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Call to Attention

The grace and peace of God our Father who raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, be with you all.

We have gathered in Worship for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and to remember the Life of Gerrit Douma.

By way of comfort consider the Revelation of God,

John 11:25 Jesus said … “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. Psalm 116:15

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in need. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. — Psalm 46:1-2

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God;[a] believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:1-6)

Because of these great and precious promises, those united to Christ, believe that all the ties of family, friendship and affection which knit us together throughout our lives can in no way be unraveled by death. Confident of God’s love and His ability to keep His own, even in the face of death, let us pray.

Opening Prayer

Benevolent and Holy Father
the death of our Father, GrandFather, Uncle, Brother and Friend Gerrit Douma
reminds us of our frail human condition
and that life is but a vapor.

Yet for those who are owned and loved by you
because of your provision in the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ,
death is not the end,
nor can it destroy the bonds
that bind the departed saints to you and to the saints that remain.
We who remain as the Church militant, understand our union with the Church at rest.

Help we who are gathered here to share that faith together
even through our tears and sadness.
Bring the light of Christ’s resurrection
to shine on this time of grief and emptiness,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

AMEN.

Hymn — By The Sea Of Crystal

One of the portions of Scripture that Gerrit had memorized was the 23rd Psalm. He recited it more than once during his recent convalescence,

23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
3
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
4
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.

Paul offers us comfort likewise in his letter to the Thessalonians,

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord,[d] that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words. — I Thessalonians 4

Having been reminded of the ability of God to keep his own we rise to lift our voices in praise sining,

* Hymn — How Great Thou Art

Eulogy – Gospel

When we consider the Eulogy we are reminded that the word literally means “good words,” or “good saying.” It is the point in the service where we remember the virtues of the one who has been excused from this life. It is not a time we seek to preach someone into heaven and it is not a time where magnify the deceased above our magnifying of the Lord Christ. It is a time where we magnify God by speaking of a life well lived of one of those who bore the Image of God. The virtue we see in the Saint departed is a virtue that was kneaded into the Saint by the ongoing sanctification of the Spirit of God.

Work Ethic

When we speak of Gary we can speak of his long faithfulness to Marge and the children. We can speak of his career as a Parole Officer. We could speak of his dry and droll humor.

Let us start by remembering that Gerrit was never far from the soil. He grew up close to the land and the noble calling of Farmer was never completely extinguished in him. Gary would recall stories about time on the farm and time helping one of his Grandfathers sell produce. Even after marriage Gary remained close to the land via his Saturday work on the Litch farm where he earned 1.25 an hour plus the opportunity to raise his own crop.

I’ve never met a family Farmer who didn’t know how to work and a strong work ethic is a gift of the Lord. When we work, we reflect a God who works. The Christian faith, wherever it has gone in history, has always produced a work ethic in those who were called of God. And in God’s providence the work on the Litch farm taught Gary’s son the work ethic as well as eventually Tom would be put to work as well.

We could say more of the work ethic. We could note that after Gerrit retired he didn’t retire. There remained the work of driving for Spartan, and all the work that could be found in tandem with and on top of a Tractor. It was only in the last few months that Gary conceded that he had finally retired.

Traveling,

Then there was the Traveling.

Gerrit used the road to bond with his family. Years ago, Gary and Tom took off on a 6 week road trip across the country in a hatch-back pinto. Do you remember those hatch-back Ford Pintos? This was living on the edge.

The day would come when Grandsons would head off with Grandpa on these types of road trips.

Singing

While on those road trips it was not unknown for Gary to burst out in song. Perhaps at the end of a long days drive. Perhaps when on top of a Mountain when soaking in the beauty of God’s handiwork. Perhaps while driving.

Singing was close to Gary his whole life. He spoke many times of his time singing in the Calvin College Choir when they preformed the Messiah. He would travel yearly for some years to Randolph Wisconsin to hear the Men’s choir. He would sing in our annual Christmas worship service. Sometimes solo. Sometimes in duets. Sometimes in quartets. He loved to sing.

In the last few years Mr. Douma would always lead the doxology in the Evening service. Often he would lead us in what is particularly poignant today.

Lyrics

1. God be with you till we meet again;
By his counsels guide, uphold you;
With his sheep securely fold you.
God be with you till we meet again.

(Chorus)
Till we meet, till we meet,
Till we meet at Jesus’ feet,
Till we meet, till we meet,
God be with you till we meet again.

