This multipart article by John Ankerberg & John Weldon explains in detail
why the Biblical doctrine of the Holy Trinity is indeed a vital belief for
Christians to understand.
May God bless,
Carl
my website -- http://www.nettally.com/saints/
my blog -- http://www.anniemayhem.com/cgi-bin/wordpress/
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What Does The Bible Reveal About The Trinity?
by Dr. John Ankerberg & Dr. John Weldon
PART 1
When we speak of the Trinity, we must do so with caution and modesty, for,
as St. Augustine saith, "Nowhere else are more dangerous errors made, or is
research more difficult, or discovery more fruitful." -St. Thomas Aquinas,
Summa Theologies, ia q. xxi, 1272
All we ask you to understand is that Trinitarian theology was not derived
from pagan sources. It was derived from biblical passages where honest,
godly men said, "Hey, 2 Peter says there is a Person called the Father, and
he's God. And Acts 5 says there is a Person called the Spirit, and he's God.
And John 1 says there's a Person called the Word and he's God." You've got
Three Persons, and Deuteronomy 6 says, "There is only one God." Logical
conclusion: the Three Persons, somehow, are the One God. That's how
Trinitarian theology started. Not with the pagans. -Dr. Walter Martin,
responding to Dr. Robert Sabin, President of the Apostolic Bible Institute
of St. Paul, Minnesota, on "The John Ankerberg Show"
The biblical doctrine of the Trinity is vital to understand because it
concerns who God is, that is, a proper realization of the nature of God as
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To understand the Trinity is to understand God
as He has revealed Himself to be.
Why is this important? Because if we are to worship God "in spirit and in
truth" (John 4:24), as Jesus commanded, we must know and worship the one
true God as He really is. To fail to do this is to fail to know and worship
God-and this cannot bring Him glory. Thus, those who reject the Trinity by
definition deny the true nature of God.
Consider several examples of professedly Christian religions that forcefully
reject what the Bible teaches. By denying the biblical teaching on the
Trinity, Jehovah's Witnesses make Jesus merely a creation of Jehovah and the
Holy Spirit merely Jehovah's impersonal force. Thus, Jesus "was actually a
creature of God" who earned his own salvation and immortality 1 and the Holy
Spirit "is not a person at all but is God's invisible active force by means
of which God carries out his holy will and work."2
In rejecting the Trinity, Jehovah's Witnesses founder C. T. Russell
blasphemously stated that the God of Christianity "is plainly not Jehovah
but the ancient deity, hoary with the iniquity of the ages-Baal, the Devil
Himself."3 Second Watchtower president Judge Rutherford declared in a
similar fashion, "The doctrine of the Trinity is a false doctrine and is
promulgated by Satan for the purpose of defaming Jehovah's name" and for
keeping others from "learning the truth of Jehovah and his Son, Jesus
Christ." Indeed, "God-fearing persons find it a bit difficult to love and
worship a complicated, freakish-looking three-headed God."4 Surely teachings
that caricature God in this manner do not bring to Him honor and glory.
In a similar fashion, Mormons maintain that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
are not immortal, but were individual spirit-men created by the sexual union
of their parent deities, each of whom then later evolved into Godhood.5
Mormonism thus rejects the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit by
teaching tritheism, or a belief in three separate Gods.
Indeed, Mormons are ultimately polytheists who reject the concept of one
true God. As a standard text of Mormon doctrine declares:
As pertaining to this universe, there are three Gods: the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost. To us, speaking in the proper finite sense, these three are the
only Gods we worship. But in addition there is an infinite number of holy
personages, drawn from worlds without number, who have passed on to
exaltation [that is, Godhood] and are thus gods.6
Mary Baker Eddy was the founder of Christian Science, another group that
claims to be truly Christian. Yet in her Science and Health with Key to the
Scriptures, the bible of Christian Science, she writes:
The theory of three persons in one God (that is, a personal Trinity or
Tri-unity) suggests polytheism, rather than the one ever-present I Am. The
name Elohim is in the plural, but this plurality of Spirit does not imply
more than one God, nor does it imply three persons in one.7
Victor Paul Wierwille, founder of The Way International, reveals additional
common consequences of rejection of the Trinity: a denial not only of the
person of Jesus Christ but also of His atoning Work on the cross. Wierwille
argues as follows:
Through the years, the more and more I carefully researched God's Word for
knowledge, the less and less I found to substantiate a trinity. Even though
I had always accepted the idea of a three-in-one-God, I continually found
evidence in the Word of God which undermined a Christian trinity. [Further]
If Jesus Christ is God we have not yet been redeemed. Our very redemption is
dependent on Jesus Christ's being a man and not God. So how then did a
trinitarian doctrine come about? It gradually evolved and gained momentum in
late 1st, 2nd, and 3rd centuries as pagans, who had converted to
Christianity, brought to Christianity some of their pagan beliefs and
practices. Trinitarianism then was confirmed at Nicaea in 325 by Church
bishops out of political expediency.8
In essence, the reason the Trinity is important to understand according to
its biblical and theological formulation is that failure to do so can lead
to heretical views about who God is. This in turn can lead to rejection of
the one true God and worship of a false god. But if the Bible is clear on
anything, it is clear that faith in and worship of a false god is powerless
to save people from their sins. Jesus Himself emphasized the importance of
having an accurate knowledge of God when He said, "And this is eternal life,
that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast
sent" (John 17:3).
God warned Israel through the prophet Hosea, "My people are destroyed from
lack of knowledge" and "You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Savior
except me" (Hosea 4:6; 13:4). As their history so amply demonstrates, the
Israelites were spiritually ruined because they had rejected the true
knowledge of God and had turned to false gods and idols. Unfortunately, in a
similar manner, those who deliberately reject the Trinity, knowing in
advance what the Bible teaches about it, only reveal their own lack of
salvation (1 Cor. 2:14). In other words, no one can consistently dishonor
what the Holy Spirit has revealed in Scripture as to the true nature of God
and logically claim to be a Christian.
Notes
1 Q.v., "Jesus Christ," Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Aid to Bible
Understanding (Brooklyn, NY: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1971), pp.
437, 918; Anthony A. Hoekema, The Four Major Cults (Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans, 1970), p. 295 citing Let God Be True (1952), p. 74.
2 Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Things in Which It Is Impossible for
God to Lie (Brooklyn, NY: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1965), p. 269.
3 C. T. Russell, Studies in the Scriptures- Vol. 7: The Finished Mystery, p.
410 cited by Wilton M. Nelson and Richard K. Smith, "Jehovah's Witnesses" in
David J. Hesselgrave, ed., Dynamic Religious Movements: Case Studies of
Rapidly Growing Religious Movements Around the World (Grand Rapids: Baker,
1978), p. 181.
