In the new convenant Self-revelation of himself, God revealed himself as Trinitarian relational Oneness. It took a while for the Christian community of the first fiew centuries to think this through and explain such, but this Trinitarian monotheism was clearly supported at the Council of Nicea in 325A.D., and has been the historic Christian understanding of God Through the centuries.
This concept of God's relational oneness became so obvious to the Christian understanding by God's own Self-revelation. Moltmann put it nicely in his book "God the Father in the Life of the Holy Trinity", where he writes:
In the new covenant Self-revelation of himself, God revealed himself as Trinitarian relational Oneness. It took a while for the Christian community of the first few centuries to think this through and explain such, but this Trinitarian monotheism was clearly supported at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D., and has been the historic Christian understanding of God through the centuries.
This concept of God’s relational oneness became so obvious to the Christian understanding by God’s own Self-revelation. Moltmann put it nicely in his book “God the Father in the Life of the Holy Trinity”, where writes:
The Holy Trinity is a communion of equals, without a hierarchy. The unity of the Trinity is neither achieved through the monarchy of the Father, nor through the bond of the “unity in the Holy Spirit,” but through the perichoresis of eternal love: Trinitarian intersubjectivity itself is this unity.” The perichoretic communion of the Father and the Son remains the primordial model, and Christ’s community, the Church, is the model open to analogy, in the sense of likeness. The Church does not correspond to the monarchy of the Father, to the uniqueness of the Son, or to the Holy Spirit, but rather to the Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Thereby we have a relational oneness and unity with all other Christians who are likewise so joined in relational oneness with God. Being relationally “one spirit” (I Cor. 6:17) with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, allows us to “stand firm in one spirit” (Phil. 1:27), being “united in spirit” (Phil. 2:2), in the “unity of the Spirit” (Eph. 4:3), allowing love to be the “perfect bond of unity” (Col. 3:4) in Christ.
The Work of the Trinity in Creation
The question of whether or not Creation is eternal is not a new one. The Christian doctrine of creation ex nihilo was put together in the second century to speak against such an idea and to affirm God's transcendence. The question arises anew today in light of the current scientific world view is "how" God creates, rather than giving attention to the question "why" God creates. Yet the philosophical mystery prevails, "why something and not nothing?" Recently, a collection of essays by theologians and scientists explored creation as a work of love, thus pointing to divine action as kenosis or God's self emptying. The rebirth of kenotic theology has been helpful to reformulate divine action in an evolutionary world. Kenotic theology of creation basically upholds the truth that God, who is love, shares himself and thus becoming vulnerable to that which is brought into being.
A theology of creation requires clarity about the Trinitarian doctrine, especially the relation of the one divine essence to the three persons, the distinction between immanent and transitive acts, and the indivisibility of God’s outer works. The triune God is one undivided essence in an irreducible threefold personal modification. The persons of the godhead are differentiated from each other by mutual relations and by each person’s characteristics. Creation, as an outer work, it demonstrates God’s unity: the work of creation is not divisible into three distinct actions. However, distinct and eminent appropriation of specific acts to specific persons is permissible if each person is understood as a mode of the one divine essence. Creation is thus a common work of the undivided three-in-one; there are not three creators, but three who create.
This is evident in Scripture as Isaiah addresses the LORD as Father (Isa 64:8). Paul describes Jesus as the image of God and states that all creation was created through him (Col 1:15–17). In his book, Job claims that he was made by the Spirit of God and that his breath gave him life (Job 33:4). With this important background, we can even see evidence for the Trinity right at the beginning of the Bible, in Genesis 1.The Father is in overall supervision. The whole of creation is made by his command. Yet, we read that God said, “Let there be light.” In John’s Gospel, Jesus is described as the Word of God and also as the Light (Jn 1:14; 8:12). Finally, in (Gen 1:2), we read about the Spirit “hovering over the face of the waters.” That accounts for all three Persons of the Trinity at the very start of things.
For that reason, we see evidence for the Trinity where ever we go on this globe. Time can be expressed as past, present, and future. Matter can exist as solid, liquid, and gas. Space three dimensions: height, length, and width. In addition, people can have multiple roles or relationships; a man can be father, husband, and son at the same time, but plays each role uniquely according to the situation he faces. May be these are not the best analogies, but at least we can see expressions of the Trinity in these elements of the universe and how it relates to us as human beings. Perhaps it is no accident that the strongest simple two dimensional shape is that of a triangle.
