In this video teaching, we journey into the mystery of Trinitarianism. Steeped in tradition, we explore how this doctrine started out and changed over time. We will trace the storied path of history, from the ancient councils that fervently discussed the subject to the writers who attempted to expand its depths. We do not shy away from the complexities of this doctrine. Instead we confront them with clarity. Here, truth is not wrapped in jargon but is spoken plainly.
Step into this journey of discovery with us. Let the scriptural evidence and historical information encourage you to better understand what it is that the concept of the trinity teaches. So join us as we learn the God Honest Truth about trinitarianism.
#Trinity #GodHonestTruth #BiblicalTeaching #ChristianDoctrine #Trinitarianism #BibleStudy #Christianity #Faith #JesusChrist #HolySpirit #GodTheFather #BiblicalTruth #ChristianApologetics #ChurchHistory #Theology #SoundDoctrine #Scripture #ChristianFaith #GodsWord #ChristianTeaching
Transcript
When it comes to the subject of the Godhead, there’s really four main concepts for how to understand the Godhead. Each of these differ in their own way, and in this teaching, we’re gonna be examining one of those concepts, which is referred to as Trinitarianism. So stick around to learn all about what the Trinity is and what Trinitarianism is, a little bit of the history, and a whole lot more. So this structure teaching is gonna be is gonna be on the concept of Trinitarianism or the Trinity as it’s otherwise known. This is gonna be starting the one of the four main concepts of the Godhead that we have discussed or previously mentioned in an earlier episode.
But this episode is gonna be all about Trinitarianism. So make sure to have your notes ready. And if you happen to miss anything or you would like some extra notes that we don’t put into this particular drawstring, make sure to go check out the notes that we’ve provided for you on our website at gothonesttruth.com. Simply click on the post for this episode and you’ll be able to see the on demand video that you see here on your screen, the draw slides that you see up here right now. You’ll also be able to see the notes that we took for this particular episode and the transcript if that so happens to be of any use to you.
It’ll be all conveniently located for you on one page there on godhonesttruth.com. We have also placed a convenient link for you down in the description below. So whether you’re watching on a video platform or an audio podcasting platform, that convenient link should be down there for you all the same in the description. So go check it out today using that link or by going to godhonesttruth.com. So just real quick to recap the Godhead series that we’ve been doing so far.
Number one, so you can start out from knowing absolutely nothing about the Godhead, learn what scripture has to say about it is also, you know, a little bit of history to go behind it as well, and then decide for yourself which concept of the Godhead that you most agree with. Like we said, there’s four main concepts. And if you, at the end, decide on one particular concept of the Godhead or if you decide, hey, this is a you think it’s an exercise in splitting hairs and you just don’t want nothing to do with it, that’s fine too. Whichever way you go is fine with us. Your salvation is not is not dependent on which concept of the Godhead that you go with.
You’re still gonna be a brother or sister and messiah to us. You’re still gonna be saved. So let’s just go on, break bread, and continue fellowshipping. But hopefully, at the end, you’ll be able to at least understand the subject of the godhead a lot better than when you originally started out. Now just to recap the series real quick, in episode one, we went over various terminology and also introduced the series that we’re doing currently, the Godhead series.
In episode two, we went over the terms and the phrases, God or gods as you see it in English or the term Elohim as it comes from the Hebrew. Episode three, we went over the Shema and how important that was to understanding this subject of the Godhead and how it plays into understanding the Godhead. Episode four went over the phrase, son or sons of God and how that plays into what we get out of scripture and also our understanding of the godhead. In episode five, we went over the meaning of names, which is very important at times. Episode six, we went over the phrase name of the father, son, and holy spirit as it comes from scripture, especially Matthew chapter 28 verse 19.
Episode seven, we went over the term worship. What is worship? All that good stuff and what does it actually mean when it’s used in scripture itself. Episode eight, we went over the word spirit in general, meaning spirit of man, animals, the distinction between body, soul, and spirit, things like that, but spirit in general. And in episode nine, we went over the spirit of the holy or holy spirit, holy ghost, whatever have you, set apart spirit.