4 Cited by Charles S. Braden, These Also Believe: A Study of Modern American
Cults and Minority Religious Movements (New York: Macmillan, 1970), p. 371
quoting Judge Rutherford's Uncovered (Brooklyn, NY: Watchtower Bible and
Tract Society, 1937), pp. 48-49; Let God Be True (1946), pp. 82-83, 93.
5 See John Ankerberg, John Weldon, Behind the Mask of Mormonism (Eugene, OR:
Harvest House, 1996), chap. 10.
6 Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1977), pp.
270, 576-577.
7 Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (Boston,
MA: The First Church of Christ, Scientist 1971), pp. 256, 515.
8 Victor Paul Wierwille, Jesus Christ Is Not God (New Knoxville, OH:
American Christian Press, 1975), pp. 2-3, 6-7, 25.
PART 2
What is the Trinity?
God has revealed that He is three persons or centers of consciousness within
one Godhead. Because the concept cannot be fully comprehended does not mean
the doctrine cannot be accurately described or defined; however, precision
here requires some technicality. One good definition of the Trinity is
provided by noted church historian Philip Schaff:
God is one in three persons or hypostases [that is, distinct persons of the
same nature], each person expressing the whole fullness of the Godhead, with
all his attributes. The term persona is taken neither in the old sense of a
mere personation or form of manifestation (prosopon, face, mask), nor in the
modern sense of an independent, separate being or individual, but in a sense
which lies between these two conceptions, and thus avoids Sabellianism on
the one hand, and Tritheism on the other. [Sabellianism taught that God was
one person only who existed in three different forms or manifestations;
tritheism refers to a belief in three separate gods.] The divine persons are
in one another, and form a perpetual intercommunication and motion within
the divine essence. Each person has all the divine attributes which are
inherent in the divine essence, but each has also a characteristic
individuality or property, which is peculiar to the person, and cannot be
communicated; the Father is unbegotten, the Son begotten, the Holy Ghost is
proceeding. In this Trinity there is no priority or posteriority of time, no
superiority or inferiority of rank, but the three persons are coeternal and
coequal.1
It is important to note here that the Bible teaches both monotheism and
trinitarianism. It teaches a monotheistic view-that there is only one true
God-and a trinitarian view-that this one true God exists eternally as three
persons. This triunity of God was defended from earliest times as Christian
theologians and apologists were careful both to safeguard the unity of God
against tritheism and also to maintain the respective deity of the three
persons. As Gregory of Nyssa stated in his letter to Ablabius, "To say that
there are three gods is wicked. Not to bear witness to the deity of the Son
and the Spirit is ungodly and absurd. Therefore one God must be confessed by
us according to the witness of Scripture, 'Hear Israel, the Lord your God is
one Lord' (Deuteronomy 6:4), even if the word 'deity' extends through the
holy trinity."2
In his Christian Theology, Millard J. Erickson offers six points that must
be included in a proper understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity:
1. There is only one God.
2. Each person in the Godhead is equally deity.
3. The threeness and oneness of God constitute a paradox or an
antinomy-merely an apparent contradiction, not a genuine one. This is
because God's threeness and oneness do not exist in the same respect-that
is, they are not simultaneously affirming and denying the same thing at the
same time and in the same manner. God's oneness refers to the divine
essence; His threeness to the plurality of persons.
4. The Trinity is eternal-there have always been three persons, each of whom
is eternally divine. One or more of the persons did not come into being at a
point in time or at some point in time become divine. There has never been
any change in the essential divine nature of the triune God. He is and will
be what He has always been forever.
5. The function of one member in the Trinity may for a time be subordinate
to one or both of the other members, although this does not mean He is in
anyway inferior in essence. Each person of the Trinity has had, for a period
of time, a particular function unique to Himself. In other words, the
particular function that is sometimes unique to a given person in the
Trinity is only a temporary role exercised for a given purpose. It does not
represent a change in His status or essence. When the second person of the
Trinity incarnated and became Jesus Christ, He did not become less than the
Father, although He did become subordinate to the Father functionally. In
like manner, the Holy Spirit is now subordinated to the ministry of the Son
(John 14-16), as well as to the will of the Father, but He is not less than
they are. Certain examples may illustrate this. A wife may have a
subordinate role to a husband, but she is also his equal. Equals in some
business enterprise may elect one of their number to serve as head or a
chairperson for a period, without any change in rank. During World War II,
the highest ranking member of an aircraft, the pilot, would nevertheless
carefully subordinate his decisions to the bombardier, a lower ranking
officer.
6. Finally, the Trinity is incomprehensible. Even when we are in heaven and
fully redeemed, we will still not totally comprehend God because it is
impossible that a finite creature could ever fully comprehend an infinite
being. Thus, "Those aspects of God which we never fully comprehend should be
regarded as mysteries that go beyond our reason rather than as paradoxes
which conflict with reason."3
This last point takes us to our next question.
Why is the Trinity a mystery?
Before we discuss what the Bible teaches about the Trinity, we must remember
that this doctrine is something finite minds can never fully comprehend. The
Trinity may be logically defined, but this is partly the problem because
"the infinite truth of the Godhead lies far beyond the boundaries of logic,
which deals only with finite truths and categories."4 In other words, as an
infinite being, God can never be fully understood by any finite person. If
we can't understand something as basic as particle physics, who would argue
we should be able to rationally comprehend all that an infinite God is? As
Dorothy L. Sayers once stated in Current Religious Thought (1957), "Why do
you complain that the proposition God is three in one is obscure and
mystical and yet acquiesce meekly in the physicist's fundamental formula,
'two P minus PQ equals IH over two Pi where I equals the square root of
minus one' when you know quite well that the square root of minus one is
paradoxical and Pi is incalculable?"
Consider that an ant could never comprehend all that a human being is, even
if it tried. Yet, if a human being could somehow become an ant, it might be
able to explain enough about what a human is so that the ant could gain
something of an understanding as to what a human is.
When we consider that God is, quite literally, infinitely removed from men,
the parallel suffers immeasurably. All we can truly understand about God is
what He has revealed to us in the Bible. And while this does give us a great
deal of accurate information, it obviously does not give us exhaustive
information that plumbs the depths of His infinity. Indeed, one of the
glories of eternal salvation (John 5:24; 6:47) will be that finite creatures
will forever learn wondrous things about the inexhaustible glories and
perfections of an infinite God. This heavenly knowledge will make the things
learned on earth pale in contrast.
The problems inherent in fully comprehending the doctrine of the Trinity are
also inherent in the person of Jesus Christ. The doctrine known as the
hypostatic union assimilates all the biblical data in order to accurately
describe the nature of the Incarnation. It declares that Jesus is
undiminished deity and full humanity in one person. Jesus Christ is both God
and man. Jesus is not part human and part divine-He is fully man and fully
God.
