It should come as no surprise that the foundation of my belief in God would also be the foundation of my beliefs about God. But, the line of evidence is not one-way. Secular history confirms some biblical events. Personal experience validates biblical teaching. In turn, the Bible points to the answers to the Big Questions. The biblical and non-biblical phenomena interact to form a framework for understanding the universe, Webster's "systematic whole". This growing web of comprehension forms a basis for making reasonable assumptions and reaching conclusions concerning issues that are not specifically addressed in the Bible.
The Trinity is one of those issues. The Bible does not contain the word "trinity" or any other word expressing the same concept. Yet, we are given a clear picture of God as "three in one". The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are obviously present in both the Old and New Testaments, yet both Testaments emphatically deny the existence of more than one God.
Some have attempted to resolve this seeming contradiction by subscribing to the doctrine of modalism. Modalists believe that the three parts of the Trinity are not separate persons, but simply different aspects of the one true God, manifested at different times for different purposes.
On the surface, the conflict appears unresolvable due to the lack of Biblical specificity on the matter. However, there is one key piece of evidence that convinces me that traditional Trinitarianism is the correct view. At least, I am convinced that it's truer than modalism. That piece of evidence is the person of Jesus. The modalist insists that God is a single, indivisible entity. Yet it seems absurd to think that Jesus:
Having convinced myself of the separate personalities of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I must also admit they are not identical. How, then, to describe the Father?
A general reading in the psychology of religion indicates that most people think of God the Father being much like their own human father. If your father abandoned you, it is likely that you see the Father as distant and uninvolved. If your father was harsh and judgmental, you will tend to see the Father as critical and unyielding. If your father was kind and loving, your image of the Father will also be caring and attentive. But, if our emotions and family histories color our perceptions, how can we know the true Father?
Again, the answer can be found in the Bible. There is a clear picture of the perfect Father, the father we have always wanted, full of authority, power, and integrity. He always understands; He's always available. He has high standards of behavior, yet is forgiving and compassionate when we fail. He disciplines in love, not anger. His patience, while great, is not infinite. There is anger, but not the sort to give rise to acts of spite or malice, the sort that could cause Him to lose control and simply retaliate. The Father's anger is the righteous, appropriate reaction to offenses against His holiness. The result is judgement, sometimes in this life, sometimes waiting for the next. Even in His anger, He always offers those who offend him a warning and a chance to repent. The great tragedies of the Bible occur when that chance is rejected.
Is this the view of most Christian denominations today? There are many that emphasize Jesus to such an extreme that the Father and Holy Spirit are practically invisible. They spend so much time talking about how loving Jesus is and how nice it is to be forgiven, they forget to teach that there is something to be forgiven for. Other denominations place the Father so far above the other Two that they rob their followers of freedom and the power to live joyful, victorious lives. And then there are other groups that are built completely around Spirit-ual manifestations. We must never forget that the Three are One. They deserve equal honor, worship, praise, and attention. Anything less is unjust, and spiritually unhealthy.