God bless the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Created by and during the Westminster Assembly that also gave us a Larger Catechism and the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Shorter Catechism is a monument to orthodoxy married to concision. I cut my own theological teeth going through G.I. Williamson’s fine study guide on the catechism while in junior high school. I have taught through the catechism multiple times over the years and currently offer a segment on it each week on my daily podcast, Jesus Changes Everything. I believe it, confess it, and learn from it. But, I have a bone to pick with it. We all make mistakes, which doesn’t change when there are a bunch of mistake makers working together, as at the Westminster Assembly.
Question four asks, “What is God?” It answers, “God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being wisdom, power, holiness, goodness, justice and truth.” All true, gloriously true. But first, my problem with the question. Why, I have to wonder, does it not instead ask, “Who is God”? I am willing to grant there may be some obscure grammatical reason for the distinction that I am simply not aware of. I suspect, however, that the answer to why they chose “what” rather than “who” is revealed in the answer that follows.
When we ask what God is, we are already looking at Him not as a person or persons, but as a thing. God is not a person or persons with whom we have a relationship, but is the object of our study. The answer betrays this kind of approach because of what it is missing- not a word is said about God being tri-une. I am happy to grant, of course, that the catechism does get around to the trinity two questions later. (Don’t forget, I love and believe the shorter catechism.) But I don’t believe you can be in the neighborhood of defining God until you get to the reality of the trinity. You won’t, of course, fully comprehend the trinity. But you can’t just set it aside for later. I don’t believe you could cover the trinity and still ask what God is instead of who God is.
I think it strange as well that we cover the trinity the way that we do. Question six asks, “How many persons are in the godhead?” and answers, “There are three persons in the godhead: the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.” Once again, all true, gloriously true. But is the essence of the trinity the essence of the members of the trinity? I’d humbly suggest not. If you want to get at the trinity, do not begin with their sundry attributes. Do not even begin with their callings. Begin with their relationships. The Father loves the Son and the Spirit, the Son loves the Father and the Spirit, and the Spirit loves the Father and the Son. That is proper theology.
God is not a string of attributes. God is trinity.