The Christian Doctrine of the Trinity

The tri-unity of God is the subject this evening and it is with some fear and trepidation that one approaches this subject because of the actual nature of the discussion. We are talking about what God has revealed concerning himself and I make no apologies to the fact that our subject this evening will be Christian theism.

I will not attempt to address any other type of theistic belief other than the Christian viewpoint because of the very nature of what we're addressing. We are addressing information that God has revealed about himself and that is a buzzword amongst Christians.

We're used to hearing ideas like God revealing himself but that is actually foundational to everything else that we will do this evening. A lot of things we will talk about tonight are attributes of God, are facts about God that we could not know outside of God's graciously revealing them to us.

That man's knowledge and man's wisdom could not in and of itself come to conclusions that are given to us by scripture itself. And so that leads me to a foundational statement and that is when we look at the nature of God we are looking at the nature of God on the basis of God's revelation and that is the Bible.

The comments that we have will be based upon and will demand adherence to the tenets of scripture and we will frequently refer to the Bible and to its teaching in looking at what God has revealed about himself because it is the only way that we can know that what we believe is true and that we are indeed following God's revelation and his revelation of himself.

The Natural Attributes of God: Spirit, Personality, and Life

So as we look at the nature of God we first start with some of the most basic information that is the attributes of God. What are the attributes of God? Well on our outline this evening we have divided the attributes of God up into three classifications.

First the natural attributes of God, secondly the attributes of God pertaining to his infinity, and third the attributes of God pertaining to creation. Now it is important to note that it is impossible to divide God up along black and white lines into specific compartments where you will not have any overlapping.

You will discover that many of the attributes that we list here overlap with one another in what they are attempting to express and say but that's just simply the nature of what we're dealing with. You can't put God under a microscope and divide him up and put him in that type of a scientific rigorous examination.

So when we look at even the broad classifications for example the attributes pertaining to his infinity, the attributes pertaining to creation, some of those will overlap. We will see some things that look somewhat similar but for convenience and for examination's sake we'll look at this.

So under the natural attributes of God we have three attributes that is spirituality, personality, and life. First of all God is spirit. In his very nature he is spirit. That is that God is not in and of himself a material being.

God is not limited to the material realm. This is over and against such ideas as pantheism for example that would connect God intimately with the physical realm. The God of the Bible is spirit and he is not limited to the physical realm because as we will see he is the creator of the physical realm and he existed before the physical realm existed itself.

In John 4 24 Jesus told us that God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. Part of his very nature, his way of existence is that of spirit. Secondly God is personal. This is very very important because as we face the onslaught of various new philosophies today that would attempt to tell us that we are a part of God and God is a part of us and have movie stars standing on beaches saying I am God, I am God, I am God.

We need to against that proclaim the biblical truth that God is personal and because God is personal we are created in his image man too is personal. What does it mean to say that God is personal? In Exodus 3 14 when God revealed himself to Moses he said I am that I am.

God realizes he exists. He has the attributes of personality. He is aware of his own self existence. He is aware of the existence of other things. He has feelings and emotions. These things are those things that are attached to a personal being.

God is not an it. God is not the supreme force. God is not some cohesive factor to creation. God is personal. This is very important because many of the modern philosophical teachings about God will actually redefine God as an impersonal force.

The Christian cannot allow this. This is not accurate from the Christian perspective whatsoever. Thirdly, God is life. That is he is alive. He is the source of all life. All other living things are derivative from and depend upon God.

All other life that exists owes its existence to God and depends for support upon God. God is alive. In Jeremiah chapter 10 verses 6 -11 you have the comparison that Jeremiah draws between the dead gods of the idols and the true God who is described as the living God, the eternal God.

God is the source of life. He is living. He is alive. These refer to God in his nature. By nature he is personal. By nature he is spirit. By nature he is living. The next series of attributes we will look at are those that pertain to his infinity.

God's Infinity: Absoluteness, Sovereignty, Self-Existence, and Immutability

As we look at them you will understand what it is when we say pertain to his infinity. For example, the first of these is absoluteness or as you may notice another term that would be applicable would be uniqueness.

