Sunday School Grade XII 2010-11
Unit 1 Lesson 3
God as Creative Community of Love
God is essentially and eternally LOVE. God is understood through the understanding that God is Love.
God is Love in action.
God’s Love and the Doctrine of Trinity
We understand God as Love. He did not grow to the stage of being Love, but was Love and is Love. Humans try to grow to a stage that is full of love. The creation, including the angels and the humans, were created by God to share the Love in God.
Love is not perfect when taken and given mutually. Love is perfect only when it is shared together. The love of a married couple will not be perfect without a child.
In a Monad, love is impossible.
In a duality love is possible, but it is imperfect.
In a Trinity, love is possible and perfect.
In a quadranity, the perfect love does not become more perfect.
Tritheism and a Trinity of Love
In tritheism, there is three different god’s with three different functions, characters and existence. In Trinity, the equality and unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are seen. There is only one plan in the Holy Trinity and not three. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are co-eternal in the Heavenly Trinity. Eternity is beyond time and the issue of earlier or later does not arise.
Trinity in Old Testament
Old Testament does not have the full revelation of God or sufficient proof of Trinity.
Some proofs from the OT: 1) Apparition of three men to Abraham (Gen18), 2) The threefold ‘holy’ in Isaiah Ch. 6, 3) The mention of God, His Wisdom and His Spirit in the book of Wisdom.
Eastern and Western Doctrine of Trinity – Main Differences
Addition of the ‘Filioque’ clause in the Western Church was under the influence of Augustinian doctrine of Trinity. Filioque means ‘and the son’.
“We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father.* With the Father and the Son He is worshiped and glorified.”
Augustinian doctrine attributed the procession of Holy Spirit equally to the Father and the Son. The Eastern Church followed the Cappadocian Fathers and believes in the single procession of the Holy Spirit and the single generation of the Son, both from the Father. Those who added it only meant in the Eastern meaning of ‘through the Son’. Even Augustine had agreed to the fact that Holy Spirit proceeds originally from the Father alone. “And yet it is not to no purpose that in this Trinity the Son and none other is called the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit and none other the Gift of God, and God the Father alone is He from whom the Word is born, and from whom the Holy Spirit principally proceeds. And therefore I have added the word principally, because we find that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son also.” De Trinitate 15: 29
Arianism or Sabellianism in the modern period
The Jehovah’s Witnesses are Arians of the present day. They believe in One God, the Father, and believes that Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit as creations of God and hence not equal to the Father. So, there is no eternal Trinity.
Sabellianism, there is only One God who appeared as Father in the Old Testament, as Son in the New Testament, and as Holy Spirit since Pentecost.
Connection of Creation, Redemption and Consummation to Trinity
Creation was the spontaneous expression of love ever active in the Blessed Trinity. God created everything voluntarily out of His love. The Father, Son and Spirit shared in the creative act.
The incarnation of the Son was also as the Spirit overshadowed and the Father sent the Son and the Logos incarnated. The Consummation will also be the work of the Holy Spirit, the second coming of the Son, and the fulfillment of the purpose of the Father.
The Father creates through the Son and the Spirit, redeems through the Spirit and the Son.
Read: 1 John 4: 7 - 21
Unit 1 Lesson 3
God as Creative Community of Love
God is essentially and eternally LOVE. God is understood through the understanding that God is Love.
God is Love in action.
God’s Love and the Doctrine of Trinity
We understand God as Love. He did not grow to the stage of being Love, but was Love and is Love. Humans try to grow to a stage that is full of love. The creation, including the angels and the humans, were created by God to share the Love in God.
Love is not perfect when taken and given mutually. Love is perfect only when it is shared together. The love of a married couple will not be perfect without a child.
In a Monad, love is impossible.
In a duality love is possible, but it is imperfect.
In a Trinity, love is possible and perfect.
In a quadranity, the perfect love does not become more perfect.
Tritheism and a Trinity of Love
In tritheism, there is three different god’s with three different functions, characters and existence. In Trinity, the equality and unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are seen. There is only one plan in the Holy Trinity and not three. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are co-eternal in the Heavenly Trinity. Eternity is beyond time and the issue of earlier or later does not arise.
Trinity in Old Testament
Old Testament does not have the full revelation of God or sufficient proof of Trinity.
Some proofs from the OT: 1) Apparition of three men to Abraham (Gen18), 2) The threefold ‘holy’ in Isaiah Ch. 6, 3) The mention of God, His Wisdom and His Spirit in the book of Wisdom.
Eastern and Western Doctrine of Trinity – Main Differences
Addition of the ‘Filioque’ clause in the Western Church was under the influence of Augustinian doctrine of Trinity. Filioque means ‘and the son’.
“We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father.* With the Father and the Son He is worshiped and glorified.”
Augustinian doctrine attributed the procession of Holy Spirit equally to the Father and the Son. The Eastern Church followed the Cappadocian Fathers and believes in the single procession of the Holy Spirit and the single generation of the Son, both from the Father. Those who added it only meant in the Eastern meaning of ‘through the Son’. Even Augustine had agreed to the fact that Holy Spirit proceeds originally from the Father alone. “And yet it is not to no purpose that in this Trinity the Son and none other is called the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit and none other the Gift of God, and God the Father alone is He from whom the Word is born, and from whom the Holy Spirit principally proceeds. And therefore I have added the word principally, because we find that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son also.” De Trinitate 15: 29
Arianism or Sabellianism in the modern period
The Jehovah’s Witnesses are Arians of the present day. They believe in One God, the Father, and believes that Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit as creations of God and hence not equal to the Father. So, there is no eternal Trinity.
Sabellianism, there is only One God who appeared as Father in the Old Testament, as Son in the New Testament, and as Holy Spirit since Pentecost.
Connection of Creation, Redemption and Consummation to Trinity
Creation was the spontaneous expression of love ever active in the Blessed Trinity. God created everything voluntarily out of His love. The Father, Son and Spirit shared in the creative act.
The incarnation of the Son was also as the Spirit overshadowed and the Father sent the Son and the Logos incarnated. The Consummation will also be the work of the Holy Spirit, the second coming of the Son, and the fulfillment of the purpose of the Father.
The Father creates through the Son and the Spirit, redeems through the Spirit and the Son.
Read: 1 John 4: 7 - 21
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