Because of this He has two natures, one divine and one human. But He is not
two persons-He is not schizophrenic. Further, He is one person with two
different kinds of consciousness (divine and human). Also, He is one person
with two wills (if He truly has two natures, then He must have two wills,
one human and one divine); however, Jesus Christ never had a conflict of
wills.
Christ's two natures were not altered by their union within the one person
of Christ. Both divine and human characteristics and deeds may be attributed
to the person of Christ under any of His names, whether divine or human.
Also, both the human and divine natures of Christ may be manifested during a
single event. Finally, the union of Christ's two natures was not altered by
His death, burial, resurrection, or ascension but will remain throughout
eternity.5
The above material illustrates the importance of precision for accurately
formulating the biblical data-and also how easily misconceptions might arise
concerning the nature of God. This is why God encourages and commands us to
"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not
need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15).
Christians should therefore study the doctrine of the Trinity to know how to
effectively deal with the biblical data and answer the arguments of those in
opposition: "And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be
kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must
gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading
them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses
and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his
will" (2 Timothy 2:24-26).
Thomas à Kempis stated Christian priorities eloquently when he wrote:
Grant to us, O Lord, to know that which is worth knowing, to love that which
is worth loving, to praise that which pleaseth Thee most, to esteem that
which is most precious unto Thee, and to dislike whatsoever is evil in Thy
eyes. Grant us with true judgment to distinguish things that differ, and
above all to search out and to do what is well pleasing unto Thee, through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Christians can please God by accepting what God has revealed and what the
Church has formulated historically that is in accordance with biblical
teaching.
Must we believe in the Trinity in order to be saved?
Prior knowledge of the Trinity, especially in its theological formulation,
is not necessary for a person to be saved. But once saved, it is vital for
Christians to know the true nature of the God who has so graciously pardoned
them. This explains why the Church has always recognized the importance of a
proper understanding of God and maintained that those who reject the
scriptural view of God, as long as they do so, cannot be saved.
The great Athanasian Creed of the Church declares,
So the Father is God: the Son is God: and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet
they are not three Gods: but one God. So likewise the Father is Lord: the
Son is Lord: and the Holy Ghost is Lord. And yet not three Lords: but one
Lord. For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity: to acknowledge
every Person by himself to be God and Lord: So are we forbidden by the
Catholic Religion: to say. There be three Gods or three Lords. The Father is
made of none: neither created, nor begotten, the Son is of the Father alone:
not made, nor created: but begotten. Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the
Son: neither made, nor created, nor begotten: but proceeding... the whole
three Persons are coeternal, and coequal. So that in all things, as
aforesaid: the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity, is to be
worshipped. He therefore that will be saved, must thus think of the
Trinity.6
Noted Church historian Philip Schaff comments as follows concerning the
creed's placing of a divine curse or anathema on those who reject the
Trinity. He points out the Athanasian Creed
...begins and ends with the solemn declaration that the catholic [i.e.,
universal] faith in the Trinity and the Incarnation is the indispensable
condition of salvation, and that those who reject it will be lost forever.
This anathema, in its natural historical sense, is not merely a solemn
warning against the great danger of heresy, nor, on the other hand, does it
demand, as a condition of salvation, a full knowledge, and assent to, the
logical statement of the doctrines set forth (this would condemn the great
mass even of Christian believers). But it does mean to exclude from heaven
all who reject the divine truth therein taught. It requires everyone who
would be saved to believe in the only true and living God: Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost, one in essence, three in persons, and in one Jesus Christ, very
God and very man in one person.7
As Vladimir Lossky once put boldly in The Mystical Theology of the Eastern
Church, "Between the Trinity and Hell there lies no other choice."8
In fact, it is noteworthy that an examination of religions that claim to be
Christian yet deny the Trinity invariably reveals that they also deny other
key Christian doctrines, such as salvation by grace through faith alone. In
other words, without a proper respect for Scripture and its understanding of
God, it is unlikely one will get much else correct biblically. Throughout
its history, the Christian church has maintained that in order to be
faithful to the teaching of the New Testament, one must affirm at a minimum
the following doctrines: 1) the doctrine of the trinity; 2) the doctrine of
salvation by grace through faith; 3) the doctrine of the incarnation and
sinlessness of Christ; and 4) the sacrificial death, atonement, and
resurrection of Christ. It is almost exclusively true that those who deny
point one, the Trinity, also deny point two and often points three or four
as well.
As Dr. Harold O.J. Brown points out in his excellent historical survey
Heresies, modalism, for example, makes the event of redemption almost a
charade. Why? Because if the Son of God is not a distinct person, as
modalism teaches, He can hardly represent us before God the Father. And if
Jesus Christ is not a real, separate person from God the Father-One who can
stand before Him, address Him and intercede for us-then what happens to the
concept of substitutionary atonement? If Christ does not exist as a separate
person, how did He pay for our sins on the cross to satisfy the justice of
God the Father? Thus, Dr. Brown correctly states, "Where modalism prevails,
the concept of... vicarious atonement, will necessarily be absent, and so
modalism is sometimes adopted by those who object to the doctrine of
vicarious atonement."9
In other words, if there is no Trinity then there is no incarnation and no
objective redemption or salvation. There is no one who is acting as a
mediator between God and man. When the Trinity has been denied, the other
chief articles logically related to it such as atonement, regeneration, and
so on are almost always altered or abandoned. This is why theologian Loraine
Boettner concludes,
In the nature of the case, anti-trinitarianism inevitably leads to a
radically different system of religion. Historically the Church has always
refused to recognize as Christians those who rejected the doctrine of
Trinity. Also, historically, every great revival of Christianity down
through the ages has been a revival of adhesion to fullest Trinitarianism.
It is not too much to say, therefore, that the Trinity is the point on which
all Christian ideas and interests focus, at once the beginning and the end
of all true insight into Christianity.10
Notes
1 Philip Schaff, ed., rev. by David S. Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom:
With a History and Critical Notes-Vol. 1: The History of the Creeds (Grand
Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983). The Greek term was transliterated by the
authors.
2 "Gregory of Nyssato Ablabius," in William G. Rusch, trans. and ed., The
Trinitarian Controversy (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980), pp. 149,
151-152.
3 Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1986,
one vol. edition), pp. 337-338.
4 Schaff, ed., p. 38.
5 For a good discussion see Robert Glenn Gromacki, The Virgin Birth:
Doctrine of Deity (New York: Thomas Nelson, 1974), chaps 9, 11-13.
6 Cited in E. Calvin Beisner, God in Three Persons (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale,
1984), pp. 12-13.
