Answers about the Trinity
1. In the study of the Trinity, what does “person” and “essence” mean?
Person - Person, in speaking of the Triunity, the term “person” is not used in the same way it is in ordinary usage in which it means an identity completely distinct from other persons. Actually the word persons tends to detract from the unity of the Trinity. According to the teaching of scripture, the three persons are inseparable, interdependent, and eternally united under one Divine Being.
Essence - In its theological usage, essence refers to “the intrinsic or indispensable, permanent, and inseparable qualities that characterize or identify the being of God.” The words Triunity and trinity are used to refer to the fact that the Bible speaks of one God, but attributes the characteristics of God to three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
2. How would you define the doctrine of the Trinity in one sentence?
In the unity of the Godhead there are three coeternal and coequal Persons, the same in substance but distinct in subsistence which is the Trinity.
3. What are some heresies that grew up in the early church and how did they differ from the Christian doctrine of the Trinity?
One example of heresy in the early church was Gnostic-heresy, this differed from the Christian doctrine about the deity and humanity of Christ. They diminished Christ to an angel whose “body” was only apparent, not real.
Another type of heresy was Arian Heresy. Arian heresy stimulated the “crystallization” of thought regarding both the Trinity and the deity of Christ.
4. What are some common, present-day misunderstandings to avoid thinking about the doctrine?
Some of the misunderstandings are the pagan religions, as well as all philosophical speculations, are based on natural religion and can, therefore, rise to no higher conception than that of the unity of God. In some systems we find monotheism with its belief in only one God. In others we find polytheism with its belief in many separate gods. But none of the pagan religions, nor any of the systems of speculative philosophy have ever arrived at a Trinitarian conception of God. The fact of the matter is that apart from supernatural revelation there is nothing in human consciousness or experience which can give man the slightest clue to the distinctive God of the Christian faith, the triune, incarnate, redeeming, sanctifying God. Some of the pagan religions have set forth triads of divinities, such as, for instance, the Egyptian triad of Osiris, Isis and Horus, which is somewhat analogous to the human family with father, mother and child; or the Hindu triad of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, which in the cycle of pantheistic evolution personifies the creative, preservative and destructive power of nature; or the triad set forth by Plato, of goodness, intellect and will--which are not examples of true and proper tri-personality, not real persons who can be addressed and worshipped, but only personifications of the faculties or attributes of God.
5. What are some practical results arising from the truth of the trinity?
There are three “practical results” in the article about the arising truth of the trinity.
A. It teaches us that God is a God of revelation and communion.
B. It means that the Trinity is the basis of all true fellowship in the world.
C. It gives variety to the life of the universe.
6. Name three passage sin the NT which are difficult to reconcile with the idea of the trinity? How do you interpret each one?
Three of the verses are listed below.
John 1:14 - And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:18 - No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.
In John 1:18 - The King James Version has huios, “Son,” in place of theos, “God,” and reads, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”
Because to our mind the words “only begotten” suggest birth or beginning, some have tried to take the use of this designation of Jesus Christ to mean that Christ had a beginning, that He only became the Son of God. Such an understanding denies His eternality and also the concept of the trinity.
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