This is the fifth video for the Systematic Theology course that I recently taught in S. Asia. Here we talk about what it means to confess that God is one while also confessing that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. This is a huge topic—the biggest one in Christianity—and while God’s unity and trinity is a basic element of the church’s confession, it is by no means simple.
To give credit where it’s due, this video by Red Pen Logic inspired my interaction with the “Are you there God?” meme. I thought it was a really clever way to push the students to wrestle with the question, “How would I respond to something like that?”
Sometime next year, Deo volente, I’ll get to teach an entire course on the Triune God to the same group of students. I’m eager to do this, partly because I’ve really enjoyed studying the doctrine of the Trinity; it has increased my faith and love for God in some unexpected ways. But I’m also aware that, in the context in which these students will be ministering as pastors, they’ll be facing unitarian monotheism on the one side and widespread polytheism (blending into pantheism) on the other. These are huge challenges, which make it all the more important for them to learn to faithfully confess the God who is one in essence and three in persons, so that they can faithfully proclaim that God to their people.
O'Banions @ Home & Abroad 