What does this mean? For a long time I didn't really have a full understanding of what this exact word meant when referring to God. I understood that God was the absolute of good and the absolute of love and things like this.

But in reality when we refer to God himself as being absolute, what we are referring to is that God is the foundation of, the grounds of, all else that exists and all else that exists to have its proper meaning and to be understood properly must be related to this personal infinite God.

Since he is the creator of all that is, since he is the absolute standard of all that is, if one wishes to know truth, if one wishes to know meaning, if one wishes to know right, then we must be related to God and we must relate each individual thing in creation to God.

No individual thing in and of itself, by itself, separated from its created status has meaning outside of its relationship to God and God's purpose in making it. That is a very vital truth that especially our culture needs to hear about today and unfortunately our culture has abandoned that type of a concept and that type of a world view.

Secondly, God is sovereign. God is supreme. God does not depend upon the created order, is not frustrated by the created order. God is not contingent upon the created order. There are a number of passages.

Look at Isaiah chapter 43 verses 12 through 13. Isaiah 43, 12 through 13. Here God says, I have revealed and saved and proclaimed I and not some foreign God among you. You are my witnesses declares the Lord that I am God.

Yes, and from ancient days I am he. No one can deliver out of my hand when I act, who can reverse it? God here points out that one of the differences between the true God and the false gods that he is engaged in argument about here in the book of Isaiah between about chapters 40 and 50 is that one of the things is that the false gods have no ability to act, whereas the true God is sovereign.

When he acts, no one can reverse it. The false gods can be frustrated by man's attempts and man's will, mainly because they don't really exist and they are the figment of men's imaginations in the first place.

But God says that he is sovereign. None can deliver out of his hand. Look at Isaiah chapter 46. In Isaiah 46, 9, God says, remember the former things, those of long ago. I am God and there is no other.

I am God and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning from ancient times what is still to come. I say my purpose will stand and I will do all that I please. Now this eternal God points out that it is his will that will be accomplished, that he will do all that he pleases.

In fact, the psalmist had said that long time ago in Psalm 135, 6 and a number of other places in the Psalms, of course, but in Psalm 135, 6, the psalmist wrote, the Lord does whatever pleases him in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths.

These are just a few of the many, many passages that could be called upon to demonstrate for us the fact that scripturally, the God of the Bible is sovereign and supreme in his universe that he has created.

The third attribute pertained to his infinity is that of self-existence. This is important as well. God does not depend upon anyone or anything at all. God is self-existent. He can say I am and stop right there.

When we say I am, we say I am because I have the proper atmosphere, because I have the proper oxygen, because I have the proper light and food and water, etc., etc., etc. We are contingent beings. At any point in time, we could simply cease to exist in the state that we currently are.

But God is not like that. God is self-existent. We owe our existence to God, but God owes his existence to no one and no thing. God does not need anything. I know you've frequently heard it said, well, God was lonely and so he created man.

Well, I don't believe God was lonely because that would be an imperfection in God. And when you look at the fact that, as we will see later in this evening, that God is triune, God wasn't lonely. I suppose if you're a Unitarian, you might say God was lonely, but God wasn't lonely.

He doesn't need anything from man. God is self-existent. The fourth attribute pertaining to his infinity is immutability, which is a long word for saying unchangeableness. God does not change. He cannot change because if you think about it logically for a moment, you'll realize that a being that undergoes change is growing and changing and experiencing.

And in fact, you have to ask the question, the change that occurs, is it for the work? A perfect being cannot change because if he changes for the better, then he wasn't perfect in the first place. If he changes for the worst, he's no longer perfect.

So God does not change. And of course, this is not just simply a logical argument, but it is also a scriptural argument. In the 102nd Psalm, verse 27, the psalmist in describing, interestingly enough, in verses 25 and 26, the creator and the distinction between the unchangeableness of the creator and the changeableness of creation.

And you might want to just note that this very passage spoken of Yahweh God in Psalm 102 is quoted of Jesus Christ in Hebrews chapter 1, says in verse 27, but you remain the same and your years will never end.

You remain the same, though the universe changes. In fact, though the universe will eventually be discarded as an old garment, you do not change. There is hardly anything more comforting to the people of God than to realize that God does not change.

