DTS Trinitarianism ST102 Exam 1
Definition of The Trinity - correct answer ✔✔The one true God eternally exists in three persons, the
Father, the Son, and the Spirit--one in nature, equal in glory, and distinct in relations.
The Apostles' Creed - correct answer ✔✔An early doctrinal confession that arose around 150 A.D. It
reflects the growing standard of orthodoxy centering on the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is the
most widespread confession of Christian faith.
The Nicene Creed - correct answer ✔✔The official declaration of Christian doctrine was formed in 325,
and later amended in 381 under the authority of Constantinople. Because many converts could not read,
this confession was memorized by them to guard their hearts against false teaching. It has since become
the universal theological cornerstone of virtually all subsequent Christian faith.
Immanent Trinity - correct answer ✔✔Describes the Godhead in and of itself outside of all creation as
part of intra-Trinitarian relations. Parallels ontological Trinity, denoting God's actual Being, the internal
divine operations.
Economic Trinity - correct answer ✔✔Denotes the Godhead as manifest in creation and history--God's
activity outside himself.
Immanent and Economic Trinity - correct answer ✔✔Describes the complementary internal and external
workings of the Godhead. In the Trinity's economic expressions, no member of the Godhead is pitted
against another. All outer workings of the Godhead function in unity. In immanent Trinity one person is
primary and the other two as secondary. The Father decrees creation, the Logos-Son springs it forth, and
the Spirit gives it life and beauty
1st Theological Method For Arriving at the Trinity - correct answer ✔✔Biblical testimony: The witness of
Scripture forms the basis for the foundation of the Christian faith.
Strengths: (1) Patristic writers and early councils affirmed infallibility of Scripture and its authority. (2)
During the Reformation the Bible was reaffirmed as the ultimate source of authority and knowledge
about God. The Reformers challenged the Catholic church regarding their addition to Scripture of
traditions, such as purgatory and the veneration of Mary.
,Weaknesses: (1) The idea of the Trinity is not easily ascertained by casual reading of the Bible. (2) The
word Trinity doesn't appear in the Bible. (3) No one passage fully expounds Trinitarian doctrine.
2nd Theological Method For Arriving at the Trinity - correct answer ✔✔Historical Jesus and the
Resurrection: The real historical personage of Jesus, his death, and resurrection, are supported by
objective data.
Strengths: Objective data validate the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Historical accounts testify to
the resurrection, which is the cornerstone of Christian faith.
Weaknesses: Arguments from history alone cannot confirm the deity of Jesus Christ, much less support
Trinitarianism.
3rd Theological Method For Arriving at the Trinity - correct answer ✔✔Tradition, Creeds, and Councils:
Christian traditions encourage believers to remember and pass on biblical truth.
Strengths: The grammar of creeds articulates with precision the meaning of biblical truths. All branches
of historic Christianity affirm the Trinity as central to Christian faith.
Weaknesses: Plurality and contradictions among Christian traditions.
4th Theological Method For Arriving at the Trinity - correct answer ✔✔Threefold Christian Experience:
The Triune activity of God in Christian daily experience.
Strength: A believer's conversion experience portrays the work of the Trinity.
Weakness: Slippery slope of experience increases subjectivity.
Pros & Cons of Illustrations of the Trinity - correct answer ✔✔Examples: water--liquid/ice/steam; egg--
yolk/white/shell; fruit--rind/flesh/seed; sun--sun/light/heat; fire--flame/light/heat
Pros: The combination of different metaphors depict the inexhaustible quest for articulating the
inexplicable.
Cons: Metaphors inadequately portray God, and might contribute to heretical understandings (as in
modalism: a man is a father, husband, and son).
Aberrant Models of God: Open Theism - correct answer ✔✔Posits that God's foreknowledge of the
future is limited, and humanity influences God's actions, such that the course of history is fluid and not
bound to divine decree. God's will is subject to human will and world events.
, The Athanasian Creed - correct answer ✔✔Probably named after Athanasius, a proponent of trinitarian
doctrine. Not an official document of church council, but part of the Western church's catechism from
around 450 onward.
