THEO 5 F

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Apr 3, 2024

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THEO 5 F BRAZZ LIB
rickson lists six elements that must be included in any attempt to construct a doctrine of the Trinity: the oneness of God, the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the distinction between the threeness and oneness of God, the eternal nature of the Trinity, subordination of one member of the Trinity to another, and the incomprehensibility of the Trinity (Erickson 2013, 308-309). These six elements help Christians to understand the Trinity and deepen our faith in a variety of ways. First, the insistence of the oneness of God is necessary due to the history of the Christian faith, and the Hebrew tradition that Jesus came from. From a Hebrew perspective, the first sentence of the Shema in the book of Deuteronomy insists on the oneness of God, “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is on!” (Deuteronomy 6:4, NASB). Likewise, Jesus’ brother, James wrote the same, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe–and shudder!” (James 2:19). This is a foundational belief of the Christian faith and the starting point for understanding God. Second, there is distinct biblical evidence in the New Testament of the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In terms of Christian faith, this is instrumental in understanding Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit better. That the Father is God finds little disagreement, the other two assertions require more proof. The biblical proof for the deity of Jesus is found in Paul’s writing (Philippians 2) and throughout the gospels (Erickson 2013, 295-296). The most notable assertion that the Holy Spirit is God is found in Acts 5 when Peter uses the names interchangeably in convicting Ananias (Erickson 2013, 296). The fact that God is one, but also that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all God leads to a necessity of a distinction between the threeness and the oneness of God. This is indicated in Matthew 28 when Jesus tells the disciples to baptize “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). Here Matthew uses a singular name but includes all three persons (Erickson 2013, 299). While it is important to search scripture to try to understand and express the Trinity in the best way we can, it is also important to recognize that there are going to be aspects of God’s being that we cannot fully comprehend. “Those aspects of God that we will never fully comprehend should be regarded as mysteries exceeding our reason rather than as paradoxes that conflict with reason” (Erickson 2013, 309). Because of our inability to fully comprehend some aspects of the Trinity, it is helpful to try to use analogies. The problem with that is that nothing from our physical world can fully reflect a God who exists in Spirit. Augustine attempted to overcome this difficulty by using analogies from the realm of human personality since humans
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