Trinitarian heresies and conclusion (06/14/2024)

1 John 2:22–23 NKJV

22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. 23 Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

So to close out this series, I want to clear out some potential misinterpretations of the Trinity. These are heresies that have confused many people over the years.

I want to highlight the three most common ones:

Before starting that, though, I’ll remind you of the “premises” of the Trinity.

The three “premises” of the Trinity are the following:

There is only one God.

The Father is fully God, the Son is fully God, and the Holy Spirit is fully God.

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three distinct Persons.

Modalism: Each misinterpretation can be described as forgetting any one of these three premises. This one misinterprets the final premise. It combines all three Persons into one Person, rather than one Being. Therefore, they think God is the Father at some moments, changes to the Son in others, and changes to the Holy Spirit in others. Consider one of many scenes in the Bible, though: Jesus’ baptism.

Matthew 3:16–17 NKJV

16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

We see Jesus; we see the Holy Spirit descending like a dove (not as a dove, though it may be possible); and we see the Father speaking from Heaven (we can tell from the message that it is the Father).

But now the question arises: how does the Trinity make any sense? How are three independent Persons one Being? Isn’t that just nonsense? Some people have said so. But the best way I’ve heard to explain it is the following: in the same way that someone who hypothetically lives in 2 dimensions won’t be able to understand 3 dimensions, and in the same way that we don’t understand 4 dimensions since we live in 3, we live in a world where 1 being is equal to only 1 person. Because of this, we don’t understand a reality where 1 being is equal to multiple Persons. However, to show His power, God manifests Himself as one Being in three Persons. I can’t explain how, because I don’t have the power to do the same thing, but I can confidently say that there is a way to make sense of it.

Arianism: This one misinterprets the second premise. This heresy believes that the Son and Spirit were created beings. We’ve already spoken a lot about this, and it’s been the main heresy I’ve been combating through this series.

Tritheism: This one misinterprets the first premise. This heresy believes that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three gods. Obviously, this makes no sense.