WEBVTT 00:00:00.500 --> 00:00:07.280 Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for gathering us. I give thanks to our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 00:00:07.459 --> 00:00:11.660 We pray to you, our God, in the name of Christ. We pray in the power of the Spirit. 00:00:12.160 --> 00:00:15.120 We know, O Lord, that the Spirit even improves our prayers. 00:00:15.780 --> 00:00:20.980 We know that the intercession of Christ, who sits at the right hand of the Father, is active for us now. 00:00:21.080 --> 00:00:24.620 So we give thanks to you, our God, for hearing us and listening to us. 00:00:24.740 --> 00:00:28.019 So as we think about who you are a little bit more through the doctrine of the Trinity, 00:00:28.019 --> 00:00:32.100 and then we come and plead before you for your work in our city. 00:00:32.259 --> 00:00:39.019 We pray, God, and ask that you would draw near to us, that we seek your face so, Lord, do gather with us. 00:00:39.179 --> 00:00:43.719 We pray for your condescension into our midst, that the Holy Spirit would be with us now, 00:00:43.840 --> 00:00:46.260 and we ask for your help in Christ's name. Amen. 00:00:47.200 --> 00:00:53.760 All right, we're working our way through a course on the doctrine of the Trinity called Delighting in the Trinity. 00:00:53.759 --> 00:00:59.599 And we have said the past couple of times, this is our third time to get to gather together, 00:01:00.159 --> 00:01:07.280 that delighting in our God, who is triune, one God in essence, three in person, 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:12.939 is not just the icing on the cake of the Christian life, it is the main content of the Christian life, 00:01:12.959 --> 00:01:17.000 that we exist actually to delight in God, who is the triune God. 00:01:17.439 --> 00:01:20.640 And then last time we got together, we talked about the Bible and the Trinity. 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:24.799 So some of the questions that come up around that are, does the Bible actually teach the Trinity? 00:01:25.319 --> 00:01:28.379 And there have been plenty of religious traditions that have said no to that, 00:01:28.460 --> 00:01:32.700 but we looked very carefully at how the Bible does teach the doctrine of the Trinity 00:01:32.700 --> 00:01:36.799 and the truth that God is one in essence, three in person, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 00:01:37.240 --> 00:01:44.040 We said that God is distinct in His persons, but undivided in His essence. 00:01:44.079 --> 00:01:48.319 And that's one of the really important parts of the language that we want to remember. 00:01:48.319 --> 00:01:53.619 Another thing we've said both times coming up to today that you can never graduate from, 00:01:53.699 --> 00:01:58.979 that is so helpful to remember, is that we do theology as creatures. 00:02:00.099 --> 00:02:05.599 And as creatures, we can never get our hands all the way around, 00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:10.299 which is the word comprehension in English, to get your hands all the way around the doctrine of the Trinity. 00:02:10.500 --> 00:02:11.459 Of course we can't. 00:02:11.759 --> 00:02:13.680 If we could, we would be God. 00:02:13.680 --> 00:02:16.960 So only God knows God the way that God knows God. 00:02:17.540 --> 00:02:22.700 And we know God as creatures, and we use human words to speak about God. 00:02:23.120 --> 00:02:26.420 And so that means we speak truthfully, but relatively. 00:02:26.860 --> 00:02:30.879 We speak as creatures, and so God has given us permission to speak about Him. 00:02:30.939 --> 00:02:33.680 He's told us so much about Him, so we speak truthfully. 00:02:33.819 --> 00:02:40.260 But one of the theologians I like to read says famously that mystery is the lifeblood of theology. 00:02:40.259 --> 00:02:44.399 And so mystery is the starting point, really, of talking about the Trinity. 00:02:45.019 --> 00:02:53.280 All right, so tonight we're going to look at the next subject, which is the heresies surrounding the Trinity. 00:02:53.759 --> 00:02:54.419 Oh, there's my pen. 00:02:55.060 --> 00:02:57.280 And I'll, there we are. 00:02:57.379 --> 00:03:02.459 So just a reminder, this is what you need to have the fundamental doctrine of the Trinity, 00:03:02.759 --> 00:03:04.379 that there is one God. 00:03:04.379 --> 00:03:07.699 We looked at Deuteronomy 6, 4, the Shema, 6, 1 to 4. 00:03:08.479 --> 00:03:11.259 Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. 00:03:11.340 --> 00:03:14.340 Not many, not a pantheon, not polytheism, but one. 00:03:14.859 --> 00:03:18.299 And then the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are each fully God. 00:03:19.180 --> 00:03:21.740 And the Father, Son, and the Spirit are not the same as each other. 