7 Schaff, ed., pp. 39-40.
8 Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church (1957), p.
66.
9 Dr. Harold O. J. Brown, Heresies (Doubleday, 1984), pp. 99-100.
10 Loriane Boettner, Studies in Theology (Nutley, NJ: Presbyterian and
Reformed, 1980), p. 139.
PART 3
Is the Trinity taught in the Bible?
How do we know that the doctrine of the Trinity is biblical? That the
Trinity is a biblical doctrine can be seen from five simple statements
supported by the Bible. And, since the Jehovah's Witnesses are one group so
adamantly opposed to the doctrine as being something "pagan,"
"unreasonable," and "of the devil," we thought it might be instructive to
begin by citing their own Bible, the New World Translation (1970 edition),
in support of the doctrine. Thus, even the New World Translation teaches the
doctrine of the Trinity. In the scriptures below, the term "Holy Spirit" is
not capitalized because Jehovah's Witnesses believe that "holy spirit" is
merely God's active, impersonal force, not a true person. (For those who
have never done so, looking up these scriptures during your time of personal
Bible study will be a rewarding learning process.)
1. There is only one true God: "For there is one God, and one mediator
between God and men" (1 Tim. 2:5 NWT; cf. Deut. 4:35, 6:4; Isa. 43:10).
2. The Father is God: "There is actually to us one God the Father" (1 Cor.
8:6 NWT; cf. John 17:1-3; 2 Cor. 1:3; Phil. 2:11; Col. 1:3; 1 Pet. 1:2).
3. Jesus Christ, the Son, is God: "but he [Jesus] was also calling God his
own Father, making himself equal to God": (John 5:18 NWT); "In answer,
Thomas said to him [Jesus]: 'My Lord and my God!'" (John 20:28 NWT, cf. Isa.
9:6; John 1:1; Rom. 9:5; Titus 2:13; 2 Pet. 1:1).
4. The Holy Spirit is a person, is eternal, and is therefore God: "However,
when that one arrives, the spirit of the truth, he will guide you into all
the truth, for he will not speak of his own impulse, but what things he
hears he will speak and he will declare to you the things coming" (John
16:13 NWT, emphasis added). The Holy Spirit is also eternal: "How much more
will the blood of the Christ, who through an everlasting spirit offered
himself without blemish to God" (Heb. 9:14 NWT). The Holy Spirit is
therefore God: "But Peter said: 'Ananias, why has Satan emboldened you to
play false to the holy spirit?' You have played false, not to men, but to
God" (Acts 5:3, 4 NWT, emphasis added).
5. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons with equal
authority: "Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the
Holy Spirit"; "Now I exhort you, brothers, through our Lord Jesus Christ and
through the love of the spirit, that you exert yourselves with me in prayers
to God for me"; "The undeserved kindness of the Lord Jesus Christ and the
love of God and the sharing in the holy spirit be with all of you" (Matt.
28:19; Rom. 15:30; 2 Cor. 13:14 NWT).
In Scripture, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are clearly
distinguished as separate persons, yet there is only one God. Thus, "There
is... one Spirit... one Lord [Jesus]... one God and Father of all" (Eph.
4:4-6; cf., 1 Cor. 12:4-11). Further, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are
never identified as one person only, as modern modalists such as the United
Pentecostal Church/ "Jesus Only" groups teach. For example, in John 6:38
(KJV) Jesus says, "I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the
will of Him that sent me." Because will is the essence of personality, we
certainly have two personalities here.
In addition, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are so dearly and consistently
linked in Scripture that to assume God is not three Persons makes it
impossible to understand some passages. For example, consider the following
Scriptures: Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matt.
28:19).
For this reason I kneel before the Father... I pray that out of his glorious
riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner
being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith (Eph.
3:14,16,17a).
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Cor. 13:14).
But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray
in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy
of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life (Jude 20, 21).
How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts
that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God (Heb. 9:14).
I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the
Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me (Rom. 15:30).
Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed
us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a
deposit, guaranteeing what is to come (2 Cor. 1:21, 22).
Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ
Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit's fire (1 Thess. 5:18, 19).
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not
because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved
us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he
poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior (Titus 3:3-6).
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different
kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working,
but the same God works all of them in all men (1 Cor. 12:4-6).
For through him [Jesus] we both have access to the Father by one Spirit
(Eph. 2:18; cf., 3:11-16).
In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy
temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a
dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit (Eph. 2:21-22).
But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord,
because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying
work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth (2 Thess. 2:13,14).
(See also Rom. 14:17,18; 15:13-17; 1 Cor. 6:11,17-19; 2 Cor. 3:4-6; Gal.
2:21-3:2; Eph. 5:18-20; Phil. 2:1,6; Col. 1:6-8; 1 Thess. 1:1,5; 4:2,8; 2
Thess. 3:5; 1 John 3:23,24.)
To further illustrate, try answering the following questions without
concluding that the Bible teaches the doctrine of the Trinity:
1. Who raised Jesus from the dead? The Father (Rom. 6:4)? The Son (John
2:19-21; 10:17,18)? The Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:11)? Or God (Acts 3:26; 1 Thess.
1:10; Heb. 13:20; Acts 13:30; 17:31)?
2. Who does the Bible say is God? The Father (Eph. 4:6)? The Son (Titus
2:13; John 1:1,14; 20:28)? The Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3,4)? Or God (Deut. 4:35;
Isa. 45:18)?
3. Who created the world? The Father (Eph. 3:9-14; 4:6)? The Son (Col.
1:16,17; John 1:1-3)? The Holy Spirit (Gen. 1:2; Psa. 104:30)? Or God (Gen.
1:1; Heb. 11:3)?
4. Who saves and regenerates man? The Father (1 Pet. 1:3)? The Son (John
5:21,4:14)? The Holy Spirit (John 3:6, Titus 3:5)? Or God (1 John 3:9)?
5. Who justifies man? The Father (Jer. 23:6, cf. 2 Cor. 5:19)? The Son (Rom.
5:9; 10:4; 2 Cor. 5:19, 21)? The Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:11; Gal. 5:5)? Or God
(Rom. 4:6; 9:33)?
6. Who sanctifies man? The Father (Jude 1)? The Son (Titus 2:14)? The Holy
Spirit (1 Pet. 1:2)? Or God (Ex. 31:13)?
7. Who propitiated God's just anger against man for his sins? The Father (1
John 4:14; John 3:16; 17:5; 18:11)? The Son (Matt. 26:28; John 1:29; 1 John
2:2)? The Holy Spirit (Heb. 9:14)? Or God (2 Cor.5:19,21; Acts 20:28; 1 John
4:10)?
