I know my boy Mark missed a few steps but the man can preach.
This is one of his best series for sure.



Full Run
Trinity: God Is

Let me take you back more than a millennium and answer this question. What is the history of the doctrine of the Trinity? Well, early church fathers like Justin Martyr, Tertullian, _________, Basil, and Athanasius – they all taught the doctrine of the Trinity and defended it. Tertullian, as I said, he is one of the first to use the language of the Trinity to describe all that the Bible says about one God, three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit eternally equal in every way.

The doctrine of the Trinity, I believe it was held to, but it was questioned by some. And there were heretics and false teachers. And so there needed to be clarification. Some say, “Well, it seems like it took a long time for the doctrine to develop,” and my answer would be, “When the whole church is suffering persecution, people are being fed to lions, they’ve been run through with swords, they’re being burned alive, they’re being burned at the stake, they’re being crucified one after another, the pastors are being beheaded, people are running for their lives – it’s really hard to crank out a lot of systematic theology under those cultural conditions.” When you’re being persecuted and doing funerals all the time, you’re just – you’re trying to live and then you’re teaching your people. But they’re dying, too, and the whole church was suffering.

Once persecution died down, then immediately they started clarifying some of their doctrinal beliefs, including at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, where the Bible teachers got together and clearly articulated belief in one God, three Persons – the Trinity. And that has held ever since. Additionally then, too, there was another council, the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD where, again, the Bible teachers get together and they lay down the doctrine of the Trinity.

Things really were anchored, then, with a man named Augustine who was one of the leading thinkers, not just in the history of Christianity, but the western world, Augustine of Hippo. And from 400 to 419 – he spent 19 years studying the doctrine of the Trinity. So if you just walked in off the straight and you’re like, “This is complicated.” Yeah, it is. 19 years for Augustine of Hippo to research, study so that he could publish his book The Treaties on the Trinity, and it was sort of the definitive work. And it has now held up for more than 1,500 years, the result being that today all Christians believe in the Trinity. Roman Catholics believe in the Trinity. Eastern Orthodox believe in the Trinity. Protestants believe in the Trinity. Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Anglicans all believe in the Trinity. All Christians believe in the Trinity.

Some people say, “Christians can’t agree. We agree on this. We all agree that there is one God in three Persons, Father, Son, and Spirit. There is no disagreement on that issue. It is among the distinguishing beliefs of what it means to be Christian.

Thanks op and I agree. Hope your Christmas celebration of the birth of our savior is happy and thankful.