Father is Not Alone

A Challenging Doctrine and Its Texts

It is our teaching mission today to shed light on the person of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which we call the Trinity, which means ‘threesome.’ The Trinity is one of the most challenging of all doctrines to understand, to explain and substantiate with Scripture. The word "Trinity" is not in the Scripture at all. However, the two texts from our readings today speak of the Trinity:

This verse from Matthew is not found in the older manuscripts, and many scholars think that it was not a part of the original writings of the Evangelist. The verse from 1 John 5:7 is certainly not original to the writer, for this verse was actually found scribbled into the margin of an ancient text; presumably the note of an early Gospel reader or scribe. In making copies, scribes inserted these words into the text by error and that error still remains. (Remember, all printing was done one copy at a time by hand before the printing press was invented.) 1 John 5:7 is usually left out of the newer translations.  Skip ads

Heart of the Old Testament, Second Edition By Ronald Youngblood / Baker One means by which to demonstrate the basic oneness of the Scriptures is to trace the development of certain key ideas from one end of the Bible to the other. The purpose of this book is to do just that with nine of the themes that constitute the heart of the Old Testament. The nine themes are monotheism, sovereignty, election, covenant, theocracy, law, sacrifice, faith, and redemption. Youngblood has achieved his purpose admirably by laying out before us the heart of the Old Testament in a careful and practical manner and linking the key theological strands of the Old Testament to the New in a style that is biblically sound, highly readable, and profoundly insightful.

Building Unity in the Church of the New Millennium By Dwight Perry / Moody Publishers "Dr Dwight Perry and a diverse group of gifted contributing authors use great insights and wisdom in dealing with key contemporary issues that threaten unity within the Body of Christ. Building Unity in the Church of the New Millenium is sure to awaken in the heart of every believer a desire for oneness and true scriptural unity. It is a must-read for Christian leaders who are serious about reconciliation and building bridges that will unite the fractured church." - Dr. Joseph Stowell, President - Moody Bible Institute

The Mountain of Silence By Kyriacos Markides / Random House, Inc In an engaging combination of dialogues, reflections, conversations, history, and travel information, Kyriacos C. Markides continues the exploration of a spiritual tradition and practice he began in Riding with the Lion. His earlier book took readers to the isolated peninsula of Mount Athos in northern Greece and into a group of ancient monasteries. There, in what might be called a "Christian Tibet," two thousand monks and hermits practice the spiritual arts to attain oneness with God. In his new book, Markides follows Father Maximos, one of Mount Athos's monks, to the troubled island of Cyprus. As Father Maximos establishes churches, convents, and monasteries in this deeply divided land, Markides is awakened anew to the magnificent spirituality of the Greek Orthodox Church.

Jewish New Testament - Audio Bible on Cassette By Messianic Jewish Publishers Why is this New Testament different from all other New Testaments? Beause the Jewish New Testament expresses its essential Jewishness. The New Testament is a Jewish book - by Jews, mostly about Jews, and for Jews as well as Gentiles. Its central figure, the Messiah Yeshua (Jesus), was and is a Jew. Vicarious atonement, salvation, immersion (baptism), the new covenant and the very concept of a Messiah are all Jewish. In sum, the New Testament is built upon and complete the Hebrew Scriptures. reshly rendered from the original Greek into enjoyable modern English by a Messianic Jew (A Jew who honors Yeshua as the Messiah of Israel), the Jewish New Testament challenges Jews to understand that Yeshua is a friend to every Jewish heart and the New Testament a Jewish book filled with turths to be accepted and acted upon. At the same time, while reaffirming the equality of Gentiles and Jews in the Messianic Comunity, it challenges Christians to acknowledge the Jewishness of their faith and their oneness with the Jewish people. Recorded and produced at Avi Jaffe Studios in Jerusalem, using the highly inspirational voice of Jonathan Settel, this program has the distinction of being the first English "Bible on tape" produced in Israel. David H. Stern is the translators and Jonathan Settel is the narrator. 16 cassettes.

