The Trinity As A Mystery Of Salvation

Jesus’ departure also created anxiety and questions amongst the apostles (Pentecost, 1981). Thus, in the narrative of John 13:36-14:31, Jesus lovingly admonishes the apostles with the command of “Let not your heart be troubled” (Wiersbe, 2007). As a consequence of this command, Jesus promised the apostles a place in heaven along with Christ’s return (John 14:3), assurance that Christ was the way to the Father (John 14:6), and a permanent, indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit (John 14:16; Acts 13:52) who would be the apostle’s teacher (Luke 12:12) in Jesus’ absence (Gromacki, 1978). Most profound is the fact that with Jesus’ ascension into heaven, the apostles would benefit in Jesus’ absence (John 14:9) with greater spiritual power (Pentecost, 1981). Additionally, Jesus also revealed the divine essence of the Godhead (John 14:9) while further defining the true essence of Christianity, “Ye in me, I in you” (Gromacki, 1978).

Outline the development of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity from the New Testament Church to the Nicene Creed.

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

Bonhoeffer, Dietrick. The Cost of Discipleship, New York,NY 10022: The Macmillan Company, Published 1959. 344 pp. $1.95

The fundamental theme presented in chapter twenty five and twenty six of David W. Dorries book Spirit Filled Christology maintains that Jesus came, not only as a pathway for salvation, but also to lead as an example of the Spirit’s movements and to empower His church with supernatural abilities to further the ministry that He began. In order to expound upon his statements, Dorries uses historical context.

God the Son is revealed in the Christian Scriptures. God the Spirit is revealed in the Church. The Trinitarian doctrine states that there are three co-eternal, equal persons in God, which is the notion of unity within community. The Trinitarian doctrine was further developed and defined at the councils of Nicaea in 325 CE and Constantinople in 381 CE. God was always trinity, however gradually this reality became known through revelation. Jesus calls God and speaks of the spirit which indicates a plurality in God. The difficulty is reconciling the concept of monotheism with the notion of God existing as three persons. The divine essence is common to all three, however the three persons have attributes or properties which distinguished them eg Fatherhood, sonship and sanctifying power. Once essence means that the actions (creation, redemption, sanctification) are attributable to all. Mutual relations is the concept that the terms Father and Son are not titles but expressions of a relationship and thus all three persons are co-equal

In conversation with Daniel Migliore give an account of what it means to confess that God is triune. Give care to an explication of “economic and immanent trinity,” and perichoresis.

The Doctrine of the Trinity was the one core belief that the group expounded on the most. As a question arose on how should one explain the Trinity

The Trinity consists of God, the Father, Jesus, the Son of God and the Holy Spirit. The Christian faith recognizes there is one God and He is one with His Son, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The purpose of this essay is to describe the interrelationship of the three persons of the Trinity. This will include the concepts of the economic trinity, the essential trinity and the social trinity.

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

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.

“Christians, for all their orthodox profession of faith in the Trinity, are almost just monotheist in their actual religious experience. One might almost dare to affirm that if the doctrine of the Trinity were to be erased as false, most religious literature could be preserved almost unchanged throughout the process.”

The Trinity is a doctrine that has and will continue to bring much controversy to the Christian faith. Yet it is important to understand that a practical approach to this topic can be very important. Having a full understanding of the Trinity is vital to the life of a Christian. The distinct, yet interwoven aspects of God’s character will affect every aspect of a believer’s life.

Mary Ann Fatula’s The Triune God of Christian Faith provides for the reader the inner life of God as well as insight into the human reality. Fatula’s writing draws the devotional discussion of the Trinity as the present-day effect of the Trinitarian faith is called to support attempts to articulate and live the Trinitarian mystery. The Trinity in a human’s life is the content of our definition of our human meaning and for an infinite gift: love. Each of us has a desire for achieving meaning, for love, and for wholeness. Fatula in her book develops the study of the divine ‘persons’ and states the importance of understanding what it is to be truly a ‘person’ of both human and divine potential.

Torrance focuses on the understanding of trinitarian worship. Trinitarian worship is the participation in Christ’s communion with the Father through the Holy Spirit, in Christ’s vicarious life, death, resurrection and Christ’s intercession for humanity. Torrance’s view of trinitarian worship is supporting and encouraging of the doctrines of the Trinity, of God, of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and others which build upon these base doctrines. Torrance sees other forms of worship such as unitarian worship as being unsupportive and destructive of the