Category Archives: Trinity

The story of the glory of God (Part 1)

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We may not often think about it, but the glory of God is integral to our salvation. In part 1 of a two-part series, Rob Smith takes a look at this theme and shows why it encapsulates the very heart of God’s character. (Read part 2.)

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A primer on trinitarian debates

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The doctrine of the Trinity is, as someone once said, ‘the glory of the Christian religion’. It is the doctrine that defines orthodoxy, the doctrine that guarantees our knowledge of God, and the doctrine that secures our salvation. In the first four centuries, Christians worked very hard to articulate and defend this key belief, and we are all beneficiaries of their work.

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‘He descended into hell’

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One thing that has puzzled me ever since I went to church as a teenager was the line I used to say in the Apostle’s Creed: “He descended into hell”. When I said this, my mind was filled with all sorts of fantastic images of Jesus plummeting through the earth on Easter Saturday to a place where the devil lived and where the fire burned continually. I didn’t really know what it meant, but I was happy to say it, because, after all, it was in the creed that the apostles had written, right?

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The very practical doctrine of the Trinity

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What practical difference does the doctrine of the Trinity make? We defend the Trinity—we declare it in the creeds and assent to it in our denominational confessions—but does this peculiarly Christian teaching about God make any practical difference to the way we live our lives?

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The church of the Holy Trinity

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Sometimes we can live so close to a doctrine that we overlook the immense power of its truth. The cross can become an empty slogan; the resurrection a mere proof-text for Jesus’ divinity; the incarnation something we only think about at Christmas. In this light, an increasing number of theologians are ‘rediscovering’ the trinity as a foundational Christian doctrine

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The Spirit-filled man

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(Read the first article in this series.)

It is said that the proper study of mankind is man, but is the proper study of spirituality the spirit? Well, yes and no. How can you study a spirit? Eastern mysticism tells us to start the enquiry inside ourselves, whereas western materialism warns us to abandon the quest. But Luke’s writings show us that we needn’t seek a path to spiritual enlightenment; the proper study of mankind and the spirit-filled man is Jesus.

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