Featured Knowledge of the Trinity

I learned it myself through self study & the help of the Holy Spirit.

Deuteronomy 11:18-23


18 “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 20 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth. 22 For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him, 23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you.

Proverbs 3:1-2


3 My son, do not forget my teaching,
but let your heart keep my commandments,
2 for length of days and years of life
and peace they will add to you.

 

There is no one answer. It depends on who you are witnessing to. A five year old is able to be saved, though he may not be able to comprehend the trinity yet he will not deny it. If you take a poll on this board you will find many that came to the Lord (and can remember clearly) at the ages of four and five. They understood they were sinners in need of a Savior; but how much of the trinity did they understand?

OTOH, an adult from a Catholic background, is a different story.

 

They also believe if they pray the rosary that Mary will intercede to get them to heaven. BTW what is the Job of the Father in Relation to the Son's death on the cross & how do you work it all together?

 

How about an adult from a Muslim background? How about an adult from an atheist background? How about an adult from a Druid (pagan) background? What makes you think the average Roman Catholic understands the theology of Romanism? I know quite a few ignorant Roman Catholics. While we are at it how about an adult who was raised in a Bible believing church but was never saved? Do we have the authority to determine what he should or should not know before we can consider him saved? Why stop at understanding the Trinity as a prerequisite for being saved?

 

Then I tip my hat to you for you are more capable than I am. As for me, I need the means of grace that the Lord provides not only through His word, but through the local church.

 

Like I said we gots Catholic (lots of them...on every corner almost), We Gots United Methodist, We Gots Lutheran, We Gots Peta coast al lists, we Got PCUSA......up the Wazoo. Just pick one & I could even go to gym & play hoops.....oh I got a Russian Baptist if you speak Russian & are Arminian & connected to a dead Arminian Baptist Church. But yea, I can read some & studya might & learn better on my own, self edumigitaded & God is with me.

 

If we are talking of the average adult with average intelligence, then yes I believe a knowledge of the trinity is necessary.
We need to set some parameters to the OP. I think I just did. IOW, let's not include child evangelism and ministries to the mentally handicapped.

A Muslim definitely has to believe in the Trinity. The Koran, over and over again, makes a point of denying the trinity. It will even define the trinity as three in one, and then deny it as a doctrine of the infidels. They cannot be saved without belief in the trinity because it is a rejection of the Christ of the Bible. They relegate him to simply a prophet unless he is a part of the triune Godhead.

There is no good reason why an atheist cannot understand and come to a belief in the trinity except for his own stubborn heart. The trinity is part of who Christ is.

I grew up in the RCC. The trinity is one of the major doctrines taught in the Catholic Church. No Catholic would be ignorant of it.

A true pagan would believe in triune Satanic god; an imitation of the trinity. He would have no problem with the trinity.

Those raised in a Bible-believing church should have no problem with truth that they rejected all of their lives. They simply need to receive it.
"Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft."

 

This is simply a dangerous teaching.

 

Yea they taught you that there are 3 persons in the Godhead....the Father, the Son & the Holy Ghost & nothing else. When I asked, they told me (Remember like it was yesterday) I was 8 YO.... I was told that it was a mystery that we would know all about when we died & went to heaven. THATS IT. So do you consider that a sound doctrine.....more like Dogma!!!

I thought, dumb nuns, they dont know jack. And they didnt & still dont.

 

I'm sad to hear DHK say that

 

IMHO, all summations are weak, and any analogies are heterodox. As a rule of thumb though -- weak as it is -- I remember, "There is one What (God) and three Whos (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." So using the notion of personhood, I believe, is important to the question.

 

It's hard to imagine God holding the conditions of an expression of theology that wasn't even articulated until almost 200 years after Jesus' resurrection.

Unless we believe the conditions of salvation have changed...

 

Absolutely.

 

It wasn't DHK that said "that".

 

A real Chriistian MUST adhere to the Trinity, for thatis the doctrine of the bible, and that if one does not hold to that, in a real sense they either seny that jesus is God, or that the Holy Spirit is!

While it is true that we just have to realise that we are sinners, and that jesus dies in our place, and receive Him thru faith, we still need to ahve the right jesus, the right God!

 

Hi Rob,

I have often wondered if true believers can be caught up in the error of the cults (e.g. JWs) and give "lip service" to the denial of the Trinity?

Or does God protect true believers from cults?

Anyone else want to comment?

HankD

 

One does NOT have to understand/believe in the trinity before God does save them, but one now saved by God MUST adhere to that doctrine in order to hve correct view of nature of God!

And those in groups such as Oneness do NOT have the real God in their teachings!

 

That is a very insightful response, and hits the nail on the hit. The tactic gets very old on BB. The person you quoted sets up a set of circumstances that do not exist, define a problem that is not there, and describes a consequence that does not apply to the real situation.