“Your word was my delight and the joy of my heart”
Jeremiah 15:16
Duns Scotus Bible Centre
Trinity Sunday
The doctrine of the Trinity, contrasted with the triadic formulas and the triple structure of the biblical experience of God, is implicit rather than explicit in Scripture.
The doctrine of the Trinity, contrasted with the triadic formulas and the triple structure of the biblical experience of God, is implicit rather than explicit in Scripture.
By “triple structure” of biblical experience we mean that in both the Old Testament and the New, God is experienced as going forth out of himself (from his “aseity”) in revelation and redemptive action, and also creating in human hearts a believing response to his revelatory and redemptive action.
The Gospel for Ascension Day is from Year A. Here, of course, the emphasis rests upon the baptismal command, the clearest instance of the New Testament triadic formula that provided the basis for the later doctrine of the Trinity
In the earliest Palestinian Church, baptism was administered in the name of Jesus (see Acts and Paul). The triple formula arose only toward the end of the first century, and then outside of Palestine (see the Didache). Yet, from the earliest days baptism was understood to mean translation into the eschatological existence made possible by the Christ-event and participation in the gifts of the Spirit. In a completely Jewish environment it would have gone without saying that if Jesus was the Messiah, he was the one in whom God had acted eschatologically, and if God had inaugurated the messianic age in Jesus Christ, this involved also the gift of the Spirit. Thus, baptism was always implicitly Trinitarian.