The Trinity.. Explained – Isaiah 6:1-8; John 3:1-10
Second Presbyterian Church, Albuquerque, NM June 7, 2009
“We in the Christian church affirm as an essential part of our faith belief in a Triune God…The Trinity doctrine basically says that there is one God. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. Hence God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Three, but they make up one God. Each is co-equal and co-eternal.” [2] Blessed Trinity!
Does that make sense? Maybe some of you would like to add to this a bit….
Oh right, that’s my job. Well, Rob and I both agreed that we have tried for such a long time with our respective congregations to explain the Trinity, and you still didn’t get it… that we just had to exchange churches this Sunday, so that we could try to explain the Trinity to each other’s congregations. So now I guess is a good time to explain the Trinity doctrine…
In April of this year, I was put to the test. I visited a Muslim country, Morocco, on an interfaith trip with other religious leaders, and our leader was the Imam at the Mosque in Santa Fe, who also happened to be a native of Morocco. There I found myself in a very lively; non-threatening discussion about faith with a committed Muslim. He, very graciously, pointed out that there were so many similarities between Christianity and Islam: Belief in the virgin birth (another difficult thing to explain); belief in the crucifixion of Jesus, and even in his ascension into heaven and that he will return. I did not know these things about Islam before.
And then he squinted his eyes a bit, shifted in his seat, and closed his mouth before he said, You know what a big difference is between your religion and ours: The Trinity. How can you believe in three Gods Or one God that is Three? This just doesn’t make sense.
Had I had adequate time at that moment, it would have been a good time to have explained the doctrine of the trinity. But I guess now is a good time to explain the Trinity doctrine…
