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THE DIVINE TRINITY
♣
CONTENTS
THE TRINITY: ANSWER TO ALL MYSTERIESSCRIPTURAL BASIS OF THE TRINITY HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE TRINITYEcumenical Councils on the TrinityHeretical Teachings before NicaeaHeretical Teachings from Nicaea onwardsSYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY OF THE TRINITY
INTRODUCTION:
The doctrine of the Trinity of the Godhead is the Church’s best understanding of the OneTrue God, Who is revealed in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as bothAbsolute
(One Divine Essence)
and Related
(Three Divine Persons or Anthropomorphisms)
.
Trinity is NOT tritheism (three gods). The doctrine of the Trinity of the Godhead is too great for the human mind and linguistic symbolisms, yet it is the most important truth for the salvation of humanity. When writing about the Trinity in
The Doctrine of the Trinity
(New York: AbingtonPress, 1958), Professor Cyril. C. Richardson put his dilemma and bewilderment this way:
“No doctrine is so important and so implicitly difficult in Christianity”
To non-Christians (and some Christians), the Trinity is a problem and an enigma; however, theTrinity becomes the solution and answer to many perplexing problems of nature, being,spirituality and reality, if it is received humbly and willingly by faith as divinely revealed Gospelmystery. Even
for us humans, without having
spirit, soul and body
, we lose our identity and personality, become deficient humanity and deserve to be beasts or vegetables or worse. Whenwe accept that humans are spirit, soul and body, many perplexing issues about human experience begin to make sense.
Christ spoke stupendously about His oneness and glory with the Father from eternity(John 10:30, 38; 17:5)! When talking about Christ’s divinity in the Scriptures, the Apostles described Him as possessing “ALL THE FULLNESS” of the GODHEAD(Colossians 2:9). The Scriptures also spoke about the Father, the Son, and the HolySpirit, calling these Three both GOD and LORD.
Joh 10:30.
I and the Father are one.
Joh 10:38.
... so that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.
Joh 17:5.
And now, O Father, glorify Me alongside Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
Col 2:9.
For in Him[Christ] dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;The Divine TRINITY (first recorded in Latin by Tertullian AD 200) or TRIAD (first recorded in Greek by Theophilus of Antioch AD 180) is a descriptive term used by the
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by I. U. Ibeme 1
ancient Church (apparently before these records). TRINITY denotes the Church’s best systematic understanding of that UNITED and FULL RELATION within the BEING of the one DIVINITY or GODHEAD, as is most agreeable with the great and profound Truth revealed in the Apostolic Scriptures.The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are the Three Divine Manifestations (PERSONS or SUBSISTENCES) which the Apostolic Scriptures call both “God” and “Lord”. PERSON or SUBSISTENCE is used to represents what the Three Divine Manifestationshave in distinction.SUBSTANCE or ESSENCE is used to represents what the Three Divine Manifestations(PERSONS or SUBSISTENCES) share in unity.The TRINITY of the One GODHEAD means:The Three PERSONS (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) of One SUBSTANCE of the OneGODHEAD; or The One GODHEAD of One SUBSTANCE manifest in Three PERSONS (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).
Without grasping the revealed truth of the Trinity, one would not make sound sense of:
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the Biblical Scripture,
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the Salvation of humankind from consequences and condemnation of sin,
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the Divinity of the Godhead,
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our personal relationship with God and
♣
the source and purpose of nature and existence.
The doctrine of the Trinity should be understood, taught and proclaimed as the ultimate
truthabout the One True God, which is revealed through Christ and the Gospel
. It needs not andshould not be proved by natural philosophical reasoning, because
the Trinity is a biblicalinsight
into what human wisdom and reason cannot philosophize – THE SUPERNATURALESSENCE OF THE DIVINE NATURE. In
The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology
(Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1969, 1983), Alan Richardson, onetime Dean of York puts itthus:
“There is no problem at all of reconciling the divinity of Christ and the Spirit with Jewishmonotheism.”
The doctrine of the Trinity makes the absolute fullness and the related personhood of theGodhead known (Col 1:19, 2:9; John 1:14, 16).
Without being a trinity, God could not be ourSaviour or Redeemer and would be deficient deity: lacking fullness, personality and self-existence.
The inevitability of the “triune-ness” of the Godhead for our salvation and faith in theTriune God is seen in Christ’s teachings:
♣
“
No one comes to the Father except by Me
” (John 14:6; Matt 11:27) and
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“
No one comes to me except the Father draws him
” (John 6:44, 65) and
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by I. U. Ibeme 2
♣
“
No one can enter God’s Kingdom except one is born again of the Spirit of God
” (John3:5) and
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“
No one can be saved from divine condemnation except one believes in the Son of God sent by God the Father
” (John 3:14-18).The Apostles also insisted that “
No one can belong to Christ except one has the Spirit of Christ
” (Rom 8:9) and “
There is no salvation in any other name except the Name of Jesus
”(Act 4:12; Mark 16:16; John 3:36) to which all the Prophets agree (Act 10:42-43).
THE TRINITY: ANSWER TO ALL MYSTERIES
Only in the context of the Triune God could eternal salvation by redemption be possible.Otherwise we end up with insufficient religious conjectures like illumination, karma,restitution, cyclic sacrifices, or cyclic reincarnations, equilibration, annihilation, or the despair of agnostic atheism.The God that is not Triune is non-relating and impersonal, alone and lonely, dependent and not self-existent, not self-revelatory nor redemptive. A non-triune deity does not deserve anyworship nor moral/spiritual religion, since it cannot offer salvation from sin and death. Onlythe Triune self-relating God could be God of peace and harmony, God of life and goodness,God of love and mercy, and God of power and justice. In the doctrine of the Trinity is revealed the explanation of all things and the meaning for all things created and uncreated; past, present and future; moral, material and mental; visibleand invisible, from creation till eschaton. Trinity is the revealed proof of the existence of the Redemptive God at work in His purposeful creation.Only in the glorious Trinity is humanity offered eternal salvation according to God’s predestination and purpose in Christ (before time), through propitiation by Christ (in time),and through regeneration by the Holy Spirit (at faith); unto election for glory by the Father,redemption by the Son and sanctification by the Holy Spirit (2Thes 2:13-14; 1Pet 1:2).The revelation of the mystery of the Trinity is final divine answer to the menacing humanquestions of being, existence and destiny.
SCRIPTURAL BASIS OF THE TRINITY.
(I)THE DIVERSITY AND PLURALITY IN THE UNITY OF THE GODHEAD ASFOUND IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
For both Christians and Jews, God is absolute unity “
The Lord our
(Israelites)
God is one God
”(The
Shema
Deut 6:4), “
For us
(Christians)
there is only one God
” (1Cor 8:6), “
And there isno other God but one
” (1Cor 8:4). However the Jews affirm the unity (in intra-related plurality)
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