Greeting to one and all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to the glory of the Father Almighty. I have created this blog to discuss various topics in order to introduce many to Orthodox Christian doctrine (that doctrine which has been held to be correct by disciples of Jesus Christ from the beginning of the church), to reinforce that doctrine and make practical suggestions for how to live out discipleship in the contemporary world (particularly how we can experience discipline in the middle of hectic schedules) and enable those already familiar with Orthodox concepts and practices to be able to teach those principles to others as well as to be able to present a logical and cohesive defense to those who challenge our most sacred truths.
As my father always taught me, it is best to begin at the beginning. In that vein, I have decided to make the topic of my first few posts the conception of God Himself from the Orthodox point of view of God's self-revelation within Holy Scripture. Ask a vast majority of people who are members or regular attenders of a mainstream Christian church and they will most likely tell you that Trinity is perhaps the most essential Christian doctrine. Yet, these self-same disciples often cannot, if asked, articulate what it means for God to be in Trinity and still less demonstrate through their worship pracitice any value of the concept they determine to be essential to belief. Not only individual Christians, but often Sunday worship, particularly in low sacramental congregations, is devoid of any real appeal to the God who reveals Himself in Three Persons. This lack of teaching within the church has often led the well-meaning to adopt peculiar notions and erroneous positions about Trinity that have gone unchallenged. Maybe, even as you read this post you may realize that you may not be able to provide an explanation of Trinity if asked or that maybe one person of God, usually the Son, to the exclusion of the complete Personhood of God.
If you do find yourself in either category there is no shame to be had. It is my hope that what is written here will provide you with a useful resource to discuss the truth about Trinity and to incorporate Trinity into your worship practice to access more of God's presence and power. I will begin with a first post of an articulation of Trinity from an Orthodox standpoint as established in the creeds of historic Christianity, in the second I will be answering some common questions posed from those who are disciples of Christ and denials from those who are outside Orthodox belief, and the concluding blog of this series will concern itself with common misunderstandings of the nature and relationship of Trinity. This will be the first of many topics to come and I invite everyone to grab a cup of coffee, relax in your favorite chair and be prepared to grow in faith and practice.
So, to begin, what does Trinity mean from a biblical standpoint as the Orthodox church established? Trinity means that the One God described in the canon of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament; Deuteronomy 6:4) is expressed in Three individual, harmonious Persons that are not separated in job function, authority, power, or substance (actual make-up), but only in relationship. Relationship is the key to understanding Trinity and the primary character and motivation of God.
First John chapter 4 is crucial to understanding Holy Trinity, and this chapter will be explored in some length, along with John's gospel, in subsequent blogs to clarify much of what the early church believed concerning Holy Trinity. But for the purpose of this post and understanding relationship not as divine activity but as core to the divine character we will examine a phrase in verses 8 and 16. Again, you can find these verses at the back of the Bible in the letters or epistles of John, not in the gospel.
The key phrase in both verses is John's strenuous (strenuous, because he repeats it) assertion that God is love. Notice that the author in both verses does not say God is loving or that God has love. He declares that God is,in fact, love. Without engaging in too much language detail, although I will provide the linguistic reason from the Greek gladly for anyone who asks, let me say that it is impossible by the rules of the language to reverse the statement and say that love is God. The apostle John makes it very distinct that God is love. You may be asking why I am making such a big deal out of what appears to be a tiny phrase. Long story short, it is a big deal.
In both Greek and English, love is a relational word. A single person could in no way "be" love. Neither could a non-sapient (unthinking, unfeeling) object be love. This one small phrase has GIANT implications. The use of the word as a divine attribute leaves little option other than to acknowledge that John is stipulating that the One God (John is a Jew and is not departing from the base credal statement of Deuteronomy 6:4) of the Hebrew Bible consists of several persons who are "love." In other words, John is saying that the One God consists of a Godhead of multiple (Three, in fact) persons who are in perfect agreement and relationship with each other. No one personality dominates any other and power is equilaterally shared in triangular form. All persons of the perfect relationship known as God are to be equally adored and worshipped, equally respected and equally obeyed. Each person has a unique relationship with the target of the love relationship, the human creation, but that is a lesson for another time.
Thank you for joining me for this first post. If you found its information helpful and useful, please feel free to recommend it to your family, friends and churches. If you have questions or comments, feel free to leave them and I will respond as soon as possible. Check back every couple of weeks for new installments. May each of you be blessed in the name of the Holy Son, who is together One and worshipped with the Holy Spirit and the Father Almighty, amen.
