Understanding The Trinity By Alister E.mcgrath

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).

Once, there were words saying “If you try to explain the Trinity, you will lose your mind, but if you deny it, you will lose your soul”. (Pritchard) The knowledge of God the Trinity is the center of the Christian faith. Yet many believers have got confused in understanding the true natures of the personalities and relationships of each person in God the Trinity. Endless questions continuously appear, again and again, giving Christians a sense of extremely misty confusion towards the magnificent attributes of every person in the Trinity. Who has an answer to these questions? None, none but God Himself who has given us guidance through a lot of ways, as He is the supreme creator and ruler of knowledge. The Bible itself is the strongest, richest, and most dependable source of

Throughout this semester I have learned many of the different christian doctrines. Many of them were challenged and also accepted in my weekend trip throughout Saint Louis. I think one of the most important topics that was discussed during my weekend was the consideration of the Trinity. In the Christian thought the word “trinity” is a term used to talk about the Christian doctrine that God exists as a unity of three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three of the staple thoughts include; God is three person; each person is divine; there is only one God. In their relations to one another, they are stated to be on in all else, co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial. With these three thoughts about the Trinity you also must remember that Christianity is a monotheistic religion.

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.

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

God become man, one of the profound mysteries of the Gospel and the Christian faith, is evidenced and affirmed throughout Scripture, yet it all too often is neglected in modern Christian thought and practice. In the work, The Incarnation of God, John Clark and Marcus Johnson do just the opposite. They bring the truth from scripture to robustly discuss a theology of the incarnation of God. Throughout their discussion, it becomes evident that the book strives to address the centrality of the incarnation, to the whole of the Christian faith, finding it’s support both in scripture and also the historic understandings of the catholic Church.

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.

Migliore defines the Christian confession of God as triune as a “summary description of the witness of Scripture to God’s unfathomable love incarnate in Jesus Christ and experienced and celebrated in the community of faith” (Migliore 67). He is quick to explain that “the doctrine of the Trinity is not a revealed doctrine…[because it] did not descend miraculously from heaven, nor was it written by God on tablets of stone”’; rather it is “the product of the meditation and reflection of the church on the gospel message over many centuries” (67). That said, Migliore believes that a confession of the triune God has both a biblical and experiential basis. He states “if talk of the triune God is not to be wild speculation, it will always find its basis and its limit both in the biblical narrative of God that comes to the world through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and in the actual

After all, it is this redemption accomplished by Christ on the cross that gives us hope and meaning in the life after death. In order to sufficiently grasp the link between the Trinity and the doctrine of salvation, it is imperative that we start by expounding some trinitarian concepts. The first such concepts are the “Immanent Trinity” which championed the unity of the Triune Godhead as eternally self-sufficient in loving relationships between the distinct persons. A paternal relationship between the Father and Son; a filial relationship between the Son and Father; and the relationships between

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

In order to properly worship, imitate, and love our Lord, we must seek to know who our God is. However, fathoming the Lord becomes an anguishing process for those who seek to decipher the mystery of the Trinity while adhering the systematic philosophies and sciences that comprise Post-Enlightenment’s standards of reason. Instead, seeking to know our God revealed in three persons invites modern Christians to expand their theological imaginations by returning to the early mysticisms and spiritual practices of the early Christian Fathers and Mothers who created our doctrine of Trinity. In order to complete this task of better understanding the mystery of the trinity, we will first explain the historic doctrinal framework of the trinity, then

The Holy Trinity is the main mystery of faith and life, of God himself. Theology refers to God’s life within the Trinity and economy refers to the acts that God reveals Himself. The mysteries cannot be known unless they are revealed by God. There are two processions in God, Filiation, and Spiration. The Father begets the Son and in unbegotten, and both spirate the Spirit. Each person is in the Others. The Persons don’t share Divine Nature, it is not divided, each is Divine Nature. The Divine Persons also cannot be separated. The Trinity only has one nature.

In spite of a few shortcomings, Chandler’s book is well written and easy to understand. He shows that the Trinity Doctrine is related to Gnostic heresies that the Church condemns. Like most of the Gnostic heresies, the Trinity Doctrine developed from Greek philosophy and Egyptian paganism, especially Hermeticism. The notion of Christ as God has its origins in Gnosticism instead of the New Testament. Thus, he shows that the Trinity Doctrine is essentially a Gnostic creed.

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.

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.