Biblical Basics - Trinity: A Positive Presentation Part 1 Introduction

Well here is the post I have been promising concerning the Trinity. This post is intended to be a positive presentation concerning the doctrine of the Trinity. I will do a separate post responding to the comments of Adam Pastor who graciously commented on my posts concerning Jesus' humanity and deity and the "Redux". In a forthcoming post I will respond to the movie that he suggests the people watch, called the Human Jesus. I want to be very clear that while I believe that what a person believes about the "Trinity" is important, it is not a "make it" or "break it" issue. There are some people who believe the doctrine but are not going to make it to heaven. There are some people who do not believe the doctrine will be going to heaven and vice versa. The difference as to whether you go to heaven or hell is not dependent on if you believe the Trinity or not. Your eternal destiny only depends on your belief that Jesus paid for your sins through his death on the cross and justified you before God through his resurrection.

So why discuss the Trinity? What you believe about the nature of God is important. Loving God means wanting to know Him as He has revealed himself. It's kind of like riding a bike and never taking it out of the first gear. I'd like to know as much about God as I can. I know that I don't have it all down at all, so this post is just a way systematize what I have learned so far.

I would state the "Trinity Doctrine" as follows: There is only one GOD - one supreme, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, eternal, sovereign, merciful, loving, and just being; who exists and relates to humanity in three distinct, co-equal, and eternal persons; sharing the same essence and being. Those three persons are The Father, The Son - Jesus Christ, and The Holy Spirit. How does this work? How do they relate to one another? How can 3 distinct persons share the same being? Let me be upfront and honest: I don't know. I have no clue, but this is what the Biblical evidence points to. I can find no other conclusion.

I do know that what confused me most of my life concerning the Trinity is confusing the concepts of "being" and "person". Western culture, by and large, treats these concepts as equal. I know I never saw a difference for most of my life but there is a difference. "Being" speaks to ontological essence and "person" refers to relationship. Considering "being" means asking "what" something is. Considering "personhood" means asking "who" someone is. "Being" and "person" cannot be the same thing. They are not synonyms. If I walked up to you and asked "What are you?" And then another person walked up to you and asked "Who are you?" Would you give the same answer to both questions? I doubt it. What I am is a human being - a man. If you are reading this you are obviously (barring the existence of extra-terresterial life) also human being. Don't you think that explaining who you are is a bit more complicated? Why would we think that who God is would require a simple explanation that our finite human minds can fully grasp when it is difficult for us to understand who and what we are let alone a fellow human being.

This misconception is the reason why Trinitarians are accused to be polytheistic (belief in multiple gods) not monotheistic (belief in one God). It does not help that some early "Christian" art depicts 3 men on 3 thrones or a man with three faces when trying to depict God. It adds to the confusion. I see why God told us not make any images of him because we cannot visualize what God is.

This is going to be a long post so I am going to break it up . The next part I will use Dr Walter Martin's logic to explain how the Trinity is scriptural. I want to take the method taken by the late Dr. Walter Martin on how to show that the Bible teaches the Trinity. Then I want to finish the posts by expounding on a few texts that I had not discussed up to that point. At the end of this article I want to also provide a bibliography.