00:03:21.819 --> 00:03:24.199 So there's an undivided essence. 00:03:24.780 --> 00:03:29.240 Yet at the same time, there's distinction in the Godhead, and that's a distinction of the persons. 00:03:29.240 --> 00:03:34.480 So we say the persons of God are distinct, Father, Son, and Spirit, but undivided in essence. 00:03:34.580 --> 00:03:41.159 And that's what you need to say to have the standard Christian doctrine of who our God is, the triune God. 00:03:41.920 --> 00:03:49.500 Now, one of the ways we've developed language around the doctrine of the Trinity is through responding to problems. 00:03:50.140 --> 00:03:53.300 And we call those problems in Christian history heresies. 00:03:53.300 --> 00:04:03.420 And heresies have been very important, actually, in a way for clarifying what we believe and helping us understand more of what the Bible teaches. 00:04:03.620 --> 00:04:08.760 And so sometimes what's happened throughout history is that we've received something and said, well, is that correct? 00:04:08.980 --> 00:04:14.900 And then we've had to go and look at the Bible and wrestle with it to come up and understand what the Bible actually teaches. 00:04:14.900 --> 00:04:18.759 So the word heresy is a Greek word, comes from a Greek word. 00:04:18.860 --> 00:04:21.319 It's an English word, of course, that means to choose. 00:04:21.319 --> 00:04:34.980 And so the reason that they're called heresies is because the idea is that when people speak heresy, they are taking one accent of a truth, a half truth, a partial truth, and making it the whole thing. 00:04:35.420 --> 00:04:38.659 And then letting go of the rest, letting go of the nuances. 00:04:38.959 --> 00:04:48.719 And that's how you arrive often at heresy is by taking one thing that seems true, but forgetting everything else around it and then speaking that as if it is the truth. 00:04:48.720 --> 00:04:53.980 Okay, so it's so important to say, just press pause there. 00:04:54.060 --> 00:04:57.280 We'll come to the Nicene Creed in a moment, why this matters. 00:04:57.480 --> 00:05:04.080 Why does it matter for a Christian in 2026 to know at least a little bit about the tradition of the heresies? 00:05:04.520 --> 00:05:06.760 And it matters for a number of reasons. 00:05:06.760 --> 00:05:07.840 I'll just rattle off a few. 00:05:07.960 --> 00:05:11.060 One, because we want to know the truth. 00:05:11.060 --> 00:05:21.459 And arriving at who God is has come to us by way of thinking through some of these problems and arriving at the language that we're about to read in the Nicene Creed through the lens of these problems. 00:05:21.560 --> 00:05:25.819 So we want to know God and the way he's revealed himself more and more and more deeply. 00:05:26.500 --> 00:05:38.459 And so one way to say that is we can't really delight as much as possible with affection for the God who is unless we know the God who is to the uttermost as much as we can. 00:05:38.459 --> 00:05:45.560 And so if I turn to my wife and say, I love you so much, I delight in you so much. 00:05:45.919 --> 00:05:54.779 And then I say to my wife, I delight in your beautiful blue eyes and your long blonde hair. 00:05:55.659 --> 00:06:05.779 Then hopefully those of you in the room who know my wife will know that she has every right to say you don't know me because my wife doesn't have those attributes. 00:06:05.779 --> 00:06:13.659 And in the same way, that's a small example of the magisterial reality that God invites us to know him. 00:06:14.399 --> 00:06:20.179 And the more that we talk about God, the more we want to say true things to the God who made us. 00:06:20.739 --> 00:06:23.859 And that's actually one of the ways we grow in our affection for God. 00:06:23.860 --> 00:06:37.980 And then the most important, perhaps, and piece in addition to that is we've said every single time the gospel stands or falls at some point in speaking about the God who is and the way he's revealed himself in the right way. 00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:41.139 So only the son can bring you to the father. 00:06:41.319 --> 00:06:47.620 Only the father can send the son to be adopted as a child of God is to have the spirit in your life. 00:06:47.620 --> 00:06:53.399 Well, there right there is what we call a triune work of God, the father, son, and spirit at work in your life. 00:06:53.500 --> 00:06:56.540 And to get the gospel, you have to speak about the Trinity. 00:06:56.740 --> 00:06:59.720 And so we want to say that as best as we possibly can. 00:07:00.139 --> 00:07:11.360 So a little caveat on that is to say we're not saying tonight at all in any way that everybody needs a classroom level understanding of what's called the Trinitarian grammar. 