preview

The Trinitarian Perspective

Better Essays
Open Document

Doctrine of God: The Trinitarian Perspective

As I recall, when I was too young to understand what God was preparing me for, I thought I was preparing myself to be able to stand firm in my faith without reservation, no matter what the consequences. As a child there were times that I practiced saying aloud that I believed in God and then I would bend over for my head to be chopped off by the guillotine. Why would I remember this like a video on repeat? Why would it flash through my mind for all these years? I have often asked myself this question. Was I going to find myself facing an evil where I would be challenged to deny my God or be killed? Until the world's recent encounter with the terrorist Isis, it did not seem that it was a real …show more content…

The Bible says, " Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today and forever" ( Hebrews 13:8). The God of my ancestors is my God also. When I look back over my life, I am humbled by God's grace and mercy. I am the youngest of two children born to my mother. My brother was in the 8th grade when I was in the 3rd grade, when God guided my brother in saving my life. We were what you called "latch key children" because we were usually home without adult supervision. My mother, a single parent, worked six days a week and often worked two jobs to support the family. We were poor, but we always had food, clothes and a place to live. In fact, as children we never knew we were poor. One afternoon, after I returned home from the dentist, my brother noticed that my face was swollen and distorted. The Holy Spirit placed it on his heart to call my mother at work. After he described to her what I looked like and that I was progressively getting worse, my mother instructed him on how to take me to Kings County Hospital. My brother 13 years old and I only 8 years old, road on two busses to arrive at the hospital and my mother met us there. She grabbed me and ran in to be seen by the doctor who immediately gave me a needle. They gave me more needles and kept me under observation for several hours before releasing me. I heard the …show more content…

The word "Trinity" was first introduced theologically by Tertullian. He believed that God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit existed as one which he called the Trinity. He believed they were one God, of the same substance. Basil, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus, known as the Cappadocian fathers, are among the first to formulate the Doctrine of the Trinity. Stanley Grenz writes, "They declared that God is one ousia but three hypostaseis. The three independent realities share the same will, nature and essence. Yet each has special properties or activities" (Grenz p.60). One ousia means "one essence" and three hypostaseis means center of consciousness. The Blessed Trinity is one God in essence but self discloses as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are different from one another in role but all are divine and are equal in deity. "Each of the three trinitarian members fulfills a specific role in the one divine program. The Father functions as the ground of the world and of the divine program for creation. The Son functions as the revealer of God, the exemplar and herald of the Father's will for creation, and the redeemer of human kind. And the Spirit functions as the personal divine power continuously active in the world, the completer of the divine will and program"(Grenz p.67). While they fulfill different roles, they commune with

Get Access
Related
Get Access