This Fourth video from the Systematic Theology I course that I taught in S. Asia deals with the question of when was the Trinity revealed. It’s a fascinating topic, and that has drawn me in more and more as I’ve thought about it.
You may have noticed that nowhere in Scripture does God shout down from heaven and say, “Hey! I’m three persons in one essence!” Instead, our triune God does something even more remarkable. He reveals that he is Father, Son, and Spirit as he acts in history to save a people for himself when the Father sends the Son and when the Father and the Son send the Spirit.
One theologian commented that the revelation of the Trinity is not so much heard in Scripture as overheard. It’s the sort of thing that the Old Testament is always pointing forward to and that the New Testament is always looking back at. Why? Because God most fully revealed himself as Father, Son, and Spirit in between the two testaments. Wow.
By the way, if you want to read something good on this stuff, take a look at (the inimitable) Fred Sander‘s work. The Triune God is dense but rich. He wrote The Deep Things of God at a more popular level. Both are great.
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