Review by Mike Robinson.
The Nicene Creed professes: “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things... And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God... being of one substance with the Father... And in the Holy Spirit.” And Fred Sanders in “The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything” provides a well-informed, yet stirring portrait concerning the central importance of Trinitarian truth for the Christian and the Christian Worldview (CWV).
Sanders’ central argument: “The doctrine of the Trinity inherently belongs to the gospel itself” (p. 9) and “gospel people are by definition Trinity people” (p. 10).
Sanders’ central argument: “The doctrine of the Trinity inherently belongs to the gospel itself” (p. 9) and “gospel people are by definition Trinity people” (p. 10).
Using a host of interesting and diverse sources the author provides a profound look at the utter importance of the Trinity within the life of a Christian (including Warfield, Brooks, Goodwin, Bonar, Owen, Bunyan, Ryle, C.S. Lewis, Manton, A. Murray, and questionable, yet interesting writers such as Nicky Cruz [yes, this is not a misprint; pp. 28-33 and additional exposition of Cruz’s Trinitarian thought as the pages turn!] - and Susanna Wesley’s Trinitarian reflections).
In “The Deep Things” the author “explains how the Trinity changes everything, and it does this by explaining how the Trinity and the gospel are connected” (p. 25).
In “The Deep Things” the author “explains how the Trinity changes everything, and it does this by explaining how the Trinity and the gospel are connected” (p. 25).
The outline of this very readable volume:
- Background (how Christians are “immersed” and “deeply involved” in the “triune life”)
- The Trinity and Salvation (chapters 3-5)
- Hearing from God
- Prayer and the Trinity-
And more.
Sanders discusses recent advances in Christian thought including that the doctrine of the Trinity “flourishes ... when it is affirmed in the context of a pre-discursive, nonthematic background awareness of the reality of the Trinity” (p.37) as well as the “Tacit Dimension of Trinitarianism” (Torrance and Polanyi; pp. 40-58). He notes that “Polanyi … drew attention to the all-important, not-yet-cognitive awareness that makes thematic knowledge possible. This tacit dimension is the nonarticulated element in perception and knowledge, an unreflective awareness of things that is quite different from the clear-cut awareness we have when we perform the mental act of focusing our attention directly and thematically on an object. Polanyi’s most famous catchphrase was the expression, ‘We always know more than we can tell’” (p. 48). “The indwelling a subject” is important in “understanding it better” (p. 58).
Sanders goes a bit too far when he states that there is an “Evangelical coldness toward the Trinity” (p. 11). I see numerous problems within the modern Evangelical movement, but I have rarely noticed this assessment in a wide variety of Evangelical expressions that I have had the chance to observe in depth.
“The Deep Things” provides numerous helpful diagrams and a powerful elucidation of Francis Schaeffer’s Trinitarian thought.
“The Trinity also means that God’s creation can be both one and many. Secular philosophy veers between the two extremes of monism (the world is really one & plurality is an illusion) and pluralism (the world is radically disunited and unity is an illusion). Secular philosophy moves from one extreme to the other because it does not have the resources to define a position between the two extremes, and because it seeks an absolute extreme or another-as if there must be an absolute oneness (with no plurality) or else a universe of unique, unconnected elements, creating an absolute pluralism and destroying universal oneness... But the Christian knows there is no absolute unity (devoid of plurality) or absolute plurality (devoid of unity)... The Christian knows that God is the only absolute, and that the absolute is both one and many. Thus we are freed from the task of trying to find utter unity or utter disunity... When we search for ultimate criteria or standards, we look... to the living God” (Schaeffer).
