The doctrine of the Trinity is fundamental to the Christian faith, it is essential to fully understand what God is like, how he relates to us, and how we should relate to him, but he also raises many difficult questions: how can God be one and three at a time?Is the Trinity a contradiction? If Jesus is God, why do the Gospels recount times when He prayed to God?
Although we cannot fully understand everything about the Godhead (or anything else), it is possible to answer questions like these and come to a solid understanding of what it means to be God three at a time.
Is the Trinity contradictory?
This question leads us to explore a very useful definition of the Trinity that I mentioned earlier: God is unique in essence, but triple in personality. This formulation can show us why there are not three gods and why the Trinity is not a contradiction.
For something to be contradictory, it must violate the law of non-contradiction. This law states that A cannot be A(s) and no-A (not) at the same time and in the same sense. In other words, he contradicts himself when he says and denies the same sentence. For example, if I say that the moon is made entirely of cheese, but I also say that the Moon is not made entirely of cheese, I’m against it.
Some claims may seem contradictory at first, but they are not really contradictory. The theologian RCSproul cites as an example a famous statement by Dickens: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. “Obviously it’s a contradiction If Dickens said it was the best of times in the same sense that it was the worst of times, however, this claim is not contradictory, because it says that in one sense it was the best of times, but in another sense, it was the worst of times.
By bringing this concept to the Trinity, it is not a contradiction that God is both three and one because He is not three and one in the same direction; it’s three in a different sense than it is. speak with dual language. We do not say that God is one and then derive that He is one by saying that He is three. This is very important: God is one and three at a time, but not in the same sense.
What’s God one like? He’s one in essence. What’s God three like? He’s got three people. Essence and personality are not the same, God is one in a sense (essence) and three in a different sense (personality). Since God is one in a different sense than three, the Trinity is not a contradiction. It would only be a contradiction if we said that God is three in the same sense as one.
Therefore, a closer examination of the fact that God is essentially unique, but triple in personality, has been helpful in showing why the Trinity is not a contradiction, but how does this show us that there is only one God and not three?simple: all three people are a God because, as we have seen before, they are all of the same essence. Gasoline means the same as “being. ” Therefore, since God is a unique essence, He is a unique being, not three. This clearly shows why it is so important to understand that all three people are the same essence, because if we abolish this, we challenge God’s unity and affirm that there is more than one being of God (that is, there is more than one God).
What we have seen so far provides a basic understanding of the Trinity, but it is possible to go further. If we can more accurately understand the meaning of essence and personality, how these two terms differ, and how they relate, we will have a more complete understanding of the Godhead.
Essence and personality
Essence What does gasoline mean? Like I said before, it means the same as being. The essence of God is his being. To be more precise, essence is who you are. At the risk of sounding too physical, gasoline can be understood as the “material” you “compose. “We are certainly discussing here by analogy, because we cannot understand the essence of a physical form in relation to God. “God is spirit? (Jo. 4. 24). Moreover, we must clearly not think of God, more than divinity. substance?of God is God, not much?ingredients?this mixture produces divinity.
Personality: In relation to the Trinity, we use the term ”nobody” differently than what we use on a daily basis, so it is often difficult to have a specific definition of a person when we use that term in relation to . Why no one?We do not mean an “independent individual”, just as I and another human being are independent and exist separate from each other. Per person? We mean someone who’s treated like me?And others like ‘you’. Thus, the Father, for example, is a different person of the Son because he treats the Son as “You”, even if he treats himself as “I”. So, in relation to the Trinity, can we say that?subject that is treated as “I” and the other two as “you. “These different themes are not a division in The Being of God, but “a form of personal existence that is not a difference.
How they relate? The relationship between essence and personality is, therefore, the following. In the unity of God, is the undivided being one? Deployment? in three personal distinctions. These personal distinctions are modes of existence in the divine being, but they are not divisions of the divine being. They are personal forms of existence and not a difference of being. Former theologian Herman Bavinck said something very useful about this: “People are modes of existence in being; therefore, people differ from each other because one mode of existence differs from another, and? using a common illustration? How is an open palm different from a closed fist? [4]. From each of these? Ways of existence? are they relational (like people), each of them is a separate center of consciousness, each of them treats himself / herself as “me”? and others like “you”. However, these three people? Of the same? to import? (ie the same? what? or gasoline). As the theologian and apologist Norman Geisler explained, what is the essence? is you, the person is WHO? you are. So is God one? What, but three? WHO?.
