 | 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
2010-10-01 10:11:00
The mystery of the Holy Trinity
Question: I find myself “stuck” in the mystery of the Trinity. I’m sure there had to be a good reason why God chose to do it the way He did, but it sure is confusing. We have been taught that there are three persons in the one God. We are taught that they are all equal. They are all the same. Yet, in John 14:28, Jesus says: “ 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.” It seems there are several places in the Gospels where Jesus talks about him being subordinate to God the Father. Was he talking just about his human nature? Where are places in the Bible where Jesus talks and shows he is equal to the Father and the Holy Spirit in his divine nature?
Answer: What a wonderful opportunity to plunge into one of the greatest truths and mysteries of God’s nature in the Christian faith. In the history of the early church, questions arose about the connection Jesus and the Holy Spirit had to God the Father. Answers came from one extreme to the other.
On one extreme a group called “Modalists” followed the thinking of Sabellius in the 3rd century who believed God was one unit, but had different modes or roles that God showed. That was declared false and rejected as heresy by the early church. It is still held by groups like “Oneness Pentecostals” and leaders T.D. Jakes and Gwen Shamblin of the popular weight loss program “Weigh Down Worshop.”
On the other extreme came Arius, a Presbyter from Alexandria, in the 4th century, who said Jesus was created and was not co-eternal with God the Father. This made Jesus a “second-class” god and not really God. This was declared heresy by the First Ecumenical Council held in Nicea and brought the formulation of the Nicene Creed. A second creed was later formulated to more clarify the “Trinity”called the Athanasian Creed. Today, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons hold this concept of Jesus Christ’s relation to the Father.
The Christian Church, however, settled on the concept “Trinity,” even though the term never is used in the Bible, the relational concept is there. Our questioner today understands that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are equal and are of the same substance of God the Father as the early church affirmed. But he sees some contradiction of the Trinity doctrine with what Jesus says in John 14:28 or is Jesus saying something else?
Jesus was not denying His own deity or His equality with God, for then He would have been contradicting what He said earlier in John 10:30, “I and My Father are one...” He would have contradicted His claim to the Jewish leaders, “I Am” {John 8:58} referring to Himself as God which caused those Jews to pick up rocks in order to stone Him for committing the greatest heresy by claiming to be God. When He says “the Father is greater than I,” He is referring to His earthly position rather than His essence. When Jesus came to earth He laid aside or “emptied Himself” (Philippians 2:5-8) in order to fulfill His purpose of redemption. We see that even more in John 5:19 where He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing.” His dependency was on the Father and always worked to do the will and fulfill the purpose of the Father. Yet, He still had the privileged status as the same substance and essence of God in His own description of Himself when He says, “I am: the bread, door, light, way…” statements.
What a wonderful miracle of God’s grace in revealing Himself as this Tri-une God. In it I want to highlight two great things He teaches us. First, about His love and grace. God in His self-sufficiency does not need man. He is fully content in perfect relationship within the trinity. But out of His love, He creates mankind from the pleasure of His will and gives us life. He bestows His image upon man and gives us relationship with Him and provides us with safety and protective boundaries. But we rebel and out of His love He saved us by coming to earth, experiencing life as we do and then taking the abuse of mere men by dying and satisfying His righteous justice for our sin and gives us eternal life. He raises from the dead and deposits Himself in the believer’s life through His Holy Spirit.
Second, it is as the apostle Paul saw it as a great example of how we are to treat each other in relationships, especially in marriage. To follow the example of Jesus Christ in Philippians 2:1-11 where we are to consider others, our partners in the unselfish way Christ looked upon us; unselfish, humbly, looking out for the other, emptying ourselves and sacrificing for their betterment. True Love! If that attitude were to take place in our churches, homes and our lives, this world would be a very different place. As you go out today, be assured of that “Tri-une God’s love” and as you live, “Cop an attitude.” Christ’s attitude! In Him, Pastor Dave.
