What is the Trinity?

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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June 9, 2013

00:00: So we are continuing in our study on apologetics that we have been doing.
00:07: We've been examining this subject together, asking important questions.
00:12: We've been asking two different types of questions.
00:15: We've said, what are the questions that people outside the church might have about our faith? But one of the other things that we asked early on was, what are some of the questions that you have about your faith? Like last week, we dealt with the question of, how did the disciples die? That's a legitimate question, but we would call that an internal question, because typically that's not something that outsiders would ask.
00:46: That's something you might ask as a Christian.
00:48: It's more of an internal question.
00:51: Well, today we're going to be dealing with a question that has both internal and external value.
00:58: The question, as I was looking through the lists that were given to me early on, the question wasn't really stated as a question.
01:07: It was more stated as a frustrated statement.
01:11: And it was stated, I don't understand the Trinity.
01:16: And I thought, OK, well, that's not really a question.
01:19: That's more of a frustrated statement.
01:22: But so let's word that as a question.
01:25: OK, how about, how would you word that as a question? Huh? Yeah, play a little Jeopardy.
01:36: How would you word the phrase, I can't understand the Trinity or I don't understand the Trinity? Yes.
01:41: How about that? We just do that simply.
01:43: What is the Trinity? We talk about this term a lot.
01:52: In fact, in a lot of what we've already done, I have made reference to the Trinity.
01:59: I've made reference to that belief system.
02:01: I have said, as a Christian, we are Trinitarians.
02:06: So what I want to do with you today, because I know we have such a large, diverse age group, is I'm going to give you a few things to help you with this subject.
02:14: And at the end, I'm going to teach you a very simple thing that you can memorize to help you understand how to explain the doctrine of the Trinity.
02:23: It's a very simple three statement thing that you can repeat back to me.
02:28: And you'll be able to know that by the end of the class.
02:30: But at the beginning, I want to sort of I want to break down and this might help some of you older kids as you're getting ready to go into high school and into college.
02:40: This is going to be helpful for you.
02:43: And what we're going to do first, before we get into the Trinitarianism, is we're going to talk about we're going to break down worldviews.
02:49: OK, and this is going to be a very simple breakdown because we talk about worldviews.
02:56: There are multiple worldviews, but the first one that we are most familiar with is called monotheism.
03:08: After that, you have what is called polytheism.
03:14: You have something called a monotheism.
03:21: And you have something called dualism.
03:26: And I'm running out of board here.
03:28: Thankfully, I'm done.
03:30: So we start monotheism, polytheism, henotheism and dualism.
03:38: All right.
03:39: So most of us probably know what monotheism is.
03:43: Who wants to? Not everybody shout.
03:45: If you know monotheism, just raise your hand and I'll call on you.
03:48: Go ahead, Cody.
03:50: There's one God, right? That is mono, meaning one, and theism or it comes from the Greek word theos, which means God.
04:02: Right.
04:03: What is polytheism? Hands, hands, Courtney.
04:09: More than one God.
04:11: Any form that would believe in more than one God would be polytheism.
04:16: That could be two gods, three gods, 10 gods, 150 gods, a bazillion, however many.
04:22: Right.
04:22: It doesn't matter.
04:24: It's more than one God.
04:27: OK.
04:30: Does anybody want to write this down? Because I know you don't have any paper.
04:34: Do you want some paper? Because, Cody, do you know where it is? It's probably better than he does.
04:40: If you grab them some paper, because they may want to write some of this down.
04:43: Also later, I'm going to show you a diagram.
04:45: You might want to write it down, too.
04:48: All right.
04:49: So, yes, yes, sure.
05:01: Absolutely.
05:02: Absolutely.
05:08: Sure.
05:08: Absolutely.
05:09: I'm going to come down here and I will put atheism.
05:17: OK, atheism is is is a worldview.
05:19: It does fit in this list.
05:21: And normally when I'm teaching it, I do have that on the list.
05:24: So thanks for the reminder.
05:28: Oh, sure.
05:32: Yeah.
05:32: Most people have never heard of an atheism and most people never heard of dualism.
05:37: And that's why I like to teach this.
05:39: But the atheism is normally part of it.
05:41: Quite frankly, just kind of slipped my mind.