Whichever term you wanna use, we went more specifically with spirit there as it relates to Yahweh. Then in episode 10, we went over the concept of original sin. What is it? Where does it come from? All that good stuff.
In episode 11, we went over distinctions between various things and people within scripture and how that relates to the study and understanding of the subject of the Godhead. Last episode, we went over various miscellaneous things that really didn’t warrant a episode in and of themselves. So we just kinda put them into an episode altogether so that you can learn more about them, but they were still relevant to the study and understanding of the Godhead. And we went over things like the word Lord, the word Father, the word Son, the word Begotten, and just basic reading comprehension, which is gonna be really key to understanding a lot of things, but especially to understanding this concept of the Godhead as you go through scripture. If you don’t have just basic reading comprehension, you’re gonna miss out on a lot.
So make sure if you’ve missed any of these episodes, go back and watch those because now that we’re gonna get into discussing the four main concepts of the Godhead, what we’ve covered in the past is really going to come into play. And I will try to point out a particular episode that might be relevant once we cover a particular point on each of these concepts of the godhead. So make sure to stay tuned. We’ll try to put it in the slide. If not, we’ll try to mention it, but you can put it down in your notes nonetheless.
So before we get started, I know I know we’ve been pushing it. We’ve been inching there, but couple more things I want to go over real quick and just to recap some very important terms and things to keep in mind as you go through each of these four different concepts of the Godhead starting tonight with Trinitarianism. Number one, what is the study of the Godhead? Well, the way we defined it is a study of the Godhead is a study of who God is, who is God, and how many are God. In other words, the nature and essence of God as it comes from scripture, not from any outside sources, not from man made traditions, nothing like that, as it comes from scripture because sola scriptura, the scripture, the Bible should be our foundation for every single doctrine.
Nothing else. Not outside traditions. Not outside influences. The Bible. That’s what should be our foundation for our doctrines and our beliefs.
Another thing to keep in mind is the term fear mongering. Just to recap and remind you of what fear mongering is, From sisnosenso.com, which is a psychology website, they define fear mongering as, quote, the use of fear to influence the opinions and actions of others towards some specific end. The feared object or subject is sometimes exaggerated, and the pattern of fear mongering is usually one of repetition in order to continuously reinforce the intended effects of this tactic, sometimes in the form of a vicious circle. According to Oxford dictionary, quote, the activity of spreading stories deliberately to make people frightened or nervous, end quote. And finally, from the Cambridge dictionary, quote, the action of intentionally trying to make people afraid of something when this is not necessary or reasonable, end quote.
So that’s what fear mongering is. And if anyone tries to fear monger you into believing a certain thing, most likely, it’s not true to begin with. Their position is probably gonna be invalid because if it was valid, they would have truth to rely on, not fear mongering. Another term to keep in mind is the word orthodoxy. According to Wiktionary.com, quote, orthodoxy comes from the ancient Greek orthodoxos, which is equivalent to the word for correct and opinion, end quote.
From Encyclopedia Britannica, Orthodox from Greek Orthodoxos of the right opinion, true doctrine, and its adherence as opposed to heterodox or heretical doctrines and their adherence, end quote. And finally, from Adam online, quote, from Greek Orthodoxos, having the right opinion from Orthos, right, true, straight. Doxa, opinion, or praise, end quote. So basically, in a nutshell, orthodoxy is the means something like right opinion. Who has the correct opinion?
Well, it all depends on the context, but all the same, orthodoxy means right opinion. Now the flip side of that is gonna be the word heresy. And coming from Matt Slick over at carm.org, quote, heresy is false teaching. It is a belief or idea that is in contradiction to orthodoxy. In the context of Christian heresy I’m sorry.
In the context of Christianity, heresy is that which deviates from standard biblical teaching, end quote. From Elam online, quote, from Greek, a taking or choosing for oneself. A choice, a means of taking, a deliberate plan, purpose, philosophical sect, or school, end quote. And finally, from Liquisearch.com, quote, the term heresy is from Greek, eiresis originally meant choice, but also referred to that process whereby a young person would examine various philosophies to determine how to live one’s life. So, like I said, heresy, this word heresy is the flip side of the term orthodoxy.
