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An archive of Jacob Nannie's Sermons & Teachings
This lecture is on the doctrine of God in the Shawnee Believe core class, but more specifically,
it's focused on the doctrine of the Trinity.
What you'll find in these lectures on theology is that it's not really possible to teach
through the entire doctrine of God in one 30 to 40-minute lesson, so there's a focus
on one aspect of that.
Years ago, I did a systematic theology class.
One was a 10-week course, kind of like what we're doing here, which expanded into a two-year
course.
So instead of having, you know, eight sessions on one on each of the doctrines, we had eight
sessions on each of the doctrines, which is a much more full course.
But that's not what we're doing in this class, and so the focus tends to be on things that
are a little more relevant to the faith and a little more relevant to our daily lives.
So enjoy this lecture.
All right.
I'm going to hate to do it every week, but it must be done.
And time, as my pastor used to say, the time for loving each other is over, and we'll resume
after this lesson.
You guys sound like you have, we're having great fun, good table discussions.
I'm excited for us to do that together at the end.
Well, where do you begin the study of theology?
You begin with God, right?
Some theologies begin with the Bible.
Some theologies begin with the doctrine of the knowledge of God.
That was my first really heavy read of a book, was a book called The Doctrine of the Knowledge
of God.
I got it when I was, I think, 18, read the first page, and I put it away for about three
years because I can't do this.
And we all start with the doctrine of God because God comes first, right?
He's literally the first.
In Genesis 1, 1, in the beginning, God.
In John 1, 1, in the beginning was a word, the word was with God, and the word was God.
So John 1, 1 begins with, in the beginning, God as well.
And we also start with God because that is what our statement of faith does.
And the statement of faith is starting with God because it's tracking the biblical story,
the biblical narrative.
And the biblical narrative starts with God.
Another question I have is how do you teach a lesson on the doctrine of God in less than
35 minutes?
You don't.
Okay?
So you don't.
You don't do it.
It can't be done.
And since this cannot be done, I want to touch on three things that will set us up for success,
I think, for this lesson and really for the course, a lens through which we can learn
theology.
And in this lesson, I want to, in this lesson and all the lessons that we teach, I don't
want to rehash what you read in the book.
My goal is not to take the book and put it into an outline and then just redo what you
read.
That'd be a massive waste of your time and of ours, as much as it is good to get to know
everyone here.
So I want to supplement.
We want to supplement what you read.
Okay?
So we're not going to be going step by step through the book.
I trust you read that.
Tonight we'll discuss what it means that God is Lord of all, that God is Lord of all.
We will see that through his mighty acts, God controls, the Lord controls through his
names and his attributes.
The Lord has authority over all things.
And we'll see that in his triune nature, he is present with all chiefly with himself and
through his love for himself, the Trinity's love for itself, we experience God's presence
as well.
So God is Lord.
When Moses asks God what his name is, God replies.
This is Exodus, right?
Yeah.
13, three, 14 to 15.
God replies to Moses.
I am who I am.
I am who I am.
There's many ways to translate that.
It's kind of the standard way.
And he says to the people of Israel, I am sent, has sent me to you.
God also said to Moses, say to this people of Israel, Yahweh or Lord, the God of your
ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, the Lord Yahweh
has sent you.
This is my eternal name.
My name to remember for all generations.
So when God, when Moses asks God, what is his name?
God says the Lord and the Lord Yahweh, that Hebrew word Yahweh is how I want to be known
throughout all generations.
And God actually performs mighty deeds and wonders and acts to show people that he is
Lord.
Exodus 14, four says, I will harden Pharaoh's heart so that he will pursue them.
Then I will receive glory by means of Pharaoh and all his army and the Egyptians will know
that I am the Lord.
I am Yahweh.
So the Israelites did this.
This name, Lord or Yahweh is the name of God in the Old Testament.
All right, we're probably familiar with that.
