Answers Bible Curriculum 2nd Edition Unit 1 Lesson 4
In this lesson, we see how the concept of God as Trinity emerges from a study of Scripture as a whole. We also crystallize what the doctrine of the Trinity means by contrasting the biblical truth with various trinitarian heresies. We finish by considering the importance of the Trinity in the Christian’s life.
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right it’s 9:30 so let’s begin good morning and welcome to Sunday school as you can see you have a little bit of a head of headphones upgrade today that’s hopefully so I can hear you better and interact with you a little bit better but Greg and I are working not just on my end but on the Calvary end in terms of sounds so that the best best frequency the best settings are all set so we’ll continue to work through that going forward but as I say welcome back last week we consider the question of God’s existence and we concluded we can know that God exists we saw actually that all people know that the God of the Bible that the God of the Bible exists but they suppress this knowledge consequently the pattern for us as Christians in presenting evidence or I’m sorry for presenting God’s existence is to simply declare God’s Word and then along with that reason present reasoning and evidence that is found that aren’t gods worth it’s not that you can’t use reasoning but the reasoning needs a foundation it’s not that you can’t use evidence but it needs to come from a biblical perspective so we are primarily Proclaimers and we even reason to give evidence based off the proclamation of Scripture I also saw last week that the ultimate reason that we or anyone else ever believes in God or the Bible is the testimony of God’s Spirit there are many good reasons to believe in God or to believe in the Bible but these reasons would not be enough in and of themselves we would constantly be fighting against them in our spirit or we’d be constantly finding other explanations what we really need and what people the world need is to hear God’s voice and to see God’s glory in a way that they do that is through God’s Spirit changing their hearts and opening their eyes and he does that via the proclamation of the word it is the foolishness of what is preached that God has ordained to bring people into his kingdom and in this way salvation is all of God and he could solve the glory now speaking of God’s glory we have another we have one more lesson on God as we perceived in the beginning of our study of the Bible and today we’re talking about God as Trinity we’ve already seen in broaching God’s attributes that God is way beyond us that he has revealed himself to us though he has graciously condescended to come near to us and to make himself known to us we cannot are no we can only begin to fathom his debts and we’re going to see the Veck experience is also true when it comes to thinking about God as try you we saw this in his eternality we see this in his holiness and in his love it’s just so vast and beyond our comprehension and that’s certainly true also when it comes to the Trinity but how should we understand or explain the Trinity we have to be very careful when it comes to true me because there have been many throughout history who have tried to explain the Trinity and they’ve and uh ended up saying that is saying something about God that is not true others because they’re not able to explain the Trinity actually have ended up denying the Trinity so we want to know is the training really biblical and if so how should we defend it or how should we explain it and what if any analogy should we use to explain the Trinity so our agenda for today’s class is going to tackle some of those questions we’re going to lay out a biblical argument for the Trinity one of many biblical arguments that can be made we’re gonna clarify understanding of the Trinity by examining what the Bible teaches versus the Trinitarian heresies that have arisen in the past and it still exists today and though finished with just a few application questions based on our study of God as Trinity let’s pray before we go on Great God Father Son and Holy Spirit we praise You God that you are the triune God this is a reality that is so different than anything that we know and yet it is refuting your scriptures and this shows us just more of your glory and seeing the persons of the Trinity we relate to one another seeing how even in this you are beyond our comprehension god I pray that you enable me to speak this well and I pray that you enable the the people to hear and understand and God that we would be moved to give you praise based on seeing more of who you are in Jesus name Amen alright well some have liked to point out that the word Trinity is not in the Bible in fact there is no one verse that you can go to in the Bible that all by itself explains or proves the Trinity nevertheless as with other biblical concepts or terms even if the word is not used the concept of the Trinity is all over the Bible and as moreover it even if one verse does not prove the Trinity when you consider the totality of the Bible when you look at all the verses the many verses together the truth of the Trinity is inescapable now I should clarify before we start what exactly do we mean by Trinity or that God is Trinity many of you know this but it’s worth me explaining you notice that the word Trinity has the idea of three and unity tri-unity Trinity and that’s the idea we’ll come back to this but we can boil down the doctrine of God’s Trinity into three different truths or premises that emerge from the Bible that lead to one conclusion I have a slide about this later on but first first truth there is one God why would Claire’s there’s one God second the Father Son and Holy Spirit are all identified in scriptures as God that’s the second premise there’s one God Father Son and Holy Spirit all identified in the Bible as God and then thirdly these three relate to each other and to the world as distinct persons they’re all called God but they’re distinct from one another and they relate to the world in each other as distinct persons the conclusion the one true God of the Bible has revealed himself to exist