Origin of the Trinity
All Christians believe in God the creator, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. However, not all of the denominations accept the idea of the Trinity (“threefold”) which is “one God in three Divine Persons.”The Trinity played an important role in the development of early Christianity, Christians either accepted it or declared it as heretical. For something to be so important it must be written in the bible, or mentioned by Jesus Christ. However, there is no written evidence of the Trinity came from the word of God. So where did it come from? It is possible that the Roman culture and agonistic society played a role in the up building of the Trinity in Christianity.
In 300 B.C. the teaching of Plato as described by Socrates; the opposite of death is life since all humans die, there must be an opposite that lives forever. Plato’s answer to that question is the soul. He then continues on how the body is limiting our potential by trapping our soul. We must then transmigrate our soul to the demiurge or the creator. This may sound familiar to some Christian believers, that is due to the fact that Saint Justin (Famous for his Christian theology) adopted his teaching and added another stage (Noetic) into the transmigration of the soul and called it Logos. He also compared the belief of Christianity with that of Plato’s “Likewise Plato
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Matthew 24 verse 36 reads "But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven nor the Son,' but only the Father. Here it is written that Jesus indicates that his Father (or Yahweh) is greater than he, which contradicts the idea of them being one. On Matthew 12 verse 32 “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. “Jesus states that there is a difference between the Holy Spirit and
The Bible never makes of the specific reference of the trinity, the Bible does talk about the divine existence of each of the three members of the Trinity, God (The Father), The Son (Jesus Christ), and the Spirit (The Holy Spirit). It is still a complex idea for me to understand fully but scripture does indeed tell of the work and existence of the trinity.
Kilby (2000) says that for many years theologians have been writing about the trinity who talk about its neglect. The author says that the Trinity is at the forefront of Christianity and has not been given sufficient attention and has become obscure and complex as a theological tool. The author says that this is a piece of celestial mathematics which is impossible to understand and with litter relevance to the life of the ordinary christen. (p432). The author cites Karl Rahner to say he made comments about the modern Christian being almost mere “monotheists’” That is “Paying lip service to the Trinity but in practice ignoring
The trinity is perhaps one of the more complicated, and possibly confusing, doctrines found in Scripture concerning Deity (the Godhead). It is a doctrine that is fully embraced by some who claim to be Christians, while others deny it whole heartedly. Islam, which claims to worship Yahweh (they do not), vehemently denies the idea of the trinity; they claim that to believe such is to embrace polytheism (the belief in multiple gods). With much confusion in the religious world regarding this matter, it is important to look to the Bible, which is the source of truth (John 17:17), to find what the truth is regarding the trinity.
In the article “The Forgotten Trinity”, a segment of Colin E. Gunton’s book Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, he targets a problem with the practice of the Trinity in the Church today. Gunton believes that the church has strayed from the essential tradition that it ought to follow- a culture solidified on not just one person of the trinity but all three. He makes this view clear with lines such as “Once upon a time we were a deeply Trinitarian culture”(4), and with questions such as “Is the worship of the Church truly informed by Trinitarian categories?”(5) Gunton’s aim is to clarify the God that Christians worship: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Gunton believes that a proper perspective on the Trinity is vital to the structure of the Church because the Trinity establishes God as a God of love and
Chapter four addresses the divisions within the Corinthian church, such as jealousy, quarrelling and their defective view of the church. The apostle Paul links their view of the church to church leadership stating “If they had a true view of the church, they would have a true view of the leaders of the church” (p79). The situation was that their view was lower for the church and higher for the leaders thus they were boasting about the leaders. Paul’s view was that the Corinthian church was spoon feed Christians not maturing as they should. Paul’s reference to addressing the church as worldly did not mean they were unregenerate because they did possess the Spirit but they were not being spiritual, not being controlled by the Holy Spirit. He goes on to say “They have experienced new birth by the Spirit but have remained babies in Christ; they have not yet become mature in Christ” (p80) The Apostle most likely would express the same opinion about many Church congregations today. Many churches are elated with their church growth, but it is often superficial. If the church does not offer a real growth opportunity the journey is short lived. The church fills up with Christians not participating in the sanctification process. As with many churches today the Corinthians had a self-serving attitude about themselves and their church. The Corinthians would have never behaved the way they did if they had a higher view of the church and what it stood for and a lesser view of the leaders. Paul outlines three visions of the church “each of which has important implications” (p82). The first metaphor is agricultural: God’s field (v9) 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God...