In your English Bibles, it's all capitals with the O-R-D is lowercase capitals.
In the New Testament, Yahweh is present as well, but Yahweh is a Hebrew term and it's
translated in the New Testament as kurios or Lord.
And that same Lord is applied to who in the New Testament?
It's applied to Jesus.
And so if Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 5, that famous Shema of Israel, hear Israel, the Lord
our God, the Lord is one, that kind of summarizes the Old Testament teaching.
This is the passage that the Israelites were to keep on their foreheads and on their right
hands.
They have to remember it every day when they walk by the way, teach it to their children
that the Lord God, Yahweh is one.
So that summarizes the Old Testament.
Verses like Romans 10, 9 through 10 summarize the New Testament, which says, if you confess
with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Yahweh, you will be saved.
So the focus of a study on God, in my opinion, should not focus on his, focus on his attributes.
It should not focus on his names or his acts, but it should focus on his Lordship because
this is how God wants to be known.
He wants to be known.
He demands to be known as Lord.
And sure, we will discuss these very important things.
We will discuss his acts, his names, and his attributes.
But this will be done through the lens of Lordship, right?
God is Lord.
So what is it?
What are his attributes?
What does his attributes tell us?
God is Lord.
So what does his names tell us?
God is Lord.
So what do his mighty acts tell us about his Lordship?
And the idea of Lordship is something that many people, right, some modern theologians
as well, they want to kick against.
People are, and rightfully so, a lot of times people are offended or upset by abuses of
words like Lordship or words like masters or rulers or dictators.
These words, even in American history, have very harsh context to them.
And so when we apply these words, these that are true of God to God, some of us might not
like that.
But because our human nature, which we'll learn about in a couple of weeks, has abused
these words, misused positions of authority, just because that has happened, we should
not reject that God is Lord.
Theologies that downplay that God is Lord seek to assert human autonomy, human freedom,
control over God.
We talked last week about how some want to make God wholly transcendent.
They want him to be so far off that he cannot be known.
Or they want to make God wholly imminent, so intertwined with creation that he cannot
be known.
And when people who are non-believing, who are not believing, who are not Christians
do that, what they're trying to do is saying, "Well, I can't really know God and therefore
I have no obligation to him."
But God is transcendent and he is imminent.
He is above us.
He has control and authority over us, but he's also present with us.
So we can know him.
And because he is Lord, we do have an obligation to him.
Whether you're a Christian or not, you have a relationship with God, because God is Lord.
[inaudible]
Yes, theologies that downplay God is Lord seek to assert human autonomy, freedom from
God.
They don't want to have any responsibility to God.
People who claim to know Jesus as Lord don't want to obey Jesus' Lordship.
But God is Lord.
He is Lord.
And this means that he is the covenant head of us and of the universe.
What it means that God is covenant head is revealed really clearly in this really famous
passage known as the Ten Commandments.
Next is 20.
What does God do?
First, God states his name and his wondrous deeds.
Next is 20 verse 2.
He says, "I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the land
of slavery."
So he tells the people of Israel, "I am the Lord, and here is what I've done."
Which means as covenant head, the Lord God has control over his relationship with his
covenant people.
Some theologians say this is very, the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue as it's known
technically, is very similar to an ancient treaty known as a suzerain treaty in that
a king would maybe save a people, help a people, aid a people, and he would say, "I am this
king.
I've done this for you.
So therefore, because I've done this for you, you do these things for me.
And if you do them, here is the benefits you're going to get.
And if you don't do them, here is the curses or non-benefits you're going to get, detriments
you're going to get."
And then there's a fifth stipulation to read that treaty to remind future generations.
And God does this with his people.
He says, "I am the Lord, who did this mighty and wonderful act of saving you from 400 years
of slavery in Egypt.
Part of the Red Seas had all the plagues, showed Pharaoh who was the Lord, was glorified
through Pharaoh's disobedience.
I am the Lord.
I've done this for you."