in three persons Father Son and Holy Spirit or in other words the Trinity a one traditional way of describing the Trinity is to say there is one God who exists in three persons or you could say God has one essence of being but exists in three persons now this is reality declared in the Bible but because this is a transcendent reality we even trying to find the correct terms or the most descriptive terms can’t be difficult but this is the this is the the kind of terms that have come down to us as Christians have sought to defend and explain this reality over the centuries now as I say the doctrine of the Trinity is supported all over the Bible and we could argue God’s trying you nature from multiple angles but the angle that we’re going to use this morning is creation how how is it that what the Bible says about creation actually proves that God is triune and we’re gonna look at a number of different passages as we build an argument for the Trinity from Scripture and the first passage we’re going to look at is one that we’ve actually looked at pretty recently turn your Bibles to Genesis 1 chapter 1 and we’ll look at verses 1 2 3 we were just here I think last week we’re going back to this passage to see how creation interacts with the idea of God’s nature Genesis 1 verses 1 2 3 says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth the earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters then God said let there be light and there was light notice here first one tells us who it was that created everything who was it it was God God created the heavens in the earth but in the process of creation as it is further described in verse to whom is it that we see the Spirit of God notice what the Spirit of God is doing it is hovering or moving over the surface of the waters but then notice verse 3 who initiates the who initiates the action of creation God does God says let there be light and there was light okay so from the beginning the Bible we learn a few things about God we learn that God created the heavens in the earth we learned that God has a spirit the Spirit of God has mentioned here and this spirit was present at creation God created God has a spirit the spirit was present a present creation now is this all the Bible tells us about God and being creator well not at all there are many other passages in the Bible outside of Genesis that describe God in in his creation the one is Psalm 33 verse 6 Psalm 33 verse 6 let’s turn over there as I say we’ll be looking at number of passages Psalm 33 6 a comment later from the psalmist on creation where’s looking at this one verse but notice what it says Psalm 33 6 by the word of the Lord that is Yahweh the heavens were made and by the breath of his mouth all their hosts now notice how this underscores what we saw in Genesis 1 1 2 3 it says God or we saw their gods spoke and created light and here it is the word of Yahweh creates but there’s another connection in this passage however the word spirit the word for the spirit moving over the waters in Genesis 1 2 is the same word for breath here in Psalm 33 6 is the Hebrew word Rua and it can be translated either spirit or breath or even wind therefore when it says by the breath of his mouth all their hosts were made that could be a reference to the Spirit of God which we know from Genesis was present at creation if so this verse would be saying that Yahweh made the heavens and the earth and then also the Spirit made the heavens again there’s reasons or there might be reason to just take it as breath here we do see that connection with the Word of God creating nonetheless we have another comment on creation and who created in 2 Psalms but now move over to the New Testament look at John Gospel of John chapter 1 verses 1 to 5 john chapter 1 verses 1 to 5 and let’s see what we learned here about God and creation John 1:1 to 5 in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God he was in the beginning with God all things came into being through him and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being in him was life and the life was the light of men the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not hmm so notice how this passage relates to what we read in Genesis 1 and Psalm 33 our writer John here talks about a word at the beginning that was responsible for all of creation nothing was created apart from the word however this word is said to be God but also be with God now John goes on to clarify in this chapter the identity of this word this word is none other than Jesus the Son of God so in the beginning of chapter 1 John is saying that it is the son of God who created so let’s pause for a moment and just think about these verses none of these verses have stated that God is Trinity but we do see from the Bible that three persons were involved in creation we have God you have the Spirit of God you can also call the Holy Spirit and we have the word of God incarnate John identifies as Jesus okay so three persons at creation but the next pastors you’re going to look at it’s going to complicate our understanding of things let’s go back to the Old Testament to the Book of Isaiah Isaiah chapter 44 as a 44 we’re gonna look at verses 23 to 26 so we’ve had a number of pastors saying that we have three persons at creation but now words of Isaiah Isaiah 44 23 or 26 shop for joy o heavens for Yahweh has done it shout joyfully you lower parts of the earth break forth into a shout of joy you mountains o forests and every tree in it where Yahweh has redeemed Jacob and in Israel he shows forth his glory thus says Yahweh your Redeemer and the one who formed you from the womb I Yahweh am the maker of all things stretching out the heavens by myself and spreading out the earth all alone causing the omens of boasters making fools out of diviners causing Wiseman to draw back and turning their knowledge new foolishness confirming the word of a servant and performing the purposes purpose of his messengers is I who says with Jerusalem she shall be inhabited and the cities of Judah they shall be built and I’ll raise up her ruins again I gave you some of the context here to see that there’s an argument being made in this passage make