New Study - The Trinity!

March 2 - The Trinity

Many of my friends and fellow Christians struggle with the concept of a Triune God. One God represented in three persons who operate separately yet are One! That is a lot to wrap your mind around...I will follow along with you as we explore and validate the existence of a Triune God in the Holy Bible.

In 2000, a few of my sisters in Christ and I embarked upon a 12-week study on the book of Revelations. In the context of that study, we came across the Trinity and took a left turn to explore more about this mystery. We tried different analogies to describe Them: the concept of water, ice and steam; the roles of a Father, Son and Protector; and so on. After nine years and several more Bible studies, I found the answers right in the Bible.

We'll walk through this slowly, deliberately finding the Truth in God's Word along the way. I cannot promise you instant revelation but I can promise you that your spiritual foundation will become stronger and your hunger to know more about Him (all of Him) will grow. The concept of the Trinity is a major tenet of our faith in Jesus Christ. It is a point of theology that separates Christians from cults and has caused much confusion, anger, fear and sorrow for Christians who are searching.

Let us pray that the Almighty Father will reveal His Truth and confirm His Persons to us. Don't force it; remember that God's Ways are higher than our ways and His Thoughts are higher than ours. Someone once said if you could completely comprehend God--He wouldn't be God. At times we must accept our limitations here as "earth beings" and hold on to the promise that He will reveal all to us when we meet Him again in the New Heaven and New Earth to come.

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Taken from the ESV Bible Essays:

True Theology: Knowing and Loving God
The study of theology is considered by many to be dry, boring, irrelevant, and complicated. But for those who want to know God, the study of theology is indispensable. The word “theology” comes from two Greek words, theos (“God”) and logos (“word”). The study of theology is an effort to make definitive statements about God and his implications in an accurate, coherent, relevant way, based on God's self-revelations. Doctrine equips people to fulfill their primary purpose, which is to glorify and delight in God through a deep personal knowledge of him. Meaningful relationship with God is dependent on correct knowledge of him.

Any theological system that distinguishes between “rational propositions about God” and “a personal relationship with God” fails to see this necessary connection between love and knowledge. The capacity to love, enjoy, and tell others about a person is increased by greater knowledge of that person. Love and knowledge go hand in hand. Good lovers are students of the beloved. Knowledge of God is the goal of theology.

Knowledge without devotion is cold, dead orthodoxy. Devotion without knowledge is irrational instability. But true knowledge of God includes understanding everything from his perspective. Theology is learning to think God's thoughts after him. It is to learn what God loves and hates, and to see, hear, think, and act the way he does. Knowing how God thinks is the first step in becoming godly.

Many would like to think that just being a “good” person and “loving” God, without an emphasis on doctrine, is preferable. But being a good person can mean radically different things depending on what someone thinks “good” is, or what constitutes a “person.” Loving God will look very different depending on one's conception of “God” or “love.” The fundamental connections between belief and behavior, and between love and knowledge, demand a rigorous pursuit of truth for those wanting to love God and to be godly. Hebrews 5:11–6:3 teaches that deepening theological understanding equips one to be able to differentiate good from evil, and it exhorts believers to mature in their knowledge of God and his ways:

For though by this time you ought to be teachers,
you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.
You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in
the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the
mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant
practice to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary
doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity (Heb. 5:12–6:1).
Good theology is based in the belief that God exists, is personal, can be known, and has revealed himself. These presuppositions motivate theologians to devote themselves to a passionate pursuit of knowledge from God's Word. Unfortunately, the word “theologian” is used almost exclusively for vocational theologians rather than
for anyone earnestly devoted to knowing God. On one level everyone who thinks
about God is a theologian. But a believer whose life is consumed with knowing
his Lord is most certainly a theologian, and theologians are committed to
truth.

Loving God means loving truth. God is a God of truth; he is truth. In Scripture, all three persons of the Trinity are vitally related to truth (see chart).

All Three Persons of the Trinity Vitally Related to Truth

Father
“What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, ‘That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged’” (Rom. 3:3–4).
“For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs” (Rom. 15:8).

Son
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6).
“But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus” (Eph. 4:20–21).

Spirit
“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me” (John 15:26).
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:13).
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So ponder that Truth from God today. If you want to know Him, Love Him (for He is Love)--you must study Him and understand all of Him in the context of His Word--which is Truth! This statement is like circular logic in the Excel program--you know the error message where it says "cannot calculate answer because the formula has a circular link"--or a paraphrase thereof!?

So, we will walk together to untangle the circular logic that God has provided us in His Word and we will be ever richer, at peace and in love with our Magnificent God--the Great I AM! Peace to you and love, Sister Lisa