Knowing and the Trinity

How Perspectives in Human Knowledge Imitate the Trinity

Vern S. Poythress

• Publisher: P Publishing
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781629953199
• eBook ISBN: 9781629953205
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

Everyone views life from a personal perspective. God's Trinitarian perspectives are evident in both general and special revelation—showing that our world originates from a Trinitarian mind that is knowable.

PART 1

WHAT ARE PERSPECTIVES?

WE EXPLAIN PERSPECTIVES and then consider three kinds: spatial perspectives, personal perspectives, and thematic perspectives. A spatial perspective is a view of a visible scene from a particular vantage point in space. A personal perspective is the view that an individual person has concerning the world or some subject. A thematic perspective is a temporary thematic starting point for exploring a subject matter, with the hope of discovering more and growing in truth.

1

The Mystery of Perspectives

WHAT IS A PERSPECTIVE? We will address that question in the next few chapters. In one sense, the idea of using a perspective is fairly simple. You observe a physical object from a new angle. If you do, you may notice something that you did not notice before. The same principle applies to studying a particular subject matter, such as politics or music or the family. You can sometimes learn things by asking new kinds of questions about a subject, or looking at it using a new theme.

The Mystery of God

It would be simple if we could just leave it at that. But mysteries open up if we ask why human beings can use multiple perspectives, and why they are useful. Ultimately, the chain of why questions goes back to God. He created us. He made us with these capabilities. This pathway leads to still wider questions: who is God, and why did he create us the way he did?

According to the Bible, God is Trinitarian. He is one God in three persons. What significance might the Trinity have for understanding perspectives? Over the years, John Frame and I have employed groups of three perspectives. Is the number three significant? Is it related to the Trinity?

A Triad of Perspectives

Let us take an example. John Frame explains God’s lordship by using three perspectives or ways of looking at lordship: authority, control, and presence.¹ Let us consider these three, one at a time. First, God exercises authority over us, and we are responsible to him to live in accordance with his instruction and his righteousness. Second, as Lord over all, God controls the world and all human agents within it. Third, God is present all over the world, and every human being lives in his presence. All three of these truths about God are practical. As human beings, we should respond to God by acknowledging his authority, by experiencing and submitting to his control, and by enjoying his presence.

So we have three terms: authority, control, and presence. Why three rather than two or four? We may note that these three all function together to expound one coherent body of truth about God’s lordship. There is only one Lord; at the same time, there are these three perspectives for appreciating his lordship. It is one in three. Is that just an accident?

John Frame and I have from time to time pointed out relationships between a triad of perspectives and the three persons in God. Frame observes that God the Father claims authority over all. God through his Son controls the world. Through Jesus the Son we experience the power of God, saving us from our sins. And God is present everywhere especially through the Holy Spirit, who comes to dwell in those who believe in Christ the Savior.²

So what is the relationship between the Trinitarian character of God and the triad of perspectives on lordship? Does the triad somehow derive from the Trinity? If so, how? And would the same be true for other triads? How could more than one triad derive in the same way from the same source?³

The Importance of the Trinity

People who have interacted with John Frame and me over the years have sometimes wondered about these questions. I propose, then, to tackle the questions head-on. Let us look at perspectives and explore their relation to the Trinity.⁴ This process is potentially valuable, because we can grow in knowing God. We can grow in knowing the Trinity. God made us with the purpose that we would know him. So knowing him is of vital importance for us as creatures. It is also of vital importance for our salvation. We need God to rescue us from sin and rebellion. One aspect of that rescue process is that we come to know him (John 17:3). We come to know him as the Trinitarian God.

The Challenge of the Trinity

But before we plunge into our task, we need a few explanations. To reflect directly on the nature of perspectives is a deep challenge. Why? We find ourselves asking about God. God is the central mystery of the Christian faith. We adore him without completely understanding him.

To be sure, God does give us understanding. God reveals himself in the world that he has made, according to Romans 1:18–23:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

God’s revelation through the creation is called general revelation. It leaves human beings “without excuse” (Rom. 1:20). But it does not lead human beings to spiritual health, because they “suppress the truth” (v. 18). Sin has corrupted human beings in every aspect of their lives. The corruption extends to the mind as well. Our reason is not normal, but fallen and corrupted by sin. One effect is that we suppress the truth. We need the special revelation of the Bible to enlighten us. We also need Christ’s work of salvation, accomplished in his crucifixion and resurrection from the dead, in order to reconcile us to God. And we need the Holy Spirit to come and apply the work of Christ to our hearts and lives. We need God in the work of all three persons of the Trinity.