some observations with me this is heaping poetry we see some figurative language in verse 23 earth and sky cannot literally shout or pour forth praise but they are figuratively called to rejoice and why is it because at the end of what verse 23 says God has redeemed Israel God has redeemed his people as part of God redeeming Israel notice what God specifically promises in verse 26 he says the cities of Judah including Jerusalem will be rebuilt and inhabited again you might remember the message of the Book of Isaiah is one of judgment and restoration and God here is promising there will be restoration after judgment I’m the one who’s going to accomplish this this is to give comfort and hope to those who believe in God in Judah now as an assurance that this promised redemption of Israel is real God 3 why Isaiah his prophet reminds his listeners of a few facts and notice in verses 24 to 25 the reminders that God gives he says by the way I made the world and I’m still responsible for making everything in the world including you and I can found the boasting and the wisdom of those who do not believe in me he’s by reminding me that his people of his power as creator and his sovereignty over the world this is to show them they can trust in him to redeem and to keep his promises but notice that in his reminder about creation God reveals something quite poignant especially in the light of the passages we’ve looked at already who was with God and who helped him with creation God declares it was no one he says all alone three times it basically says the same thing I am the maker of all things I did it by myself I did it all alone oh okay well how do we reconcile this with the verses that we just examined which coolies showed that the Spirit of God was there at the creation and was part of the creation process and that the word was also there at creation the Son of God and it was through him that creation was made God cannot lie scripture cannot be broken but there must be some way than to reconcile these truths some ways to have multiple persons involved in creation and yet have only one God being the creator and what is the solution what we’ve already described the concept of God as Trinity the idea of one God with three persons in God all of them being God is the only way to reconcile these passages other passages that we could look to give similar simpler claims to creationary exclusivity and they further emphasize that it must have been a triune God at creation for example Colossians 1:15 2:17 Colossians 1:15 2:17 I’ll just read this to you it says he talking about God’s beloved son is the image of the invisible God the first point of all creation for by him all things were created both in the heavens and on earth visible and invisible whether Thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things have been created through him and for him he is before all things and in him all things hold together so again we see Jesus the Son of God is said to be creator and nothing was made unless the son made it it’s by the way this passage in the one in John is a great response to Jehovah’s Witnesses who say no and Jesus is not God he’s a created being well no he says he made Bible declares multiple times anything that was created was made through the son so he can’t have been created himself or Psalm 104 verses 30 Psalm 104 30 speaking about what God does in the world psalmist writes you send forth your spirit they are created and you renew the face of the ground now in the context is not specifically talking about the original creation but he’s talking about God’s ongoing creation acts and God’s sustenance of the world and he says it’s the spirit that’s doing this it’s the spirit that is allowing anything to be created God sends forth his spirit to accomplish the creation of living things which again would that by inference show that the spirit was responsible and part of creation so again tying these verses together God the spirit and the son our God or we can also call the father the spirit and the son are all involved in creation and yet God and the son are said so it exclusively created Isaiah God says I did it all alone verse and Colossians energon the son exclusively created what is the only explanation at key night these truths it is the Trinity one God three persons now as we’ll see in a moment more clearly the persons of God are distinct the father is not the Son and the son is not the spirit and the Spirit is not the father they are each one God not parts of God mind you but each one is fully God we’ll come back to the idea a little bit more later one way to break down how the persons of the trinity acted in creation one way it’s often articulated God the Father commanded and the Son and the Spirit accomplished the father’s commandment different roles in creation in the Trinity yet three persons United in one God exclusively as God the one being accomplishing creation now we built up an argument for the trinny bit based on our search assertions about creation there’s certainly many other ways that we could support this truth that God is triune there are passages that describe worship of the different persons of the Trinity and passages that also demand worship of the only one true God so you have yeah worship of the son of the Spirit but also has to say that you can only worship God there are passages that describe each of the three persons of God as eternal which is quality that only God has and there are passages that attribute the resurrection of Jesus to all three persons it will say that the father resurrected the son resurrected himself or that it was the spirit that caused him to rise so there many other arguments we can make from the Bible for God being Trinity you can see just one or even look what the Bible says about creation so hope you can see that the word having the word Trinity in the Bible isn’t necessary to see that the concept of the Trinity is plain when you examine the Bible as a whole and as you compare Scripture with Scripture now someone might come along and say alright I agree with you there are three persons in God but God is only one person at a time you know that’s how God can be three persons in