If orthodoxy is right opinion, heresy would be wrong opinion. So keep that in mind. This pretty much boils down to an opinion and who has the right opinion, who has the wrong opinion. It all depends on the context and the specific belief or doctrine that it comes down to. When it comes to what I believe, I consider orthodoxy to believe what comes straight out of scripture.
No twisting, no tangling, no muddying, or eisegesis, just straight from scripture. That is orthodoxy. On the other hand, heresy would be anything that contradicts what directly comes out of scripture. So take it for yourself how you would define it, how you would understand it. But basically, if heresy simply meant whatever comes or whatever contradicts scripture, we’ll see heresy in any biblical interpretation that anyone else has that contradicts whatever we believe.
For instance, if we believe that vanilla ice cream is the correct biblical understanding, you know, just be silly, but hypothetically speaking, then we would see anyone who eats or believes in anything else besides vanilla ice cream as heretical. And that’s not productive. We go around screaming heretic for gray areas that really aren’t directly and didactically spelled out in scripture. So don’t use these as weapons. Descriptive?
Yeah. Maybe we could do that, but don’t use these terms as weapons to lift yourself up or to beat others down. Listen to what others have to say calmly, professionally explain your position, but do so in a brotherly way. And by all means, don’t allow anyone else to beat you down either. Because remember, if they’re trying to use fear mongering and constantly calling you a heretic because you believe something different than they do, odds are they’re gonna be in the wrong position anyways because they’re not using truth.
They’re using fear mongering and badgering to try and bring you down. So just keep all these terms in mind. And one thing that you really need to decide for yourself and get into your very soul in the way you’re doing is that you need to have a love for the truth and not be so scared of heresy. On this particular subject of the godhead in history, there was a particular guy named Origen. You’ve probably heard of Origen before.
But he wrote a lot of books. I mean, a lot. And later on after he died, there were people translating his Greek work into Latin, and one of these people was named Rufinus. Now, unfortunately, what happened with Rufinus is that when it came to the subject of the godhead, some of the parts of Origen’s works didn’t actually line up the way Rufinus thought they should with the current decided on position of the date that Rufinus held to. So he intentionally changed Origen’s work to be more in line with what he believed.
And he was terrified of producing or translating something that he or the powers that be would consider heretical. So he just changed them to align not with what Origen said, but with the position of the day. And this is what GW Butterworth had to say about Rufinus doing this and changing all this. Quote, fear of heresy is with him a stronger motive than love of truth. He has shown himself willing to alter the text or to omit portions of it on no evidence whatsoever and for no purpose except to conciliate the prejudices of his readers and to give greater authority to his translation.
And Rufinus was not shy. He intentionally said that he changed them for this very purpose. And may we never be accused of what GW Buttersworth is accusing Rufinus of. He says that Rufinus had a greater fear of heresy than his love of truth. And we should be the exact opposite.
We should have a greater love for truth than a fear of heresy because heresy changes over time. You do any study in historical Christianity and the history of the church, you’ll find that some things in some eras, in some years are heretical while others Orthodox and then other years it’ll flip around and those which used to be heretical are now Orthodox and those which used to be Orthodox are now heretical. It all depends on who came into power and who voted what in. But it doesn’t matter who’s in power. It doesn’t matter what it is that’s voted in as orthodoxy or what it is that’s voted as heretical according to whatever council or commission.
None of that should matter. You should stick with the love of truth and not worry about all that other stuff. Don’t worry about the politics worry about the truth as it comes from scripture. That’s what we should have is a love for the truth. Now once again, the four main concepts that we’ve been able to find regarding the Godhead is Trinitarianism, Venitarianism, Biblical Unitarianism, and Oneness or what used to be called Modalism.
Now in this episode, we’re gonna go over the concept of Trinitarianism and get into the other three in future episodes. But starting now, let’s go ahead and define what is the trinity because trinitarianism comes from the word trinity anyways. But according to wikipedia.org, quote, the trinity or Latin trinitas, meaning triad or threefold, is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three co eternal, consubstantial divine persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, three distinct persons sharing one essence, substance, or nature. From Matt Slick over at carm.org, the term Trinity is the doctrine that God exists as a unity of three distinct simultaneous persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each of the persons is distinct from the other in relation, yet each is identical in essence.