So he controls that relationship.
So this is not control in the sense of bearing down to be harsh.
It is a control of love, right?
God wants his people to be with him.
He wants to be the Lord of the Israelites in Exodus.
And so not control in the sense of Israel doesn't want to be with God if he's forcing
them to, but because God loves Israel, because God loves his people, he initiates and controls
that relationship with them.
He then gives Israel the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 verses 3 to 17.
And because he's Lord, because he controls these things, he has the authority to command
these commandments.
These commandments are again rooted in love.
They're not harsh to say, "Here's things you can't do because I want to be mean, but here
are things that would lead to less life if you disobey them.
Here are things that would lead to abundant life if you do obey them."
So he has the authority to tell them what to do.
And in other places in Exodus and the rest of the first five books of the Old Testament
known as the Pentateuch, God spells out blessings for those who obey and curses or judgments
for those who don't obey.
And so he's covenant, in those blessings and judgments, he's covenantally present with
his people.
He's there to bless and he's also there to judge.
When you do what is right by God, he is there to reward that righteousness.
And when you disobey God, he is there, he's present with you to punish that unrighteousness.
We see this in Leviticus, this kind of climax of the temple.
They have Levitical law and the people know how to live in the presence of a holy God.
And then fire shoots out of the temple to consume their sacrifice and they all cheer
and they're also all terrified, they fall on their faces, right?
And then the same fire consumes Nadab and Abihu when they do what is not right in the Lord's
sight.
And so he's always, God is there present, covenantally present with his people.
He's not an absent ruler, he's not an absent king.
He saves Israel from Egypt, he dwells with them in a tabernacle, later in a temple, then
ultimately chiefly in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
He's a present Lord, present to bless those who obey, and present to judge those who disobey.
So we see that God, the Covenant Lord, he has control, right?
He has authority over all things and he's present with his creation.
He controls nature, he controls human history, he controls human lives, he has authority
over the universe and everything in it, but he's also present with his people, so much
so that he comes in the form of human flesh to die in our place so that we might be more
present with him.
We might receive more life and abundant life through the sun.
The theologian John Frame, which I'm sure you will see throughout the next couple of
weeks that I'm deeply shaped by, he says that God is Covenant Lord, the one who controls
all things, speaks with supreme authority, and enters into a personal relationship with
his creatures to bless and to judge.
This is a lens through which I want us to study the doctrine of God, that God is Lord,
and we'll see that God's Lordship means that he controls all things, and he controls all
things by acting in history, doing things in history.
We'll see that he has supreme authority over all things, and that's revealed in his names,
his images, and his attributes, and he's fully present with us, and we can get a glimpse
of that in the triune nature of God.
So in the Bible, God acts, and God's actions show us something.
They show us that he's in control of everything and that he controls all things for his sovereign
purposes.
There are four chief categories in which God acts in human history.
First, the Lord, as a Covenant Lord, performs miracles.
Miracles are extraordinary acts of God that reveal his power, and they reveal his purpose.
Miracles serve as a sign that affirm that God has authority over natural law, over human
beings, over all things, but also he's present.
The miracles and mighty works, mighty works as miracles that he performs to get Israel
out of Egypt, they show that he has authority over nature, but they also show that he's
willing to be present with his people.
He doesn't do them just to display his power.
He does them to save for himself a people that are come out of Egypt.
So miracles serve as a sign that affirm the Lord's authority and presence.
He has the power and authority to do extraordinary things, and he often does these things in
a way that leads to his covenant presence.
Remember how the Ten Commandments open, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out
of the land of Egypt."
Second, the Lord displays his control over all things in his providence, in his providence.
His providence is this ongoing governance of the universe.
In his providence, what God does is he preserves his creation and he purposefully directs events
towards his ultimate goals, which are redemption, which is redemption.
Think about life, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
If not for God's providence, there would need to be millions, if not billions, of coincidences
for Jesus to come at the time he did, in the circumstances that he did, and to die when
he did the death that he did.
