The Trinity is a mystery. Yet the presence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is basic to Scriptures.
Understanding the God in three persons becomes a lot easier with a functional view. The conventional approach is an ontological perspective that asks: Who is God and who are the three persons? Asking about the “is-ness” of God, his ousia, is a very Greek way of asking and answering a question.
Our Western heritage is in the Latin. The Eastern churches spoke and wrote in Greek. In the fourth century, the great church councils were held near Byzantium, the new capital of the Eastern part of the Roman empire. This means our classical Christian creeds were first written in Greek. We inherited the Latin translation.
This historical note explains why we have special difficulty understanding the word person as it applies to the trinity. The original Greek word meant mask. In Greek drama, the actors said their lines through a mask that gave a visual definition of the character they were portraying. One actor might play two or three different roles. The church fathers explained that the one true God acts through three different masks. In expressing himself through the first mask he is the Father. Expressing himself through the second mask, God is the Son. Wearing the third mask, he is the Spirit. This seems easier to understand.
However, in the Latin translation, the word for mask is persona. Thus we have God in three persons. How can three persons together be the same person? We might think we know what a person is, but it helps to remember the original meaning as mask. So the true God relates to us by acting in three different roles. Martin Luther spelled those out.
Through the Father-mask the one true God creates, provides for, and defends us. Working through the second mask, the God in heaven took on human form as Jesus, came to earth and showed us how God loves and deeply cares about us. He took on our sins to redeem us through his death and resurrection. Jesus is now advocating to the Father to accept an individual believer because “he or she trusts what I did for them 2,000 years ago.” Jesus is ascended and won’t come back until the end times.
What does God do through the third mask as the Spirit? Christ’s Spirit is constantly in us, around us, and between us, calling us to faith, gathering us in fellowship, moving head knowledge to the heart, helping us grow to be more like Christ. Love, joy, peace, and faith are not just some virtues we can achieve on our own. They are what the Spirit produces in us, as the Holy Spirit influences or changes human spirit (John 3:6). The fruit he produces in us are listed in Galatians 5:22: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
So which of the masks that God works through should get your primary attention? If you are in ministry, you really need to focus on the third mask, God the Holy Spirit, through which God works on people here and now, day by day, year by year. Pray to the Father and the Son to send the Spirit.
Lyle Schaller was a great observer of Protestant churches in the 1950s through 90s. I have all his books. Ministry colleague John Kieshnick recalls this observation from Schaller:
People on a spiritual pilgrimage in the Christian life seem to move from their ‘home’ denomination through the three Persons of the Trinity. Roman Catholics emphasize the First Person Father, their Creator and Provider. Many move on to the Second Person Son, their Savior from sin, and become Lutherans and other Protestants. Many of those, in turn, move to the Third Person Spirit, the Sanctifier who empowers them. This happened through the charismatic and Pentecostal movements. As they mature, Pentecostals find more to appreciate in the First Person Father. In a sense people move from head (think) to mind (trust) to heart (feel) back to head.
A reasonable goal today is for Christian church leaders is to promote a well-balanced appreciation of God in all three of his roles.
This sounds a lot like “Modalistic Monarchianism. View that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not 3 persons but 3 modes or forms of God’s activity; God revealed Himself as Father in the work of creation, as Son in the work of redemption (Patripassianism), and as the Holy Spirit in the work of sanctification.”
Erwin L. Lueker, ed., Christian Cyclopedia (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2000).
I am not saying that you hold to that, but your explanation does open the door to that understanding, which is contrary to the teaching of the Church as expressed in the Creeds, so could you go a little further to clear this up?
Thanks and God bless.
Delwyn, good to see you wrestling with Lutheran understandings. I trust your ministry is going well.
I have some issues with changing the Christian understanding of the Trinity to being one person wearing three masks instead of recognizing the three persons of the Trinity as distinct persons. I think you asked the wrong question in “How can three persons together be one person?” The proper perception (I believe) is of three persons as one BEING. We are human beings comprised of one person. But I have no problem accepting the possibility that there could be one being that is comprised of three persons sharing the same essence. Also, if God is just one person wearing three masks, then that doesn’t account for Elohim and other names for God that are plural. It also doesn’t account for all the times; especially in Genesis where God refers to Himself as “us”. Let’s take God at His Word and stop trying to dumb everything down to try and make it fit our finite understanding of everything.
I am proposing to change the doctrinal language to reflect Luther’s understandings of the original biblical descriptions. Again, the issue is “being.” The Greek ousia was a compromise arrived at by fourth century theologians. To see how much they labored to get this compromise, read the Athanasian Creed, which tries to add clarity by describing what this compromise is not. It is all very confusing. That is why Luther’s functional approach makes much more sense. He focuses on doing, not being.