one he’s just a quick change artist sometimes the father sometimes the son sometimes the spirit well there’s one event in the Bible that pretty easily contradicts this claim and maybe if you think you’re already thinking of it it is Jesus’s baptism please go with me to Matthew chapter 3 this is where we see one of the accounts of Jesus’s baptism Matthew 3 there are parallels and Mark and Luke Matthew 3 verses 13 to 17 there we go thank you all right starting in verse 13 then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John to be baptized by him but John tried to prevent him saying I have need to be baptized by you and do you come to me but Jesus answering said to him permit it at this time for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness then he permitted him after being baptized Jesus came up immediately from the water and behold the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on him and behold a voice out of the heavens said this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased well notice how we see the three persons of the Trinity represented in this passage the son is baptized the spirit descends and the father speaks from heaven there’s no way that God can be a quick-change artist here they’re all present at the same moment now again this passage by itself doesn’t prove the Trinity or doesn’t fully explain the Trinity in fact if we looked only at these verses and we didn’t look at the rest of Scripture someone might suppose that Christianity is try theistic that there are three gods or that maybe one of these persons is God and the others are not but the passage does show in combination with the other scriptures we’ve looked at that the Godhead exists together they are separate even though they are one when we combine this passage with others that talk about God in the scripture an accurate picture of the Trinitarian relationship within the Godhead emerges that is why we to understand the Trinity must examine the Scriptures as a whole now this we should note there is a natural question that arises up in this in us as men as people how can this be how can one being have three persons such does not exist in our world this doesn’t make sense to us on a certain level and maybe it doesn’t and we’ll never make full sense to us but neither does God’s dwelling with but also outside space and time we can’t comprehend that because that’s not the way we exist God can be in time and yet not be bound at time bound by time at all as we’ve already seen and the same thing with space God can manifest his presence in a certain space and yet no space can contain God he’s beyond space in time how can that be we can’t make sense of that yet the Bible reveals that Bible’s clear on those things so it is that we are to understand this revelation of God as Trinity we have to accept these revelations about God by faith and not to try to fully comprehend these things that are in the words of the psalmist too wonderful for us actually and I’ve already alluded to this the unfathomable the unfathomable mists of God as Trinity shows us even more how glorious he is as Psalm 145 3 says the ways of God are unsearchable he is so glorious and high above us he is the God who dwells in unapproachable light there’s no way that even by our careful and unending reasoning and thinking that we can comprehend God we only have the very smallest comprehension based on what he reveals to us and yet that just shows us how great and how much more God is Trinity is another way that we see that so again though it’s beyond our full comprehension the Bible is clear and I’m presenting to you those premises that I mentioned before and the conclusion why do we believe that our God is Trinity because looking through the Bible putting the Bible together as a whole we see there’s only one God the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit are all identified in Scripture as God and these three relate to one another and to the world as distinct persons the conclusion can only be that the one true God of the Bible has revealed himself to exist in three persons Father Son and Holy Spirit or as we say a trinity now it’s important that we humble ourselves and accept these truths by faith because what is it that happens when we insist on making sense of the trinity by some system of reasoning that we can comfortably comprehend what’s the result we fall into error even damning heresy I don’t use that term lightly when we talked about heresy we’re talking about something that if you believe you can’t be saved and when it comes to the Trinity using human reasoning in a way to make the Trinity comfortable for us is an easy way to fall into heresy you see and when we do not examine the Scriptures as a whole when we rely too much on our experience informed logic to make sense that Trinity we fall into error and we’re gonna look now at some errors in understanding the Trinity what that have appeared in church history and we’ll also mention how those errors have reappeared or still exists in the present day I’ll just briefly define each one of these errors and tell you a little bit about them you see the picture on the side of the screen that is the Trinity shield it’s a visual that helps us keep straight the Trinity and explain it mention a little bit more about that later on but look at the isms lifted on the on the other side of your screen and we’ll talk through each one of them these are errors heresies when it comes to the Trinity and by understanding the errors we can better understand the truth so the first is modalism also called sabelli anism modalism states that the three persons of the Trinity are just different versions or modes of the same God depending on the area of the redemptive history God was the father in the Old Testament it was the son in the Incarnation and he is the spirit in the church so this is the quick change artist theory that we mentioned a little bit earlier and this is a nice and comfortable idea for the human mind we can comprehend this we can comprehend someone who takes on different roles at different times and it does seem to make sense would Jesus claim that he and the father are one oh yeah there’s so one