In God, there are not three entities nor three beings. God is a trinity of persons consisting of one substance and one essence. God is numerically one, yet within the single divine essence, there are three individual substances we call persons. And finally, from Mark Bird over at Answers in Genesis, We are saying that God is one in essence and three in person. There is one what and there are three who’s.
As you can see, God is one and three in different ways. So there’s three different definitions of the Trinity as it comes from modern day sources. However, this is something that was put into formula and creed long time ago. It’s still being debated and attempted to be understood even now. But one of the best descriptions or creeds for the Trinity position or the Trinitarian position comes from the Athanasian creed.
Now this is was not written by Athanasius. It’s just called the Athanasian Creed. In fact, it was actually written a pretty good time after Athanasius died. You’ll be learning about Athanasius here in just a moment, but the Athanasian Creed goes as such, Quote, whosoever will be saved before all things, it is necessary that he holds the Catholic faith, which faith, unless everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt, he shall perish everlastingly. And the Catholic faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity, neither confounding the persons nor dividing the essence, for there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost.
For the godhead of the father, of the son, and of the holy ghost is all one. The glory equal, the majesty co eternal. Such as the father is, such is the son, and such is the holy ghost, The father uncreated, the son uncreated, and the holy ghost uncreated. The father infinite, the son infinite, and the holy ghost infinite. The father eternal, the son eternal, and the holy ghost eternal, and yet they are not three eternals, but one eternal.
As also, they there are not three uncreated nor three infinites, but one uncreated and one infinite. So likewise, the father is almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty, and yet, they are not three almighty, but one almighty. So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God, and yet, they are not three gods, but one God. So, likewise, the father is lord, the son is lord, and the holy ghost is lord, and yet not three lords, but one lord. For like, as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every person by himself to be god and lord, so are we forbidden by the Catholic religion to say there are three gods or three lords.
The father is made of none, neither created nor begotten. The son is of the father alone, not made nor created, but begotten. The Holy Ghost is of the father and of the son, neither made nor created nor begotten, but proceeding. So there is one father, not three fathers. One son, not three sons.
One holy ghost, not three holy ghost. And in this Trinity, none is before or after another, none is greater or less than another, but the whole three Persons are co eternal and co equal, so that in all things as aforesaid, the unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in unity, is to be worshiped. He therefore that will be saved, let him thus think of the Trinity. End quote. So that’s a mouthful, especially when you put in this one particular creed.
But it really gets into a lot of the ins and outs of the doctrine of the trinity and especially as how trinitarians view this concept of the godhead. But we didn’t get really into a lot of the nuances from the quotes that we got from the modern day people, from the Maslach and from Answers in Genesis. And there is a lot of words there and a lot of sentences from the Athanasian creed. So let’s try to get a little bit more precise to get a little bit more clarity and understanding about what we’re talking about when we discuss this concept of the trinity. Number one, when we talk about the Trinity, the concept of the Trinity, the doctrine of the Trinity puts forth such that God consists of three persons consisting of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and these three persons exist as one essence.
In other words, God is composed of three persons, but God is not a person. God is an essence that is composed of three persons. Number two, the father is not the son, the son is not the holy spirit, and the holy spirit is not the father. Each of the three parts are not the other one of the other two parts. It’s their each of their own.
So the Father is not the Son, Son is not the Father, the Father is not the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is not the Father, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Son. Number three. All three are co eternal and co equal. Number four. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three gods, but one God.
Each person of god is not one third of god, but fully god. The son has two natures, but the father and the spirit only have one nature. That’s a little bit more in words. It’s more precise than what we’ve gotten so far and also gotten into a little bit more of the nuances. But when we try to explain or use an analogy or something like that, nothing really comes close, And usually, they all seem to fall really short when you get to looking at them.
