remarks on "God the Trinity: Biblical Portraits"

              One of the great 'mysteries of the faith'  for Christians involves the Trinity. The concept of a triune God is difficult for most people, including pastors, to understand.  For years people have used apples, eggs,  and even balloons to try to teach about how the 3 persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and are actually one. Sometimes it seems to work , and other times the student is left just as  confused as he or she was before the lesson.  Even the simple explanations of "3-in-purpose--one  in essence" or "Creator-Redeemer-Sanctifier" tend to  is less than helpful in helping people truly understand.

                Because of the lack of understanding, many pastors tend to gloss over the 3^rd person in the Trinity: Holy Spirit.  We pray "Our Father who art in Heaven". We celebrate Jesus' birth, life, death, and especially the Resurrection, but Holy Spirit tends to be forgotten, except on Pentecost Sunday, or in Pentecostal churches.  In fact in his Prologue, the author comments on a survey "which gives credence to [a] controversial claim that " most Baptists are Unitarians who simply have not gotten around to denying the Trinity."

                Against this background of misunderstanding and confusion when it comes to an understanding of the Trinity,  Malcolm Yarnell III, professor of systematic theology, among other titles, has written God the Trinity: Biblical Portraits (B&H Academic, 2016).  He has two stated questions that he hopes to answer in  this book: Is the Doctrine that God is Trinity a biblical doctrine? And is it a doctrine that is necessary to believe?

                Although the writing style is overly academic for a casual read, the subject matter almost demands such an approach.  At times though, it seemed to me that Yarnell was even more wordy than the academic approach calls for.  A few rabbit trails could have been left out. Especially helpful were footnotes instead of endnotes especially when the note did more than cite someone else's work.

                Yarnell addresses 8 different scriptures that describe the Trinitarian nature of God, how the 3 persons work together, and ends with a portrait of the God who will come. In each of his portraits, he is able to make a strong case for his thesis that the Trinity is Biblical doctrine, and that it is necessary to grasp that doctrine in order to  fully experience,  appreciate, and understand  the Gospel Story.

                The epilogue is also especially helpful: after a careful exegesis of each text, the author has drawn several "general theological conclusions"  concerning the trinity. I mention this because all too often the tendency is to skip over things like introductions, prologues and epilogues.  Sometimes that works, in this case, the reader would truly be missing an important piece of the overall work.  Since Yarnell use portraits, painting, art as metaphor, let me putting it this way. Skipping over the prologue and the epilogue would be like looking at a painting and not seeing any yellow or red.

                If you're looking for some light reading, this is not the book for you. If you are truly interested in learning more about the Trinitarian God, this book is a must read. 5/5

                I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a review. I was not required to post a positive review. 

BORN THIS WAY, Season Two, premieres July 26 on A&E

The season two premier of Born this Way will be tomorrow, Tuesday, July 26^th (10/9c) on A&E network. Watch the season 2 trailer HERE.  

Most of us know someone who has Down Syndrome,  or at least know of someone. And most of us, until we really get to know them for the lovable person that each of them, created in God's image is, are a little nervous about being around them. And then we come to love their smiles, their antics and the generally upbeat way they have of looking at life and the people around them.

When we were pregnant with our son, the geneticist encouraged us, because of our age, to have all sorts of tests done. In the end we opted to not do any of them, because after all, what difference would it make?  But the ‘threat’ was there: you’re at risk, what if there is a problem with this child? Don’t you want to know early enough to do something about it?  But the days of locking away in the attic anyone who is slightly different are gone, and we said no.  Several months later our son was born without any of the conditions that older parents, according to the experts, should be worried about.

Fast forward a few years, and our son is taking a martial arts class. One day there was a new student. According to her aunt, she is high-functioning, but still has issues. And issues she may have, but she also has a smile as wide as you can imagine, and a heart as big as all outdoors.  She still, after 7 or 8 years hasn’t learned, or won’t learn to tie the belt to her karate uniform, (she prefers to tie it in a bow), and she gets a little lazy at times when it comes to the warm-up exercises. But start collecting canned food for a food pantry, and she gets everyone in the family to contribute…and remembers the next year that it should be time to start collecting again.

But beyond that, she’s a typical teenager, and has been for the past 20 years. She has dreams and goals, she likes certain singers, movies and TV shows. She has her favorite foods, and knows what she likes. In other words, she’s much like the group of friends from Born this Way.

The show follows a group of friends, and their parents, through a variety of situations, planning for trips and outings (and having to encourage them to hurry up and get ready) to discussions about dating and how sometimes we need to work for the things we want. It’s funny to notice where something has been censored, but often the filters that society deems necessary for polite company are missing. Sometimes I wished we all were missing those filters…at least you would know what people are really thinking).

It’s obviously not all joy when it comes to Down Syndrome—there are certainly causes for concern, when someone you love doesn’t function at the same capacity as the majority of society, so A&E is doing us all a favor with this show that points out some of the joys and challenges of Down’s kids and their families. Besides giving us a peek at the reality that Down’s families live every day, we all learn to see the disadvantaged in a new light: a light that says “I want to be loved, I want to be accepted, I want to be included, and oh by the way, I want to be your friend, and what an amazing friend I can be. 

Jesus didn't say a boring, safe, little life!

A basic premise of this book, one that I need to hear and be reminded of, is that Holy Spirit is not a thing, but rather the 3d person of the Trinity, Leon Fontaine argues a strong case that within many local Churches, Holy Spirit is not given the credit that He is due. The Spirit Contemporary: Unleashing the Miraculous in Your Everyday World, ( WaterBrook, 2016) is full of examples of how Holy Spirit works, and some practical tips for learning how to recognize what He is doing.

Fontaine starts with a question: Why read this book?  And he wastes no time, and pulls no punches in answering his own question. "It's time that we stop living boring, safe, little Christian lives and start thinking differently about God, about life and about ourselves".   In effect it's  time to unleash the power of Holy Spirit, it's time to learn how to communicate the good news with non-believers in contemporary ways. Nobody is suggesting that the message be changed, what Fontaine suggests is that we get back to basics, and learn how to share that message in ways that are meaningful and relevant in today's culture and context.

Fontaine comes from a Christian background, but as a young man, newly trained and hired as an EMT, he quickly found that evangelizing, and even prayer, on the job was frowned upon - even though urgency was often a prime factor. So he learned to adapt to the situation and how to open doors to the necessary conversation. Some of his methods are found in this book. Along with some of the miracles which are credited to the work and intervention of Holy Spirit.

I enjoyed reading this book, and it gave me much to think about, but I have to confess that many times I'm one of those people living the boring, safe, little Christian life, so my 'comfort zone'  was immediately challenged. I wish I had the ability to see Holy Spirit at work in as many ways as Fontaine does, but in the meantime I need to learn to stretch myself. That being said, for my taste there were too many personal examples and not enough scripture to support his premise.  As I said I may need to learn to stretch myself just  a little more.

4/5

I received a copy of this book in exchange for this review. I was not required to write a positive review.