Understanding the Three in One

Today we discussed why it's important to believe in the Trinity. Here is one of the stories we discussed:

One of the chief obstacles to a Muslim becoming a Christian is the doctrine of the Trinity. Muslims believe there is only one God—Allah—and that Christians practice polytheism (the worship of many gods). In his recent book The Faith, Chuck Colson argues nonetheless that we shouldn't shy away from teaching the Trinity. In fact, he's found that the very doctrine itself is one of the best evangelistic tools at our disposal. He writes:
Take the case of "Farid," originally a nominal Muslim who came to the United States in 1993 to study. He fell under the spell of the MSA [Muslim Student Association] and soon joined their ranks, evangelizing. In debates with Christians, he contended that the Trinity was idolatry, or, as the Muslims call it, "shirk." But in those same debates, he found his own positions weak when he was forced to argue that Jesus didn't die on the cross, only appeared to, as Muslims believe. Although he was warned against investigating the topic,

Farid began to study…

Farid soon gave up his evangelizing on behalf of the MSA, continuing his search more deeply into Christian theology. He came to see that far from rejecting the Trinity, it "was the only logical explanation of what is reported in the New Testament, and [it] was logical and non-contradictory, just as a wave-particle duality principle in physics was the only plausible yet unbelievable and seemingly contradictory way to explain the world."
Eventually, Farid's search brought him to the point of exhaustion, where, in his imagination, he lay outside the gates of the City of God. At this point he cried out to God to rescue him, if God would. "I felt a strange feeling of God's love, as if he was telling me that I am his, and that he will love me and take care of me for the rest of my life and after." This experience led to Farid committing himself to a new life as a Christian… God became Farid's eternal Father, "an infinite being who cares about me personally, and who wants me to be fully committed to him."

Chuck Colson, The Faith: What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It, and Why It Matters (Zondervan 2008), pp. 104-105

Three gods???

Muslims believe we worship 3 gods - they call this Shirk and believe we blashpheme God (or Allah) by worshiping Jesus and the Holy Spirit in addition to God the Father.

Are you prepared to discuss with them how we worship one God?

Don't think it's relative in our area? Read what is being taught at the University of North Texas by the Muslim Student Association there: Jesus in Islam

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Friday's devotional 08.29.2008

Read 2 Corinthians 13:14
· How did God demonstrate his love? How would you describe God’s love?
· What is grace? How can the grace of Jesus be with us? What is the purpose of grace in our lives?
· What does “fellowship” mean? Is it an event that your ABF does every month or two? If not,what does “fellowship” mean? How does one experience the “fellowship of the Holy Spirit?”
· Many in recent years have become familiar with J. R. R. Tolkien’s trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. In the first book, The Fellowship of the Ring, a group of individuals who have very little in common begins a great quest. Considering these individuals and the quest, what does “fellowship” mean?
· How do you picture the persons of the Trinity at work in your life?

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Thursday's devotional 08.28.2008

Read Ephesians 1:13-14
· According to verse 14, believers are “marked with a seal.” What is that seal? In the ancient world, when a package was dispatched it was marked with a seal that indicated from where it had come and to whom it belonged. How is the Holy Spirit like a seal in the lives of believers?
· Read verse 14 from several translations. What is the Holy Spirit called in this verse? Have you ever bought something that required that you put down “earnest money?” What is the purpose of earnest money? How is the Holy Spirit like earnest money?
· How does the Holy Spirit work in your life? Are you aware of his presence?

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Wednesday's devotional 08.27.2008

Read Ephesians 1:5-12
· What did God determine beforehand for those who believe in Christ? What is the process for us to be “adopted as his sons?”
· Re-read verses 7-10. What did Christ provide for believers? What is redemption? How did Jesus provide redemption?
· According to verse 9, what was Christ’s purpose?
· Re-read the entire passage looking for the words “plan” and “purpose.” What insights does this give us into God’s character?

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Tuesday's devotional 08.26.2008

Read Ephesians 1:3-4
· Ephesians 1:3-14 is a hymn to the Trinity and is a single sentence in Greek. It is not so much a well-reasoned, logical progression as it is a song.
· As you re-read verses 3 and 4, look for two actions that Paul attributes to God. What are they?
· How would you describe the spiritual blessings that God has given you? Where did these blessings take place? What does that mean to you?
· Did you choose God or did he choose you? When did God choose you? How does that make you feel?
· According to verse 4, what kind of life should the chosen ones live? What is the difference between “holy” and “blameless?”
· Spend today reflecting on the fact that God has blessed and chosen you. Why did he do that?
Does he have a reason or purpose? If so, what is it? With this in mind, how will you use your time, talents and treasures?

