The Three In One

Well, Ed, my hope is that our sermon this morning will help you to get it, even though we may never thoroughly, understand it. Our passage this morning lays out the bare bones of what we believe about the Trinity, and so does my conversation with Ed. Unfortunately, illustrations always seem to break down in some way. It’s like trying to put God in a jar and put Him out on display. It’s hard to fit God into a jar. This sermon even in itself fails in comparison with the vastness of its subject. But a passage like Ephesians 4:4-6, lays it out more simply. In Verse 4 Paul writes that there is ONE SPIRIT. In verse 5 he writes that there is ONE LORD (this is a title that Paul uses clearly for Jesus in Ephesians 1). And in verse 6 he writes that there is ONE GOD AND FATHER of all who is over all, through all and in all. The first thing that we need to understand about the doctrine of the Trinity is very clearly presented in our passage this morning…

1. There is one God. There is and there always will be just ONE GOD. One of the earliest, if not the first creedal statements known to mankind was what has become known as the shema which is the Hebrew word that is translated as ‘hear’. “The shema is found in Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might! Even today, religious Jews pray the shema. The question we as Christians have to ask ourselves is, is the shema outdated? Is it wrong? The shema is not outdated, it’s not wrong, Paul is very clear to state that there is ONE GOD! There have historically been different approaches to realm of deity in our world . . .

Polytheism – There are multiple gods, all to be worshipped.

Henotheism – “Belief in one God without rejecting the existence of other gods; basically, the belief that there are different gods for different peoples or nations.” Erickson’s Dictionary of Christian Theology

Monotheism – Belief in one God.

When we read our Bibles . . . from Genesis on, we see that Israel began almost from a Henotheistic viewpoint. There were many gods in the world, there was the god of that nation and this nation, or that tribe and this tribe, and there was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel. Even the Ten Commandments seem to be kind of Henotheistic. The very first commandment found in Exodus 20:3 is, “You shall have no other gods before me.” But as God’s revelation (HIS WORD) progresses historically, instead of working from a henotheistic viewpoint, Israel and eventually those who began to follow Jesus, worked from a Monotheistic viewpoint. There is but one true God! Meaning, there is but one . . . whatever other gods are in our world are false . . . or are incomplete understandings of the true God.

Maybe I need to write a book or maybe someone else already has but today there is a hybrid view of God in North America . . . it’s a pluralistic view a mixture of polytheism, henotheism, and monotheism. A choose your own religion kind of view of God. I can worship Krishna and I can worship Jesus or you know I have my God, my religion that works, but that religion works for that person, and in the end, aren’t they all the same. When we talk about Allah, aren’t we talking about Yahweh, and when we’re talking about the Father, aren’t we talking about Krishna and when we say Jesus is the way, isn’t Buddha they way too!