05:44: But that's a good point, because then you often you don't often think of it when you're thinking of God, God, you know, no God.
05:49: So atheism.
05:52: No, what does atheism mean? It means don't believe in God.
05:56: Right.
05:57: OK.
05:57: So it's the belief that there is no God.
06:01: That's that's that's atheism.
06:03: No God.
06:05: Monotheism is one God.
06:08: Polytheism is more than one God.
06:13: All right.
06:15: So doesn't that seem like we've covered everything? You either have no God, one God or more than one God.
06:21: Where did the other two come in? Negative one.
06:25: Negative one.
06:26: All right.
06:28: Henotheism takes a little bit of understanding.
06:33: In fact, some people might put henotheism under polytheism because it is a belief in more than one God.
06:42: But henotheism and let me make sure I want to make sure I get everybody to understand what I'm saying.
06:50: Henotheism is the belief in more than one God, but that only one of those gods is worthy of worship.
07:02: Let me say it again.
07:04: Henotheism is the belief that there is more than one God, but that only one of those gods is worthy of worship.
07:13: We see this a lot in African tribal religion.
07:17: There's all kinds of gods, but only our God deserves worship.
07:21: The God of our tribe is the one we worship.
07:23: Every other God, there may be 50,000 other gods, but only our God deserves worship.
07:30: You understand? This is how the pagans of the Old Testament often believed, because if you think about it, they would talk about their God versus the God of the Jews.
07:43: And they would say, but we worship Baal.
07:46: We don't worship Jehovah or Yahweh.
07:50: And it was sort of a henotheistic, yes, there are many gods, but our God is the one we worship.
07:56: So it is more than one God, but only one God deserves worship.
08:01: So it's sort of a trying to strike a balance between polytheism and monotheism.
08:07: There's many gods, but only one deserves worship.
08:10: OK, so we'll put that.
08:12: Many gods is worshiped and it is, again, exemplified in tribal religions, typically.
08:26: Because the God of the tribe is the one that you worship.
08:30: OK, so we have atheism is no God, monotheism is one God, polytheism, more than one God, henotheism, many gods, but only one is worshiped.
08:40: What do you think dualism is? Go ahead, Ben.
08:47: Dualism, actually, you're right to think, too, because of dual.
08:52: Dualism is actually that there are two impersonal forces in the universe that govern the universe.
09:07: That there are two impersonal forces that govern the universe.
09:24: All right.
09:25: Now, very quickly, before we even get.
09:29: How many of you have ever seen the movie Star Wars? How many of you know who George Lucas is? George Lucas wrote and directed the movie Star Wars.
09:43: Most of his, quote unquote, theology in the movie or the belief system in the movie is drawn from Eastern culture, which is why the Jedi were sort of like the samurai.
09:55: And the way that even the way they dressed was Eastern and they had the sort of the Eastern kimono tops and things and they carried swords and all this.
10:05: There was a lot of Eastern philosophy in the movie.
10:08: Well, one of the philosophies that most people don't realize is the idea that there is a good and a bad that govern the universe.
10:15: There's a positive and a negative, the force and the dark side.
10:22: Right.
10:23: There is there are people who believe that.
10:26: How many of you have ever seen this symbol? What is that symbol called? Who said it? Did you say it? You said it is what? Yeah.
10:38: It is called the Yin Yang or the Yang or however you want to say the second one.
10:45: Yin is negative.
10:50: Yang is positive.
10:52: OK, in certain terms in Eastern culture, they talk about the male and the female.
11:00: They talk about the positive and the negative, the masculine and the feminine.
11:04: There's all kinds of ways that they've used to describe the yin and yang.
11:09: There's two types of dualism.
11:11: There's competing dualism and balancing dualism.
11:15: Competing dualism says the good and the bad are always at war with one another.
11:19: Balancing dualism say they always have to stay in balance.
11:22: Typically, you'll hear like a person who studies Buddhism, they'll talk about wanting to balance themselves or be balanced.
11:28: And it's all about balance and chi.
11:30: Well, what they're talking about is to get everything on their scale balanced, that they're good and they're bad is here.
11:39: They're balancing everything out.
11:41: So that would be balancing dualism.
11:42: Of course, competing is that they're at war.
11:44: So in dualism, there's different kinds.
