Notes on the Trinity

(Originally written February 13, 2006 in book 23)

1) "The son has a beginning but, but God has no beginning" Who said this?
-Arius

2) The Hebrew name of God (YHWH) is a form of what verb?
-To be

3) Which of the following is a communicable attribute of God?
-Justice

God is an infinite, personal God

That which is infinite is incommunicable
That which is person is communicable

There is a religious/philosophical tendency to base system on one of these traits. Christianity, Judaism and Islam fit a personal-infinite god.

Eastern traditions tend to stress the infiniteness of god, but not the personableness of god. i.e. Buddhism, Hinduism

Western Traditions tend to stress the personality of god, not the personality. i.e. North American and South American Indian religions

Hebrew word Abba is a diminutive word "Ab" Father Ba

God chose to condescend to become our father

Why God must be a Trinity

In order for God to be the God of the New Testament he must be perfect he must be love, he must be merciful.

God must be Triune to be perfect

- Perfect delight in himself
- Exact image in view for God to be able see himself as perfectly there must be at least two person in God
- This image is the Son (Hebrews 1:3)
- Less than perfect self delight is an unrighteous God

To be love:
-Love relationship requires persons
- From the Father and the Son proceeds the Holy Spirit of love
- God is love, love is not God
- God: Diversity within unity
(Lewis' view)

To be merciful:
- Perfect self-delight means there are no need of other things which means:
- God does not need us
- Therefore God is free to love us unconditionally

A Faith for all Season, Chapter 3 continued

The council of Constantinople of 381 declared Jesus as "begotten, not made; being of one substance with the Father" (Dorman, 55).

Prior to the incarnation of Jesus God the son was coequal and coeternal with God the Father (Orthodoxy and Athanasius' view)

Arius taught that the son was the first and most glorious thing that God the Father created. Son was created by Father and not the same substance.

Augustine's On the Trinity is the framework for Western theology on the Trinity. In it he stressed both the diversity and the unity of the trinity.

Western Christianity used Augustine's stress on the unity of the Godhead whereas the Eastern tradition followed Origen's emphasis on diversity.

The most significant part of Augustine's work on the Trinity is that it emphasizes the relationship between God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit to each other as coequals.