that they’re actually totally the same they’re just different versions of the same person but too bad this view totally contradicts Scripture when we can examine other passages including the baptism account that we looked at together but this heresy lives on today in oneness pentecostalism and in some forms of Unitarianism are some who insists no God just takes on different forms at different times that’s how we understand the Trinity so modalism next is arianism arianism is the belief that only the father is God well the son what is it created though exalted be as Arius there was a an elder or presper during the fourth century he his maxim was when it came to understanding the Trinity there was a time when the son was not it is he was a created being holy spirit meanwhile and Arianism is either a created being also or is just an impersonal force now again this view of understanding only the father as God it’s nice for human reasoning it’s more comfortable and it keys in on statements in the Bible the sons being the only begotten of the Father began or the firstborn of creation okay noticing this theme about birth birth must mean creation right and also you can throw in those passages that seem to talk about Jesus being exalted but again this view fails to consider the whole of Scripture and that these birth passages can be understood to refer to privilege and role not essence jesus is not a created being but it does have a role as firstborn over creation and of course Arianism lives on today in the Jehovah’s Witnesses they do not the deity of Christ and call him a created being I think others also do that but Jobos witnesses are probably the most famous next we have adoptionism this is similar to Arianism and that the Sun is not God but was exalted to the status of God in a sense when the father adopted the son at some point in Jesus’s ministry either at his baptism or his resurrection or his ascension so Jesus becomes God he’s adopted and made God and again this would go back to the passage that talked about Jesus being begun or gaming glory or being exalted by the father some Unitarians today holds this view but again it’s not consistent with all of Scripture next we have subordination ISM the subordination ISM states that though God is triune the Father is superior in nature and essence to the Son and the Holy Spirit that is to say the Son and the Spirit are eternally subordinate to the father and thus inferior in glory this belief in some ways is similar to Arianism it keys on the statements of the Bible describing the sons submission to the father and the spirit submission to the son and father if he’s a son he’s always submitting he must be inferior the father is the most exalted in the Trinity again this view does not consider all of Scripture including Hebrews 1 1 2 3 Hebrews 1 1 2 3 says this God after he spoke long ago to the father’s in the prophets in many portions and in many ways and these last days has spoken to us in his son whom he appointed heir of all things through whom he also made the world and he is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature and upholds all things by the word of his power when he had made purification of sins he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high the truth is that God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are equal in eternality essence nature and glory to the Father though there is a distinction in roles among the Trinity the Sun does submit to the Father but this does not make the Sun inferior to the Father and the Holy Spirit does obey the father and the son but this does not make the Holy Spirit inferior we can see a strong though not completely perfect parallel to this reality in the roles that God is ordained in the Christian family the husband is the biblical leader of the family and the wife is to submit to her husband and the children are to submit to both father and mother but the father is not superior to the other members of his family he’s not superior in his essence or nature is in the end a person made in the image of God the same as his wife the same as his children and his value before God is the same and nevertheless God has ordained roles for these equal members in the family and in a similar way there are different roles for the equal persons of the triune God now debate about subordination within the Trinity is actually was hot topic just a few years ago even among evangelicals how do we understand the submission within the Trinity does that mean that one is inferior to the other the teaching of the Bible and really the teaching has been affirmed by God’s people throughout the centuries is that though there are different roles there is no inferiority in essence or nature actually a partial ISM partial ISM doesn’t refer to a heretical movement per se but it is a misunderstanding of the chain partial ISM is the belief that each person of the Trinity is only part of the one true God rather than all of God this sounds reusable that might be what we into it that’s not how the Bible presents the persons of the Trinity consider what Colossians 2:9 says of the son Colossians 2:9 for in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form and that’s a very key statement all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form this verse is not saying that the son is merely full the divine as if there was a large amount of divine lying around and there’s just a portion poured into Jesus no rather the verse tells us that all of the divine essence all the essence that there is dwells in the Sun even in his incarnation Jesus is all the fullness of God as is each member of the truth now you might scratch your head at that how can each person of the Trinity be the fullness of God if they are also distinct from one another John 14 11 perhaps gives us a little more light on the question John 14 11 says believe me this is Jesus talking believe me that I am in the father and the father is in me I can’t we’re dealing with a reality that’s beyond our understanding but Bible does reveal that every person of the Trinity has the fullness of the divine essence in him the person of the Trinity are not part of God each one is fully God