Month: March 2007

I’m currently presenting a webcast version of this same material for YouTube. In the meanwhile, here’s the print version.

Why study the doctrine of the Trinity ? Real simple – we begin with the doctrine of God because the scriptures begin with the doctrine of the God – “In the beginning God….”, so if we are to understand creation, salvation, humanity and such correctly, we too need to start with the doctrine of God. Get God wrong, get salvation wrong.

Secondly, what should we study about the God of the scriptures ? Everything. In knowing Him, more of His character is revealed to us in scripture so that we can more clearly see it worked out in our daily lives. Some people wonder, for example, why hardships come upon them from time to time. They come to a church and they get a nice, grandfatherly-type God who just waits in heaven to give gifts and never brings tough times to His people. I simply say here that if these people had spent time reading the book of Ruth, reading Joseph’s own testimony about Who brought him to Egypt, reading Job’s testimony of ‘though He slay me, yet will I serve Him’, reading the words of Psalm 119:67 and 75, they would know that the very testing they go through is brought on them for a season by the God of the Universe. And the less we know of this God and hold to superstitions of our minds, the more likely it is that we do not know the God of the Universe in the first place.

Thirdly, how often should we specifically study the doctrine of God ? There is no specific amount of time. It should be a permeating influence weaved into the general daily study of our scriptures and preached on Sunday mornings. We should, in the process of reading about the good works of the Thessalonians in 1 Thess. 3, come to see the beauty of the Triune God working in harmony for the sanctification of the believer in verses 11-14.

All that said, prior to digging into the doctrine of the Trinity, we must get a few things out of the way as preliminaries. Let’s hit those first.

First and foremost is the issue of reverence. We’re not dealing with abstract concepts that have no bearing on the Christian life, salvation or that are simply ‘secondary issues’ that we can disagree on. We are talking about the Creator of the Universe. The universe is 15 billion light years across in either direction from the earth – and the scriptures say that God holds it in the palm of His hand.

Big God.

Any discussion of His Nature and Being should be approached with extreme caution, lest we, in our misinformation, mislead others into believing in a ‘god’ that does not exist.