That God tomorrow will not cancel his covenants and cancel his salvation. God is not changing. He's not progressing. He's not growing. He's not gaining new knowledge. You say, well, everyone knows that.

No, that's not true. Not only do some very major cult groups have a problem with that, but even within quote unquote orthodox circles today, you will find a teaching known as process theology, finite godism.

It basically teaches that God has no coercive power. That is, he has no actual power over the universe. He only has persuasive power. He attempts to persuade the universe as it comes into existence each second to be the best it can be.

And it's up to the universe to choose whether to be so or not, down to the point where every single atom and molecule in your body has a choice whether it wants to do what God says or not. And this is within some of the absolute mainline denominations that if I mentioned the names, every one of you would know what they were.

So this concept of God's immutability, his inability to change, is infinitely connected to everything else we say about God, about his eternity, about his timelessness, things such as this. It's very important.

God's Infinity: Unity, Perfection, Immensity, and Eternity

The fifth attribute pertained with infinity is that of unity. Unity. There is one substance, one, to use the terminology used by some of the Greek fathers in the early church, one ousia, one being of God that cannot be divided up.

God is indivisible. Whether it's in three parts or a thousand parts, you can't divide God up into sections. God's being is indivisible. You can't take God's being, if you could picture what it was, and chop it up into pieces.

That ceases to be God. Now, this is really the root of what we'll look at again a little bit later, biblical monotheism, the belief that there is only one God. If you may recall, the Jewish people, when they would rise in the morning, would recite the Shema.

And the Shema starts off, Shema Yisrael, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh our God. Hear, O Israel, Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one. This was central to the revelation of God's word that God is one. That there is not two gods, there are not three gods, God is one.

You say, well, you're going to be talking about the trinity. Aren't you contradicting yourself? Not in any way. I'm contradicting tri-theism, not the trinity. Never confuse tri-theism with the trinity.

They are not the same thing in any way, shape, or form, and we'll see that as we go along. The sixth attribute pertained with infinity is that of perfection. Now, you may notice that one of the passages you might think of, Matthew 5, verse 48, talks about our Heavenly Father being perfect, and in reality, that's predominantly relevant to his moral perfections, his moral completeness.

But when we talk about God's perfection, we are talking about the lack of anything missing in God. God does not come short of perfection in any of his attributes. When we talk about God's love later on, or God's holiness, something like that, these are perfect and complete.

God is complete, and you can see how that is connected somewhat to his self-existence and things like this. The seventh attribute pertaining to his infinity is that of immensity. In 2 Chronicles 6 .18, we read that God fills the heavens and the earth.

Now, you might say, well, what's the difference between that and omnipresence? Well, we're talking about here God's being as considered outside of its relationship to the universe, that God's being is unlimited, that God's being is infinite, that it cannot be spatially limited to a particular place to the exclusion of other places.

That does not mean that God does not use language of dwelling with his people, dwelling in someone's heart and things like that. We're talking about his being in the absolute sense is immense and unlimited.

Now, the eighth attribute and the final attribute in looking at God's attributes pertaining to his infinity is one that getting a hold on is not easy, but is vital. In fact, I have seen people's entire concepts of God change when we look at God's eternity, God's timelessness.

Now, in Exodus 3 .14 that we looked at before, when God said and identified himself as the I Am, we get some indication there as well as, for example, in the passage from Isaiah 43 that we looked at where he talks about proclaiming the beginning from the end.

We look at Psalm 90 verse 2 that says, before the mountains are brought forth or thou form the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. When we look at passages in the New Testament like 1 Timothy 1 .17 and Jude 25 where it talks about the eternal God, the everlasting God, we understand that the scriptures teach that God is eternal, but what does that mean?

What does it mean that God is eternal? Does it mean that God has simply always existed in the same understanding that we have of time, that his timeline is just infinitely longer than our own, or is there something more to the existence of God in his relationship with time?

Now, I realize there are a lot of Christian scholars and a lot of Christian discussion concerning the nature of time and things like that. It's not the biggest discussion in most churches, that's for sure, but amongst Christian philosophers, there is discussion of the nature of time.

