Trying to explain the Holy Trinity is like trying to explain the 3D dimension to a 2D person, it's hard. Commonly, people would use analogies to describe the Trinity, which will eventually end up as heresies. It's earlier to describe the Trinity because Jesus basically already did the work for you, through the Scriptures.
Through the Scriptures, it shows us the unity and distinction between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The unity of the Trinity is best shown in the gospels where the Holy Spirit “guides you to all truth” (John 16:13), and the Father “will give you whatever you ask him” (John 15:16), showing a unity of love between the Trinity. The distinction between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit shows through a distinction of roles of each persons within one divine nature. The
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There are eight different types of heresies against the Trinity: Gnosticism, Docetism, Dualism, Modalism, Partialism, Arianism, and Nestorianism. Gnosticism is the teaching that the earth was created and ruled by a lesser God (demiurge) and the spread of secret knowledge of sacrilege. Docetism is the teaching that Jesus only appeared to be human but didn't actually take on human form. Dualism is the teaching of the God of the Old Testament is a bad/evil God and the God of the New Testament is a good God. Modalism is the teaching that God is one person that acts in three distinct ways. Partialism is the teaching that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each ⅓ God. Arianism is the teaching that God created the Son and Holy Spirit, taking away the fact that the Son is begotten of the Father. Nestorianism is the teaching that Jesus is two separate persons and that Mary only gave birth to His human form. To refute these heresies, the Athanasian, Nicene, and Apostles’ Creed were created. The best way to describe the Trinity is with the Athanasian, Apostles’, and Nicene
...nity. The Holy Spirit allows human beings to become closer to God, and the relationship between the Father and the Son. After writing about both the Trinity and Salvation, I have learned that they are immensely interconnected. The Trinity allows human beings to find Salvation. All in all, the Trinity is not three separate parts, but one part with three different essences.
In the teaching on the Holy Trinity, St. Basil was a student of Alexandrian theology and its main representatives—Origen and Athanasius of Alexandria. The reason St. Basil wrote this teaching is that the Church was waging a war against heresies of Pneumatomachoi and Neo-Arians. St. Basil wrote the work On the Holy Spirit between 373 and 375 AD. It was written to “Your desire for information, my right well-beloved and most deeply respected brother Amphilochius, I highly commend, and not less your industrious energy.” The author commends his brother’s eagerness to find knowledge. When the Apostle Paul writes, “There is one God and Father of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things,” it does not mean that a writer is trying “to introduce the diversity of nature, but to exhibit the notion of Father and of Son as unconfounded.”
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.
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.
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 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.
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
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
“The wind blows wherever it please. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” Within the poetic image of wind, the presence of the Holy Spirit is described as something that flows freely and affects everything. This Spirit cannot be contained or restricted. The Holy Spirit is a life giving wind that acts in all of creation, and wherever this divine wind blows something new begins. Furthermore, describing the Spirit as water expounds upon the innate characteristics of this life-giving Spirit.
The Trinity is made up of God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This concept is what many Catholics believe in, but other worldwide religions believe in other beliefs. Out of all the three Divine Persons, “Jesus is the most qualified to bring the renewal of creation because it was through him that creation came into being” (Pohle February 7th). We as humans will have to face the consequences for actions that we have done in the past, present and future. Jesus has come into the world as a human to show his dignity and save us from sin; he was the world and of all creation. As we come to read more about Jesus we get to know Jesus more, we learn about what he did, how he did it and why he had to do these saving actions.
The doctrine of the Trinity, as seen in the Holy Bible, means that there is one God who eternally subsists as three distinct persons: the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Although they are stated differently, God is one in essence and three in person. If examined closer, one can see three important principles. One being, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are each distinct persons, the second is each Person is fully God, and the last is there is only one God. In the Bible for example, it speaks of the Father as God, Jesus as God, and the Holy Spirit as God. If one were to simply read these passages, it could seem to be somewhat contradictory. One could believe that these are three different ways to look at God, or maybe three different roles that God plays. However, the Bible also indicates that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all distinct persons. For example, since God sent his son Jesus into the world, as seen in the book of John, He cannot be the same person as the Son. Furthermore, after Jesus returned to God, the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit into...
The word Trinity has been an appealing name to me since my childhood. Perhaps, my upbringing in a spiritual family is a reason although I admit that my knowledge of Trinity was rather little when in my twenties, I named my spoken English and Music Institute, Trinity Institute of Spoken English & Music. I became seriously intrigued with the richness of the doctrine of the Trinity as I took over the responsibility of the Church started by my dad late Rev.Kambham Vedanayakam in 2007. In this paper, I would like to present the richness of the doctrine of Trinity with the hope to comprehend the utmost incomprehensive doctrine of Trinity and its role in promoting Ecumenism. The twists and turns through which the Triune God migrated from the center
Philosophy A person’s philosophy defines who they are and how they live their life. Philosophy is a person’s basic belief system and their outlook on life. A Christian’s philosophy is based upon truth found only in the Bible. The Bible lays out a clear picture on how God wants Christians to live and also a clear path of salvation for unbelievers.
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,