Mister Richardson’s
Bible Doctrine Class

Chapter 6: The Trinity

And when Jesus was baptized, He went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on Him; and lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.
- Matthew 3:16,17

A. The doctrine of the Trinity is progressively revealed in Scripture
  1. Partial revelation in the Old Testament - Genesis 1:26; 3:22; 11:7; 16:13; Psalm 45:6-7; 110:1; Isaiah 6:8; Matthew 22:41-46.
  2. More complete revelation in the New Testament - Matthew 3:16,17; 28:19; 1 Corinthians 12:4-6; 1 Peter 1:2; Jude 20-21.
B. Three statements summarize the Biblical teaching
  1. *God is three persons - John 1:1,2; John 17:24; Ephesians 4:4-6.
  2. *Each person is fully God - John 20:28; Acts 5:3-4.
  3. *There is one God - Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Isaiah 45:5-6.
  4. All analogies have shortcomings.
  5. Simplistic solutions must all deny one strand of Biblical teaching.
C. Errors have come by denying any of the three statements summarizing Biblical teaching
  1. Modalism claims that there is one person who appears to us in three different forms or modes.
  2. Arianism denies the full deity of the Son and Holy Spirit.
  3. Tritheism denies that there is only one God.
  4. The importance of the doctrine of the Trinity.
    • If there is no Trinity, then Jesus is not God.
    • No atonement for sins.
    • No justification by faith.
    • No prayer to Jesus.
    • The creature is exalted in salvation.
    • No interpersonal relationships before creation.
    • No unity in diversity in the universe.
D. What are the distinctions between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?
  1. The persons of the Trinity have different primary functions in relating to the world.
    • The role of commanding, directing, and sending belongs to the Father.
    • The role of obeying, going, and revealing belongs to the Son.
    • The role of comforting, convicting, and assuring belongs to the Holy Spirit.
    • The only distinctions between the members of the Trinity are in the ways they relate to each other and to the creation.
  2. The persons of the Trinity have eternally existed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
    • There is an ontological equality.
    • There is an economic subordination.
    • For all eternity the Father has been the Father, the Son has been the Son, and the Holy Spirit has been the Holy Spirit. These relationships are eternal, not something that occurred only in time.
  3. What is the relationship between the three persons and the being of God?
    • Each person is completely and fully God.
    • The persons are real; no modalism.
    • It is a kind of existence far different from anything we have experienced.
  4. Can we understand the doctrine of the Trinity?
    • The doctrine cannot be simplified.
    • We cannot fully comprehend the Trinity because of our finiteness.

TERMS
Arianism, economic subordination, homoiousios, homoousios, modalism, only-begotten, ontological equality, subordinationism, Trinity, tritheism.

REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Provide scriptural evidence for the doctrine of the Trinity from both the Old and New Testaments.
2. List the three statements given in the chapter that summarize the Biblical teaching on the Trinity, and give scriptural support for each.
3. Which of the three statements does each of the following deny? Modalism, Arianism, Subordinationism, Tritheism.
4. What are the distinctions between the persons of the Trinity? How do these distinctions apply to the work of creation? Of redemption?

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
The Doctrine of God - Gerald Bray
The Holy Spirit - Sinclair Ferguson
Communion With the Triune God - John Owen, Kelly Kapic
Communion With God (Puritan Paperback) - John Owen
The Holy Spirit (Puritan Paperback) - John Owen
The Mystery of the Holy Spirit - R. C. Sproul
What is The Trinity? - R. C. Sproul
Who is the Holy Spirit? - R. C. Sproul

ARTICLES
What is the Trinity? - CARM
The Trinity, Worship, and Prayer - New Horizons
John 1:1 Meaning and Translation - James White
The Trinity - Hodge's Systematic Theology
John Owen on the Trinity - Kevin Vanhoozer
Sabellianism - Gervase Charmley
Highlights of the Trinity Debate
Chalcedon - Sinclair Ferguson

QUOTES
This sacred doctrine, though it be not against reason, yet it is above reason. - Thomas Watson

There was no more glorious mystery brought to light in and by Jesus Christ than that of the holy Trinity, or the subsistence of the three Persons in the unity of the same nature. - John Owen

WESTMINSTER SHORTER CATECHISM
Q6. How many persons are there in the Godhead?
A6. There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

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