00:07:11.360 --> 00:07:19.860 You know, all the precise words in their Greek and Latin form as they were originally given to make sure that you've got the doctrine right or you're speaking wrongly about God. 00:07:19.920 --> 00:07:21.180 That's not at all what we're saying. 00:07:21.660 --> 00:07:25.400 You are not saved by getting theological grammar correctly. 00:07:25.520 --> 00:07:26.199 No, not at all. 00:07:26.580 --> 00:07:32.340 And so the smallest child in our church that trusts in Jesus is justified by faith in Christ Jesus. 00:07:32.600 --> 00:07:34.699 So we're not saying that for a half second. 00:07:34.699 --> 00:07:44.539 But I think what we are saying tonight is real faith desires to know the deep things of God and want to enter in more fully into the deep things of God. 00:07:44.939 --> 00:07:53.680 So it does mean that eventually errors about God that seem small at first become quite big eventually. 00:07:54.259 --> 00:08:01.319 And it really does matter to say that no one who denies the father knows, sorry, denies the son, I should say, knows the father. 00:08:01.319 --> 00:08:08.240 And so if we are arriving at a place and that's what the tradition of the heresies did, denying the divinity of the son, for example, 00:08:08.500 --> 00:08:15.579 it means that one does not know the father and has lost the very concept, the very reality of Christianity altogether. 00:08:16.180 --> 00:08:20.000 And so let's take a few minutes to talk about this. 00:08:20.120 --> 00:08:29.060 And I just want to present to you three of the most important for their historical value heresies that have been spoken in church history 00:08:29.060 --> 00:08:35.639 and see how we responded to them in order to talk about God as best as we possibly can. 00:08:35.700 --> 00:08:39.740 So we'll move through them in just a few minutes each, not hardly any time. 00:08:40.019 --> 00:08:43.000 And there's a world here underneath what we'll do in just a few minutes. 00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:47.100 But I want to first confess the Nicene Creed. 00:08:47.360 --> 00:08:49.919 So in our church, we don't often do this. 00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:52.019 We do a catechism where everybody responds. 00:08:52.019 --> 00:08:58.799 But it has been very normal throughout church history, including in the Scottish Presbyterian tradition, to confess the creeds. 00:08:59.199 --> 00:09:03.779 And so if there's nothing else tonight, maybe one of the invitations I could make to you is just to ask you, 00:09:03.919 --> 00:09:06.579 do you have a relationship with the creeds at all? 00:09:06.659 --> 00:09:08.419 Do you know them? Are you aware of them? 00:09:08.980 --> 00:09:15.199 The creeds are the foundational constitutional documents of the Christian faith. 00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:22.680 Of course, sitting on the authority of the Bible alone, which is not constitutional because it can't be changed. 00:09:23.220 --> 00:09:30.420 But here we have one of the most important statements ever written on the Christian faith that the church has typically looked at and said, 00:09:30.540 --> 00:09:36.180 to confess this is to understand the sum total, really, of what the Christian believes. 00:09:36.560 --> 00:09:38.860 And so let's confess it together, if you're okay with that. 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:43.580 Typically, to confess the creed, we would ask, Christian, what do you believe? 00:09:43.680 --> 00:09:44.580 And then we would respond. 00:09:44.580 --> 00:09:46.960 So it comes across, I think, three slides. 00:09:47.100 --> 00:09:50.800 So you might have to bear with me right at the last little word there just to get to the next slide. 00:09:50.860 --> 00:09:52.620 But let's confess the creed together. 00:09:53.320 --> 00:09:54.540 So, Christian, what do you believe? 00:09:55.040 --> 00:10:03.100 We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. 00:10:03.800 --> 00:10:10.240 We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, 00:10:10.240 --> 00:10:18.600 God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father. 00:10:19.220 --> 00:10:21.659 Through him, all things were made. 00:10:21.659 --> 00:10:31.579 For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven, was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became truly human. 00:10:32.100 --> 00:10:35.360 For our sake, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. 00:10:35.779 --> 00:10:38.079 He suffered death and was buried. 00:10:38.080 --> 00:10:42.200 On the third day, he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures. 00:10:42.680 --> 00:10:46.620 He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. 00:10:46.960 --> 00:10:53.060 He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. 00:10:53.059 --> 00:11:07.259 We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, 00:11:07.779 --> 00:11:13.000 who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. 