the full essence of the divine is in them it is in him again that’s that’s definitely stretching their mind that’s that’s beyond anything that we know but there is a there’s no partial ISM with God two more terms quickly you see in your list Unitarianism this really is a catch-all term for those who don’t believe in the Trinity and for people who say the only one person in the Godhead is actually God Unitarian churches still exist today they’ve been around since the 1600s and then there’s try theism or polytheism as far as I’m aware there’s no sect of Christianity that actually advocates trikey ISM though ancient Gnosticism and Mormonism do tend that way nevertheless the accusation of tracheas and where polytheism has often been made against true christianity by Jews by Muslims and by even Unitarians know the Scriptures is pretty clear though we don’t serve three gods but one guy just as the Ten Commandments tell us there we have to have no other gods before God except God but our God is triune now you may notice just from going through this list that even slight errors and understanding the chimney can land you into some pretty hot water and for this reason God’s people have again through Christian history written Creed’s at different times to carefully articulate what the Bible teaches about the nature of God and the nature of God’s gospel you’ve probably heard of some of these Creed’s the Apostles Creed the Nicene Creed the Athanasian Creed now these creatures are not inspired like the Bible is but they are strong summaries a biblical teaching especially on the Trinity that we stand in line with today when we affirm these things about the Trinity which I’ve even presented to you in this class we are standing on the foundation maybe it’s not quite right that word but we’re standing in a long line of Christians who have affirmed those same doctrines and defended them I encourage you to look up some of these Creed’s the Nicene Creed the Athanasian Creed II Apostles Creed so that you can see how our understanding of the Trinity is consistent with what has been the Orthodox belief of the church for almost 2,000 years when I say Orthodox I don’t mean Eastern Orthodox I talk about what is correct what is right what the Bible actually teaches this understanding of the Trinity that I’ve articulated with you today has been what God’s faithful have always said indeed we do stand in a long line of faithful ones who across time have encountered the same basic attacks and misunderstandings of the Trinity that we do today I mean each one of these their errors that I mentioned to you they existed in ancient times and they’re still around today so we’ve looked at support for the Trinity in the Bible and we’ve examined erroneous understandings of the chaney that’s got just a couple questions regarding application of the doctrine of the Trinity as it is revealed in the Bible number one is there a good analogy for describing the Trinity what do you think can you explain your answer Steve example of an egg yeah that’s good Steve I’ll repeat what you said just a little bit so you mentioned the analogy or the picture of an egg as three parts in it just as God is one and has three parts and a guess three parts and is one egg but as you say this analogy falls short it puts things in human terms that are comfortable for us but it doesn’t quite explain the reality of the trinny when it comes to analogies it’s not necessarily wrong if you use a human analogy for the shiney but you have to be really careful and you have to show and explain to people how the analogies fail Duane what did you say and I also like to use the illustration of the body where there are in first Corinthians where I talked about there being many members and yet one body and I described it this way the difference is in the world you have a husband and you have a wife but their sin and so there’s a one flesh that has been stained by sin but in the Trinity there is one God being one and you never see an argument between the Father Son and the Holy Spirit they’re completely one in agreement in everything in the end person but they’re one and so you you see the oneness in the Trinity here but we have kind of yeah thanks for mentioning that Dwayne I will actually will say more about those two analogies you just mentioned just a second Val or Peter Oh quick you mentioned using the marriage and yeah using marriage as an analogy of the Trinity how two persons come together as one flesh in marriage if they are two different people they are considered to be one and you even mentioned how in in our human experience there’s sin that disrupts the unity of that but God doesn’t have that in the Trinity there’s it’s only righteousness there’s only there’s only total agreement between the Trinity you also mention the analogy of the church where we have one body but many members and I think yes there’s a there’s a usefulness in those analogies and I think that’s actually part of why understanding the Trinity is important you see it reflected in various institutions of God and will say I’ll say more about that in just a second but even those have to be properly explained as I was saying any analogy you use can be useful to a certain extent and it certainly those analogies in the Bible have a happening I think maybe an extra benefit to using them but someone may still look at those and be like but wait there there are two different people or you know these various people in the church are you saying God is that distinct from themselves now it only approaches maybe a little bit of the reality of the Trinity but any analogy ultimately is not going to fully describe what it means to be a triune God it is so unlike anything in our world that oftentimes the analogies that we want to use better illustrate Trinitarian heresies than the actual truth or the Trinity like we could probably have say this with the egg analogy but if you’re talking about God’s being three states of water he it’s just like you know water can be vapor water can be liquid water can be solid but each one is water well basically what you’ve articulated is modalism because water can’t be there’s different states at the different time