Please listen to the Holy Spirit’s call:
Before the
mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world,
from everlasting
to everlasting you are God.
(Psalm 90:2 NIV)
Hear, O Israel:
The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
Love your God with
all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deuteronomy
6:4-5 NIV)
In the beginning God
created the heavens and the earth.
Now the earth was
formless and empty,
darkness was over
the surface of the deep,
and the Spirit
of God was hovering over the waters.
And God
said, “Let there be light,” and there was light (emphasis added).
(Genesis 1:1-3
NIV)
In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all
things were made;
without him
nothing was made that has been made.
He was in the
world, and though the world was made through him,
the world did not
recognize him (emphasis added).
(John 1:1-2; and verses
3 and 10 NIV)
That which was
from the beginning, which we have heard,
which we have seen
with our eyes, which we have looked at
and our hands have
touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of Life.
The life appeared;
we have seen it and testify to it,
and we proclaim to
you the eternal life,
which was with the
Father and has appeared to us.
We proclaim to you
what we have seen and heard,
so that you also
may have fellowship with us.
And our fellowship
is with the Father
and with his Son,
Jesus Christ (emphasis added).
(1John 1:1-3 NIV)
He was chosen before the creation of the world,
but was revealed in these last times for your sake.
Through him you believe in God,
who raised him from the dead and glorified him,
and so your faith and hope are in God.
(1Peter 1:20-21 NIV)
He was chosen before the creation of the world,
but was revealed in these last times for your sake.
Through him you believe in God,
who raised him from the dead and glorified him,
and so your faith and hope are in God.
(1Peter 1:20-21 NIV)
But the Counselor,
the Holy
Spirit,
whom the Father
will send in my name,
will teach you all
things and will remind you of everything
I have said to you
(emphasis added).
(John 14:26 NIV)
Jesus said, ”Heaven
and earth will pass away,
but my words will
never pass away.”
(Luke 21:33 NIV)
Jesus Christ is
the same yesterday and today and forever.
(Hebrews 13:8 NIV)
Like Judaism, Christianity is monotheistic. God
is one Lord. We Christians believe the
mystery that, although God is one God, He is also three persons: Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit.
As you can see, God spoke creation into existence through
his Son, the Living Word of Life: Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit was also present.
From its very start, the Bible proclaims the Holy Trinity, and the New
Testament confirms and fulfills the old.
God is infinite, whereas the human mind is finite. Consequently, it is often difficult for the
human mind to comprehend God. We become
mired in logical fallacies:
·
If God is one, then how can He be three?
·
Either He is one, or
He is three. He cannot be both.
If God is truly God, if he is truly almighty and all
powerful, doesn’t it stand to reason that He can transcend physical limitations
and be one God in three persons? Or, are
we to be like “Caliban upon Setebos,” (Robert Browning) trying to understand what
God is like in terms of our own limitations?
To make the things of God understandable to the people,
Jesus often taught in parables. He would
say something like:
·
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden
in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and
sold all that he had and bought the field. (Matthew 13:44 NIV)
·
No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad
tree bear good fruit. Each tree is
recognized by its own fruit. People do
not pick figs from thorn bushes, or grapes from briers. The good man brings good things out of the
good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the
evil stored up in his heart. For out of
the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.
(Luke 6:43-45 NIV)
There are things nature that are bear a similarity to the
Trinity. The Divinity students out there
may point out that these similitudes are not exact representations, and that is
true. They do, however, give the finite
human mind a way to pick up on the concept of the Trinity.
Chemically, water is two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen.
So are ice and water vapor. All three are H2O. They are different, and yet they are all of
the same composition.
We take an egg out of its carton, and we call it one
egg. When we break it apart, we see that
the one egg has a yoke, a white and a shell.
They are all part of the same egg, but they perform different functions.
Atoms are composed of protons, neutrons, and electrons.
Protons have a positive electric charge, neutrons have no electric charge, and
electrons have a negative electric charge.
Each serves a different purpose:
The number of
protons in the nucleus defines to what chemical element
the atom belongs … The number of neutrons defines the isotope of the element.
the atom belongs … The number of neutrons defines the isotope of the element.
The number of
electrons influences the magnetic properties of an atom.
Remove any of the protons, neutrons or electrons, and you
change the chemistry of the atom.
Working together, they determine the nature of the one atom.
Rational and logical arguments may support, or undermine,
belief. However, it requires a leap of
faith to understand that we will not entirely “get it” until we meet Jesus face
to face, and then to believe anyway:
For we know in
part and we prophesy in part,
but when
perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
(1Corinthians
13:8-10 NIV)
Now we see but a
poor reflection as in a mirror;
then we shall see
face to face.
Now I know in
part; then I shall know fully,
even as I am fully
known.
(1 Corinthians 13:12)
Finally, believe now and be saved:
For God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whoever
believes in him shall not perish
but have eternal
life (alternate wording).
(John 3:16 NIV)
