importance of the Trinity

Recently, the ministry I am part of (SWORD) led a discussion about the Trinity, why should Christians defend this doctrine?

I made a brief comment about the Trinity a while back. The doctrine of the Trinity is basically:

• God is one in essence
• God exists in three persons (Father, Son, Spirit)
• Each of these persons is fully and equally God.

There are many reasons why this doctrine is important, such as the divinity of Christ and to know that the God we worship is different from the "god" of other religions and cults. I want to shift gear, and share about how understanding the Trinity affect our lives as Christians. 

"And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him." - 1 John 4:16

We know that God is love, but what does this statement really means? Does it mean that God is the source of love, or that God has been loving since ever (since God is unchanging), or that God is that standard of what love is? If God is not Trinitarian, meaning that if God is only one person, then any of these statements won't make any sense because love is relational. Love requires more than one person, it is not just feeling but an act of the will. How can God be love if He is only one person in the very beginning? Did God created all angels and men so that He can be loving? If that is true then love is not an essential attribute of God.

The text of 1 John focus on love as one of the main attributes of God. Therefore, "God is love" only makes sense with the Trinity because each of the Persons in the Trinity is in constant love for one another. Tim Keller in his book "Reasons for God" says:

"The life of the Trinity is characterized not by self-centeredness but by mutually self-giving love. When we delight and serve someone else, we enter into a dynamic orbit around him or her, we center on the interests and desires of the other. That creates a dance, particularly if there are three persons, each of whom moves around the other two... Each voluntarily circles the other two, pouring love, delight, and adoration into them."

God made us so that He can share this love to us. And since God lives in us, we ought to love our fellow brothers and sisters to exemplify the Trinitarian love.

Here are more notes about the importance of the Trinity.

Just to clarify

I have been posting quite a bit about anime shows I watched, and I bring out insights that I get from these. And usually I relate it to some sort of a spiritual lesson for my Christian walk. I just want to clarify that I am not advocating that watching shows is the way to learn spiritual lessons. As Christians we believe in that the bible is God-breathed and it is useful for instructing us:

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." - 2 Timothy 3:16-17

The bible is the source of authority and truth, and as Christians we believe that God speaks to us today through His Word, and that the Holy Spirit help us discern the truth and empower us to apply the lessons learned. That is the reason why personal bible reading and group bible studies are so key in a believer's growth.

So when a scene from an anime causes me to think about something deeper, and I get an insight from it, it is not the anime acting like the source of truth, but it is what I have already learned from the bible that is making me think such insight (pardon my run on sentence). We are created in God's image (Genesis 1:27), and we bear some of the moral characteristics and creativity from God, though it is obviously tainted by sin (Genesis 3). So God is a creator, and I believe that the creativity in human beings to write novels, compose music, art expressions, and engineering innovation is given by God.

So when I analyze the anime I am watching, I can appreciate the author's worldview on certain life issues, and it can be important because it can represent the society's viewpoint. This prompts me to come up with a Christian response. This in a way creates a pathway for me to share my Christian faith in this world when I discuss movies and anime with my friends.

By the way, I don't always watch anime to think about these things, most of the time I just want to mindlessly enjoy a show, hehe.

dialogue about the King

The most recent anime series I have been watching is Fate Zero, which is a prequel of  Fate Stay Night. This prequel is of a much higher quality with characters that are developed more in depth. The action scenes are quite fancy. Also, there is a lot of dialogue in this series, and they are very well done and interesting because it clearly shows the convictions of each of the character, and pretty much all characters have a very interesting personality to explore.

The premise of the series is about a war among magicians to win a sacred item that will grant any wish to the owner. Each magician can summon an "heroic spirit" that will fight for each magician's sake, and pretty much they will fight to death until one last "heroic spirit" remains. An "heroic spirit" is actually a real historic person or mythological figure that is considered a hero (examples: Napoleon, Julius Caesar, King Arthur, Hercules).

There is an episode called "The Grail Dialogue" which is like 99% all talking, and it was a great episode. Basically three of the heroic spirits who were once kings (I'll keep them anonymous to avoid spoilers) decide to have a deep conversation about the definition of a king, and maybe they can avoid fighting if they all agree who is superior and has better qualities of a king. This is how each of them defined what a king look like:

• archer: he sees himself as the best and strongest. Everyone else is like a dog to him, so he thinks there is no one like him. That's how he defines himself as a king. People will follow him out of fear.
• rider: he thinks a king should be an example of greatness for his servants to look up to. Therefore, he pursues to be selfish, and he portraits the extreme of good and evil (shining at the brightest) to create an obsession in his subjects to follow him. People will follow him because he is eccentric and passionate.
• saber: he thinks a king should serve the needs of his people, protect them, and be willing to die for his country. He is willing to even resign as a king if that can avoid a disaster for his country. People will follow him because he serve their needs.

This dialogue makes me ponder about what make people follow a king or a leader. People have the desire to pursue a "greater being" because they can reap benefits, or they can become grater, or out of fear, or out of obsession, or out of gratitude. So this leads me to ask myself, why do I follow our king Jesus? This is what I can think of:

• Jesus is our loving servant king
• Jesus came to the earth not be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). It is reassuring that we have a king who does good to us to the point of dying for us! And as I grasp more and more of His love, and I realize that I am more compelled to serve Him. 
• Jesus lived by example
• Jesus commands us to love God and to love others. He does not just set rules that are hard to follow, but He lived abiding to them, so He showed us how to live and love (John 13:34). He is our role model for life.
• Jesus understands us
• Jesus is also a High Priest, and he understands our temptations and weaknesses because He went though those trials, and yet He did no sin (Hebrews 4:15). So we can approach Him with confidence to find grace and mercy (Hebrews 4:16).
• Jesus is powerful
• Jesus is God, and He overcame death (1 Cor. 15:20), He is triumphant over the curse of death. Every knee should bow down in the name of Jesus (Philippians 2:10)
• Jesus is intense
• The picture of Jesus in Revelations 19:11-16 is a breathtaking one as the Rider on the White Horse. When I read it, I can't help but to be full of awe because Jesus is really intense.