Tertullian's Rule of Faith
We however as always, the more so now as better equipped by the Paraclete, that leader into all truth, believe (as these do) in one only God, yet subject to this dispensation (which is our word for "economy") that the one only God has also a Son, his Word who has proceeded from himself, by whom all things were made and without whom nothing has been made: that this [Son] was sent by the Father into the virgin and was born of her both man and God, Son of man and Son of God, and was named Jesus Christ: that he suffered, died, and was buried, according to the scriptures, and, having been raised up by the Father and taken back into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father and will come to judge the quick and the dead: and that thereafter he, according to his promise, sent from the Father the Holy Spirit the Paraclete, the sanctifier of the faith of those who believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. That this Rule has come down from the beginning of the Gospel, even before all former heretics, not to speak of Praxeas of yesterday, will be proved as well by the comparative lateness of all heretics as by the very novelty of Praxeas of yesterday.
This Rule of Faith is amazing. Tertullian strongly formulates the Trinitarian concept over 100 years before the Trinitarian "standardized" definition was agreed upon at the Council of Nicaea. Not only does Tertullian state that the Trinity exists, he deals with the nature of that existence and the relationships inherent to it.
The great question facing us as Christians, and facing us as the Church, is this: Do we worship a Christian God? Affirming that there is one God is wonderful, but it is not sufficiently Christian. Claiming that there are three gods is not Christian either. The Trinity is an alternately baffling and wonderful concept that is completely unique to Christianity, but not unique to Christian thought. There are well over 100 Trinitarian verses in the Bible, and the evidence from them clearly distinguishes three persons in the Godhead -- Father, Son, and Spirit -- as well as affirming their unity.
Tertullian bases his Rule of Faith firmly on two sources: Apostolic Teaching (what the Apostles handed down to the churches they founded and instructed), and the direction of the Holy Spirit (in greek, parakletos, thus where we get "Paraclete"), who is himself a member of the Trinity, and should therefore know what he's talking about.
Why should we believe in the Trinity?
1. Jesus did. One of the greatest books on Trinitarian doctrine is the Gospel of John, where Jesus himself makes a great deal of deep Trinitarian statements.
2. The Apostles did. Though someone has objected to their Trinitarian stance because they began baptising in the name of "Jesus only", evidence from Acts also shows that the Apostles were very concerned with the reciept of the Holy Spirit by new believers -- it wasn't enough for someone to just 'recieve Christ' as we might say today. When Gentile believers accepted the truth of the Gospel, but had not yet received the gift of the Holy Spirit, members of the Twelve themselves showed up to lay hands on them and pray for them to recieve the Holy Spirit.
3. The Early Church did. In fact, huge numbers of early Christians were willing to be martyred for their belief in a Triune God, because that belief was one of the things that would most clearly and easily identify them as Christians. On top of that, most of the major theological battles of the early church against heresies were desperate attempts to defend the 'illogical' Trinitarian position against 'more logical' monotheistic heresies. Early Christians weren't just dumb bricks...they wouldn't have tried defending the less rational position if they did not think that it was VITAL to Christian belief.
4. The Bible does. Besides just Jesus' statements, Biblical testimony from the Old and New Testaments fits a Trinitarian view of God. Jews actually have great debates over some of those evidences, because they believe firmly in the absolute unity of one God, but Old Testament language frequently points to a plural unity, a composite unity, a strange mix of single and multiple.
5. The Heretics don't. One of the most common theme among heresies from the early church to today is a denial of the Trinity in some way. There are many different substitutions used for Trinitarian belief, from strict monotheism to polytheism, but they are all heresies against Christian doctrine. Some of them are totally out of line with the Biblical evidence. Some fit very neatly into the Biblical evidence, but are nonetheless wrong.
6. We are created in the image of God. Is that image singular, or does that image exist in community? If we are created like God, how does that inform how we relate, how we live, how we make decisions?
7. We are commanded to worship God. What God do we worship? How does that God interact with us? What, exactly, is the object of our worship, and how do we properly worship God? What changes would have to be made in proper worship if we were to worship a Trinitarian God, as opposed to a strictly monotheistic God?
8. We are commanded to Love. God is love, God loves us, we love God, we love each other. All this is well and good...but was God still love, even before He created anything? What did God have to love -- if he is strictly united as a monotheistic god -- before there was anything? Was God not love then? If he wasn't, does that mean he has changed as a result of creating? ...OR!, did God exist as a Trinity eternally, eternally loving in a community of three co-equal persons, who are all the One God, who then created and extended love to creation?