though there is an exception to that something called the triple point that answers Genesis talks about they’ve met but even that analogy doesn’t quite work because why water might be together in the different states it’s you still have to distinguish it in two parts so modalism or partial ISM in that analogy what do you say that God is like a man with three different positions he can be husband he can be father he can be employee all at the same time okay you’ve just articulated modalism again it’s just one God with different roles or different different roles that he’s able to switch into where say God is like the Sun which emanates light and heat you know three parts you got the Sun you got the light and you got the heat well you’ve articulated our Arianism what subordination ISM where God is like a three leaf clover well that’s partial ISM now again I’m not saying that if you would use any one of those analogies or one like it that you’re necessarily sinning any analogies gonna fall short you’re just trying to maybe emphasize certain parts of the analogy and de-emphasize other parts this is why I say you must be careful with any analogy you use and explain it well you might use as I did earlier in the class one analogy to explain an aspect of the Trinity rather than the whole Trinity itself like I talked about the roles of submission in the family that only talks about the submission aspect of the Trinity it’s an analogy in that respect but not to the the full reality of the Trinity it doesn’t doesn’t totally hold up if you’d like to use a visual to explain the Trinity probably good idea is to use the I’ll go back to the previous slide use the trinity shield this one that I mention here it’s actually pretty ancient it’s been used for quite some time we don’t know exactly when it first appeared we don’t know where it comes from but it was certainly around in the eleven hundreds and this diagram makes very clear that the three persons of the Godhead are the one God you see that connection in the center the father is God the Son is God the Holy Spirit is God and yet they are distinct from one another connections on the outside show the father is not the Holy Spirit Holy Spirit’s not the Sun the sun’s not the father this is a useful visual for explaining the Trinity but however you explain it you’re gonna have to ultimately say this is a reality that’s this is a reality that we have to accept by faith because it goes beyond what we know about human experience no I learned through the second question a little bit already but why is it important to have an accurate understanding of the Trinity okay so we’re talking a whole bunch about the doctrine or you know eternity theology but is it that important well yes I would say that it is for several reasons man first of all for God’s glory which is tied to your happiness in seeing the Trinity you see further some of the truths that the rest of the scripture talk about God that God is independent that God is self-sufficient that God is self-satisfied if God were not triune and yet God is love or God is mercy or God is other perfections how could he demonstrate that how could he enjoy that unless there were creation that would make God needy about creation oh he’s such a loving God but he’s got no one to love but if God is Trinity he shows love within himself he he’s satisfied in their relations chips within himself so he is not in need of man that’s why God is able to say the Scriptures if I needed anything I wouldn’t I wouldn’t tell you oh man cuz God is totally independent the Trinity helps reinforce and support those doctrines it also as I said shows God’s transcendence his exaltedness his holiness he’s totally set apart from what we know though yet he’s graciously revealed himself to us we praise him for this we praise him for how glorious and how even incomprehensible he is and that’s part of our joy has believers it’s also and I think this is a little bit of what Dwayne was talking about before the Trinity is instructive about our own human relationships something very profound and that God’s essence pictures unity in diversity and is it any wonder that such is reflected in God’s creation you can talk about creation as a whole and how it all fits together even though it’s so many different parts but also specifically in marriage in the church in church leadership there is to be a oneness in diversity and that is beautiful that is beneficial that is enjoyable I think it’s and it’s just occurred to my mind right now it’s instructed that so many times the New Testament when the apostles or the biblical writers are giving application of what it means to be a Christian here’s your great salvation now here’s how you apply it one of the very first things they almost always say is be one be united with one another that is one of the outgrowth of being saved and coming to know that God who is one Jesus in fact says that in his prayer to the Father let them be one just as speaking to the Father we are one God is a relational God first in himself then tortoise creatures and weep and when we cultivate relationships especially as we strive toward godly unity we imitate God and this is all the more reason why we should never be we’re tougher think it’s okay being a Christian Lone Ranger or trying to live without the church not only are we not designed for such behavior as that but it doesn’t reflect God in the Universities is central to God’s essence but another huge part of understanding the Trinity is that it is necessary for salvation a certain degree of understanding the Trinity is central greatest essential for salvation certainly one does not need to know the word Trinity or be aware of all the details of the Trinity to be saved but one must truly understand who Christ fundamentally is to be saved Jesus is fully God fully man the only substitute for our sin acts 4:12 speaking of Jesus says and their salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men that which we must be saved the message of salvation is the word about Jesus Christ but it’s not enough to believe in a Jesus you must believe in the Jesus because there are plenty of people who would say they follow Jesus but it’s