2. God be with you till we meet again;
When life’s perils thick confound you,
Put his arms unfailing round you.
God be with you till we meet again.

3. God be with you till we meet again;
Keep love’s banner floating o’er you;
Smite death’s threat’ning wave before you.
God be with you till we meet again.

Before we knew it Gary was closing every meeting with a doxology. A business meeting. A fellowship activity. He even asked to close one of the weddings with a doxology. He loved to sing.

Even in his last days he was singing God’s songs to and with folks who would come to visit.

Praying,

Similar to that motif, I used to love to hear Gary pray.

By the means of a combination of the Timber of his voice, and the cadence in his speech it was a privilege to hear him pray. More then cadence and timber though was the deep solemnity that Gerrit brought to prayer. The old timers used to say of people that they “could pray you into heaven.” Because of Gary’s sense of God’s majesty his prayers would bring us before God’s throne.

Like all of us here today, Gary had his pecadillos, idiosyncrasies, and besetting sins but these help explain why he loved the Church. He knew he was a sinner and was in constant need of being reminded that Christ was a greater savior than he was a sinner.

OPEN TIME … OPEN TIME … OPEN TIME … OPEN TIME

Church

Mr. Douma’s attachment to the Church was part of his covenant heritage.

He told me a story once that I have, in turn, told many times myself in other settings.

Part of Gary’s childhood memory included a Grandfather who would carry a ill Grandmother into and out of Church each Sunday. Doubtless this made an impression upon him on the importance of the Church.

His commitment to the Church, then, was doubtless a commitment that was passed on from generations prior. God promised to be the God of us and our seed and God’s faithfulness was seen in those Grandparents. Seen in Gary’s parents presenting Gary as a infant to be Baptized. And was seen in Gary reading Scripture to his children at meal time and making sure they were in Catechism and in Church.

For generations then, to date, — because of God’s faithfulness alone to His covenant promises — the name “Douma” as been associated with the Reformed Church and so the Biblical faith once forever delivered to the saints. It is my earnest prayer that for generations yet to come that will remain true of the “Douma” name.

You see the Reformed Church was only important for Gary as it was a carrier for the Message of Christ Crucified — the one who brings sinners into God’s approval because of His death, resurrection and ascension.

The message of the Reformed faith that Gary lived and died by is succinctly summarized in the Heidelberg confession,

Q.
What is your only comfort
in life and death?

A.
That I am not my own,
but belong with body and soul,
both in life and in death,
to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins
with his precious blood,
and has set me free
from all the power of the devil.
He also preserves me in such a way
that without the will of my heavenly Father
not a hair can fall from my head;
indeed, all things must work together
for my salvation.

Therefore, by his Holy Spirit
he also assures me
of eternal life
and makes me heartily willing and ready
from now on to live for him.

In this catechism we are reminded of why we bother with Church.

We are reminded that no man owns Himself.

Pleasant poetry notwithstanding none of us can say that “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” As mortals we are not independent beings. We belong either to God or to the enemy.

The Heidelberg, following Scripture, tells us that if we belong to God it is by way of the work on the Cross done by Jesus Christ.

We are thus reminded that apart from trusting Christ our sins will eat us up.

And this is a large part of what the Church is to remind us every week. We are great sinners but Christ is a greater savior. Apart from Christ we become alienated from God, from others and even from ourselves. Apart from Christ we constantly seek to de-god God and en-god ourselves so that all people and things serve us and our wants. Apart from Christ we are bent in upon ourselves. Only Christ can deliver us both from God’s just anger against sin, from our sin, and from ourselves at the same time.

We are thus reminded that the Christian life looks like something

By the work of the Spirit we now longer live for ourselves as the center of all things. Now we live with God as the center of all things. We live for Him. And we learn what it means to live for Him by knowing and conforming to His explicit instructions as set forth in Scriptural revelation.

Yes we fail … every day in word, thought or deed, but our failure doesn’t diminish or eliminate God’s grace. Instead the thought of God’s forgiveness in Christ fills us with gratitude to the end of confessing our sin and then rising to be again hearty and willing to live for Him.

This is the Faith of clan Douma for generations and this is the faith that remains for generations to come.

Let us stand for prayer,

Prayer

Triune God of all mercy who has given us the Holy Spirit for consolation.
We are reminded Father that you are our refuge in times of sorrow,
our light in death’s darkness,
and our stability when faced with the valley of the shadow of death.

