Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Defending The Trinity (pt. 3) (RP1)


(Audio version; Music: "We Believe" by: Newsboys and "This I Believe (The Creed)" by: Hillsong)







Introduction

            Last week, in Part Two of our lesson on Defending The Trinity, I attempted to identify some tools that might be useful in the defense of the doctrine of the Trinity. We looked at how Jesus’ divinity could be defended against claims that He lacked the essential qualities of God because He didn’t always appear to be omnipotent, omnipresent, or omniscient by showing that those qualities could have been an act of self-limitation in order to accomplish the Father’s will of insuring humanity’s redemption.

We dispelled the notion that the Trinity was a pagan belief system by remembering that the Trinity existed before every other belief system. Furthermore, pagan belief systems employed tri-theistic (three gods) belief systems.

We provided some assurance that just because something is unknown, it’s not unknowable. And just because something is unknown doesn’t make it untrue. Finally, confessing that some things are a mystery isn’t necessarily surrendering to ignorance as much as it is confessing that humanity, in its limited capacity, will never be able to understand everything about God. If you think about it, isn’t that the way it should be? If you can know absolutely everything about God, that wouldn’t be much of a God now would it?

            Finally, we shed some light on the confusion over God’s three-in-oneness by understanding the Trinity not as persons quantified mathematically but as illuminated grammatically by clarifying the use of the word “is.” Consequently, when we say the Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, we are using the “is” of predication as opposed to the “is” of identity.

There are, of course, countless other arguments against the Trinity and equally sound defenses to counter those arguments. However, the most important defense for any orthodox Christian doctrine or belief is the revelation God gave us in the Scriptures. Therefore, we will now turn our attention to that very important revelation of God.

What The Bible Says

For the Christian, God’s revelation of Himself in Scripture is a crucial element of faith. So it is essential to investigate the Scriptures to determine its teaching relative to the Trinity. It is often argued by those that would oppose the doctrine of the Trinity that it is merely a man-made invention since it is never identified formally or informally in Scripture. The word “Trinity” never appears in either the Old or New Testaments. However, “many technical terms familiar to Christian teaching, like eschatology, anthropology, pneumatology, hamartiology, and cosmology, are not found expressly in Scripture but derive explicitly from scriptural teaching. So it is with trinity.”[1]

Old Testament Support

Like many things about God’s revelation, it becomes clearer with the passage of time and perhaps with expanded revelation. This is the case with Old Testament support for the Trinity. For example, “Elohim, the divine term used of God at the beginning of the Bible (Genesis1:1), is a plural noun used some 500 times by Moses…accompanied continually by a verb in the singular. This is a term revealing the oneness of Deity and the plurality of Persons in the Godhead.”[2] God uses the plural pronoun “us” and “our” during the creative process recorded in Genesis when He says, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness... (Genesis 1:26).” “This evidence attests that the God of revelation was conceived from the very beginning as a composite rather than a solitary unity.”[3] What shall we make of the physical appearances of God, also known as theophanies, in the Old Testament? (Gen. 18, Jos. 5 and Dan. 3) Since the Father is spirit and has no physical body per se, these theophanies are largely held to be the preincarnate Jesus Christ himself. Furthermore, there are occasions when God speaks of the actions of His Spirit among Israel in terms that beg the question: What Spirit is God referring to when God the Father is spirit (Joel 2:28)? It seems clear that there is a distinction between God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit. However, it isn’t until the New Testament that we begin to see an expanded revelation of God and a much clearer view of the Trinity.

New Testament Support

“Any doctrine latent in the Old Testament is patent in the New Testament.”[4] The unfolding of the Trinity becomes increasingly clearer in the New Testament where there are countless examples that clearly identify both the unity and the plurality of God. One of the clearest examples of God’s plurality is demonstrated at Jesus’ baptism where Mark records the event beautifully saying, “As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’” (Mk. 1:10-11) With similar clarity, the unity of God is demonstrated through the words of Jesus himself. John records an encounter between Jesus and one of his disciples, Philip, with respect to Jesus’ anticipated death, and return to the Father. Jesus is trying to give his disciples a glimpse of blessings that await them in the presence of the Father. “Philip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.’ Jesus answered: ‘Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father (Jn. 14:8-9).’” Certainly Jesus is not saying that He and the Father are the same person. We know this because Jesus is often shown praying to the Father (cf. Matt. 26:39-42). It seems beyond reason to insist that He was praying to himself. Instead, it is far more reasonable to see in Jesus’ words and actions throughout Scripture that He and the Father are the same in essence while at the same time distinct in their individual personhood.

So What! What Difference Does It Make?

            Some of you might be thinking that I have droned on about this long enough and are wondering, why or if, belief in the Trinity is really such a big deal. I suppose that’s a fair question but consider for a moment how many false religions that are out there who, in some form or another, have hijacked the name of Jesus as a tool to build and expand their false religious claims. However, they all reject the Trinity, in large part because they refuse to confess Jesus’ full divinity and full, sinless humanity. For example, Christian Scientists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Mormons all include some form or another of Jesus in their belief system. However, Christian Scientists (founded by Mary Baker Eddy in the latter half of the 19th century) do not believe Jesus is God. Furthermore, they believe the spiritual Jesus was without sin but the human Jesus was sinful. Jehovah’s Witnesses (founded by Charles Taze Russell in the latter half of the 19th century) believe Jesus was created (very similar to Arianism). Mormons (founded by Joseph Smith in the first half of the 19th century) believe that Jesus is Lucifer’s spiritual brother because they are both God the Father’s offspring. They also believe that Jesus was conceived through normal conception by a mortal mother and an immortal Elohim (a Hebrew name for God) who was once a man and became a God like Jesus was a man and became a God like all Mormons who will eventually become gods. (Good luck trying to sift through that mess and let me know if you ever get to the place where someone along the way was God from the beginning! Who created the first man if God was first a man like us?) So to answer the question: What difference does it make? It makes a difference between believing the truth and believing a lie. The Trinity is only part of orthodox Christianity. Belief systems that reject the Trinity, whatever they may or may not say about Jesus, are not Christian. But it goes even deeper. It’s a matter of being in relationship with God—the real God, not some god made up by some religious charlatans looking to make a buck off of people’s biblical ignorance; the God of the Bible; the God who revealed Himself to us as Father, Son, and Spirit.

