The Trinity & Theology Proper

It is it is time to begin class it is just a little after 630 so It's good to see you all and I want to make mention if you are joining us via live stream on Facebook we have an opportunity which is a little new we have someone who is monitoring our Facebook page.

So if you are watching live on Facebook, and you have a question you can send your question in the comments. We're going to try that and see if anybody actually takes advantage of it. I don't know that anybody will but if they want to they can.

Remember this class is the attempt of this class is to try to be interactive. The reason why I give you the books to read is the book is giving you the information. And then I have my lecture, but I want you to be able to ask questions.

I want you to feel like if you need to stop me. You're not wasting our time. This is why we're here. You know if it was just me talking for an hour and a half I could record that and send it home with you.

You know the part of the reason why what some of my best times and in seminary were the times? that I had the opportunity to sit and talk to my professor and ask the questions that were Really on my mind the ones that I really have in trouble with so keep that in mind as we go through the class.

We're going to begin with a word of prayer after which I want everybody to pull out a piece of paper. We're going to start with a pop quiz. Let's pray father. I thank you for this night. I thank you for this class, and I pray that you'll bless us as we seek to understand you better in Jesus name.

Amen all right John if you would close the door and everyone take out a piece of paper and Write your name at the top. Yes. Now if you were not here last week You can give your best answers to these questions, but obviously if you were not here last week.

It's not going to be expected that you will have exactly what I said. But you will probably still know at least some of the answers. There's only three questions and the three questions are as follows.

Number one. What are the two primary sources of theology? What are the two primary sources of? Theology don't answer it out loud. Yeah, I mean if you got them, but try not to try to answer it without your notes first.

Okay.

All right. Number two. What is the difference? between General and special revelation. What is the difference between general and special revelation and number three? How do we distinguish? Inerrancy from infallibility.

How do we distinguish inerrancy from infallibility? You need a minute or two to answer the question. I'll give you that while I sip my coffee I will repeat all of them number one. What are the two primary sources of theology?

What are the two primary sources of theology number two? What is the difference between general and special revelation? And number three, how do we distinguish? inerrancy from infallibility. All right.

Take a few minutes and see.

Where you. What you're able to come up with. I'll get. That's probably for me. Just kidding. Who's ready? Ready? Give you another minute.

If you don't know that it's okay, we're just this part of this is Reminding you of the important things we talked about last week, but it also helps me gauge. If I need to go over something again or something like that helps me gauge how well I did.

So, you know, it's it's helpful. Can't read your own handwriting. Yeah, how do we distinguish? Inerrancy from infallibility. All right, we're gonna move on just for the sake of time. You can finish writing if you'd like.

Number one, what are the two primary sources of theology. Raise your hand If you want to give the answer. Marianna. Scripture and nature are the two answers we gave last week. Scripture and nature. God reveals himself through the Word.

God also reveals himself through the world. So there are two ways to Determine things about God.

With.

Debbie yeah, yeah, you can say that Bible and creations fine scripture nature word in the world. However, you want to remember it it's just remembering that there are two primary sources. Number two, what's the difference between general and special revelation?

But God's Spirit reveals something to you like a discernment and to me. Special revelation would be like something he gave to the prophets something very specific.

Not quite. You're a little off on the first one. Yeah, that's true. There's there's a little bit more though. There's one more thing I'm looking for specific.

Second.

General revelation is everyone gets and it does come through nature. General revelation is given to all men. So it has a general audience and a general content special revelation. Unbelievers everybody knows God exists that is an that's an aspect of general revelation.

Everybody knows God exists according to Romans 1 according to Psalm 19 and several other passages which say the earth testifies to God's existence. So that's general revelation. Special revelation is primarily the Word of God.

It goes it's a special act of God whereby he reveals himself. And throughout the Old Testament he did in different ways. You mentioned this is where you were correct ed prophets and things like that was our examples of special revelation but today our Our source of special revelation is the Bible.

The Word of God is his final Revelation to us. So so general revelation goes to a general audience and it has a content that is general. Special revelation goes to a special audience and the content is specific or special.