So, although one member of the Trinity may have a more prominent part in a
specific action or role such as creating or redeeming, all three persons are
still involved. What this means is that it is proper for purposes of
illustration to substitute (or include) any specific person of the Trinity
in any event in the Old Testament or New Testament where the term "God" is
used. In fact, Scripture itself does this. In Acts 28:25, 26 the Holy Spirit
is said to speak to Isaiah, but in Isaiah 6:8,9 the speaker of the same
words is said to be God.
PART 4
Does Scripture declare the deity of Jesus Christ?
Many cults and liberal theologians reject the deity of Christ and the
Trinity as scriptural teachings only due to their own biases. But it is
significant that even some Unitarians who reject the Trinity nevertheless
confess that it is a biblical teaching based on "its obvious sense, its
natural meaning" as found in Scripture. These words of George E. Ellis, a
nineteenth century Unitarian leader, illustrate the biases of
anti-trinitarian groups and liberals who refuse to accept the Trinity on
personal-not biblical-grounds. Ellis confesses, "Only that kind of
ingenious, special, discriminative, and in candor I must add, forced
treatment, which it receives from us liberals can make the book teach
anything but Orthodoxy."1
No less an authority than the great Princeton theologian B. B. Warfield
pointed out that the doctrine of the Trinity "is rather everywhere
presupposed" in Scripture.2
As E. Calvin Beisner, author of God in Three Persons, states,
The testimony of the New Testament to the deity of Christ is unanimous....
Were there no passages at all which directly call Christ God, we would still
have a great weight of evidence that is the New Testament conception of him,
for in all senses he is depicted as precisely parallel to God the Father. C.
F. D. Moule wrote: "Far more impressive than any single passage are two
implicit Christological 'pointers.'" At first is the fact that, in the
greetings of the Pauline epistles. God and Christ are brought into a single
formula. It requires an effort of imagination to grasp the enormity that
this must have seemed to a non-Christian Jew. It must have administered a
shock comparable (if the analogy may be allowed without irreverence) to our
finding a religious Cuban today indicting a message from God-and-"Che"
Guevara....
The other Christological pointer, evidenced early, because in the undeniably
genuine Pauline epistles is the fact that Paul seems to experience Christ as
any theist reckons to understand God-that is, as personal, but as more than
individual: as more than a person. This is evidenced by certain uses (though
admittedly not all) of the well known incorporative formulae, "in
Christ,...3
Please consider the following scriptures. These clearly teach that Jesus
Christ is God. Indeed, only overwhelming evidence in favor of Christ's deity
would have convinced skeptical, staunchly monotheistic, and initially
frightened Jews to proclaim His deity to a hostile Jerusalem and later the
world.
1. John 1:1, 14- "The Word was God... The Word became flesh and made his
dwelling among us."
2. John 1:18- "The only begotten God."
3. John 20:28- Thomas said to him [Jesus] "My Lord and my God."
4. Titus 2:13- "Our great God and Savior Jesus Christ."
5. Hebrews 1:8- But about the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, will last
for ever and ever."
6. 2 Peter 1:1- "Our God and Savior Jesus Christ."
7. 1 John 5:20- "Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life."
8. Colossians 2:9- "In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily
form."
9. Isaiah 9:6- "For to us a child is born... and he will be called... Mighty
God."
10. Isaiah 7:14/Matthew 1:23- "Immanuel"-which means, "God with us."
11. Hebrews 1:3- "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact
representation of His being...."
12. Colossians 1:15, 16- "He is the image of the invisible God... by him all
things were created."
13. Acts 20:28- The church was purchased with the blood of God.
14. 2 Corinthians 4:4- "Christ, who is the image of God."
15. Romans 9:5- "Christ, who is God over all, forever praised."
16. 1 Corinthians 1:24- "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."
17. 2 Thessalonians 1:12- "Our God and Lord Jesus Christ."
18. Philippians 2:6- "being in very nature God." (The Greek could be
literally translated "continuing to subsist in the form of God.")4
In light of these scriptures and more, can any thinking person logically
deny that the Bible teaches Jesus Christ is God?
Notes
1 In E. Calvin Beisner, God in Three Persons (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1984),
p. 25.
2 Ibid., p. 26.
3 Ibid., pp. 33-34.
4 Ibid., p. 30.
PART 5
Do early Church doctrine and the Bible together declare the deity and
personality of the Holy Spirit?
Religious groups who deny the Trinity characteristically deny not only the
person and work of Jesus Christ, but also the personality and deity of the
Holy Spirit. For example, Jehovah's Witnesses teach that "the holy spirit is
the active force of God. It is not a person but is a powerful force that God
causes to emanate from himself to accomplish his holy will."1 Victor Paul
Wierwille, founder of The Way International, declared, "One of the most
misunderstood fields among Christians today is that of the Holy Spirit."2
Wierwille believed that the Holy Spirit is merely a synonym for the one
person of the Godhead, that is, the Father who alone is God. Thus, whenever
Wierwille uses the term "Holy Spirit," in his writings (with capital
letters), he is merely using a synonym for God. But whenever Wierwille uses
"holy spirit" (with small letters), he means the spiritual gifts given by
God the Father. In Wierwille's theology, therefore, the biblical Holy Spirit
does not even exist.3 Wierwille, Jehovah's Witnesses, and many others also
claim that the early Church never believed the Holy Spirit was God.
Although the doctrine of the Holy Spirit was theologically less refined in
the early Church than the doctrine of Jesus Christ, there was still
recognition that the Holy Spirit was both personal and God. Athenagoras
(170-80) wrote that of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Christians declared
"both their power in union and their distinction in order."4 According to
noted theologian Harold O. J. Brown, "Tertullian [160-230] was the first to
speak plainly of the Holy Spirit as God and to say that he is of one
substance with the Father."5 Tertullian stated, "Thus the connection of the
Father in the Son, and of the Son in the Paraclete [Holy Spirit], produces
three coherent Persons, who are yet distinct One from Another. These three
are one essence."6 Cyril of Jerusalem wrote that the "Holy Spirit is honored
together with the Father and the Son and is fully included in the holy
Trinity. We are not preaching three Gods, so let the Marcionites hold their
peace. We do not divide up the holy Trinity, as some do, nor, like
Sabellius, do we coalesce it into one. Great indeed is the Holy Spirit, and
in his gifts, omnipotent and wonderful."7 Athanasius wrote that "The Holy
Spirit cannot be a creature, and it is impious to call him so."8 In speaking
of the Holy Spirit as a gift to the church, Augustine wrote, "And therefore
the Holy Spirit, God though He is, is most rightly called also the gift of
God.."9 Basil of Caesarea wrote, "The Lord has delivered to us as a
necessary and saving doctrine that the Holy Spirit is to be ranked with the
Father."10 Origen wrote, "For if [He were not eternally as He is...] the
Holy Spirit would never be reckoned in the Unity of the Trinity, i.e., along
with the unchangeable Father and His Son, unless He had always been the Holy
Spirit."11
We re-emphasize that the early Christians concluded the Holy Spirit was God
because this was the scriptural testimony and the only thing they could do.