God controls these things.
They're not just haphazard coincidences.
Third, God demonstrates that his control over all, he demonstrates his control over all
things in the act of creation, where he created the universe out of nothing, which is a direct
display of his sheer authority and his sheer power.
We can't really even fathom how he would do that.
He did it through his word out of nothing.
And finally, we see his control in his decrees.
Now decrees are a bit different than providence.
They're different from providence, but they are similar in some ways as well.
Decrees are God's eternal plans that govern all events in history, while the providence
is his active governing and control of these events.
So God decrees to save a people for himself from all eternity.
It's not something he decided to do after a couple hundred years of human existence.
He decreed that way in eternity past and through his providence, he accomplishes his decrees.
So if the Lord's control is his might, then his authority is his right.
We have control, authority and presence.
So control is his power, his might to do these things, authority is his right to do them.
In the names and images and attributes of the Lord, his authority is revealed to us.
These descriptions of God are a way in which he reveals his attributes and character as well.
So for example, the names of God reveal his authoritative control of all things.
When Moses asked God his name, he says that he is the Lord, he's Yahweh, and that he has
authority to reveal who he is.
I am who I am, tell the people of Egypt that I am the Lord.
And his names also reveal our revelatory of his presence.
I don't think I included this in the slides, but John Frame again says that there is a
similar identity between God's name and God himself.
God's name is a form of his presence.
So to praise his name is to praise God.
To despise his name is to despise God.
The name has all of God's attributes and performs all of his acts.
It is his presence in the world.
So name is not just some abstract thing.
When we call upon the name of the Lord, we're calling upon the name of a real person who
is present in our lives whether we recognize that or not.
So a couple examples of names are our first, Yahweh, and I'm sorry I forgot to put these
on the slides as well.
Yahweh, Yahweh is a name, Yahweh names God as holy and personal.
Yahweh is a name of the Lord and that makes him the head of the covenant with Israel,
with the nations and with whole creation.
Yahweh is the Lord, who God wants to be known as.
Second is, I never took Hebrew in seminary so bear with me on these names, Adon, which
means Lord or Master, and this word, these are just three examples, this word stresses
God's ownership over all creation, right, so his name is revealing something about him.
God is Lord or Master, God owns all creation.
And third is El Shaddai, which is God Almighty, which connotes his power, right.
So these are three examples, Yahweh, Adon, and El Shaddai, three examples of how God's
names reveal characters and attributes of God.
But God also communicates himself to us through the use of images, not idols, not carbon images,
but imagery, imagery language, and he does this to show us his authoritative presence.
Again, God's not physical, he's not a person, he's not material, I'm sorry God is a person,
he's not a physical person, he doesn't exist as a material person, yet he speaks of himself
through anthropomorphisms, right, which is a fancy word for concrete descriptions that
help us see and relate to him.
When I preached in the Advent Series on Isaiah 41, the shepherd king, that's concrete imagery
that really helps us understand the tenderness that God has, the power that God has, and
the willingness that God has to be with his people.
Or you guys saw my, some of you saw my background last week of David killing a lion and little
lambs trying to help, right.
And so David tells Saul what he does.
He tends to his father's sheep, and if a lion or bear snatches them away, I go and kill
them, right, and that's a real story, but that's imagery also of Jesus.
The shepherd king, right, shepherd king to images that we can have of God, and because
of that real life story of David, and shepherd and king applied to Jesus, that passage is
so impactful for me because God does that for me when I'm snatched away or I wander
off.
He comes to kill all that would threaten me and to keep me tenderly in his arms.
So these images show us that he is authoritatively present.
They're descriptions to help us see, quote unquote see, and relate to him.
The images of God, the imagery of God uses human language to communicate divine truths
about God.
God is a shepherd that communicates to us, especially in contexts where shepherds are
prominent.
