 | Pastor Dave grew up in northern New Jersey in a very diverse cultural area. He attended Central College in Pella, Iowa received a BA in sociology and psychology. He was an offensive guard for their NCAA Div III National Championship team in 1974. In speaking for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, he sensed a call to full time ministry. Meeting is future wife Sandy at Central, went to Michigan to finish her college while Dave started Western Seminary in Holland, Michigan. Dave married Sandy in 77 and completed his Masters of Divinity degree in 78. Pastor Dave’s first church was in Fort Lee, New Jersey, home of the George Washington Bridge. Their three children were born there and he also served as a Police and Fire Chaplain for the city. In February 1991, they came to Wichita to start Harvest Community Church. In 2006, he received his Doctor of Ministry degree from Covenant Theological (Presbyterian) Seminary in St Louis. During that year he gained a daughter-in-law with now 2 grandsons of 3 years and 6 months old. Besides Pastoring at HCC for the past 20 years, he has been Director of the SCSD & WPD Police Chaplains for 11.
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Religion
1969-12-31 18:00:00
About the Trinity
Question: My questions deal with the Trinity. Jesus would say certain things that seemingly paved the way for the concept of the Trinity and the fact that Jesus, God the Father and the Holy Spirit were equally divine and one God, but He never actually said the Trinity existed. Why not? Was anyone cognizant of the concept of the Trinity in the time of Jesus? Did the apostles believe Jesus to be a separate person from God the Father? What role did they think the Holy Spirit played?
Answer: This question I have often wondered about and one can only speculate from some of the hints found in scripture. In fact another interesting question some theologians have speculated about is when did Jesus come to understand His own identity and mission?
It is true that Jesus spoke of the Trinity as He ministered on this earth when He affirmed His deity claiming, “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30) or in the prayer he uttered in John 17:22 “…We are one.” or the claim “…He who has seen Me has seen the Father;” (John 14:9). Jesus also made several bold claims in His using the “I Am” statements because every Jew knew what He was saying when He said “I Am,” “the source of life” when God revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus 3:14). In one of those “I Am” statements Jesus filled in more by claiming to pre-exist Abraham which riled them up so much that they were going to stone Him (John 8:57-58).
The fact that He did not use the word “Trinity” is not so problematic because Jesus the good teacher, didn’t want to overload His disciples. They already were being challenged with enough they didn’t grasp. Think of all the times in the gospels He told them in preparation for what would happen to Him and they didn’t get it. Think of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, after the resurrection began to put it together after He appeared to them (Luke 24:13-35). His disciples struggled trying to figure out what He was talking about. (Mark 9:10) A lot of the stuff He told them they really didn’t get until after the resurrection and it began to make sense, (Luke 8:9). You can see even in the way they wrote the whole account leading up to His death, they speak as in commentary fashion explaining what they came to realize after the fact of it all taking place (John 6:71). Some, like Peter, didn’t want to accept God’s plan of salvation because they were looking at it from practical world eyes. It was as if to Peter Jesus was saying, “guys the word on the street is they’re coming to crucify me.” Peter says it’s not happening because I’ll fight for You to the end. (Mark 8:31-33)
Personally I think God said and did what was needed to be understood about the “Trinity” for that generation of Christians of the church and not any more. He told them in certain ways and terms what was needed and what would be understood. It developed later on in the church, but not before they were ready. As the disciples slowly got it or the light bulb of revelation dawned upon them about His resurrection, so it would be with the “Trinity.” We see it with Peter in Acts 5 when he says Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit in verse 3 and in verse 4 lied to God. But it would be in God’s time and when they could grasp it. In fact they had a difficult time understanding the great commission that Jesus gave in Matthew 28:19-20 and the reinforcement of that in Acts 1:8, but they did not really understand and take it seriously until persecution cause the church to scatter and get with the program and start evangelizing beyond Jerusalem.
The same is true of the formal doctrinal formulations of the trinity until the church began to settle and become organized about what we believed. Most of the Epistles of the New Testament were written dealing with false teaching or bad implementation of God’s truth. The doctrine of the trinity had surfaced in the NT like in Colossians, John, I John, possibly Hebrews but the real challenges came later. The Church had to take formal action when the humanity and deity of Christ were threatened which would have diminished Christ’s work on the cross. In the 2nd century Docetism began to threaten the humanity of Jesus by saying Jesus appeared to be human but could not suffer so He was taken away just before He suffered on the cross. But if that is said, then Christ could not represent and take away our sin as human beings. There were other groups like the Arians (318AD) who believed that Jesus was created and not begotten or of the same substance as God, not equal with God, which would have destroyed the truth of the gospel that God came in human flesh to die and suffer to set us free. The church in the council of Nicea in 325 gave the church a succinct statement of the Trinity with the formulation of the Nicene Creed.
Isn’t it wonderful to think this loving God and sovereign teacher knows what we need to understand at the right time to enjoy Him and live for Him. Living under His gracious nurture, Pastor Dave.