not the same Jesus day we’re thinking of but that the Bible declares do you believe Jesus is only a good teacher or it created being you really believe in the Jesus who is and if you don’t believe in the Jesus that has been revealed in the scriptures then you aren’t saved you will die in your sins and you will go into our tunnel fire because there is no other name under heaven by which man can be saved the Trinitarian concept is indeed essential for salvation but someone might ask what about people in the Old Testament they didn’t believe in the Trinity like we do and if they didn’t could they be saved and if they didn’t have to believe in the Trinity like we do then why is it necessary now this is a difficult question but an answer I would say not all the details of the Trinity were as clear in the Old Testament as they are in the New Testament but whatever details were there and as they are made known to the people of God people were to believe then various passages do you articulate the Trinity maybe not in the clearest way as it is clear away as it is a New Testament but things about the angel of the Lord we even saw the Spirit of God and God both being at creation though the various prophecies about the Messiah my Lord said to my lord sit at my right hand until I make the world your footstool even though there isn’t a in the Old Testament Oh necessarily a complete understanding those passages they couldn’t help see what it was saying that even though God is one there there are these very mysterious passages that describe someone also being God with God God even speaking to himself there’s a certain affirmation that the Old Testament people were to believe of those things even if it isn’t a full understanding of the Trinity as we would understand it now it is also telling that in the New Testament you do have god-fearers who do not yet know about the Trinity either in the divinity of the son or the Holy Spirit but who have faith in God and when the Trinity is articulated to them when the gospel of the Sun is reveals to them or when the Holy Spirit is described to them they readily accept this truth a good example that is acts 19 verses 1 to 7 you have these disciples there god-fearers they were in that they were baptized in the baptism of John but Paul comes to them he’s like did you guys ever see the Holy Spirit and they’re like I’ve never even heard if there is a Holy Spirit he tells them they believe and they receive the Holy Spirit this I would say based on that example and others New Testament it is conceivable that someone with only the Old Testament might not believe in the Trinity and still be saved but such a one will accept the Trinity when he hears it if he is truly of God one other observation I would make church history pointedly reveals that those movements that deny the Trinity in some way or other can’t help but deny other key elements of the gospel I think this is logically consistent if you must alter the doctrine of the Trinity because doesn’t accord with your thinking and how’s the rest of the gospel going to be safe that’s why you see a works based salvation in Jehovah’s Witnesses or other kinds of errors and those who deny aspects of the Trinity I would also point out making the Sun less than divine or just another mode of the Father it destroys one of the realities that’s central to the gospel and that is substitutionary atonement the son had to bear the wrath of the father against sinners in order to satisfy God’s justice if there is no Trinity then the doctrine of the substitutionary atonement doesn’t doesn’t make sense it can’t be so all this to say a right understanding of the Trinity is extremely important to protect us from going into heresy and to allow us to to cause us to actually be safe if you’ve got a different God or a different Christ and your understanding of the Trinity then you ultimately have a different and really a damning gospel so that’s why we do believe that the Trinity is really important but again person doesn’t have to affirm that weren’t Trinity or every single detail literally to be safe but we do need to print present the real Christ to people as we give the gospel don’t really have time for questions or comments today so if you have one please email me I’d be happy to hear your question and answer as best I can next week we’re shifting from talking about God I’m going to shift back to talking about God’s Word I have several lessons on the Bible itself and next week specifically we’re gonna talk about the proper way to read and study the Bible and we’ll see how God’s Word guides us let’s pray as we close well Lord God this is a grand reality yeah but everything we study about you is so grand that’s why there’s such joy and a prospect of knowing you more and of seeing you when we come to be with you in heaven or in the new heavens of the new earth Oh Lord just trying to comprehend you as Trinity and just shows us how small we are and how great you are where do you display your loveliness even in the relationships of the Trinity and thank you God that as others have articulated we have been brought in in a sense to the Trinity we’ve been attached to one of the persons of the Trinity through the gospel of Jesus look I was so grateful that we can become the Bride of Christ that was all University we did nothing to deserve that well we praise you for being so glorious and for making your glory known to us by showing forth your love and your mercy toward us god I pray that we would grow in our in our love for you in our appreciation of you in inner and wonder at you as we hear more of your word as we study more of your word as we talk with one another more about your truth I pray that you’d accomplish more of that for those listening today maybe they might be filled up with your truth and filled up with your joy I pray God that you grant our church’s unity grant us unity just as you are one unity around your truth unity around the different members of the body serving one another and using their gifts but I pray that you would accomplish that just as you purpose in your word for that to be in your church in Jesus name Amen all right thank you everybody I will see you next week