We should acknowledge that there are two kinds of people in the world today. There are those who remain in their fallen and sinful condition, with corrupted minds. And then there are those who have been saved by Christ and reconciled to God. They have been renewed in the mind through the work of the Spirit of Christ in them. Yet as long as they are in this life, their renewal is partial: they fall into sins, including sins due to corruption in the mind. This book is imperfect and fallible, partly because of the remaining effects of sin.

When God gives us new spiritual birth through the Holy Spirit, we are changed people. We begin to know God in the way that we should, through Christ, who shows us who God is (John 3:3, 5; 14:9; 17:3). We know God, I say. We know him truly and genuinely and personally. But we do not become God. God is infinite. God’s knowledge is infinite. And his knowledge of himself is infinite. God in his Trinitarian character is infinite. God is unique, so that nothing that God made is completely like him.

God is not mysterious to himself, but he is mysterious to us, because our knowledge is always less than his and always derivative from his. Therefore, the Trinity is mysterious to us. We can talk about and appreciate what God tells us about the Trinity through the Bible, but we never master God or master what he says.

So we cannot do what some people might like to do, that is, to explain the Trinity. No human being can “explain” God so as to sweep away the mystery. For the same reason, we cannot “explain” the relationship of the Trinity to one of the triads of perspectives.

So what might we do? Not much, in comparison with the infinity of God. Nothing at all, unless Christ empowers us: “apart from me [Christ] you can do nothing” (John 15:5). As God helps us, we are going to try to look at perspectives and their relation to the Trinity. But we must remember that all our discussion is taking only a few steps in pointing to God in his unfathomable infinity. We must recognize the limitations in human knowledge—limitations made worse by the corruptions from sin.

Throughout our discussion, I will be incorporating John Frame’s ideas. John Frame and I have influenced each other over the course of years, so that sometimes it is not feasible to sort out every distinct influence.⁵ Both of us are comfortable using some of the same perspectives, and we use them in similar ways.⁶ John Frame’s works further illustrate the topic of perspectives. In this book, I am attempting to venture at times beyond what the two of us have already said, and to make explicit some ways in which perspectives have their foundation in the Trinity.

Starting Points

This book attempts to be self-contained, so that people can read this book without having to read everything that John Frame and I have written over the years. Obviously, people can learn more about perspectives by observing how John Frame and I have used them in practice. That helps to fill in a lot of detailed texture concerning what we mean and how someone else could do the same thing. But here I am going to try to include fresh explanations, to avoid the problem of constantly referring to other sources.

At the same time, it is not feasible in this book to cover again the whole scope of biblical teaching—the whole of systematic theology. If you are not a follower of Christ, you need to start with finding out who God is, and who Christ is, by reading the Bible—particularly the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. There are many additional resources to help you.⁷ If you are a follower of Christ, I assume that you know about the way of salvation through Christ. I will also assume that you know that the Bible is the Word of God and has a central role in instructing us in knowing God. You know also that God is the Trinitarian God, one God in three persons. We will start from there.

Knowing Truth

Given the possibilities for misunderstanding, it is important also to say something about truth. Some strands of postmodernist thought use the word perspective with a skeptical twist. They may say that everyone has his “perspective”; everyone has what he regards as “truth for him.” But, according to these postmodernists, no one really knows. Allegedly, each of us is trapped within the limits of his context.

By contrast, when John Frame and I use the word perspective, it does not have this postmodernist twist. We radically disagree with postmodern skepticism and the way that it ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Foreword by Sinclair B. Ferguson
• Introduction: Reflections of the Trinity
• Part 1: What Are Perspectives?
• Part 2: The Trinity
• Part 3: Perspectives from the Trinity
• Part 4: Classifying Perspectives
• Part 5: Applying Perspectives to Theological Questions
• Part 6: The Nature of Perspectives
• Part 7: Deriving Theology
• Conclusion
• Appendix A: Further Organization of Perspectives
• Appendix B: Covenantal Reflections
• Appendix C: Patterns of Growth
• Appendix D: Views for Theorizing
• Appendix E: Triads of Metaperspectives
• Appendix F: Perspectives for Language Theory
• Appendix G: Three Dimensions of Space
• Appendix H: Three Dimensions of Time
• Appendix I: Order within a Triad
• Appendix J: A Triad for Coinherence
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index of Scripture
• Index of Subjects and Names