Most professing Christians believe God is a Trinity. What do you know about the Trinity?
Prompts if no response: It is the belief that God is three beings in one, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Some people think that if you don’t believe in the Trinity you are blaspheming against God and must be in a cult.
Discussion Question 1:
Why do we in the Church believe that God is not a Trinity?
Prompts if no response: The Holy Spirit is the power of God. The Holy Spirit is described as being inside us, poured out, and is not described as a person. The Holy Spirit is often not addressed with God and Jesus Christ.
Supporting Scriptures
Christ was “conceived of the Holy Spirit,” but He did not call the Holy Spirit His Father
Matthew 1:20
. The Holy Spirit is described as being poured out
Acts 2:17-18
; you cannot pour out a person. We are described as having fellowship with God the Father and Jesus Christ
1 John 1:3
; the Holy Spirit is not mentioned.
Discussion Question 2:
Why do you think most professing Christians believe that God is a Trinity?
Prompts if no response: That’s all they’ve ever been taught. There are parts of the Bible that list the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit together. There are mistranslations that use “he” instead of “it” for the Holy Spirit.
Idolatry breaks two of the 10 Commandments, and it is mentioned several times in the Bible as an abomination to God. What are the pagan origins of the Trinity, and how is idolatry linked with it?
Prompts if no response: Creating a new being and worshipping it in the same way that God is worshipped. There are a number of pagan triads, including Sumeria (Anu, Enlil and Ea); Babylon (three-headed composite god and equilateral triangle in worship); India (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva); Greece (Aristotle using three as a number to worship the gods); Egypt (Osiris, Isis and Horus); or even Celtic (Criosan, Biosena and Seeva).
What would you think or say back if you heard this: “Do you pray to the Holy Spirit?”
Prompts if no response: We might say, No, I pray to God the Father. I believe the Holy Spirit is God’s power.
Supporting Scriptures
In the model prayer, Christ never refers to the Holy Spirit
Matthew 6:9-13
.
Hypothetical 2:
What would you say back if asked: “How are you a Christian if you don’t believe in the Trinity? It is the most important Christian teaching!”
Prompts if no response: Discuss the pros and cons of various responses. Think about other examples where people call themselves Christian while not really following what Christ teaches.
Supporting Scriptures
We should obey what God says and not what man says
Acts 5:29
. If we are not worshipping God the way He wants us to, it is in vain and of no value
Matthew 15:9
.
CLOSER
What are some possible consequences for going against the mainstream belief about the Trinity?
Prompts if no response: We might not be thought of as “real” Christians. We might be “canceled,” not included, etc.
SCRIPTURES FOR MORE STUDY OR REFERENCE
Matthew 28:19; 1 John 5:6-8; Galatians 1:1-3; Ephesians 1:1-2
The 10 Commandments recorded in Exodus 20 reveals God's love for mankind by providing guidelines for living a life full of blessings and goodness. This lesson gives an overview of all 10 Commandments.
Read More >
The 10 Commandments recorded in Exodus 20 reveals God's love for mankind by providing guidelines for living a life full of blessings and goodness. This lesson gives an overview of all 10 Commandments.
Read More >
The 10 Commandments recorded in Exodus 20 reveals God's love for mankind by providing guidelines for living a life full of blessings and goodness. This lesson gives an overview of all 10 Commandments.
Read More >
Matthew 1:20
But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons andyour daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.
18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.
that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;
5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
7 For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and they had feared other gods,
8 and had walked in the statutes of the nations whom the LORD had cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made.
9 Also the children of Israel secretly did against the LORDtheir God things that were not right, and they built for themselves high places in all their cities, from watchtower to fortified city.
10 They set up for themselves sacred pillars and wooden images[fn] on every high hill and under every green tree.
11 There they burned incense on all the high places, like the nations whom the LORD had carried away before them; and they did wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger,
12 for they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.”
13 Yet the LORD testified against Israel and against Judah, by all of His prophets, every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by My servants the prophets.”
14 Nevertheless they would not hear, but stiffened their necks, like the necks of their fathers, who did not believe in the LORD their God.
15 And they rejected His statutes and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them; they followed idols, became idolaters, and went after the nations who wereall around them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them that they should not do like them.
16 So they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, made for themselves a molded image and two calves, made a wooden image and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.
17 And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger.
18 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight; there was none left but the tribe of Judah alone.
