Case Study 2: The Doctrine of the Trinity
Trinitarianism
This is going to be a “real life” case study. You are to find a person who would be willing to sit down and talk to you for thirty minutes to an hour. This person may or may not be a Christian. It would be best if this person was a non-Trinitarian (i.e. does not accept the doctrine of the Trinity, e.g. Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness, Muslim) or a Christian who has not been significantly taught the orthodox definition of the Trinity.
With notes in hand, you are to teach what you have learned in Trinitarianism class concerning the doctrine of the Trinity in session 7 and 8.
Cover these issues in particular:
1. Cover all the heresies explaining in detail why they are wrong.
2. Explain why all of the common Trinitarian illustrations are not adequate and are often misleading.
3. Explain the heresy test chart.
4. Briefly defend the deity of Christ paying particular attention to the “Arrogance of a Madman” section in session 8.
5. Finally, explain the problem passages at the end of session 8.
The object of this assignment is to present a logical and biblical argument for the doctrine of the Trinity. Your goal here is not to convince someone of the truth (although that would be great), but simply to present the arguments clearly.
After you are done, write a half page to a page summary of the encounter and hand it in. Online student are to post their summary in their class forum. Grades will be based upon the completion of the assignment, not the effectiveness of the presentation. Everyone who completes this will receive credit for the case study.
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April 4th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
I picked Dave who has been attending my church of late. He accepts the Trinity or any derivative because no one has ever really explained it to him nor has he ever really studied theology.
I went through the heresies with him and I mainly focused on Modalism since he knows TD Jakes from TV and I told him that TD was apparently a modalist (ex. belief that there is one God who dsiplays Himself in three different ways/modes or manifestations and therefore is not necessarily 3 distinct persons. He knew Jesus prayed to the Father so he believes they are distinct person and this simple fact made me simple.
I then went through the water & egg routines and he had heard them before. I explained to him why they are a bit inadequate in describing God and His manifestations. I then read Deuteronomy 29:29 to him “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” because I wanted to point out that the whole concept of the Trinity was a bit tough for us simple humans to understand and he agreed with that.
We went through the heresy chart & the Arrogance of a Madman a bit and ended by reading the Scripture passages and just discussing God in general. We ended with him confirming his faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit who dwells in Him and the Father! He may not totally “get it” but at least he listened and tried which is the best we can do sometimes.
April 6th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Trinitarianism Case Study 2,
The Doctrine of The Trinity
For this case study I interviewed Mike. He is a believing Christian, but really has little “studied” knowledge of the Trinity and therefore has many misconceptions that I had before taking this class.
I went thru our material explaining “Who do men say that I am?” and the different religious group’s outlook on Jesus. He was familiar with all of them but the Oneness Pentecostal view. We covered the 6 early Trinitarianism Heresies of Ebionism, Docetism, Adoptionsim, Sabellianism and Arianism. They were mostly new to him as there were to me, so it took some time to go over their errors in beliefs. Here is where the Heresy Test chart came in handy to see that they were condemned by dated in order. I then took a few minutes going over the 6 modern analogies that most people use to try to explain the Trinity and how they just don’t truly cover the fact that the Trinity is really 3 Person’s in 1 Essence, so all 6 analogies fall short of the glory of God and therefore are heretical.
Mike had read Stroble’s “Case for Christ,” so the Arrogance of a mad man was somewhat familiar, so these statements from Jesus were mostly familiar to him.
We talked about the “Problem passages” together. I explained to him that we don’t know everything about God and his Word. Even though we aren’t exactly sure what “First born” means, it could be first born Child, or one who posses priority. I reviewed the meaning of “Only Begotten” and how it means “one of a kind, or unique, and how “Beginning of creation” simply means that Christ is the origin of all things created.
Mike ended up with a clearer understanding of the Trinity and was grateful for the information. I actually enjoyed sharing all of the misunderstandings with him.
April 7th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Case Study #2
For this case I chose my brother Stephen. I did case #1 with him, so thought it would be good to have the continuity.