The ministries of Jesus and the Holy Spirit are closely related, each one serving an individual purpose while complimenting the other. Although the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all one in the trinity, they each have different roles that they play. The Holy Spirit plays an active part in our lives, as does Jesus. The role of the Spirit changed with Jesus. When Jesus died and rose from the cross, He opened up a new doorway for us, a new opportunity for us to experience the Holy Spirit. The Spirit became active and real to us in a way that He never could before. Today, our lives are focused on Jesus, focused on His love and sacrifice. His present ministry is seen through His believers. We are His lights in this present dark world.
Around the time after Jesus’ resurrection, Christians were confused and they needed answers. Jesus was just arisen from the dead. The Church now had Jesus and God to look to, but who was the leader of it all? Who were they to worship? Where does the Spirit fit into all of this? After many questions, they looked to Scripture. Christians have had the belief of Monotheism and that there is One God. Yet, it wasn’t until the Church looked to Scripture that they pieced together what is now known as the Holy Trinity.
“The practice of baptism in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the second century propelled the development of the trinitarian theology” (LaDue 48). According to Collins, the trinity can be defined by three statements “1. There is only one true God. 2. This one true God exists as three distinct persons. 3. Each person is fully divine” (Collins 29-31). The three people that make up the trinity are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. First there is the Father. There are many Bible passages where God is referred to as the Father, this can be concluded because He alone created all things and His first human creation, Adam, was called the son of God. Jesus is God’s son and he was sent by his father, the Father, to offer humanity salvation from their sins. The “God of the Israelites reveals himself as a distinct, unique, superior deity who is always there. God’s being there is what defines him” (LaDue 14). The Israelites sometimes see the God Yahweh as an imitation of the trinity in the old testament, but they do not have distinct leveled personalities. Although God is distinct and unique, the idea that He is superior can be a false assumption as all the persons of the trinity have equal power and divinity. Another person of the trinity is the Holy Spirit. Yes, the Holy Spirit is a person. This is a common misconception of the
Three equals one. Out of all of the statements made by the Christian faith, perhaps none is more confusing. The Doctrine of the Trinity has been questioned for decades and many Christians do not even understand it. Colin E. Gunton argues that this does not have to be so. Instead, he calls the Western Church to learn from Eastern Orthodoxy and allow Trinitarian thinking to permeate every aspect of the church. It is when the Western Church embarrasses “The Forgotten Trinity” (the name of the chapter) in thinking and in worship, that we not only learn the nature of God, but how we should live in light of it.
In Christianity one of their primary beliefs is the idea of a Triune God, which means the belief of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as one entity not three separate beings. This would result in God being indivisible and could not be divided into three different parts for an ...
In John 10:30 Jesus says; “I and the Father are One.” By this, He meant that He and God were the same. For example, God and the Son of God both created everything (1 Corinthians 8:6) (Morgan, 211–212). The Holy Spirit is also God too, as one can read in 1 John 5:7–8: “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” This Holy Divinity is called the Trinity- a group of three, as One. “In the name of the Trinity the living God is revealed” (Robinson, 187) This Trinity is God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit. “The Triune God is an all-sufficient God, all-sufficient for Himself and all-sufficient for His people” (Robinson,
Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit in John 14:16-17, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him not knows him. Y...
The doctrine of the Trinity, as seen in the Christian bible, is primary to the Christian faith. The word “Trinity” does not actually appear in the bible; it is a theological label meant to summarize certain teachings of certain passages of scripture, and is crucial to properly understand what God is like, how He relates to us, and how we relate to Him. It may also raise many difficult questions including what does it mean that God is a Trinity? While it is difficult for us to fully understand everything about the trinity, it is quite possible to answer questions like this one and come to a solid grasp of what it means for God to be three in one.
Conclusion As shown above, the Trinity Doctrine did not begin to develop until Greek philosophy was applied to Christianity. The Apostolic Fathers had no conception of the Trinity. When the Greek philosophy of Plato was applied to the Scriptures, then the Trinity Doctrine began to develop. Logos ceased meaning the spoken word and became God’s reason, a second God, the Son. Thus, the Logos-doctrine, which is the foundation on which the Trinity Doctrine is built, entered Christianity.
I am a Christian and I believe in the Holy trinity: God, the Son, the Holy Spirit.