00:11:13.479 --> 00:11:17.299 We believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church. 00:11:17.299 --> 00:11:20.799 We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. 00:11:20.799 --> 00:11:25.539 We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. 00:11:26.199 --> 00:11:26.539 Amen. 00:11:26.919 --> 00:11:27.419 All right. 00:11:27.500 --> 00:11:28.740 So, well, thanks for doing that. 00:11:28.839 --> 00:11:36.299 And this is something that we hope to do here a little bit more often soon at St. C's, is confess the creeds a little bit more. 00:11:36.919 --> 00:11:43.000 So, the first, and we'll just do these very briefly, is the heresy called Arianism, 00:11:43.439 --> 00:11:48.019 which was very important for clarifying what we just read there in the Nicene Creed 00:11:48.019 --> 00:11:50.379 and understanding what we think about Jesus, about the Son of God. 00:11:50.799 --> 00:12:00.059 So, Arius comes up around the year 318, especially his teaching becomes very popular, I should say, around the year 318. 00:12:00.939 --> 00:12:07.219 And I won't tell all the stories, but invite you very much to go, even on Wikipedia or other great sources, 00:12:07.539 --> 00:12:11.899 much better sources than that, and read a little bit about the story of Arius. 00:12:11.899 --> 00:12:16.620 And the big thing to know is that Arius was going around saying things like, 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:20.120 there was a time when the Son of God was not. 00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:27.639 Meaning, there was a time when the Son, who took on flesh in Jesus Christ, did not exist. 00:12:28.120 --> 00:12:34.199 So, Arius said that Jesus, the Son of God, is a creature, not divine. 00:12:34.200 --> 00:12:39.000 And he said that the Holy Spirit was also a great creature, not divine. 00:12:39.700 --> 00:12:43.780 And so, this is what led to the Council of Nicaea that we just confessed. 00:12:43.860 --> 00:12:50.320 In 325, the all-star character at the Council of Nicaea was this man called Athanasius. 00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:58.980 And he was eventually exiled from Alexandria and Egypt five separate times because after the Council of Nicaea, 00:12:59.480 --> 00:13:04.379 the Arian thought that Jesus, the Son, is just a creature, not divine, 00:13:04.760 --> 00:13:09.560 actually sort of dominated parts of what we would now call Europe and North Africa. 00:13:10.300 --> 00:13:13.840 And eventually, the truth came back up to the forefront. 00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:18.899 And it was reaffirmed later in Constantinople in the year 381, 00:13:18.980 --> 00:13:22.379 and a little bit more was added to that creed that we just read. 00:13:22.420 --> 00:13:26.700 So, we just read what's called the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. 00:13:27.139 --> 00:13:31.399 And that's to put the creed that was written in 325 together with the creed in 381 00:13:31.399 --> 00:13:34.460 to produce one big text that we just read. 00:13:34.460 --> 00:13:41.280 Now, Arius liked to go to places like Proverbs 8.22 famously, 00:13:41.279 --> 00:13:48.559 where we read that the Lord God, the Creator, possessed me at the beginning of His work. 00:13:48.679 --> 00:13:53.759 And Arius read the me there as the Son of God, like many in the Christian church have done. 00:13:54.139 --> 00:13:59.339 But he read it to mean that the Creator created the Son 00:13:59.339 --> 00:14:02.959 and then used the Son to help with the rest of creation. 00:14:03.579 --> 00:14:09.899 So, Arius read that to say such a thing as the Son was the Father's first great creature. 00:14:09.899 --> 00:14:14.220 And then if you go to Colossians 1.15-16, Chris preached on that very recently here. 00:14:14.699 --> 00:14:17.199 He read a text like this in the same way. 00:14:17.240 --> 00:14:22.340 And you can see how he would get confused about this and assert something that's not ultimately true. 00:14:22.439 --> 00:14:25.559 But he said, the Son is the image of the invisible God. 00:14:25.639 --> 00:14:29.279 And then he read this word, the firstborn of all creation. 00:14:29.720 --> 00:14:34.579 Meaning that He was the first to be birthed as a creature of all the other creatures. 00:14:34.580 --> 00:14:38.420 And Chris, very helpfully, a few weeks back said that the word firstborn there 00:14:38.420 --> 00:14:41.400 does not mean the firstborn as a creature, 00:14:41.580 --> 00:14:45.200 but instead the first in ranking or hierarchy, 00:14:45.660 --> 00:14:48.740 Jesus Christ the human amongst all the other humans. 00:14:49.200 --> 00:14:49.379 Right? 00:14:49.420 --> 00:14:51.220 And we could go on and on about all that that means. 