Third and finally, how do we distinguish inerrancy from infallibility Brian? That's right inerrancy means it does not air. Infallibility means it cannot air and we say both about the Bible. Because the Bible is from God and God being infallible Carries that quality over to his scripture.

His scripture also is infallible. All right. Well that that is what we talked about last week. Each week I'm going to try to remind us of what we talked about the week before. So keep in mind this won't be the last time I'll ask you to take out a piece of paper and answer a couple of questions.

Moving on to tonight tonight. We are going to be looking at the subject of what is typically known as theology proper theology proper or more simply put the doctrine of God the doctrine of God. And a prerequisite to the discussion of the doctrine of God is Recognizing what we call divine incomprehensibility.

Divine incomprehensibility simply means that Even though we can understand certain aspects of God We cannot fully comprehend all that which is God. You can't put the Atlantic Ocean in a thimble. You can't put all the knowledge of God in your finite mind.

And therefore Even though we can understand what God has revealed We cannot fully comprehend all that which is God. The verse for this would be Psalm 145 verse 3 great is the Lord greatly to be praised.

His greatness is Unsearchable. His greatness is unsearchable. Dr. RC Sproul says this by the way regarding our textbook Dr. RC Sproul says this human beings are finite creatures. So our minds always work from a finite perspective.

We live move and have our being on a finite plane. But God lives moves and has his being in infinity. Our finite understanding cannot contain an infinite subject. Thus God is incomprehensible. The concept represents a check and balance to warn us lest we think we have captured altogether and mastered in every detail the things of God.

Our finitude always limits our understanding of God. We're not saying we can't understand anything about God. We're saying we cannot comprehend everything about God. And Why is that important? Well, we're going to talk about things tonight like eternality.

Somebody want to get up here and tell me that you fully understand that how God is eternal and What it means to live outside of time and space. Yeah, Bobby you won't get a period. Yeah, so You understand right?

We can we can say we know what it means to be eternal without beginning or end. But we don't fully comprehend it and see that's the thing. Here's the thing when I say that to be about God being eternal we all go.

Okay, but then when I start talking about the Trinity. Everybody goes. Oh, I can't I can't accept it if I can't fully comprehend it. So down you can't fully comprehend eternality either. But you accept it.

So so God's trinity trinitarian nature, which is clearly displayed in Scripture. You can't take that because you can't comprehend it, but you can take eternality. See, this is where divine incomprehensibility must be understood.

Yes, we can know what we are saying. But without the full ability to comprehend everything about it. Make sense. All right. So Tonight we're going to look at three parts of Theology proper we cannot look at the whole.

This is why I gave you the book to read. The book is covering subjects that we cannot get to tonight such as divine providence. I wish we could talk about divine providence, but that will not be on the docket for tonight's lesson.

Okay, well the three things we are going to focus on tonight is number one trinitarian monotheism. Number two the attributes of God. Number three the will of God and If you have your syllabus, that's the outline in your syllabus when you get your syllabus from me.

It tells you what I'm going to deal with in every class. So it's not a surprise the three things We're going to deal with tonight. Trinitarian monotheism the attributes of God and the will of God. So let's begin with trinitarian monotheism.

I'm going to write three words on the board. Would encourage you if you are taking notes to please make a note of these three words.

Alright, number one is.

Monotheism number two is polytheism and number three is henotheism and All three of these have the same root, which is what? Theism or a belief in God. What would be the adversative? Atheism. Right. Somebody who says don't believe in God.

All three of these would be categories of people who believe in some form of the divine. The first is the belief that there is only one God. Mono means one and Monotheism means that there is only one God.

Christians are Monotheists. We are not polytheists. And we are not henotheist and I'll explain that in a moment. But we are we are by confession Monotheists. We only believe in one God. Polytheism is the belief and more than one God.

Polly of course being plural or more or more than one or many or poly meaning many. And Polytheism is exemplified in what religions. Hinduism. Well Buddhism. They do believe in divinity. So yeah, they could be.

Egyptians were polytheistic. The ancient Greeks and Romans. Pagan religions often. Polly, what's that Oprah Winfrey? She's many gods herself.