11:48: OK, so as you can see, there's all kinds of different worldviews out there.
11:56: Atheism, monotheism, polytheism, henotheism and dualism are just some.
12:01: I mean, if you really want to get down to brass tacks, there's all kinds of different ways that people believe about the world and about God.
12:09: So here comes the question.
12:12: We as Christians stand firm on which one of these? We as Christians stand firm on which one of these? Yes, monotheism, monotheism, Christians are monotheistic.
12:39: Everybody turn to Deuteronomy six.
12:44: Deuteronomy is part of the Old Testament, but yet it is still the Bible.
12:50: So it does still have value for our understanding.
12:55: And Deuteronomy six and verse four, we have what is called the Shema.
13:00: The Shema is the prayer of Israel.
13:04: Why is that funny? OK, my son, of course, he said Shema.
13:11: I don't know why it's funny.
13:13: Deuteronomy six, verse four says, Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
13:25: And that creates the foundation, that one verse.
13:30: It goes on to talk about loving the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, teaching your children these things and all that.
13:35: That's Deuteronomy six, a very important section for families and such as that.
13:39: But this one, hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one Lord.
13:44: That sets the foundation of Jewish thought on the idea that there is only one God.
13:50: Because if you think about it, all of these other pagan religions were either henotheistic or polytheistic.
13:58: They either believed in many gods or they believed in many gods and only worshipped one.
14:01: Very few were monotheistic.
14:04: Very few believed in only one God.
14:06: And the fact that Israel was willing to say, not only do we have a God, not only is that God worthy of worship, but He is the only God in the whole universe and no other God really exists.
14:19: That was a major, major difference between them and all the other tribes and all the other religions, because they were willing to say, not only does my God exist, not only is my God better than yours, my God is more powerful than yours because yours doesn't even exist.
14:33: That's a major, major theological statement, and it's found here in Deuteronomy 6, 4.
14:41: So under monotheism, because Christians hold to the same Old Testament that the Jews hold to, we say we are monotheistic.
14:53: We are not polytheists.
14:55: We do not believe in many gods.
14:57: We're not henotheists, dualists, or obviously we're not atheists.
15:01: So, as Christians, we are monotheists.
15:07: But, under monotheism, there is, I'm going to categorize this.
15:14: I'm going to have to bring this over because we're done dealing with the rest, really.
15:19: Under monotheism, we have two options.
15:28: The first is called Unitarianism.
15:37: And then you have Trinitarianism.
15:47: Unitarianism and Trinitarianism.
15:50: Because guess what? Christians are not the only monotheistic...
15:54: In fact, I'm going to take them out here because we're going to put them somewhere else.
15:56: We're not the only monotheistic religion in the world.
15:59: You understand that, right? How many monotheistic religions are there? Let me back that up because there could be others.
16:06: Let's say, how many major, world-stage monotheistic religions are there? Judaism.
16:17: Did you have another one? While we're going, put Judaism falls under Unitarianism.
16:28: Judaism.
16:32: What's the other one? On the world stage, there's three.
16:37: There's Christianity falls under Trinitarianism.
16:45: Judaism falls under Unitarianism.
16:46: Who else is one God? They believe in one God.
16:50: And they're Unitarian.
16:52: Yes.
16:53: Islam.
16:55: Islam.
16:58: So we have, under the one God system, there are three world-stage monotheistic religions.
17:06: They're actually adherents all over the world.
17:09: They're not a very specific brand of cult somewhere in the Midwest or something.
17:15: They're worldwide.
17:16: Okay? Worldwide monotheistic religions, you have Judaism and Islam are Unitarian.
17:25: Only Christianity is Trinitarian.
17:30: Now, Trinitarianism, because the whole question that started today is, what is the Trinity? Trinitarianism is the belief that there is one God, but that that one God exists in three persons.
18:00: And who are they? Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
18:13: So Trinitarianism is that there is one God, but that that one God exists in three persons.
18:21: Later on, I'm going to get you to learn a little saying that will help you with that.
18:29: Unitarianism believes that there is one God and one personality, or one person.
18:38: One God, one person.
18:40: Trinitarianism is one God, three persons.
18:42: I mean, I'm trying to break it down very simply.
18:46: I'm going to go ahead and tell you, and this might not be good for you to hear.