Aberrant Models of God: Deism - correct answer ✔✔Upholds that God created the universe, but does
not intervene in the affairs of human history. Does not believe in revelation, incarnation, salvation, and
miracles.
Aberrant Models of God: Mormonism - correct answer ✔✔Founded by Joseph Smith in 1830. Smith
allegedly received a vision from the angel Moroni, who gave him inspired hieroglyphics (which have been
debunked by modern Egyptologists). Smith posited that Jesus is a created being, a result of sex between
the Holy Spirit and Mary. God the Father produces spirit children, who then go on to rule their own
planets and solar systems, with myriads of worshipers under their rule. Man has the potential to become
a god.
Aberrant Models of God: Teilhardianism - correct answer ✔✔Founded by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, this
religion understands God as the divine force of evolution, drawing the material universe through three
states: (1) biological life; (2) human consciousness; (3) spiritual oneness with God. The universe becomes
God's body (panentheism).
Aberrant Models of God: Process Theism - correct answer ✔✔A philosophy developed by Alfred North
Whitehead. Posits the universe as a massive organism which continually evolves through trillions of
occasions. God is defined not as a theistic personal being, but as a force that "prehends" the past and
brings a kind of "memory" from the past into relation with the present. It marries physics and
philosophy.
Aberrant Models of God: Liberation Theology - correct answer ✔✔Usually identified with Latin America,
Black theology (both North American and South African), and in some Asian theology, it assumes: (1) a
largely "Christianized" culture; (2) pyramidal economic distribution with the poor forming the
predominant class; (3) right-wing ruling elite.
View of God: God's presence and will for human history are expressed through the masses of poor and
marginalized people. The masses are called upon to rise up against the oppressors.
View of Jesus: (1) Baby in Mary's arms--Jesus is the helpless babe who cannot speak, and must depend
on Mary who sustains and cares for him. Oppressed souls search for a mother, not Jesus. (2) The
Suffering Jesus--depicted as near death, a victim of injustice; (3) Liberation Jesus--revolutionary who no
longer tolerates injustice and suffering; (4) Pentacostal Jesus--He heals the sicks and empowers the
powerless.
Definition of The Trinity - correct answer ✔✔The one true God eternally exists in three persons, the
Father, the Son, and the Spirit--one in nature, equal in glory, and distinct in relations.
The Apostles' Creed - correct answer ✔✔An early doctrinal confession that arose around 150 A.D. It
reflects the growing standard of orthodoxy centering on the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is the
most widespread confession of Christian faith.
The Nicene Creed - correct answer ✔✔The official declaration of Christian doctrine was formed in 325,
and later amended in 381 under the authority of Constantinople. Because many converts could not read,
this confession was memorized by them to guard their hearts against false teaching. It has since become
the universal theological cornerstone of virtually all subsequent Christian faith.
Immanent Trinity - correct answer ✔✔Describes the Godhead in and of itself outside of all creation as
part of intra-Trinitarian relations. Parallels ontological Trinity, denoting God's actual Being, the internal
divine operations.
Economic Trinity - correct answer ✔✔Denotes the Godhead as manifest in creation and history--God's
activity outside himself.
Immanent and Economic Trinity - correct answer ✔✔Describes the complementary internal and external
workings of the Godhead. In the Trinity's economic expressions, no member of the Godhead is pitted
against another. All outer workings of the Godhead function in unity. In immanent Trinity one person is
primary and the other two as secondary. The Father decrees creation, the Logos-Son springs it forth, and
the Spirit gives it life and beauty
1st Theological Method For Arriving at the Trinity - correct answer ✔✔Biblical testimony: The witness of
Scripture forms the basis for the foundation of the Christian faith.
Strengths: (1) Patristic writers and early councils affirmed infallibility of Scripture and its authority. (2)
During the Reformation the Bible was reaffirmed as the ultimate source of authority and knowledge
about God. The Reformers challenged the Catholic church regarding their addition to Scripture of
traditions, such as purgatory and the veneration of Mary.
,Weaknesses: (1) The idea of the Trinity is not easily ascertained by casual reading of the Bible. (2) The
word Trinity doesn't appear in the Bible. (3) No one passage fully expounds Trinitarian doctrine.
