Well, it is my honor and privilege to be talking with you this morning. And before we begin, I do have two handouts, not just one, two handouts you may want to locate, because you may want to refer to these from time to time. Also, it's an honor and privilege to have some of our friends from Olivia's Gift here, so get a chance after, say hi. Let's see here. Quick story. When Marley, my oldest daughter, was four, she approached me one day and started to ask me some questions that leads to a conversation that every Christian parent fears. the explanation of the Holy Trinity. It's a joke. Come on. It's gonna be a long morning if this is how you guys respond. So, I forget what we're doing, but we were sitting there in her room, and she asked me, she said, God the Father is God, but I also heard that Jesus is God. Are they the same person? And I said, Well, sweetie, the Father is God, and Jesus is God. They're not the same person, but we only have one God. She looked at me. And I thought, well, we're this deep in the weeds. Let's just go right into the jungle. And I said, In fact Marley, there's another figure another character we see in the Bible the Holy Spirit He also is God so We only have one God God is three persons and Each person is fully God and she probably said that doesn't make any sense And I said well No one can understand it. No one can picture it in their own minds I said you you're you're in good company with everyone. No one can picture the trinity in their mind Right, so apparently she took my word for it about a year later Um, it was I don't know what millie and megan were doing, but they were Off somewhere. Maybe she was putting millie down, but I came to marley and miri. Marley was then five and miri was three Mary as characteristically as some of you may know she had a pacifier in her mouth. Yeah, she was three but and She's smiling And so I said I said alright girls, let's pray to our God and Mary said We pray to many gods and I was like as a theologian my like I was like I doing this and and Marley you know good firstborn no no Miri we only have one God and I was like let daddy be nervous and I said what was that sweetie we pray to many gods and Marley's like don't no Miri I said, what'd you say, sweetie? And she said, we pray to many gods. Again, stifling Marley. And then I said, who do we pray to? She said, many gods. And I was like, but who? And she said, God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Dove. So, I was much relieved that my daughter had only succumbed to the heresy of tri-theism, and not something like Hinduism or something like that. But, I mean, to her credit, she realized, you know, maybe though she pictured the Holy Spirit as some sort of animal, but that he was God. He was God. But why these stories? Well, first, I do think the Holy Spirit seems to be, of the three persons of the Trinity, the most obscure. You know, we have the father and son, very palpable imagery that we see all around us, father and son imagery. But with the Holy Spirit, you know, we sort of, you know, speak of the, you know, he blows around like the wind, the Holy Dove, etc. So sort of hard to wrap your mind around that. But the Trinity, the Holy Trinity itself, Is hard to wrap your mind around in fact the Holy Spirit in the history of the church was the last to be declared God The Holy Spirit was the last to be declared God and And so it's really difficult to talk about the divinity of the Holy Spirit without talking about the Trinity. So today, if you're like, is he talking about the Trinity or is he talking about the Holy Spirit? I'm talking about both. You can't disentangle the two conversations. So, but here are the questions that we're going to be asking and hopefully answering today. And they're in front of you, they're actually on your sheet. First, what are the early Trinitarian controversies and what was the biblical orthodox response? So this is gonna be a bit of a history lesson to you. Second, what are ecumenical creeds and councils? You may have heard of this term before, maybe not. What did these ancient creeds and councils proclaim about the Holy Spirit? So we're gonna talk about that. And then lastly, I'm gonna bring it home with how should the creeds, councils, and their stories inform our life of faith? So this is the outline. And the title of this talk is Controversies, Creeds, Councils, and Conduct. So we're talking about one of those as we go through. Few caveats, few caveats. One, this is not going to be an all-out biblical defense of the divinity of the Holy Spirit. We could talk all summer about that. I'm briefly going to attend to that, but I'm also going to be talking about decrees and councils and the ancient church and sort of how they've arrived at these decisions and what was the outcome of that. Also, again, it's difficult to separate the early church's understanding of the Holy Spirit from the understanding of the Trinity. The stories are nicely intertwined. And again, I'm going to say this. If you think that you understand and can picture the Trinity when you walk out of these doors, you're a heretic. That's bad. And I will throw stones, whatever I think I need to do. So, that's not the most violent this sermon's