Series: Systematic Theology Part 1
Title: God in Three Persons: The Trinity
Purpose: To attempt to identify how God can be three persons yet be one God
Date: November 10, 2024
I. The doctrine is progressively revealed in scripture
A. Partial revelation in the Old Testament
B. More complete revelation in the New Testament
II. Three statements summarize the biblical teaching
A. God is three persons
B. Each person is fully God
C. There is one God
D. Simplistic solutions must deny one strand of biblical teaching
E. All analogies have shortcomings
F. God eternally and necessarily exists as a Trinity
III. Errors have come by denying any of the three summary statements
A. Modalism claims one person who appears in three different modes (forms)
B. Arianism denies the full deity of the Son and the Holy Spirit
1. The Arian controversy
2. Subordination
3. Adoptionism
4. The Filioque clause
5. The importance of the doctrine of the Trinity
C. Tritheism denies that there is only one God - 3 separate Gods
IV. What are the distinctions between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
A. The persons have a different primary function in relating to the world
B. The persons have eternally existed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
C. What is the relationship between the three persons and the being of God (see diagrams on reverse side)
D. Can we understand the doctrine of the trinity
V. Application
A. God is both unity and diversity
B. Marriage is the same way
C. So is the church - 1 Corinthians 12:12-26
