Kootenai Church Morning Worship

Can you define and defend the doctrine of the Trinity without slipping into heresy? Pastor Jim Osman puts that challenge to the congregation in this exposition of John 1:1 and selected Scriptures.

Osman lays out a working definition of the Trinity, that within the one being of God there exist eternally three co-equal and co-eternal persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, then breaks that definition into three pillars. There is only one God. There are three divine persons. Those persons are co-equal and co-eternal. Deny any one of the three, Osman shows, and you land in a specific heresy, polytheism, modalism, or subordinationism.

Working carefully through John 1:1 and 2, Osman traces the Greek behind John's language to show that the Word both existed eternally with God and was Himself fully God, distinct in person yet one in essence. He warns against every popular analogy for the Trinity, the egg, the water, the three roles of a single man, showing why each one actually illustrates a heresy rather than the truth.

This sermon gives listeners the vocabulary and the biblical grounding to speak accurately about who God is, and sets up next week's look at what the Trinity means for worship, prayer, and assurance.