Yeah.

Yeah, so we have polytheism. It's I give you there's another one if you want to throw this out there. Mormonism is polytheistic because they not only believe that.

That.

God was once a man who became God. They believe they can also become gods by nature. There is no more polytheistic religion than Mormonism because they believe in an infinite regression of gods. Meaning the gods go back into infinity.

It's not regeneration its regressions. A little different. Yeah, but the point of it is there are polytheistic. They're not they're not Christian. Islam is closer to biblical Christianity than than than than Mormonism.

Judaism would be monotheistic. Yes, Judaism Islam and Christianity are the three largest monotheistic religion in the world. Christianity, of course being the largest next being Islam and then Jews are the third quite quite a bit smaller numerically than than the first two.

So we have monotheism and polytheism and then we have henotheism. Most people have never heard of henotheism. Henotheism is the belief in one God. Without denying the existence of other gods and you say well, how is that different than polytheism?

Monotheism says only one God is worthy to be worshipped. But that there are other gods. It's a tribal view of God. My God is the only one worthy of worship, but that doesn't mean your God doesn't exist.

It just means my God's better than yours. It's also referred to sometimes as monolatry ism meaning only one lottery. Lottery is the word for worship. So monolatry ism would be one worship. Of the one God.

And if you think of the Old Testament Think of the Old Testament. How many times did the did the other? Religions in speaking of Yahweh speak of their God. Our God is better than your God. They weren't denying the existence of Yahweh.

They were saying our God is Greater than yours our God's better than yours, right and and and it's a tribal Understanding of God. There is only one God worthy of worship and it's mine. But there are other gods out there, all right, and this one would be.

This one would be exemplified many different, you know religions, but one that you don't even think of often is.

Jehovah Witness.

Does Jehovah Witness believe there's one Almighty God, but they also believe Jesus is a God. Therefore he is he is a he's just not. You just don't worship him. You only worship Jehovah. But Jesus is a God in more Jehovah Witness theology.

So Jehovah Witnesses would fall under the category even though they claim themselves to be strict monotheists. They're not they are henna theists. They believe that Jesus is a God. Just a lesser God.

Yes.

Yeah, they could they could. Because there is one Almighty. But they're still. They still allow for worship of the other gods though.

So it's.

It could be but I think that like I said the line between henna theism and polytheism is kind of vague. You know almost everybody feels like their gods the best God, right?

What's that.

Well It's it's once you get past the true God, it's it's basically everybody just fighting over who has the best imaginary friend. I. And so it's just a bunch of people arguing over who has the best imaginary friend because they're all fake.

As harsh as that may sound. Yes, that'd be a good example, there's one big G God and then everything else is small G, but doesn't deny other gods. Monotheism would say there are no other gods. This is why when Jesus is called God In scripture when he is declared to be divine He can't just be some lesser divinity.

God says there was no God before me. There will be no God after me. Right. And Isaiah. He says that very clearly so and he says I don't share my glory with anyone. Then you get to John 17 and Jesus says glorify me with the glory We shared before the world existed and you say wait a minute.

God doesn't share his glory with anyone except himself. Speaks to the divinity of Christ. Yes. Yes, and again There's such a There's such a bad theology in so much of that, but the little God theology is is among the worst.

You know.

Yes.

Exactly. All right, so I have handouts because now that we're into Trinitarian monotheism I have some handouts to give you so if what we're going to do is we're going to send these this way. We're gonna send these this way and they'll go all the way around the room.

Hopefully everybody will get one if we run out. Which I hope we don't. We'll we'll quickly remedy the situation. It's what. Yeah. Yeah, but he said he's bringing another one that you'll get. That's right.

Yeah.

Destroyed.

That's right, that's right that that's the big thing about the Old Testament. God's often are we out. Is there enough to make it around?

Okay.

The the big thing is that all the other gods are false. They're not real. Next time I'll have them when you guys come in. We won't waste time passing passing them out. Is there enough? Look at there. Look at there.

