I. The Indispensability of the Doctrine of the Trinity
Israel confesses God as one (Deut. 6:4).
Christians agree, but go on to
describe God as 'Trinity'
to speak about God in light of Jesus Christ,
to guard the apostolic traditions and insights, and
to guide further exploration of God and God's works.
II. Is 'Trinity' Biblical?
The Old Testament only hints (Gen. 18:1-16, Is. 6:3, Ps. 33:6, Prov. 8, Gen. 1:1-3, 1:26).
Jews worship the risen Jesus, the Father, and the Spirit as the one God of Israel.
Jesus' and the Church's life bring God's threeness into plain view. The Father:
Jesus calls God "the Father" (abba/ho pater; Matt. 11:27).
Jesus reveals the Father (John 14:9) and does his will.
The Son:
Jesus calls himself "the (only) Son", the Father's heir (John 3:16, Rom. 8:32, Col. 1:13).
Jesus shows the Father as "only begotten God" (John 1:18).
Jesus is Creator, Judge, and Savior.
Believers confess that "Jesus is Lord".
The Holy Spirit:
The Spirit proceeds from the Father (John 15:26).
The Spirit conceives Jesus (Luke 1:35).
Jesus receives the Spirit from the Father (Luke 3:22, Acts 2:33).
Jesus gives the Spirit to humanity (Acts 2:33, John 14:16, 26, John 20:22).
III. Further Development in Christian Tradition Explicit Trinitarian language develops to serve
worship practice (liturgy),
initiation (baptism) and confession (creeds),
intellectual reflection ("theology"), and
arguments against adversaries (polemics, apologetics).
The results are two vocabularies and two models of God, crafted in response to several Trinitarian heresies:
V. Eastern Orthodoxy ... follows the Cappadocian Fathers (Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory Nazianzus):
The Father is the source of divinity and unity.
The persons' distinctions are relational: interrelationships constitute the Father as Father, Son as Son, Spirit as Spirit.
Example: It's a Wonderful Life.
God's unity is social and dynamic: coinherence (three turned-in-mirrors) or perichoresis (a divine dance).
Iconic illustration:
Rublev's Trinity.
... against Modalistic Monarchianism Modalists have God as one source with three roles (Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier).
Personhood would be the many masks of an ancient actor (persona, prosopon).
Example: Mike Myers in
Austin Powers.
Why only three?
Does a role reveal an actor?
Can you have a personal relationship with a role?
To whom does Jesus pray? (Sabellianism: persons as sequential).
Who was on the cross? (Patripassianism: "the Father suffered").
Is the cross just an act?
Illustrations: ice-water-steam; three-leaf clover.
Oneness Pentecostalism is modalistic.
VI. Latin Orthodoxy ...
Catholics and Protestants follow Tertullian and Augustine:
God's unity is substantial: The persons share the divine essence.
The persons' distinction is relational.
Humanity in God's image has "vestiges of the Trinity":
Lover, beloved, love;
Memory, intellect, will.
Illustration: Western Trinitarian iconography.
The West alters the Nicene Creed, adding the filioque (the Spirit proceeds "also from the Son").
... against Dynamic Monarchianism and Arianism ... Adoptionism has Jesus inheriting 'divinity'.
Personhood means legal status.
The Spirit is the impersonal inheritance, sign, and seal of Jesus' adoption.
Example: Marcus Aurelius adopting Maximus in Gladiator.
What does an adopted (not begotten) Jesus show of his adoptive parent?
How is God involved on the cross?
... as well as Tritheism
God's "unity" would merely be the moral unity of three individuals.
Personhood means individuality, independence, consciousness (as in modern psychology).
Example: The Three Musketeers.
How does one such person reveal another?
Are Son and Spirit equal (cf. John 5:18)?
Or are they
unequal (subordinationism)? (Cf. Col. 1:15, John 14:28, 1 Cor. 15:28, Phil. 2:5-11.)
Can we divide God's glory among specific persons (cf. Deut. 6:12-15)?
On the cross, is God a dysfunctional family?