But I think if we are going to be consistent with what has come before, what we have looked at in regard to God's immutability, God's immensity, and these other aspects of his being, that we will have to see that when the Bible says that God is eternal, it's not just simply saying that God has existed for a long time.

It is talking about a completely different kind of existence. Time itself, I believe, is a created thing. That is, it is measured by changes within the created order. We measure time by the movement of the stars and the circling of the sun and things like this.

But was there that kind of time before, that's a word that we're stuck using, but before creation? What I'm putting before you is the concept that God is eternal, that is, he exists outside the realm of time.

He is not limited to time as you and I are. He is not experiencing a progression of events as a part of his nature. I have what must be the world's simplest visual aid to attempt to describe what I'm talking about when I talk about God being eternal.

On a white sheet of paper here, I basically have a line. That's all it is. It has two ends on it. It doesn't go all the way across the paper, but I have a line. It is predominantly a straight line without having used a ruler.

It's close enough anyways. This is meant to represent time, time having a beginning, time having an ending. Now you can place us anywhere along the line if you want to, depending upon your particular eschatological beliefs, but time is only going one direction.

No matter what you do, in approximately 40 seconds it's going to be 748. Now you can hold your breath, you can run out of the house, you can destroy my watch, you can do anything you want to, but we're all going to get to 748 at the same time.

It's inevitable. It's going to happen. That's the nature of time. We only go one direction. It's going that direction. We can't go back despite all the science fiction novels to the contrary. So what does that mean?

If this is time, then attempt to view this entire sheet of paper as God's being. If God exists all around and all through that timeline, then what we are saying is all points in time are instantaneous to God.

Now that is a difficult concept to grasp because it is so different than our own experience, but all points in time are instantaneous to God. When we talk about the idea of God seeing the future, have you ever wondered how it is he does that?

Have you ever struggled with the question of how God sees the future? Does he have a crystal ball he uses that he just has the exclusive rights to? Why doesn't anybody else do it? Obviously not. God knows the future not because he simply looks in the future, but because the future is a present reality to him as is the present as is the past.

If that is true, then from God's perspective, God is still as much with Moses at the burning bush as he is with us here this evening. Difficult thing to understand? Yes. But I think vital, especially when you begin looking at how God deals with man, how God talks about such things as salvation and aspects of salvation, especially in the revelation of the New Testament.

I think these understandings come even more clearly to us then. And if by now you haven't come to the realization, let me say it too explicitly. We are talking about a being who is unique, who is totally other than we are, and who far transcends our small thoughts about him.

We would not know these things about God if God did not reveal them to us. That's why I emphasized that when we started off. Now, the third section under the attributes of God are those pertaining to creation.

God's Omnipresence, Omniscience, and Omnipotence in Creation

That is, assuming creation exists now and we are here, what are some of the attributes of God that we see in relationship to that creation? These are the famous omnis, omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence.

That is, that God is omnipresent. There is not a part of his created universe that he does not have access to. He is present within all of that. That is not the same as to say that God is intimately connected to his universe.

The difference is, the pantheist would tell you that God is within the very sheets of paper within your Bible, or within your handout, or within your date address book, or within the couch you're sitting on, or wherever else you might be, that God is within it and he can't escape it.

It is a part of him, he is a part of it. The Christian says, no, God existed before that thing ever did. He created it, not because he had to, but because he wanted to. And he exists within it because it is his gracious choice to do so, not because he absolutely has to.

He is present in all of his creation, but not in an existence way, not in a way where he is dependent upon that creation. His omniscience means that God has all knowledge. And that does not mean, that does not mean, do not get it wrong in thinking that what Christians are saying is God has all knowledge, even of the absurd.

You've undoubtedly heard the atheist ask the absurd questions that are just that, they are absurd, they're totally illogical, there is no resolution to the question. They say, well see, if God doesn't know that, then God must not be God.

The same thing in the relationship to omnipotence. When we talk about God having all power, a lot of times Christians say, well that means God can do anything. No he can't. The Bible says there are things God can't do.

God can't cease being God. God can't lie. The writer of Hebrews said that. There are things God cannot do. God cannot do the absurd. God cannot make a square peg fit in a round hole. Now he may change the entire laws of the universe and physics and make square pegs fit in round holes.

