One God
Zac Konakis
Foundation • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewTeach the Truth of One God in three beings. Father, Son, & Holy Spirit. Teach His attributes and Authorship of Life.
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What is the Trinity?
The trinity is the doctrinal concept for a Biblical Mystery.
The word Trinity does not occur in the Bible.
It was coined in 200 AD by Tertullian, who describes the Trinitas, which literally translates to Three-ness, which denotes an abstract term.
The Concept for the Trinity, however is established in Scripture and is a CORE essential doctrine within the church
The Trinity is a concept used to describe the nature of one God in three Persons.
This is the concept that God is above our understanding and that we have some shortcomings in our ability to grasp all things about the nature of God.
Why is it important?
Why does it have the weight of central fundamental Christian Doctrine?
It establishes the Divinity of Christ with the Oneness of God
From the start of the Church there has been the same debate of Who is God, really? What is his nature and who was Jesus and what did he accomplish? Did Jesus even exist? Was he truly God?
As a result the council of Nicea in 325 AD use the term Consubstantiality (Made from the same stuff/essence) to describe the Trinity to combat heresy.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
In The beginning… - Greek En Archai - The FIRST the supreme ruling - the one thing over all things. In the beginning was the word. This will be important in a minute when we talk about Monarchies.
Greek Philosophers have been consistently looking for the Archai Principle - the First the overarching principle that explains all principles and brings meaning and order to the world.
The historical roots of the debate begin with the Deity of Christ
The first 300 years of Church history and articulation is on Logos Christology - Christ as the word.
The battle against heresy has been against points surrounding this reality.
One benefit is that the heresies force us to articulate more clearly what we believe.
So what is the controversy?
Christianity is not a repudiation of monotheism. So, how could Christ be God?
God has revealed through the Old Testament the plurality of essence - that it is ONE being, but is in communion with himself.
The concept is read through the lens of Jesus and then shown forth as progressive revelation. There are only pieces that make sense after it has happened.
The Old Testament is a dimly lit room, that only upon revisiting can you see and understand what is really there.
We see the distinction of the three throughout the Bible
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
How can something be identified as God but distinct from God?
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”
The Angel visits and proclaims that Jesus will be called Immanuel “God with Us.”
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
Jesus has been identified as God, but in these passages is found to be very different and distinct from God.
We attempt to make this easier to understand, which has led to MANY heresies over the history of the Church.
Threats to Christianity in the early days
Modalism/Monarchyianism
Gnostics coming in with claims to secret knowledge and mystical insight to truth that surpassed the apostles. However, you must take their word for it - it was the “Gift of gnosis” They had a pantheistic view of reality in which the ultimate reality sends out eminations from the center - and the further you are from the “core” the lower level on reality that you have - we still have these beliefs in play today in which people believe in “good vibrations”
Third Century a teacher adopted the different modes of being which flows from the core - Sevellius proclaimed that Jesus and the Logos are divine in the sense that they participate in the BEING of God (or the essence) but is at a lower level of God. God is the sun and the ray that eminates from it is Jesus. This is heretical at the core. The base supposition is that the Bible does not proclaim that Jesus is God. It questions the authority and divinity of Christ which is central to the core of Christianity.
Dynamic Monarchianism
Progresses, moves, and Changes - Arius was the developer and teacher of this heresy. That Jesus is a “High” being, but is a created being and the most elevated being and the first born of all creation. The only begotten of God and so therefore enjoys the highest honor of the being. However, was not to be seen as God.
We still see this happening today where Jesus Became God. This is a fundamental distinction of Being vs. Becoming vs. non-being, but nothing is nothing. Whatever is, IS. It cannot become the next thing. God, by nature is the same.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.
Distinctions between the three are not essential when we refer to God.
As BEING first. God must
They are Consubstantial in the view of Christianity (they are of the same stuff)
They are Triune and they are all subsistent of one another
God in ONE in BEING and Three in Person.
We cannot have a solid understanding and cannot fathom it. It is by nature a mystery, but does that mean that we not attempt? No.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
We are supposed to use our minds and reasoning to come to the truth.
“At the first sip of natural science will lead you to atheism, but God is waiting at the bottom of the glass.” - Werner Hiesenberg