But one of the best examples as you can see here is what’s called the shield of the trinity that goes through explaining pretty almost instantly how the parts relate to each other. There’s still a lot more that goes into the doctrine of the trinity, but at a surface level, this does a very good job at explaining how the four parts work together. You got the God, the Trinity, and then the three persons of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Now, unfortunately, a lot of people and myself included, especially when I was growing up and before I started doing my own research, stuff like that, a lot of people tend to think that what they believe, what they’ve been taught is just what’s always been believed and always been taught throughout history. And tonight, we’re discussing the subject of Trinitarianism and a lot of people who believe in the Trinity tend to think that this doctrine of the Trinity was something that was always believed.
It was something that was always taught. But unfortunately, that’s just not the case. In fact, before we get to an actual creed or an actual council who formulated and put forth the doctrine of the trinity, And that happened about 03/8381, something like that. Before that, there really was no doctrine of the Trinity. In fact, a lot of people will point to the Council of Nicaea as voting on and putting forth Trinitarianism.
But let’s look at that real quick. And here is the original creed that came out of the Council of Nicaea, and it says, quote, 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, light of light, very god of very god, begotten not made, consubstantial with the father, by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man. He suffered, and the third day, he rose again, ascended into heaven. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead, and then the holy ghost. Now here I’ve got highlighted where it says very god of very god.
God that word god didn’t always mean the what we think of it to mean today. We’ll get to that in just a moment. But also notice here, if you were listening or if you’re looking at it on your screen here, the only two parts we’ve got here is God the Father and Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God. And that’s it. In order to have a trinity, you have to have all three.
Now, the Holy Ghost, they just tack that on the end is like an afterthought. Literally, it says just on the very end there and in the Holy Ghost. That’s it. Nothing else about it. So that guy just threw it on there because they had maybe forgotten in the rest of the creed.
I don’t know. There’s only two parts here. So if you wanna make it any sort of creed, you would say it’s more of a Benetarian creed because it’s certainly not a Trinitarian creed. However, we’re gonna get more into that and where this all goes towards as we go through that history in just a moment. But up until this, there was no three in one or any kind of Trinitarianism before this.
There was more of a process that went on. And right before this council of Nasia, there were two people down in Alexandria, Egypt, 1 by the name of Athanasius and one by the name of Arius. And they had a conflict between differing doctrines. Athanasius believed one thing, Arius believed another. Here we can see from this creed, just a spoiler alert, Athanasius, his believers actually won the day.
They got more votes at the council here. So his doctrine got put in over Arius and Arius was excommunicated, all this other stuff. So you had the Athanasians and then the Arians or the non Athanasians. But the Athanasians won the day, and the Athanasians believed that Jesus was consubstantial and by whom things were all made. A lot of this stuff, people from all different backgrounds can agree with, but it’s very specific and geared toward Arians.
The Athanasians made sure this creed was targeted toward the Arians. Still, even though the Athanasians won the day and Arius in the Arians were excommunicated and put out, this did not settle things once and for all. And it was not a Trinitarian setting. We haven’t got to that yet. It’s gonna be another about sixty years before the first Trinitarianism comes on the scene.
But speaking of the word God, it didn’t mean what it means nowadays. From R. P. C. Hansen in his book, The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God, quote, it must be understood that in the fourth century, the word God, or theos or deus, had not acquired the significance which in our twentieth or twenty first century world it has acquired, mainly the one and sole true God.
The word could apply to many gradations of divinity and was not as absolute to Athanasius as it is to us, end quote. And that’s so true. Even though this old phrase, very god of very god was used, this word god to Athanasius and the Athanasians did not mean exactly what it means to us today. For further reference, go back and see episode two that we did in this very Godhead series regarding the term God or gods and the Hebrew word Elohim. God is just a title that can apply to lots of people.
We saw in that episode how it applies to men. We saw how it applied to Moses. We saw how the angels in heaven were called gods. So it could be applied to lots of people. The word God was even applied to the judges of Israel and Yeshua, Jesus himself, even brings us up in a discussion or debate with the Pharisees.