And don't ask me how in the world he'd do that. The point is, where things are right now, that's a logical self-contradiction. That is an absurdity. And it is ridiculous to say that God has the ability to do the absurd.

You know, making rocks heavier than God can lift and wild and crazy things such as this. And of course there are many passages that demonstrate these. From the presence we have Psalm 139, 7 -10 and Jeremiah 23, 23 -24.

For omniscience, Hebrews 4 .13, Matthew 10, 29 -30, Romans 11 .33. Omnipotence, Genesis 17 .1, Revelation 1 .8 where God is described as the Almighty God and Romans 4 .17. So this is a very brief run through some of the attributes of God that are revealed to us by scripture.

God's Moral Attributes: Holiness, Righteousness, Love, and Truth

Now there are also the moral attributes of God. We've only listed four. That is holiness, righteousness, love and truth. And we see these more in God's actions toward mankind. That is the realm in which you encounter morality.

We see God's holiness in Isaiah chapter 6. You have the temple vision of God upon the throne. You have the seraphim and cherubim around the throne saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. We know that there is no darkness in God at all.

There is no sin in God. He is totally and perfectly holy. We also know that his actions with man conform to that attribute of himself that is holiness. God does not deal with man in a capricious way. God deals with man in a holy way.

We see righteousness. Righteousness, when we think of it in the New Testament sense, is normally applied to Christians and it's how we are made right with God, how we were given the proper standing with God.

But when we talk about the righteousness of God, we are talking about the perfection, the accuracy of God's actions with man. The fact that, again, because he is holy, because he is righteous, he deals with us in certain ways.

God is love. The Bible directly says that. Don't get that wrong. It does not say that love is God. It says that God is love. That part of God's attributes is to be love. But notice that that is balanced by his holiness.

Don't get the sloppy agape view of God that makes this one attribute the grossly enlarged attribute that dwarfs all the others. Because if you look at the cross of Christ, for example, and see nothing there but the love of God, and you do not at that very same time see the holiness of God, you are not seeing even all the love of God that is demonstrated in that event.

Finally, we see truth. God is truth. There is no error. There is no lie. There is no self-contradiction in God's being. God deals with us truly. In fact, since he is true, then we can claim that truth actually exists, which in most modern philosophical systems is a shocking statement that truth exists.

You may not be aware of that, especially if you've grown up within a Christian home and a Christian system. But in most philosophical systems today, truth is a completely relative thing that has really no meaning.

But we as Christians can say that truth exists because God is true. So with these attributes of God as a background, we can then move forward and begin to ask the question, how is it that God has demonstrated that he exists finally as the Trinity?

One God in Three Persons: Monotheism, Modalism, and Equality

Well, there are a number of considerations at first we must look into. On the handout that I have given to you, you will find two creeds stated, one from the Council of Nicaea in 325, the other the Athanasian Creed.

We do not know when the Athanasian Creed was written, but the only thing we know about the Athanasian Creed is that Athanasius did not write it as to its actual origin. But these basically express what the Christian Church has taught concerning this doctrine.

But obviously, Nicaea, being 325 AD, is 300 years after Christ. And so frequently it is objected, well, this could not be the Apostles' doctrine. This could not be what Jesus taught, could it? Well, when we look at the doctrine of the Trinity, I would like to suggest to you, I would like to place before you the fact that I believe in the doctrine of the Trinity because of the biblical teaching on three specific points.

And that in fact, if the Bible presents these three specific points, there is no other possible understanding of the Bible's presentation than that that the Christian Church has held on to for, lo, these two millennia, and that is the doctrine of the Trinity.

What are those things? The three biblical truths that together form the foundation of the Trinity are as follows. One, there is only one God. That is monotheism. That is the first thing. The Bible must present that there is only one true God.

And we will briefly look at the fact that it does indeed do that. It says there is only one true God. Secondly, that there are three persons spoken of, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is in direct contradiction of modalism, civilianism, or the Jesus-only teachings that deny the separate personhood of the Father, Son, and Spirit.

I can't tell you how many times I've had Christians and non-Christians, especially non-Christians involved in various and sundry cultic groups that deny the Trinity, present to me their understanding of the Trinity and found out that it wasn't really the doctrine of the Trinity at all.