Comfort your people in their loss and sorrow we beseech thee.
Be a reservoir of hope to Gary’s family during this time.
Lift them from their grief
into the peace and light of your presence.

We thank thee, that your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
by dying has destroyed our death,
and by rising, restored our life.
Enable us now to press on toward him,
so that, after our earthly course is run,
you may reunite us with those we love,
when every tear is wiped away.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.

AMEN.

Having Prayed for you, I ask that we might confess our Faith by praying together the Prayer our Lord taught us to pray,

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power,
and the glory, for ever. Amen.

And now receive the Benediction

May the peace of God
which is beyond understanding,
keep your hearts and minds
in the knowledge and love of God
and of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

AMEN.
—Philippians 4:7

60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit[e] and life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

Ann was and remains a Christian. And when we speak of her we would do well to remember that truth first and foremost.

To have been called to be a Christian means ultimately there is an understanding that, having been bought with a price, one’s life is not one’s own, and so all is life is lived under the authority of the Lord Christ who gave Himself as a Sacrifice for His people.

You see in being a Christian one is given the understanding that they are accountable to the God of the whole cosmos and so they fashion their life in keeping with His Word.

This confidence on Ann’s part of the fact that Christ died the just for the unjust so that His people might have Peace with God … that Christ loved Ann and gave Himself for her becomes then the explanation for who God created her and called her to be.

So deeply was this sense of abandonment to Christ owned by Ann that Ann found the passage in John we just read particularly comforting during her long battle with Cancer. In context the Lord Christ had been spoken truths that were hard to accept and as a result fair weather followers begin to peel off from following Christ. Jesus queries His core of 12 disciples if they were going to leave also and they respond with words that speak both of a divinely given understanding and of resolve.

“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

The disciples understood here that no matter how difficult the Words of the Lord Christ might be it was simply the case that all other Words were empty words.

Ann embraced this passage because as freely purchased with the blood of Christ she understood that no matter how difficult the path may be it was simply the case that Christ was the answer. Where else could she go with this Cancer? Christ alone had the words of Eternal life. Embitterment was not an option because Christ alone had the words of Eternal life. And so she entrusted herself to Christ and the Providence of God and not only refused embitterment but refused Fear.

One of Ann’s favorite Scripture was

“God has not given us a Spirit of Fear but the power of love and of a sound mind.”

In light of this Word from God Ann did not give into fear and relentlessly taught her children not to give into fear. This, of course is a Christian virtue itself given by the God of all grace. As Christians we are called to fear only God and when we offer up our fear to anything that is not God we, at the same time divinize what ever it is we fear other than God and so become idolaters.

There are many virtues we can rightly speak of regarding Ann but we should recognize that any virtue we speak of says more about the magnificence of the Creator than it does about the Creature.

It was the Gospel of Jesus Christ for Sinners that crafted and shaped Ann. It was Biblical Christianity that explains her family-centric orientation where she submitted to her husband and poured herself into her children. It was the Christian faith that explains her fierce loyalties to friends. It was nothing but the finished work of Christ and the confidence in God’s undeserved love that found her optimistic and cheerful in her living and dying.

This is what the Christian faith does. It takes people, who are remarkably unexceptional in and of themselves, like all of us who call upon the name of Christ, and by the Hands of the Sovereign craftsman it shapes, molds, hammers, and refines so that the result is a person who shines like a star in the Universe. The explanation for a life well lived then is not found in mortals for there is nothing in us that recommends us to God’s favor. The explanation of a life well lived is found in God’s favor as revealed in Christ’s work on the Cross and as then fashioned by the Master’s hands. The explanation in a life well lived is the truth that Grace restores nature.

So, considered proximately the legacy of Ann is her role of wife and mother but ultimately the legacy of Ann is that Her Savior, even in the context of what we might count as severe Mercy, was Faithful to Her.

She lived in confidence of the fact that He alone had the words of Eternal life and she is now at rest in the one who loved her and gave himself for her.

“I gave a couple messages on Racism a few years ago — condemning Racism as blasphemous and all kinds of terrible things. And I got this letter, and this letter was, I guess, 15-20 pages long. This guy had spent a great amount of time and effort writing me this letter rebuking me and it wasn’t … I mean it was intellectual, it wasn’t nice, it wasn’t sweet, it was very nasty and uh I read the 1st paragraph and I saw where it was going and I threw it in the trash. I took great delight that this guy had spent hours writing this letter and I read one paragraph. He wanted me to respond and I’m here to tell you today he wasn’t worth it.”