I started by asking him what he knows about the Doctrine of the Trinity. He stated that “there is one God in three different forms”. I went on to explain the orthodox definition of the Trinity. He was surprised that there were 3 different persons and said “isn’t that multiple gods then”? We discussed that for a bit and I read the views of the various churches, i.e. LDS, JW etc. Then I went on to how the doctrine developed and the 5 early Trinitarianism heresies. He related to Modalism, which didn’t surprise me given his initial definition of the Trinity. I reviewed the modern analogies. He’s heard the water in 3 forms analogy and thought that one made sense, but I explained that none accurately depict the Trinity. We then talked about how the term is not found in the Bible but explains Biblical concepts. I read him various passages regarding oneness and plurality as well as statements referring to Christ’s deity including “Arrogance of a Madman”. He found that very interesting. Next I discussed the deity of the Holy Spirit. It really surprised him to think of the Holy Spirit as a person and he never gave much thought to the Spirit. Finally, I went through the problem passages described in the workbook and he said the explanations given clarified a lot for him. We had a very interesting discussion on each of these topics and he commented he was curious after the last case study and even more so now. He also said he never understood the Trinity and still doesn’t quite get it, but it cleared up a lot of confusion. He feels he wants to learn more, which I thought was great.
April 9th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Case Study #2—Trinitarianism
For my second case study in Trinitarianism, I interviewed my friend John. John is a believer. I explained that we would be discussing the doctrine of the Trinity as our topic. I explained that we will be mostly reviewing the material discussed in sessions seven and eight of the class. We began be discussing the heresies that the church has dealt with throughout its history. I did this by reading John the name of the heresy and giving its definition. I then asked him if he felt that particular view was heresy. John affirmed each one individually as a heresy. John also gave his response as to why each one was a heresy and how it differed from his orthodox view of the Trinity. We then moved along to some examples of analogies that are used to describe the Trinity. For each one, John explained the difficulty with each analogy. The one analogy that really made him think, however, was the comparison to a human being. The idea of body, spirit, and soul being analogous to the Trinity made him think for a while. However, John said that this particular analogy seemed to take on a modalist point of view and was inaccurate. I next asked John to explain why these views are misleading. He responded that this topic can be very confusing for new Christians and that these analogies could easily turn into wrong beliefs when the orthodox view of the Trinity is not properly shared. I felt that this was a good explanation of what we were trying to address in class. We then moved on to the heresy test chart. John passed the chart well. He understands the confusion that the early church had to deal with, and also that newer Christians have with this topic. The Trinity is a difficult concept to understand and explain. Most analogies that people come up with are not only inadequate, but can lead to a heretical belief of this important concept. Our next area to discuss was the “arrogance of a madman” concept. John felt that after I read all of the passages where Jesus claims to be God, that Jesus clearly backed up what He was. This is a powerful argument that many Christian apologists, such as Josh McDowell use to prove the divinity of Christ. Our last topic was to go through some of the problem passages of Scripture and how they relate to the Trinity. The first passage was from Col. 1:15 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” John explained that this passage refers to Christ being positionally first, the recipient of the inheritance and not necessarily a physical birth order. The second passage was John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John responded that, again, this refers to Christ’s position with the Father and that He will inherit the world. There are dozens of verses that support Christ’s full divinity. The third problem passage was Rev. 3:14 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this.” John indicated that Christ created all things and all things were created by Him, a paraphrase of Hebrews 1:1-3. The last problem passage was John 14:28 “You heard that I said to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.” John responded that this refers to positional authority and not ontological superiority. John indicated that there is a clear hierarchy within the Trinity. I was impressed by John’s knowledge of this subject and certainly learned from his responses.
April 12th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Trinitarianism - Case Study 2
Initially my plan was to interview my sister, who is a Christian. When I dropped by to chat with her, I was greeted by her neighborhood friend, Chase who had also dropped in for a visit. Chase was raised in a Catholic home, but really hasn’t any substantial Christian background and eventually she became focus of my attention for this case.
I began with an overview of TTP and then explained that I was in the Trinitarianism class and that my case study requires that I need to explain some of the class content to another person. Chase was open to participate so I proceeded to explain to her about the heresies regarding Jesus, as the Second person of the Trinity. She has never read the Bible and she was confused with Jesus being the Son of God and being God too. I assured her that as we went through this conversation things would be a bit clearer.