18:52: I don't care.
18:53: It's good for you.
18:54: You need to know.
18:55: Of the two systems, this one is easier to understand.
19:02: It just is.
19:04: One God, one person.
19:05: That's easy to understand.
19:06: It doesn't make sense of everything, but it does make it easier to understand.
19:11: Which is why so many people have seen Judaism and Islam as possible avenues for their faith when they felt like they could not continue pursuing Christianity.
19:26: A lot of people have defected towards Islam and towards Judaism because it's simple.
19:32: One God, one person.
19:33: When you start trying to explain Trinitarianism to someone, it can become somewhat difficult for them to understand.
19:40: People have a tendency that when they don't understand something, they certainly don't want to believe it.
19:46: Even though I tell people all this time, just because you don't understand something doesn't mean that you cannot believe it.
19:52: I don't understand how these lights work, but I have the faith to flip the switch because I know they're going to come on.
19:56: I don't know how electricity works.
19:59: I don't know how a lot of these things work.
20:02: I know there are people who do, who understand it better than I do, but just because I don't understand something doesn't mean that it's not right.
20:09: You had your hand up first, though.
20:21: Oh, yeah, yeah, there's a lot of people.
20:23: Oh, I believe in science and the Big Bang and yada-da-yada-da-yada, but at the same time, to them, the Big Bang Theory is a TV show.
20:31: They don't know much better.
20:33: They know, well, this is what the scientists believe, and I put all my faith in scientists.
20:38: I thought your hand was up.
20:42: My bad.
20:44: So Trinitarianism is the belief that there is one God, but that that one God exists in three persons.
20:52: How do we understand that? How can we grasp that? Well, it's a difficult thing to grasp because there is nothing in this world that we can compare it to.
21:05: I've heard people try to compare the Trinity to water, and they say, well, water exists in a solid and a liquid and a gas, and that's the way that we understand the Trinity.
21:17: Well, no, that's not, because you can't have the water be solid, liquid, and gas all at the same time.
21:25: All right? If you have the gas, you can't have the liquid.
21:27: If you have the liquid, you can't have the solid, and blah, blah, blah.
21:29: So it doesn't exist.
21:31: It doesn't work like the Trinity because the Trinity is all three at the same time.
21:36: So using the ice, water, and all that to make the analogy doesn't really work.
21:42: There's all kinds of things people try to make the analogy.
21:45: I've heard people say that, well, I am a father to Cody, I am a son to Gary, and I'm a husband to Jennifer, so I'm three persons in one.
21:57: That ain't either.
21:58: That ain't right either.
22:00: That is what is called, that is a form of Unitarianism.
22:04: It's saying that the same person takes three roles.
22:06: That's not Trinitarianism.
22:09: Just know that.
22:10: If nothing else you get from today, I hope I give you what not to tell people about the Trinity.
22:17: Don't use the, I am a son, I'm a father, I'm a husband, because that's not right.
22:23: Don't use the ice, water, steam, because that's not right either.
22:28: In fact, those are forms of what has typically been referred to as heresy.
22:34: There are two major heresies that are outside of Trinitarianism.
22:39: This will get a little further than I think you guys will want to go.
22:41: But there's something called Sabellianism.
22:48: Sabellianism, also known as modalism.
22:53: That is the belief that God was the Father in the Old Testament, He was Jesus in the Gospels, and He's the Holy Spirit now.
23:00: It's the ice, steam, water thing.
23:03: That is modalism.
23:04: God is in different modes at different times in history.
23:07: Right now, He's the Holy Spirit.
23:09: When Jesus was here, He was Jesus.
23:11: And before that, He was the Father.
23:12: So, Father, Son, Spirit.
23:14: But they're never all three at the same time, and they don't coexist.
23:18: They just, God is changing modes.
23:20: That's wrong.
23:22: That's what we call a heresy.
23:24: No good.
23:26: Okay? That's Sabellianism or modalism.
23:29: And there is also what is called the Jesus-only movement.
23:36: The Jesus-only movement is, some of you might have heard of Jesus-only Pentecostalism.
23:44: There's a group, Jesus-only Pentecostals, and they believe the Old Testament, the Father, that was Jesus.
23:49: Jesus was in the flesh, and now Jesus is the Spirit.
23:54: And it's just Jesus.
