The Trinity and the Bride

I have recently be thinking about the church and it's success and failures over the past 24 years of my life. It is amazing to me the drastic dichotomy that can be displayed with so many positive and truly God honoring acts and selfless acts of worship as displayed by the global church body with so many sinful and blatant godless acts of that same global church body. I have always been perplexed by this. Now, I want to make one thing clear. I do not intend for this to turn into a church bashing session or a chance for denominational bombings, but rather a discussion about how we as the church can better satisfy the fulfillment of the image and purpose that we, being the global church, were created to be.

Over the past couple years I have generated my presuppositions of who the Bride of Christ was intended to be based solely on the person of Jesus Christ and the life he lived out on this earth, coupled with the commands He has given us in his Word. But recently I have began to think of it in a different light, correlating the interrelationship of the Godhead, and the way they fellowship with one another, to the intrinsic and purposed makeup of the church. Specifically I can think of three images that are displayed in the Trinity that should be better, or maybe i should say more completely, reflected in the church; Unity, Selflessness, and Missional.

As God is completely Unified so should his Church be unified. More and more do we here of church splits and dissension among church bodies. Bickering and slandering of other churches and other members of the church is readily available and prominent. It is through our inability to humbly embrace the diversity and difference among the body of Christ that we find the church in its current state. May we learn to better and more humbly fight to be a church defined by unity in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

As God is selfless and completely self giving so should the Church be selfless and self giving. It is all to often that our churches are oriented and built to serve it's own church body. Though we are called to love each other I believe we must be careful not to absorb ourselves into self centeredness. As my professor put it, " so a local church when it becomes centered on its own well being will become a hollow shell of what it was intended to be." May be we a church that focused on being self giving in all aspects of our ministry, to one another in the body and outside of the body.

Finally, as God is Missional so should the Church be Missional. As God the Father has sent his Son and his Holy Spirit as the divine missionaries so should we model the sentness of the Godhead in our churches. May we as the church be intentionally pursuing the imperative command of our Lord in Matt. 28.19 to , " Go and make disciples of all nations.....". May we be missionaly pursuing all people, from our neighborhoods to the far off lands.

As we look to better resemble and display our God, let us look to unify the body of Christ both locally and globally through our selfgivingness and missional hearts, in order that God may receive the glory! Let us better reflect Trinity as the Bride of Christ, the one He seeks to return for!

-R

The Creed of Nicea

I believe it is important for us to affirm the Creed of Nicea and its importance of forging the foundation for Trinitarianism in the Christian faith.

The Creed of Nicea: 325

We believe in one GOD, THE FATHER ALMIGHTY,
Maker of all things visible and invisible;

And in one LORD JESUS CHRIST, the Son of God,
begotten of the Father, only begotten, that is, from the substance of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten and not made, of one substance with the Father, through whom all things came into being, things in heaven and things on earth, who because of us men and because of our salvation, came down and became incarnate, becoming man, suffered and rose again on the third day, ascended to the heavens, and will come to judge the living and the dead;

And in the HOLY SPIRIT.

But as for those who say, There was when He was not, and,
Before being born He was not, and that He came into existence out of nothing, or who assert that the Son of God is of different hypostasis or substance, or is created, or is subject to alternation or change – these the Catholic [universal] Church anathematizes.

From Early Christian Creeds, ed. J. N. D. Kelly and Henry Bettenson. Documents of the Christian Church (2d ed., Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 1963), 215-216.

-r

Practical Implications of the Trinity

They say you learn something everyday.

Today must have been one of those days.

