Hey Mary. You did an excellent laying out the foundation of the Trinity within your post. During my childhood, my church also taught the analogy of the three-leaf clover. I enthusiastically agree that although such an illustration is aimed at helping, a human analogy cannot or will never accurately define the Trinity. As I read your post, I thoroughly enjoyed the way in which you informed your reader of basics interworking’s of the Trinity. However, reading on, I felt as though you did not delve into why the Trinity is truth. The book, Richard of Saint Victor, On the Trinity: English Translation and Commentary, provides an excellent starting position for one’s explanation of the Trinity of being truth. Richard of Saint Victor argues that in
Bonhoeffer, Dietrick. The Cost of Discipleship, New York,NY 10022: The Macmillan Company, Published 1959. 344 pp. $1.95
The Trinity in Christian culture is a belief that God is represented in three major forms. In various works of art to include more plainly; The Trinity by Agnolo Gaddi. God is shown in his three most popular forms. God the Father, God the Son known to be Jesus Christ, and God the Holy spirit in the form of a white dove. This painting was done between ca. 1390-1396 by has mentioned before Agnolo Gaddi. Gaddi is from Florence, Italy and is the son of Taddeo Gaddi and the grandson of Gaddo Gaddi whom are all famous painters. Agnolo Gaddi died in 1396. Before his death he is said to have done a few popular pieces to include: Virgin Mary in the Prato Cathedral, Madonna Enthroned with Saint and Angels, and Coronation of the Virgin. His final
As a result, fellowship, prayer, Bible study, worship, and most importantly salvation in its purest form can be discerned and acted upon correctly. In addition, a further understanding can be thus gained regarding the person of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Finally, heresies and heretical groups or beliefs can lead God’s followers astray from the truth and create an improper understanding, and thus relationship with God. Positions past and present have, and are, attempting to mislead Christians about the Trinity. A skewed view of the Trinity can result in a view of God as either divinely apart from creation or simply a better version of all the best attributes of humans. Some positions even take away from the Divinity of Jesus Christ. All of these views severely diminish who God is and alters a proper and true relationship and worship. It is a necessity that these errant views be exposed as a hindrance to God in order not to mislead God’s followers. Likewise a Biblically sound explanation of the Trinity is needed. As a result, a true and pure knowledge of the concept of the Trinity is crucially needed to understand God and be obedient to the Bible.
The first topic that hit me in Michael Reeves book Delighting in the trinity was when he said, “the trinity is seen not as a solution and a delight, but as an oddity and a problem.”(8) Too many times people discuss the problems of the trinity, for instance the fact that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one but the same. I think too often people over think the trinity and cause this spur, the trinity should cause us to delight in Christ and we should consider the trinity a solution. Reeves is correct when pointing out Paul’s writing about the mystery and how God is mysterious. He continues to say that God is not like a “who cares” kind of mystery but that our God is a mystery that reveals itself. God is the kind of god that reveals himself to us. The trinity is our personal representation of a God that we can know and understand, one bit at a time. Throughout the book Reeves shows the audience exactly what the trinity is and how a Christian can use the trinity and worship to rejoice in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
At the center of the Christian faith is a mystery. This mystery has everything to do with the identity of God, the nature of Christian community, the salvation history and our understanding of Christology. This is the mystery of the Trinity – how is the Godhead fully three persons, and yet one nature? Theophilus was the first to name the ‘triad’ nature of God in his letter To Autolycus in 170 A.D. Tertullian was the first to offer terminology to describe this mystery in Against Praxeas claiming “the Trinity” involved three ‘persons’ of one substance. This theology emerged from the Biblical witness, even though scripture offers no doctrine of the Trinity itself. Even more so, the development of the doctrine of the Trinity grew from the early church’s worship, witness and corporate experience. When faced with a mystery, heresies can’t help but emerge. Docetism and Arianism, Adoptionism and Monarchianism, Nestorianism and Monophysitism are just a few of the heresies that emerged in attempts to explain away the mystery. And yet, theologians from the second century to the twenty-first century are faced with the challenge of witnessing to this mystery in both the theologia and the oikonomia of the Trinity. The church experiences the economic Trinity as new believers are drawn into Trinitarian community through an ongoing
The word “trinity” is used to describe the relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Though all three are used in scripture there is no description of the “trinity.” Throughout this paper the concept of the “trinity” will be examined. First, the paper will have a summary of relevant sections from three sources: the New Catholic Encyclopedia, the older Catholic Encyclopedia, and a peer-reviewed theological article from a contemporary journal. Two concise analyses will follow the summary. In the first analysis there will be a comparison between the older and newer Catholic encyclopedias to see how over time theological reflection has changed. In the second analysis there will be a comparison between the New Catholic Encyclopedia and a contemporary theological article to show the differences between the two theological perspectives.