gonna get either. Next topic. What are the early Trinitarian controversies and what was the biblical orthodox response? So, early on in the church, no one has ever denied, not to my knowledge, that the Father is God. No one has ever denied in the church that the Father is God. But there were two questions that lingered very early on from the beginning in the church, is one, in what sense is the Son, Jesus Christ, distinct from the Father? And in what sense is he divine? And then the same can be asked of the Holy Spirit. In what sense is the Holy Spirit distinct from the Father? And in what sense is he divine? This is what the church wrestled with for actually a few centuries. Two of the most popular heresies, bad teachings, on the Trinity, which actually took a while to put down, are modalism and Arianism. Modalism is the idea that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are simply three different masks or roles God puts on. So for instance, maybe God puts on the Father mask in the Old Testament period. Then in the Gospel period, he puts on the Jesus mask, which would obviously have a beard. And then in the post-Pentecost period, he puts on the mask of the Holy Spirit. So like we could say, I am father, I am a father to my children, I am a spouse to my wife, and I am an employee to my place of work. Three different roles, same person though. That was one heresy that the church dealt with very early on. But another, which will probably come into more focus during our time this morning, is Arianism. This is the idea that the Son was created. He was made. There was a time when Jesus Christ was not. And the idea that Jesus Christ is not necessary. The Orthodox view of the Trinity is that God is necessarily Trinity. They are three in one, one in three. There is no decision whether or not to beget the Son or whether or not for the Holy Spirit to proceed, that they're just, that is who God is, Trinity. So Arianism said that Jesus Christ is a creation, and then if they did talk about the Holy Spirit, they either framed him as a creation even below Jesus, or they would say that he's more of a metaphor or figurative language for the power of God, or something of that nature. But these heresies, these heresies, were with us from very beginning early on in the church. But who would eventually win the day? The Orthodox, the Orthodox thinkers. They said that the biblical evidence for the following things was too strongly present in the Bible. So I'm gonna give you a brief list of things, teachings in the Bible that were too strong and too clear for them to say modalism and Arianism are okay. And they're as follows. One, there is one God. The church was very clear that the Old Testament promulgated monotheism, that there is only one God. Next, the Father is not the Son, and is not the Holy Spirit, and the Son is not the Holy Spirit. But they are distinct agents, and they are spoken of as persons. So like, for instance, if you go to the baptism of Christ, that imagery, you have Christ standing in the river, the Father speaking, and the Holy Spirit descending. You also have plenty of passages where Jesus Christ is communing with the Father. What is he, running back and forth really fast? You know, talking to himself? I don't think so. And then the Holy Spirit is even ascribed intelligence and agency in the Bible. We covered John 14, 16 a bit ago, and it talks about the Holy, Jesus Christ says, I'm gonna send you in another advocate or another counselor. And the Greek there is another, as in another of the same kind. This is not just a mere figurative abstract power. This is another agent. Also The church fathers recognize that Jesus Christ It seems as the Bible is saying that Jesus Christ is God in the same sense that the father is God John 1 1 in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. I mean try to wrap your mind around that Romans 9 5 is another passage that is overtly proclaiming the divinity of the of the Sun and The Holy Spirit is God in the same sense that the Father and Son are God. So, you know, some of the early church fathers, they would argue, you know, the baptismal formula in the Great Commission, Matthew 28. Why would Christ tell us to baptize in the name of the Father, God, in the name of God the Son, and in the name of a creature? It's unfitting. If you look at Acts chapter 5, that is also considered one of the tell-tale signs that the Holy Spirit is understood to be God by the early apostles. But this, the Trinity shield, is is a pretty good summation of some of the main teachings regarding the Trinity that the early church arrived on. Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, the Father is not the Holy Spirit, Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, you have one God. So if we were to encapsulate these and break them down into three assertions, there is one God, God is three persons, each person is fully God. Now, individually, you might be able to picture or image each one of these propositions alone. But when you're asked to combine them and try to reconcile them in your mind, you will fail to do so. And the early church recognized this. In fact, the early church recognized that God is so majestic, and we are limited, that there are certain things that we can't even possibly model in our own minds. And this is the, again, this is a subordination of our human mind to what God tells us, which is fitting, if you think about it. Also, if you're familiar with, if you are familiar with church history, most of the time, Christological heresies, heresies regarding the explanation of Jesus Christ, and heresies regarding the Trinity, are often very picturable. I can picture modalism. I can picture Arianism. The one thing you can't picture is the orthodox doctrine of the Holy Trinity. And to that end, I have a video for you, a cartoon, which Q is going to bring up for me. Okay, Patrick, tell us a bit more about this Trinity thing. Yeah, Patrick, tell us. But remember that we're simple people without your fancy education and books and learning, and we're hearing about all of this for the first time, so try to keep it simple, okay, Patrick? Yeah, real simple, Patrick. Sure, there are three persons of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, yet there is only one God. Don't get what you're saying here, Patrick. Not picking up what you're laying down here, Patrick. Could you use an analogy, Patrick? Sure. Uh, the Trinity is like, uh, water, and how you can find water in three different forms. Liquid, and ice, and vapor. That's mordalism, Patrick! What? Mordalism, an ancient heresy confessed by teachers such as Noatus and Sibelius, which espouses that God is not three distinct persons, but that he merely reveals himself in three different forms. This heresy was clearly condemned in Canon 1 at the First Council of Constantinople in 381 A.D., and those who confess it cannot rightly be considered a part of the Church Catholic. Come on, Patrick! Yeah, get it together, Patrick! Okay, then the Trinity is like the sun in the sky, where you have the star and the light and the heat. Oh, Patrick. Come on, Patrick. That's Arianism, Patrick. Arianism? Yes, Arianism, Patrick. A theology which states that Christ and the Holy Spirit are creations of the Father and not one in nature with him. Exactly like how heat and light are not the star itself, but are merely creations of the star. That's a bad analogy, Patrick. You're the worst, Patrick. All right, sorry, the Trinity is like this three-leaf clover here. I'm gonna stop you right there, Patrick. Yeah, hold your horses, Patrick. You're about to confess partialism. Partialism? Yes, partialism, a heresy which asserts that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not distinct persons of the Godhead, but are different parts of God, each composing one-third of the divine. And who confesses the heresy of partialism? The first season of the cartoon program Voltron, where five robot lion cars merge together to form one giant robot samurai, obviously. I've never heard of Voltron. Of course you haven't. It's not gonna exist for another 1,500 years now, Patrick. Yeah, get with the program, Patrick. I mean really, Patrick. I'm gonna stab you in the face, Patrick. Okay, that was probably a bit much. Alright, I'll try again. The Trinity is like how the same man can be a husband and a father and an employer. Mortalism again! Alright, then it's like the three layers of an animal. Partialism revisited! Fine! The Trinity is a mystery which cannot be comprehended by human reason, but is understood only through faith and is best confessed in the words of the Athanasian Creed, which states that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance, that we are compelled by the Christian truth to confess that each distinct person is God and Lord, and that the deity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is one, equal in glory, co-equal in majesty. Well, why didn't you just say that, Patrick? Yeah, quit beating around the bush, Patrick. Now let's all put on some giant green form hats, get riotously drunk, and vomit in the Chicago River to celebrate our conversion. All right. So what we're gonna do and what follows I'm gonna give a basically a brief account of the holy spirit in the trinity Um, so orthodoxy did not happen overnight In fact, it's not until 325 ad and i'm going to talk about this briefly the first ecumenical council Where jesus christ is declared to be god? Then it's not until 381 ad during the second ecumenical council to which we will touch on, that the Holy Spirit is declared to be God. And then it's not until at least a century or two later that we get the Athanasian Creed, which is just referenced by St. Patrick at the end of the video. So that's basically where we're going. So what are ecumenical creeds and councils? That's the next question of focus. Now, I present to you a group of ecumenical creeds. Ecumenical is universal. It means these are basically, these are generally touch points for the Eastern Orthodox, the Roman Catholic, and Protestant branches of the church. So basically, you know, the four types of Protestantism you have, the Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholic, would assert, generally speaking, these six creeds, right? They would not agree upon every detail. But we're actually only gonna talk briefly about four of these today. And you have those, some of them, on that extra handout. Excited? All