So isn’t the divine essence something that exists? Yes
“But if every person is fully God and possesses all the divine being, should we not also think that personal distinctions are a kind of attributes added to being divine?Instead, every person in the Godhead has all the attributes of God, and none of the people have attributes that are not equally possessed by others. On the other hand, do we have to say that people are real, that they are not just different ways of seeing God’s unique being?The only way to achieve this is to say that the distinction between people is not a difference in “being” but a difference in “relationships”. Is it something far removed from our human experience, in which every person?different person is also a different being. In a way, the divine being is much greater than ours than within his unique and undivided being, can there be a development in interpersonal relationships, so that there are three different people?
Trinitarian illustrations?
Many illustrations have been offered to help us understand the Godhead. While there are some useful illustrations, we must recognize that no illustration is perfect. Unfortunately, many illustrations are not only defective, they are incorrect. An illustration to be careful of says, “I’m a person, but I’m also a student, a son, and a brother. Does this explain how God can be one and three?The problem with this illustration is that it reflects a heresy called modalism. God is not a person who plays three different roles, as this illustration suggests. It is a Being in three people (centers of consciousness), not simply in three roles. This analogy ignores personal distinctions in God and turns them into mere roles.
Resumé
Let’s quickly review what we’ve seen
1. La Trinity is not a belief in three gods. There is only one God and we must never deviate from him.
2. This one God exists as three people.
3. The three people are not part of God, but each is total and equally God. In God’s unique and undivided being, there is a process of three people, so there are three people. Distinctions in the Divinity are not distinctions of His essence, nor additions to His essence, but they are the display of God’s unity, of the individual being, in three interpersonal relationships, so that there are three real people.
God is not a person who assumes three consecutive roles, this is the heresy of modealism. The Father did not become the Son and then the Holy Spirit; on the contrary, there has always been and always will be three different people in the deity.
5. La Trinity is not a contradiction because God is not three in the same sense as one, God is one in essence and three in personality.
Implementation
The Trinity is extremely important because God is important; knowing God more fully is a way of honoring him; Furthermore, we must admit that God is Trinitarian in order to deepen our worship; we exist to worship Dieu; et God is looking for people to worship. he – in spirit and in truth? (Jo. 4. 24). Therefore, we should always strive to deepen our worship of God, both in truth and in our hearts.
The Trinity has a very important application in prayer. The general pattern of prayer in the Bible is to pray to the Father through the Son and in the Holy Ghost (Ephesians 2:18). Our communion with God must be strengthened by a conscious knowledge that we are in a relationship with a God of three people.
Awareness of the different roles each person in the Godhead has in our salvation can serve especially to give us great comfort and appreciation for God in our prayers, as well as to help us be precise in addressing God. Recognizing each person’s different roles, we should never think about these roles so separately that other people do not engage, on the contrary, in everything that one person is involved in, the other two are also involved, one way or another.
Grades
Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (Life Nova Editions, 1999), p. 189 Although it seems to me a useful definition, it must be acknowledged that Grudem himself proposes it more as an explanation than as a definition of person. Herman Bavinck, The Doctrine of God, (Britain: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1991), p. 303. 5, Grudem, 187-188.
Additional resources
Augustine, The Trinity Herman Bavinck, The Doctrine of God, p. 255-334 Edward Bickersteth, The Wayne Grudem Trinity, Systematic Theology, Chapter 14 Donald Macleod, Shared Life: The Trinity and People’s Community of God RCSproul, The Mystery of the Holy Spirit RCSproul, Essential Truths of the JIPacker Christian Faith, The Knowledge of God John Piper, The Pleasures of God, Chapter 1 James White , The Forgotten Trinity
By John Piper. © Desiring God Website: desiringGod. org Original: What is the Doctrine of the Trinity?Translation and rereading: André Alosio and Davi Luan of the blog Theology and Life Authorizations: You are allowed and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format, provided that you add the above information and link to this blog, do not change the original content and do not use it for commercial purposes.
In the world, there is only one thing to look for: the knowledge of God (Robert H. Benson).