I can't tell you how many times I've had someone say to me, well, I just can't understand how Jesus could pray to himself. He didn't. That's not what the doctrine of the Trinity says. The Son prayed to the Father.

The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Spirit. The Spirit is not the Father. That is known as modalism or civilianism. It is in a modern sense represented to us by the oneness group, the United Pentecostal Church being a prime example of this, the Jesus-only teaching that claims that indeed Jesus was the Father.

So that when Jesus was praying, what they say is that Jesus was actually two persons. He was the Father and the Son. The Son was only human, the Father was the deity, and the Son, the human nature, was praying to his other nature.

So he was actually speaking to himself. That's what they're saying. Then you've got real civilianists who actually tell you the Father is the Son, the Son is the Spirit. That's not what we're saying. The scriptures clearly present to us three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit.

And we'll look at some of the evidence for that. Thirdly, the third foundational element is that there is full equality of the persons. This is in direct contradiction to Arianism and all systems that would deny the full deity and equality of the Son and the Spirit.

So in other words, what this is saying is that the scriptures present the Son and the Spirit in terms, terminology, and description that can only be used of God himself. Now we will briefly look at this as well, though we have other information that goes more into depth in demonstrating, for example, the deity of Jesus Christ.

We will briefly look at these things. Each of these truths is part of God's revelation of himself, and no system can claim to be based on the Bible unless these truths, which we have just looked at, are taken into account.

The denial of any one of these truths leads directly to false doctrine and to heresy. The denial of monotheism leads to polytheism, such as in Mormonism. The denial of the three persons leads into modalism, such as the United Pentecostal movement, and the denial of the equality of the persons leads into subordinationism, such as the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society and the Way International.

You can actually chart out how this all comes together. So, briefly, we need to take our Bibles and ask the question, does the Bible present to us these three things? For if the Bible does, then we must accept what it says or reject God's revelation of himself, because these are the foundational statements of the doctrine of the Trinity.

The Bible's Teaching on One God

So, let's look at the fact that there is but one God. Now, I have a number of passages listed, and we're only going to look at a couple of them. Look at Isaiah 43 .10. We already looked at the Shema in Deuteronomy 6 .4.

Isaiah 43 .10 is a fascinating verse that comes into play in regard to the deity of Christ as well. But in Isaiah 43 .10, we read, "...you are my witnesses, declares Yahweh, and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.

Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.". Before me no God, after me no God. He is the only true God. In the next chapter, Isaiah 44 .6 -8, this is what Yahweh says, Israel's King and Redeemer.

Yahweh Almighty, I am the first and I am the last. Apart from me there is no God. Verse 8, "...do not tremble and do not be afraid, for I have not proclaimed this and foretold it long ago. You are my witnesses.

Is there any god besides me? No, there is no other rock. I know not one.". Isaiah 45 .5 -6, I am Yahweh and there is no other. Apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, so that from the rising of the sun and the place of its setting, men may know there is none besides me.

I am Yahweh, there is no other. Now there are many other passages that could be examined. In Isaiah 46 .9, 48, 11 and 12, John 17 .3, 1 Timothy 2 .5, Revelation 1 .8, many other passages that demonstrate to us that there is but one God, not many gods.

You say, well everyone believes that. That's not true. There are millions of people on the earth today that believe that there is more than one God. Some of these people also believe that God is in his essential nature a man.

That would be contradicted, for example, by Hosea 11 .9 where God says, I am God and not man, the holy one in the midst of you. And Numbers 23 .19, if you want to jot those down. So the first foundational element of the doctrine of the Trinity is the fact that there is but one God.

The Father, Son, and Spirit as Distinct Persons

Secondly, that there are three persons, the Father, the Son and the Spirit. And since this is one of the smaller groups that is still in existence today, but you still run into them, a lot of Christians are not really prepared to demonstrate this because it seems so obvious from our reading of scripture.

But there are many indications that this is so. In Matthew 3, for example, you have the baptism of Jesus and you have at that time three persons demonstrated to be in existence there. In verses 16 -17, you have, as soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water.