 | Reverend Dennis Paschke is the senior pastor at Evangel Holton United Methodist Church, in Holton Kansas. Evangel church is a vital and growing congregation full of life that is changing lives and our community one person at a time. Dennis’ family emigrated from North Dakota to Alberta, Canada to homestead when his father was just a young boy. Rev. Paschke returned to the United States and has lived in many parts of the country. His life has afforded him many blessings before answering God’s call to full-time ministry, including being a vice president of a Fortune 100 company, serving as a chairman of the 1988 Winter Olympic Games and holding a U.S. patent. His greatest blessing in life is his walk with Christ! He believes strong faith always engages the heart and mind. EDUCATION: BSEE from the University of Calgary, Canada, and a Master’s of Divinity from Saint Paul School of Theology. FAMILY: He is married to wife Dawn and they have three sons Corey, Kyle and Marc. The family also includes one “wonder-dog” named Tucker! You can reach Reverend Paschke via email dpasch01@gmail.com. |
Religion
2011-07-01 08:19:00
Origins of the holy Trinity
Although difficult, I am trying to understand the concept of the Trinity, where there are three persons in one God. I have come to understand that God the Father always was and always will be. That’s kind of tough to imagine, but it does lead me to my question. If there are three persons in one God, was there only one of these persons who ‘always was’? Did then both Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit have a beginning insofar as being a God? If so, I know when Jesus was born, but how about the Holy Spirit?
Answer: The three persons of the Trinity can often be one of the most challenging concepts of the character of God to understand. A helpful way for me to understand the concept of the Trinity is the analogy that I am a father, a husband and a pastor. I function in the world in each of these three roles – each one individually, at different times and for different purposes. In a similar fashion God is Father, that is Creator; God is Son, that is Redeemer; and God is Holy Spirit that is Sustainer.
Each of the three persons of the Trinity in one Godhead are present in the world in different ways. All three have existed from the very beginning of Creation and each has a unique function and appears most predominantly in the world at different times.
In the book of Genesis (Genesis 1.1-26) it is the attribute (person) of God as Father and Creator of heaven and earth, that took center stage yet all three persons were present.
Jesus’ arrival on earth as the Son of God introduced into the world the second person of the Trinity to us. Jesus shows us that God’s character is as a redeeming or saving God. God seeks to reconcile a world that has turned its back on God back to Him so that we may live the fullness life was intended to be! Yet we see that Jesus, as the Word of God made flesh, was present at Creation with God and as God and all things that have life on earth came into being through him. (John 1.1-4)
So too the Holy Spirit was there from the beginning. The principal role of the Holy Spirit is clearly throughout the history of creation. The Holy Spirit is also shown to be doing the work of God the Father throughout the Old Testament and the Gospels. Most clearly at Creation, and at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit arrived in the Upper Room with a fresh mission from the Father!
Indicating that the Spirit’s involvement with believers would be different than before, Jesus told the disciples, “He abides with you and will be in you” (John 14:17). God’s Holy Spirit had come alongside the disciples during their time with Christ. But following the completion of Jesus’ work on earth, He would dwell within them.
God continues to be the creator of new life in us and in the world! God continues to redeem us and guide us through life’s darkest times and even overcomes death! Now that is GOOD NEWS!!