So the way the Bible uses the word God, the way the early Christians here, even in the fourth century still were using God was a lot different than the way we use the word God nowadays. So just make sure to keep that in mind as you’re reading these creeds or trying to study church history. But even though the Council of Nicaea did not put forth trinitarianism or the trinity, they put forth more of a benity or benitarianism, the Athanations had not won the day once and for all. It was not settled at the Council of Nicaea. It went back and forth because even though Constantine was the first Christian emperor, there were still a lot of doctrines and nuances that went along with what a particular Christian believes.
Even though the Athanasians won the day in 03/25 with Constantine, depending on which emperor was in power at the time and which council was being held, it went back and forth. Sometimes the Arians were the ones who were voted in at a particular council, then it flipped back over back to the Athanasians, then it flipped back over to the Aryans, then it flipped back over to the Athanasians. It went back and forth like this. In fact, we see Jerome even stating such in one of his writings with the dialogue against Luciferians. He was quoting about the Council of Arminium, and he says, quote, after these proceedings, the Council of Arminium was dissolved.
All returned in gladness to their own provinces, where the emperor and all good men had one and the same aim, that the east and west should be knit together by the bond of fellowship. At that moment, the term Usia was abolished. The Nicene faith stood condemned by acclamation. The whole world groaned and was astonished to find itself Arian. In context, you can see here that Jerome himself was an Athanasian, not an Arian.
So when the Arminian council voted in Arianism, the Arian side, the Athanasians, like Jerome, weren’t happy about it because their side wasn’t voted in that point. So you see how it flips back and forth. Eventually, though, there was a ruler came to power, the Adosius, and in the year March, the Nicene Creed and Nicene Theology at the Nations finally got their position put into power and by law. We read from the Edict of Thessalonica according to Matthew Lyons, quote, so it was that in March ’80, ’20 ‘3 year old Theodosius issued the Edict of Thessalonica threatening both divine punishment and imperial retribution for those who rejected the Nicene Creed. Five years later, Brazilian, Bishop of Avila, would be the first Christian to face judicial execution by other Christians for his beliefs.
What is truth? Pilate had asked. After Theodosius, that was a matter for the state. So once this edict went into play, the subject of the godhead, as it was voted in, was a matter of state, and it had the force of the sword behind it. And if you did not fall in line with it, you would pay the price, just about literally and physically.
But the Edict of Thessalonica reads as such, and this was in March, so keep that in mind. Edict of Thessalonica, quote, it is our desire that all the various nations which are subject to our clemency and moderation should continue to profess that religion which was delivered to the Romans, and which is now professed by the pontiff or pope, Damascus, and by Peter, bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic holiness. According to the apostolic teaching and the doctrine of the gospel, let us believe in the one deity of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, in equal majesty and in a holy trinity. We order the followers of this law to embrace the name of Catholic Christians. But as for the others, since in our judgment they are foolish bad men, we decree that they shall be branded with the ignominious name of heretics.
They will suffer in the first place the chastisement of the divine condemnation, and in the second, the punishment of our authority, which is in accordance with the will of heaven, we shall decide to inflict, end quote. So once this edict goes into force, the trinity is enforced by law and by the sword. So the Athanasians had finally won the day. And this was, I guess you could say, more on the civil side because it’s coming from the state, but it also goes on to be made official and declared on the religious side when a council is held in Constantinople in March. Now the creed that came out of this Council of Constantinople in March is actually referred to as the Nicene Creed.
And when a lot of people say the Nicene Creed, this is what they’re referring to, the creed of Constantinople. I guess they didn’t wanna try and say the constant Constantinople Constantinapolitan Creed. It was a lot easier to say Nicene Creed maybe. I don’t know. Just understand that the original Nicene Creed differs somewhat than the Nicene Creed as it comes out of the Council of Constantinople.
Now if you’re watching on video, you can see here I’ve got highlighted in yellow the parts that were added to the original Nicene Creed from the Council of Constantinople. And here is the Nicene Creed as it can comes out of the Council of Constantinople in March. Quote, we believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, And in one lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of god, begotten of the father before all worlds or eons, light of light, very god of very god, begotten not made, consubstantial with the father by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate and suffered and was buried. In the third day, he rose again according to the scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the father.
