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The Divine Trinity

Benjamin Glenn

Theology 601

Systematic Theology

September 24, 2018

What is the Trinity?

"Trinity, in Christian doctrine: the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead."

-Encyclopedia Britannica

Origin of the Trinity

"These three are one substance, not one person; and it is said, 'I and my Father are one' in respect not of the singularity of number but the unity of the substance." -Tertullian

Tertullian (155-240 AD)

Athanasian Creed

Modern Christianity

Can this be logically true?

"...left to itself reason is utterly unable to see this Trinity. How are we to understand its three parts? Are they three gods who are one God in essence and name? Are they three distinct qualities of one underlying material, meaning that they are just qualities or attributes of a single God that have names? Or is there some other alternative?" (TCR 165)

The New Church

"Everyone acknowledges that those three essentials, namely, soul, body and activity, were and are in the Lord God the Saviour. No one... can deny that His soul was from Jehovah His Father; for in the Word, in both testaments, He is called the Son of Jehovah, the Son of the Most High God, the Only-begotten. So the Father's Divine is His first essential, as the soul is in man. It follows from this that the Son born to Mary is the body of that Divine soul, for what grows in the mother's womb is simply the body conceived and derived from the soul. So this is the second essential. Activities make up the third essential, since they are produced by the soul and the body working together; and anything so produced is of the same essence as the productive agents. The three essentials, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, make one in the Lord, as the soul, body and activity do in man. This is plainly demonstrated by the Lord's saying that the Father and He are one, and that the Father is in Him and He is in the Father; likewise that He and the Holy Spirit are one, since the Holy Spirit is the Divine which proceeds out of the Lord from the Father." (TCR 167)

How is the New Church different?

"There are three infinite and uncreated degrees of height in the Lord, and three finite and created degrees in people. There are in the Lord three infinite and uncreated degrees of height for the reason that the Lord is love itself and wisdom itself... and because the Lord is love itself and wisdom itself, therefore He is also useful endeavor itself. For love has as its end a useful result, which it produces through wisdom. Indeed, love and wisdom without a useful result have no terminus or end point, or no resting place in which to make their abode. Consequently they cannot be said to have being or expression without having a useful result in which to be and express themselves." (DLW 230)

"Upon entering the spiritual world... all ordained priests who have developed a just idea of the Lord our Savior are first taught about the divine Trinity. They are specifically taught that the Holy Spirit is not a separate God; the Word uses the phrase to mean the divine action that radiates from the one omnipresent God... After all are taught, any who abandon their belief that the Holy Spirit is a separate God are later informed about the unity of God. They are told that that unity has not been partitioned into three Persons, each of whom is God and Lord (as the Athanasian Creed would have it). Instead the divine Trinity exists within the Lord the Savior like the soul, the body, and the radiating effect of any human being." (TCR 138)

"These three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, are three essential components of one God. They are one the way our soul, our body, and the things we do are one." (TCR 166)

Three Degrees

The Trinity

"These three elements constitute the three degrees of height in living entities. The three are analogous to the first end, the intermediate end, which we call the cause, and the last end, which we call the effect." (DLW 230)

Father = Soul = Love = End

Son = Body = Wisdom = Cause

Holy Spirit = Action = Use = Effect

In Scripture

The Father and Son in Scripture:

Jehovah

Jesus

  • "For I am the Lord your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior" (Isaiah 43:3)
  • "For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:11)

"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.'

Philip said to Him, 'Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.'

Jesus said to him, 'Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father.'" (John 14:6-9)

  • "As for our Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts is his name." (Isaiah 47:4)
  • "...You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood." (Revelation 5:9)
  • "I am Jehovah, who makes all things." (Isaiah 44:24)
  • "All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made." (John 1:3)

Conclusion:

  • There is ONE God, in Whom is a Divine Trinity.
  • This Trinity is not of three Persons, but rather three essential components of the same God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
  • These three essential components, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are mirrored in humans - our soul, our body, and the actions we do.
  • The Father is God's soul, the Son is His body, and the Holy Spirit is the divine power He uses to act on us when we allow Him to.
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