            When you enter into an intimate relationship with someone, the depth of that relationship is, to a large degree, dependent on getting to know that person. And it’s no different for our relationship with God. We tend to gravitate toward Jesus for obvious reasons—because He sacrificed His life for us. However, there are other, perhaps less obvious reasons as well that we gravitate toward Jesus—we can relate to Him because He was one of us. He occupied time and space with us so we are able to relate to Him better. However, this is just one way God has revealed Himself to us in order to be in relationship with us. If we get stuck on relating to God only in the person of Jesus, we wind up with a truncated relationship with God. It would be like being in relationship with your husband or wife only on the basis of your shared interest in hiking, biking, traveling, or reading. But God has revealed Himself to us in many other ways so that we can have a well-rounded understanding of who He is and how He loves us.

            We walk along a sandy beach or stand at the foot of a towering mountain and get a sense for how awesome the Creator, God the Father is that could create something so beautiful and breath-taking. And we are even more in awe when we realize that He created all things for us to enjoy. All of creation is, in part, God the Father’s revelation of Himself to us. Look up into the night sky at all the stars and listen to God the Father tell you that there are more ways that He loves you than there are stars in the sky.


            When the time was right, God revealed Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ as God the Son. God wanted us to know that He is not a far-off Creator that can’t be seen or touched. Instead, He is close to us; He is Immanuel—God with us. Jesus revealed God to us in a real and tangible way. He was a friend, a teacher, a healer, and finally our Savior. When it came time for God to reveal His love for us in a way other than through creation, He allowed Himself to be nailed to a cross in our place. Look at the cross and listen to God the Son tell you that He loves you so much that He wants to make it possible for you to spend eternity with Him.


            When Jesus told His disciples that He would be going away, they were understandably distraught. God was finally there with them; close enough to touch; they could talk with Him and eat with Him, they didn’t want to give that up. However, God was preparing to reveal Himself to humanity in yet another way. Jesus said that He would send us a Comforter; an Advocate. In place of God the Son’s bodily presence with us, God would go one step farther, God the Spirit would come to dwell within our lives to encourage us, to guide us, and to remind us of all the things Jesus taught. God, in the person of Jesus, as we have seen, limited Himself in order to accomplish the primary task of providing for our salvation. However, God needed to be available to everyone, at all times, and in all places who put their faith in the saving work of God the Son. And that could only be done by God the Spirit. In those quiet and desperate times of your life, when you sense that God is right there standing beside you or holding your hand or carrying you, you are sensing that God the Spirit is with you saying I won’t leave you, let me guide you, let me comfort you, let me encourage you. God the Spirit, every day in every way, is saying I love you.

Conclusion

          It goes without saying that there is no perfect argument in defense of the Trinity that would convince all doubters. However, to say that there is clear evidence against belief in the Trinity is far from accurate as well. The historical development of the doctrine was methodical and intentional. Biblical support, although not explicitly identifying the “Trinity,” nonetheless contains the building blocks necessary for the sound development of the doctrine. While these all may be fine sounding arguments in defense of the Trinity, there are some essential elements that must be considered in closing. John records an event before Jesus is crucified where Jesus says, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.” (Jn. 16:12-13) Christians are at times criticized for being unscientific in their biblical theology and instead relying on their faith as opposed to reason in matters such as the Trinity. However, while we may be called to give a defense of our beliefs, it is unreasonable to expect that we can somehow always present a compelling argument to someone lacking the illumination of truth provided by the Spirit. “One lesson to be learned from this is that there is no sledgehammer apologetics. There are no arguments for the truth of Christianity which force the atheist or non-Christian to their intellectual knees. The unbeliever can always backtrack and give up some other belief instead.”[5] Additionally, one of the operative words in Christianity is “faith.” Faith, by definition, is belief in something that is not entirely certain. There are so many things about Christianity that are built upon the foundation of faith in something uncertain. We don’t understand nor can we explain how God exists outside of creation yet we believe it by faith. We don’t understand how God created something out of nothing yet we believe it by faith. We don’t understand how God became a man in the person of Jesus yet we believe it by faith. We don’t understand how Jesus died on a cross and then rose from the dead three days later yet we believe it by faith. We can’t explain how the Spirit lives within us when we accept Christ yet we believe it by faith. We believe these things by faith yet skeptics decry that it is unreasonable to believe that God exists as one essence in three persons because we don’t fully understand it and can’t fully explain it. It would seem that this is unbelief for unbelief’s sake. Instead, although the doctrine of the Trinity is built on a strong foundation of biblical support and sound scholarship, its ultimate acceptance is still a matter of faith.





[1] Thomas C. Oden, The Living God, (HarperSanFrancisco, New York, NY, 1987) p. 186.
[2] Herbert Lockyer, All the Doctrines of the Bible, (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, 1964) p. 123.
[3] Donald G. Bloesch, God the Almighty, (InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL, 1995) p. 168.
[4] Lockyer, All the Doctrines of the Bible, p. 124
[5] Michael J. Murray, ed., Reason for the Hope Within, (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1999) p. 13.

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