Rev. Joe Morecraft
Recent Sunday Sermon

1.) I’m glad Rev. Morecraft is against Racism. Once the definition of Racism is agreed upon every Christian minister should be opposed to Racism.

2.) He says that the person who wrote this letter is not worth answering and then proceeds to answer him in this anonymous type fashion.

3.) If he didn’t read the letter, save the first paragraph, as he insists, then how could he possibly know it was “Intellectual?”

4.) Likewise, if he didn’t read the letter, save the the first paragraph, as he insists, how could he know it wasn’t nice and was “nasty?”

That must have been some kind of opening paragraph.

5.) I know of one person who sent Rev. Morecraft a 5 page open letter that was substantive, intellectual and engaging. I guess that was a different letter than this 15-20 page letter. Rev. Morecraft didn’t answer that one either … unless he’s confused the two letters and is answering it here.

INTRODUCTION

Trinity Sunday — Church Calendar

Skeptics abound regarding the idea of Trinity desiring a perfect understanding before believing but they forget or never knew the Augustinian dictum that we believe in order to understand and not we understand in order to believe. We are not shy to say that we do not fully understand the depth of the idea of God as Trinity. Ask yourself if any God would be worth worshiping that you or any human could perfectly circumscribe with our human understanding? Would God be God if the human mind could comprehend Him perfectly?

But, while we admit that man cannot comprehensively understand God, we do not suggest that God can not be rightly apprehended or understood with the measure of grace we have been given consistent with God’s Revelation in Scripture. We can be knowing God and so go from knowing unto greater knowing but we will never exhaustively know God since the finite cannot contain the infinite. As such we can know that God is one in three and three in one due to the Revelation of Scripture, and as we grow in the faith we can have ever fuller understanding of what that means but, as mortals, we will never comprehend the essence or mind of God.

SCRIPTURAL TEXT TEACHING THE REALITY OF THE TRINITY

(a) Deut.6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: Eph.4:6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. Isa.44:6 Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. Isa.45:5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: 1 Cor.8:4 As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. 1 Cor.8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

(b) Isa.61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, Gen.1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Gen.1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. Ps.33:6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. Isa.48:16 Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me. Ps.110:1 <> The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Matt.3:16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: Matt.3:17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Matt.28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 1 John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. Isa.6:1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Isa.6:3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. John 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: 2 Cor.13:13 All the saints salute you. Gal.4:6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Eph.2:18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Tit.3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Tit.3:6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

The Scripture thus clearly teaches that there is unity and plurality in the being of God.

TRINITY IN CHURCH HISTORY

The doctrine of the Trinity reached a swelling point in the fourth century, when Arius claimed that Christ was created by God the Father, and was not co-eternal with him. Eventually, the Council of Nicea was convened to address Arius’ claims. Led in part by St. Athanasius, who suffered terrible persecution for his advocacy for the Deity of Christ, found Arius’ claims heretical and formulated the Nicene Creed to discredit and correct them. For the next 100 years, Church Fathers would defend the doctrine of the Trinity from Arian challenges that still existed. Yet, by about the end of the fourth century, the doctrine of the Trinity took on, more or less, the form that we have today.

Nicene Creed

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made….

And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father [and the Son]; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.

Athansian Creed

Athenasian Creed declares in part,

‘but this is the catholic faith, that we worship one God in trinity, and trinity in unity, neither confounding the persons nor diving the substance, for the person of the Father is one, of the Son, another, of the Holy Spirit, another. But the divinity of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is one, and the glory equal, the majesty equal, such as is the Father, such also is the Son, and such the Holy Spirit. The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, the Holy Spirit is uncreated. The Father is infinite, the Son is infinite, the Holy Ghost is infinite. The Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, the Holy Ghost is eternal. And yet there are not three eternal beings but one eternal being. As also there are not three uncreated beings nor three infinite beings, but one uncreated and one infinite being.’

IMPORTANCE OF TRINITY

In this point I am going to try and convince you how important the Church through the ages viewed the doctrine of the Trinity.

Rushdoony, gives us a quote that encapsulates the view of the Church throughout History on the importance of the Trinity.

