticed it's not there, is the word distinct.
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Distinct.
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D-I-S-T-I-N-C-T.
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Distinct.
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And the reason why I say distinct and why it should be there but isn't, when we talk about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, all three of those persons are called God, but all three of those persons are not the same person because they interact with one another.
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I saw a meme yesterday.
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If you don't know what a meme is, it's a picture with words.
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You guys, you're younger than me, you all know what a meme is.
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And the meme was Mary holding Jesus as a baby, and He was praying, and she goes, I guess you're praying to yourself.
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That's stupid.
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That's not Trinitarianism.
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In fact, we're going to see later, that's actually something called modalistic monarchism.
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That's a false view.
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That the Father and the Son are the same person.
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That's not what we're teaching.
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The Father sends the Son.
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The Father and the Son send the Spirit.
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Remember Jesus said, and John, it is good that I go away, and when I go away, I will send to you, alos pericletos, which is Greek for another comforter, who will be with you.
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That's the Holy Spirit of God.
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He will come and He will be with you.
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What is the purpose of the Holy Spirit? To live inside of us and do what Christ did while He was here.
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Christ walked with His disciples, the Spirit lives inside of us.
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But the Spirit and the Son are not the same person.
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So we have to make the distinction between person and being.
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They are of the same essence.
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And this is the word that I like to use.
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The word is the word share.
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The Father, the Son, and the Spirit share the one essence that is God.
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The Father, the Son, and the Spirit share the one essence which is God.
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And you say, where do you get that language? John 17, when Jesus is praying, and by the way, people say the Lord's Prayer, our Father who art in Heaven, that's not the Lord's Prayer.
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That's the model prayer.
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That's the prayer Jesus gave us to model what we should pray.
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Jesus' Prayer, the Lord's Prayer, is in John 17.
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It's the longest recorded prayer of Jesus that we have.
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It's the longest outspoken prayer of Jesus that we have.
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It's the words of Christ praying to the Father.
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And this is what He says.
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Let me finish my thought and I'll answer your question.
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He says this.
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He says, Father, glorify Me again with the glory that we shared before the world existed.
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Hear that again.
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Jesus speaking to the Father.
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He says, glorify Me again with the glory that we shared before the world existed.
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So the word share is important.
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That is John 17.
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I think it's verse 5.
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I'll look it up real quick.
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Brother, you had a question.
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I almost get it to the level that you're trying to explain it.
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This is a fascinating situation of understanding that we have.
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My question is, the three in essence, one, share the same coexistence in eternality.
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Yes.
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How would you explain, okay, they share the responsibility of the different functions of each other in a sense of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.
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The Father, the Son is not greater than...
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That's only in function? That's actually a really good question.
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And this is where we distinguish.
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I'm going to use two words that I hope I don't...
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I don't use big words because they're fancy.
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I use big words because they're important.
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There is a distinction to be made between the ontological trinity and the economic trinity.
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I'll write those words on the board.
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Well, I'm out of board space.
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No, no, it's fine.
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It's fine.
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Everybody got this? Yes, sir.
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Everybody got this? Okay.
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Because what you're asking is actually a historically important question.
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How do we understand the relationship of the persons within the essence of God? And so we have what we call the ontological and the economic.
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Ontological refers to...
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Ontology means being, or it means existence.
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So the study of ontology is the study of things, the study of essence, the study of being, right? You exist.
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Why do you exist? That's the ontology, right? So existence, economic, has to do with responsibilities.
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So in regard to the ontological trinity, there's absolute equality and coexistence because they're all God.
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You can't say one God's lesser than another God because if you do that, you end up with henotheism.
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Remember? If you say one God is lesser God...
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JJ, are you okay? You're scaring these guys.
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You're going to give them a heart attack.
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Get up here.
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Now, don't do that again.
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Thanks guys.
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I'm sorry for him.
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You've been a naughty mascot.
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So when we talk about ontological, we're talking about equality within the Godhead.
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But economically, there is relationship.
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See, the Father has always been the Father, the Son has always been the Son, and the Spirit has always been the Spirit.
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That didn't happen when Jesus became a man.
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Jesus' Sonship is eternal.
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And the Spirit's relationship to the Father and the Son has always been eternal.
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And therefore, there's always been an economic relationship.
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And there is, within the trinity, relationship of love.
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You know, the Bible says God is love.
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Some people think God created the world so that He would have something to love.
