The Doctrine of the Trinity - Research Paper Example

The Doctrine of the Trinity The doctrine of the Trinity can be defined as the introduction to the Christian faith. For a number of years, special attention to the doctrine of the Trinity has been given by the educational theologians. The theologians have done lengthy writing on the history of the doctrine development, the relevance of the doctrine in the life of the world and the church. This doctrine was first formally and thoroughly expressed in the fourth century in reaction to alleged alterations of the Bible teachings on the issue, but the major beliefs of the doctrine might be observed since the first century. Theological opinions on the foundation of the doctrine of the Trinity vary amongst two extremes. Trinity has no basis in the Bible, in contrast, it states that Trinity is clear in the New Testament. A summary of the tertiary writings validates the latter position, and yet still represented by conventional theologians, is largely submitted from the central point that the doctrine of the Trinity was understood in the scriptures and was made clear by the advances of the church fathers (Humphreys, 20) The conclusion of the historians is that the doctrine was not original. The interconnections between history and theology are of specific importance in view of the doctrine development, but conventionally there has been comparatively little exchange of ideas between the two principles. The second fact considered by the education theologians is that no organized expositions of the doctrine might be observed in the New Testament, Roman Catholic shares this opinion, Protestant, eastern orthodox theologians, and by liberal, moderate and conservative theologians. By saying this, they imply that the new testament does not have formal and official statements of Trinity, does not have passages where the subject of debate is Trinity, does not have refutations of subordination, and tritheism and modalism as Trinitarian errors. Lastly, words such as one, the Trinity or God used as one-and-the-same being collectively did not exist in the New Testament. Christians do claim that it might be presented in the bible educates that the God is the father, the son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, implying that God is one (PARSENIOS, 400) In explaining their claims, the opposers and proponents of the Trinity that is not present in the New Testament have formed two strategies to support their allegations. The first plan was to conduct an exegesis of particular passages in the New Testament. A good example was seen in the essay by Warfield, he validated that despite the fact that the doctrine is not indicated in the passage, the words of Jesus, as chronicled by Matthew, put forward the biblical doctrine of Trinity. The second plan exploits the point that the doctrine of the Trinity is a multiple trinities consisting of numerous simpler themes, for instance, the father, the son, and the spirit is divine, the father is not the son neither is he the spirit, the son is not the spirit, and there is only one God. According to my understanding, it is possible to note passages in the New Testament where individually the seven themes are deliberately confirmed, and it is possible that complying with those models does not rationally require the acceptance of the doctrine of Trinity. It is difficult to understand how one who acknowledged the doctrine can reject it. All the same, it is not the case that passages collectively or singly set up a doctrine of the Trinity. Every single theme was deliberately educated by the scriptural writers, but the collection of the pattern and the refrains into which they have been cited were not deliberately educated by scriptural writers. The encounters with the person of Christ led to the development of the Nicene Creed. This Heretical Doctrine was started by Arius at the start of the fourth century. He was an esteemed and prominent presbyter in the Alexandria church and started an argument with his bishop in 318 AD. This argument leads to the Arian heretical doctrine. Arius claimed that there was a period when God was not the Father and, as a result, the Logos or the Word as signified by the imprisonment of the Son was not coeternal with God. This implied that the Son did not exist before the Father. Further, Arius claimed that the Son was begotten by God or from nothing, and so he supposed that the Son was a being. The Son is thus not created, but is made by the Father because the Son is not the same substance or essence of the Father, rather like any being’s he is made from nothing. He also thought that God formed the Word or Logos before the creation of any beings, so the word was present before incarnation (PATTERSON, 17) Arius also alleged that it was an abuse of terms to refer to the Son as Word or Logos, as God was the only one who was the True Logos or Word, including the Son, is created by God. By being created by God, the Son cannot be referred as God, since he is a being, and he cannot recognize the Father without a glitch. Therefore, God is totally inaccessible and transcendent to the living being. Additionally, he believed that the Son was in a way unique from other beings, and he lies between the creatures and God. In short the Son was made for us. Therefore the Holy Spirit, the Son and the Trinity did not share the spirit of the Godhead and were not wholly divine. In point of fact, the Nicene Creed is an apparent place to look for a foundation of Christian unity and certainly the way that is obvious to anybody surveying the definitive makings of Christian faith from a wholly ecumenical viewpoint. The link between the creed and the Bible has one additional constituent. The creed is said to rely on the scriptural linguistic and has a noticeable scriptural texture and scriptural imagery as it draws the picture of God that it is comprised of. For instance, in the last book of the bible, the bible tells about the narrative that begins at creation in the book of Genesis and finishes with the expectation of a new creation in the book of Revelation. Every book in between the two books sensationalizes some lesser incidents within this splendid story of God’s work from creation to re-creation. The creed also does a similar thing. The Bible asserts that at the start, God formed both the heaven and earth, while the creed starts by referring to God as the maker of the heavens and earths. Additionally, the Bible concludes by a saying “come, Lord Jesus, come”. The creed finishes by confirming that it envisions at the revival of the death and the lifetime of the era to come (Horrell, 370). Thus, the creed is a true representation of the Bible. It demonstrates legitimate and true faith and aids Christians to identify this devotion to one another. Whenever, Christians narrate the creed, they proclaim that they follow God and no other. The creed acts a sign of their personality and a measure of true faith. That is why it is always narrated when something is getting baptized as a way of signifying that the individual is being baptized in the name of God. Also, on Sunday Christians narrate it so as to affirm they have come together to worship this God and no other. Despite, the extensive acceptance among the Christians, the doctrine of the Trinity has been a tripping block to the Non-Christian community all through the history. Those who rejected the notion of the trinity ever since it first emerged were the Jews, Muslim and many other women and men who have found the idea hard to accept and understand (Johnson, 170). To conclude, in recent times, the Trinity has become a well-known subject for assumption and its applied relevance for politics, marriages, religious experiences, gender relations, and worship has been frequently asserted. It has laid upon the theologians that were philosophically aware, and the Christian philosophers to figure out what precisely the Trinity amounts to, and to defend it against charges of unintelligibility and inconsistency. The lack of the doctrine in the New Testament is not a popular topic currently, since some theologians embrace the effort to descend the doctrine from within the Bible to be desperately naïve, though other theologians, numerous Christian apologists, and philosophers accept the joint arguments as decisive. The ancient development of the Nicene Creed replicates how the church came to an agreement with the captivating argument that was initiated by Arius that was based on the person of Jesus Christ. From that time, the Nicene creeds have functioned as an overview of the Christian faith that reflected in the growth of the doctrine over the last 2000 years. This creed was essential in order to address the various heretical doctrines and challenges that have faced the church throughout the history. In addition, the creeds also serve us till date and are an excellent reference to what Christians believe and reflects on their faith. Work cited Horrell, J Scott. “The Trinity Guide to the Trinity.” Bibliotheca sacra 162 (2005): 369–370. Web. Humphreys, Fisher. The Revelation of the Trinity (2003): 20. Johnson, Thomas K. “The Trinity in the Bible and Selected Creeds of the Church.” Evangelical Review of Theology. (2014): 38(2): 169–185. Print. Johnson, Thomas K. “The Trinity in the Bible and Selected Creeds of the Church.” Evangelical Review of Theology. (2014): 38(2): 169–185. Print PARSENIOS, GEORGE L. "Theology Today." The Creed (2010): 391-404. PATTERSON, LLOYD G. "GREEK ORTHODOX THEOLOGICAL REVIEW." The Spirit, The Greed, and Christian Unity 31 (1986): 1-21. Read More