If we examine what the Scripture teaches about the Holy Spirit, we find that
the traditional Trinitarian view is clearly upheld. (Again, for those who
have never done so, looking up these scriptures during their personal Bible
study will be a rewarding learning process.) First, the Holy Spirit is
distinguished from both the Father and the Son, as many scriptures prove
(Isa. 48:16; Matt. 28:19; Luke 3:21; John 14:16, 17; Heb. 9:8).
Second, the Holy Spirit is clearly not an impersonal force, as Jehovah's
Witnesses claim, but a real person. He loves (Rom. 15:30); convicts of sin
(John 16:8); has a personal will (1 Cor. 12:11); commands and forbids (Acts
8:29; 13:2; 16:6); speaks messages (1 Tim. 4:1; Rev. 2:7); intercedes (Rom.
8:26); comforts, teaches, and guides into truth (John 14:26); and can be
grieved, blasphemed, and insulted (Eph. 4:30; Mark 3:29; Heb. 10:29). Thus,
once it is established that the Holy Spirit is a person, it is easy to see
that the terminology in Scripture, such as His "filling us," or "being
poured out," is not meant to imply the Holy Spirit is impersonal, but rather
illustrates the intimacy of the believer's relationship to Him.
The Holy Spirit is deity because He performs the functions of God, and
because He is called God in Scripture. He has the attributes of deity, such
as omnipresence (Psa. 139:7,8); omniscience (1 Cor. 2:10,11); eternality
(Heb. 9:14); omnipotence (Job 33:4); and He gives eternal life (John 3:3-8).
He is also the Creator (Job 33:4; Gen. 1:2). It goes without saying that no
impersonal force (Jehovah's Witnesses) or finite god (Mormonism) has the
personal and divine attributes Scripture assigns to the Holy Spirit.
It is also clear from Scripture that the Holy Spirit is God by the divine
functions He performs and the divine associations He has. He indwells all
believers (John 14:23; 1 Cor. 6:19 with 2 Cor. 6:16); strives with all men
and convicts the whole world of guilt (Gen. 6:3 with John 16:8); divinely
inspires (2 Pet. 1:21 with Luke 1:67 with Acts 1:16, 28:25; Isa. 6:1-13;
Heb. 10:15-17); sanctifies (2 Thess. 2:13 with 1 Thess. 4:7,8); and sends
forth laborers (Matt. 9:38 with Acts 13:2-4) (cf., Psa. 95:6-9 with Heb.
3:7-9; Rom. 5:5 with 1 Thess. 3:12,13; 2 Thess. 3:5). The Holy Spirit is
also called God. In Acts 5:3-4, the one lied to is first said to be the Holy
Spirit, who is then immediately identified as God. He is called "the Lord"
in 2 Corinthians 3:18 and Hebrews 10:15, 16. In Isaiah 6:8, 9 and Acts
28:25, 26, one passage says God is speaking to Isaiah, whereas the other
passage declares that the Holy Spirit is speaking the same message to
Isaiah.
There is only one eternal sin spoken of in all the Bible: the blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit (Matt. 12:32). All sins ever committed against the
Son of God will be forgiven. But blasphemy against the Holy Spirit of God
can never be forgiven. How can this be if the Holy Spirit is merely a
creature or an impersonal force? Thus, resisting the Holy Spirit's
conviction of the need to believe in Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sins
can never be forgiven. Why? Because one refuses to place faith in
Christ-which alone brings this forgiveness. Thus, unbelief to the point of
death is the only eternal sin. This is indeed blasphemy against the Holy
Spirit and against His testimony of Jesus (John 16:8). The Holy Spirit then,
must indeed be God because one can only commit eternal sin against an
eternal God.
The Holy Spirit, whose job is to glorify Jesus Christ, has been given His
rightful place in the Trinity by the historic Christian church. Sadly, He
has not been given the honor due Him by the cults. Indeed, the scriptural
testimony to the personality and deity of the Holy Spirit is far more
abundant than any cursory reading of Scripture would indicate.12
For those who desire more study, there are many good books conclusively
proving the biblical doctrine of the Trinity in great depth. We especially
recommend Dr. Robert Morey's book The Trinity: Evidence and Issues.13
Notes
1 Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Reasoning from Scriptures (Brooklyn,
NY: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1985), p. 381.
2 Victor Paul Wierwille, Jesus Christ Is Not God (New Knoxville, OH:
American Christian Press, 1975), p. 127.
3 Ibid., Appendix A; cf. Victor Paul Wierwille, Receiving the Holy Spirit
Today (New Knoxville, OH: American Christian Press, 1986), chap. 1.
4 E. Calvin Beisner, God in Three Persons (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1984), p.
53, citing Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (eds.), The Ante-Nicene
Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers Down to AD 325, Vol. 2,
p. 133, A Plea for the Christians, p. X.
5 Dr. Harold O. J. Brown, Heresies (Doubleday, 1984), pp. 140-141.
6 Tertullian, Against Praxeas, p. 25, cited in Brown, Heresies, p. 145.
7 Cyril of Jerusalem, "Catechetical Lecture," 16, paragraph 4, in Maurice
Wiles and Mark Santers (eds.), Documents of Early Christian Thought
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), p. 82.
8 Athanasius, "Third Letter to Serapion," I, in Wiles and Santers, p. 85.
9 Augustine, "On the Trinity," VX, xvii, 32, in Wiles and Santers, p. 94.
10 Basil of Caesarea, "The Book of Saint Basil on the Spirit," chap. X,
para. 25 in Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, A Select Library of Nicean and
Post-Nicean Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series, Vol. 8 (Grand
Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1975), p. 17.
11 In Beisner, God in Three Persons, p. 64, citing Roberts and Donaldson,
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 4, p. 253; de Principus I.iii.4.
12 See Edward Henry Beckersteth, The Holy Spirit: His Person and Work (Grand
Rapids, MI: Kregel, 1967), for an excellent scriptural study on the
personality and deity of the Holy Spirit.
13 Other good titles include Edward Beckersteth, The Trinity (Kregel, 1980);
and Millard J. Erickson, God in Three Persons (Baker, 1995).
PART 6
The Trinity and Early Church History: Have the historic creeds of the
Christian church always accepted the doctrine of the Trinity?
