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BYA MUKAMA


CHRISTIAN CONVERSATIONS

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November 18, 2017September 13, 2019God Salvation Spiritual Growth Worship


ARE YOU A FUNCTIONAL TRI-THEIST?

Today, during the class break of Systematic Theology One, I had a short
conversation with a fellow seminary student about the doctrine of Inseparable
operations. The main idea this teaching conveys is that in every action God does
in the world, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit act inseparably, and indivisibly.

As I thought about this specific teaching, many things came to mind. The first
being that almost entirely, I cannot recall a sermon about the Trinity I ever
listened to from a pulpit in the churches I have been a part of back in Uganda.
I said, almost.

It happens to be that there is practically far less conversation about the
Triune nature of God, which is so odd since this is what fundamentally
distinguishes Christianity from monotheistic religions that conceive God as a
monad, religions such as Islam and Judaism.

And what was even perplexing to me is the fact that in Africa we still value
community and relationships over individualism. It would thus be easy, I
thought, to consciously and routinely rejoice and talk about this relational God
who is a Unity in Trinity. And yet, we rarely do. Then when we talk about the
Trinity, we rush to one of the Persons of the Trinity, without emphasizing the
unity and relationality of God, so much so that we are guilty of what Dr. Vidu
calls functional Tri-theism. What this means is that though we say we believe in
One God in Three Persons, we talk, pray and preach about God as though the three
Trinitarian Persons are different beings altogether. We even prefer one of the
Persons to the other two!

We are in practice functional Tri-theists.

The Trinitarian Teaching

The Christian teaching is that God is one substance/nature and Three Persons.
When we say God is One, we refer to His Nature, not Person. When we say God is
Three, we denote Persons, not Nature. God has revealed Himself as Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit (Matt 3:13-17, 28:19, 2 Cor 13:14).

The Father is truly God (John 17:3), the Son is truly God (John 1:1), and the
Holy Spirit is truly God (Acts 5:3-4). And yet the Bible emphasizes that God is
One (Deut 6:4). The Father is not the Son, neither is He the Spirit. The Son is
neither the Father nor the Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor
the Son. We know this by observing the relationships between the Three. The
Father sends the Son (John 3:16), the Son is sent by the Father, and both the
Father and the Son send the Spirit (John 14:15-18, 16:7).

This teaching is the bedrock of Christianity, without which our preaching is
invalid. To preach is to call men to the Father, through the Son, in the power
of the Holy Spirit. There is no other way.

Some Functional Tri-theistic Theological Thought Patterns

And yet, we pay no heed to this mystery of salvation. As mentioned before, most
of us (me inclusive) are functional tri-theists. I will give some examples.

Take this example. Almost all of us have heard the dispensationalist teaching
which goes like this: the Father revealed Himself to us in the Old Testament,
the Son in the New, and now this is the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. In
fact, as some will say, ‘the God of the Old Testament was rough and angry, but
Jesus is so loving.’

What this teaching does merely is split up God into three beings, and I suppose
unintendedly. We think that the God who rules over Israel and delivers them from
Pharoah and appears to Moses in the bush, that God, is the Father. And then, we
think of Jesus coming down the ladder from heaven to be born of the virgin about
2000 years ago. And then when He dies and rises again, He, hypothetically
speaking, waves goodbye to us and in effect tells the Holy Spirit, ‘Your turn
now.’

But this is deeply flawed. And this reveals the danger of dividing up the
persons in our conception of God. We must never view the Trinity as three
beings. As we read in the New Testament (John 1:1-14, Col 1:15-20, Heb 1:1-3),
we get to see that the Father does nothing without the Son, whether it is
creation or recreation. To posit the Father as being active in the Old Testament
while the Son (and Spirit) are sort of on vacation is poor biblical hermeneutics
and interpretation.

Another example that reveals our functional tri-theism is our understanding of
Pentecost. Most of us do not think that Jesus was here on earth on Pentecost,
even after He ascended. And this view is reinforced when we read that Christ is
‘seated at the right hand of Majesty.’

So, we think that at Pentecost, the Spirit alone is showing up, demonstrating
His power, while perhaps the Father and Son are watching.

But again, we need to remember that the purpose of Christ’s ascension was so
that He can ‘fill all things’ (Eph 4:10). We also do well to recall that the
Holy Spirit is the Spirit of both the Father and of the Son. So that, wherever
the Spirit of God is, there God is in His fullness, undivided, inseparable. On
Pentecost, the Father and Son are equally and inseparably working with the Holy
Spirit.

The third example of how we tend to separate God in our conception and teaching
is how we often think that only the Holy Spirit indwells believers. And yet, (as
I had mentioned earlier), eternal life consists in the knowledge of God as
Triune (John 17:1-3). Christ tells us that those whose love of and for God is
revealed through a God-centered life are indwelt by the whole Trinity (John
14:23). In this way, it is apparently impossible for those who believe to be
indwelt by the Holy Spirit and not equally by the Father and the Son.

Because God is indivisible, a believer cannot have one of the Persons of the
Godhead without the other. The Simplicity and indivisibility of God mean that He
inseparably operates in the universe, and in us, in a consistently trinitarian
way.

What Does This Mean For Us?

I cannot answer this question comprehensively for you. I guess it is a
meditational and soul-searching question for each one of us. What does it mean
for me? How does this affect my prayer life for example?

But one fundamental impact of this awareness is the need for us to stop
depersonalizing the Holy Spirit. We often think of Him as a force we channel to
accomplish tasks for us, rather than a Person of the Godhead, who together with
the Father and the Son indwells us for communion with the Trinity.

It also means that when we speak of and to the Father (in heaven), we should not
conceive Him as one separated from us by some unfathomable distance. Heaven is
not spatially demarcated but is wherever God is, entirely, in His goodness. And
God has made His home in every believer, so that prayer is communion and
communication with the God who is with us.

Thirdly, we should know that salvation is life in the Trinity. God has extended
His garment of eternal fellowship to include feeble mankind. He is in Christ
Jesus reconciling the world to Himself (2 Cor 5:17-21) and inviting us to
fellowship with the Trinity.

The fourth and last is that we must take the communal aspect of salvation as
importantly as we consider our individual walk with God. We are members of
Christ, and of the global church. That is why we are warned never to give up the
habit of meeting as brethren, in bible studies, on Sunday and so forth. In this
journey of salvation, to walk alone is to walk to hell. Those who are in Him
must be in community. You are not alone, and neither should you love being
alone. Our God is Three in One, in the fellowship of like-Persons, and we too
must individually walk in the fellowship of like-persons, namely,  believers.

May we not be functional tri-theists in thought, talk, and walk.

I am always glad to hear from readers. Write me at theprincejose@yahoo.com

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ABOUT

Joseph Byamukama is a Christian, Ugandan Thinker, whose desire is to see all men
love Christ with their hearts and minds. He is a Bible Teacher, Christian
Apologist and Construction Manager, which is an interesting combination. He
loves reading, conversation, and writing.


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