00:14:51.379 --> 00:14:52.180 I won't do it tonight. 00:14:52.340 --> 00:14:54.060 But Arius read those texts. 00:14:54.180 --> 00:14:57.379 Now, what happens, remember, in often the heresies, 00:14:57.379 --> 00:15:01.480 is that a person picks a few passages and really emphasizes them 00:15:01.480 --> 00:15:05.919 and then loses the whole, loses the bigger picture. 00:15:06.039 --> 00:15:08.299 And that's exactly what happened in Arius' case. 00:15:08.379 --> 00:15:16.439 So just very quickly, the theologians that gathered at Nicaea responded very directly to Arius. 00:15:16.679 --> 00:15:21.559 And just look at these highlighted lines, and I'll only rattle off a thought or two on them. 00:15:21.659 --> 00:15:26.179 But they said that the Son is eternally begotten of the Father. 00:15:26.179 --> 00:15:30.039 So we could all say that we're begotten from our mothers. 00:15:30.559 --> 00:15:32.459 You're born from your mother, begotten. 00:15:32.819 --> 00:15:35.120 But when they added that word eternally, 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:39.739 they're qualifying Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God, 00:15:39.779 --> 00:15:43.019 as something completely different from an ordinary human. 00:15:43.299 --> 00:15:45.879 Know that He is actually also the divine person, 00:15:46.399 --> 00:15:48.599 the Son of God, who's eternally begotten. 00:15:48.639 --> 00:15:50.919 So there the word begotten doesn't mean birthed. 00:15:51.399 --> 00:15:54.799 It's a way of describing a relation between the Father and the Son 00:15:54.799 --> 00:15:56.539 that is beyond human imagination. 00:15:57.000 --> 00:15:58.139 That's what they were doing with that language. 00:15:58.240 --> 00:16:01.259 It comes, of course, from John chapter 1, John chapter 3. 00:16:01.799 --> 00:16:04.620 For God so loved the world, He sent His only begotten Son. 00:16:04.919 --> 00:16:06.279 So they're picking up on that language. 00:16:06.759 --> 00:16:09.939 Then they said Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God from God. 00:16:10.319 --> 00:16:11.659 So that's really just saying, 00:16:11.959 --> 00:16:12.939 no, He's not a creature. 00:16:13.099 --> 00:16:13.599 He is God. 00:16:13.659 --> 00:16:14.479 He's God from God. 00:16:14.839 --> 00:16:15.979 He's light from light. 00:16:15.980 --> 00:16:17.480 That's an analogy with the Son, 00:16:17.620 --> 00:16:20.360 that the rays of the Son that come from the Son 00:16:20.360 --> 00:16:25.039 are also born or of the Son, S-U-N. 00:16:25.220 --> 00:16:27.500 I mean, they're true God from true God. 00:16:27.680 --> 00:16:29.460 So you can see how much they're reiterating, 00:16:29.940 --> 00:16:32.960 anti-Arius, that the Son of God was never created. 00:16:33.440 --> 00:16:34.420 He is divine. 00:16:35.019 --> 00:16:36.500 And so they say that, very famously there, 00:16:36.620 --> 00:16:39.680 begotten, not made, never made. 00:16:40.460 --> 00:16:41.680 The Son was never made. 00:16:41.679 --> 00:16:45.120 And then later on, in years after 325, 00:16:45.339 --> 00:16:47.399 they went back and made sure they said the same thing 00:16:47.399 --> 00:16:48.199 about the Holy Spirit, 00:16:48.500 --> 00:16:50.599 that the Holy Spirit was also never made. 00:16:50.659 --> 00:16:53.759 So they said, the Lord, the giver of life, the Holy Spirit. 00:16:54.479 --> 00:16:57.519 So you see how they call the Holy Spirit there, the Lord, 00:16:57.719 --> 00:17:00.539 meaning they're saying that He is Yahweh, 00:17:00.659 --> 00:17:04.399 the Holy Spirit, the Son, Yahweh, the one God, 00:17:04.940 --> 00:17:07.639 and that the Spirit with the Father and the Son 00:17:07.639 --> 00:17:08.659 are to be worshiped. 00:17:09.079 --> 00:17:10.419 And so that was one of the big contentions, 00:17:10.420 --> 00:17:12.880 is that you're not supposed to worship a creature. 00:17:13.600 --> 00:17:15.900 That is not allowed in the Old Testament very clearly. 00:17:16.240 --> 00:17:18.660 But in the Gospels, we see the Son and the Spirit. 00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:22.140 We see the Spirit and the Son in the epistles being worshiped. 00:17:22.560 --> 00:17:25.160 And so that was so significant for these early theologians 00:17:25.160 --> 00:17:28.279 that were trying to understand who our God is. 00:17:28.580 --> 00:17:31.360 And so they came up with this language in the light of that. 00:17:31.740 --> 00:17:34.460 All right, the second one of three is, very quickly, 00:17:34.740 --> 00:17:36.279 is this guy named Sebelius. 00:17:36.640 --> 00:17:39.380 And there's been so many versions of what he taught 00:17:39.380 --> 00:17:40.180 throughout the centuries. 00:17:40.400 --> 00:17:42.700 I mean, thousands upon thousands of versions, really. 