Conclusion
The rule which governs teaching about the Trinity, and therefore about creation as one of its extensions, is: love alone restores knowledge. Love, furthermore, is the end of theological study of the creator and his work. The purpose of the redeemed mind’s exercise in this subject is that God may himself be sought, and himself be loved. Or, as a later Augustinian put it, the task of Trinitarian theology is ‘to manifest what is expressly revealed in the Scripture concerning God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; so as that we may duly believe in him, give obedience to him, enjoy fellowship with him, walk in his love and fear, and eventually be blessed with him for evermore’. It is imperative that Christians share the “good news” of the gospel, and its unique understanding of the Trinity. Anyone who is open to God’s Self-revelation of himself in Jesus Christ can be drawn into the relational oneness of the Trinity, in the at-one-ment of reconciliation, wherein we are joined in a relational “one spirit” oneness with the three Persons of the Godhead. It is not that we are mathematically merged, or that we are integrated into a single integer union, but we participate in a relational oneness with God, in Jesus Christ, and by the Holy Spirit.
Contemporary Christians seem to be ignorant of God as Trinity, and the inseparable implications of divine Trinitarian relations in everything that can be called “Christian.” Without Trinitarian understanding, the whole incarnation of Jesus and Holy Spirit outpouring were in vein. Apart from the Trinity there can be no viable understanding of regeneration, sanctification, the church, prayer, worship, baptism, Lord’s Supper, and even eschatology. Therefore, apart from a Trinitarian understanding of God, Christianity disintegrates, and has nothing to offer humanity but a monadic religious worship object, or a mistaken monistic worldview.
Bibliography
Delio, Ilia. "Is Creation Eternal?" Theological Studies, Inc. 66 (2005): 303.
Fowler, James A. "Towards a Christian Understanding." Christ in You. 2002. http://www.christinyou.net/pages/understandgod.html (accessed December 1, 2011).
Harris, Alexander. "The Development of Civilization and Religion in India and its Influence on the World Society." Appius Forum. March 2004. http://appiusforum.net/book.pdf (accessed December 1, 2011).
Matthew, T. John. Triune God. Kerala: Bible Study Center, 2007.
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Polkinghome, John, ed. The Work of Love: Creation as Kenosis. Grand Rapids: Eardmans, 2001.
Registered, Trustees for Roman Catholic Purposes. "Trinity and Creation:Why Kortum’s Argument Fails." Heythorp Journal, 2007: 266.
Robinson, Andrew, and Christopher Southgate. "God and the World of Signs: Semiotics and Theology." Zygon 45, no. 3 (September 2010): 7.
Simmons, Ernest L. "Quantum Perichoresis: Quantum Field Theory and the Trinity." Theology and Science 4, no. 2 (2006): 15.
Taylor, Paul. "Feedback:Trinity and Creation." Answers in Genesis. February 15, 2008. http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2008/02/15/trinity-and-creation (accessed December 1, 2011).
Webster, John. "Trinity and Creation." International Journal of Systematic Theology 12, no. 1 (January 2010): 16.
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[ 1 ]. S. Michael, Dare to Explore (Maitland: Xulon Press, 2011), 133.
[ 2 ]. Alexander Harris, “The Development of Civilization and Religion in India and its Influence on the World Society,” Appius Forum, http://appiusforum.net/book.pdf (accessed December 1, 2011).
[ 3 ]. Trustees for Roman Catholic Purposes Registered, “Trinity and Creation: Why Kortum’s Argument Fails,” Heythorp Journal (2007): 2-4.
[ 4 ]. T. John Matthew, Triune God (Kerala: Bible Study Center, 2007), 9.
[ 5 ]. Ernest L. Simmons, “Quantum Perichoresis: Quantum Field Theory and the Trinity,” Theology and Science Vol. 4 No. 2 (2006): 10.
[ 6 ]. J. Moltmann, “God the Father in the Life of the Holy Trinity,” in: International Journal of Orthodox Theology 1:1 (2010): 40.
[ 7 ]. Ilia Delio, “Is Creation Eternal?,” Theological Studies, Inc. Vol. 66 (2005): 297.
[ 8 ]. John Polkinghome, The Work of Love: Creation as Kenosis (Grand Rapids, 2001), 92.
[ 9 ]. Delio 2005, 297.
[ 10 ]. John Webster, “Trinity and Creation,” International Journal of Systematic Theology Vol. 12 No. 1 (January 2010): 4-5.
[ 11 ]. Ibid.
[ 12 ]. Andrew Robinson and Christopher Southgate, “God and the World of Signs: Semiotics and Theology,” Zygon Vol. 45 No. 3(September 2010): 2.
[ 13 ]. John Webster, “Trinity and Creation,” International Journal of Systematic Theology Vol. 12 No. 1 (January 2010): 4-5.
[ 14 ]. Paul Taylor, “Feedback: Trinity and Creation,” Answera In Genesis, http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2008/02/15/trinity-and-creation (accessed December 1, 2011).
[ 15 ]. J. Owen, A Brief Decleration and Vindication of the Doctrine on the Holy Trinity (1669), in Works, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1965), 406.
[ 16 ]. James A. Fowler, “Towards a Christian Understanding of God,” Christ in You, http://www.christinyou.net/pages/understandgod.html (accessed December 1, 2011).