The view you are espousing regarding one God expressing himself through ‘masks’ is not Trinitarian, but is that of the Unitarians, specifically Modal Monarchianism (Cf. Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics I, 382). God is not one God acting through three masks, but three distinct Persons.
“The Christian Church has always successfully met and overcome Unitarianism by the following three Scripture proofs:
a. The names Father, Son, and Holy Ghost can denote only three self-subsisting persons…
b. Personal actions, such as knowing, willing, teaching, reproving, speaking, are ascribed to each of the three. …
c. Scripture expressly describes the relation between Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as allos kai allos kai allos [Greek for ‘another and another and another’] … (Dogmatics 1, 383).
It is impossible for us to ‘understand’ God–He’s God, we’re not. The Trinity is a mystery we assert and accept by faith, not by reason or logic.
Nor are these matters mere word play, as (to quote Pieper) “The Apology [article 1] maintains that all Anti-Trinitarians who have arisen within the Church are outside the Christian Church” (Dogmatics I, 378).
I do think it is a matter of word choice. Pieper is describing Unitarians who do not recognize the Son and the Spirit. That is the Monarchianism. To add “modal” as an adjective does not really add anything except confusion. By definition Unitarians see only one mode. Trinitarians see three roles (modes) simultaneously. Modalists see only one role at a time. For them God is only Spirit today.
This is thought provoking, and a little bit troubling. I’m not certain of the history, but I do recall that modalism is not an orthodox understanding of the triune nature of God. While I get the challenge of using “persons” is real, I’m not sure the “mask” idea is any better. I’d rather simply embrace the mystery of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-One God. A mystery beyond my ability to understand but by faith I believe it. I suspect you’ll get some pushback on this, but I’ll say this: it causes one to think about it.
Hi, Dave. Good caution. I looked up the difference between Modalists and Trinitarians. I am copying a definition below. At issue is whether God takes only one form (mode) at a time or can work through three masks at the same time. Think of the actor who wears three different masks in the course of a play. Trinitarians believe he remains one individual acting out three roles. Some Pentecostals are modalists today who believer that after the resurrection God is present only in the mode of Spirit.
That said, it is still “A mystery beyond my ability to understand but by faith I believe it.”
Modalism, also called Sabellianism, is the unorthodox belief that God is one person who has revealed himself in three forms or modes in contrast to the Trinitarian doctrine where God is one being eternally existing in three persons. According to Modalism, during the incarnation, Jesus was simply God acting in one mode or role, and the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was God acting in a different mode. Thus, God does not exist as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at the same time. Rather, He is one person and has merely manifested himself in these three modes at various times. Modalism thus denies the basic distinctiveness and coexistence of the three persons of the Trinity.
The following three comments concern the same issue of Modalism vs Trinitarianism and do so in reference to the 19th century doctrine book by Francis Pieper used in the Lutheran Churh–Missouri Synod.
All I am doing is going back to the original Greek used in the Fourth Century creeds. In Greek clearly the key word is “masks.” The translation to the Latin used the word “persona,” which originally meant mask. In English over the centuries it turned into the person we recognize as a unique individual being distinct from any other person. The difficulty comes from trying to describe “being.” If we use “person” for the three forms, then we need a different word for the central being, God. The genius of Luther is that he did not describe God by beings but rather by functions, as explained in the Small Catechism. I agree fully with the proofs outlined below by Rev. Roser.
What I have witnessed is those that believe in God and rely solely on His word to maintain their faith are experiencing a weakening of their foundation. As they witness more and more atrocities taking place in our world they are beginning to doubt God’s presence. If He is all powerful and all loving how & why would He allow such things to happen? Without His Spirit working in and around us we are not capable of comprehending the things of God. It is only through a deeper understanding of His word and unselfish surrendering of one’s self to Him that the true Spirit of God is revealed. Don’t just go through the motions, but also do not get burned out attempting to find God by throwing yourself in the trenches. Instead seek out His Spirit by showing others the love that Jesus has for all people. Share that love through simple acts of kindness and let the Connect card declare His divine presence and love for the recipients. You just focus on showing a warm smile and shear delight in giving a practical gift or a helpful service to everyone that His Spirit sends your way. But don’t just do this once. Do it every month with your church group. Go to different busy places plan ahead to do some type of kindness giving Jesus all the glory. Witness the effect that this has on you and the relationships between your group of volunteers. Witness firsthand the power of the Holy Spirit as it causes everyday people to open up their hearts to reveal deeply hidden struggles, even crises they are going through at that very moment when seconds earlier everything appeared to be great! Even though you planned these events maybe months in advance you will witness unbelievable timing in order for these powerful testimonies to take place. Kindness & patience seemingly come out of nowhere as you listen intently to their testimony all the while thinking there is no way this all happened by chance. With each “God moment” that you experience your faith grows deeper as you witness God’s hands & heart at work through the Spirit at work within you. These moments are so powerful you can never forget them! The Connect Cards also serve as a warm invite to come to your church/school/youth activity… where they can learn more about Jesus. So PACK builds both faith & Kingdom! After doing monthly PACK for over 21 years I can tell you this is most certainly true, but don’t take my word on it look to God’s. Free PACK download program at: http://www.acts18.org.