00:17:43.500 --> 00:17:46.620 But they all track back to Sebelius, 00:17:46.760 --> 00:17:48.620 and there's this thing called modalism. 00:17:49.560 --> 00:17:55.520 Modalism effectively said that there is only one God, 00:17:55.900 --> 00:17:59.760 and that one God is one person, not three persons. 00:17:59.759 --> 00:18:02.900 And so there's the Father. 00:18:03.259 --> 00:18:05.400 He's God, period, full stop. 00:18:05.960 --> 00:18:10.559 But in history, the Father shows up as something different. 00:18:11.180 --> 00:18:13.940 So the claim there you see in that little box is that 00:18:13.940 --> 00:18:16.200 there's only one God, but he wears three masks. 00:18:17.160 --> 00:18:20.759 He's like a stage actor in the Greco-Roman world 00:18:20.759 --> 00:18:23.539 that comes out on stage putting on different masks. 00:18:23.539 --> 00:18:27.559 And the mask is to be the Father or to be the Son or to be the Spirit. 00:18:27.859 --> 00:18:32.139 But there's no distinction in person between the Father, Son, or Spirit. 00:18:32.259 --> 00:18:33.480 These are masks. 00:18:33.720 --> 00:18:34.960 They're just appearances. 00:18:35.220 --> 00:18:35.859 They're not real. 00:18:36.420 --> 00:18:39.599 And so Tertullian was one of the famous guys that responded to this. 00:18:40.379 --> 00:18:44.519 And Tertullian started using the word Trinity really for the first time 00:18:44.519 --> 00:18:45.559 in a substantial way. 00:18:45.559 --> 00:18:50.440 And it's from this early theologian called Tertullian where we get the term Trinity. 00:18:51.059 --> 00:18:56.399 And he started using it in response to this claim that Sibelius was making. 00:18:56.599 --> 00:18:58.559 This is a quote from Tertullian, by the way, there in the middle. 00:18:59.059 --> 00:19:00.379 He was saying, 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:05.460 Sibelius put to flight the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, and crucified the Father. 00:19:05.700 --> 00:19:10.039 Now, the reason Tertullian said that is because Sibelius and others taught 00:19:10.039 --> 00:19:13.480 that it was the Father who was crucified on the cross. 00:19:13.480 --> 00:19:16.539 And the cost of that is enormous. 00:19:16.740 --> 00:19:21.740 So let me just give you, between the first two heresies that we've looked at there, 00:19:22.099 --> 00:19:25.940 a couple of the consequences that if we say things like that. 00:19:25.980 --> 00:19:30.720 In the case of Arius, if we say that the Son and the Spirit were created, 00:19:31.180 --> 00:19:32.920 here's why that matters so much. 00:19:33.720 --> 00:19:35.279 A number of things, but I'll just give you one. 00:19:36.140 --> 00:19:37.019 Athanasius said, 00:19:37.880 --> 00:19:40.920 Only God can save you from your sins. 00:19:40.920 --> 00:19:43.279 Very true. 00:19:43.360 --> 00:19:44.360 The Bible teaches that. 00:19:45.580 --> 00:19:48.380 And a creature cannot ultimately bring us to God. 00:19:48.519 --> 00:19:52.500 And so Athanasius was so clear that when Jesus Christ, the Son of God, went to the cross, 00:19:52.600 --> 00:19:56.039 he went to the cross as both truly human and truly God. 00:19:56.500 --> 00:20:01.920 And if he wasn't truly God, his sacrifice as a human was not big enough, powerful enough, 00:20:02.039 --> 00:20:05.120 representative enough to actually cover the sins of the whole world. 00:20:05.119 --> 00:20:11.719 You know, a human could die for a human and maybe cover over that one other human. 00:20:12.359 --> 00:20:17.839 But only the one who is both God and human could represent you as a human, 00:20:17.839 --> 00:20:21.559 but also have the power to cover the sins of the whole world. 00:20:21.659 --> 00:20:22.659 That's what Athanasius said. 00:20:23.019 --> 00:20:23.619 So he said, 00:20:23.719 --> 00:20:26.000 If the Son is not God, then you don't have the gospel. 00:20:26.479 --> 00:20:29.199 You lose the power of forgiveness and the power of the gospel. 00:20:29.200 --> 00:20:34.720 And the Jehovah's Witnesses continue to teach the Arian doctrine that we looked at just a moment ago, 00:20:34.819 --> 00:20:37.600 that the Son was created and that the Spirit was created. 00:20:37.740 --> 00:20:39.539 And that loses the gospel. 00:20:39.799 --> 00:20:44.519 In the case of modalism, there's also a massive consequence to the gospel. 00:20:45.279 --> 00:20:47.559 And that's ultimately a number of things. 00:20:47.660 --> 00:20:52.279 But one is to say that God died at the cross. 00:20:52.360 --> 00:20:54.740 The Father, the one God, died at the cross. 00:20:54.740 --> 00:20:58.660 Yes. And the Bible teaches something so different than that, 00:20:58.759 --> 00:21:02.720 that the Son, who is Jesus Christ, died at the cross. 