Many things in life come in threes. My grandmother’s breakfast was the nearly-holy trinity of eggs, sausage, and grits. Then there’s coffee, sweetener, and creamer; the wizarding trio of Harry, Ron, and Hermione; Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup (I tip my hat to you if you get that reference); life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and, of course, Snap, Crackle, and Pop.
The word trinity means “a group of three,” so each of those things could be called a “trinity.” When it comes to the Christian faith, we have the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
In the past few years, this blog has discussed the topics of God, Jesus (here and here), and the Holy Spirit. Now it’s time to put all this theology together. It’s time to discuss the Trinity.
At the outset, let me state clearly that the doctrine of the Trinity is difficult to understand. It’s impossible to comprehend fully, but it’s vital and foundational to the Christian faith.
So what is the doctrine of the Trinity? What does it mean? What are some common false beliefs? What difference does the Trinity make in my life?
Let’s start with a definition. Here’s an old one: “There is one only and true God, but in the unity of the Godhead there are three coeternal and coequal Persons, the same in substance (essence) but distinct in subsistence (necessary existence).”
Let’s put it a little more plainly:
The doctrine of the Trinity states that God exists in three Persons who are each fully God, and he is one God.
Like I said, completely true yet impossible to comprehend in our finite human minds.
In trying to explain this teaching, people over the centuries have made serious mistakes. Before we begin looking more closely at what the Bible teaches, let’s look at what it does not teach:
Arianism – that’s an old name for a false doctrine that denies that the Son and the Holy Spirit are God. Today, we call it Unitarianism. This teaching states that the Father is God, and he created both the Son and the Holy Spirit. These two are supernatural beings, but they were made by the one God. This is a heresy because the Bible teaches that the Son and the Holy Spirit are eternal beings who have always existed and who are both God.
Modalism – this is the belief that God is one but appears in different modes at different times. To put it another way, God is one Person who wears different masks at different times. He appears to us as the Father in the Old Testament, the Son in the New Testament, and the Holy Spirit today. This, of course, doesn’t line up with the Bible’s teaching. Modalism would mean that Jesus’s praying to his Father was just a show; he was only talking to himself. Likewise, the Father would not have sent the Holy Spirit; he would have just sent himself.
Adoptionism – this is an old belief that Jesus was an ordinary person like you and me until his baptism, and that’s when God “adopted” him as his son and gave him supernatural powers. This is what people believe when they say that Jesus was a great man empowered by God but not God; he was simply a great teacher, a great prophet, a great person.
Polytheism/Tritheism – this teaching says that there are three separate Gods. People often level the charge at Christianity that we believe in multiple gods, thus denying that God is One. Before you turn up your nose at people who believe in three separate gods, recognize that there are many Christians who attend church every week who would deny ever believing this, but who, in practicality, do so without even realizing it.
To determine whether any of these beliefs has merit, we’ll need to look at what the Bible teaches on the subject. Do the Scriptures teach that there is one God? Does the Bible say that Jesus and/or the Holy Spirit is God? Does it say there are three Gods, or that three people are God?
And why in the world is any of this important?
I would argue that for us to know God, it’s important that we understand him, at least to the best of our ability. The Trinity is who God is. If we want to know God better, we should know what God tells us about himself. Whether or not we’re ever able to fully understand the doctrine of the Trinity, we ought to be able to see and ponder all that God reveals to us about himself, including his three-in-oneness.
I invite you to join me as we look at the doctrine of the Trinity over the next five posts. And I pray (to the Father, in the name of the Son, and with the help of the Holy Spirit) that you’ll be blessed and strengthened and encouraged along the way.