Question 10. What are the three distinct characteristics of the Trinity?

 

Question 10. What are the three distinct characteristics of the Trinity?

Answer. The Father begot the Son, the Son was begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son from all eternity. By attributing names, attributes, works, and worship to the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Son and the Holy Spirit show that they are God equal to the Father.

Looking at the doctrine of the Trinity, the early origin of the doctrine of the Trinity began with the expansion of Christology (Christology). In the 70-year Jewish War, other schools disappeared from the newly born Christianity, and the only remaining ones were the Pharisaic Judaism, the Episcetes who emphasized humanity, and the Gnosticism who emphasized only the spiritual elements of divinity, which became a stimulus that shook the roots of Christianity, and a theological theory that logically explained who Jesus Christ, who had a body, was.

Around this time, based on the New Testament that was formed, the doctrine of Christology and the explanation of the reason for the existence of that doctrine of Christology, the Trinity, emerged. The Trinity gradually developed and became an important doctrine of Christianity as a worldview and theological guideline that explained this world.

The idea of ​​the Trinity is the doctrine that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each exist as God, but are essentially one God. The term Trinity was used by later churches. However, there are various interpretations of the Trinity. Tritheism is the theory that there are three Gods in three persons. Modalism is the theory that God is one God in one person who appears in the form of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit according to the times. Modalism claims that in the Old Testament era, he acts as the Father, in the New Testament era, as the Son, and after the New Testament, as the Holy Spirit. Subordinationism is the theory that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are completely one subject, but the Son and the Holy Spirit are subordinate to the Father. Adoptionism claims that Jesus became the Son of God because God adopted him as an adopted son.

Most of the pro-Trinitarian denominations and sects are those that inherit the theological tradition of Christianity, recognize only the Old and New Testaments as scriptures, and accept the theological standards of the era of the universal church as apostolic guidelines. These include the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church, and the Protestant denominations of Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, Holiness, and Pentecostal churches.

Most anti-Trinitarian denominations are denominations that emerged after the 19th century, and they consider the theological tradition of the current mainstream Christianity to be an apostasy, and that the current church was severed due to an apostasy from the early church to the universal church, and that the Trinity is also a theory of a severance, so rejecting it is a way to bridge the severance. Jehovah's Witnesses, Latter-day Saints, and Unitarians are restorationist groups that reject the Nicene Creed and the doctrine of the universal church's ecumenical council.

In summary, the doctrine takes an ambiguous stance that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are each God, but in different positions, but God is one. Before Jesus came to this world, there was only one God, Jehovah God, and Jesus came to this world in the flesh as the Son of God the Father, and even after Jesus was resurrected, he remained the Son of Jehovah God, the only God.

God is not three, but one, but Christ performed the role of imprisoning the sinful angels of the kingdom of God (creation of heaven and earth including humans) and bringing them back to the kingdom of God (salvation), so in the human world, they see God as the Trinity. It is necessary to examine the content specifically through the Bible verses.

Mark 1:9-11 “At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Immediately after, coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens being torn apart and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’”

God the Father clearly states that Jesus is his beloved son. Jesus Christ, who came to this earth for the first time, is not God, but the Son of God, and he is the one (Messiah: Christ) who came to the world to do the work of the cross to save all people. Jesus says that he does all his work in the world by listening to the Father's words. He shows the appearance of leaving the place of God.

When Jesus was tempted by the devil, he said in Luke 4:6-7, "I will give you all this authority and their glory; for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I want. If you therefore worship me, it will all be yours." Satan is trying to make the Son Jesus recognize himself as Jehovah God and induce him to sit in the place of God the Father. Christ is Jehovah in the kingdom of God. However, Jesus on this earth is clearly the Son of God.

However, when he came to the world, he came to the world as the Son of God in the relationship of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In Luke 4:8, Jesus answered the devil, "For it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'" Today, you can hear most believers calling Jesus the Son of God, which means they deify Jesus like God. Jesus, the Son of God, is not God, but a human being (Son of Man).

Today, most church people recognize Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as the Son of God, and equate believing in Jesus with believing in God. When they say, “Believe in Jesus and you will be saved,” in their eyes, Jesus is already in the place of Jehovah God. And we see a double standard in demanding the blood of the Son of Jesus in order to be forgiven of sins. Church people say that God is one, but by using the term “Son of God,” they obscure the relationship between the Father and the Son.