The Holy Trinity, Part 1

I really only got through the introduction today because instead of reading, I spent the afternoon reveling in a conversation with my best friend! We don't do this very often so it was really thrilling--but anyway, back to chapter four of Authentic Christianity.

Dr. Morecraft starts out this chapter highlighting the modern assult on the doctrine of the Trinity.

This understanding of God as one God in three Persons is no longer an appropriate or adequate description of the God of Christianity, we are told. In fact, this traditional description of God not only does not communicate anything meaningful
today, it is also offensive to many. (323)

He denotes six different kind of opponents and critics. First, Logical Positivism:

Therefore, any discussion of God, which by definition is beyond our sense perception and observation, is meaningless. (323)

Second, Pragmatism:

PRAGMATISM argues that the meaning of a statement is its practical consequences. To the pragmatists the doctrine of the Trinity is meaningless for it has no practical relevance...As we proceed in our study, we will see that the doctrine of the Trinity is very practical to our everyday lives. (323-324)

Third, Existentialism:

It teaches that all life is irrational. All doctrinal issues bog people down in endless and fruitless discussion, deflecting them from decision and self-affirming action. Therefore, any discussion of the Trinity is useless. (324)

Fourth, Liberation Theology:

LIBERATION THEOLOGY, redefines Christian terms with Marxist philosophy and holds that the doctrine of the Trinity is abstract and irrelevant to the economic oppression from which the downtrodden must be liberated. (324)

Fifth, New Age and Cults:

The NEW AGE religions and various other CULTS, such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormonism, continue their assaults, because they are all antitrinitarian, blurring the distinction between the Creator and His creation. (324)

Sixth, Feminism:

Thus, both the “Father” and “Son” concepts are considered by some to be inherently sexist. Some feminists are advocating the elimination of such terminology in favor of more generic role titles, such as “God the Creator, God the Redeemer, and God
the Sanctifier.” This, however, reduces the Trinity to a functional Trinity, thus eliminating any real distinction of persons and tending toward modalism. 2. Erickson,  God In Three Persons, 24. (325)

These opponents have six reasons they assult the doctrine of the Trinity. I shall list them below along with Dr. Morecrafts short rebuttal to each.

(1) God in his being is unknowable, inexpressible, incomprehensible and ineffable. Therefore, nothing can be known about God as He is in Himself, and our expressions of the trinity are merely figments of our imagination...if God is totally unknowable as they claim, how are they able to make the statement that God is
unknowable? How do they know that God is unknowable? (326)

(2) The “raw material” from which all religious doctrines, including the Christian doctrine of the trinity, are created is the religious experience of the worshippers—ow the worshipper has experienced God, what he feels about God.

However, the doctrines of orthodox Christianity do not arise from the experience of its adherents, they are drawn from the written self-revelation of the Creator, i.e., the Bible. (326)

(3) All descriptions of God are only metaphors. (326)

However, the Bible is written in words and sentences, representing a variety of literary forms, which are meaningful to God as well as to man, which statements and literary forms accurately and meaningfully, in the plain sense of the words, describe God as He really is. (327)


(4) Feminism teaches that Trinitarian Christianity, that has dominated the west for centuries, represents a sexist, patriarchal and androcentric, i.e., male-centered, religion and worldview, which has undergirded and encouraged the male domination of society.

However, it has not been Christianity that has downgraded the role of women, it has been the perversion or neglect of Christianity. In the ancient world, the  Hebrews of the Old Testament and the early Christians of the New Testament, had a higher view of and appreciation for women, than any other religion or culture. (327)

(5) The books of the Bible are to be interpreted according to the modern historical-critical method of interpretation in its more agnostic forms. (327)

Any historical document must be interpreted in the light of the original intention of the author of the document. But, the Bible is more than the word of man; it is the very Word of God. (328)

6) God is the cosmos. God’s being and the being of the universe are intimately linked. The world is “God’s body.” This is pantheism, i.e., the idea that everything is God and God is everything; and that there is no God outside the universe.


When He created the universe, He did so by His own word, calling the universe into existence ex nihilo, i.e., out of nothing, from no pre-existent materials (Gen. 1:1). He did not make the universe from a part or an “emanation” of Himself, rather He created it out of nothing; so that, while He is totally independent of His creation, His creation is totally dependent upon Him for its continued existence. (328-329)

The importance of studying this doctrine lies in the following:

The fact that God is one God in three Persons is the foundation of a vigorous Biblical Christianity. This is holy ground. It is to be studied with humility and reverence, not as a scientist in his laboratory, but as a worshipper before his God. (330)

That's as far as it goes today...more next week Lord willing!

        Racheal