How to Understand the Trinity? #trinity #presup #apologetics

Welcome back to another episode of Revealed Apologetics Plus. In today's video, I'm going to be covering the topic of the doctrine of the Trinity, okay? Christians believe that God is a Trinity. This is an important concept to Christian theology.

It is based in biblical teaching, and of course, as you would imagine, it is a central focus on the topic of apologetics, which is the defense of the faith. Oftentimes, we get attacks from non-Christian groups like Muslims who deny the doctrine of the Trinity, Jehovah's Witnesses who deny the doctrine of the Trinity, and Mormons who have actually an incorrect view of what the Trinity is all about.

And so it's important to kind of be able to define and defend this particular doctrine. Now, this is a key point. One of the main facets of defending the doctrine of the Trinity that I think is so vital that people miss is that part of the work of defending this doctrine is defining it correctly.

I think because a lot of Christians have a difficult time understanding the Trinity themselves, it can be very difficult trying to explain it to other people. Oftentimes, we'll use analogies to try to help people understand it, and our analogies, as you would imagine, fall short.

For example, we often say that God is kind of like liquid, solid, and gas, and, you know, they're all— we want to stay away from those, okay? I have no problem saying that God as God, as a Trinity of persons, is unique.

There is nothing in creation that can have a one-to-one correspondent comparison. God is unique in this sense. And so there's nothing wrong with that. Now, let's define the Trinity first, okay? So the doctrine of the Trinity basically states that there is one God, okay, who exists as three persons, okay?

We believe that there is only one God. This is key because people who disagree with the Trinity will often quote passages in Scripture which refer to there being only one God. I mean, take Deuteronomy 6, verse 4.

Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one, okay? As a Trinitarian, someone who affirms the doctrine of the Trinity, we are going to agree with that, okay? Quoting a passage which teaches that there is only one God doesn't hurt the doctrine of the Trinity because people who hold to the Trinity are monotheists.

We believe that there is only one God. However, we believe that when we take all of biblical revelation, okay, when we take it all together, what we find is that there is one God, but this one God has revealed himself in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

So, for example, in Philippians 1, verse 2, God is called our Father, God our Father, okay? And in John 1, verse 1, we have the Son being called God. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And then John 1, verse 14, the Word became flesh. And then in Acts, chapter 5, verses 3 through 4, that passage shows that lying to the Holy Spirit is equivalent to lying to God. That's key because you can't lie to something that is impersonal.

I can't lie to a rock, or I can't lie to, you know, this camera in front of me, but I can lie to a person, okay? Now, of course, we don't believe that the Bible affirms polytheism, the existence of multiple gods.

And so when we take all of what Scripture has to say, what we find is that there is one being who is God who exists as three persons, okay? Now, we want to make a very clear distinction between being and person, okay?

When you read, say, like a theology book, and there's a section on the Trinity, the Trinity will often be referred to something along the lines of God being one what and three whose. I think that nails it quite accurately.

God is one what? That's asking a question about his nature. God is one being, okay? And who is God? God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These three persons share the same divine essence, the same divine nature, okay?

So this is very important because within apologetics, people who attack this doctrine will often say, hey, how can the Christian doctrine of the Trinity be true when the very idea is a contradiction, okay?

How can God be three and one? And that's a very important question. When someone says that something is a contradiction, what they're saying is that the concept in question violates the second law of logic, which is the law of non-contradiction.

And the second law of logic, the law of non-contradiction, basically states that a statement cannot be both true and false at the same time and in the same sense. That's very, very important. There can be things that can be true and false at the same time, but when they are true and false at the same time and in the same sense, then the idea in question is really incoherent.

And what are we saying as Trinitarians? Are we saying that God is one and three at the same time and in the same sense?

Well, no.

What we're arguing is that there is a sense in which God is one, and there's a sense in which God is three. The sense in which God is one is with respect to his nature, his essence. The sense in which God is three is with respect to his personhood, okay?

One being, three persons. Now, the difficulty is that we as human beings are one being and one person, and so we don't have experience of tri-personality. But this is an aspect of God that he's unique, okay?

And there's nothing wrong with that. Admitting that does not hurt the doctrine of the Trinity. It is taught in the Bible. Of course, we would think that God as God would be unique, and there is nothing in creation that can really capture this aspect of his essence, okay?

So this is super, super important. The doctrine of the Trinity, one God who exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We don't defend this Trinity simply by finding a Bible verse that summarizes the entire doctrine.

The way in which the doctrine of the Trinity is arrived at is through taking all of what Scripture has to say and then formulating the definition based upon divine revelation. This is very, very important.

None of this nonsense when someone says the doctrine of the Trinity was invented at the Council of Nicaea in 325. That is ridiculous, ahistorical. It's a myth, okay? The doctrine of the Trinity is found right there in the Bible.

It is hinted to in the Old Testament, and it comes to more fuller expression in the New Testament, especially as Jesus Christ manifests himself in the New Testament, and we learn about him through New Testament teaching, all right?

All right, well, that's understanding the Trinity. Hopefully this at least kind of tickles your fancy and you desire to study this topic more and more. There are a lot of books out there that you can get your hands on.

My advice to you would be read the Bible, do a study on the Trinity using the biblical text, of course. Get a good systematic theology. I like for beginners and people who are not kind of scholars, I like to suggest Wayne Grudem's systematic theology.

Read his section on the doctrine of the Trinity. I think it's helpful. And Dr. James White, he wrote the book, The Forgotten Trinity might be useful as well, okay? Lots of resources out there, super important topic, but that's it for this video, guys.

Thank you for joining me on another episode of Revealed Apologetics+. Until next time, take care. God bless. Bye-bye.