God is a king that communicates something to us.
And finally, God's attributes reveal to us his covenant authority, right.
His attributes are his essence and his nature.
His attributes are those qualities that make God, God.
This is where we could spend hours and hours on these things, but I'm kind of speeding
through the first two things to get to the Trinity because I think it's really important.
But God's attributes are his essence and nature.
Without these things, he would not be God.
And it gets complicated.
There's actually some fair amount of debate around this amongst bio-believing, Jesus-loving
Christians and theologians, but he's not made up of parts.
So love, for example, is not X percent of God's being.
God is love.
God's wrath is not just a portion of his being.
God is, in a sense, a wrath, right?
His attributes don't kind of combine like Legos to make up a God.
God is without parts.
He's a person, not a conglomeration of parts.
And some of the attributes of God, like his love, righteousness, and holiness, so there's
some of his attributes, and these are things, attributes of God that might be communicable
to us, right?
So there's attributes you might have heard that are communicable, right, that we might
also have.
So God is love, and I can be loving.
That's communicable.
God's also omnipresent, but I cannot be omnipresent as much as I try.
So that's incommunicable.
Or another way to think of it, we're using the same language as last week.
There are transcendent attributes of God and eminent attributes of God.
God transcends us.
We cannot be omnipresent and omni-powerful like he can, but he's also eminent with us.
We can love in similar ways as God does.
And so theologians, a lot of times they will explain God's attributes in these two ways,
what we can relate to and what we cannot relate to.
But I think another way to think about it that's more helpful is categories, because
in some sense all the attributes are relatable, in some sense they're all not.
And so one category, and I really messed up with the slides today guys, I'm sorry, but
one category of God's attributes is his goodness, okay?
So God is a good God.
God's goodness includes, I'm going to list some attributes for you here, again, sorry
they're not on the slide, but God's goodness includes his love, it includes his grace,
it includes his mercy, it includes his patience, his compassion, his justice, and his righteousness,
and we'll stop there if we can keep on going for quite a long time.
Those are attributes of God's goodness, love, grace, mercy, patience, compassion, justice,
righteousness.
God is a good God who doesn't just do these things, he is these things, right?
Another category or bucket, right, of God's attributes is his knowledge, right?
Knowledge includes God's attributes of speech, he speaks and when he speaks, he speaks authoritatively
because he knows all things, it's part of his attributes of knowledge.
His truth, God is truth, his wisdom, his mind, his knowability, and here's a big word, his
incomprehensibility, right, we can't fully comprehend God, we can't fully wrap our arms
around who he is in a way to understand him without any deficiencies, but his incomprehensibility
does not mean that he's inapprehensible, it doesn't mean that we can't get to know God.
So while we'll never fully under, I don't want to say never, but in this life we'll
never fully understand God, we can start to get to know him.
Okay, and then the third category, last category, is a category of his power.
God's attributes of power are attributes of his eternity, his will, his existence, and
his aseity, a-s-e-i-t-y, aseity means that he exists in and of himself, there's nothing
outside of him that he needs to exist.
So in some of that, God's attributes are God's essence in nature, they are what makes God
God, but he's without parts, so we don't assemble these attributes to make him into one whole
being of God, God is these things, and these are scriptures of God, his names, images,
and attributes they reveal to us that the Lord has authority over all things, he sets
the standards, he sets the rules, he sets the norms, and he has a right to do so, but
finally God is covenantally present with his creation, and here we come to the triunity
or the triune Lord, God is triune, in the Trinity we see God's presence, he's eternally
present with himself, I used to ask my mom growing up, "Why did God create us?" and she'd
always say, she gave the worst theological answer, she'd always say, "Well because he
was lonely."
That's not true, right?
God was fully sufficient within his triunity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit loved each other
and they needed nothing else, right?
