Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

TRINITY

The distinctive Christian understanding that the creator God disclosed in history as the God of Israel and the God and Father of Jesus Christ is tri-personal. This distinctive trinitarian understanding has been maintained, on the one hand, against modalism which asserts that the one God has disclosed the divine self in three successive manifestations or forms and, on the other hand, against tri-theism which asserts that there are essentially three gods, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The term “trinity” emerged in early Christian history as the designation for the uniquely Christian monotheistic understanding of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit as tri-unity.

The term may be traced to Tertullian, the 3rd-century c.e. Latin father, who coined the word trinitas to express this unique intradivine relationship. While the term “trinity” itself is not a biblical word, the doctrine of the trinity is clearly founded upon both the OT and NT. The OT frequently uses such terms as “Spirit of God” (e.g., Gen. 1:2) and “angel of the Lord” (Exod. 23:23) which suggest plurality in the personal nature of God. Further, the frequent use of the divine name in its plural form (Gen. 1:26; 11:7) and the intimations of divine personhood in references to the Word of God (Ps. 33:6) and the Wisdom of God (Prov. 8:12) all imply OT roots for a doctrine of the trinity.

While there is no explicit doctrine of the trinity in the NT, one can more easily trace its trinitarian reflection. The divinity of Jesus is clearly set forth (Matt. 16:16; John 20:28), and the divine nature of the Spirit or Comforter is equally well attested (14:16-26; 15:26; 16:5). Most compelling are the trinitarian formulas found throughout the NT literature. 2 Cor. 13:13 probably represents the earliest known trinitarian formula, which Paul uses to bless the community of faith, and the doctrine of the trinity is clearly articulated in the baptismal formula of Matt. 28:19. All three persons of the trinity are brought together at the baptism of Jesus (Matt. 3:16). The salvation of the believer is intimately associated with Father, Spirit, and Jesus Christ in 1 Pet. 1:2. Thus trinitarian doctrine is intimately integrated into the central doctrines of the Christian faith in its earliest confessional literature.

In the earliest centuries of the Christian era, the doctrine of the trinity was developed in the context of the pre- and post-Nicene christological debates. In the early centuries, particularly under the leadership of the Cappadocian fathers, attention was focused upon oikonomia or the economic trinity with its soteriological focus. The Middle Ages saw a shift of attention toward theologia, or the question of the trinitarian nature of God in se, the immanent trinity. Many contemporary theologians, within both Catholic and Protestant traditions, argue that any distinction between how God has disclosed God’s self in salvation history and how God is in God’s own self is an artificial distinction. The doctrine of the trinity lies at the center of contemporary Christian dialogue with other world religions.

D. Larry Gregg

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

TRINITY

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)