2nd Theological Method For Arriving at the Trinity - correct answer ✔✔Historical Jesus and the
Resurrection: The real historical personage of Jesus, his death, and resurrection, are supported by
objective data.
Strengths: Objective data validate the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Historical accounts testify to
the resurrection, which is the cornerstone of Christian faith.
Weaknesses: Arguments from history alone cannot confirm the deity of Jesus Christ, much less support
Trinitarianism.
3rd Theological Method For Arriving at the Trinity - correct answer ✔✔Tradition, Creeds, and Councils:
Christian traditions encourage believers to remember and pass on biblical truth.
Strengths: The grammar of creeds articulates with precision the meaning of biblical truths. All branches
of historic Christianity affirm the Trinity as central to Christian faith.
Weaknesses: Plurality and contradictions among Christian traditions.
4th Theological Method For Arriving at the Trinity - correct answer ✔✔Threefold Christian Experience:
The Triune activity of God in Christian daily experience.
Strength: A believer's conversion experience portrays the work of the Trinity.
Weakness: Slippery slope of experience increases subjectivity.
Pros & Cons of Illustrations of the Trinity - correct answer ✔✔Examples: water--liquid/ice/steam; egg--
yolk/white/shell; fruit--rind/flesh/seed; sun--sun/light/heat; fire--flame/light/heat
Pros: The combination of different metaphors depict the inexhaustible quest for articulating the
inexplicable.
Cons: Metaphors inadequately portray God, and might contribute to heretical understandings (as in
modalism: a man is a father, husband, and son).
Aberrant Models of God: Open Theism - correct answer ✔✔Posits that God's foreknowledge of the
future is limited, and humanity influences God's actions, such that the course of history is fluid and not
bound to divine decree. God's will is subject to human will and world events.
, The Athanasian Creed - correct answer ✔✔Probably named after Athanasius, a proponent of trinitarian
doctrine. Not an official document of church council, but part of the Western church's catechism from
around 450 onward.
Aberrant Models of God: Deism - correct answer ✔✔Upholds that God created the universe, but does
not intervene in the affairs of human history. Does not believe in revelation, incarnation, salvation, and
miracles.
Aberrant Models of God: Mormonism - correct answer ✔✔Founded by Joseph Smith in 1830. Smith
allegedly received a vision from the angel Moroni, who gave him inspired hieroglyphics (which have been
debunked by modern Egyptologists). Smith posited that Jesus is a created being, a result of sex between
the Holy Spirit and Mary. God the Father produces spirit children, who then go on to rule their own
planets and solar systems, with myriads of worshipers under their rule. Man has the potential to become
a god.
Aberrant Models of God: Teilhardianism - correct answer ✔✔Founded by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, this
religion understands God as the divine force of evolution, drawing the material universe through three
states: (1) biological life; (2) human consciousness; (3) spiritual oneness with God. The universe becomes
God's body (panentheism).
Aberrant Models of God: Process Theism - correct answer ✔✔A philosophy developed by Alfred North
Whitehead. Posits the universe as a massive organism which continually evolves through trillions of
occasions. God is defined not as a theistic personal being, but as a force that "prehends" the past and
brings a kind of "memory" from the past into relation with the present. It marries physics and
philosophy.
Aberrant Models of God: Liberation Theology - correct answer ✔✔Usually identified with Latin America,
Black theology (both North American and South African), and in some Asian theology, it assumes: (1) a
largely "Christianized" culture; (2) pyramidal economic distribution with the poor forming the
predominant class; (3) right-wing ruling elite.
View of God: God's presence and will for human history are expressed through the masses of poor and
marginalized people. The masses are called upon to rise up against the oppressors.
View of Jesus: (1) Baby in Mary's arms--Jesus is the helpless babe who cannot speak, and must depend
on Mary who sustains and cares for him. Oppressed souls search for a mother, not Jesus. (2) The
Suffering Jesus--depicted as near death, a victim of injustice; (3) Liberation Jesus--revolutionary who no
longer tolerates injustice and suffering; (4) Pentacostal Jesus--He heals the sicks and empowers the
powerless.
