Chapter 11

Question 1

What are three things that Jesus said that is the most shocking thing?

Answer 1

1. Talking as if he were God
2. Saying he has always existed
3. Saying he is coming to judge the world

Question 2

Is it possible to prove the trinity?

Answer 2

No it is not objectively proveable outside the Bible

Question 3

What is tritheism and what would it be compared to?

Answer 3

The concept that Jesus, the father, and the Holy Spirit are three separate Gods. If we held to this, Christians would be polytheist.

Question 4

Modalism

Answer 4

The concept that God is one person in 3 forms

Water/ice/vapor

Question 5

What is the problem with modalism?

Answer 5

It would be possible to diagnose God with multiple personality disorder

Mark 1:9-11

Question 6

Some believe the doctrine of the trinity was created by whom?

Answer 6

The councils of Nicaea and Constantinople

Question 7

Arius of Alexandria (Arianism) believed that the incarnation of Jesus (if he is God) would cause what unacceptable situation?

Answer 7

God would become mutable (a quality of finiteness) and experience change and no longer be infinite

Question 8

Who was the key figure in refuting arius and what contribution did he make to the council of Nicaea?

Answer 8

Athanasius; incarnation. Jesus is the same substance and essence of the father

Question 9

Quote by Thomas aquinas?

Answer 9

The name trinity in God signifies the determinate number of persons and the plurality of God requires that we should use the word trinity

Question 10

What verse connects all the persons of the trinity?

Answer 10

Matthew 28:19- baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit

Question 11

What is the primary task in the argument to prove the trinity

Answer 11

Observing the places in scripture where God the Father Jesus and the Holy Spirit are shown to be divine

Question 12

What two types of scriptural evidence establish that Jesus is God?

Answer 12

When Jesus claimed to be divine

When Jesus claimed to have divine characteristics

Question 13

Give three scriptures that affirm the deity of Jesus

Answer 13

John 8:56-59 “before Abraham was… I am”
John 20:28- Thomas’ confession that Jesus is Lord and God
John 5:18- calling God his own father, making himself equal to God

Question 14

Give three scriptures that affirm the deity of the Holy Spirit

Answer 14

2 Corinthians 3:17 “now the lord is the spirit”
Acts 5:3-4 you have lied to the Holy Spirit… you have not lied to men but to God
1 Corinthians 2:10 no one knows the thoughts of god except the spirit of God

Question 15

How does Lewis use the concept of life begetting life (bios and Zoe) to address the issue of the trinity?

Answer 15

The Zoe kind of life is the essence of God and is eternal. The bios is the life that God’s creatures have. These help to explain fully how Jesus is both man and God equally and fully. Jesus is begotten , precedes from Zoe, and is not created , coming from bios.

Question 16

How does Lewis use geometry to explain the trinity?

Answer 16

You find god is a being who is three persons while remaining one being, just as a cube has six squares while remaining one cube

Question 17

The argument that God is outside of time helps in understanding what aspect to the trinity?

Answer 17

How Jesus could be in time asleep and God the father never sleeping

He can be in 2 places and once

Question 18

How does the idea that God is love reinforce the concept of the trinity?

Answer 18

The words have no real meaning unless God contains at least 2 persons. Love is something that one person has for another person, so if God was a single person before the world was made, He is not God.

Question 19

What is the transformation that Lewis speaks of regarding the incarnation and us?

Answer 19

Jesus becoming human changed the entire nature of the human race. We turned from bios life (created) to Zoe life (timeless/spiritual life).

Question 20

Why does Lewis say there can only be one son (second person) of the trinity?

Answer 20

The sons would have to be different from one another in order for there to be more than one. If there were several sons they would all have the same relation to the father and he would have the same relation to them.

Question 21

How does Lewis’ discussion of pretense relate to the desires of the trinity for additional sons?

Answer 21

God pretended he was not a creature, but his son. It is like Christ so far as it is man, because he became a man. He pretended it is like him in spirit. God looks at us as if we were a little Christ.

Question 22

What is the answer to the criticism that the word trinity diss not appear in the Bible?

Answer 22

Trinity is a summary term to represent the Biblical concept

Question 23

What is the answer to the criticism that Christians believe there are three gods?

Answer 23

Three separate persons who are exactly the same in nature and who are united relationally

Question 24

What is the answer to the criticism that Jesus is not God?

Answer 24

He claims to be divine and shares all of the fathers traits

Question 25

What is the answer to the criticism that Jesus is a lesser God than the Father?

Answer 25

Jesus is co-equal with God (Phil 2), not created by God

Question 26

What is the answer to the criticism that Jesus was not fully God and fully man?

Answer 26

Human in every way that we are and yet there are other scriptures that assert he is fully God

Question 27

The nicene creed

Answer 27

AD 325. Jesus is true God from true God, begotten, not made, one being with the Father

Question 28

The Athanasian creed

Answer 28

AD 400
Worship one God in the trinity and the trinity in unity
Distinguish among the persons but we do not divide the substance
Forbidden to say there are three Gods

Question 29

Chalcedonian Creed

Answer 29

AD 451
Jesus is complete in Godhead, and once complete in manhood, truly God and truly man
Two natures, without confusion, without change, without division.

Question 30

Apostles creed

Answer 30

Date unknown (early)
Jesus Christ is God's only son, our Lord