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No, God has always been love.
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His attributes have always been.
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And God's love is inter-trinitarian love.
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The Bible says this.
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The Bible says in 1 Peter, Jesus was loved by the Father and has always been loved by the Father.
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And so when we talk about the relationship within the trinity, that's responsibility and relationship.
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Maybe the word relationship is what I should have written.
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Rather than responsibility, I just put relationship.
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So we have...
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Very quickly.
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Come on in, brother.
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Have a seat.
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So ontological refers to existence.
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Economic refers to relationship.
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So now, very quickly, let's talk about the relationship in regard to the world.
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God creates the world.
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But what does John 1 tell us? And the world was created.
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But it says it was created through Him.
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All things were created through Him.
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Colossians tells us this too, right? It says the Father, who is God, creates the world through the Son, who is God.
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And so the Son actually becomes the agent of creation.
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And the Spirit also is involved because go back to Genesis 1.
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In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
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The earth was formless and void.
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And the Spirit of God was present, hovering over the face of the water.
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And I believe that is an early, what we would call a primitive reference to God's plurality.
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You see, God is both singular and plural because He's singular in essence, plural in person.
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And so therefore when God said, let us, in our image, He's not talking about the angels.
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He's not talking about the other celestial beings.
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He's talking about Himself.
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And He speaks of Himself in plural.
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Okay, so on your sheet you'll notice there's a circular picture.
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It's got a triangle.
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You'll notice it says the Father is God.
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The Son is God.
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The Spirit is God.
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That's what's in the triangle.
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But the circle on the outside says the Father is not the Spirit.
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The Spirit is not the Son.
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And the Son is not the Father.
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And that's the distinction.
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And this diagram is actually, it is the oldest diagram that I'm aware of in regard to the Trinity.
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This diagram has been around a long time.
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I didn't draw this.
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I didn't come up with this.
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This is an example explaining Christian theology.
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Oh, you need a handout.
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Yes, who had the handouts? You have an extra one? Can he have it? Thank you.
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So that diagram by itself tells you what we're saying.
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Right? It doesn't prove that it's true.
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We haven't tried to prove that it's true.
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All I've told you is what we're saying.
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In a moment we're going to go to the Scripture and prove that it's true.
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I'm running out of time to do that.
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But the point is, so far all I've given you is this is what the church teaches.
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This is what the church has taught.
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2,000 years this has been.
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The most historic, most well-attested, and most well-defended doctrine in the history of the church.
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Yes, sir.
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Could you explain to me the essence of the word became flesh, and go back before creation.
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Explain the word.
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John uses the Greek logos, which is the word there.
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The term logos is actually, there's a lot of debate over why he calls Jesus that.
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Because the Greeks had a concept of logos, which referred to wisdom.
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And this is where we get the idea.
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Logos is where we put that word, like biology.
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That means the study of life.
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Bios is life.
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Logos is study.
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So putting those two together means study of life.
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Anthropology.
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Anthropos means man.
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Logos means study.
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And so anthropology is the study of man.
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So the word logos means wisdom or understanding.
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And so some people think John is using that to describe it's the fullness of the wisdom of God that becomes the man in Christ Jesus.
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There is also, though, an idea of this.
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You look through the Old Testament and God's Word is always intimately connected to God's person.
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When God speaks, think about how He created the world.
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And God said, let there be light.
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And God said, let there be this and that.
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And so the concept of Word also has a very Jewish foundation.
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And so it could be that John is connecting both of those very powerful concepts when he calls Jesus the Word.
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And John is the only one, and we see this in the Johannine Corpus, which is all the writings of John.
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John, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, Revelation.
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He's the only one that refers to Jesus primarily and specifically as the Word.
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So he's using a language specific to say something about Jesus.
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And he's saying the Word always existed.
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In the beginning was the Word.
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And the Word was with God.
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That's the relationship.
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They're distinct.
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And the Word was God because they shared the essence of God.
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You see, the Trinity is taught in John 1.
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In the beginning, the Word already was.
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By the way, the distinction in the Greek there literally means in the beginning, the Word already existed.
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The Word was there indicates already existed.
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So in the beginning, the Word...
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In the beginning was the Word.
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And the Word was with God.
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It's referring to Jesus.
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He is the Word.
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And we know this because of verse 14.
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And the Word became flesh.
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That's...
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I stopped.