Despite the findings of Bible scholars in regards to these Trinity verses, the real problem for theologians like us is not whether or not there is a Trinity, for there certainly is a Father, his Son and a Holy Spirit. The problem is in trying to determine the relationship between the three, which has been debated since the very beginning, becoming a dividing line between churches and brothers and sister in Messiah. Lines are drawn over questions like these: To just what extent is God in three persons? To just what extent are those three persons God? Are there actually 3 persons or 3 gods? Why does the Old Testament say that ‘Our God is One?" (Deut 6:4) If Jesus and God are the same, why does Jesus call God Father? Why doesn’t the Holy Spirit have a name? Is the Holy Spirit a he or an it? How can a Spirit hang on a cross? What does Jesus mean when he says, ‘I and my Father are one’? or, ‘my Father will send another Comforter?’ Hard questions about the Trinity!

Attempts at answers and explanations have been made throughout history, and godly people, including Bishops of the Church, have been killed or exiled by government authorities if their answers didn’t line up with the official position of the Church in power. Today, let me share some of the historic answers, then I would like put the Trinity into some kind of perspective.

Let’s start with Jesus, who called himself the ‘Son of Man.’ The legend of ‘Son of Man’ was well known in his day. The Son of Man was the title of an angelic hero who would descend to earth, reveal the elect saints, destroy the devil, then ascend back to the right hand of the Power to intercede for saints left behind. The religious folk in Jesus’ day knew that the Son of Man’s coming was prophesied by Enoch. Jesus not only called himself the Son of Man, but fulfilled everything that Enoch had said the Son of Man would do. The Apostles believed Jesus when he called himself ‘Son of Man’ - higher than the angels, but not ‘counting equality with God a thing to be grasped’ (Phil 2:6).

The earliest Trinitarians were the followers of Jesus. They were called Nazarenes, or "The Poor." This was the circle that included James, John, Matthew, Peter and Jude. They didn’t consider Jesus to be the same as God - they were still devout Jews and that idea would be blasphemy. They understood God as an indivisible Spirit-being, not of the flesh. Although they believed in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Moses taught them rightly that Yahweh was One, not two or three. This belief in one god set them apart from the Gentiles who believed in many gods.

They saw Jesus not so much as the Father enfleshed, but as the Son of Man or Messiah who had descended from heavenly places. They also saw him as the scion of David, a great king who Yahweh promised would come and rule the earth. The Messiah was never thought of as God incarnate by these early followers.

In the 2nd through 4th centuries (starting about 70 years after the resurrection of the Messiah) there was a new group of believers who called themselves Christians. They were not Jews, but Gentiles. The most literate of them are now called the Early Church Fathers. They were converted out of the world of paganism; many of them worshipped a trinity of gods before they were converted.

One of the earliest statements attesting the relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit was that of a man named Tertullian; much of his writing still exists. Here is what he says regarding the relationship of the members of the Trinity, which I think is pretty clear:

Tertullian lived about 200 years after Christ. He was very influential in theology then and now. He is still read in every seminary in the nation. His teaching demonstrates the idea that the Son and Spirit are persons unto themselves derived from the fullness of the Father. So in his time, we still do not see the members of the Trinity being understood as equal in status; rather, the Father is the greater and the other members are subordinate.

The Nicene Council
By 325 AD, the Roman Empire became officially Christian with the ‘conversion’ of the emperor Constantine. Constantine had previously been a worshipper of the Unconquered Sun, a pagan, Trinitarian religion. But now, as emperor of Rome and a new Christian, he used his considerable power to make striking changes in the Christian faith, including transferring the Sabbath to from Saturday to Sun-day.

In the 4th century, the bishops of the Church were split on the Trinity. Some believed that the Father, Son and Spirit were all God and of equal status. Other bishops believed that the Father was primary and that Jesus was the ‘firstborn of creation’ as Tertullian had taught (Col 1:15, Rev 3:15), and therefore subordinate to the Father.

Constantine, however, took the position that each member of the Trinity was equally God, which he may have done to consolidate his power in the church. He called a famous conference in Syria, inviting only those bishops who he thought were likely to side with him. There, he wrote a statement of belief in the Trinity as one God in three equal persons, then put his creed to the vote. Only three of his hand-picked Bishops voted against it, and they were promptly exiled.

This statement of belief, or Creed, written by Emperor Constantine is still the most recited statement of faith in the world. It is called the Nicene Creed after the city in which it was written. Many churches recite it at every service. It clearly spells out the equality of all three persons of the Trinity, and therefore is often called the "Trinitarian Creed." Regarding the Trinity, the Emperor’s Nicene Creed makes his and your position perfectly clear -

There is not much room in the Nicene Creed for Jesus being the Son of Man, but God in his entirety, incarnate in flesh. Once again history gives us an example in which a government decision has lasting affect on the Kingdom of God on Earth by dictating to believers what they must believe under threat of punishment, excommunication or death.