23:56: And that's it.
23:58: That is the, I'm the Father, I'm the Son, I'm the wife, husband.
24:04: That's that heresy.
24:07: So, again, that's wrong.
24:09: What we have to understand about Trans-Aryanism is three concepts.
24:13: I'm going to give them to you now.
24:14: This is what you can memorize, and you can say it back to me.
24:16: Alright? Repeat after me.
24:22: Repeat after me.
24:25: Alright.
24:26: Sorry.
24:27: You got me.
24:28: Okay.
24:29: Let's do it.
24:45: God is one in essence.
24:49: Oh, please.
24:50: Give it to me.
24:51: God is one in essence.
24:55: God is three in person.
24:59: These three persons are co-existent and co-eternal.
25:09: Alright.
25:09: Let's do it again.
25:11: Are you trying to write it down? I'll go slower.
25:14: God is one in essence.
25:18: God is three in person.
25:22: These three persons are co-equal and co-eternal.
25:33: That is the most basic, but yet still biblical, yet still proper way of saying what the Trinity is.
25:41: What is the Trinity? We believe that God is one in essence.
25:45: That means that which is God is unified.
25:51: That which is God is one.
25:54: He is one in essence.
25:56: The essence of God is one.
26:01: God is three in person.
26:03: Within that essence is shared.
26:05: Here's a good word that you can write down.
26:07: Shared.
26:08: That essence is shared by three persons.
26:16: And those three persons are co-equal.
26:19: That means one is not necessarily above the other.
26:22: There is an economy within the Trinity where the Father begets the Son and the Son begets the Spirit.
26:27: But that doesn't mean that one is greater than the other.
26:29: It's simply...
26:31: I don't want to get really...
26:33: I don't want to take off.
26:35: The whole idea of eternally begotten is...
26:37: Huh? Alright, I'll go for it.
26:43: Even though the Son and the Father are co-eternal and co-existing, the Son still comes from the Father.
26:52: And the Spirit still comes from the Father and the Son.
26:56: We call this the eternally begotten Son.
27:00: Because He still comes from the Father, but eternally.
27:03: In the same way that ever since I started existing, ever since I started existing, so too did my thoughts.
27:17: My brainwaves come from me.
27:20: They exist, right? From the very moment I was conceived, it began and so did my brain...
27:26: Well, maybe not because brainwaves don't start...
27:28: In the idea that when I was birthed, I was thinking immediately.
27:34: Those thoughts were coming from me.
27:37: So as long as I have been, so have my thoughts been.
27:40: Right? My thoughts come from me, but yet they are still as old as I am.
27:48: Understand? So too with the Father, the Son and the Spirit.
27:52: The Father begets the Son.
27:53: The Son and the Father together beget the Spirit.
27:55: And yet, they are all co-equal and co-eternal because they all have been eternal.
28:02: So though one comes from the other, it doesn't mean that one came before the other.
28:07: Necessarily.
28:07: Because they're outside of time.
28:10: You asked me to go there.
28:12: That's deep stuff.
28:13: That's wading into seminary level waters right there.
28:16: But that's the reality of it.
28:19: When we talk about the Son, the reason why we refer to Christ as the Son is because He comes from the Father, but it's an eternally begotten God.
28:28: That's why He's called the begotten God in John chapter 1.
28:32: He is called the begotten God.
28:35: Okay? So, here is something we need to understand.
28:42: Let's do it one more time on our statement.
28:44: Write it down.
28:45: God is one in essence.
28:48: That's right.
28:48: God is three in person.
28:50: These three persons are co-equal and co-eternal.
28:58: That means they're equally powerful and they're equally eternal.
29:06: Okay? Here's the thing.
29:08: We talked about some of the false views.
29:11: Here's the reality.
29:13: The Muslims and the Jews call us polytheists.
29:21: Because they say, you believe in more than one God.
29:24: But we don't.
29:26: We don't believe in more than one God.
29:27: We believe in one God.
29:29: We believe that that one God is existing in three persons, but we believe in one God.
29:33: We believe that He's unified, that He's perfectly unified.
29:37: And if you go back to the early teachings of the Christian church, there was something where they talked about the indivisibility of God, that He could not be divided up Father, Son, and Spirit.
29:49: That all three share the essence of God together.
