Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents
Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 1 – Shadows of the Kingdom – Chapter 2 – The God who created
The “impossible” Trinity and the nature of God
[Bible references: Exodus 3:1-4:17]
It didn’t take long for the church to develop different ways to try to understand how there is only One God but there also is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit[1]. Can Jesus or the Holy Spirit be God if there is only one God? How can Jesus be God and human? Are the Father, Son and Holy Spirit three persons, or three representations of God? What is a person? If we accept that people have souls with minds, wills, and emotions, what does that mean about God? Yahweh seems to have a mind, will and emotions. We can also ascribe mind, will and emotions to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
There is no logical human explanation and yet the church has managed to split over how to explain this. One explanation is that God is one in Essence, and three in Person. The complication is that Yahweh has the characteristic of a person, but do we say that Yahweh is an essence and not a person? The Bible doesn’t explain what we call the Trinity, it just reveals that there apparently is one God, who seems to have the characteristics of a person and apparently also three persons in God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
The doctrine of the Trinity is impossible to fully understand. How can there be the one person God and yet we have three persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit? And how do the Father, Son and Holy Spirit relate to each other? How do we explain Jesus? If he is God, then how can God, who exists outside of and is independent of the universe He created, yet become a part of it, taking on flesh and blood? These problems have caused endless debate and division within the church, resulting in schisms that persist to this day.
The Bible doesn’t even try to explain this situation, it just hints at it in some spots and presents it in others. The New Testament church didn’t even try to clarify it for a hundred years. And when the church did begin the process of trying to define and explain it, the conversation got complicated by Greek philosophy and language differences between Greek and Latin. When Jesus stated that He was equal with the Father, many Jews considered it blasphemy. After all, as part of their discipleship process, one of the most important scripture verses that they memorized was the Sh’ma, “Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.” What separated Israel from the cultures around them was that Israel professed to have one God but those around them had many gods.
[1] Ligonier Editorial. “The Trinity” Ligonier www.ligonier.org/guides/the-trinity; Taylor, Justin. “What do we mean by Person and Essence in the Doctrine of the Trinity” Gospel Coalition www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/what-do-we-mean-by-person-and-essence-in-the-doctrine-of-the-trinity/; Perman, Matt. “Understanding the Trinity: How Can God Be Three Persons in One?” Cru www.cru.org/us/en/train-and-grow/spiritual-growth/core-christian-beliefs/understanding-the-trinity.html; Encyclopedia.com “Person (In Theology)” Encylcopedia.com www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/person-theology
Observe
Read Exodus 3:1-4:17. We know from Moses’ story that he knew about his Hebrew roots, although the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob probably sounded like fantastic stories to a people living in captivity. Would your response be like Moses?
Dancing In The Kingdom 