Hello everyone. I really enjoyed the question Dan asked to the last post so I wanted to address it more fully. For those who do not know what I am speaking of, the question was in response to my stance on the Trinity being essential for salvation. That was not called into question. What was asked was in response to the idea that some deny the Trinity explicitly and I do not have any basis for saying that they are saved, although I also affirmed that one does not need to have an explicit understanding of the Trinity in order to have salvation. So, I’m asked, what about those who are in the body of Christ but do not have a correct understanding of the Trinity?
This is an important question because we live in an age where the church is by and large ignorant of Christian doctrine. Until around a decade ago when I learned about apologetics, I would have been just as ignorant in many ways. I had fortunately read my Bible all my life, but I was unaware of the depth that really lay in my hands as I read it and that there was so much involved in my Christian faith.
So when I speak, I do not mean to be condemning of every Christian out there. Few of them know of this field simply because they have been shown it. Instead, they have received a watered-down faith. It has been reduced to simply how one behaves. Christianity is about being a good person. There’s no doubt that Christians are to be good people, but Christ did not come to make us good people. As Christian apologist Ravi Zacharias has said, “Christ did not come to make bad people good, but to make dead people live.”
My stance is that such people are saved who simply have innocently a false view of the Trinity. I fear that if you asked most in the church today to describe the Trinity, they would give you a modalistic interpretation, such as the illustration of “Well, I am a father, a son and a husband.” The problem is that you have one person who is playing three different roles, which is not what the doctrine of the Trinity teaches. The doctrine teaches that there are three persons who are all fully God and yet there is one God.
A sure way to find out is to give a correct understanding of the Trinity. Now we can expect some questions at first. This shouldn’t bother us. Instead, it should please us. Why? Because they are asking questions! We as Christians do not want believers to just question the worldview of unbelievers, but of other believers as well. One reason the church is the way it is is because the goal of seeking truth has died and the best way to seek truth is to ask questions. All Christians should be in the habit of asking good questions.
Of course, we should be teaching doctrine as well and when the church comes to see the doctrine of the Trinity and take it more seriously, I believe that will be when we will begin to see a revolution within the church. We must become a people of truth once again serving the triune God.
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