Justin Taylor offers Trinity 101 at Desiring God. This is a good introduction to the doctrine - a doctrine which I have called "a solution, not an explanation." If God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and if there is One God, then the doctrine is necessary.
Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology defines the Trinity as follows: “God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God” (p. 226).And Taylor also offers helpful diagrams:
Broken down, this amounts to three propositions:
- God is three persons.
- Each person is fully God.
- There is one God. ....
Theologians have typically described God as being of “one essence” but “three persons.” But what exactly do we mean by “essence” and “person”? In its simplest terms, essence answers the question, “What are you?” Person answers the question, “Who are you?”So when we say that the Trinity entails “one essence” (God) and “three persons” (Father, Son, and Spirit), we are saying that the Trinity has one What and three Who’s. We can draw this as follows:[more, with links to additional resources]
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