Early on in my salvation I became interested in Christian apologetics and through my study of other world religions and Christian cults I noticed a trend; they all in some way, shape, or form denied or distorted the doctrine of the Trinity. The Defense of an Essential: A Believer’s Handbook for Defending the Trinity was my response to this phenomenon. I started writing this in 2004 and finished some time in 2006. Looking back I can see that my work was amateurish, not terribly well-written, and if I’m honest I can discern more than a bit of arrogance in my thinking that as a new believer I was up to the task of producing such a project.
My understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity has increased significantly over the past few years and I’m better equipped to tackle the subject now than I was then, yet I realize that even now I still have much to learn. I look back at these chapters and see a youthful zealot who thought more of himself than he should have. I still agree with the general substance of most everything I’ve written but I realize that there are better ways to argue these points, better literature to interact with, and in general a better book somewhere inside of me.
I’ve said all this to say that I don’t pretend that what you’ll read below is the be-all end-all of Trinitarian apologetics. Look at it as a primer that can lead you into deeper and more fruitful study. I think that this material would serve an adult Bible study group well as each chapter is relatively short and (I believe) focused. But I’d recommend supplementing your lessons with readings from much more informed books. The MS Word documents below are individual sections of the book while the PDF contains all of the material in a single searchable file (please forgive the footnote formatting). For some recommended reading on the Trinity see my list here.
The Defense of an Essential: Excerpts
The Trinity Seen Systematically
The Trinity in the Early Church
The Nation of Islam on the Trinity
Oneness Pentecostals on the Trinity
Jehovah’s Witnesses on the Trinity
Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth 