One God in Three Persons

A doctrine is a principle, or system of principles presented for acceptance or belief by a religious, political, scientific, or philosophic group. (1)  The Doctrine of the Trinity dates from fourth century AD church councils held in Nicaea and Constantinople.  In layman’s terms, it states that there is one God, and in the unity of that one God there are three distinct, equal, and divine persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  There have been differences of opinion about the explanation of the Trinity, but it is the historic teaching of the Christian Church.

The Trinity can be difficult for the finite human mind to understand.  However, God is not finite - He is infinite, and He is not subject to human limitations.  It is a seeming contradiction that God can be one God and three persons at the same time.  There are books and writings, from the earliest days of Christianity to the present, that have wrestled with how to reconcile this apparent contradiction.  However, what we are ultimately left with is that, where God is concerned two seemingly contradictory realities can both be true.  Acceptance of this truth, then, becomes a matter of faith.

Socrates is reported to have said that, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” (2)  By extrapolation, some people seem to think that faith that is not examined is not worth believing.  My view is that faith that can be examined is not faith.

I once heard the Rev. R. W. Shambaugh tell a story about a country preacher who was asked how he knew for certain that he was saved.  The preacher said, “It’s because I know it in my knower.”  I believe that the Trinity is the truth about God … because I know it in my knower.  The Word tells us, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2Corinthians 5:7 NKJV) * It also says, “Now the just shall live by faith …” (Hebrews 10:38 NKJV) *

However, I would not have faith had not God given it to me.  It is in God’s Word that we find the faith to believe, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17 NKJV) *

To go into detail about the Holy Trinity would require a book; not a post on a layman’s blog.  I am simply trying to tell the truth about God in a short and simple way that is understandable to those who read it.  I will rely on God to explain Himself through His Word.

The word ‘trinity’ does not appear in the Bible.  Further, the Doctrine of the Trinity, as articulated by the early church fathers, is not specifically stated in the Bible.  However, the Bible declares that there is one God:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,

and with all your strength.

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.

You shall teach them diligently to your children,

and shall talk of them when you sit in your house,

when you walk by the way, when you lie down,
and when you rise up. (Deuteronomy 6:4-7 NKJV) *

 

The Bible also specifically mentions the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit together in a way that implies equality:

‘Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit …’  (Matthew 28:19 NKJV) *

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. (2Corinthians 14:14 NKJV) *

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the pilgrims of the Dispersion
in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,
in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied. (1Peter 1:2 NKJV) *

(see also: 1Corinthians 12; 4-6 and Ephesians 4:4-6)

God the Holy Spirit

Jesus said, Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. (Matthew 12:31-32 NKJV) *

When Ananias withheld part of the money from the sale of his property, Peter rebuked him, and he died.  In the reproof, Peter used the words Holy Spirit and God transferably:

But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God." (Acts 5:3-4 NKJV) *

Friend, if you belong to a cult that teaches that the Holy Spirit is not fully God, please get out of it.  The world may call them a “Christian” denomination, but they are not.  They are teaching a lie about who God is.

The Holy Spirit is fully God.  Like Peter, Paul uses the Holy Spirit and God exchangably when teaching the same principle:

Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16 NKJV) *

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
(1 Corinthians 6:19 NKJV) *

In the following, almost in the same breath Paul calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit, the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of Christ.  By doing so, he attests to the deity of the Holy Spirit and that the Spirit is not a created being.  The Third Person of the Trinity proceeds out of God the Father and God the Son:

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. (Romans 8:9-11 NKJV) *

We know that the Holy Spirit is God because there are things about Him that are only true of God.  He  knows all things. (1Corinthians 2:10-11)  He is everywhere at the same time. (Psalm 139:7)  He is eternal. (Hebrews 9:14) The Holy Spirit is a distinct person who interacts with people and with the other members of the Trinity. (1Corinthians 12:11, Ephesians 4:30, Romans 8:26-27, Matthew 4:1)

God the Son

The Bible is crystal clear that Jesus Christ is fully God:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.  (Colossians 1:15-20 NKJV) *

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. (Colossians 2:9-10 NKJV) *

These two scriptures declare Christ’s deity, that He is eternal, that He is the agent of the creation, that He is all powerful, and our Savior.  Although He would have to be God to be and do these things is sufficient, many other verses declare that God the Son is God.