From then, he shall come again with glory to judge the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end, and in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spake from the Father, who spake by the prophets. In one holy Catholic and apostolic church, we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen. So you can see there, there was a much, much different tone.
Well, not really tone, but different aspects added to the original Nicene Creed, and now you finally have a Trinitarian Creed coming out of the church, but it wasn’t until March. And at this point, as we just understood, this doctrine of the Trinity had the force of law. It had the power of the sword behind it. And, unfortunately, history is not put in a good light for the Trinitarian cause. There’s all kinds of persecutions and deaths and heinous acts done in the name of the doctrine of the Trinity throughout the years.
You can look at the inquisition that the Catholics put on which is still ongoing granted not to the force it was back hundreds of years ago but during the acquisition, anyone who did not adhere to the doctrine of the trinity faced horrible consequences. You have the issue with John Calvin and Michael Cervatus amongst other instances throughout history. So once this doctrine of the trinity got the force of law and had the power of the sword behind it, the Athanations were in power at that point. There was no more votes to be had because those who would vote against it would be killed or otherwise and would not be able to vote. So the Athanasian side had the power starting in March, and then you see here this creed in March.
But in March, that wasn’t the both beginning and the end of the doctrine of the trinity. The Doctrine of the Trinity continued to develop and evolve over time, and we get other aspects come in and be explained as we go throughout history. We get into the Creed of Chalcedon in April, and here is the Chalcedonian creed, quote, we then following the holy fathers all with one consent, teach people to confess one and the same son, our lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in godhead and also perfect in manhood, truly God and truly man of a reasonable, rational soul and body, consubstantial or coessential, with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the manhood, and all things like unto us without sin, begotten before all ages, of the father according to the godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the virgin Mary, the mother of god, according to the manhood, one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably. The distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather the property of each nature being preserved and concurring in one person and one substance, one subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same son and only begotten God, the word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets from the beginning have declared concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us, and the creed of the holy fathers has handed down to us.
End quote. So you can see here there’s more aspects of this doctrine of the trinity that is addressed in the Council of Chalcedon than was addressed back in March in the Council of Constantinople. And it didn’t even stop with the Council of Chalcedon. There’s more I don’t know how you say it, advancements, adaptations, had an evolution to the doctrine, I guess. But it continued on down and even went to the Athanasian creed that we read early on at the beginning of this episode.
So things advanced, things changed over time, and not with just Christianity in general was the claren voted in. Also happened within the very doctrine of the Trinity itself. There was advancements and changes in evolution and certain things that were believed at one time about the doctrine of the Trinity were declared heretical later on. And some things you can actually see this within the artistry that is put forth over the years trying to depict the concept of the Trinity. For instance, we see here, these are some paintings that try to portray the doctrine of the Trinity, but eventually, they ultimately fail.
For instance, these have three different people or persons, I guess you would say in this context, But this was deemed heretical in regards to the context of the Trinity because even though it portrays the separation of the three persons, it does not portray the unity. On the flip side of it, we have these pictures here, which tries to portray the concept or the doctrine of the trinity, but eventually were declared heretical because even though they do a pretty good job at showing the unity of the three persons, they do not show the distinctiveness or the separateness of the three persons. So there’s really no winning here. And here is some more artwork to see. You can see the shield of the trinity in various other configurations.
You can see also in the I think it’s called the Celtic cross or the Celtic knot or something like that, which is gorgeous artwork a lot of times, by the way. But anyways, a lot of times these illustrations, these artistry portrayals and even analogies don’t really live up. In fact, I’ve heard a lot of people try to use the analogy of water between the faces of ice, water, and steam. However, that analogy is not of the trinity. That analogy is more of modalism or oneness, which you will probably understand better once we get to that episode.
So trying to explain the doctrine of the trinity is ultimately a failing exercise, but we’ve tried to do the best we can here in this episode and there’s a lot more that goes into Trinitarianism than what we’ve put forth here. We try to put forth the very basics just so you can understand what the doctrine of the trinity is and what Trinitarianism is. That way you can compare what the doctrine of the trinity is to what you’ve learned from scripture thus far and what you studied and researched for yourself as well. So you can take that, compare it, and then once we get to the other three concepts, you can also take those and compare it as well. Like I said, there’s a lot more that goes into this doctrine of the Trinity than what was presented here.