So I explained Ebionism, Docetism, Gnosticism, Adoptionalism, Modalism and Arianism. Then I tried to explain the concept of hypostatic union and I explained the issue of Jesus role in relationship to the Father and the Holy Spirit. Of course, being Catholic, she was aware that there was Father, Son and Spirit, but she kind of thought of it as one God, with two helpers. Things were not getting clearer. Then I reviewed the Heresy Chart as a review.
So we shifted to the various analogies that are frequently used and she latched onto two of them quite readily, the egg (shell, yolk & white; three parts = one egg) and Water (one substance in three states, liquid, steam and ice). I then explained that though those illustrations serve a purpose, they are inadequate, this was especially obvious with water, as it couldn’t be three distinct forms all at the same time, though the three members of the Trinity are. I shared the Orthodox Definition of One God who eternally exists in three different persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit - all of whom are fully God, and all of whom are equal.
As I took her to the Scriptures to illustrate Jesus’ deity as outlined as the arrogance of a Madman I found that she was somewhat familiar with the Sermon on the Mount and the Rich Young Ruler. I suspect she had slept through a great many sermons and Gospel readings because she wasn’t familiar with most of the verses. I used several of the verses to explain how the authority with which Jesus taught, combined with the truths that He spoke were pointing to His deity. Chase was intrigued with the power with which Jesus spoke on issues such as the Kingdom of Heaven.
So just as she thought she was beginning to make sense of all this I took her to the texts that spoke of Jesus as the “firstborn of all creation”, “only Begotten”, “Beginning of creation”, and “the Father is greater than the Son.” I watched as her eyes glazed over and I began to explain them one by one. I big source of confusion seemed to tumble as we discussed functional vs ontological relationships. The issue of one being equal in essence, but different in role or function seemed to hit home.
It was a fascinating exercise and Chase said she would see if her mother would go to church with her next week.
April 14th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Studying Trinitarianism has been wonderful. I’ve always believed it, but always had trouble understanding is to the point where I could explain it to others in a way they could understand. Thanks to the material presented in this class, I am now able to give others a logical explanation using my Bible as a resource. This case study was done with a fairly new believer who has lots of questions, the concept of the trinity being one of them. By following the outline given in this case study I was able to clarify the concept for him, helping him understand it better. And in doing so, it has become clearer for me as well. I think this subject is one I will understand more clearly each time I explain it to others.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:33 am
Trinitarianism Case Study #2
I chose my favorite Christian ladies again, because they have been so interested in the subject matter of this course.
As in the previouse studies I have shared with them, lively is an understatement. The two ladies are Bible students, but have not been exposed to other ideas. They were unaware of the struggle the church had with the heresy, how defending itself against heresy helped to clarify its position. My ladies were particularly interested in the modern analogies and the explanations for why they fall short of the glory of God. The ladies had used several of the analogies in the past and were surprised at how they were inadequate as an explanation of the Trinity. We spent so much time reviewing the material in Chapter 7 on the Doctrine of the Trinity, the Historical Development that I had little time left for the Biblical Defense. I had given them copies of the material, which they took home with them. I am sure they have looked at the material in depth by now.
I love challenging people to look deeper into their faith, as I have been challenged to looking more deeply into mine. This case study definitely challeged the three of us.
April 21st, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Trinitarianism
Case Study Two
For my case study, I enlisted the help of my wife. I started by explaining:
In the first five centuries in the history of the church, people began to discuss the attributes of God including the concept of the Trinity. These speculations raised some difficult questions, whose answers were present in Scripture but not always easily apparent. These discussions led to differences of belief among some people and several of these differences crossed the line into heresy. But this also led to the church’s articulation of God’s Trinitarian nature that was first expressed in the councils of Nicaea and Constantinople.