There are more, but I'm already running late for work. I don't know if anyone reads these, but if you do, and if you've made it down this far in this post, I implore you: Worship a Trinitarian God! The implications of the Trinity are more staggering than I had ever realized, and are completely and totally central to the Christian faith, to life in this world, and life in the next. If you look around at your church community, you would be surprised to find a number of heresies lurking in the corners...and perhaps some boldly standing in front leading a 'Christian' service! Some of us have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, just as Paul predicted...but it's more subtle than we ever would have believed it to be.
This Rule of Faith is amazing. Tertullian strongly formulates the Trinitarian concept over 100 years before the Trinitarian "standardized" definition was agreed upon at the Council of Nicaea. Not only does Tertullian state that the Trinity exists, he deals with the nature of that existence and the relationships inherent to it.
The great question facing us as Christians, and facing us as the Church, is this: Do we worship a Christian God? Affirming that there is one God is wonderful, but it is not sufficiently Christian. Claiming that there are three gods is not Christian either. The Trinity is an alternately baffling and wonderful concept that is completely unique to Christianity, but not unique to Christian thought. There are well over 100 Trinitarian verses in the Bible, and the evidence from them clearly distinguishes three persons in the Godhead -- Father, Son, and Spirit -- as well as affirming their unity.
Tertullian bases his Rule of Faith firmly on two sources: Apostolic Teaching (what the Apostles handed down to the churches they founded and instructed), and the direction of the Holy Spirit (in greek, parakletos, thus where we get "Paraclete"), who is himself a member of the Trinity, and should therefore know what he's talking about.
Why should we believe in the Trinity?
1. Jesus did. One of the greatest books on Trinitarian doctrine is the Gospel of John, where Jesus himself makes a great deal of deep Trinitarian statements.
2. The Apostles did. Though someone has objected to their Trinitarian stance because they began baptising in the name of "Jesus only", evidence from Acts also shows that the Apostles were very concerned with the reciept of the Holy Spirit by new believers -- it wasn't enough for someone to just 'recieve Christ' as we might say today. When Gentile believers accepted the truth of the Gospel, but had not yet received the gift of the Holy Spirit, members of the Twelve themselves showed up to lay hands on them and pray for them to recieve the Holy Spirit.
3. The Early Church did. In fact, huge numbers of early Christians were willing to be martyred for their belief in a Triune God, because that belief was one of the things that would most clearly and easily identify them as Christians. On top of that, most of the major theological battles of the early church against heresies were desperate attempts to defend the 'illogical' Trinitarian position against 'more logical' monotheistic heresies. Early Christians weren't just dumb bricks...they wouldn't have tried defending the less rational position if they did not think that it was VITAL to Christian belief.
4. The Bible does. Besides just Jesus' statements, Biblical testimony from the Old and New Testaments fits a Trinitarian view of God. Jews actually have great debates over some of those evidences, because they believe firmly in the absolute unity of one God, but Old Testament language frequently points to a plural unity, a composite unity, a strange mix of single and multiple.
5. The Heretics don't. One of the most common theme among heresies from the early church to today is a denial of the Trinity in some way. There are many different substitutions used for Trinitarian belief, from strict monotheism to polytheism, but they are all heresies against Christian doctrine. Some of them are totally out of line with the Biblical evidence. Some fit very neatly into the Biblical evidence, but are nonetheless wrong.
6. We are created in the image of God. Is that image singular, or does that image exist in community? If we are created like God, how does that inform how we relate, how we live, how we make decisions?
7. We are commanded to worship God. What God do we worship? How does that God interact with us? What, exactly, is the object of our worship, and how do we properly worship God? What changes would have to be made in proper worship if we were to worship a Trinitarian God, as opposed to a strictly monotheistic God?
8. We are commanded to Love. God is love, God loves us, we love God, we love each other. All this is well and good...but was God still love, even before He created anything? What did God have to love -- if he is strictly united as a monotheistic god -- before there was anything? Was God not love then? If he wasn't, does that mean he has changed as a result of creating? ...OR!, did God exist as a Trinity eternally, eternally loving in a community of three co-equal persons, who are all the One God, who then created and extended love to creation?
There are more, but I'm already running late for work. I don't know if anyone reads these, but if you do, and if you've made it down this far in this post, I implore you: Worship a Trinitarian God! The implications of the Trinity are more staggering than I had ever realized, and are completely and totally central to the Christian faith, to life in this world, and life in the next. If you look around at your church community, you would be surprised to find a number of heresies lurking in the corners...and perhaps some boldly standing in front leading a 'Christian' service! Some of us have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, just as Paul predicted...but it's more subtle than we ever would have believed it to be.