But it's out of their love for one another, out of the outflow of that love that we are
created, it is not much different than a marriage creating children, out of the intensity of
the love in a marriage, children can and will be created, and so his eternal presence, the
trinity of God is his eternal presence with himself, and out of an overflow of that his
presence is extended to us as well, and the reason why we'll never fully understand, maybe
ever, the triunity of God, or God as three in one, is because we're not in that relationship.
You all probably will never understand the relationship I have with my wife, because
thanks be to God you are not in it, right?
But you can get some good, you know, knowledge of that relationship through being present
with Christina and I, in the same way God is present with us and we can get a glimpse
into his triune nature.
So the trinity is a complex topic, we're not going to solve it tonight, and maybe ever,
but here's one sentence that I want you to take away, I want you to memorize, I want
you to walk away with this, know this by heart, this is for you Dylan, this is why I asked
Dylan, I said explain the trinity to me, and I said no, not good enough, you've got to
come to the belief class, and he did, he's here, in the one being of God, the one being
of God, there exist three co-eternal and co-equal persons, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
So in the one being of God there exist three persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
So we're not saying in the one being of God there exist three beings, we're not saying
in the one person of God there exist three persons, but in the one being of God there
exist three persons.
Know that sentence, this is a complex sentence, doesn't make a ton of sense, right, we know
it through the Bible story, we know it through what we've been taught growing up if we grew
up in a Christian home, but if we were to go like really explain the philosophy and
exact science of the sentence it's hard to understand, how can one be three?
But we do know that God is one, first we must hold that God is one, God alone is the one
with this being and this nature, right, so no other God is like God, is like the Lord.
For example, there are, I heard some of you talking about this image and also what I'm
about to say, sorry Karen, there are many gods in the Old Testament, many gods in the
Old Testament, Elohim is a name for God and it happens all over the place, it's applied
to humans as well sometimes, but there's only one Yahweh, there's only one Lord, God is
one, he's one in unity, he's also alone in that there is no other being like him.
So we must hold to, we must know that God is one.
We should not think of these other gods in the Old Testament as mere fiction, right,
they really did exist, they really do exist, but they're not like Yahweh, there's only
one God and that is the Lord.
And the Lord alone has complete control of the universe, he has supreme authority over
all things and he is covenantly present with his people.
This is not simply a math problem of well how many gods are there, it's a problem of
being, right, it's not how many gods are there, there is no other god besides the Lord,
God alone is Lord.
But within that one being of God, the one being of God, there exists three persons,
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and these persons are distinct from one another.
So the Father, this is the diagram, right?
The Father is not the Holy Spirit, he's not the Son.
The Son is not the Holy Spirit, not the Father.
The Holy Spirit is not the Father, not the Son.
But all three are God, right?
This is as far as I want to go with the diagram and analogy, because those things break down
if we push them too hard and it's incredibly important that we know this, that there are
three distinct persons, they're not the same, but they are all God.
In fact any time we see, actually let me ask this question first before I go there.
This I think was in your questions in the workbook.
What are some of the analogies that you've heard throughout your life on the Trinity?
Let's hear some of them.
Clover.
Clover.
Explain the clover analogy.
There's just one clover, but there's three parts.
Three parts to the clover.
And what's wrong with the clover analogy?
Because God is not one-third the Father, one-third the Son, and one-third the Spirit.
That's right, yeah.
What are some other analogies that you've heard?
Water.
Water?
Explain that one to us.
The three states, the solid, liquid, and gas.
And what's wrong with that analogy?
It can't be all three at once.
That's right.
It's the same, it's called modalism, right?
It's the same thing existing in three different forms.
That's not God.
A good example of modalism, you'll say, "In the Old Testament it was the Father, in the
New Testament it was Jesus, and now it's the Holy Spirit."
They're the same person, but in three different manifestations, right?
That's not true.
They're three distinct persons.
Any other analogies that you've heard you want to add to?
An egg.
An egg?
I don't know if I've heard this one.
Yoke, white, Michelle.
