The Glorious Trinity

TheGlorious Trinity

The Revelation of God as One in Three from Holy Scripture

Justin W. Bass, Ph.D.

“The most excellent study for expanding the soul is the science of Christ and Him crucified and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.” C.H. Spurgeon, Immutability of God #1

The Glorious Trinity

“To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing” (Isaiah 40:25-26).


God


Father

SonHoly Spirit

IS

IS IS

IS N

OT IS

NO

T

IS NOT

Trinitarian Heresies

Modalism

Arianism

Tritheism


ModalismSabellius

Oneness Pentecostalism

TD Jakes


Arianism

Arius

Jehovah’s Witnesses

Muslims

Atheists


Tri-theism

Mormonism


Two Myths on the Trinity


The Trinity is a Contradiction


The Trinity was first taught at the Council of Nicea (AD 325) “Have we not all one God and one

Christ? Is there not one Spirit of grace poured out upon us? And have we not one calling in Christ?” 1 Clement 46.6 (AD 90)

“For, as God lives, and as the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost live…” 1 Clement 58.2 (AD 90)


The Trinity was first taught at the Council of Nicea (AD 325)“They asserted, however, that the sum and substance of their fault or error had been that they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god…” Pliny the Younger writing to Roman Emperor Trajan (Letter 10:96) in AD 112


The Trinity was first taught at the Council of Nicea (AD 325)“As being stones of the temple of the Father, prepared for the building of God the Father, and drawn up on high by the instrument of Jesus Christ, which is the cross, making use of the Holy Spirit as a rope, while your faith was the means by which you ascended, and your love the way which led up to God.” St. Ignatius Ephesians 9.1 (AD 117)


The Trinity was first taught at the Council of Nicea (AD 325)“Our teacher of these things is Jesus Christ…He is the Son of the true God Himself, and holding Him in the second place, and the prophetic Spirit in the third, we will prove. For they proclaim our madness to consist in this, that we give to a crucified man a place second to the unchangeable and eternal God, the Creator of all…” Justin Martyr 1 Apology 13 (AD 150)


The Trinity was first taught at the Council of Nicea (AD 325) “In like manner also the three days

which were before the luminaries, are types of the Trinity (triados) of God, and His Word, and His Wisdom”

Theophilus Ad Autolycum 2.15 (AD 170)

“The Father is God, and the Son is God, for whatever is begotten of God is God.” Irenaeus, Demonstration of the Gospel 6 (AD 180)


The Trinity was first taught at the Council of Nicea (AD 325)“Now the Spirit indeed is third from God and the Son; just as the fruit of the tree is third from the root, or as the stream out of the river is third from the fountain, or as the apex of the ray is third from the sun. Nothing, however, is alien from that original source whence it derives its own properties. In like manner the Trinity (trinitas), flowing down from the Father through intertwined and connected steps, does not at all disturb the Monarchy, whilst it at the same time guards the state of the Economy.” Tertullian Against Praxeas 8


The Trinity was first taught at the Council of Nicea (AD 325) “We believe in One God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, only begotten, that is of the substance of the Father. God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten and not made; Himself of the nature of the Father, by whom all things came into being in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…We believe in the Holy Spirit, the uncreated and the perfect, who spoke in the law and the prophets and the Gospel, Who came down upon the Jordan, preached to the Apostles and dwelt in the saints.” Nicene Creed (AD 325)


Three-Personal God Revealed“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” Deut 6:4-5.

“For us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live” 1 Corinthians 8:6


Three-Personal God Revealed “The Spirit searches all things, even the deep

things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” 1 Cor 2:10-11

“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” 2 Cor 13:14


Three-Personal God Revealed“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed” Daniel 7:13-14


Three-Personal God Revealed“Again the high priest asked him, ‘Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?’ ‘I am,” said Jesus. ‘And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven’” Mark 14:61-62


Three-Personal God Revealed “When you ask ‘Three what?” human speech

labors under a great dearth of words. So we say three persons, not in order to say precisely what they are, but in order not to be reduced to silence.” St. Augustine, The Trinity, 5.2.10

“I cannot think of the One God without immediately having the Three Persons shining around me.” Gregory Nanzianzus, Serm. de Sacro Baptism


Justin W. Bass, Ph.D.1042 Lead [email protected]

Thank you.


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The Glorious Trinity