Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition

LESSON 2 | GOD THE FATHER: THE TRIUNE GOD – THE GREATNESS OF GOD / 201

Our objective for this lesson, God’s Greatness , is to enable you to see that: • The doctrine of the Trinity refers to the Bible’s teaching about God’s triune personhood. • The Scriptures assert that God is one, and that there is none other than the one God, and yet they also assert that the one God reveals himself as God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. • Each member of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) possesses the attributes and does the work of God, is called God, and exercises authority as God. • The Bible affirms both God’s oneness and God’s plurality (that the Godhead is more than one person), with the persons Father, Son, and Holy Spirit addressed together as being persons within the Godhead. • The Church has attempted to draft understandings of the Bible’s teachings on the Trinity, with varying degrees of acceptance among believers. • We must assert God’s trinitarian nature, affirming that the members of the Trinity, though God in three persons, are in fact one, diverse, and equal, together comprising the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

2

T heology and E th i c s

I. The Lord God Is a Triune God.

Video Outline

A. The logic and biblical necessity of the Trinity

1. Trinitarian doctrine arises from an attempt to take the Bible seriously on its teaching about the nature of God.

2. The essence of the trinitarian argument: the Scriptures mandate a triune understanding of God.

a. First, the Bible asserts that there is only one God.