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I would add:
Many non-Christian religions and philosophies attack the Trinity as a contradiction. They declare that the doctrine of the Trinity breaks the law of non-contradiction. Hume, Russell, Kant, Muhammad, and Jefferson were critical of the Christian God. Kant declared that the Trinity “provides nothing... even if one claims to understand it.” Jefferson scoffed, “When we have done away with the incomprehensible jargon of the Trinitarian arithmetic... we shall then be... worthy disciples.” The reason for the mocking and irritation is the unbeliever’s mind is darkened and they apply the wrong arithmetic. Everyone knows that one plus one plus one, equals three. Not one. But what does one multiplied by one and multiplied by one, equals? One. The Trinity is a mystery. It is not what someone of old quipped: “a riddle wrapped up in a puzzle and buried in an enigma.” God is three persons in one being. God in His Almightiness is a mystery. We do not know how the doctrine of the tri-unity of God works. We just know that the Trinity is true and without the Trinity, as the one true God, we cannot make sense out of anything. Reject the Trinity and you cannot account for personhood, love, equality, mathematics, justice, morality, and logic. The Trinitarian nature of God is the precondition for understanding reality and truth. Many Christians recoil at defending the Trinity because they think it is a contradiction and a problem. It is not. It is the solution. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. And there is only one God, three persons in one being. This concept does not break any of the laws of logic. If the doctrine taught that there are three persons in one person, or three beings in one being that would be a contradiction. The Bible teaches that there are three persons in one being. This doctrine is a mystery, not a contradiction. The Trinity violates no known law of logic. And remember, the mathematics of the triune God is not one plus one plus one, equals one. It is one times one times one, equals one.
Many non-Christian religions and philosophies attack the Trinity as a contradiction. They declare that the doctrine of the Trinity breaks the law of non-contradiction. Hume, Russell, Kant, Muhammad, and Jefferson were critical of the Christian God. Kant declared that the Trinity “provides nothing... even if one claims to understand it.” Jefferson scoffed, “When we have done away with the incomprehensible jargon of the Trinitarian arithmetic... we shall then be... worthy disciples.” The reason for the mocking and irritation is the unbeliever’s mind is darkened and they apply the wrong arithmetic. Everyone knows that one plus one plus one, equals three. Not one. But what does one multiplied by one and multiplied by one, equals? One. The Trinity is a mystery. It is not what someone of old quipped: “a riddle wrapped up in a puzzle and buried in an enigma.” God is three persons in one being. God in His Almightiness is a mystery. We do not know how the doctrine of the tri-unity of God works. We just know that the Trinity is true and without the Trinity, as the one true God, we cannot make sense out of anything. Reject the Trinity and you cannot account for personhood, love, equality, mathematics, justice, morality, and logic. The Trinitarian nature of God is the precondition for understanding reality and truth. Many Christians recoil at defending the Trinity because they think it is a contradiction and a problem. It is not. It is the solution. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. And there is only one God, three persons in one being. This concept does not break any of the laws of logic. If the doctrine taught that there are three persons in one person, or three beings in one being that would be a contradiction. The Bible teaches that there are three persons in one being. This doctrine is a mystery, not a contradiction. The Trinity violates no known law of logic. And remember, the mathematics of the triune God is not one plus one plus one, equals one. It is one times one times one, equals one.
"We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the Persons: nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father: another of the Son: and another of the Holy Spirit. But the godhead of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is all one: the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal" (Excerpt from the Athanasian Creed).
The modern Jewish religion, Islam, and the Jehovah Witnesses proclaim that God is an absolute one, a monad, a unitarian deity. The famous Rabbi Rashi, in his commentary on the third day of creation, taught that before God created the universe: “He was yachid ba’ olam: all alone.” Only the Christian God, the true God, did not create out of necessity, but out of liberty. He is self-existent, He has aseity and needs nothing. God does not need the creation to have someone to care about and love. Within God Himself, He is love and “love happens.” God is a noun and a verb. He is a triune being who is actively involved within Himself and His creation. He is stupendous, magnificent, and resplendent in His infinite triune glory. A god who has “needs” is not perfect and infinite. That god cannot possibly exist. It is not just reasonable to believe in the deity of Christ and the triune nature of God, the contrary is impossible. God is Trinity. The Trinity is a mystery among us, and above us, and beyond us. He dwells within all Christians by faith, and this mystery is the key to understanding our world. The sundry religious theories about God demonstrate the ineptness of man’s unaided reason. Without God’s revelation in His word, all man-made religions create a god who is a divine monad, or the plural pantheon of gods in polytheism. Mankind needs revelation to discover the only true and living God.