Okay, now, what's the problem with that one?
I don't like eggs.
You don't like eggs.
They're very specific.
I mean, they're three distinct and they can be broken apart.
That's right.
Yeah.
What else?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Any other analogies?
Let's do one more.
There's a famous one I used to use that I no longer use.
I want to see if it's named here.
Up here, the Father, Son, and Child.
That's it.
That's it.
You're one person and you relate to different people.
Yeah.
So, what's wrong with using that analogy for the Trinity?
That's only one person.
It requires other people.
Yeah.
It requires other people, right?
It's only one person expressing him or herself in three different ways.
But the persons in the Trinity are three distinct persons.
The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, so on and so forth.
This wall is going to fall down one day.
Okay, so that is the Trinity.
What we need to know, and the problem is that when we end up, if we push these analogies,
and what ends up happening if we push them is that in some way or fashion, the deity
of one or all the persons is denied, or sometimes people will end up saying that, "Well, the
Father was first and he created the Son and the Spirit."
And so, analogies really aren't that helpful because the Trinity is also a mystery, right?
There are things that we won't understand about God, that's okay.
And so, analogies kind of break down and they end up leading to, if they're pushed and held
on to real strictly, end up leading to really heretical beliefs about God.
The Mormons, for example, they believe that Jesus is a person, that the Father is a person
and that the Spirit is a person, but that the Father created Jesus and created Jesus'
brother Satan and created the Holy Spirit.
But the Bible teaches that the three persons are not created, they're co-eternal and they're
co-equal.
There's also no division in the importance or godness of each one.
So the Son is not less God than the Father and the Spirit is not less God than the Father
and the Son.
They're all equally God.
So with our discussion on the Trinity, I want us to know that in the one being of God, there
exists three co-eternal, co-equal persons, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And I always love this portion of teaching the Trinity.
This is a video that I just love so dearly.
I hope you laugh at it, because if you don't, it's going to be awkward.
Okay Patrick, tell us a bit more about this Trinity thing.
Yeah Patrick, tell us.
But remember that we're simple people without your fancy education and books and learning,
and we're hearing about all of this for the first time.
So try to keep it simple.
Okay Patrick?
Yeah, real simple, Patrick.
Sure.
There are three persons of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, yet
there is only one God.
Don't get what you're saying here, Patrick.
Not picking up what you're laying down here, Patrick.
Could you use an analogy, Patrick?
Sure.
The Trinity is like water and how you can find water in three different forms, liquid
and ice and vapor.
That's mortalism, Patrick.
What?
Mortalism, an ancient heresy confessed by teachers such as Noatus and Sibelius, which
espouses that God is not three distinct persons, but that he merely reveals himself in three
different forms.
This heresy was clearly condemned in Canon 1 at the First Council of Constantinople in
381 AD, and those who confess it cannot rightly be considered a part of the Church Catholic.
Come on, Patrick.
Yeah, get it together, Patrick.
Okay, then the Trinity is like the sun in the sky, where you have the star and the light
and the heat.
Oh, Patrick.
Come on, Patrick.
That's Arianism, Patrick.
Arianism?
Yes, Arianism, Patrick, a theology which states that Christ and the Holy Spirit are creations
of the Father and not one in nature with him, exactly like how heat and light are not the
star itself, but are merely creations of the star.
That's a bad analogy, Patrick.
You're the worst, Patrick.
All right, sorry, the Trinity is like, uh, this three-leaf clover here.
I'm gonna stop you right there, Patrick.
Yeah, hold your horses, Patrick.
You're about to confess partialism.
Partialism?
Yes, partialism, a heresy which asserts that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not distinct
persons of the Godhead, but are different parts of God, each composing one-third of
the divine.
Then who confesses the heresy of partialism?
The first season of the cartoon program Voltron, where five robot lion cars merge together
to form one giant robot samurai, obviously.
I've never heard of Voltron.