00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:06.740 And that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit raised Jesus Christ, the human, 00:21:07.279 --> 00:21:09.400 back to life again on the third day. 00:21:09.480 --> 00:21:14.500 But this is saying that somehow the Father came and died at the cross. 00:21:14.660 --> 00:21:18.599 And there's a sense in which you lose even the possibility of resurrection 00:21:18.599 --> 00:21:21.240 when you start to say things like this. 00:21:21.240 --> 00:21:25.900 And there's a million other consequences that come with this claim. 00:21:26.200 --> 00:21:30.700 But this is one of the most substantial heresies that have come to us in the early church. 00:21:31.940 --> 00:21:33.620 All right. So you can see right here, just very quickly, 00:21:35.099 --> 00:21:36.799 Sibelius was saying things like, 00:21:36.900 --> 00:21:39.359 well, doesn't Jesus say I and the Father are one? 00:21:39.940 --> 00:21:41.620 It's just the same person. 00:21:42.220 --> 00:21:44.019 Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. 00:21:44.160 --> 00:21:46.980 But we know when we read those texts in the light of the whole Bible 00:21:46.980 --> 00:21:48.420 that that's doing something very different. 00:21:48.420 --> 00:21:53.519 And what it's doing that's so different is Jesus here is talking about 00:21:53.519 --> 00:21:56.140 the unity of God in his essence, 00:21:56.420 --> 00:21:59.840 not breaking down all the distinctions of person. 00:21:59.960 --> 00:22:03.560 He's saying I and the Father, two persons are one, the one God. 00:22:03.640 --> 00:22:07.480 And so he's talking about the unity he has with the Father as the one God. 00:22:07.600 --> 00:22:11.580 But of course, maintaining here that he and the Father are two different persons. 00:22:12.200 --> 00:22:14.560 And so contra Sibelius, contra modalism, 00:22:14.559 --> 00:22:18.899 and it's incredibly important to see how clear I think that the New Testament is on this. 00:22:18.899 --> 00:22:22.119 And so, again, the same things hold against modalism, 00:22:22.240 --> 00:22:24.779 that he is the son is eternally begotten of the Father, 00:22:24.899 --> 00:22:26.000 that they're distinct persons. 00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:27.759 They're not the same person. 00:22:28.159 --> 00:22:32.679 And then they added some lines that the son is seated at the right hand of the Father. 00:22:33.359 --> 00:22:34.159 You see why they added that? 00:22:34.200 --> 00:22:38.419 Because they're saying that is two distinct persons in the triune Godhead. 00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:41.299 The son is seated at the right hand of the Father. 00:22:41.440 --> 00:22:42.659 They're not just the same thing. 00:22:42.660 --> 00:22:43.660 It's not modalism. 00:22:44.259 --> 00:22:48.400 And then there was a modalist teacher after Sibelius that was going around saying, 00:22:49.100 --> 00:22:50.740 when the new heavens and the new earth come, 00:22:51.340 --> 00:22:55.580 the Father will reveal to everyone that there was never a son and a spirit. 00:22:55.800 --> 00:22:57.019 It was only just the Father. 00:22:57.540 --> 00:23:00.279 And so they added this line later to the creed, 00:23:00.620 --> 00:23:03.080 the kingdom of Jesus will have no end. 00:23:03.440 --> 00:23:04.680 And that's why they added it because they're saying, 00:23:04.800 --> 00:23:07.900 no, the Son of God will not just be wrapped back up into the Father 00:23:07.900 --> 00:23:10.480 and it be revealed as if he's just the Father, never the Son. 00:23:10.480 --> 00:23:12.420 His kingdom will have no end. 00:23:12.799 --> 00:23:16.599 And then you can see that some of the same claims are being made there about the Holy Spirit. 00:23:17.539 --> 00:23:24.779 Okay, lastly, to sum everything up in a helpful way that you could remember it 00:23:24.779 --> 00:23:32.299 would be this, that the main ways people have gotten the Trinity wrong 00:23:32.299 --> 00:23:41.079 is to either overemphasize oneness and lose threeness or overemphasize threeness and lose oneness. 00:23:41.500 --> 00:23:41.599 Right? 00:23:41.700 --> 00:23:47.180 So in modalism, you emphasize the oneness to the point where you lose the threeness. 00:23:47.779 --> 00:23:47.980 Right? 00:23:48.079 --> 00:23:52.019 And here on the flip side, you've got the opposite problem, tritheism, 00:23:52.259 --> 00:23:56.980 where you so emphasize threeness that you lose oneness. 00:23:56.980 --> 00:24:04.120 And so famously, one of the teachers in the early church that ended up being condemned for teaching tritheism 00:24:04.120 --> 00:24:08.200 asked the question, if Peter, James, and John are three men, 00:24:08.539 --> 00:24:11.240 why are not the Father, Son, and the Spirit three gods? 00:24:12.259 --> 00:24:17.779 Now, the mistake here that's so important to know as we draw things to a close tonight 00:24:17.779 --> 00:24:24.720 is that it is fundamental to the Christian doctrine of God from the time of the early church 00:24:24.720 --> 00:24:29.579 that when we talk about our God, the one God, Father, Son, and Spirit, 00:24:30.299 --> 00:24:36.279 that the one God has one mind, one will, one consciousness. 