What made the doctrine of the Trinity more appealing or viable compared to other early Christian beliefs about Jesus and God?
It’s not hard to understand:
a) the OT depicts God as taking counsel and speaking to himself in many places (Gen 1 and Psalm 2 for instance).
b) the OT clearly depicts God in 3 forms: The Father, The Voice/Word, and the Spirit. We get the term “Holy Spirit” from the OT originally, in Hebrew “Ruach ha Kodesh” (Breath of Holy/Divine).
c) When Abraham meets “God” personally, and invites him to a meal. Two others are with Him, thus symbolizing the nature of a trio.
d) The Lord Jesus Has the Father speak over Him from Heaven, and the Spirit alights on Him like a dove.
e) At the transfiguration, the Father speaks over Jesus, calling Him son, and the Shekinah glory of God (aka Holy Spirit) comes down like a mist.
f) After the last supper, (Gospel of John 14–17) Jesus explains that when He leaves, the Father will send the Holy Spirit. Then He later says that He and the Father both send the Spirit. (Demonstrating perfect unity of authority and purpose). In that statement, Jesus explains that the Holy Spirit is a person “He will come” and “He will comfort” and “He will guide”. Jesus also explains that the Holy Spirit literally cannot come unless Jesus returns to the Father – demonstrating a perfect union of the trio. Yet, all of scripture repeatedly states that the Father is God, the Son accepts worship and is declared God, the Holy Spirit is also called God and the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. Thus, the trio are in perfect unity.
g) Every other system fails to agree with major texts of scripture: Oneness fails the distinction of person factor. Three separate beings fails the Unity factor of the Old Testament. Duality (Jesus and God are unified, but not unity) fails the test of the true divine nature of Christ.
h) Jesus demonstrates that He has ultimate authority, yet is submitted to the Father. Philippians explains that He laid aside all of his divine nature and privilege and Hebrews says He took the “form of a servant”. That wouldn’t make sense if Jesus was anything less than God Himself.
i) At Nicea, there were other options on the table. All of those were evaluated. The majority of leaders agreed on two things: a triune divinity was passed down by the Apostles and a triune divinity is the counsel of the Holy Scriptures.
So, the doctrine of the Trinity is the only one that agrees with the whole counsel of scripture. Every other notion disagrees with revealed truth at one level or another. All of the other options were discarded because they are ultimately unbiblical.
Therefore, the Triune nature is revealed to the church, not “decided” by the church.
The truth of the Trinity
It’s not hard to understand:
a) the OT depicts God as taking counsel and speaking to himself in many places (Gen 1 and Psalm 2 for instance).
b) the OT clearly depicts God in 3 forms: The Father, The Voice/Word, and the Spirit. We get the term “Holy Spirit” from the OT originally, in Hebrew “Ruach ha Kodesh” (Breath of Holy/Divine).
c) When Abraham meets “God” personally, and invites him to a meal. Two others are with Him, thus symbolizing the nature of a trio.
d) The Lord Jesus Has the Father speak over Him from Heaven, and the Spirit alights on Him like a dove.
e) At the transfiguration, the Father speaks over Jesus, calling Him son, and the Shekinah glory of God (aka Holy Spirit) comes down like a mist.
f) After the last supper, (Gospel of John 14–17) Jesus explains that when He leaves, the Father will send the Holy Spirit. Then He later says that He and the Father both send the Spirit. (Demonstrating perfect unity of authority and purpose). In that statement, Jesus explains that the Holy Spirit is a person “He will come” and “He will comfort” and “He will guide”. Jesus also explains that the Holy Spirit literally cannot come unless Jesus returns to the Father – demonstrating a perfect union of the trio. Yet, all of scripture repeatedly states that the Father is God, the Son accepts worship and is declared God, the Holy Spirit is also called God and the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. Thus, the trio are in perfect unity.
g) Every other system fails to agree with major texts of scripture: Oneness fails the distinction of person factor. Three separate beings fails the Unity factor of the Old Testament. Duality (Jesus and God are unified, but not unity) fails the test of the true divine nature of Christ.
h) Jesus demonstrates that He has ultimate authority, yet is submitted to the Father. Philippians explains that He laid aside all of his divine nature and privilege and Hebrews says He took the “form of a servant”. That wouldn’t make sense if Jesus was anything less than God Himself.
i) At Nicea, there were other options on the table. All of those were evaluated. The majority of leaders agreed on two things: a triune divinity was passed down by the Apostles and a triune divinity is the counsel of the Holy Scriptures.
So, the doctrine of the Trinity is the only one that agrees with the whole counsel of scripture. Every other notion disagrees with revealed truth at one level or another. All of the other options were discarded because they are ultimately unbiblical.
Therefore, the Triune nature is revealed to the church, not “decided” by the church.
Published in Bible, Commentary, Evangelism, Great News and Teaching