For 2,000 years the historic Christian church has found in the Bible the
doctrine of the Trinity. This can be seen by anyone who reads the church
fathers and studies the historic creeds. Creeds are important because they
express the beliefs of the church briefly and precisely and made prospective
converts aware of exactly what Christians believe and teach, enabling them
to make informed decisions. Further, creeds clearly illustrated the dividing
line between orthodoxy and heresy; in fact heresy was probably the most
powerful stimulant historically to the development of the creeds.
The historic creeds of the church declared faith in only one God, yet
clearly taught that both the Son and the Holy Spirit were God. For example,
the Creed of Nicaea in A.D. 325 was the creed of 318 church fathers. It
reads, "We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the
Father as only begotten. Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten
not created."1
The Constantinopolitan Creed of A.D. 381, a creed of 150 church fathers,
reads, "[We believe] in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Life-giver, Who
proceeds from the Father, Who is worshiped and glorified together with the
Father and Son."2
Although the official, precise definition and explanation of the Trinity
codified at Nicaea (A.D. 351) and Constantinople (A.D. 381) is lacking in
the New Testament and writings of the early church leaders, the fact of the
Trinity was clearly recognized by both the apostles and post-apostolic
fathers. Scholars of historical theology could be cited in abundant
confirmation, for example, "The second-century Fathers were convinced that
the Godhead is a triad."3 In addition,
"From the Old Testament and the Judaism of the intertestamental period, the
early church accepted the conviction that God, the maker of heaven and
earth, is one. In addition, even before the canonization of the New
Testament books, the apostolic traditions and popular faith of the church
were indelibly marked by the notion of a plurality of divine persons, the
idea of the triadic manifestation of the Godhead, was present/row the
earliest period as part of Christian piety and thinking. But no steps were
taken to work through the implications of this idea and to arrive at a
cohesive doctrine of God. The triadic pattern supplies the raw data from
which the more developed descriptions of the Christian doctrine of God will
come."4
In his book on the Trinity, God in Three Persons, E. Calvin Beisner has
provided an in-depth study of the historic development of the Trinity from
apostolic times through the final form of the Nicene Creed, which was
adopted at the Council of Constantinople in A.D. 381. He includes a
line-by-line comparison of the Creed with New Testament teaching, proving
that the doctrine of the Trinity as thus formulated is biblical.5
The doctrine of the Trinity itself never evolved; what evolved was only its
specific theological formulation. As Harold O. J. Brown states in Heresies,
"The facts that Semi-Arianism created only a brief flurry and that the
consubstantiality of the Holy Spirit was accepted with little trouble are
evidence for the claim that the doctrine of the Trinity did not evolve by
stages, but was present in the church in an implicit form from New Testament
times.... As soon as the implications of consubstantiality were recognized
in the case of the Son, they were almost immediately seen for the Holy
Spirit as well. Trinitarianism was implicit in Christian faith from the
beginning; it is only its explicit formulation that took so long to
develop."6
Notes
1 John H. Leith, Creeds of the Churches: A Reader in Christian Doctrine from
the Bible to the Present, 3rd ed. (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982), pp.
30-31.
2 Ibid., p. 33.
3 J. G. Davies, The Early Christian Church: A History of Its First Five
Centuries (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1980), p. 97.
4 William G. Rusch (Trans./ed.), The Trinitarian Controversy (Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1980), p. 2.
5 E. Calvin Beisner, God in Three Persons (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1984)..
6 Dr. Harold O. J. Brown, Heresies (Doubleday, 1984), p. 139.
Why Is The Doctrine Of The Trinity A Vital Belief For Christians To
Understand?
"When we speak of the Trinity, we must do so with caution and modesty, for,
as St. Augustine saith, "Nowhere else are more dangerous errors made, or is
research more difficult, or discovery more fruitful.'" (St. Thomas Aquinas,
Summa Theologica, ia q. xxi, 1272)
The biblical doctrine of the Trinity is vital to understand because it
concerns who God is, i.e., a proper realization of the nature of God as
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To understand the Trinity is to understand God
as He has revealed Himself to be.
Why is this important? Because if we are to worship God "in spirit and
truth" (John 4:24), as Jesus commanded, we must know and worship the one
true God as He really is. To fail to do this is to fail to know and worship
God-and this cannot bring Him glory. Thus, those who reject the Trinity
invariably deny the nature of God.
Consider several examples of professedly Christian religions that forcefully
reject what the Bible teaches. By denying the biblical teaching on the
Trinity, Jehovah's Witnesses make Jesus merely a creation of Jehovah and the
Holy Spirit Jehovah's impersonal force. Thus, Jesus "was actually a creature
of God" who earned his own salvation and immortality1 and the Holy Spirit
"is not a person at all but is God's invisible active force by means of
which God carries out his holy will and work."2
In rejecting the Trinity, Jehovah's Witnesses founder C. T. Russell
blasphemously stated that the God of Christianity "is plainly not Jehovah
but the ancient deity, hoary with the iniquity of the ages-Baal, the Devil
Himself."3 Second Watchtower President Judge Rutherford declared in a
similar fashion, "The doctrine of the Trinity is a false doctrine and is
promulgated by Satan for the purpose of defaming Jehovah's name"-and for
keeping others from "learning the truth of Jehovah and his Son, Jesus
Christ." Indeed, "God-fearing persons.find it a bit difficult to love and
worship a complicated, freakish-looking three-headed God."4 Surely,
teachings that caricature God in this manner do not bring to Him honor and
glory.
In a similar fashion, Mormons maintain that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
are not immortal, but were individual spirit-men created by the sexual union
of their parent deities, each of whom then later evolved into Godhood.5
Mormonism thus rejects the ontological unity of the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit in teaching tritheism, or a belief in three separate Gods.
