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Have you ever found yourself trying to explain the Trinity to a child? Or perhaps even a teen or adult who has never heard of the concept? I have three little ones, one of whom is a four-year-old bubbling with questions. Here is an example of a recent bedtime conversation we had:
“Mommy, what is the Trinity?”
“The Trinity is God. Three Persons, one God.”
His face scrunched up. “How can God be three Persons but one God?”
This is where I should be able to tell you I gave the most perfect, theologically sound answer to my child and tell you how you can do the same.
I did no such thing.
“Um… well… he just is.”
“But how did Jesus come to earth and the Father remain in heaven?”
“Well, I… um…”
“How is God a Father and a Son?”
Many Christians struggle with how to give a sound explanation of the Trinity.
As I grappled and hummed, my four-year-old kept listing off question after question—none for which I had an answer. I was tempted to use one of those explanations I had heard in church growing up: God is like an egg, God is like the three forms of water, God is like a flower… but I knew that all those fell flat because, in one way or another, they all promoted a trinitarian heresy.
For years, I’ve prided myself on my passion for theology and biblical literacy, and my shelves sagged with heavy academic books. But as I tucked my child in that night, I was humbled by my lack of a basic understanding of the Trinity.
I have a feeling I’m not alone. You don’t have to be a mother to be faced with the dilemma of explaining the Trinity. You could be a Sunday school teacher (for any age) being asked to further explain, or reclining at a family meal where the conversation of religion comes up. Or maybe you’ve stood in your doorway with someone evangelizing to you about their religion that seems to mirror Christianity but smells of tritheism. Or perhaps you’re alone studying your Bible and wondering how God can possibly be three Persons and one God. Let’s open our Bibles and get to know the Trinity together. But first, in case you’re still not fully convinced you need to know this, let’s dive into why the Trinity matters.
Our theology of the Trinity affects our fundamental understanding of what Christianity means.
Because of how convoluted and confusing this doctrine can appear, we may be tempted to push it to the side. We loop it in with doctrines such as the end times and say, “It’s something we just won’t be able to grasp this side of heaven.” But the doctrine of the Trinity is essential to Christian theology. When we get the Trinity wrong, we get all of Christianity wrong. That’s what makes first-order Christian doctrines so vital to our faith: Everything that we believe is rooted in them, and once you alter those ground-level doctrines it changes how the entire tree grows. The Trinity is no different.
If we don’t emphasize the oneness of the Trinity correctly, we move towards tritheism—the worship of three gods rather than one. This breaks the first commandment (Exod. 20:2–3) and goes against God’s clear revelation of him: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one,” (Deut. 6:4; cf. Mark 12:29; John 17:3; Rom. 3:30). But if we blend them too much together, we get another heresy that goes against the clear revelation of the three distinct Persons (Gen. 1:1–27; Matt. 3:13–17; John 1:1–5).
Getting the Trinity wrong likewise skews the gospel message by which we are saved. Did one of our gods die for our sins after the greater god told him to? Or did the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God, die in our place because of a covenant made in eternity past between the three perfect, eternal Persons of the Godhead? Does a lower, lesser god indwell us, or does God himself indwell us through the Third Person of the Trinity? These questions matter, and they change the whole of our salvation when answered wrongly.
Even if we aren’t the ones falling for these false doctrines, we need to be prepared to give the right answer to those who ask (1 Pet. 3:15). These people might come into your classroom, bump into you at church, sit in your small group, or knock on your front door. Will you give them biblical truth? Will you be able to defend what you believe?
Inconspicuous Trinity “drifts” can still be found around us.
The examples I gave above are a bit on the further end of the spectrum, and likely you won’t encounter them to that extreme in your church, books, podcasts, blogs, or social media feed. But that doesn’t mean the Trinity isn’t still skewed in evangelical theology. Heresy, or the off-drips of it, can still be found around us, even among esteemed theologians. Matthew Barrett writes,
With the arrival of the twenty-first century, it’s now conspicuous that there are as many Trinities as modern theologians. With each new Trinity arrives a new social program … Trinity drift is real. We have not only drifted away from the biblical, orthodox Trinity, but we have manipulated the Trinity to meet our social agendas.[1]
These more “inconspicuous” Trinity drifts happen in two main ways:
1. When we try to manipulate the Trinity to prove a point we’re passionate about. The unbiblical teaching of “social trinitarianism” is one example of how some have used the Trinity to advance their ideas on how government should work, how relationships in the church should function, and the like (for more on this topic, please see footnote at the end of article).[2] In doing so, they have manipulated the Trinity to suit their needs, completely bypassing what the Bible really teaches. Some have even gone as far as to say that the historic understanding of the Trinity must be discarded because it doesn’t fit their beliefs around a particular social order.
2. When we try to understand the Trinity from creaturely terms. Remember the analogies I alluded to at the beginning of this article? The water analogy (which states the Trinity is like water, having three different forms while still being water) promotes the heresy of modalism—the false teaching that we worship one God who merely appears at different times in different modes, like an actor putting on masks. According to modalism, when God needs to be the Father, he takes the form of the Father; when he needs to be the Son, he morphs into the Son; and when he needs to be the Spirit, he changes into the Spirit. Scripture, however, teaches that God doesn’t have three modes but is three distinct Persons, as we see in Jesus’ baptism or the creation accounts.