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Going Overboard (Optional)

Sometime later, yet another creed was promoted in the church that had mostly to do with the relationship of the Trinity called the Athanasian Creed. This one is in the old Methodist hymnbook right after the Nicene Creed, and was also used on Trinity Sunday. The Athanasian Creed took the concept of the equality of the Godhead to a point of absurdity, as you will note in this short quote:

Talk about splitting hairs! This is only a short quote! Yet it is still a very popular creed for some churches even though, in it’s thoroughness, it disregards the plain teaching of Scripture altogether.

In his sermons, John Wesley usually goes to incredible lengths of logic to explain a theological concept. But in his sermon "On the Trinity," even Wesley is at a loss to explain it.

Wesley cares not how God puts the Trinity together, he just simply believes in it to the extent that he can find it in the Scripture. Some might say he’s copping out, but I say that he is wise to allow God to be God; and the persons connected to God as they are portrayed in the Bible to be whoever they are by faith.

250 years later, we of the United Methodist Church are to be Trinitarians in the tradition of the Constantine and the Roman Catholic Church. The concept of Trinity is important enough to be the United Methodist Article of Faith number I:

Three persons in one God without body or parts: I’m not sure Wesley or Tertullian would agree with Article I. If God has no body or parts, and Jesus is of one substance with God, then how could Jesus have been broken and pierced? To believe this Article of Faith in its current form takes blind faith, because what is written is so contradictory to Scripture and reason. Yet until someone makes changes (which is not likely), we lay people are stuck with this Article of Faith.

So here’s what I think about the Trinity. I can only believe what the Scripture plainly teaches and/or what the Holy Spirit plainly reveals about our Father, his Son and his Spirit -- not what the Emperor or Pope or Bishop or Denominational Articles command. Believing a thing is an act of will. I must be informed, but I don’t have to understand everything about a thing to believe it. And what I believe is that our Father is Yahweh (Jehovah) of the Bible, and that Jesus was born of him and thus has a genetic imprint of Godhood upon his manhood, which he received through Mariam his mother. I believe the Bible teaches that, though the Messiah is of divine origin and pre-existed before he was born into this world, there just may have been a time before the Father begot him. After all, Scripture calls Jesus the firstborn of creation. I also believe in the Holy Spirit, who is the same as Yahweh the Father, blowing over the earth like a wind, wooing and calling forth the elect to faith in the Messiah. And that is my creed in regard to the Trinity. Glad you asked.

At this point someone may want to remind me of the great unity prayer of John 17 in which Jesus is praying to his Father loud enough for it to be recorded by the Beloved Disciple. "I and my Father are One." Jesus prays and the Disciple records.

This scripture is often used to prove the equality of the Son to the Father. I’m sure it came to your mind in the course of this message. But to understand the true meaning of ‘one-ness,’ we must return to the Law in Deuteronomy 6:4:

"Hear, O Israel, Yahweh is One."

The word in Hebrew for ‘One’ is echaad. It doesn’t mean "of one substance." It means "in unity" or "in one accord." When Jesus prayed to be one with his disciples, he certainly didn’t mean that he wanted to unite 13 heads and 26 legs, not to mention other body parts into one substance. But he wanted to be one with the Father, the Spirit and his disciples in a more obvious way - united in purpose and mission. There was plenty of work to get done, and a house divided does not stand any more than a man with 13 heads could think straight.

Trinity Summary

So I guess that the best understanding of the Trinity, one that anyone could agree on with without using too much faith or brain power, comes from a contemporary author named Collin Morris, who, in his struggle with the doctrine of the Trinity, wrote:

That simple statement makes a lot of sense and describes unity and what it means to be in one accord. Friends, Yahweh, his Son and Spirit are with us, guiding us as a community of faith in the way we should go -- and perhaps in a new way. They are revealing themselves to us in any way they please, but whichever way they choose, they will always be in unity drawing us into the unity of themselves.

With this in mind, and in the hope of our church growing more in the oneness of God everyday, let us today enthusiastically affirm the words of the Nicene Creed. Whether we believe every word of it or not in regards to the Trinity, there is enough powerful substance in there to chase the devil of disunity out of the community of faith.