00:24:37.319 --> 00:24:43.220 And the way that you arrive at tritheism is to start to think that when we talk about persons 00:24:43.220 --> 00:24:47.980 in the Godhead, we mean the same thing as persons in this room. 00:24:48.539 --> 00:24:49.880 And that's the big mistake that it makes. 00:24:50.160 --> 00:24:54.440 When we say person in theology, we are not saying the same thing 00:24:54.440 --> 00:24:58.980 as when I talk about human persons in the room tonight or anywhere else. 00:24:59.660 --> 00:25:01.220 It's categorically different. 00:25:01.360 --> 00:25:02.319 It's totally other. 00:25:02.960 --> 00:25:08.000 So our God, Father, Son, and Spirit, is the one God who has one mind, will, and consciousness. 00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:15.359 And so any time you deny that and start to think of God as being like three humans 00:25:15.359 --> 00:25:20.779 that are all just gathered around a table chatting, you lend and move towards tritheism. 00:25:21.140 --> 00:25:23.559 And that's exactly what's happened in these heresies. 00:25:23.640 --> 00:25:28.900 And of course, I've just listed there Joseph Smith, because Mormonism teaches tritheism 00:25:28.900 --> 00:25:33.759 and really polytheism, because more gods can be added to the Godhead. 00:25:33.759 --> 00:25:39.000 But from the very beginning in Mormonism, the Father, Son, and Spirit are three distinct gods, 00:25:39.099 --> 00:25:40.220 not the one God. 00:25:40.420 --> 00:25:44.140 And so it commits this great heresy of tritheism. 00:25:44.879 --> 00:25:50.660 So they're working on passages like John 17, that they may all be one, Christ's prayer 00:25:50.660 --> 00:25:56.039 before he goes to the cross, just as you, the Father in me, and I in you, that they may be one 00:25:56.039 --> 00:25:56.980 even as we are one. 00:25:57.079 --> 00:26:01.799 I should say, sorry, this is being presented to show the unity of God contra tritheism here 00:26:01.799 --> 00:26:02.619 in this passage. 00:26:02.619 --> 00:26:04.059 Okay, so I just said that. 00:26:04.179 --> 00:26:06.059 One mind, one will, one being. 00:26:07.259 --> 00:26:11.879 All right, so the Creed answers this very simply when it says we believe in one God, not three 00:26:11.879 --> 00:26:12.279 gods. 00:26:12.519 --> 00:26:14.899 We believe in one Lord, not three Lords. 00:26:15.559 --> 00:26:18.000 Jesus Christ is of one being with the Father. 00:26:18.139 --> 00:26:24.000 So the Creed goes out of its way to talk about unity and triunity as much as it can without 00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:25.539 sacrificing one to the other. 00:26:26.119 --> 00:26:31.519 All right, well, I thought it might be kind of fun to end on just a reflection on the trouble 00:26:31.519 --> 00:26:32.460 with analogies. 00:26:32.460 --> 00:26:39.200 So the trouble with analogies is that as soon as you start using them, you fall into trouble 00:26:39.200 --> 00:26:39.920 pretty quickly. 00:26:40.940 --> 00:26:45.579 And so I'm not coming tonight to say don't ever use analogies, but it's just important 00:26:45.579 --> 00:26:47.480 to be really aware of their limits. 00:26:47.480 --> 00:26:52.500 But these are three of, you know, three that sometimes get used. 00:26:52.640 --> 00:26:53.839 Water, ice, and steam. 00:26:54.940 --> 00:26:57.200 That God is like H2O. 00:26:57.920 --> 00:27:00.319 He's sometimes water, sometimes ice, sometimes steam. 00:27:00.420 --> 00:27:03.700 But as soon as you can start to say it, it becomes modalism very quickly. 00:27:04.940 --> 00:27:09.700 He's sometimes the Father, sometimes the Son, sometimes the Spirit transforming between each 00:27:09.700 --> 00:27:10.059 of them. 00:27:10.420 --> 00:27:13.500 But that's very clearly modalism, not a very helpful analogy. 00:27:14.100 --> 00:27:19.160 The clover, the three-leaf clover, the egg, three parts of an egg. 00:27:20.059 --> 00:27:25.819 So partialism tends to split God up in a way that lends itself towards tritheism. 00:27:26.019 --> 00:27:29.259 So it's not that analogies are always bad. 00:27:29.380 --> 00:27:30.100 No, not at all. 00:27:30.539 --> 00:27:33.759 There's some helpful things that can be said in that territory. 00:27:34.160 --> 00:27:35.360 But we have to be very careful. 00:27:35.359 --> 00:27:40.299 It's just important to remember Isaiah 40, 18, to whom then will you liken God? 00:27:41.379 --> 00:27:41.759 All right. 00:27:41.859 --> 00:27:49.359 So lastly, before we come to a time of prayer, I want to take just a few minutes to ask if 00:27:49.359 --> 00:27:49.799 there's any...