There is not fully rational way to explain God’s ways. The effort is called theodicy. But ultimately we just have to accept that God is above and beyond us. Accomplishing this “leap” is the work of the Spirit. Most persuasive in human terms is the witness of other believers. We judge the value of their witness by how well they live out their convictions. Hebrews 12 talks about being surrounded by the cloud of witnesses from the Old Testament. That cloud continued through 20 centuries. I am very interested in highlighting the cloud of witnesses around us today. I hope to make it easy for them to share their experiences. Everyone judges them by how well they live out their convictions (P.A.C.T.) Beyond that I am interested in how well they know the issues and still come out on the side of the biblical explanations of life with God. My years on the faculty of Fuller Seminary brought me into contact such well educated believers. I learned i could be conservative and still intellectually respectable. Once you make that leap into the mysteries of the supernatural intervening in natural processes, it become easier to recognize the Spirit at work.
Too bad we have been so poor at handling the “feelings” part of faith experiences. We really truncate our spiritual lives if we can’t find the mind to trust God’s subjective leading (I recognize that as the Spirit’s working). We won’t always get it right but what parent would mislead his/her genuinely inquiring child about their good will and work to be done? How much more so will our Triune God rightly lead us with mind, heart, and feelings!
Right on! There is no clear Greek word for what we call emotions, which are an expression of feelings. “Spirit” (pneuma) comes close as does soul (psyche). Paul talks about inner being, which I would interpret as the source of emotions. I am thankful to Matthew Elliott for doing the hard exegetical work of Faithful Feelings: Rethinking Emotions in the New Testament. (2006). Our inherited filters by very rational theologians saw all in very rational terms, intent to caution against relying only on feelings. I don’t think they meant to exclude feelings, which were included in their favorite Latin word affectus. We could talk about affections including feelings, but that key word “affections” has only shallow meanings today.
Your thoughts on the Trinity remind me of Christian Schwarz’ 3 Color compass of green, red and blue for Father, Son and Spirit with the goal balance by intentional growth. Calling dying mainline congregations and those who lead them towards a greater “blue balance” in the Spirit is a word fitly spoken.
I admire Christian Schwarz’s work–a competent German theologian bringing fresh perspectives to church life. I even read his first book in German. I am not aware of his three-color scheme. What publication is that in? His basic distinction is between static theology and dynamic. The Lutheranism I inherited is very static: Get confirmed and stay faithful the rest of your life. Growing more Christ-like through the work of the Spirit is dynamic and makes church life much more interesting for all concerned.
First, I feel somewhat intimidated by responding to the prior comments. I am not a theologian nor am I a Lutheran by birth. I attend a Lutheran church and am a growing Christian in love with Christ.
I had never heard the explanation of the “three masks” discussed by Dr. Luecke. From a layman’s perspective, it helps to think about God in those three persons. I too am three persons, as I am made in the image of God. I am a child of God, the wife of one husband and mother of three children. Although I am one being, In different situations, I fulfill the responsibilities of different persons. While continuing to be a child of God, I put on the mask of wife or mother. Still continuing to be each of the other. This is not a Greek or Latin nor perhaps even Lutheran perspective. This is just what the Spirit has led me to believe in my small human mind and heart. Thank you, Lord.
Hi, Marilyn. I think you have the gist of it. Think “doing” rather than “being.” You behave differently with God than you behave with your husband and yet you behave differently with your children. God the Father relates to the earth and people on it providentially. He creates, protects and provides. God the Son appeared as a true human 2,000 years ago to earn our salvation, and now in this second person or mask he intercedes for us with his Father. God in his mask of Spirit works on the hearts of individual to build trust in the truths of God.
Why bother making these distinctions? Because Scriptures highlight these different roles and names them Father, Son and Spirit. Do you have to make these distinctions in your personal faith? No, it is the same God in all three roles. The Spirit sorts it out before the Father and the Son. Since the featured topic is the Holy Spirit, it is helpful to understand his role in our current lives.