In the Book of Daniel, Chapter 9, there is a timetable that predicts when the Jewish Messiah would be “cut off.”  Many students of prophesy believe that the “weeks” in Chapter 9 are “sabbatical weeks.”  In Judaism the last day of the week is a sabbath, or day of rest.  The Jews were also commanded to treat every seventh year as a sabbath year.  Some Christian scholars regard Daniels “weeks” as seven-year time cycles derived from the sabbath year.  More simply put, each of Daniel’s weeks equals seven years.  If that is so, Daniel predicted the exact time that would pass from the “edict” to rebuild Jerusalem until the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth.  Although it is beyond the scope of this post to explain this prophesy in depth, I believe that Jesus was the Messiah (Christ).

Isaiah ascribes to the Messiah names that are God’s Names, and says that the Messiah’s kingdom will be eternal:

For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever.  (Isaiah 9:6-7 NKJV) *

The Gospel of John begins with verses that establish Jesus as the Living Word who was with God from eternity, and through whom all things were created:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.  (John 1:1-5 NKJV) *

In addition to being named God, being described as eternal, and being the creator, the Bible says that Jesus is in all places at the same time. (Matthew 18:20, 28:20)  He knows all things. (John 2:24-25, John 16:30, John 21:17)  Jesus Christ is all powerful. (Philippians 3:20-21, Hebrews 1:3, Revelation 1:8)  Jesus is coequal with God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-6, John 5:18, John 10:30-33)

Jesus is a distinct person.  He has disciples.  He has a body. (Revelation 1:12-18, 19:12) The Holy Spirit descended on Him at His baptism. (Luke 3:21-22)  He prayed to God the Father, and He sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven where he intercedes for us.(Romans 8:34)

God the Father

I did a rough count in my Strong’s concordance, and in John’s Gospel Jesus spoke of God as His Father at least 74 times.  The context shows that He was referring to God the Father as a separate person at the time He spoke.  John also records at least three prayers that Jesus prayed to the Father as praying to God.

God is called “God the Father” in Jude 1, 2John 3, 1Peter 1:2, 2Peter 1:17, and James 3:9.  The Pauline Epistles use the name God the Father at least six times, including 1Corinthians 15:24, “Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power.” (NKJV) *  In the latter case  the Apostle Paul is clearly referring to Jesus and God the Father as separate divine persons operating together to accomplish the same purpose.  It is clear that the human authors of the New Testament were in accord regarding the divinity and personhood of God the Father.

Jesus provided the principle that each person of the Trinity the was “in” the other and that they are one. (John 10:30, John 14:20) In a prayer for His Disciples, Jesus said:

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them. (John 17:20-26 NKJV) *

Therefore, the principle of the unity of the persons of the Trinity in one Godhead is clear.

To me, there is sufficient proof that the Holy Bible tells us of God in three persons united in one divine being.  They are each fully God, united in one Godhead.  They are never at cross-purposes, but always act in perfect concert.  The first chapter of Genesis shows them operating together in the creation.  The ministry of Jesus Christ begins at His baptism with an anointing by The Holy Spirit and a blessing from God the Father.  The three are at work in Jesus’ atoning death and resurrection, and they will fulfill God’s plan for the ages at the close of history when all believers will enter eternity together with Him forever.

(1) Readers Digest Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary First edition, (Pleasant View, New York: The Readers Digest Association, 1987) p.498

(2) https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/socrates-quotes

* https://www.biblestudytools.com/nkjv/