In reflecting on the lecture given concerning the practical implications of the Trinity, I began to process how a view of the Trinity can impact humanity on a daily, rather routine, level. Especially in reference to interpersonal relationships between the sexes, particularly in marriage. I am not sure why I have never thought of it as such, but the community the Trinity enjoys carries fantastic lessons for marriage. What intrigues me most is the ontological equality yet distinction in roles and person. I have long thought that the complementarian vs. egalitarian debacle could be credited to a misunderstanding of roles and function, and in many cases a rejection of them. Perhaps this is due to poor teaching concerning what it means to be male and female. It could also be that I have a limited scope where I have seen far too many times the oppression of women in the complementarian side of things a sort of awkward power struggle on the egalitarian side. So I remain open to the idea that this is only an argument from experience, a perhaps skewed one at that. Nevertheless, the Trinity offers a perfect example of what it means to be ontologically equal yet still distinct in role and function. It is a community where submission occurs, where different functions are carried out by different persons, yet love still abounds within and there is much that is shared by all in the community. Finding myself to be probably the softest complementarian you might find and perhaps a rather hard egalitarian, my desire is to further seek out the roles and functions given to male and female. Not due to some agenda I have of making gender roles an issue of controversy or some sick desire I have of wanting to pick fights within the evangelical realm, but in quest to better model the Trinity. If the Godhead truly does exist as ontologically equal yet distinct in terms of role and function, would that not also suggest a pattern for human relationships, being as we are the Imago Dei?

What it all boils down to is my longing to see men and women, not only in marriage I suppose, figure out what God has as their role and get on board. I think there is enough evidence to presuppose, not least in the book of Ephesians, that God commands different things to the husband than He does the wife. His expectations are different for each. I don't think this undermines or demeans the intrinsic value of the person as much as it does give mission and purpose to the relationship. If everyone were running around doing the same thing, carrying out the same task, it would make for a mess of things. Maybe this is far too of an idealistic sense to such a complicated problem. If so, feel free to correct me.

-j

The Trinity and Genesis One

I found this particular Rob Bell video interesting. Some might be encouraged that he openly affirms the doctrine of the trinity (there are a number of people who still think Bell does not by taking his words out of context in Velvet Elvis - see previous post on Bell)



My concern and question is, does he force a trinitarian perspective into the context of Genesis 1?

-j

Paul and the Godhead

I have been spending some time in Paul's letters and would like to start a discussion on his perspectives of God, more specifically the trinity. I am going to make this statement and then try to back it up with my observations. It is through my readings of his letter that I believe or have begun to believe that Paul is at least binitarian. Let me clarify what i mean by that.....I think that Paul is binitarian with a developing or less emphasized confession of the deity of the Holy Spirit. With that said I will admit that my investigation to this point is "new-born" and I am trying to develop it more. So let me try to support my statement first through a series of post:

1. The greetings:

.....to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. - Romans 1.7


Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. - 1 Corinthians 1.3


Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. - 2 Corinthians 1.2


Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ - Galatians 1.3


Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. - Ephesians 1. 2


To the saints and faithful brothers1 in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father. - Colossians 1.2


Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. - 1 and 2 Thessalonians 1.1


Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, 2 To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. - 1 Timothy 1.1-2


Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus, 2 To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. - 2 Timothy 1.1-2



To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. - Titus 1.4


Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. - Philemon 1.3




These are all the intros that Paul uses in his letters....obviously some are repetitive but you get the point. Paul has a clear understanding of the deity of God the Father and Jesus Christ, but he interestingly lacks the Holy Spirit as a part of all his greetings . This does not even take into consideration the closings that he uses, that often look much like his greetings. This was ultimately the first observation that drove me to begin to look at Paul's perspectives on the Godhead.

-r

Trinitarian life

This is a video of Mark Driscoll, Pastor of Mars Hill Seattle, explaining the community Christians experience with the Trinity. So, not only does the Trinity have community within itself, it extends the benefits of such community to believers. The clip is interesting to say the least.

Any thoughts?

-j

commencement and controversy

"Or take the Trinity, for example. Even the best definitions end up sounding like a small child trying to play Mozart on pots and pans in the middle of the kitchen floor. The more you study the Trinity and what has been said about it over the years, the more you are left in wonder and awe about the nature of God."

I remember a few years back, when I was in college, Rob Bell's book Velvet Elvis was published and the conservative evangelical community answered with angry blogs, articles, and special meetings in the caves of Colorado to discuss how one could ask such difficult and deviant questions. Of course this was in the heat of the "post-modern" discussion so most people had swords drawn, no pun intended, anyways.

My assumption is that if more conservative evangelicals would read more of Bell instead of jumping on the bandwagon against him, they might discover that he is not as controversial as most suggest. He is not perfect, his theology is not perfect, but he is humble and, from what I can observe, honestly and responsibly seeking answers. But, I digress, this blog is not dedicated to Rob Bell and perhaps I will write later concerning him in another setting.

Moving on...

