Unit 2 - Existence of God: The Trinity

Question 1

Omnipotence

Answer 1

All-powerful

Question 2

Omniscient

Answer 2

All-knowing

Question 3

Omnipresent

Answer 3

Able to be everywhere at once

Question 4

Eternal

Answer 4

Without beginning or end

Question 5

Transcendent

Answer 5

Beyond the laws of human nature, outside of time and space.

Question 6

Immanent and personal

Answer 6

God is involved in our lives on a personal level.

Question 7

Our judge

Answer 7

After death, God will judge Christians on the way they lived their lives on the Earth.

Question 8

What are the three parts of the Trinity?

Answer 8

• Father
• Son
• Holy Spirit

Question 9

What’s the role of the Father?

Answer 9

God is seen as the protector and creator and some Christians see their relationship with God as being like that between a father and child.

Question 10

What’s the role of the Son?

Answer 10

• Christians believe Jesus was God in human form (incarnated)
• He came to Earth to die on the cross to pay the price of human sin
• Jesus rose from the dead to show God’s power over death
• Jesus provides an example of how Christians should live
• On the Earth he performed many healings and miracles e.g. raising Lazarus from the dead and exorcism

Question 11

What’s the role of the Holy Spirit?

Answer 11

• Presence of God that’s with them all the time
• Helper and comforter
• Helps Christians to overcome sin and do what is right
• Gifts of the Holy Spirit e.g. tongues

Question 12

What Christian practices incorporate the Trinity?

Answer 12

During confirmation in the Anglican Church candidates are asked if they believe and trust in the Father, His Son and His Holy Spirit.

*in the Anglican Church it’s a choice not a requirement to be confirmed, unlike in the RCC it’s a sacrament.

Question 13

What do Unitarians believe about the Trinity?

Answer 13

• Unitarianism rejects the idea of the Trinity since it’s a danger to the monotheism of Christianity
• God is one being
• Jesus was in some way a ‘son’ of God, but he wasn’t literally God

Question 14

What do Jehovah’s Witnesses believe about the Trinity?

Answer 14

• Reject the teaching of the Trinity
• God is a single being and His personal name is Jehovah
• No one equal to God
• Jesus, in some way, is the son of God
• They argue that Jesus was created by Jehovah and because (unlike Jehovah) he had a beginning, he isn’t eternal
• They don’t believe that the Holy Spirit is a separate person from God
• The Holy Spirit is Jehovah’s force, through which He acts

Question 15

What does the Nicene creed say about the Holy Spirit?

Answer 15

• The Nicene Creed includes a phrase meaning ‘…and from the Son’ to describe the existence of the Holy Spirit.
• This suggests that the Spirit comes from both God the Father and God the Son.

Question 16

What does the Eastern Orthodox Church teach about the Holy Spirit?

Answer 16

• In contrast, the EOC teaches that the Holy Spirit comes only from the Father.
• John 15:26 says ‘in the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father.’