God is a self-complete and self-contained unity. There is but one God. God is an absolute personality. There are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Within the being of God, diversity is no more fundamental than unity. God is a tri-unity. The persons of the one God are mutually eternal and exhaustive of one another. The Holy Spirit and the Son are ontologically equal with God the Father. This is the solution to the problem of the “one and the many.” We baptize in the name (singular) of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (plurality). The unity of the particulars is grounded in the being of God. There is a unity and a diversity in God and there is a unity and diversity in the cosmos. The cosmos is called the universe. It is a unity and a diversity. A unity and a diversity make up the physical reality. The cosmos has unity that is on par with the diversity because in the nature of the triune God there are no particulars not in equal relationship with the universals. There is nothing universal that is not equally ultimate in the particulars. God said, “Let us (plural) make man in our (plural) image (singular) and our (plural) likeness (singular).” No aspect of the universe is more ultimate than the other. The unity in the universe is equal with the diversity in the universe. They are equal because the triune God created and sustains them. All non-Christian worldviews sacrifice the unity for the diversity or the diversity for the unity. Only God in three persons can provide the solution to the problem of “the one and the many.” Thus other systems of thought are false.
God in Trinity as the only Starting Point
God in Trinity as the only Starting Point
"And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent" (John 17:3).
The God of the Bible in Trinity is the starting point for epistemology, apologetics, and philosophy. The triune God is reflected and revealed everywhere in the material and nonmaterial worlds. The Trinity “confronts” humanity and all creation everywhere at all times. You cannot look into a microscope or a telescope or a mathematical table and fail to be confronted by the God alone who is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The triune God is the foundation and the solution to the problem of the one and the many. God is the solution and not the problem. Within the being of the triune God: unity and diversity, the one and the many are equally ultimate and infinite.
We see God in His triune nature revealed from Genesis to the book of Revelation. We must declare the truth of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God in three persons, the blessed Trinity. He is not the god of the philosophers or the pagan religions. God is the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last. We must affirm, trust, and love the true and living God. The triune God is the solution that makes sense out of everything in the world. This is one reason the believer is to study theology. Theology is the study of God. Many Christians confess that they dislike theology and try to avoid it. But the foundation for all reality, and understanding that reality, is the triune nature of God. The explanation of all entities, phenomenon, things, laws, and concrete objects begins with God. Beginning with any starting point or presupposition other than the Trinity is self-defeating.
The God revealed in scripture is the standard for truth, philosophy, and science. This is not a debatable predication. We must begin, move, and finish with God, or we cannot justify anything we do. The Trinity is the solution to all questions, and the source of all true knowledge. All thought presupposes the true God. This does not mean that we cannot do anything without employing theological rhetoric as Gregory of Nyssa lamented in his time, “If you ask for change, someone philosophizes you on the begotten and the unbegotten. If you ask is the bath ready, someone answers the Son was created from nothing.” Presupposing the Trinity, as the solution to all questions and the standard for truth, doesn’t mean that we must construct a theological postulation just to perform simple mundane tasks. Yet every simple task, and every piece of routine communication presupposes the triune God because we use logic and morality in all those endeavors. God is the precondition for all logic and morality. If we presuppose anything other than God as our starting point, we end up with absurdity and contradictory affirmations. God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is inescapable if we want to make sense out of our world. If you reject the triune God, you end up asserting your philosophical demise. Deny God and you commit logical suicide.
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Sander’s volume is an easy read, yet deeply devotional, nevertheless loaded with simple-to-understand academic thought regarding the Trinity. Thus I recommend it to a wide assortment of believers; including students, housewives, ministers, and those in academic circles.
Endorsed by: Gerald Bray, WTS bookstore, and Kevin Vanhoozer.
See the apologetic book that contends for the necessity of the Trinity and Triune Theism in:[[ASIN:1420827626 "God Does Exist!: Defending the Faith using Presuppositional Apologetics, Evidence, and the Impossibility of the Contrary"]] type in ASIN #:1420827626
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