Since this thread is in the Anabaptist theology and practice forum, I thought I would offer an early Anabaptist writing on the Trinty. Below is a translation of Hymn 81 from the
which was written by Hans Betz, one of the prisoners in Passau Prison in the 1530s. The translation is by Robert A. Riall, and is found in his
1) Lord God Father, I cry to you, I pray, lend your wisdom to me that I may sing a song about the essence of your unity which manifests itself in the Trinity.
Lord God, let me succeed since surely you alone were and are eternally to all ages.
Without you there has never been anyone who could have accomplished this.
Whatever lives in heaven and on earth you alone have created. Your hand nourishes everything.
2) You must understand the Trinity as John indicates: he names them "Father, Word, and Spirit."
They are witnesses in heaven: the three names serve in one. You, indeed, should accept it.
The Father's omnipotent power appears among the creatures which he has made through the Word.
His Spirit empowers everything.
If he, therefore, should venture to gather the Spirit unto himself, all must pass away again.
3) That omnipotence is the Word; that power, the Holy Spirit, you have heard, is the Father alone, as the Scripture altogether supports.
It calls the Word "life and spirit," which was in the beginning with God, and God himself is the Word and one Spirit. Understand!
He sent his Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, which he called his Son, to Mary, the gentle virgin.
It was conceived in her, became flesh by the Holy Spirit.
4) You should certainly understand me. The Godhead cannot divide itself, as you see in the sun.
Christ's corning into this age happened only according to his humanity which he received.
The entire fullness of the Godhead actually was included in his humanity. In his spirit, Christ was God's Son.
He flowed out from God in the light and clear, bright brilliance which he covered with his pure humanity."
5) This cover, you should understand this way: as a cloud goes over the sun, so that it cannot be seen, thus here in this age was the light covered with humanity.
Truth makes us affirm it Christ is called "a light of the world," Scripture testifies to us, upon whom the Holy Spirit
descended out of heaven.
A voice occurred there:" "This is my beloved Son; hear him now."
6) Now, the Word came to earth and took to himself humanity, it happened because God was unbearable to men of this age because of his glory which no one may look upon, as Moses gives us account when he desired to view God's face.
Then the Lord said to him, "No man will remain alive: No one should see my form"; he showed Moses.
7) Since no one otherwise can see God, he therefore took on humanity; out of grace, then, he shone forth his light to all in this age.
He was visible according to his humanity so that he might teach us. God the Lord is himself truth.
Christ alone teaches us. "The Word, so I say in this time, is not mine but the Father's who is in me.
He relates the words," says the Lord Jesus Christ.
8) Divinity, therefore, has been here in the humanity of Jesus Christ, Paul tells us, so that God through himself might restore the human race as it fell from him.
The devil with his false counsel brought all men through Adam into sin and death.
They could no longer find the way to the tree of life. Christ has prepared it for us: he himself is the way.
9) When the Lord Jesus Christ finished his suffering here in that time, he went back to the Father into eternity.
Understand! Only according to his humanity has he again received glory, as he himself,
Christ the Lord, says—note precisely! "Father, as I had glory, before the foundation of the World was laid, give me the same again for I have fulfilled your will in this age."
10) Thus he went to the Father. There he received his glory from him, which, however, never was taken from him, you should understand, according to his divinity.
He has always had the light of the divine sun. Here the light alone was covered with his pure humanity, in this way the cover became glorious again in the Father's brilliance.
He is one essence there with him. In heaven and on earth the Lord Jesus Christ has authority.
11) Understand! The divine Trinity is subsumed in unity. Truly, in the pure sun— it shows us three effects in one: they are light, ray, and heat.
Understand! The light's brilliance, which indicates the Father, who has surrounded everything, he alone is the single good.
In him all lives. The Father's almighty power I have shown to you. At creation it was performed.
12) The ray's splendor—readily understand!— shows the zeal and righteousness which the Father has decreed
through his Word here in this time, which is his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom he will allow authority to hold judgment with righteousness over all unclean flesh.
The angels, as Peter describes, who will be included there, tremble at this zeal.
How will sinful man stand at the judgment?
13) Thirdly, you should understand me, the heat shows us the Holy Spirit so pure.
A possession, grace and mercy, a fiery tongue, Luke writes to us, is the Holy Spirit, who pours out into every heart.
In this way they receive Christ, and are allowed to taste his ecstasy and goodness, He teaches them also rightly to recognize the Father and the Son in unity make their dwelling among human beings in this time.
14) The divine Trinity, therefore, is included in this Unity.
Through the illustration of the sun, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one light, as the Scripture agrees and as you now have understood.
Note, therefore: the Word Jesus Christ is called Spirit and Life.
The Father is one Spirit and the Word, the Scripture testifies. John describes for us in this way the Unity: Father,
Son, and Spirit.
15) Whoever comes to this realization therefore stands in the power of God and may understand his Faith: in God the Father, omnipotence, who has created him now through Christ – understand!
The Father has begotten him again to be his son since he fell from God through sin and came into his wrath.
The Lord Jesus Christ has again reconciled him to himself and has become his mediator.
16) He, therefore, believes on Jesus Christ, who has become his righteousness, which has clothed him.
In this, the grace of God has effect which Christ has obtained for him with cross, dying, and suffering.
Understand the goodness of the Spirit! He has written the divine Word in his heart.
This separates him from all sin now. He overcomes it through the Holy Spirit
17) He thus believes in the Holy Spirit who shows him mercy, has surrounded him with it, and enrolled him in the Church which is preserved through the Holy Spirit unto life so that he does not come into judgment but is brought from death to life, Christ says.
He will come with him after the resurrection into the Father's glory.
He will glorify him and will be like the angels.
18) He knows, therefore, that in unity the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit dwell with him.
He, therefore, is a child of God, and will be separated from sin.
Paul, therefore, says that he knows no one now according to the flesh. Understand!
Although we for a time knew Jesus Christ according to the flesh, we now know him no longer in the flesh.
Rather, only in the Spirit is he Lord.
19) You have understood, therefore, readily why Unity turns itself in Trinity to us; that God, because of humanity's weakness was incomprehensible in time.
He could not be understood.
God makes, therefore, a beginning, middle, and end for his creatures so that his essence will be understood by his Word alone.
If God had not named a Word for himself, he could not be spoken about. He has neither beginning nor end.
20) I, therefore, want to close. To God the Father in heaven's throne I give praise, honor, and glory through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is one essence in the Father together with the Holy Spirit.
O Father in eternity, to you, to you alone be honor, for you have prepared us for yourself and have led us into your wisdom.
O Father! Still lead us onward so that we may obtain the crown in your kingdom. Amen.
Certainly I don't have everything right and just because someone in the past had some things wrong doesn't automatically make it that they have 