Heresy can abound no matter where you go to church or where you consume Christian content. No theological camp is exempt. We must test our theology (and the content we consume) against Scripture to make sure it aligns with what the Bible teaches.
How can we guard against Trinitarian heresy?
Perhaps you’re a bit overwhelmed now and concerned that you won’t be able to fully guard yourself against Trinitarian heresies. You’re ready to pull the covers over your head and never read or listen to another bit of Christian material again because you might be deceived. I’ve been there too. While this topic may be heavy, it doesn’t need to be complicated.
Hundreds of years ago in early church history, fathers of the faith came up against the same flavors of heresy that we do today, and to battle against these false doctrines they opened Scripture and wrote creeds to help ordinary believers understand. Thanks be to God, he has preserved these creeds, and confessions in more recent history, for us today. While the creeds don’t carry the authority of Scripture, they communicate and summarize the essential truths of Scripture. I recommend getting to know the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed, which were specifically created to summarize the teaching of Scripture and condemn trinitarian heresies.
We have sound definitions of the Trinity in vetted historical creeds and confessions of the Christian faith.
Instead of trying to explain the Trinity in your own words, you can look to helpful explanations of the Trinity written by faithful Christians over the centuries and upheld by the historic church. Here are some below:
From the Nicene Creed (381 A.D.): I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made…. And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets… (Nicene Creed)
From the Athanasian Creed (circa 500 A.D.): Now the catholic faith is that we worship One God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, is One, the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal… (Athanasian Creed)
From the Belgic Confession (circa 1561 A.D.): According to this truth and this Word of God, we believe in one only God, who is the one single essence, in which are three persons, really, truly, and eternally distinct according to their incommunicable properties; namely, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit… (The Belgic Confession, Article VIII)
From the Heidelberg Catechism (1563 A.D.):
Q. Since there is only one God, why do you speak of three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
A. Because God has so revealed himself in his Word that these three distinct persons are the one, true, eternal God. (Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 25)From the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647 A.D.): In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost: (1 John 5:7. Matt 3:16–17, Matt. 28:19, 2 Cor. 13:14) the Father is of none, neither begotten, not proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; (John 1:14, 18) the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son. (John 15:26, Gal. 4:6). (Westminster Confession of Faith, II.3)
From the Westminster Larger Catechism (1647):
Q. How many persons are there in the Godhead?
A. There be three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one true, eternal God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory; although distinguished by their personal properties. (1 John 5:7, Matt. 3:16–17, Matt. 28:19, 2 Cor. 13:14, John 10:30) (Westminster Larger Catechism, Q&A 9)
As you study these creeds and confessions, you can pick up sound books on the topic too. That night after putting my son to bed, I took Simply Trinity by Matthew Barrett off my bookshelf and dove in. While Simply Trinity is a thick and heavy book, Barrett tackles the topic of the Trinity in a popular-level way. Along with his book, I recommend Michael Horton’s Core Christianity (particularly chapter 2). Both of these books lay out the doctrine of the Trinity in a clear, comprehensive way.
We also need to seek to understand God through all of Scripture, not just through isolated texts.
As with any doctrine, immerse yourself in the whole of Scripture. Don’t just study the “Trinity passages” but seek to understand how God reveals himself through the entire redemptive narrative and the laws he gives. Seek to understand God through all of Scripture, interpreting Scripture against Scripture, not just through isolated texts.
As we better understand the Trinity, our faith will only be enriched—because we are getting to know the true and only God, our perfect and beautiful Father, Savior, and Counselor. In doing so, we will safeguard ourselves against heresy and be ready with an answer to the questions that the world or our loved ones may bring us.
[2] For more on why social trinitarianism is a departure from biblical trinitarianism, please see Craig A. Carter, “Why We Must Reject Social Trinitarianism: It is neither Nicene nor Biblical” (https://credomag.com/2021/07/why-we-must-reject-social-trinitarianism-it-is-neither-nicene-nor-biblical/); Gene Edward Veith, “The ‘Social Trinity’ vs. Nicene Christianity” (https://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2022/01/the-social-trinity-vs-nicene-christianity/); and Matt Slick, “What Is Social Trinitarianism?” (https://ift.tt/7WDRXdT).
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Lara d’Entremont is a wife, mother, biblical counselor-in-training, and Editor at Large for Beautiful Christian Life. You can find more of her writing at laradentremont.com.
Notes:
[1] Matthew Barrett, Simply Trinity: The Unmanipulated Father, Son, and Spirit (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2021), 92–93.
[2] For more on why social trinitarianism is a departure from biblical trinitarianism, please see Craig A. Carter, “Why We Must Reject Social Trinitarianism: It Is Neither Nicene Nor Biblical” (https://ift.tt/B3kmxvf); Gene Edward Veith, “The ‘Social Trinity’ vs. Nicene Christianity” (https://ift.tt/onpNYvH); and Matt Slick, “What Is Social Trinitarianism?” (https://ift.tt/7WDRXdT).
Recommended:
Simply Trinity: The Unmanipulated Father, Son, and Spirit by Matthew Barrett
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