Fear and Trembling

[This is the full text of an article that I recently wrote for our local paper.] We will look at the Apostle's Creed in more detail this week in our series on the Heidelberg Catechism. From a close look at the outline of the creed, we can see the doctrine of the Trinity clearly displayed. Question and answer 24 read, “How are these articles divided? Into three parts: God the Father and our creation; God the Son and our deliverance; and God the Holy Spirit and our sanctification.” The catechism introduces us to the three Persons of the Trinity and their role in our salvation when we have true faith. Almighty God, the Father of all Christians, creates us and sends the Son and the Spirit. God the Son, Jesus Christ, delivers us from our sin and misery by His life and death. In addition, God the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, empowers us for the Christian life and makes us holy. Question and answer 25 clearly state the nature of the Trinity, “Since there is only one divine being (Deu...

Book Discussion - “The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South” by Philip Jenkins I’m discussing the book “The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South” by Philip Jenkins with the ACFAR blog (see here ). I find that book to be very encouraging so far. Here’s one of my comments from this post . We’d welcome your discussion. Words in quotes are from the excellent chapter summary and commentary here . “If we see the importance of apologetics in America and the West, then how much more important is it in the rapidly growing South?” I don’t think the America church sees the importance of apologetics. We seem to be too busy trying to council everyone on their psychological issues, give them practical advice on how to live, playing the type of music the people in our area like, and promising people prosperity on the basis of their faith. At least it seems the Southern Hemisphere church is arguing about the right issues. I pray we can have ...

At the request of a Muslim I have been having online exchanges with, I wrote the following bit about the trinity. I have reprinted it here, along with links, quotes and augmentations. You had requested an explanation of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Pardon my delayed response due to my father-in-law’s illness. To begin, God is one being. Christians do not worship three Gods, but one (Deuteronomy 6:45; Isaiah 45:5-6 and 21-22; Isaiah 44:6-8). We do not worship more than one God as Surah 5:73 states. That would be “tritheism,” which we condemn. Baptists like myself do not see Jesus, Mary, and God as the trinity as is suggested by Surah 5:116-117. This elevates a human, Mary, into the God-head, and we would see that as “adoptionism,” which we condemn. We would also condemn as adoptionism any thinking that says Jesus ever became God. Jesus was not created. He did not become God at some time. He has eternally existed. God exists as three persons and as one being. This is logical...