Credo Paper 1 - The Trinity
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France Antezana
Theology of Christian Life
Professor Ken Gilmore
9/27/2023
Credo Paper 1 - The Trinity by France Antezana
When a Church states that they believe God is Triune, it's because we can see it in the
Bible several times. Understanding how God is Triune can be challenging not only for non-
Christians but Christians as well. For the Christian doctrine, God exists as three divine persons:
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I think this dogma is the foundation of all Christian
beliefs because growing up in the Church, God being Triune was something they taught me from
a young age. However, I didn't fully understand it until I read a passage from Scripture in
Matthew 28:19, which says, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
the of the Father, and of the Son and the of the Holy Spirit." For me, even this passage shows
how the three members of the Trinity are nonetheless one God, it also leads us to worship one
God and not three, and we see proof of this in Deuteronomy 6:4 when it says, "Hear, O Israel:
The Lord our God, the Lord is one."
Some people believe in these Trinitarian heresies. The two I heard the most are Tritheism,
which confesses that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three separate Gods who share the same
substance, and Adoptionism, which believes that Jesus was born as a non-divine man and that he
was adopted later as "Son of God" by the descent of the Spirit in him. However, Michael F. Bird,
in his book
What Christians Ought to Believe
, states, "The gospel points to a God who exists as
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The salvation of the gospel portrays the Father as choosing
Christ as redeeming, and the Spirit as renewing – all in a unified work by distinct persons in a
single godhead"
1
. I believe Bird's interpretation gives an excellent description of who He is, and
it can help any reader understand and have a better perspective of how He is the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit in just one.
Another quote from Bird that I believe represents God as being Triune very well is in a
passage from Hippolytus in
What Christians Ought to Believe.
In this passage, Hippolytus states,
"It is the Father who commands, the Son who obeys, and the Holy Spirit who gives
understanding. The Father is above all, the Son is through all, and the Holy Spirit is in all"
2
.
Those few sentences are crucial to understanding and growing our belief and knowing who the
Lord is and what He wants us to believe as Christ's followers. I think understanding the Trinity is
all about understanding the relationship between its members. The gospel involves all three
persons – the Father, whose kingdom it is the Son, who was to die on the cross; and the Holy
Spirit, who brings us to new birth. To understand the Trinity, we must read into Scripture and
ourselves. Just think about how we have our brain, the Originator, part of the body but a different
substance than the rest. Our physical body is subordinate to the mind but is tasked with
expressing all the mind's desires. Then, we have the energy that flows through our body and
allows us to manifest the expressions to the outside world. All three parts have independent roles,
yet the functionality is interwoven to the point where one cannot work without the others. Yet
when they are working together, we see them as one. We don't see the three separate parts.
I believe that knowing and understanding the doctrine of the Trinity is something we, as
Christians, should seek to do. We must realize that God oversees all things on earth and that He
is our creator and has an everlasting love for us. Even though we're imperfect, God created us in
his image and wants us to share in the love the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit shared. A Scripture
1
Michael F. Bird,
What Christians Ought to Believe,
(Zondervan Academic: Grand Rapids, MI, 2016) 58.
2
Michael F. Bird,
What Christians Ought to Believe,
(Zondervan Academic: Grand Rapids, MI, 2016) 59-60.
verse that depicts God's true power is Nehemiah 9:6, which says, "You alone are the LORD. You
made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on
it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven
worship you". This verse is a great message and reminder God is the source of everything in our
lives, and He is our creator and ruler of the world. He gave us freedom by sending his Son to die
for our sins and still loved us. Therefore, the bare minimum we could do is to devote our lives to
God and know He is our provider. God will always be there to guide, encourage, and endlessly
love us. In the doctrine of the Trinity, God has shown himself to be the God who loves the world
and beckons every person to come to Christ and take part in the joy of life in the household of
God.
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