right. All right, ecumenical councils, what are they? Well, early on, early on, they were typically, they were council, all church councils, where all the bishops are invited, and they're usually, at least the early ones, were convoked by the emperor of Rome. So the first, the Greek Orthodox, the Roman Catholic, and the Protestants agree on what are the first seven. In fact, the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox would say the first seven are authoritative. The Protestants generally agree that the first six were biblical. And in terms of authority, again, generally speaking, and this is a whole other conversation, generally speaking, Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic Church holds tradition as authoritative on the same level as scripture. Protestants don't do this, so Protestants would declare that there are certain aspects of these creeds and councils that maybe are not biblical, but the general, the thrust is there with the first six. But anyway, this will tie us nicely and sort of show us how we're anchored to the ancient church. Next question we're going to attend to what do the ecumenical creeds and councils say about the Holy Spirit? So what do they say? Well, the first and most popular, and you have this printed out for you, is the Apostles' Creed. The Apostles' Creed is probably the most known. Some of you probably even have this memorized. It's called the Apostles' Creed because it is traditionally taught that this was written by the apostles at Pentecost and that the original would have had 12 lines that were composed by the 12 apostles. We don't know if that's true or not, but anyway, the Apostles' Creed, if you look at it, if you read it closely, this is usually, even though this is usually a hallmark of orthodoxy, it actually is not sufficiently specific, sufficiently specific enough for doctrinal regulation. So it says nothing about Jesus Christ being fully God. It doesn't say he's not, but it doesn't say he is. And then all they say about the Holy Spirit is, we believe in the Holy Spirit. And that's it. So perhaps the oldest of the creed and one of the most cherished, but again, still a wonderful creed, very biblical, except some of you may take issue with Christ descended into hell. Some Protestants throw this out, some of them keep it in, but reinterpret it to say something that maybe you didn't think it was. That's a conversation for another time, though, the descent into hell. It is a good Saturday between Easter and Good Friday sermon. Maybe we should have church on Saturday, who knows. Next, in 318 AD, the Aryan controversy erupted. For quite a while, There were people that would say that Jesus Christ is fully God and there were plenty of people in the church that would say Jesus Christ is Basically a creature and they they can they abided along with each other, you know, they they got along You know, they're trying to keep alive there's persecution afoot but when Constantine basically made Christianity legal and it favored religion, now they actually had resources to talk theology and do theology. So an Arian debate arose, and the who would win the day, and the Arians came just, I mean, they were battling. They were deposing each other, saying each other were illegitimate, et cetera. So Constantine convoked the first ecumenical council, the first all-church council. From that, we get the Nicene Creed of 325 AD. I didn't give it out in your printouts. You probably can't read that, but that second paragraph, that second bullet point, is talking about Jesus Christ. The substance of the first ecumenical council was just talking about Jesus Christ being fully God and fully man. All they say about the Holy Spirit is what the Apostles Creed says, and we believe in the Holy Spirit. That's it. It's actually very interesting. Is this a political move on their, you know, let's take one battle at a time, but if you read some of the ancient church fathers and you see their biblical arguments for the divinity of the Son, you think all you have to do is take out the Son, insert Holy Spirit, and the argument works perfectly well. So I don't know. But 325 AD, this became the proclaimed orthodox standard that Jesus Christ is fully God. God in the same sense that the Father is. Now, in the next few decades, people were a little wary of this. This is the first time you have an ecumenical council and an ecumenical creed. So eventually, to tell you the truth, the church actually leaned back to Arianism in the 40s. And then with the help of St. Athanasius, St. Athanasius and others, and others, moved the church back to Orthodoxy. And by the 360s, they had enough backing behind them, of the church that's saying that Jesus Christ is fully God, that he then started arguing for the divinity of the Holy Spirit. But it's not until like 360s where we get a full-blown defense of the full divinity of the Holy Spirit. And this is where we get the next ecumenical creed. This is on your paper. Technically, this is called the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381. This, the uniqueness of this second ecumenical council, and this actually comes about after Athanasius' death, they say this, and