Of course you haven't.
It's not gonna exist for another 1,500 years now, Patrick.
Yeah, get with the program, Patrick.
I mean, really, Patrick.
I'm gonna stab you in the face, Patrick.
Okay, that was probably a bit much.
All right, I'll try again.
The Trinity is like how the same man can be a husband and a father and an employer.
Mortalism again.
All right, then it's like the three layers of an apple.
Partialism revisited.
Fine.
The Trinity is a mystery which cannot be comprehended by human reason, but is understood only through
faith and is best confessed in the words of the Athanasian Creed, which states that we
worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing
the substance, that we are compelled by the Christian truth to confess that each distinct
person is God and Lord, and that the deity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
is one, equal in glory, co-equal in majesty.
Well, why didn't you just say that, Patrick?
Yeah, quit beating around the bush, Patrick.
Now let's all put on some giant green foam hats, get riotously drunk, and vomit in the
Chicago River to celebrate our conversion.
Love that video.
And I've printed the Athanasian Creed for us on the table.
And I thought we'd end tonight by, it's quite long.
This is actually not the whole thing, but I'd like to end by reading it together.
And I can read it for us because it might be a little much to break apart and have each
person read.
This is a really important creed and confession and it really, yeah, it's really important.
So let me read it for us and then we'll pray and then we'll go into our case study.
Now this is a Catholic faith that we worship one God in Trinity and the Trinity in unity,
neither blending the persons nor dividing their essence, for the person of the Father
is a distinct person.
The person of the Son is another, and that of the Holy Spirit still another.
But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal in their
majesty co-eternal.
What quality the Father has, the Son has, and the Holy Spirit has.
The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, the Holy Spirit is uncreated.
The Father is immeasurable, the Son is immeasurable, the Holy Spirit is immeasurable.
The Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, and the Holy Spirit is eternal.
And yet there are not three eternal beings.
There is but one eternal being.
So too, there are not three uncreated or immeasurable beings, but there is one uncreated and immeasurable
being.
Similarly, the Father is almighty, the Son is almighty, and the Spirit is almighty, yet
there are not three almighty beings, there is, excuse me, but one almighty being.
Thus the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God, yet there are not three
gods, but there is but one God.
Thus the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, and the Holy Spirit is Lord, yet there are
not three lords, there is but one Lord.
And just as Christian truth compels us to confess each person individually as both God
and Lord, so Catholic religion, the universal faith, forbids us to say that there are three
gods or lords.
The Father was neither made nor created nor begotten from anyone.
The Son was neither made nor created.
He was begotten from the Father alone.
The Holy Spirit was neither made nor created nor begotten, but He proceeds from the Father
and the Son.
Accordingly, there is one Father, not three fathers.
There is one Son, not three sons.
There is one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.
Nothing in this Trinity is before or after.
Nothing is greater or smaller.
In their entirety, the three persons are co-eternal and co-equal with each other.
So in everything, as we said earlier, we must worship their Trinity in their unity and their
unity in their Trinity.
Anyone then who desires to be saved should think thus about the Trinity.
But it is necessary for eternal salvation that one also believes in the incarnation
of our Lord Jesus Christ faithfully.
And it goes on for like two more pages.
Awesome description though of one being and three persons.
So let's pray and then we will get to our case study.
God, we thank you that you have revealed, you have chosen to reveal yourself to us.
That we know, we can know you.
We can experience your presence.
We thank you that you control all things because we cannot, God.
We thank you that you have authority to set the standards, to set the rules and the norms
because we cannot do that.
And we by ourselves don't know the way to abundant life.
But you do, the Lord of all creation, and you have shown yourself to us chiefly through
your Son.
And I pray that you help us as we have conversations with other believers and unbelievers about
the tri-unity of God, about his attributes and his Lordship.
Pray that you bless us in the rest of our discussion tonight and the rest of our week.
In Jesus' name, Amen.