Christian Worldview Assignment PDF

Running head: CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW 1
Christian Worldview
Name
Institution

CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW 2
CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW
Abstract
This paper looks at the doctrine of the Trinity. There is also a section of the paper that
states the application of the Trinity to the life of the Christian. The word trinity originates from
Latin trinitas, which means the number three. The Trinity is the most defining, unique,
incomprehensible, as well as an awesome mystery of Christianity. It acts as the revelation of who
the Almighty creator is and not just our god, but also exist as infinite Being living in eternity in
the form of three co-equal, consubstantial, infinite person yet distinct (Husseini, 2011). The
doctrine of Trinity is said to be the doctrine that describes orthodoxy; it is that doctrine that
enables us to know more about God, as well as to secure our salvation. In the past centuries,
Christians tried very hard to defend and articulate this main belief, and all of us are the
beneficiaries of the work performed by them (Brümmer, 2013).
Origin of the Doctrine of Trinity
The doctrine of trinity originated from the Bible; however, the word trinity is not
applicable in the Bible. Most of the Orthodox Christians are in agreement that the doctrine of
trinity states that God is only one spirit but exist in the form of three persons; God has three
centers of consciousness but has one nature, God is one only, but three whos. The doctrine of
trinity started that the Bible demonstrates that there is only one living external God who is the
sustainer and Creator of the world (Lim, 2012). There is only one God that exists. The three
persons are co-eternal and co-equal. They are also distinct or distinguishable from one another.
The three distinguishable persons are named as one God. Things that are true about our God are
also true about the three persons (the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit). The reversal of nature
is not true. Whereas the Bible explains that the son is God, the spirit is God, the father is God it

CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW 2
is not good to say that God is the spirit, the son is God, or the father is God. The nature of God
comprises of three distinguishable persons. Thus it is wrong to compare God to one specific
member of the Trinity.
To summarize, the Bible makes the following crucial points about God’s nature:
There is the existence of one God
The Biblical teaching is the basis to the doctrine of the Trinity, and it’s stated of the
existence of one and only one living God. According to the Bible teaching, there is no other
similar divine being with the same real existence. Trinitarians are emphatic that there is only the
existence of One God.
The most well-known startling statement in every part of the Bible is located in the verse
that God pronounces that ‘in the beginning, he created the God created the earth and heaven’’
(Gen1:1). This statement was the most amazing statement in the world of the Polytheistic.
Biblical Christianity upholds that there exists only one loving God, not several gods. God started
it clearly in Moses’ writing when he told his people such as Israelites that the Lord is one and the
Lord is people’s God (Roggema, 2015). Author and Pastor John MacArthur elucidate the true
meaning well when he says’ that the real truth was essential to the religious convictions of Israel.
This is because they existed in the midst of the societies of Polytheistic. It was more important
that they offer their loyalty to the one God, whereas the cultures of the Pagan that surrounds
them pray to many gods, the people of God were to worship the one true living God, and they
should be faithful to him in their whole heart.
Solomon restated this truth about God by the dedication of the Temple to God so that all
the people that are living on the earth surface may know that there exists only one true God and
that there is no similar person like him (1 Kings 8:60). In the Old Testament, God declares that

CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW 2
he is the only true God through his prophet (Isaiah). So the scripture in the Old Testament clearly
states that there is only one true loving God.
The oneness of God can also be seen in the teaching of the New Testament. Jesus told the
people that external life is for those who know God as the only true God (John 17:3). Paul as the
apostle spoke that God is the Father and he is one God upon which everything exists (1 co. 8:6).
Paul also confirms in the New Testament that there exists only one God of whom Jesus Christ
acted as the only mediator between men and God (Ayres, 2010). These biblical teachings from
both the New and Old Testaments were summarized by Dr. Bruce Ware through his narration of
which he says ‘that the Bible stated that there exists only one God. He is the God of the
Israelites; God of the Bible, and through Christ, God showed that he is the one and only God.
God is three persons
One of the most well-known hymns of the faith of Christian is ‘Holy, Holy’ in that hymn,
the greatest mysteries relating to the doctrine of Trinity is located in the first verse of the last line
which says ‘that God exists in three persons, and he is the blessed Trinity.’ John MacArthur who
is a pastor speaks of the mystery when he utters, ‘there is only one God, and exist not as two but
three distinguishable persons. That the mystery is unparalleled in the experience of the people.’
This then means that Jesus who is the son is God, God the father is God, and lastly, Holy Spirit is
also God. This also suggests that God the Holy Spirit is not the Father or the son, the father is not
the Holy Spirit or the son and the Holy Spirit is not the Father or the son, each of them are God,
but still there exist only one true loving God.
The truth of the existence of one God that is in three persons that is the Father, son, and
the Holy Spirit can be seen in several places throughout the Bible. In the Book of Genesis that is
found in the Old Testament, God mentions himself by stating that’ Let us create man in our

CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW 2
likeness, and in our image. Millard Erickson also makes a significant observation about the same
verse when he stated that, ‘’Here the plural happens both in the form of the verb, let us create’ as
well as in the possessive suffix named as ‘our.’ What is important from the viewpoint of logical
analysis is the movement to plural from singular. God is cited as applying the use of Plural verb
when he refers to himself.’
The New Testament also contains the Biblical truth that argues that God exists as three
persons. This can be seen in the book of Mathew when Jesus said to his followers (disciples) to
go and be disciples of the entire Universe, and that they should baptize the people in the name of
our father, son and the Holy Spirit. From this verse, it is essential to underline the singular
application of the word ‘name.’ The word is a reference to the essence or character of our God as
one. The Command does not come from Jesus that necessitates his disciples to baptize the people
in the ‘names’ of the son, Holy spirit and the father. There are three persons, but the name is
singular (McGrath, 2003). The existence of one God can be seen in the New Testament in that
Jesus in his prayers; he prayed to God the creator of heaven and earth, he never prayed to
himself. At the baptism of Jesus, his father’s voice spoke in approving the way for the coming of
the son of a man- Jesus does not speak of himself. Thus the three persons acted as one and
should not bring any confusion with one another. This passage also upholds the biblical truth that
states that there is only one God who is present in the form of three-person that is the son, Holy
Spirit, and the father.
Each person is Fully God
The Final and third truth about the biblical Trinity is that each of the three persons is the
true God. The son is God, the father is God, and lastly, the Holy Spirit is God (Holmes, 2012).

CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW 2
To start with the Father is God fully. This truth has hardly been the main subject of
debate in most of the church history since it is openly taught in all the pages of the scripture. The
first verse of the book of God (Bible) states that God created the earth and heavens at the
Beginning of his creation. Jesus in his model prayer, he taught his disciples on how to pray, from
where he instructed them to pray that, ‘Our father who is living in heaven, hallowed be his
name.’
Secondly, the son is also fully God. Millard Erickson argues that the truth experiences a
lot of the critics but is strongly biblical affirmed. He articulates, ‘somewhat challenging is Jesus
as the deity; however, scripture recognizes him as God. There is one passage in the book of John
when the apostle states that, in the beginning, there was the world, it continues to say that the
world was with our God, and lastly the world was God. In the Bible, Christ is mentioned as ‘the
world’ (Wieczorek, 2011).
The third person is the Holy Spirit who is also fully God. Regarding this aspect of the
Trinity as the doctrine, Dr. Wayne Grudem rightly claims for the Spirit’s deity. He speaks in
Acts (the book), Peter as the apostle. Openly argue that the Spirit with God by the time that he
asks Ananias, who had initially held some of the proceeds from the property’s sale. He asked the
reason why Satan filled his heart to make him lie to the Holy Spirit (Kombo, 2016).
Debates of the early church
The major debates that discuss the issues of Trinity occurred between the third and fifth
centuries. The two well-known essential councils of the debate were the council of Chalcedon
and Nicea. The council that represents Nicea safeguarded the deity of the Christ (Jesus Christ) by
proclaiming that Jesus was the same as the lord our father (both Jesus Christ and God are the
same substance). The council that represents Chalcedon help in setting limits for the reflection of

CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW 2
Christian on Jesus as a person, by explaining that Jesus Christ was indeed the man of God and
that he was one person that exists in two natures (Grenz & Smith, 2015).
The two most important figures in most of these debates were Augustine (354-430) and
Athanasius (296-373). Athanasius originated from the eastern theologian, and he nearly single-
handedly defended the faith of the Christian from the Arianism threat. The Arians represent the
counterpart from the ancient to the modern witnesses of Jehovah (Ployd, 2018). The Arians
informed the people that Jesus Christ was lesser equal to God our father, that God created him
(and he was not co-eternal with God who is the father), and he was not also fully divine. Their
main known slogans of all time are that ‘There was duration of time when he was not.’ The other
name of Arianism is also called as Subordinationism; this is because it embraces that the Son is
minor in essence as well as being to God the father. The battle of Augustine was somewhat
different (Hastings, 2016). He assisted Christians to have a good understanding of God’s grace,
and thereby safeguarded the church from Pelagianism. Nevertheless, Augustine’s writings on the
issues dealing with Trinity were very influential and voluminous. Both Athanasius and
Augustine, together with other notable figures are sometimes mentioned as the Fathers.
Majority of the church (Christian denominations) today, such as the Protestant, Catholic
as well as Eastern Orthodox Church, affirm that Trinity as a doctrine is a representation of the
belief of the Orthodox about the nature of God (Giles, 2017). This is to say, any individual who
strays from Trinity is deviant and heretical. Many Christians embrace this doctrine since they
strongly believe that this doctrine has great support by a clear verse of the book of God (the
Bible). Muslim apologists usually respond by stating most of the clear verses from the scripture
that exist and are contrary to the doctrine.
The relevance of Trinity to the life of the Christian

CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW 2
The Trinity and salvation
According to the lines of salvation, it is true that in the absence of the Trinity Christians
cannot obtain salvation (we cannot be saved without salvation). The reason as to this is because
the sin of the people is against God; and since we cannot undo our wrongdoing against God,
because of our sinfulness as well as the inability of keeping the law of God, the only remaining
party available capable that is capable of dealing with our wickedness is God himself. In spite of
everything, our wrongdoings are against him. Therefore he has to chip in and do what we the
people cannot do (McCormack, 2011). That is precisely what happened. Jesus is our God in the
flesh, and he was born in this world under the law of God, and he never sinned. Because Jesus
was capable of keeping God’s law where we as the people of God could not, Jesus was capable
of redeeming us (Lucci, 2018). We Christians are conversant with this message of the gospel; but
what most of the people unable to realize that is for our (as Christians) redemption to be true, our
Redeemer is required to be in two natures: human and divine. Christians require a savior who
must be divine for them to offer the sacrifice that is of divine quality.
The Trinity and marriage
Marriage is the promise of the covenant where a woman and a man come into a legal
contract. They engage themselves to financial sharing, sexual privileges, and mutual fellowship,
etc. with numerous exclusions to most of or all other members of the community (Dodds, 2010).
In marriage, there exists a husband, whose responsibility is to love his God given wife. The
husband also possesses spiritual authority over his wife. But when we try to take into
consideration Trinity, we realize that God who is the father had control over the Son and he also
loved him (the son) because he sent him (Hillar, 2012). Thus, when we consider the positional
authority that the father possess over his Son, and we again recognize that it doesn’t mean there

CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW 2
exists differences in importance or nature between the two of them, we can use this in marriage
and see into it that the Spiritual head that the husband possess over his wife does not lower the
importance and quality of the wife. This is crucial, particularly because the husbands mostly
oppress the wives they are living with instead of taking them as equal human being before God
(McWilliams, 2006). This then means that Trinity can easily help most of the Christians to value
their marriage life as both the Husband and wife will try to regard each other as equal human
being before God. This will help do away with evil did in the marriage life like Oppression of the
wife by the husband.
Communion with one another
God always lived as a Trinity of persons before his creation of the world. Therefore, we
can tell that there has been perfect fellowship and harmony in the inter-Trinitarian Communion.
The model of our lives, church, and Christian, is to use this God’s communion. Christians
should, therefore, fellowship with each other throughout their daily lives (Strong, 2017).
Other relevance of Trinity to Christian life includes:
Trinity matters to the Christian life because of what Jesus did for all the Christian on
Calvary. Being fully man and fully God, Jesus died on the cross in my place and to that of the
other Christians. Jesus is God, and if any person who believes in him put his/her faith in Christ,
then their salvation will be fully secure since Jesus is Lord (Rose, 2008). Trinity also matters to
the Christian life since it is a mystery that they really cannot explain of. It means people do not
know everything and God is the only person who knows. These all truths make Christians to be
humble as well as reminded us of the fact that there is only one God and we are not God.
The Trinity is also essential since it explains working together in both diversity and unity.
Christians should be united and try to live as diverse and unique just like the way the three

CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW 2
persons represented in the Trinity are distinct, unique, and yet unified. In our Churches, jobs,
families, organizations, and neighborhoods, God created us in his own image and likeness
(Valentine, 2017). Nevertheless, the Trinity explains to us through the model on how the three
can jointly perform the task together as one.
Trinity is also relevance to the Christian life in that it can enable most of the Christian to
apply it in most of their prayers. It teaches them the pattern of praying which the Bible says that
we should pray to our father his son and the Holy Spirit. This will help in enhancing the cordial
relationship between the Christian and God (Yang, 2016).
Conclusion
This paper explains and describes the doctrine of the Trinity. There is also an inclusion of
the Debate of the early church regarding Trinity. We found out that the teaching of the
Trinitarian of the nature and character of God should give Christians strong confidence
especially in knowing the word of God and should also increase their faith In God. There is a
section of the paper that states the importance of the Trinity to the life of the Christian. From this
section, we found that the doctrine of Trinity matters a lot to the Christian life as it helps in
binding the marriage and also impart salvation to most of the people.

CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW 2
References
Ayres, L. (2010). Augustine and the Trinity. Cambridge University Press.
Brümmer, V. (2013). Atonement, Christology and the Trinity: Making sense of Christian
doctrine. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd..
Dodds, A. (2010). Newbigin's Trinitarian Missiology: The Doctrine of the Trinity as Good News
for Western Culture. International Review of Mission, 99(1), 69-85.
Giles, K. (2017). The Rise and Fall of the Complementarian Doctrine of the Trinity. Wipf and
Stock Publishers. Green, S. STEPS TOWARDS THE TRINITY.
Grenz, S. J., & Smith, J. T. (2015). Created for community: Connecting Christian belief with
Christian living. Baker Academic.
Hastings, R. (2016). Jonathan Edwards on the Trinity: Its Place and Its Rich but Controversial
Facets. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 59(3), 585.
Hillar, M. (2012). From Logos to Trinity.
Holmes, S. R. (2012). The Quest for the Trinity: The Doctrine of God in Scripture, History and
Modernity. InterVarsity Press.

CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW 2
Husseini, S. L. (2011). Early Christian explanations of the Trinity in Arabic in the context of
Muslim Theology (Doctoral dissertation, University of Birmingham).
Kleinschmidt, S. (2012). Many-one identity and the Trinity.
Kombo, J. H. O. (2016). Theological Models of the Doctrine of the Trinity: The Trinity;
Diversity and Theological Hermeneutics. Langham Global Library.
Lim, P. C. (2012). Mystery unveiled: the crisis of the Trinity in early modern England. Oxford
University Press.
Link-Wieczorek, U. (2011). The Doctrine of the Trinity—The Major Stumbling Block in Inter-
Religious Dialogue?. Trinitarian Theology after Barth, 148, 287.
Lucci, D. (2018). Ante-Nicene authority and the Trinity in seventeenth-century
England. Intellectual History Review, 28(1), 101-124.
McCormack, B. L. (2011). The Doctrine of the Trinity after Barth. Trinitarian Theology after
Barth, 148, 87.
McGrath, A. (2003). Theological education and global tertiary education: risks and
opportunities. Address at ICETE International Consultation for Theological Educators.
High Wycombe, UK. www. theologicaleducation. org.

CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW 2
McWilliams, W. (2006). Only the Triune God Can Help: The Relation of the Trinity to
Theodicy. Perspectives in Religious Studies, 33(3), 345-359.
Molnar, P. D. (2017). Divine freedom and the doctrine of the immanent Trinity: In dialogue with
Karl Barth and Contemporary Theology. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Ployd, A. (2018). Stephen R. Holmes, The Quest for the Trinity: The Doctrine of God in
Scripture, History, and Modernity. Augustinian Studies, 49(1), 136-139.
Roggema, B. (2015). Sara Leila Husseini: Early Christian–Muslim Debate on the Unity of God:
Three Christian Scholars and their Engagement with Islamic Theology (9th Century ce.)
(History of Christian–Muslim Relations.) ix, 242 pp. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2014.€
110. ISBN 978 9004 27838 7. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African
Studies, 78(3), 614-615.
Rose, M. D. (2008). Education for Woman’s Ministries: A Rationale For and Review of
Woman’s Ministries for the Beginning of the 21st Century.
Strong, A. H. (2017). Systematic Theology: Volume II-The Doctrine of Man. Lulu. com.
Thomas, D. (2013). The doctrine of the Trinity in the early Abbasid era. In Islamic
Interpretations of Christianity (pp. 98-118). Routledge.

CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW 2
Valentine, G. M. (2017). Learning and Unlearning: A Context for Important Developments in
the Seventh-day Adventist Understanding of the Trinity, 1888–1898. Andrews University
Seminary Studies (AUSS), 55(2), 213-236.
Yang, H. (2016). A development not a departure: The lacunae in the debate of the doctrine of the
Trinity and gender roles. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.