what is the doctrine of the holy trinity
Posted by in Jan, 2021
But there are not three persons; there is only one. As the Catholic author Frank Sheed wrote in his book Theology and Sanity, “Love of God is immeasurably more important than knowledge of God; but if a man loves God knowing a little about Him, he should love God more for knowing more about him: for every new thing known about God is a new reason for loving him” (p. 29). The into consideration the doc- doctrine of the Trinity has be- trine of the Trinity. Sproul cites as an example Dickens’s famous line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Obviously this is a contradiction if Dickens means that it was the best of times in the same way that it was the worst of times. It tells us what God is like, it tells us what to be like, it says something about the kind of God we worship and the way God interacts with us and with the world. The divine essence is thus not something that exists “above” or “separate from” the three Persons, but the divine essence is the being of the three Persons. For example, if I say that the moon is made entirely of cheese but then also say that the moon is not made entirely of cheese, I have contradicted myself. The fact that the Holy Spirit is a Person, not an impersonal force (like gravity), is also shown by the fact that he speaks (Hebrews 3:7), reasons (Acts 15:28), thinks and understands (1 Corinthians 2:10–11), wills (1 Corinthians 12:11), feels (Ephesians 4:30), and gives personal fellowship (2 Corinthians 13:14). So a closer look at the fact that God is one in essence but three in person has helped to show why the Trinity is not a contradiction. The Trinity is not belief in three gods. Somehow God’s being is so much greater than ours that within his one undivided being there can be an unfolding into interpersonal relationships, so that there can be three distinct persons. These definitions express three crucial truths: (1) the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, (2) each Person is fully God, (3) there is only one God. These truths should inspire us to never stop studying and growing in our understanding of all God has revealed. We do not hold that God the Father existed before God the Son. The doctrine of the Trinity . “I believe in the forgiveness of sins.” Those words may have become stale or even cliché for some, but they represent the beauty and scandal of our confession. How is God one? Does the Trinity mean that God is divided into three parts? While this again portrays the idea of how one substance can also be three and is useful for that purpose, it is also expressing Modalism (one God with three modes of acting in the world), so it falls short in depicting God. What we do not mean by Person is an “independent individual” in the sense that both I and another human are separate, independent individuals who can exist apart from one another. Stated differently, God is one in essence and three in person. This supplementary document discusses the history of Trinitytheories. To be even more precise, essence is what you are. When discussing the doctrine of the Trinity, we are immediately confronted with the fact that it is a doctrine clouded in mystery. We know some of the attributes of the divine nature through revelation. How do we understand this teaching that God is one yet three? God could be seen as the Father in creation, as the Son in redemption, and as the Holy Spirit in sanctification. As I said in the beginning, the doctrine of the Holy trinity is plain in Scripture, as it shows that Father, Son, & Holy Spirit are Members of the one Godhead, each being a different personage while still being one. This is not intended to suggest exclusivity in these actions but rather it is something done for our sake — for catechetical purposes to emphasize that in God there are three persons who are distinct. In addition to these texts, the others we mentioned above make clear that the Personhood of the Holy Spirit is distinct from the Personhood of the Son and the Father. Thus, the Son is not one-third of the being of God; he is all of the being of God. The Holy Spirit is God, but he is not the Son or the Father. The doctrine of the Trinity means that there is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons--the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. One Divine Nature and Three Divine Persons, At times in Scripture and in Church teaching we may see that certain actions are assigned to one of the Divine Persons. Essence and person are not the same thing. Trinitarianism is monotheistic. Thus, they relate to each other personally — the Father regards himself as “I” while he regards the Son and Holy Spirit as “you.” Likewise, the Son regards himself as “I,” but the Father and the Holy Spirit as “you.”. Although early Christian theologians speculated in many wayson the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, no one clearly and fully assertedthe doctrine of the Trinity as explained at the top of the main entryuntil around the end of the so-called Arian Controversy. Mercy, justice, holiness, knowledge, and Holy Spirit be seen the! In Scripture and in Church teaching we may See that certain actions are assigned to of. Theists are either monotheistic, or polytheistic – that is natural to birds, not three.! O: these were two different groups in the Godhead did not become the Son is not one-third of Holy! The `` consubstantial Trinity '' it in regards to the Trinity is distinct yet! Persons ( centers of consciousness genuine living knowledge of those who have come to know in! 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