Development of the Christian Doctrine of the Trinity Research Paper

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Development of the Christian Doctrine of Holy Trinity

The word trinity traces its origin from the Latin trinitas which literally translates to ‘triad’. In Latin trinus means threefold. This therefore implies that God is one but in that oneness exists three coeternal consubstantial persons- the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Trinitarian doctrine can be inferred from the New Testament teaching about God. Many falsely believe that Trinity Doctrine was formulated at the Council of Nicaea in 325 C.E. (Tuggy, 2016). This is not true because at the Council of Nicaea it was pronounced that Christ was the same substance as God. This became the foundation for Trinitarian Theology. It should be remembered that at the Council of Nicaea there was no mention of the Holy Spirit as the third person of the triad. This essay seeks to illuminate how the christian doctrine of Holy Trinity has developed over the years from the New Testament Church to the Nicene Church.

There was opposition that Jesus was also God for many years. This was the reason why Constantine called summoned bishops to Nicaea where they took part in rigorous religious discourses. At the Council of Nicaea, the bishops did not promote the concept of trinity (Tuggy, 2016). They decided on the nature of Christ but not the role of the Holy Spirit. Debates raged even after the Council of Nicaea. In 381 C.E. the Council of Constantinople was convened where Holy Spirit was placed at same level as God and Christ (Tuggy, 2016). After the that followed the Athanasian Creed that declared the worship of one God in Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit who are not three Gods but one God (Tuggy, 2016).

At the Second Vatican Council, attempts were made to define the question” What is the Church?’’ in the constitution Gentium Lumen. The answer to the question pointed out that the Church of God is a mystery. To some, the word Church refers to Diocese, to others it means a parish, while to some it resonates with hierarchy. The Second Vatican council, however, points out how the church relates to God's divine plan for mankind and the person of Jesus Christ. Christian faith is hinged on the mystery of the Holy Trinity.

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God Himself is Love (I Jn 4:8). Jesus Christ, who is the son of God, witnesses to this love and in the process reveals God as Father, and himself as Son. Upon ascending to heaven, Christ himself promises Holy Spirit (Ngon, 2016). All these are a pointer that God is relationship. God is a communion of three persons united as one God. In the Early Christian Church, Christians prayed jointly three times in a day and also took part in breaking of bread. They also ate together and those who lacked basic necessities like food were provided with their needs (Ngon, 2016). This points at some kind of communion in the New Testament church. As God is a communion of three persons, the church is also a communion of persons. These people live a life of communion just like the persons of the Trinity. It is God's love that manifests itself through the Holy Spirit that unites the church. The church is therefore an icon of the Holy Trinity (Ngon, 2016). The communion of the members of the church is in itself a manifestation of God's love to the humankind.

As had been indicated earlier that the church was God's divine plan for the humankind, one would be tempted to ask when the church was founded. In trying to answer that question, some would argue that the church was founded on the day of Pentecost. To some, the church would have been founded when Saint Peter confessed his love for Jesus while others would infer that the church was founded on the day of the commissioning of the apostles or the institution of the Holy Eucharist. Lumen Gentium in paragraph 2 however points out that the Church is always part of God's divine plan of saving humankind (Ngon, 2016). It posits that the church has always throughout all the stages of human history. it points out that the church was already present in the figure before the foundation of the world was laid. In fact, the church was in God's mind before he begun creating the world. The church was also already prepared for in the old….....

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