The Trinity: The Role Of God In American Culture

Education plus God equals success. While this statement is true, the job of incorporating the truth about God into everything taught is becoming increasingly more difficult. Schultz charted public education’s view of reality, truth and value throughout the history of the United States to show how an unbiblical worldview has increasingly taken hold of society, the educational system and

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).

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

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

Although the Christians worship only one God, they see him as three people. This includes God

This God however does take on three forms known as The Trinity. The Christian doctrine states that God exists as God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

The previous description of the trinity does not occur in the bible. The specialized language describe the trinity was developed in the fourth century and expressed in various creeds issued by church councils of that time. I believe that many words were not found in the bible; even bible is not even stated in the bible. But, that doesn’t mean that we don’t use them to describe the attributes of God. We can’t say that because trinity is not stated in the bible, it can’t be

Before discussing the Trinity, it is essential to first understand the Doctrine of the Trinity and what it states. Unfortunately for Christians, an exact definition for the Trinity is not provided in the Bible, actually the word ‘trinity’ is never even used in the Bible. Fortunately, however, the Bible is saturated in the belief of a Triune God. The Doctrine of the Trinity states that there is only one God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all one God, but the Father is not the Son who is not the Holy Spirit. The three are “distinct, yet not divided”, “different, yet not separate”.

Dewayne, you said that America lives in a Christian culture, and dwell in a Christian culture. If we talk about the beliefs and practices based on Christianity (that is prevalent in America), I do think that you can certainly say that there is such thing as Christian culture. However, I do not think that defining Christian culture is simple because Christianity does not bound by the culture. If American lives in a Christian culture, then other countries with Christianity should share the same culture. American is one of the most famous countries that was founded on the Christian values. Therefore, I think we often confuse Christian culture with American 'church' culture. For example, Korean Christian might have hard time understanding the practices

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.

Although Christians will argue that their religion is monotheistic, virtually all other religions argue to the contrary. Muslims and Jews both consider the Christian Holy Trinity to be clear evidence of tri-theism. This is a view which has great weight to it. If God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all gods, then it seems logical to say that indeed the Christians are tri-theists. This is belief in three gods is shared by the Zoroastrians, who believe that Ahura Mazda, Spenta Mainyu and Anghra Mainyu are all gods.

The role of god symbolizing judgment is significant because it defines the “righteous and the unrighteous”, because it is based on being judged by your actions. The role of god symbolizing purpose is significant since it allowed cultures to understand why and how the world worked. The role of God varying in the rules and laws of different cultures is significant because it distinguishes cultures by giving each culture a rational behind its identity. The role of God distinguishes and defines cultures from one another. In conclusion, the role of god is controversial because it has many similarities and differences throughout many

“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 early Christians agree that it was essential to explain the relationship between Jesus and God. Yet their assertions about Christ raised questions about the unity of God. Trinitarian theology provided an important solution; it kept Christians from backsliding into superstitious polytheism, but it also prevented Jewish monotheism from undermining the significance of Christ

In the Christian faith triune God is very significant. “Christian” is Trinitarian, describing Jesus as the one whom the Father anoints (christos) with the Spirit so that the Spirit may anoint our own lives (16). Christians confess Jesus as the risen Lord of the universe, but is proclaimed to be inseparable from the one who sent him, the one Jesus knew intimately as “Abba,” or “dear Father.” The ultimate paradox of Christianity is Jesus. Having Jesus at its very center disclosed as the source, the meaning, and the definitive answer to all of human longings causes this ultimate paradox. Fatula goes on to discuss, that although Jesus is the triune God, many of the people would not identify this God as the living God we actually experience in our own daily lives.