The Trinitarian Problem?

The problem with the Trinity is that people treat the Trinity as a problem. They view the Trinity as the great cosmic puzzle that eludes all analogies or as that enigmatic, essential doctrine that must be constantly defended against attacks from inside and outside the church. How can God be three persons yet one God? When the answer is unsatisfying, people retreat to dogmatic acceptance ("He just is") to rejection ("He cannot be"). The answer must not be so important, they think, otherwise God would not have made it this hard.

Up front, know that I do not believe the Trinity is a problem to be solved or defended. Rather, I believe that the Trinity is God who should be experienced. This might be a disappointment for some people, but there are plenty of books and Web sites dedicated to solving or defending the Trinity. Perhaps in living our lives in relationship to and as a reflection of the Triune God, that experience will reaffirm the Scriptural data and demonstrate to the world that living in the image of the Triune God is significantly different from living in the image of a non-Trinitarian god or no god at all.

Two of the keys to wisdom is knowing where to start and what questions to ask. Perhaps, we need to rethink where our thinking on the Trinity begins and what questions we should ask. The starting place might be acceptance of the doctrine revealed in Scripture and affirmed by the early church in both the East and West and reaffirmed by so many subsequent denominations, other groups, and individual believers throughout the centuries. And perhaps the question should not be "How God is Trinity?" but "Why is God Trinity?" or at least "Why has God revealed Himself as Trinity?" Is there significance to the revelation of God as Trinity other than it being interesting information about the God who made us?

One of the first areas that I want to explore is the significance of the Trinity. My preliminary thoughts on the matter have led me to this belief - The future of the church, if it is to be the church of the Triune God, hinges on how Trinitarian the church is and will be. The church in some form or another will always exist, but the church that fully embraces what it means to be citizens in the kingdom of the Triune God will be Trinitarian.

The significance of this is not simply another version of the self-fulfillment that plagues so much of modern Christianity. For too many people, Christianity is an individualistic search for meaning or purpose. If we are to be Trinitarian, we do fulfill God's purpose for our lives, but our purpose is beyond ourselves and cannot be accomplished by ourselves. When we, the worshippers and lovers of the Triune God, live in this world in a Trinitarian way, God reveals Himself through us, not through each individual, but through our relationships with each other. And while the revelation of God is in and of itself important, the God who is love has yet another purpose. His revelation through our Trinitarian communities of faith is so that the world may know and that the world might have opportunity to reconcile to God through faith in Jesus Christ.

So much relies then on the church of Jesus Christ being Trinitarian. Our ministries must be Trinitarian. Our worship must be Trinitarian. Our relationships. Our evangelism and preaching. Our lives. Our vision. Our love. So that the world may know.