QUOTE

“The doctrine of the Trinity is that basic foundation for all of faith, for the whole universe…

“The Trinity is the cornerstone of our faith. No faith can survive its denial. No church can live long apart from this doctrine. And no church, no matter how much it preaches other important and necessary doctrines, will long prosper. That Church may blossom for a while, but it will fade if it, under stresses,neglects the doctrine of the Trinity. And churches that lose this faith do not reproduce themselves. A second generation Unitarian, according to the Unitarians themselves, is a great rarity. They are rarely to be found.” ENDQUOTE

That this doctrine was considered essential can be seen in all the ink that has been spilled over the centuries in order to defend it.

Against Praxeas by Tertullian (160-220) In this letter, Tertullian demonstrates through the use of Scripture that the Son and the Father are “distinct” but not “separate.”

Nicene Creed (325) The result of the First Council of Nicene, the Nicene Creed states that the Son is of “one substance” with the Father, and not of a “similar” substance of the Father.

Defense of the Nicene Definition by St. Athanasius (297-373) In this work, St. Athanasius provides an account of the Arians at the Council of Nicene* and defends the Nicene Creed from criticism of it being ‘unbiblical.’

The Third Theological Oration. On the Son. by St. Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390) In this oration, St. Gregory of Nazianzus defends the traditional, Nicene understanding of the Trinity, claiming that the persons of the Trinity are “numerically distinct” without a “severance of essence.”

Dogmatic Treatises by St. Gregory of Nyssa (335-394) Although much controversy focused on the divinity of Christ, the doctrine of the Trinity also posits the Holy Spirit as divine. In this treatise, St. Gregory of Nyssa defends the divinity of the Holy Spirit through Scripture.

Homilies on the Gospel of St. John by St. John Chrysostom (347-407) In a homily on John 1, St. John Chrysostom argues that Scripture clearly teaches that God the Father and Christ are distinct, but not of a compound substance.

On the Holy Trinity by St. Augustine (354-430) St. Augustine devoted an entire book to the topic of the Trinity. Among other things, he argues that the Trinity can be seen in Scripture, responds to objections to the Trinity, and demonstrates the equality of the Godhead.

The Trinity is One God Not Three Gods by St. Boethius (480-525) Using general philosophical principles, St. Boethius demonstrates that God is unified in substance, but differs in number of persons.*

Monologium by St. Anselm (1033-1109) St. Anselm seems to suggest that we lack any fitting language for describing the Trinity as “three,” because terms like “person” or “substance” seem to only apply to things of plurality, of which God is not.

Treatise on the Most Holy Trinity by St. Aquinas (1225-1274) In a long treatise on the Trinity, St. Aquinas addresses many features of the Trinity including: the Divine relations, the procession of the Trinity, and the relationship of the members of the Trinity to God’s essence.

Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin (1509-1564) Using both Scripture and philosophy, Calvin argues for the traditional understanding of the Trinity as “three persons in one God.”

Brief Declaration and Vindication of the Doctrine of the Trinity by John Owen (1616-1683) Using both Scripture and reason, John Owen defends the doctrine of the Trinity against “Socinianism”—the view that Christ did not pre-exist before being a man.

Systematic Theology, vol. 1 by Charles Hodge (1797-1878) In a rigorous fashion, Hodge examines the Scriptural evidence for the Trinity, the Nicene Creed, and philosophical formulations of the doctrine.

During the Reformation The Council of Geneva — the city where Calvin was the First among equals in terms of the Pastorate there, thought the doctrine of the Trinity so important that the Council handed down and implemented a death sentence upon a notorious heretic named Servetus who was actively seeking to overthrow the doctrine of the Trinity. This death sentence had already been pronounced in absentia by many of the countries of Europe, both Roman Catholic and Protestant.

These communities understood that if the doctrine of the Trinity was given up the whole basis of their civil social order would be overthrown. The death penalty for Servetus was done as a protection for the whole community.

The Church understood that reality was integrated. They understood that if one went from a Trinitarian to a Unitarian understanding of God the consequence would be that everything would change. This idea of a integrated reality is captured by a quote from Edmund Opus in a book entitled “Problems of Church and Society.”