Man, I was close. I Think I'm out of count of the names on the handout sheet. I said my method why but there's a few of you guys extra by the way if you are here tonight. And you didn't sign the sign-in sheet when you came in you need to sign in that you're here.

And if you came in tonight, you weren't here last week. Write your name down and also make sure I have your email address. Because I'm I'm trying to this year keep up with the emails of the classes. So like I have this class's emails and I'm going to send you guys you should if you if you were in this class last Week you should have got an email today for me.

Reminding you about tonight reminding you about your reading if you didn't get it. Email me and let me know you have my email address on the syllabus. All right. What is the Trinity? What is the Trinity?

Look at that sheet the one that says what is the Trinity? Not the visual aid. The one that says what is the Trinity the Trinity is a doctrine which explains three very important truths that the Bible explains clearly.

The Bible tells us that there is one God. The Bible calls three people God the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and these three people Interact with one another. Now that's not on your sheet. This is this is we'll get to your sheet in a minute.

That that is why the doctrine of the Trinity exists what I just said. Listen to it again the Bible clearly says there's only one God. The Bible clearly calls three people God and. Those three people are not the same person because they interact with one another.

That's why the doctrine of the Trinity exists. Hear it again. The Bible says there's one God. The Bible calls three people God Father Son Holy Spirit and those three people are not the same person because they interact with one another therefore the Trinity is a necessary inference.

Which is deduced from the scripture. We must infer the Trinity. We must deduce this from the text because there would be no other way to explain those three things. If the Bible didn't say there's only one God then we'd think maybe there were three gods, but it says there's only one God.

Deuteronomy 6 verse 4 here. Oh Israel the Lord thy God the Lord is one Lord. We just mentioned all these passages in the Old Testament that say there's only one God and all the other gods are idols. All the other gods are false before me.

There was no God formed after me. There'll be no God formed the Bible throughout Expresses there is only one God and yet we come to the New Covenant scriptures and they all Declare Jesus is God. You say where do they declare that all over but particularly John chapter 1 John chapter 17 several passages in the other Gospels throughout the book of Acts and throughout the writings of Paul particularly Philippians chapter 2 and Colossians chapter 1 we can go through and well Colossians 1 and 2.

The Bible says all the fullness of God dwells in Christ bodily. So we have these passages which declare Jesus is God. And when we get to Christology, we will look at this a little further. But just for tonight for the Trinity's sake to simplify the Bible says there's only one God.

The Bible says three persons who are called God and Those three persons are not the same person. They interact with one another so therefore we have to Discern what that means and the classic formula is found on your sheet.

Trinitarianism depends on making proper distinctions and the proper distinctions are as follows. Number one God is one in essence. Number two God is three in person number three. The three persons are co-equal co-eternal and Distinct.

Now, let's look at those again very quickly. One in essence. What does that mean? That means God is one in his Substance or in his Being. I'll give it like this. What God is is one? But who God is is three.

What God is is one his substance? But who God is is three because when we deal with his person We are now dealing with the fact that God though. We are monotheists. We are not Unitarian monotheists, we are trinitarian.

Monotheists.

Unitarian means one being one person. That is the Muslims believe Allah is one being one person. Jews Jehovah Yahweh is one being one person but trinitarians God is one being. Three persons share the one being that is God and These three persons are Co-equal meaning there's no sense of hierarchy among them.

Meaning. And here's why that's important. Because you say well father son that seems to be a hierarchy. Yes, but one is not more God than the other. One is not God to the expense of the others divinity.

They are co-equal in that. They are all God. They are co.

Eternal.

Meaning they are all Eternal. It isn't as if the father was rolling around in eternity one day and belched and out came Jesus. Now again that may sound a little crass. But that's the picture a lot of people have is that Jesus is the first creation of God.

That would mean that Jesus is not divine he is Creature. The Bible clearly says Jesus is not creature. The Bible says all things were made through him and by him. He is creator not creature. Yes, yes he Jesus.

I didn't in fact I preached the sermon on that very text because I've been invited to another church and I Love that. Texas. John 858 Jesus says to the Pharisees before Abraham was I am. He uses the divine Distinction the ego am I or a me.