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Monday's devotional 08.25.2008

Read Matthew 28:19
· Baptism commanded by Christ in the Great Commission is to be “in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Notice that it says “name” and not “names.” This suggests that the name of God is “Father, Son, Holy Spirit.” Why is this important?
· Does it bother you that the word “Trinity” does not appear in our Bible? Why or why not?
· Do you understand the concept of the Trinity? Does the confusing part of this cause you to be skeptical?
· Consider the following statement: “If we are to accept and believe only what we can fully understand, then we are hopelessly beyond redemption.” Is this statement true? If it is, what causes it to be true?

Ben's thoughts:
This shows that our God is not 3 gods but one God. It does not bother me that the word Trinity is not in our Bible. God gave us every word that is in the Bible. He therefore gave us everything we need to understand Him. The concept of the Trinity is difficult for the human mind. It is not something that would cause me to be skeptical though. Instead, it makes me realize that our God in His infinite wisdom is much more amazing than any of the man made concepts of gods in other religions. I believe the statement is true. If we had to fully understand the Trinity or everything it took to Resurrect Jesus in order for us to be saved we would be hopelessly beyond redemption. We understand a lot about God's essence but it would be impossible to say that we knew or understood everything about Him.

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Believing In God

This week we looked at clips of Einstein and Ben Stein.

The information on Einstein is here:

When Albert Einstein was asked if he believed in God, here was his response: "I'm not an atheist. I don't think I can call myself a pantheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books, but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws, but only dimly understand these laws."

Einstein tried to express these feelings clearly, both for himself and all of those who wanted a simple answer from him about his faith. So in the summer of 1930, amid his sailing and ruminations in Caputh [Germany], he composed a credo, "What I Believe," that he recorded for a human-rights group and later published. It concluded with an explanation of what he meant when he called himself religious: "The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our minds cannot grasp, whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly: this is religiousness. In this sense, and in this sense only, I am a devoutly religious man."

Walter Isaacson, "Einstein and Faith," TIME (4-5-07)

The clip of Ben Stein can be found here:

Ben Stein clip on youtube

During our discussion, we realized that the Bible passages we studied did not try to "prove God exists". They declare that He exists and the human authors of the text all assume His existence.

The fool says in his heart, there is no God - Psalm 14:1

What does it mean to us today?

ACKNOWLEDGE GOD.

Note: The following outline merely seeks to reveal the Bible’s assumption of God’s existence, the overwhelming evidence for His existence in creation, and the consequence of rejecting that evidence.

1. The Bible assumes the existence of God, the Creator, (Genesis 1:1).
2. The Bible claims that nothing exists apart from God, the Creator, (John 1:1-3).
3. Creation reveals the glory of God, (Psalm 19:1).
4. Failure to acknowledge the God of creation brings judgment, (Romans 1:19-20).
5. ACKNOWLEDGE GOD.


Hopefully, you now feel challenged to identify and stand up for your beliefs in God.

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Pascal's wager

Consider Pascal's wager:

The skeptic should believe in God, as a
rational decision. For, if God exists
and the skeptic believes in Him, the
rewards are infinite; if God exists and
the skeptic does not believe in Him,
the miseries are infinite; if God does
not exist, it makes no difference
whether the skeptic believes in Him or
not. Hence, the only benefit comes
from believing in God and the only disbenefit
from not believing in Him.
Hence, the skeptic ought to believe.

At the time that he wrote it, he may have seemed to be indicating that the choice we make is between knowing the one true God through a personal relationship with Christ as opposed to a life of atheism. Otherwise, there are some other possiblities to contend with.

Is it a good method of evangelism to present eternal life as a bet? Why or why not?

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Friday's devotional

Read Romans 1:19-20
· What are some things that you have observed in nature that confirm to you that
God exists?
· What are God’s invisible qualities? How have these qualities been clearly seen
and understood? What is the result of that understanding for us?
· Do you think that society is better, worse, or about the same as it was when Paul
wrote this?
· Since all of this is true, how should it affect the way that we live?