I can remember when I first read the opening chapters to Velvet Elvis I was doing so under a very critical paradigm as I had been "warned" against his teachings against things like the Trinity, the Virgin Birth, etc. (even though he openly affirms both of these p. 27). As I read his work I realized a couple of things. 1.) He likes to ask questions, and 2.) He appears to be less defensive about his theology and more engaging.

To better understand his theology, one must understand how he arrives (I say arrives instead of arrived because by his own admission he holds that theology is constantly reforming leading us to constantly "arrive") at his system of approaching theological discussions. His framework (which he views doctrine and beliefs as springs on a trampoline rather than a more foundational system which builds doctrine on top of doctrine) allows for him to disconnect certain "beliefs" from the very person of God for the sake of evaluation and examination. He sees them as ways of understanding who God is. Therefore, he views the concept of Trinity as doctrine which better helps us understand God.

I think that this is the point that some people get nervous. Because Bell then proceeds to ask questions that, if your theological system is more foundational, may be difficult to process.

After explaining his "springs" theology he makes the assertion that springs are not God, but rather propositions or ideas that further explain him. I see his point of view here and have to agree in part. However, in the case of the Trinity, I tend to believe that the "spring" of the Trinity would be entirely God. Sure, the conceptual analysis of the Trinity was added as doctrine later, but it does not diminish the intrinsic value of the Trinity before the councils gathered or the creeds were formed.

Nonetheless, in the example of Bell, I will continue to seek out what the Trinity looks like and its implications in the world and in the life of the Church. This is why this blog was created, other than passing our class, Ryan and I want to struggle with how we approach our understanding of the Trinity and we invite you to do so with us.


-j

COMMUNITY: What it teaches me.

I just recently finished watching the movie Into the Wild. I found the movie to be really really cool, so cool it actually made me want to drop out of seminary and wander around the country for a while. (Obviously, the fact that I am writing this blog displays I didn't actually follow through with my desires.) The whole theme of the movie was built upon the thought that people don't need other people to be happy or to have meaning and purpose. It was on that presupposition that the main character in the movie, Christopher McCandless, heads out with nothing and ultimately arrives in the wilderness of Alaska all alone. I don't want to ruin the movie for anyone that hasn't seen the film, but it was out of that theme I began to think about what purpose community serves and why we are so drawn to each other. (By the way, if you do rent the movie, it has some language and nudity in it....just fyi.)



As a self proclaimed "new comer" to the theological thought surrounding the Trinity I have found that many trinitarian attributes and functions of God are on full display for us daily. Most likely an equal amount of the trinitarian evidences take a little bit more effort to discover. Of all the possible discussions that we could release on this blog about the nature of God I find the most enjoyable aspect to be community. For the purpose of this discussion, I am most directly thinking of the community of friendship and family.

I have found that in my 18 years as a follower of Christ, my greatest understandings and awarenesses of God, his nature, his character, and his love have been revealed in and through community. It is the talks with my father about faith that have brought me perspective and insight. It is the time spent crying with my mother that has allowed me to better understand compassion and comfort. It is the enjoyment and accountability of true friendship that has pushed me to be more disciplined, more faithful, more selfless.....and the list goes on. And if I take a moment and step back, I realize this enjoyment and satisfaction that i receive from community is intended and desired by God and even more so an innate quality of who He is! It is through the interrelationships of the trinity, that is the mutual indwelling of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that we see the greatest and most perfect community on display.

Now I am sure that over the next few weeks more pointed and in depth discussions will take place of easy and not so easy topics dealing with the Trinity, but I wanted to make it clear as my first post that we desperately need each other (community). The movie, Into the Wild, was a great testimony to that simple truth. Since the creation of earth, God saw fit that we were not to be alone but to have community (Adam and Eve). At the crux of history, as Jesus in his human flesh bled on the floor of the Garden of Gethsemane, he made it known to us that we are in desperate need of community. As the Holy Spirit worked in the lives of the early church in Acts, we were reminded of our need for community. At the core of the God of the universe we find community. So in our quest as students, teachers, friends, family, husbands, and wives let us not forget that God created us so that we may have community with one another in order that we may know and enjoy Him more.

For if we have to go into the wild alone to figure that simple truth out, we have completely missed the nature of our God.

-r