Trinity Made Simple
Nick @ Nite
March 3, 2021
Anxiety In Exile [Podcast]
March 10, 2021
The Trinity Made Simple
By Pastor Vinnie
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God [The Father] and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” 2 Corinthians 13:14
My purpose in this blog is to make it “more clear” what we mean and do not mean when we talk about the Trinity and its understanding in the Christian Church.
The Trinity is a core Christian doctrine and yet notoriously hard to wrap your head around. There is no shame in admitting the struggles in grasping the complexities of this concept. While God is truly transcendent meaning, “beyond mere human reason,” that does not mean He has completely left us without revelation of His divine nature. While we may not be able to fully grasp the nature of God, we can remain faithful and grateful that He gives us enough glimpses to be in awe of His existence as we interact with Him.
Defining the Term Trinity:
Although the word Trinity is not itself in the Bible, what are referring to is the triune or triad nature of the Godhead, which is in fact is repeatedly brought to our attention in scripture (see Appendix).
Generally, when we say Trinity, we are talking about the relationship between:
God the Father.
God the Son.
And God the Holy Spirit.
The Doctrine of Trinity is traditionally, as far back as the Church Fathers[i], has been stated like this: “There is one God in three separate co-eternal persons, and they are in full unity with one another in purpose, nature, and essence.”[ii] [iii]
When we get more advanced, it starts to get confusing, and we not only lose people but without meaning to end up spinning off into all kinds of heresy, which we will cover later in this blog.
So, using the statement above what we mean when we say Trinity is:
Trinity Flow Chart
There is only ONE God. Let’s be clear. Trinitarianism is not polytheistic but rather monotheistic. God is one, and Trinitarianism does not mean to imply that we believe in three Gods.
The One God has three persons. This is not three Gods. This is also not three personalities or three faces to one person (that is modalism). This ONE God in three separate persons. The best I can compare it to, without slipping into heresy, would be one family (in place of God) with three people in it, who are separate persons but all the same family (Godhead, Godhood, if you will)[iv]. The Trinity is not just one family, but one God, with three persons, that make up the Godhead.
God in three persons is in perfect unity with Himself. He is not like the polytheistic gods of the world, who compete and war with each other and engage in other human-like drama. His purpose is pure and unselfish and seeks to create and bring life, joy, and goodness into existence, and redeem the brokenness of fallen man.
He is of one essence or nature. This can quickly veer off into Greek philosophy (the prevailing analytical thought in the era of the church fathers), so to avoid that discussion, let me make it simple. All persons of the Godhead are made of the same “stuff”. There is no member of the Trinity who is more or less God than the other parts. All are equally God and despite terms like “Father” and “Son”, there is no pecking order in the Trinity, because love is always a matter of free will.
Defining What the Trinity Is Not:
Because the Trinity can be hard for some people to understand, certain explanations have been used to aid in the understanding of the Trinity throughout history, that sadly get it wrong and unintentionally create what most Christian traditions now call heresy[v]. Here is a brief list of historic mistakes and assumptions about the Trinity that are really false teachings that Bible Christians should avoid. Warning, looks at the common heresies of the Trinity can be mentally taxing because they are well mean attempts to oversimplify the equation. When In doubt about why these heresies are wrong, see the chart above.
Here we go; Common Trinity Heresies:
Modalism
Modalism is by far the most popular false teaching used by well-meaning modern-day Christians who are trying to oversimplify the Trinity. It is the idea that the three persons of the Godhead are but three faces, or three modes of the same God and not three distinct persons. Cliché expressions of modalism go like this, “The Trinity is like water, God can be liquid, ice, or vapor, but it is all still water.” Another common one is “God is like a Father who is also a husband, who also is someone’s son,” Or even, “God is like an egg, that has a shell, white, and yoke.” All these examples are modalism because it defines the Trinity in modes or parts; yet claims all those parts are just ways God chooses to appear to us, rather than co-equal, co-eternal, persons that are one God. Ice, liquid, and vapor are by modes of water while they are all equally water, the persons of the Godhead are not one God showing up in different states of being, which is also the problem with the father, husband, son explanation. An eggshell is not an egg, nor a yoke, or an egg white; they are modes or parts of the egg but not an egg themselves, alone. Jesus is fully God, the Father is fully God, and the Holy Spirit is fully God. None of them are simply modes, faces, or parts of God; they are all God and yet different persons. When Jesus dies on the cross, the Father and the Spirit were not suddenly “less God” or a third “down.” All persons in the Trinity are fully God.
Arianism
This idea is that God the Father created the Son and/or the Spirit and brought them forth at some point long, long ago, as His first acts of creation. Some modern-day twists on Arianism will even go as far as to suggest that this creation of the Son or Spirit was so long ago in eternity that it does not matter if they have always existed because from a human point of view it is the same. This is in conflict with the Bible that clearly teaches Jesus and the Holy Spirit are not created but are equally God (see the Appendix below).