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That verse I get all like...
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I get like a woman.
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I get excited.
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The Word became flesh.
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The God of this universe who created the universe stepped into His creation in the person of Jesus Christ.
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You see, Jesus Christ, man, came into existence in Bethlehem because that's the man part.
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And next week we're going to do Christology and we're going to talk about fully God, fully man.
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Because Christianity believes Jesus is God and man both fully.
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And people believe in the fully God, but they get confused about the fully man part.
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But He's both.
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And there is a union of natures.
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We call that the hypostatic union.
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I'll explain that next week.
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The hypostatic union is the union of natures.
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Fully God, fully man in one person.
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See, while the Trinity is one essence with three persons, Jesus is one person with two natures.
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Fully God, fully man.
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Alright, so does that help? Okay, good.
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Alright, now let's look at the Scriptures that defend this doctrine.
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Let's look first at God as one in essence.
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Everybody turn to Deuteronomy 6.
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4 through 6.
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You want some water? Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 6.
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I'm going to get somebody to read if you haven't got your Bible.
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Go ahead.
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Hear, O Israel.
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The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
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Love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
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These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.
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Impress them on your children.
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Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
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Great, that's as far as you need to go.
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Verse 4 through 6, it says, Hear, O Israel.
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The Lord is one Lord.
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So that becomes what's known as the Shema.
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The Shema is the prayer of Israel.
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And I wish I knew it in Hebrew.
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I don't, but I've heard people pray it in Hebrew.
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It's very beautiful because they're praying this prayer.
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Our God is one God.
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Right? And that is the most fundamental, foundational, doctrinal truth of the Hebrew faith, the Jewish faith.
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So much so that if you notice, he read on, it said teach this to your children.
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Right? Take this and teach this to them because they need to know about this one God.
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Now, Isaiah 43.
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We're doing Bible drills.
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Isaiah 43.10, who can read that? What's wrong? Is it? Thank you, brother.
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Before me there was no God formed and there shall be no God after me.
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What is God saying? I'm the only God.
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See, it's not henotheism.
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There's not other gods and I'm just the best.
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And it's not polytheism.
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There's a bunch of equal gods.
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I am God and there is no other.
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I am God.
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There is none like me.
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He says this also in Isaiah.
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But in that particular passage, there's no God before me and there's no God after me.
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This destroys Mormonism, by the way.
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The Mormons believe that God was once a man who lived on another planet.
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And because of his obedience to Mormon teachings, he became a god and he became the god of this world.
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And now, if you are obedient to Mormon teachings, you can become a god of your own world.
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It's called celestial marriage.
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You become God, you marry, and you sire your own planet.
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Now, that teaching flies completely in the face of Isaiah 43.10.
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God says, there was no God before me and there will be no God after me.
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This is why we have to say if Jesus is God, He's always been God.
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Because He couldn't have been created as God because that would fly in the face of Isaiah 43.10.
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So, God is one in essence.
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We see that in Deuteronomy 6.
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We see that in Isaiah 43.10.
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Now, we look at Jesus and the Holy Spirit because the next thing is God is three in person.
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There are three persons who are called God.
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The first is the Father.
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I don't think anybody would debate that, but just so you know, the Father is called God, like everywhere.
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So, I don't think I have to defend that.
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But if you want a defense for it, I guess you could go to Jesus' model prayer.
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Our Father who art in heaven.
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That's a reference to the Father.
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But when is Jesus called God? Well, the first place is in John 1.
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Verses 1-3.
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I've already said this one.
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
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And what else does it say? In the Word was God, in Him was life, and the life was the life of men.
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But what does it say in verse 3? Say that again, brother, louder, please.
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Whoever said that.
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All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
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All things were made through Him, and nothing that was made that wasn't made by Him.
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So, we have this statement.
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Honestly, if we weren't talking about Jesus, if I just came up and I said, all things were made through Him, and nothing that was made wasn't made by Him, everyone here would say you're talking about God.
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You wouldn't debate it.
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It would just be obvious, right? But in this context, he's talking about Jesus.
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And so therefore, we have clear biblical testimony of who Jesus is.
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But that's not the only place.
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We could go to Revelation 22.
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That's almost at the end of your Bible.
52:40
You're going to hit the maps.
52:41
Work your way backward.
52:44
Revelation 22, verse 13.
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Actually, let's look at verse 12 and 13.
