THE CHRISTIAN HANDBOOK

The Divine Attributes Of God: Trinity

(Excerpts from an unpublished book)

Visual illustration of what the Trinity is like.

The topic of The Trinity is so essential and peculiar that it deserves a chapter of its own. This is a very controversial topic to many people. Many unbelievers accuse Christians of subtle polytheism. From the muslim point of view, they claim that Jesus Christ never called himself God and that his followers deified him after his death. They believe Jesus Christ to be a great prophet, who on the judgment day, will testify that he never equated himself to God and consequently, everyone who worships him is condemned to hell because they proclaim man as God. This topic on trinity is one of the major things that islam has against Christianity. It becomes even more ridiculous when we as Christians cannot even properly defend what is supposed to be a core doctrine.

Why is it a Core Doctrine?

What biblical proof is there supporting the idea of trinity? After all, the word trinity was never directly mentioned in the bible. And even the Lord Jesus Himself said that He only does what He sees The Father do and does nothing of His own will (John 5:19, Matt 26:29). Some questions pop-up:

1. Doesn’t this establish some sort of hierarchy in the Godhead with God The Father as the chief?
2. Doesn’t this either mean that there are three Gods because there are three complete but different persons that make up the Godhead? Or is it one person expressing Himself in three different ways, like solid, liquid and gas?? (This is known as modality by the way).
3. Is it okay to worship the son and not the Father? Isn’t that disrespectful?What if one of the persons gets jealous because he’s not getting attention that the others are getting?

These are some of the questions we will be looking into while taking hints from the bible to draw a definite Conclusion.

We will be looking into Four major subheadings which takes us right from the foundation and then finally into full understanding of the Trinity:

1. A Being and a Person are not quite the same thing.
2. The concept of Super beings and Super persons.
3. The Elohim.
4. The Three Personal God.

Stay with us as we walk through these subheadings together!