It is important to note the defined goals of the Trinity. One being that God sent His Son, Jesus did not send God. Jesus tells us in John 6, that He came to do the will of His Father. Jesus was not doing His own selfish will but everything He did was for His Father. Jesus and God sent the Holy Spirit according to Jesus’ words in John 14:26, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you”. It is necessary to recognize the distinctions of the roles of the Trinity as if the roles were not distinctive there would be no Trinity.
Irenaeus on the Trinity: "The Church, though dispersed throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: . . . one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and His manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father ‘to gather all things in
The definition of the Trinity according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is “the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead according to Christian dogma.” The basis of the Trinity is that there is God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There are three separate parts, yet they make up one. While this is confusing to the naked ear, it actually makes logical sense on a deeper level. Scholars and philosophers struggled for years to give a valid explanation of the Trinity. It was not until Tertullian in the 2nd or 3rd century AD that a satisfactory explanation was given. Tertullian came up with the Trinitarian Doctrine, which basically
The Trinity believes God is three persons that exist in one being – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The scripture commonly used as a basis for this belief is John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (Engelbrecht, 2009) If you ask a Christian to explain any biblical doctrine they can easily offer an explanation. However, if you ask them to explain the Trinity, they will cannot. This begs the question, “how is it you follow a doctrine which you cannot explain?”
The Holy Trinity is three person in one God. The 3 persons are: The Father, The Son, Jesus Christ; and The Holy Spirit.
To truly conceptualize the Trinity is very difficult. In our world, we have nothing to compare the Trinity to. There is nothing that is three
I will like to crave your indulgence to the fact that "Nicene concept of Trinity" is never stated in the Bible, and it is that early Christians as well as the scriptures clearly points out the fact that Jesus was fully divine and pre-existent. For the fact that, none of the early Christian theologians fully asserted the doctrine of the Trinity, not even a speculation about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. According to the father of the paganism description of Trinity "God can in no way be described." (Schindler 148).
In seeking to better understand an especially abstract concept, such as trinity, the use of analogies has understandably been common. Analogies are used to help us explain complex topics such as Trinity. Since the doctrine of the Trinity is often described and taught to be so complicated that no one can’t get a full grasp of it, we try to find a way to relay a clear understanding of the divine truth to not just new Christians, but to other people as well. A social analogy is able to emphasize the real, subsistent existence of each divine person, and bring out the understanding of the trinity a relationship of love. The strength of is that it shows how three things can share the same being or substance: memory, intellect, and will are distinct, but they share the same nature as constituting one human mind: they are not three minds. At this point we ask questions such as “how can we simplify this? What is a good analogy for the trinity? What if there is no analogy that can’t specifically break down the meaning of Trinity? I feel like this chapter desperately shuffles it way in trying to find answers for God being Trinity, which is a bit frustrating. Overall, we can just say that Trinity is one God, who is present in three persons (Father, Son and
The trinity of God consists of Him being described as three people in one. He is recognized in agreement by revealing Himself by, “Giving grace to you and peace from God our Father…” (Philippians 1:2)3, He grants us hope, “…appearing in the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:13)3, and we receive the gift of God by him, “…pouring out the Holy Spirit abundantly onto us…” (Titus 3:6)3. The Trinity is a demonstrated example o Christian for them to gain a better understanding of who God is and His relationships with humanity. Although God exposes Himself through three people, our Father is still made up of one essence; three people that share one sole.