Lectures - What Is the Trinity?

If Christians believe in one God, how can God be three persons? Is God truly "Triune," or is the Trinity simply a theological concept meant to describe a reality beyond our understanding? Since the Council of Nicaea, 1700 years ago this year, the overwhelming majority of Christians have understood God through the lens of the Trinity: the doctrine that there is only One God, but that God consists of three Persons. Each of these Persons is fully God, yet the Persons are not the same as each other. When Jesus prays to the Heavenly Father, these are distinct Persons communicating—Jesus is not the Heavenly Father, even though the Heavenly Father is God and Jesus is also God. In this live lecture, John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place will examine the development of the Trinity, tracing how this central doctrine emerged and how theologians attempted to explain its paradoxical nature. Join the livestream to participate in the discussion and to ask questions to our lecturer during the Q&A. In this exploration, we will also encounter a range of alternative interpretations that emerged in early Christianity—positions that were eventually deemed heretical by the Church, including Modalism (the idea that Father, Son, and Spirit are just different "modes" of one Person), Arianism (the belief that the Son is divine but created and therefore subordinate to the Father), Adoptionism (the view that Jesus was a human being "adopted" as God’s Son), and others. Why did the Trinity prevail when so many alternative explanations were available? 📚 Browse our catalogue of free lectures at https://www.centreplace.ca/lectures Your generous support allows us to offer these lectures at no cost. Please consider a making donation (tax deductible in the US and Canada): ❤️ https://www.centreplace.ca/donate ️ #lecture #christianity #judaism #bible #biblestudy