Is the Greek ego a me?

Meaning I.

Exist before Abraham was I exist not. I did exist. But I exist. I always have existed and Christ uses that of himself, so we have. God is one in essence or substance. God is three in person and the the the word which has been used by some theologians is subsistence.

But ultimately I prefer the word person. Person makes sense to me and here's why if you think of If you think of the substance of something the substance of something does not always grant it person. If I take a rock And I hold up the rock.

I say this rock has substance. You say no. It doesn't. I throw it at you and it hits you. And you say why did that hurt. Because it had substance. It's it is it has being. But it doesn't have person. So a rock has Substance but no person.

A cow has substance.

But.

Does it really have person not in the same way a human being does. So now we can begin to relate to what is Personhood. We don't think cows have personhood in the same way humans. Do that's why we eat cows, but we don't eat people right.

So Personhood is more than just sentience. All right, because we don't grant personhood to cows or or cubs or Puppies some people do think they're a little bit. Well, some people think they're animals or people but they're not.

You know, it's not a person, right? You don't spend $5 ,000 to send muffin to college. Yeah. Yeah, you know so so we know there's a difference right. But there is so sentience is not the same as personhood.

Personhood is distinct to humans. Right. So we say rocks have being but no person. Cows have being but really not person. Humans have being and person and it is a one-to-one ratio. I only get one person.

I Don't get multiple persons. I just get one and. See the problem with monotheism from the perspective of the Unitarian is they limit God to the same? Ratio as man. They say because man is limited one being one person.

God must be limited one being one person and that limitation is.

Not.

Something that is Founded upon scripture. It's founded upon the fair frailty of human reason. I can't understand how God can have three persons in one being again. But he do. Yes, sir, Ross. Ross had ascended.

Personhood in this regard is the ability to. The ability to.

Interact.

Think and will so we would say intellect emotion and will is is personhood. So going back to the whole cow thing, right? Cows have a certain amount of intellect. Cows have a certain amount of Emotion.

Cows have a certain amount of will. But it's not enough that you would say that's a person. You would say the intellect emotion and will for an individual is Typically how we define personhood and in that regard and then what.

So so Jesus. Jesus interacts with the Father and He he relates to the Father on Knowledge in emotion and in his will right? He said I didn't come to my will but the will of him who sent me. Right, he relates to the Father in a way that is in the mind the heart and the actions and.

So personhood would be that. And the reason why I bring this up is because some people believe in something called.

Modalism.

Modalism is the idea that the the God was the Father in the Old Testament God was Jesus in the New Testament and now he's the Holy Spirit, but he's never all three at the same time. He's he's goes to different modes of being.

This is also known as Sabellianism. And the idea that God goes to different modes of being is False because if that were so then the son couldn't interact with the father because the son is the father.

But in Scripture the son interacts with the father. In fact, we see all three of them present at the baptism of Jesus. Right, the the father speaks from heaven the son is being baptized the spirit descends as a dove.

Right, and so we we have all three persons of the Godhead present in Several places in Scripture, but most specifically the baptism of Christ. So what is the Trinity. The Trinity is saying God is one in essence God is three in person and It is a contradiction to say God is one essence and three essences it is a contradiction to say God is one person who is also three persons and We do not engage in contradiction which is why we make a distinction between essence and person or being and person.

Make sense. All right. Now on the bottom of that handout I just want to we don't really have time to spend a lot of time on this but there is a distinction between what is known. As the ontological Trinity and the economic Trinity.

The ontological Trinity is that God is one in essence and three in person. That's what we've been discussing but there is also the economic Trinity economic relating to the role of each one. The father the son and the spirit do different things.

The father elects the son redeems the spirit regenerates.

So.

The father didn't die on the cross. That's called patra passion ism and it's a false view of the cross. The father did not down the cross the son did and It is the Holy Spirit who comes and to your heart.

Now he is called the Spirit of Christ in Romans 8 9 so we could say Jesus in your heart, you know. Especially when talking to your kids. If you want to talk about Jesus being in your heart, it's not necessarily wrong but from an economic Perspective it is the Son is at the right hand of the father and the spirit is the one who is abiding.

