T. Allen Burr Ministries

For the past few weeks, I have been dealing with topics that seemingly skirt around the edges of theology while still dealing with its practical application in the church. Today, however, I will begin treating with more theological issues in earnest. To begin with, I will discuss the doctrine of the Trinity, which can be dense but I will strive to make it accessible to everyone.

A Brief Definition of the Trinity

The doctrine of the Trinity is the belief in one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, and consubstantial divine persons. Those three “C” terms can be a bit confusing. What they mean is this: The persons of the Trinity are equal to one another in rank and position, mutually eternal, and are of one Being or of one Substance. These three divine Persons, as we call them, are known as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The image below is a common depiction of the Trinity, known as the Shield of the Trinity, which helps outline God’s complex triune nature.

Background of the Doctrine of the Trinity

Trinitarianism has been the orthodox view of God for millennia at this point. However, it has not always been this way. In the late second/early third century, the early church fathers were trying to work out the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This led to the development of two modes of thought (though these are not the only ones): Trinitarianism and Monarchianism. Monarchianism is, simply put, the belief that God is one indivisible being, uncompromisingly unified.

The rise of Monarchianism led to church fathers such as Theophilus of Antioch and early Christian writers such as Tertullian outlining the orthodox teaching of their time, which has persisted to this day. In fact, Tertullian’s defense of the doctrine of the Trinity is the oldest that we still have.

Tertullian’s Defense of the Trinity

Tertullian was a Christian in the late second/early third century. The details of his life are a little murky, but he left behind a trove of work dealing with Christian teaching. In one of his works, Adversus Praxean, he responds to the Monarchian teachings of a man named Praxeas. Tertullian refused to pull any punches when it came to this. In the introductory chapter alone, he says of Praxeas:

By this, Praxeas did a twofold service for the devil at Rome: he drove away prophecy, and he brought in heresy; he put to flight the Paraclete [The Holy Spirit], and he crucified the Father.

Adversus Praxean, Tertullian

By denying the triune nature of God, Tertullian believed that Praxeas dismissed the Holy Spirit and crucified the Father, without whom there is no resurrection of the dead. (Who, then, would there be to raise the Father?) Tertullian’s understanding of the Trinity is best expressed as processional divinity. The Father is God. The Son proceeds from the Father and is therefore considered God as an extension of the Father. The Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son and is therefore considered God as an extension of the Father and the Son.

Tertullian’s understanding of the Trinity admittedly is little represented, if at all, in the modern understanding of the doctrine, as it lacks the co-eternal and co-equal qualities attributed to the other divine persons. However, the doctrine continued to be refined over the centuries as church leaders dealt with more nontrinitarian viewpoints. One fine treatment given the doctrine was that of the medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas.

Aquinas’ Understanding of the Trinity

Thomas understood the nature of procession a bit differently than Tertullian. Where Tertullian believed that there was a time in which the Father was alone before creation, Thomas believed that the Father was never alone, but rather that the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit were eternally existing within the Godhead. Thomas explains this by saying that whatever is in something must be caused by the constituent principles of that essence; that is to say, our ability to laugh belongs to us as a species due to the essential characteristics of our species.

What that means for the Trinity is that there never was a time when the Father was without the Son or the Holy Spirit because they are essential characteristics of God. Thomas likens this phenomenon to our thought capability. We are capable of maintaining a thought without speaking it aloud, and yet we hear that thought in our heads.

A Contemporary Issue

Still, today, there are those who reject the Trinity. This is primarily found in the Latter-Day Saints, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science, Armstrongism, Christadelphians, the Unification Church, the Unity School of Christianity, and Scientology. However, it is not only found in these Christian offshoots, but it is also seen in more mainstream Christian movements, such as the Oneness Pentecostals, the United Church of God, the Church of God International, and several others.

The main reason that I hear from most people involved in these movements for rejecting the doctrine of the Trinity is that it just does not make sense. However, my response to such a statement is this: Why does God need to make sense? What I mean is this, if God is transcendent, why should His existence be the same as our own? When we state that God cannot be three and yet one, we are constraining Him. Thomas had this to say about the nature of God:

Since God is above all things, what is said of God should not be understood according to the mode of the frailest creatures—namely, bodies—but according to the likenesses of the greatest creatures, which are intellectual substances, though even the likenesses derived from these fall short in the representation of divine things.

Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas

God is transcendent, meaning that He is above and beyond our comprehension. Why, then, would He be incapable of existence completely alien from our own?

A Modern Doctrine of the Trinity

The Assemblies of God has codified the belief in the Trinity into its 16 Fundamental Truths. In fact, it is the second of the 16 listed.

The one true God has revealed Himself as the eternally self-existent “I Am,” the Creator of heaven and earth and the Redeemer of mankind. He has further revealed Himself as embodying the principles of relationship and association as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Bible Doctrines: The One True God, William Menzies & Stanley Horton

The AG states that there is that in the Son that makes Him the Son and not the Father or the Holy Spirit. Likewise, there is that in the Holy Spirit that makes Him the Holy Spirit and not the Son or the Father. And there is that in the Father that makes Him the Father and not the Son or the Holy Spirit. Now, you may ask, “If that’s the case, how can they be one and the same God?” And again I would say, simply because we cannot be three persons and yet one does not mean that God cannot.

Understanding the Trinity

Over the years, many have tried to come up with analogies to help believers wrap their minds around the nature of the Trinity. Some of these are quite popular; they describe God as: a triangle, a three-leaf clover, an egg, the phases of water, a person’s individual relational stations (father, son, brother), etc. Yet each one of these falls short of capturing the majesty of the mystery. The best explanation I have heard only explains a portion of the Trinity’s nature. Dr. Nathan Wood, former president of Gordon Divinity School, once explained it this way:

If the dimensions of a room are taken as equal units, the length goes through the entire room, and so do the width and the height, yet each is distinct. And to get the space [the volume of the room], you do not add 1+1+1 [and so getting 3], rather you multiply 1x1x1, which is still one.

Bible Doctrines: The One True God, William Menzies & Stanley Horton

Even though it is hard for us to wrap our minds around, it is unwise to constrain God simply because we do not understand how His existence functions. Menzies and Horton in Bible Doctrines state that the unity found in the Trinity does not preclude the possibility, and indeed, the reality of compound personalities. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit may be distinct from one another, but they are each wholly God.

One of the most important pieces of evidence that I have found in support of the Trinity during my studies is this:

The Trinity is a harmonious fellowship within the Godhead. This is also a loving fellowship, for God is love. But His love is an outgoing love, not a self-centered love. This kind of love demands that before creation there had to be more than one Person within the Being of God.

Bible Doctrines: The One True God, William Menzies & Stanley Horton

Considering all of this, what do you think? Do you believe in the Trinity? If so, how have you understood it?