“Communism is all of a piece. Adopt its metaphysics and in a technological age we get the ‘planned from the top down’ society. Start on the social level by putting any collectivist principle into operation, and it breeds more of the same until eventually the society becomes fully collectivized. The many part of society are delicately interrelated. Start by fixing the price of a quart of milk, and the glass industry will be told what it must charge for bottles. The wages of delivery men must be regulated, the diary industry controlled and so until the logical end result in time is the totally regimented economy or socialism.”

Now apply that realization to Trinitarian Christianity. Paralleling Opus we might say, “Trinitarian Christianity is all of a piece. Adopt its metaphysics and we get the unity in diversity society. Start on the social level by putting jurisdictionalism as a reflection of Trinitarian understandings of God into operation, and it breeds more and more of the idea of unity in diversity.”

All this to say that if a social order is Trinitarian it is going to resist the attempt by Unitarianism to overthrow understandings of the Trinity in order to protect itself. All this to say that historically the idea of Trinitarian Christianity was seen as foundational and worth dying for AND killing for (Consider Servetus) in order to protect.

As an aside … one thing that R2K does with its dualism is that it cuts off the influence of Trinitarianism on a social order. R2K insists that Trinitarianism’s organizing power is restricted to the Church while suggesting that Christians can be satisfied with Unitarianism in the public square.

The Current Church seems not to see the Trinity as Important

But this is not the opinion of much of the Evangelical Church today in the West. We have so insisted on the pragmatic “cash value” side of Christianity that we are increasingly putting the foundational doctrines aside.

Rob Bell seems to contend in one of his books that the doctrines of Christianity themselves are more useful than true. He specifically names the Trinity, likening the Trinity to the idea of one of the springs that serve to keep a Trampoline taut and by which a Trampoline gets its launching quality and saying something to the effect of, “People have been using this particular (Trinity) ‘spring’ to jump for years. But does that mean that it is essential? Couldn’t we change it for something else? I am not saying that we should – but certainly we could. If we did so, couldn’t we still love God, live moral lives, etc.?”

SUCCINCT EXPLANATION OF TRINITY

See handout

IMPLICATIONS OF THE TRINITY

Community

The reality of the Trinity gives us a basis for Christian community. Clearly, if God has community in Himself, then that community of the Godhead becomes the template for the community of the saints as they have communion with Him. The Church as covenant community is, or at least ought to be, the “live in technicolor” demonstration of God as community.

Miroslav Volf put it this way

“Because the Christian God is not a lonely God, but rather a communion of three persons, faith leads human beings into the divine communion. One cannot, however, have a self-enclosed communion with the Triune God- a “foursome,” as it were– for the Christian God is not a private deity. Communion with this God is at once also communion with those others who have entrusted themselves in faith to the same God. Hence one and the same act of faith places a person into a new relationship both with God and with all others who stand in communion with God.”

― Miroslav Volf, After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity

Our Fellowship with the Trinity brings us into Fellowship with one another. This seems to be part of what St. John is getting at when he writes,

20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

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UNITY IN DIVERSITY

The Eternal One and Many gives meaning to the temporal One and Many.

One & The Many

The reality of the Trinity suggests to us that as God’s unity and His diversity (plurality) are equally ultimate so that neither unity nor plurality is more equally ultimate then the other. What this means is that followers of this Triune God build family structures, church structures, and civil social structures where one finds unity in diversity. Both Unity and Diversity are both valued properly. As such the Christian faith values both the individual as individual while at the same time valuing the individual as part of one community. Both the individual and the community, like the persons of the Godhead and the unity of the Godhead, are equally ultimate.

This doctrine of the Trinity therefore wars against all arrangements where people become uniformed clones who lose all their distinctions in the great miasma of social order oneness. Similarly this doctrine of the Trinity wars against all arrangements of social anarchy where each man does what is right in his own eyes thus losing all basis for community. The doctrine of the Trinity suggests that what will we find are a plurality of Christian communities, one in their beliefs regarding our undoubted Catholic Christian Faith, but yet distinct according to families of man that God has sovereignly placed us in. By such an arrangement one finds the reason why Heaven is populated with men from every tribe, tongue, and Nation.

Chesterton was getting at this when he wrote,

“For the highest thing does not tend to union only; the highest thing, tends also to differentiation. You can often get men to fight for the union; but you can never prevent them from fighting also for the differentiation. This variety in the highest thing is the meaning of the fierce patriotism, the fierce nationalism of the great European civilization. It is also, incidentally, the meaning of the doctrine of the Trinity.”

― G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

Conclusion

Re-cap