We discussed the Christological heresies (Ebionism, Docetism, Gnosticism and Adoptionalism) and how each one either denied Christ’s deity or humanity. Then I described the Trinitarian heresies (Modalism and Subordinationism) and how they either rejected the three persons of the Godhead or placed the Son and Holy Spirit as ontologically inferior to the Father. These heresies either wrongly emphasized the oneness of God or went to the other extreme, a polytheistic view. Arianism was slightly different and I thought this more of a Christological heresy than a Trinitarian type because it teaches that Jesus was a created being.
We then talked about some of the more common Trinitarian illustrations that in some cases were somewhat helpful but inadequate to fully express this doctrine (egg, water, ice, steam etc). We agreed that the best one was the “Shield of the Holy Trinity”. We next discussed the triangular Trinitarian heresy test chart and we observed how this describes one way how modern cults view the nature of God.
Next was the Deity of Christ and the “Arrogance of a Madman” section. We had both read “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis and are both familiar with the “Lord, Liar, or Lunatic” trilemma. We also looked at some of the problem passages, when taken out of context, seem to teach that Christ was created and not eternal Creator.
Finally, we discussed the problems that improper teaching of the Trinity could cause. For a time she taught children’s Sunday School and she wishes she would have known about the “Shield of the Holy Trinity” then. We noted how incorrect ideas about the Trinity (as well as other essential Biblical doctrines) can lay faulty theological foundations in children and also new Christians that could cause them big trouble later on, either leading to mistaken beliefs or possibly them losing their faith altogether. Once again we were reminded of how critically important it is that those who teach in our churches should be chosen carefully; they should be grounded in the faith and know how to “teach the message of the truth accurately” (2 Tim2:15 NET).
May 1st, 2008 at 10:36 pm
. Case Study 2: The Doctrine of the Trinity
I took some liberty in completing this assignment. Instead of presenting this to an individual I presented it to our small group. We had just completed viewing “The Truth Project” from Focus on the Family (a DVD worldview) and now are going through Chuck Colson’s new book “The Faith” and this discussion dove tailed well into what we have been studying. Present were Deb (my wife), Dave and Lynne Ells, and Robert and Linda Paech.
We discussed the “Who do Men Say that I am?” question and the six views listed. There are 5 others in the group and only one had a clear view of all six items on page 82. Of course no one was really ready for the “Early Tinitarianism Heresies.” Because of questions regarding them we spent quiet a bit of time going through them and how they come about and how they affect us today.
The Orthodox Illustrations on page 98 seemed to be the most helpful compared to the other visual illustrations on the previous pages.
As we navigated through lesson eight most were well acquainted with the various scriptures and how they related to the Trinitarian position.
The reason I felt it would be a good case study is that Colson’s premise in his book is that most Christians do not have any idea of the history of the Church and also are not educated in the foundation doctrines of the Church.
I think that is why TTP is desperately needed. Everyone in the group agreed that the knowledge level is lacking and we all need to study the doctrinal truths and foundation of Christianity. We plan to continue getting more in depth studies.
May 19th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
CASE STUDY 1: THE EXISTENCE FO GOD
For this case study I interviewed Brian Rice. Brian is a first office that I fly with occasionally and is one of those people you enjoy being around. Brian was blessed eleven months ago when he and his wife had a baby girl. I think that this has greatly changed his view on the world and life in general.
As to the four questions, Brian answered the following.
1. Do you believe in God? Yes
2. If so, on a scale of 1-10 how sure are you? An 8.
3. What makes you sometimes doubt His existence? The craziness in the world scene.
4. What makes you sure that He exists? Watching his 11 month old daughter grow and develop. “This didn’t happen by randomness or accident, it is all part of a plan (designed).”
In going through the six possible answers to; “Why is there something rather than nothing?” Brian somewhat surprised me in that he was familiar with all of them except pluralism, but once he saw the definition he knew exactly what we were discussing.
It was interesting when we came upon the Naturalistic view how quickly he picked it apart for its lack of thought and consideration of general revelation.
I couldn’t get extremely involved in the conversation since we were flying a jet at 39000 feet, but, I could clear see that Brian has given much consideration to his past life and how he wants to be the best role model for his daughter and how God fits into that picture.
I look forward to flying with Brian again and continuing our discussion.