Make sure to go look in our notes and also make sure to go look at other teachers and other ministries who might have a full course or full full series just on the doctrine of the trinity. There’s a lot that goes into it, and one of those reasons because it was the dominant opinion that was voted in and had the force of power behind it for almost two thousand years, getting very close to two thousand years. There’s that. There’s been a lot of history behind it because it was in power. But if you would like to learn more, you can go and look to those that hold to the doctrine of the Trinity.
In general, Catholics obviously hold to the doctrine of the Trinity. The Baptists, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, Seventh day Adventists, Episcopalians. There’s even references within the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, and Doctrine of Covenants that are Trinitarian. And if you wanna see those examples, I actually have those in the notes, and you can go look those up in the notes. Click on the link down below or go to godhonesttruth.com and then click on the post for this episode, and you’ll be able to see those references from the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, and Doctrine and Covenants, or you’ll look up for them yourself.
Or you can look out to the Anglican Church, which is the Episcopalian Church in England, anyways. Then you can look at the Eastern Orthodox Church, which also holds to the doctrine of the trinity. Now, of course, different people within each of these denominations or various groups would hold different opinions and beliefs about the Godhead, even about the doctrine of the Trinity. There is not just one specific doctrine of the Trinity. There are various ideas about what the Trinity is, who is in the Trinity, how it works, how it can con joins together, how it exists.
So it’s not just one doctrine of the Trinity. There are many doctrines of the Trinity. William Lane Craig I’m sorry. Doctor William Lane Craig has a concept of the Trinity, which is, I would say, very much different than a lot of traditional concepts of the trinity. I’ll just leave it at that.
I don’t wanna try to explain his position. You can go research that for yourself anyways. But if you wanna get down to specific people who believe in the doctrine of the Trinity and who I would suggest going and visiting their YouTube channel and learning from them. We’re going to start out with the channel Soteriology one hundred and one by Doctor. Layton Flowers.
He is a Trinitarian and he believes in the Trinity. So you can learn about the doctrine of the Trinity from him. He does focus more on soteriology than the Godhead, but he is a Trinitarian. The second one we’re going to advise you to go check out is Idol Killer that is hosted by Warren McGrew. And once again, he does a lot more work in soteriology than the Godhead or Christology, but one of his favorite subjects is the Trinity.
So if you’d like to learn more about the Trinity, go ask him or check out his channel. And finally, one of the last ones I want to put forth is a channel called unlearn the lies. This is run by a gentleman named Lex Meyer, and this is more geared towards I’m sorry. This channel is geared more towards the messianic way of thinking as far as keeping Torah, Kosher, feast days, things like that. So definitely go check out this channel, but Lex Meyer is a Trinitarian and there are several videos that pertain to the doctrine of the Trinity on his channel.
So you’ll check out his channel or contact him for more information on this doctrine of the Trinity or Trinitarianism in general. So in summary, number one, the doctrine of the Trinity states that God consists of three persons in one essence. Remember, God is according to the doctrine of the Trinity, God is an essence, not a person, but he’s composed of three persons. The doctrine of the Trinity states that all three are coequal and co eternal. The father is not the son, the son is not the holy spirit, and the holy spirit is not the father.
The father is God, the son is God, and the holy spirit is God, and yet there are not three gods, but one God. Each person is not one third of God, but 100% God. The original Nicene Creed of 03/25 was not Trinitarian in nature. We looked at that when we saw it for ourselves that it wasn’t Trinitarian. It was more Venitarian in nature and that the doctrine of the Trinity really didn’t get started until about March at Constantinople.
And we also saw that the edict right before that in March put forth the power of the state to enforce the doctrine of the trinity. And the doctrine of the trinity has continued to evolve and develop over the centuries. We saw that with the various creeds that we examine as well as the artwork that we looked at. And many denominations or people over the centuries and today hold to the concept of the trinity. And that’s just the God honest truth.
