The Blessed Trinity

Baptist views of the Trinity are not different from classical views held by other Protestant and Catholic traditions that accept the formulations of Chalcedon and Nicaea. Your use of the term "Blessed Trinity" suggests that maybe you have a background in the Catholic Church. Is that an accurate guess? If so, there is no substantial difference on this point from Baptists and most other Christians.

 

Here it is copied from the Southern Baptist Faith and message.

http://www.sbc.net/bfm/default.asp

II. God
There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.
A. God the Father
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.
Genesis 1:1; 2:7; Exodus 3:14; 6:2-3; 15:11ff.; 20:1ff.; Leviticus 22:2; Deuteronomy 6:4; 32:6; 1 Chronicles 29:10; Psalm 19:1-3; Isaiah 43:3,15; 64:8; Jeremiah 10:10; 17:13; Matthew 6:9ff.; 7:11; 23:9; 28:19; Mark 1:9-11; John 4:24; 5:26; 14:6-13; 17:1-8; Acts 1:7; Romans 8:14-15; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 4:6; Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:17; Hebrews 11:6; 12:9; 1 Peter 1:17; 1 John 5:7.
B. God the Son
Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.
Genesis 18:1ff.; Psalms 2:7ff.; 110:1ff.; Isaiah 7:14; 53; Matthew 1:18-23; 3:17; 8:29; 11:27; 14:33; 16:16,27; 17:5; 27; 28:1-6,19; Mark 1:1; 3:11; Luke 1:35; 4:41; 22:70; 24:46; John 1:1-18,29; 10:30,38; 11:25-27; 12:44-50; 14:7-11; 16:15-16,28; 17:1-5, 21-22; 20:1-20,28; Acts 1:9; 2:22-24; 7:55-56; 9:4-5,20; Romans 1:3-4; 3:23-26; 5:6-21; 8:1-3,34; 10:4; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2:2; 8:6; 15:1-8,24-28; 2 Corinthians 5:19-21; 8:9; Galatians 4:4-5; Ephesians 1:20; 3:11; 4:7-10; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:13-22; 2:9; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18; 1 Timothy 2:5-6; 3:16; Titus 2:13-14; Hebrews 1:1-3; 4:14-15; 7:14-28; 9:12-15,24-28; 12:2; 13:8; 1 Peter 2:21-25; 3:22; 1 John 1:7-9; 3:2; 4:14-15; 5:9; 2 John 7-9; Revelation 1:13-16; 5:9-14; 12:10-11; 13:8; 19:16.
C. God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Saviour, and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
Genesis 1:2; Judges 14:6; Job 26:13; Psalms 51:11; 139:7ff.; Isaiah 61:1-3; Joel 2:28-32; Matthew 1:18; 3:16; 4:1; 12:28-32; 28:19; Mark 1:10,12; Luke 1:35; 4:1,18-19; 11:13; 12:12; 24:49; John 4:24; 14:16-17,26; 15:26; 16:7-14; Acts 1:8; 2:1-4,38; 4:31; 5:3; 6:3; 7:55; 8:17,39; 10:44; 13:2; 15:28; 16:6; 19:1-6; Romans 8:9-11,14-16,26-27; 1 Corinthians 2:10-14; 3:16; 12:3-11,13; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:30; 5:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:19; 1 Timothy 3:16; 4:1; 2 Timothy 1:14; 3:16; Hebrews 9:8,14; 2 Peter 1:21; 1 John 4:13; 5:6-7; Revelation 1:10; 22:17.

 

The various main line churches broke with the "mother" church for various reasons. The Holy Trinity was not one of them. For understanding the Trinity I believe Paul explains it best for we mortals to understand. Our God is One in three persons, and today, we are to see God in the "form" of the three. I look at it as we must do this in order for the Holy Spirit to present us to our Lord Jesus Christ in order for us to gain audience with the Father. Yet when we do this it really is one operation.

For me it helps to know that God is a God of "division", diverse and not comparable in kind. From the beginning we see God "divides" in Genesis 1:1, and then again in verse 3, and on it goes. But God is always able to bring together again, even "Humpty Dumpty" if that is His wish. You will find all Baptist's do not believe exactly the same thing, other than salvation is by grace, through faith, not obtainable by any work, ritual, prayer, or church. Most Christians belong to a church, and must know from the beginning that no "church", or man, can save them, or keep them saved.

Regardless of how man tries to improve the understanding, I don't believe we can beat the Holy Spirit as His own game.

I Corinthians 12:4-6, "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
5. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.
6. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all."

The Christian is to believe they have been saved into the Body of Christ Jesus our Lord, by the grace of God our Father, through the faith of Jesus Christ at the Cross, baptized by the Holy Spirit, being sealed in which we Baptist call being Once Saved Always Saved. If we are saved into the Body of Christ, we then know that we will be "caught up to Him in the air", before the "great tribulation period". Some will be at odds with this last statement, and you will find some are looking for the "kingdom that was at hand", to come. It will not, and cannot come until we are taken out of the way.

Salvation into the Body of Christ can only be obtained in one way today, and that is by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation (Acts 16:28-31).

I may be putting too much on you in this post. It will give you something to ponder, and check out in your Bible, and with your Pastor. We are to work out our own salvation after entering into the Body of Christ Church, and your personal study of His Word, along with the Baptist belief of salvation without works, will have you standing in short order.

 

FollowMeHome said:

What is the Baptist teaching regarding the Blessed Trinity?

How do you explain the relationship of the Holy Spirit to God and Jesus?

Any help you can give me will be greatly appreciated.

Hi, I believe in a subsequent post you mentioned that you are a former Catholic. The Baptist denomination is part of the Western Christian tradition, and as such has always been in agreement with Rome regarding the nature of God. The differences between us, though quite wide, have to do with the work of God, but not his person.

In other words, we believe that there is one God manifest in three Persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - who are co-equal and co-eternal, in accordance with the Athanasian Creed.

And we accept the filioque clause of the Nicene Creed, which states that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both Father and Son, as opposed to the Eastern Orthodox tradition, which says he proceeds from the Father alone.

The traditional London Baptist Confession says this of the Holy Trinity, which is in accord with orthodox Roman teaching on the person of God:

As Protestants, of course, we believe in sola Scriptura. We don't accept these truths because old church authorities taught them, but because we find them harmonious with the teachings of the Bible on the nature of God.