Ebionitism
Ebionitism is the teaching propagated by a wayward first-century Jewish-Christian sect (the Ebionites[vi]) who taught that Jesus was human with special charismatic powers, gifts, or secret knowledge (Gnosticism) but was not divine. Being that they were an early Jewish sect of Christians they struggled with wanting the teachings and moral understanding of Jesus but rejected his full divinity. This is a false teaching because the Bible openly calls Jesus God (see the Appendix below). There have been many modern-day followers who fall into this trap thinking Jesus to be a great moral teacher, but not the living Son of God. Ebionitism is alive and well two thousand years later.
Macedonianism
This a Semi-Arian teaching that accepts the divinity of Jesus but denies the divinity of the Holy Spirit. The idea is that the Holy Spirit is not of the same substance, hypostasis, or in laymen’s terms “stuff,” as the Father and the Son. In this heresy, the Holy Spirit is only a spirit, or force that the Father and Son sends out into the world to convict people, but is not at all God Himself. The problem with this theory is it reduces the Holy Spirit to something akin to “The Force” in Star Wars which has no real personality, personhood or love of its own; rather than God Himself; like the Bible teaches (see the Appendix below). Sadly, Macedonianism in recent years is making a strong comeback among certain groups of Christians who tend to be more stoic and want to stress the roles of the Father and the Son and downplay the more charismatic nature of the Holy Spirit.
Tritheism
Tritheism is the teaching that the persons in the Trinity are three different deities and not one God. This is how Trinitarianism is often confused with polytheism and certain forms of Hinduism. The Bible does not teach that there are three different gods co-interacting but rather there is One God, in three separate persons, the Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Shema[vii] was a Jewish prayer every Jew had to pray daily (or more) to remind them that God is one. It directly quotes the Torah (books of Moses) Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
Tying it all together: Bottom Line
Perhaps you are reading this and thinking, “I thought he promised to make this simple?” Guess what, I did. Well, as simple as I could. Pause and consider we are talking about the Spiritual, Theological, and Ontological nature of the One True God of the universe, the God who was there for eternity will be there forever, and who created all that exists. Did we really think that understanding Him would be as easy as ABC? But it is really that easy, look:
He is One God in perfect unity:
God the Father
God the Son
God the Holy Spirit
If you take that simple take away with you, you got it! Rejoice!
Appendix: Common Questions Asked About the Trinity:
Question:
Did Jesus teach there was a Trinity, three persons in one Godhead?
Answer:
It can’t be missed! It is right there in the Great Commission, by Jesus Himself!
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20
Question:
Is Jesus co-eternal and equal to the Father?
Answer:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:1,14
“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature, God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing, by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” Philippians 2:5-7
“For in Christ, all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” Colossians 2:9
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” which means, God with us.” Matthew 1:23
“This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.” John 5:18
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8
Question:
Is the Holy Spirit God?
Answer:
“Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.” Acts 5:3,4
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” 1 Corinthians 6:19
Question:
Does the Holy Spirit have personhood like the Father and the Son, or as some claim, is He just a person-less force?
Answer:
The Holy Spirit speaks (has personhood of its own) …
“And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” Acts 8:29
“And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house.” Acts 11:12
“While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Acts 13:2
The Holy Spirit has emotions …
“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Ephesians 4:30
The Holy Spirit takes an active role in engaging us in prayer…
“For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” Romans 8:26
The Holy Spirit is a distinct person in the Godhead. This verse, about the baptism of Jesus, shows The Spirit is not Jesus’s force, or the Father’s force but is acting in unity with both at a key moment in the history of the redemption of humankind….
“And immediately, coming up from the water, He [Jesus] saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending on Him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven, ‘You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’” Mark 1:10–11
Question:
What did Jesus say about the Holy Spirit?
Answer:
Jesus both points out the personhood of the Holy Spirit and powerfully upholds the necessity of the Holy Spirit’s role in the Godhead for the believer. Jesus often calls the Holy Spirit by personal pronouns, therefore showing He has personhood.
“Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.” Matthew 12:31-32
“Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:3-8
“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.” John 4:23
“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever. that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” John 14:16,17
“But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” John 16:7
Question:
Do we see the Trinity in the Old Testament too?
Answer:
Yes, starting in the very first verse of the Bible and moving forward.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.” Genesis 1:1
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and overall the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’” Genesis 1:26
“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” Daniel 7:13-14
“Come near me and listen to this: “From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret; at the time it happens, I am there.” And now the Sovereign Lord has sent me, endowed with his Spirit.” Isaiah 48:16
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Footnotes:
[i] Basically when we say “Church Fathers” we mean the theological voice and leadership of the early Christian church starting after the death of the Apostles. It was those who did the original theology with the inspired Word the Apostles and Prophets left the church.
[ii] There are multiple early Christian creeds that sum up the earliest churches’ concept in similar fashion. I picked this definition over others because it is the more simplistic starting place that is true to the historic understanding of Trinity in the Church.
[iii] Early Church Father’s Creeds regarding the Trinity. https://www.tsm.edu/the_three_creeds/
[iv] We escape the heresy of modalism in this example by using the word family. In this example God is not one person (like a father who is a son and a husband) but is one substance, family, that can be different persons.
[v] False teachings.
[vi] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebionites
[vii] More about The Shema https://bibleproject.com/blog/what-is-the-shema/
