Question: .

Can you explain (briefly) the trinity?

-Bob

Answer:

Hello Bob.

God is one. He exists eternally as one in essence, and three in person. His unity is expressed in his one-ness, while the diversity of the Godhead is expressed in terms of three persons. Thus God is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

The Bible affirms and insists upon the full deity of the three persons in the Godhead. The historic Christian faith has rejected, and always battled, and always denied - heresies such as tritheism (three beings who together make up God) modalism (a teaching that denies any distinction of persons in the Godhead) and arianism (which denies the full deity of Jesus, teaching that there was a time when Jesus did not exist as God, that he was an angel, that he was created, etc.) Further, the Christian church, along with the Jewish faith (its heritage) have always insisted on monotheism (one God) over against polytheism (many gods - including the idea that the destiny of humans is to become God).

These heresies and teachings are not new - they have been around for centuries - and the Bible speaks to each one. This is why the Trinity doctrine is the best human effort to humanly define, using the finite fallen, imperfect, and limited human mind and language, to define the eternal, perfect, holy, and sovereign God.

In Christ's service,

Greg Albrecht