29:52: Again, that word sharing is very important.
29:54: If you've never read it, I encourage you to go and read the Nicene Creed.
29:59: Because it talks about the belief of the early church about what the Trinity was.
30:03: The whole reason for the Council of Nicaea in 325 was because there was debate early on about who Christ was.
30:12: There was a man named Arius who believed that Christ was only a man, that He was not divine.
30:16: And there were other people who believed that Christ was only divine, that He wasn't really a man, that He was like some sort of a spiritual being, that He wasn't fully man.
30:26: And the church held to both.
30:29: They said He was fully man and fully God.
30:32: That's why we call Him the God-man.
30:35: Okay? But if anyone ever says we're polytheistic, no, we're not.
30:39: We believe that God is one in essence.
30:41: That is the heart of monotheism.
30:44: And we are pure monotheists.
30:47: We just happen to be Trinitarians.
30:50: Which means we believe that that one God exists in three persons.
30:54: Those three persons are co-equal, co-eternally.
30:57: They share a will.
30:58: They share desires.
31:00: And what did Jesus say when He was on the earth? I am only here to do the will of the Father who sent me.
31:03: We share goals.
31:06: The whole thing.
31:08: So, that is Trinitarianism.
31:10: And here's a little diagram.
31:11: Sometimes this helps make a little picture for you.
31:16: You can draw three circles.
31:25: There's two.
31:37: There's three.
31:38: If you wanted to put the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the problem with that is you have three individuals.
31:50: Alright? That's not what we want.
31:53: We want to show that God is one.
31:56: We divide out these individualisms.
32:09: The patch.
32:10: Well, you end up with the Fosse-Marshal's patch because that's what we use for our patch.
32:13: But the reason why I use that for the patch is because that is the historic symbol for the Trinity.
32:21: It's the historic reminder that God is one, but that within that one there are three persons.
32:29: The Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
32:32: And again, that's why I use that patch.
32:35: The first book that I ever wrote I've written a couple.
32:40: None of them have been published, but they've all been self-published, so I haven't really been an author.
32:43: But I have written books.
32:46: The first book that I ever wrote was called God and Three Persons.
32:51: And it was about the Trinity.
32:55: That's why when I saw the question, I was like, ooh, there's a question I like.
33:00: This is a subject I've invested a lot of time on.
33:03: Because I think that there are so many people in the Christian church who do not understand the Trinity, or even if they do, they don't believe the Trinity.
33:13: They just don't worship God as one in three persons.
33:17: And I think that we should.
33:18: I think that we should never...
33:19: Here's what happens in a lot of churches.
33:21: One person of the Trinity will get more attention than the others.
33:28: Some people only talk about God and they rarely talk about Jesus or the Holy Spirit.
33:32: Some people are always talking about Jesus, but never talking about the Father or the Holy Spirit.
33:35: In some churches, it's all about the Holy Spirit.
33:38: Woo! Got baptized? Holy Ghost! It's really focused on the Holy Spirit to the detriment of the atoning work of Christ or the electing work of God.
33:52: But you see, understanding the Trinity understands that in the economy of God, all three of the persons of the Trinity have their place in God's plan.
34:02: The Father is the sovereign one who elects.
34:07: The Son is the salvific one who redeems.
34:12: And the Spirit is the comforting one who regenerates our heart.
34:18: All three of them have this role that they play.
34:21: So, we see how the Trinity functions.
34:26: One God and three persons.
34:27: And those three persons are co-equal and co-eternal.
34:29: This is a pretty deep lesson.
34:32: I hope I didn't run right over your heads.
34:34: I don't want to go too far.
34:35: I don't want to scare you.
34:38: But I hope it's helpful.
34:39: If nothing else, keep that thing in your mind.
34:41: There is one God.
34:43: How did I say it? Because I didn't have that written down.
34:45: That's just from my...
34:47: God is one in essence.
34:50: God is three in persons.
34:51: These three persons are co-equal and co-eternal.
34:56: Absolutely.
34:57: Alright, let's pray.
34:59: Lord, thank you for this time we've had together to study.
35:02: We pray that everything has been correct, Lord, and has been encouraging for these young people.
35:09: And we just pray that you'll use it to bless them.
35:11: In Jesus' name, Amen.