Unfortunately, the first half of the class was not able to be recorded.

Access the notes below:

 

Defining and Defending the Trinity

 

  1. There is only one God.
  2. The Father is God.
  3. The Son is God.
  4. The Holy Spirit is God.
  5. The Father is not the Son.
  6. The Son is not the Spirit.
  7. The Spirit is not the Father.

 

“Doctrine provides the conceptual framework by which the scriptural narrative is interpreted. It is not an arbitrary framework, however, but one which is suggested by that narrative, and intimated by scripture itself. It is to be discerned within, rather than imposed upon, that narrative.” (Alister McGrath, The Genesis of Doctrine: A Study in the Foundation of Doctrinal Criticism, p. 58-59)

 

  • There is only one God (eg., Deut 6:4; 1 Cor 8:4-6)
  • The Father is God (eg., John 6:27)
  • The Son is God (eg., John 20:28; Rom 9:5; 2 Pet 1:1)
  • The Holy Spirit is God (eg., Acts 5:3-5)
  • These three are distinct persons (eg., Matt 3:16-17;John 14:16-17)
  • These three are spoken of as a unity (eg. Matt 28:19; 2 Cor 13:14)

 

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. - Gen 1:1-2


 

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” - Gen 1:26 (cf. Gen 3:22)

 

The strange experience of Sodom and Gomorrah

“And the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. 2 He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him.” – Gen 18:1-2


“Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven.” – Gen 19:24 (The LORD on earth receives sulfur and fire from the LORD in heaven to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah)

 

I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD. – Amos 4:11 (notice: God speaks about Himself in the third-person)

 

Therefore…we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one,”…yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” - 1 Cor 8:4, 6

 

“…through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior; To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.” - Titus 1:3-4


Pre-Nicene Affirmations of Jesus’ Divinity

 

“God appeared in human form to bring the newness of eternal life.” – Ignatius, Letter to the Ephesians, (c. 107-110 AD)

 

“God did not send some subordinate, or angel or ruler or one of those who manage earthly matters, or one of those entrusted with the administration of things in heaven, but the Designer and Creator of the universe himself…He sent him as God; he sent him as a man to men.” – The Letter to Diognetus, (c. 150-225 AD)

 

“Though he [the Son of God] was incorporeal, he formed for himself a body like ours. He appeared as one of the sheep, yet he remained the Shepherd. He was esteemed a servant, yet he did not renounce being a Son. He was carried about in the womb of Mary, yet he was clothed in the nature of his Father. He walked on earth, yet he filled heaven. He appeared as an infant, yet he did not discard his eternal nature. He was invested with a body, but it did not limit his divinity. He was esteemed poor, yet he was not divested of his riches. He needed nourishment because he was man, yet he did not cease to nourish the entire world because he is God. He put on the likeness of a servant, yet it did not impair the likeness of his Father. He was everything by his unchangeable nature. He was standing before Pilate, and at the same time he was sitting with his Father. He was nailed on a tree, yet he was the Lord of all things.” – Melito of Sardis, From the Discourse on the Cross, (c. 160-170 AD)

 

“How can they be saved unless it was God who worked out their salvation upon earth? Or how shall man pass into God, unless God has first passed into man?...For no one can forgive sins but God alone; while the Lord forgave them and healed men, it is clear that he was himself the Word of God made the Son of man, receiving from the Father the power to forgive sins. He was man and he was God, in order that since as man he suffered for us, so as God he might have compassion on us, and forgive our sins.” – Irenaeus, Against Heresies (c. 180 AD)

 

“Whoever does not acknowledge him to be God would lose salvation, which he could not find elsewhere than in Christ God….He is God, but God in such a manner as to be the Son, not the Father.” – Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity (c. 200-258 AD)

 

“He who is over all, the blessed God, has been born; and having been made man, he is still God forever.” – Hippolytus, Against the Heresy of One Noetus (c. 205 AD)