NT Framework 13 Doctrine of Trinity (and Hypostatic Union)

SBC Family and Friends,

I've attached a handout that outlines in a very simplistic form the discussion on Trinity (and the Hypostatic Union). These doctrines can't entirely be separated since they are discussed simultaneously in church history. You're going to look at the handout and think, "What?" But it is really a simple picture of the controversies that took place. There are at least 10-15 other nuanced views, so I am trying to simplify to make the discussion somewhat manageable. I hope you wrestle through this because it forces you to think about God and Christ and the result is growth. There is so much baloney theology today that churches are getting away with. People keep going to these churches thinking they are getting something. They're not getting anything. They aren't even looking at the Bible 99% of the time.

However, looking at history, I just marvel that people have thought about the Scriptures and tried to understand. It's the most studied book in the history of the world. That itself is saying a lot! They didn't have computer programs to do searches on specific morphologies. They didn't have Bible's on their phones! They did it all with their minds and cross referencing and learning the original languages without many resources. Some of them just had Latin and had to learn that and deal with Latin translations. Not much help.

I'll try to walk us through some of these views about God and Christ, but keep in mind that we have a goal. That goal is to understand who God is acurately. Along the way, understand that we are all standing on the shoulders of giants. We were not the first people to come up with the idea of the Trinity. Today there is a lot of belligerence from our generation against earlier generations that got things wrong. That is the wrong attitude. Those people were working on it. No one generation figured out anything on their own. The 1st century church was almost ridiculous in their theology, but they were doing the best they could. It takes more than a few lifetimes to figure some of this stuff out because you're working on the most complicated puzzle ever created. No one generation can complete it. They can only put a few pieces together and hand it over to the next generation. If we think about it like that we will have a lot more appreciation for those who have preceded us. We are just trying to make a little progress. I really think this generation has a lot of arrogance, and I would like to do my part in shutting that down. See the attached handout. It is incomplete, but I don't think we will finish it anyway, so there will be a few blanks filled in next week.

Amazing stuff.

Grace to you,
Jeremy

Attachment:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16xLocblqPJEbzp6vBNaRz77eDcOi-nv5/view?usp=drive_link