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Behold, I am coming soon, bringing My recompense with Me to repay each one for what he has done.
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Who's speaking? Jesus.
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I am coming soon.
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In fact, John's revelation is actually called the Apocalypse of John or the revelation of Jesus.
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This is Jesus' revelation.
53:11
He says, I am coming soon.
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And then he says in verse 13, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
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Let me tell you something.
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No man can say that.
53:27
No man can say, I am the Alpha and the Omega.
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By the way, if you don't know what that is, that's the first and last letter of the Greek alphabet.
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So he's saying, I'm the beginning and the end and everything in between.
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This world was created to glorify God and it is glorified by glorifying God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
53:54
And the Son must not be mistaken for anyone other than God.
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By the way, you can see that same language in Revelation 1 when the Son is first seen.
54:06
I am the Alpha and the Omega.
54:09
But there's another verse that I think is very important.
54:12
Did I put these on your list? Because I jumped past the Colossians passage because Mark's teaching on that.
54:18
I'm sure he'll get to it.
54:19
And I'm pressed for time.
54:21
I'm at 54 minutes and I've got to close.
54:23
But I want to show you one that's not on your list.
54:25
Go to John 8.
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In John 8, Jesus is having a debate with the Jewish leaders and they are angry about what He is saying.
54:44
And let's begin in verse 48.
54:47
John 8, we'll begin at 48.
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The Jews answered Him, Are we not right in saying that You are a Samaritan and have a demon? Jesus answered, I do not have a demon, but I honor My Father and You dishonor Me.
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Yet I do not seek My own glory.
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There is One who seeks it and He is the Judge.
55:03
Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death.
55:06
The Jews said to Him, Now we know that you have a demon.
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Abraham died, as did the prophets.
55:13
Yet you say if anyone keeps My word, he will never taste death.
55:17
Are you greater than our father Abraham who died? And the prophets died? Who do you make yourself to be? Jesus answered, If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing.
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It is My Father who glorifies Me of whom He said, He is your God.
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But you have not known Him.
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I know Him.
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If I were to say that I do not know Him, I would be a liar like you.
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But I do know Him and I keep His word.
55:39
Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day.
55:44
He saw it and was glad.
55:46
So the Jews said to Him, You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham.
55:52
Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, Before Abraham was, I am.
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Now, a couple things.
56:02
One, Jesus expresses there His own pre-existence.
56:08
Before Abraham was, I was.
56:12
Now it should be grammatically, Before Abraham was, I was.
56:17
But that's not what He said.
56:19
Because He adopts for Himself the divine name.
56:25
Exodus.
56:26
Remember when Moses saw the burning bush? And he said, Who shall I say has sent me? You say, I am has sent me.
56:37
Jesus uses the phrase, I am, of Himself seven times in the Gospel of John.
56:42
Remember when Jesus was coming to them on the water? And He says, Fear not, it is I? That's not what He said.
56:50
Translated from the Greek directly, Fear not, I am.
56:56
And there are seven distinct statements of Christ where He refers to Himself as the I am.
57:00
But this one most important, because in this one He places Himself in relationship to Abraham, who would have lived 1,500 years, actually 2,000 years prior to Jesus.
57:11
And He says, Before Abraham was, I am.
57:17
So, time has come, time has gone.
57:19
We are going to look more at Christology next week.
57:23
And we're going to look at the Holy Spirit in the week after that.
57:27
But look at the bottom of your sheet, and we'll end with this.
57:29
There are some errors that many people make when it comes to the Trinity.
57:32
I've given you three little pictures.
57:34
The first error is tritheism.
57:36
They think there are three different gods.
57:37
There are not.
57:38
There's one God.
57:39
There are those modalistic monarchianism or Sabellianism.
57:43
Some people say the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all the same person.
57:46
That's not true, because they interact with one another.
57:49
And the last one is Unitarianism, which says the Father is God, the Son is a created God, and the Spirit is a force or a power.
57:57
That's what's typically taught in Jehovah Witness theology.
57:59
That is not true either.
58:01
So I've given you three false teachings to look at and to think about.
58:06
So was today helpful? Good.
58:08
Let's pray.
58:09
Father, I thank You for Your Word.
58:11
I thank You for this time of study.
58:12
I pray that it will be useful for these men in the days to come, Lord, and that it might encourage them toward a closer walk with Christ.
58:19
And it's in His name we pray.
58:20
Amen.