Ben's thoughts:
Some of the things I've observed are:
1) the order of things - the earth maintaing it's orbit is pretty convincing.
2) the unlikelihood of things falling together (creation itself)

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Thursday's devotional

Read Romans 1:19-20
· If God were to deliver a “State of the World Address” what do you think that he
would say?
· What is God’s response to those who ignore and disobey him (v. 18)?
· Paul says that “what may be known about God is plain to them.” What is Paul
talking about? Who has made it “plain to them?”
· How can God hold us responsible for breaking his laws?

Ben's thoughts:
I think he would say that to many people are "Of the world". And that they need to see the obvious. That God has created it all and that they need to bow down and worship Him. He's revealing His wrath on those that are not acknowledging Him. Plain to them means that it's so obvious/evident that even a child can understand who He is and that He created everything.

Wednesday's devotional

Read Psalm 19:1
· Who speaks in Psalm 19:1? What do “they” say?
· Is everyone able to see evidence of God’s work in nature? Why or why not?
· Does this mean that people who have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ
can still learn about God from nature?
· What in creation fills you most with a sense of God’s glory?

Ben's thoughts:
Well the Author of the passage is God speaking through David (Holy Spirit inspired words). But in the verse, the heavens and skies speak. They declare His glory and proclaim the work of His hands. This definitely means that everyone is without excuse for knowing that God exists (cf. Romans 1:20) Not sure that it's "the most", but being far out into the Pacific Ocean gives me a huge appreciation for all He has done.

Tuesday's devotional

Read John 1:1-3
· Why do you think that John’s first words were “In the beginning” rather than with
a simple narrative of Jesus’ birth?
· What does John 1:1-3 add to your perception of Genesis 1:1?
· The word translated “Word” means “an intelligent utterance, either a single word
or a message.” What insights can you gain from seeing Jesus as “the Word?”
· It appears in verse 3 that John says the same thing twice. Why do you think that
he did that?

Ben's thoughts:
I think John began this narrative this way to show that Jesus beginning had no beginning. Matthew and Luke gave narratives of the way Jesus birth on earth took place but it was important to look further at the person of Jesus and realize that He was (and is) God. There would be no doubt to a Jewish person that John elevated Jesus to the point of God the Father(functionally subordinate). This also shows that Jesus had a hand in (or the majority part of) creation. His way of saying the same thing twice adds clarity to the message that Jesus was involved in the creation of everything.

Monday's devotional

Read Genesis 1:1
· What were some things that you created when you were a child? What modern
creation is most important to you? How do these things differ from the things
created by God?
· What does this verse reveal about God’s character?
· Some skeptics dub the opening verses of Genesis as “absurd” and
“contradictory.” Do you understand their point of view? How would you respond
to their comments?
· When you consider all of nature, do you find it easy or difficult to believe that God
exists? Why or why not?

Read through the things above and internalize them. Then if you'd like, either add comments related to each bullet or comment on what the whole devotional made you think.

Ben's thoughts:
The internet seems to be one of the most important man made creations that's making a difference in our lives these days. One of the differences between man's creation of it and God's creation is that man is simply discovering a way to use what God created. In considering all of nature, it's easy for me to believe that God created it all. It would be difficult for me to believe that it could have fallen together some other way.

Ultimate Faith Challenge

Today we began our fall series, the Ultimate Faith Challenge with our first session: “Contending for the Faith” based on Jude 3-4 and Exodus 34:12-16.

Hopefully you left class challenged to join in the Ultimate Faith Challenge and commit to contending for your faith.

Some of the facts we reviewed:

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life recently surveyed 35,000 U.S. adults to analyze religious practices.

o Over half of evangelical respondents said that many religions can lead to eternal life
o 29% of Catholics see God as an impersonal force
o 1 in 5 self-described atheists say they believe in God or a universal spirit
o 79% believe in miracles
o 58% prayed daily
o 39% attend weekly religious services
o 45% say they seldom read the Bible
o 14% cite religious beliefs as the main influence on their political thinking

We watched a brief video clip by a "new atheist", Sam Harris.

Next week our study will be on "Believing in God" based upon the following verses:

Genesis 1:1; John 1:1-3; Psalm 19:1; Romans 1:19-20

A good book to study during this fall session is The Faith: What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It, and Why It Matters by Charles Colson. You can get it at Lake Pointe's bookstore or order it here:





During the week we will be looking at The Word for the Week.