Jesus said I must go away. So that the comforter can come and he will abide with you forever. So we these are the distinctions within the persons. That each person has a role that they are accomplishing within the within the Trinity and They interact with each other and they love one another.

The son loves the father the father loves the son. The Bible says that it says Jesus was foreknown before the foundation of the world. Foreknown means loved. Jesus was loved by the father before they before the foundation of the world.

So this is why we don't say God created us because he needed someone to love. God didn't need someone to love. He had love within himself. This is why we can say and when we get to the attributes we talk about the love of God the love of God is Something that came into being when he had something to love.

The love of God is an essential part of his nature because he has always been loved and He has always loved within himself. So the Trinity is again essential Christian truth. All right, so Turn your page over and you'll see the visual aid for the Trinity.

You notice it says in the in the top one that looks like a star with a circle around it. It says God is Father. God is Son. God is Spirit if you want to if you want to mark next to the word God and write Yahweh.

Because Yahweh is Father Yahweh is Son. Yahweh is Spirit. Jesus is called Yahweh. It's not as if Yahweh only pertains to the father. No, Jesus is Yahweh and the Spirit is the Spirit of Yahweh. That divine name applies to all three persons but the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Spirit and the Spirit is not the Father because they Interact with one another.

The false views are below it. I'll be going over this at set free next week. This is this is really all I'm going to do next week. Because next week I'm teaching on the Trinity at set free. This is such a Important foundational thing this and this other handout.

I just showed you The three false views of the Trinity number one Tritheism, this is the idea that there are three gods. That is not what we're saying. There is one God and three persons. Number two Sabellianism also known as modalism is that the father was this God in the Old Testament, which way you laugh.

Yes modalism. Patrick, yeah, if you've never seen Lutheran satire and you can get online go watch it. It's the best and it makes it explains this actually very well in a cartoon form. Sabellianism is modalism, which I already explained and Unitarianism is that the father is the creator the son is creature and the Holy Spirit is Impersonal.

You ever talked to a Jehovah Witness about the Holy Spirit. They'll say the Holy Spirit is not a person. The Holy Spirit is a force. He is like electricity That goes through the body. The Holy Spirit is like power that goes through us.

It is He is not a person, but if you read the scriptures, the Holy Spirit is always given the personal pronoun he always and called God in many places.

So.

The the last thing I want you to look at is the The other handout with the creeds and confessions on it.

I.

Want you to note something? The Apostles Creed Is is the oldest creed on this list? Dating somewhere probably in the first or seeming in the second century the Nicene Creed dates to the fourth century 325.

The counts of Nicaea and Athanasian Creed dates to the fifth century.

That would be the 400s. I want you to note that.

They get longer. Starts out with the Apostles Creed which actually does not in the fullness of The sense affirm the full deity of Christ. Listen to it says I believe in God the Father Almighty creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ God's only son. Our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit born of the Virgin Mary suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified died and was buried. He descended to the dead.

Just stop right there. We have to read the rest because basically that's that's how it describes Jesus and all of that. We would affirm amen all that is true, but the Nicene Creed goes further Affirming not only those things but also things left unsaid in the Apostles Creed regarding the divinity of Christ.

Listen to this. We believe in one God Father the Almighty maker of heaven and earth of all that is seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ the only Son of God eternally begotten of the Father.

God from God light from light true God from true God begotten not made of One being with the Father through him all things were made. The phrase that is most important there is that he is begotten but not made.

You see the the classic understanding of the Trinity has always been that Jesus was from the Father. But he was from the Father from eternity. This is why we still speak of the relationship of the Father and the Son as Father and Son even in eternity past.

We say that Christ is the eternal Son of God he has always come from the Father and.

Yet.

Is fully God and so that that is an important distinction that has to be made. Because when we talk about Christ as the begotten of the Father It's an eternal begetting and the best way I can describe that and it's probably not great.

But I thought of this years ago, and I think it's helpful from the moment I was born. I Have begat thought. Thought has come from me from the moment. I was born and it will continue until the moment I stop living.