we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life. He proceeds from the Father, and with the Father and Son is worshiped and glorified. In short, the Holy Spirit is also God. The Holy Spirit is also God in the same sense the Father and Son are God. So So this is the second this is the result of the second ecumenical council and this gives us the Niceno Constantinopolitan Creed of 381 I have brackets here It says and the Sun Now by this time well for quite a while there's you have Latin speaking Church or the West and Latin-speaking, and then you have the Greek-speaking East. Already, their cultural differences have sort of divided them a bit. The Roman, or Latin-speaking church, adds this, it's called the filioque clause, don't worry about it. and the sun, they add this clause into their, into their Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381 in 589 at the Synod of Toledo. The Eastern Church was like, you didn't invite us to that council. You guys are jerks." And there was back and forth. So the West has this little addition and the sun, conversation for another time, and the East does not. So, this may be confusing. But what you call the Nicene Creed was actually not written in Nicaea. It was actually written in Constantinople. and then later modified in 589. So instead of saying we believe in the Nicene Constantinopolitan Creed of 381 as modified in Toledo 589, which does not roll off the tongue so well, we just call it the Nicene Creed, right? Make it simple. But you don't need to know all that. It's just fun stuff to know. Another video cue. I'm just kidding. Last but not least, the Athanasian Creed. I really like this creed. This creed, traditionally, was supposed to have been written by Athanasius, the great defender of the Trinity, when orthodoxy in the church was on the fence. We are unclear when this creed was written and by whom. The first extant, to my knowledge, the first extant, the first, the oldest available copy of this is from, I think, 502 AD, and it seems to be highly regarded at that time. Again, we don't, This is documents are made of paper, things get old, there are fires, we don't have all these wonderful documents we wish we had. So the Athanasian Creed was thought highly of at least by the 6th century and at least by 1099 Saint Anselm, who you probably, you may have heard of, He declared this to be on par with the Apostles and Nicene Creed. And John Calvin, later in the Reformation, agreed that this is excellent, that this is biblical. And I will read some excerpts of this to you, and this is one of the creeds I gave you, at least in part. So, Thus the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, yet there are not three gods. There is but one God. The Father was neither made nor created nor begotten from anyone. The Son was neither made nor created. He was begotten from the Father alone. The Holy Spirit was neither made nor created nor begotten. He proceeded from the Father and Son alone. This idea of eternal beginning and eternal procession, the only thing you need to worry about right now is they were not made. There was never a time when they were not. The Father, Son, Holy Spirit have always existed together in eternity. Always. It's one God. So that's a conversation for a later time, procession and beginning. Accordingly, there is one Father, not three Fathers. There is one Son, not three Sons. There is one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits. Nothing in this trinity is before or after nothing is greater or smaller in their entirety The three persons are co-eternal and co-equal with each other So this is this is the most specific the most I guess Ease well, it's easy in one sense that if you just read it over a few times you're like, okay I understand that I shouldn't understand it and that's helpful, isn't it? I To know what you can't know is always helpful. So that's why Athanasian Creed is one of my all-time favorites. I was going to get it tattooed on my back, but then I saw how long it was, and I didn't. I'm not making any statement for or against tattoos. That's not what it's about. So don't get me off on tangents. Anyway, let's bring this thing home. How should the creeds, councils, and their stories inform our life of faith? How should they? Because I think there's some nuggets here. First, the mystery of the Trinity should drive us to worship. Scott K. Oliphant, in his book, The Majesty of Mystery, talks about how whenever we understand something as humans, we tend to want to control it and manipulate it. So why did God not build us so we could completely fully understand him? Maybe that was for our own good Every time we come to the doctrine of the Trinity or even trying to wrap our mind around the Holy Spirit and who he is our mind comes to these impasses and Points to the fact that you're limited. You're limited. You're limited. You're limited, but I am NOT I And instead of frustrating us, this should really drive us to worship. At the end of the day, and this is, for you thinkers out here, for you thinkers that out here are very philosophically minded, just remember, these are good things to think about, but God is not a problem to be solved. He is a God to have a relationship with. And I think we can