Preview to the Next NAD Best Practices Book Club Title: Ty Gibson’s The Heavenly Trio

Ty Gibson, author of the book The Heavenly Trio, was the featured guest on the April 6, 2021 edition of the Best Practices Book Club. The book club was recorded for your viewing experience. 

     Ty Gibson’s new book, The Heavenly Trio (Pacific Press, 2020) is a breath of fresh air that Adventist pastors should and must read. Already an effective communicator, he walks Adventists on a journey as to why the Trinity doctrine is essential for Adventist theology. Each divine member has their own unique ontology, and as such, co-exist in self-sacrificial love. At the outset of the book, Ty Gibson posits: “Every doctrine we humans formulate is traceable to either a premise of power or love. If ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:8), it logically follows that every true doctrine would expound upon God’s love and every false doctrine would in some manner diminish love in favor of power.” In other words, there really are three living persons as part of this trio; and believing this fact has far-reaching theological implications. Thus “all the power God has is employed toward the exercise of the Love God is.” “God cannot be love without someone to love, in as much as love entails other-centeredness. God cannot be love unless God, as God is composed of both self and other. That is to say, if God is and always has been love, then God necessarily is a social dynamic of some configuration that includes both selfhood and otherness.”

Every other month, pastors are invited join the Best Practices Book club and be encouraged and challenged by reading a variety of books to sharpen the best practices of ministry. The online club typically features an interview with the author and discussion about the key themes and application of the book to ministry.