Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition - Mentor's Guide

M E N T O R N O T E S / 1 1 7

opinion in public on this or that question, to lead study groups, to give papers, to write articles, and generally to accept responsibility, informal if not formal, for acting as teachers and arbiters of orthodoxy in our own Christian circle. Our friends tell us how much they value our contribution, and this spurs us to further explorations of God’s truth, so that we may be equal to the demands made upon us. All very fine – yet interest in theology, and knowledge about God, and the capacity to think clearly and talk well on Christian themes, is not at all the same thing as knowing him. We may know as much about God as Calvin knew – indeed, if we study his works diligently, sooner or later we shall – and yet all the time (unlike Calvin, may I say) we hardly know God at all.

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~ J. I. Packer. Knowing God . Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993. p. 26.

Remind the students that what is at stake in trinitarian study is quite literally our very knowledge of God as he has revealed himself to us . It means that everything is at stake in studying God as he is.

T h e o l o g y a n d E t h i c s

Tozer’s claims regarding the trinity are as true today as the first moment he thought and penned the following words: The doctrine of the Trinity is truth for the heart. The spirit of man alone can enter through the veil and penetrate into that Holy of Holies. “Let me seek Thee in longing,” pleaded Anselm, “let me long for Thee in seeking; let me find Thee in love, and love Thee in finding.” Love and faith are at home in the mystery of the Godhead. Let reason kneel in reverence outside.

& 4 page 211 Student Questions and Response

~ A. W. Tozer. The Knowledge of the Holy. New York: Harper San Francisco, 1961. p. 20.

Your discussion of the truths regarding the Trinity should concentrate not on trying to solve the mystery of the Godhead, but understanding the “lay of the land” so to speak in biblical and theological studies concerning the Trinity. Focus on the major points of trinitarian doctrine: the unity of God, three persons sharing the same substance in the Godhead, the