come up, some of you that like theology, you can become enamored with the puzzle. I'm enamored with the puzzle, but also, Realize that there are that we can we can spend too much time Trying to figure things out and not worshiping but this should drive us to worship. You are limited. We have an unlimited God Next the church arrives at mysteries precisely because we view scripture as authoritative and without error. I If the church fathers had thought that the apostles had inserted errors into the Bible, they would have never arrived at the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. You would have just said, so-and-so is just, that's a slip of the pen, or they're just wrong on this point, et cetera, et cetera. So the church, approach scripture as being authoritative and without error, at least in the original manuscripts. Next, we should approach scripture being prepared to have what we think of as reasonable to be overturned. The Bible tells us things that we must believe that we cannot imagine. Now, the Bible is not telling us this. The Bible is not telling us to try to put to believe that one plus one plus one equals one. It's not saying that They're saying mathematics is legit the Bible is legit mathematics is legit, but what they're saying is He is three in one sense one in another Um So basically the Bible is telling us that there is a distinction between person and being. In our own personal experience, when I see a person, a human being, I see a person. But when we apply the ideas of person and being to God, there's not a one for one correlation. He is two beyond us. and that we can say that there is one God, God of three persons, each person is fully God. The Bible also tells us things that we would not have come up with on our own. And also, it tells us things that we might not agree with. So right now, the older you are in this room, the probably the more you find the idea of homosexual marriage as disagreeable. The younger you are, you probably struggle with, you know, what's the big deal? In a few generations, it might be, well, this is just natural and fundamental, you know, this is another natural. But this is why generation after generation, you always go back to scripture to have what you think of as reasonable retuned, refined. And this is what we should be doing on a daily basis. And I shared this story with you before. I remember reading 1 Corinthians 7 for the first time as a new believer. And I remember coming away with 1 Corinthians chapter 7 saying, I think it's telling me I'm not allowed to marry a non-Christian. That seems unreasonable. Like, what if I'm not attracted to any Christians? Or like, what's better than missionary marriage, right? Wrong. My reason gets refined over time. Next. The Bible is our primary authority, but we should always be wary of dismissing long-held theological positions. Heresies reassert themselves constantly in different forms, in different language. and realize that depending on what history books you read, the shorter they are, the less, probably the worst pictures in your mind they're gonna give you. It was never Martin Luther versus the Western church. Right? I mean, that's your picture. Bang, bang, bang. You'll take that church. I mean, that's what we picture. It wasn't Athanasius against the world. Supposedly, Athanasius has, that's on his tombstone, Athanasius against the world. Like, it was just Athanasius versus the world. Or John Calvin in the second generation. Theology is never a lone wolf endeavor. It's always a generational and team effort. So I've heard, I remember in seminary, one of my professors, and this stuck with me, he said, if you come up with an interpretation of the Bible that no one's ever come up with, you're wrong. You're not quick enough to do it all on your own. It's a team effort. And then last but not least, no mere creature Dwells within you and empowers you but rather it is God When you resist the Holy Spirit you're not resisting a creature you're resisting God When you when you don't when you don't try to mind and or find and mind the spiritual gifts that have been given to you These are gifts given to you through the Spirit And also, this is the spirit that indwells you and helps to sanctify you and makes you better. The intimacy and love of God should be preached just in the fact that it's not an angel that indwells you. It's not even a really powerful angel that indwells you and is close to you. It's actually God himself. And so hopefully that is encouraging to you. And it is a point of inspiration. I think I've used up all of our time. You guys have been great. You've paid attention. So I'm gonna pray for us. Waving at my daughters. I'm gonna pray for us and I will dismiss you. Lord, we thank you for your church of the past. We thank you for the church of the present. We thank you specifically for this local body, Lord, who is intent on coming here and worshiping you and letting the Holy Spirit work in us and push one another. Thank you, Lord, for this time. We pray that you would just watch over us through our week. We pray that we would be lights in a dark world, Lord. And we pray for your constant illumination of our hearts and minds. It's in His name we pray. Amen.