Every major heresy in the history of the church has started with a misunderstanding of the nature of God.  Without fail, heretical cultic groups diminish the person of Jesus Christ and the nature of God in general.  Maybe the main reason Baptists in particular are so susceptible to cultic teachings is that we don’t have a solid, biblical understanding of the nature of the Trinity as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The perfect, mind-boggling truth is that God is one nature in three persons.  Over the next weeks I will devote the space of this block to rediscovering the truth of the triune God.  That is almost a laughable ambition, considering how short these articles are each week and how complex the doctrine is.  Writing on the Trinity would take years of blocks to do the doctrine justice.  Nevertheless, we will focus on this because I am convinced that our understanding of God as Trinity impacts how we understand all of Scripture. As a matter of fact, we should go so far as to say that the Christian faith stands or falls on the doctrine of the Trinity.  “The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all,” 2 Corinthians 13: 14.

When the issue of the Trinity comes up, we usually say it is a mystery.  I do understand that the Trinity is in some ways a mystery.  None of us, for all eternity, will ever really grasp the intricacies of God within himself as one God in three persons.  As we think about the Trinity, the subject is daunting and almost overwhelming.  Where to begin is one of hardest parts of the discussion.  I think it is best to describe what God is not, before trying to explain what he is.

First of all, the word Trinity does not mean we worship three gods.  As we often see in various cult groups, when Jesus is misunderstood in Scripture the result is often tri-theism.  That simply means three distinct gods to be worshiped.  Hinduism as well as ancient Greek mythology were polytheistic, in other words they had hundreds of gods.  That is most certainly not what we mean when we say, the Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God.  Deuteronomy 6: 4 settles that discussion saying, “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!”  The Jews of the Old Testament were very unique from the neighboring nations because they were distinctly monotheistic, meaning they worshiped only one God.

As true as this is, there is another error that can be committed regarding the doctrine of the Trinity.  Some people want to emphasis God’s oneness so much that they deny his threeness.  This is a dangerous heresy.  These people will say that the Father and the Son and the Spirit are only different manifestations of God.  In other words, they understand God as being like an actor in a play wearing masks.  Sometimes he is the Father, sometimes he is the Son, but he is never both at the same time.  This belief is sometimes called the “Superman” theology.  You know, Clark Kent steps into the phone booth as a man, he steps out Superman.  The proper term for this belief is modalism because God takes on different modes.

These two very easily committed errors are why the Trinity is such a difficult thing to talk about.  We love analogies.  The problem is that every analogy of the Trinity almost always commits one of the two errors mentioned above.  For example, sometimes people will describe the Trinity as being like water.  Water can be in liquid form, solid form as ice or gas form as steam, but it is still H2O.  The problem is that the analogy leads to modalism because the element cannot be liquid and solid at the same time.  God is simultaneously three persons of exactly the same essence and nature, one God!

In Christ,

Blain Craig

In the thirteenth chapter of the book of Jeremiah, there is a very interesting illustration about God’s desire for his people.  God told Jeremiah to go buy a belt.  Really it was not so much a belt as a linen undergarment or waistband.  He told Jeremiah to wear it, but not to put it into water.  Then, God told Jeremiah to take the waistband and put it in the crevice of a rock by the Euphrates River.  Days later, God told Jeremiah to retrieve the waistband.  It was ruined.  It was worthless.  God told Jeremiah that he was going to destroy the pride of Judah and Jerusalem just as the waistband had been destroyed.

The most interesting part of this story is in verse 11, “For as the waistband clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole household of Israel and the whole household of Judah cling to Me,” declares the Lord, ‘that they might be for Me a people, for renown, for praise and for glory; but they did not listen.’  What a frightening indictment of the people of Israel and Judah.  God said that he made them for a purpose.  He said he desired them to cling to Him as a waistband clings to a man, but something happened.  They did not listen.  They did not bring renown or glory or praise to the name of the Lord.  We don’t often use that word, renown.  It is an old Middle English word meaning to name or to speak of.  It simply means that a particular name is widely acclaimed or highly regarded.  Isn’t that our desire for God’s name.  If His name is not highly regarded, that means His name is shamed.  God will protect his own name.  He will bring glory to himself, even if we do not.

I want to challenge you to exalt Christ this week.  God desires one thing from his people above all else:  Reflect His Glory.  If we are faithful to reflect the glory of Christ everything else falls into place.  We have a desire to be in His word, to pray, to share the gospel.  Let’s not become like the ruined waistband, worthless for the Kingdom of Christ.

In Christ,

Blain Craig

As I write this, Vacation Bible School is in full gear.  From all indications things seem to be going great.  I am excited about what God is doing in the lives of children and adults alike.  In addition to the benefit of Vacation Bible School itself, another aspect of Kingdom activity this week is in the sacrificial, tireless service of so many workers. 

It gives me great encouragement and joy to see so many adults give freely of their time for no other reason than the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the glory of God.  If you have ever worked VBS, you know it is not the easiest possible duty to pull.  It is hard work.  The children, as much as we love them, are excited and with that excitement comes a lot of energy.  The driving factor for so many of the adults working this week and so many of you who are supporting from home is simply a desire to see that energy and excitement channeled into passion for Jesus.

The Oak Crest family never ceases to amaze me by your willingness to do whatever is asked of you for the sake of the kingdom.  You work VBS, you teach and learn in Sunday School.  Many of you go to camps for our children and youth, you faithfully involve yourselves in worthy ministries like Stichin’ for Angels, or Manna House, or Mission Midlothian. You participate on committees and teams that depending on the time of year can be very demanding.  You minister to our children through service in the nursery or through teaching them on Sunday morning, Sunday night, or Wednesday night.  You visit the sick in the hospital.  You minister to one another when there is a death in our church.  You share the gospel with family and friends.  The list could easily go on and on.

It is so easy to take each other for granted.  It is easy to see things accomplished around the church to the glory of God and never really stop and think about the fact that God uses people to accomplish his purposes.  I truly and sincerely thank God for all that you do.  God has reminded me of that wonderful blessing of service as I have watched so many of you serving today.  I pray for a wonderful VBS, but more than that I pray we will continue to understand that true faith in Christ demands we give our lives in service to one another and our King.  It is the least we can do because he has given his life for us.

In Christ,

Blain Craig