Indeed, Mormons are ultimately polytheists who reject the concept of one
true God. As a standard text on Mormon doctrine declares:
"As pertaining to this universe, there are three Gods: the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost.. To us, speaking in the proper finite sense, these three are the
only Gods we worship. But in addition there is an infinite number of holy
personages, drawn from worlds without number, who have passed on to
exaltation [i.e., Godhood] and are thus gods."6
Mary Baker Eddy was the founder of Christian Science, another group that
claims to be truly Christian. Yet in her Science and Health with Key to the
Scriptures, the Bible of Christian Science, she writes:
"The theory of three persons in one God (that is, a personal Trinity or
Tri-unity) suggests polytheism, rather than the one ever-present I Am.. The
name Elohim is in the plural, but this plurality of Spirit does not imply
more than one God, nor does it imply three persons in one."7
Victor Paul Wierwille, founder of The Way International, reveals additional
common consequences of rejection of the Trinity-a denial not only of the
Person of Jesus Christ but also of His atoning Work on the cross. Wierwille
argues as follows:
"Through the years, the more and more I carefully researched God's Word for
knowledge, the less and less I found to substantiate a trinity. Even though
I had always accepted the idea of a three-in-one-God, I continually found
evidence in the Word of God which undermined a Christian trinity.. [Further]
If Jesus Christ is God.we have not yet been redeemed.. Our very
redemption.is dependent on Jesus Christ's being a man and not God.. So how
then did a trinitarian doctrine come about? It gradually evolved and gained
momentum in late 1st, 2nd, and 3rd centuries as pagans, who had converted to
Christianity, brought to Christianity some of their pagan beliefs and
practices. Trinitarianism then was confirmed at Nicaea in 325 by Church
bishops out of political expediency."8
In essence, the reason the Trinity is important to understand according to
its biblical and theological formulation is that failure to do so can lead
to heretical views about who God is. This in turn can lead to rejection of
the one true God and worship of a false God. But if the Bible is clear on
anything, it is clear that faith in and worship of a false God is powerless
to save people from their sins. Jesus Himself emphasized the importance of
having an accurate knowledge of God when he said, "And this is eternal life,
that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast
sent" (John 17:3).
God warned Israel through the prophet Hosea, "My people are destroyed from
lack of knowledge" and "You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Savior
except me" (Hosea 4:6; 13:4). As their history so amply demonstrates, the
Israelites were spiritually ruined because they had rejected true knowledge
of God and had turned to false gods and idols. Unfortunately, in a similar
manner, those who deliberately reject the Trinity, knowing in advance what
the Bible teaches about it, only reveal their own lack of salvation (1
Corinthians 2:14). In other words, no one can consistently dishonor what the
Holy Spirit has revealed in Scripture as to the true nature of God and
logically claim to be a Christian.
Of course, prior knowledge of the Trinity, especially in its theological
formulation, is not necessary for a person to be saved. But once saved, it
is vital for Christians to know the true nature of the God who has so
graciously pardoned them. This explains why the Church has always recognized
the importance of a proper understanding of God and maintained that those
who reject the scriptural view of God, as long as they do so, cannot be
saved.
For example, in discussing the placing of a divine curse or anathema on
those who reject God, the Athanasian Creed
"...begins and ends with the solemn declaration that the catholic [i.e.,
universal] faith in the Trinity and the Incarnation is the indispensable
condition of salvation, and that those who reject it will be lost forever..
This anathema, in its natural historical sense, is not merely a solemn
warning against the great danger of heresy, nor, on the other hand, does it
demand, as a condition of salvation, a full knowledge, and assent to, the
logical statement of the doctrines set forth, (this would condemn the great
mass even of Christian believers); but it does mean to exclude from heaven
all who reject the divine truth therein taught. It requires everyone who
would be saved to believe in the only true and living God, Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost, one in essence, three in persons, and in one Jesus Christ, very
God and very man in one person."9
As Vladimir Lossky once put boldly in The Mystical Theology of the Eastern
Church (1957, p. 66), "Between the Trinity and Hell there lies no other
choice."
Thus, an examination of religions claiming to be Christian, who yet deny the
Trinity, invariably reveals that other key Christian doctrines, such as
salvation by grace through faith alone, are also rejected. In other words,
if one does not start with a proper respect for Scripture and its
understanding of God, it is unlikely one will get much else correct
biblically. This is exactly what we find in the world of the cults.
However, before we discuss what the Bible does teach about the Trinity, we
must also remember that this doctrine is something finite minds can never
fully comprehend. The Trinity may be logically defined, but this is partly
the problem because "the infinite truth of the Godhead lies far beyond the
boundaries of logic, which deals only with finite truths and categories."10
In other words, as an infinite being, God can never be fully understood by
any finite person. If we can't understand something as basic as particle
physics, who would argue we should be able to rationally comprehend all that
the infinite God is?
As Dorothy L. Sayers once stated in Current Religious Thought (1957),
"Why do you complain that the proposition God is three in one is obscure and
mystical and yet acquiesce meekly in the physicist's fundamental formula,
'two P minus PQ equals IH over two Pi where I equals the square root of
minus one' when you know quite well that the square root of minus one is
paradoxical and Pi is incalculable?"
Consider that an ant could never comprehend all that a human being is, even
if it tried. Yet, if a human being could somehow become an ant, it might be
able to explain enough about what a human is so that the ant could gain
something of an understanding as to what a human is.
When we consider that God is, quite literally, infinitely removed from men,
the parallel suffers immeasurably. All we can truly understand about God is
what He has revealed to us in the Bible. And while this does give us a great
deal of accurate information, it obviously does not give us exhaustive
information that plumbs the depths of His infinity. Indeed, one of the
glories of eternal salvation (John 5:24; 6:47) will be that finite creatures
will forever learn wondrous things about the exhaustless glories and
perfections of an infinite God. This heavenly knowledge will make the things
learned on earth pale in contrast.
Regardless, what Christians can do is accept what God has revealed and what
the Church has formulated historically that is in accordance with biblical
teaching. So just what does it mean that God is a Trinity?
God has revealed that He is three persons or centers of consciousness within
one Godhead. Again, because the concept cannot be fully comprehended does
not mean the doctrine cannot be accurately described or defined. One good
definition of the Trinity is provided by noted church historian Philip
Schaff:
"God is one in three persons or hypostases [i.e., distinct persons of the
same nature], each person expressing the whole fullness of the Godhead, with
all his attributes. The term persona is taken neither in the old sense of a
mere personation or form of manifestation (prosopon, face, mask), nor in the
modern sense of an independent, separate being or individual, but in a sense
which lies between these two conceptions, and thus avoids Sabellianism on
the one hand, and Tritheism on the other. [Sabellianism taught that God was
one person only who existed in three different forms or manifestations;
tritheism refers to a belief in three separate gods.] The divine persons are
in one another, and form a perpetual intercommunication and motion within
the divine essence. Each person has all the divine attributes which are
inherent in the divine essence, but each has also a characteristic
individuality or property, which is peculiar to the person, and can not be
communicated; the Father is unbegotten, the Son begotten, the Holy Ghost is
proceeding. In this Trinity there is no priority or posteriority of time, no
superiority or inferiority of rank, but the three persons are coeternal and
coequal."11
It is important to note here that the Bible teaches both monotheism and
trinitarianism. It teaches a monotheistic view-that there is only one true
God-and a trinitarian view-that this one true God exists eternally as three
persons. This triunity of God was defended from earliest times as Christian
theologians and apologists were careful to safeguard both the unity of God
against tritheism and to also maintain the respective deity of the three
persons. As Gregory of Nyssa stated in his letter to Ablabius,
"To say that there are three gods.is wicked.not to bear witness to the deity
of the Son and the Spirit.is ungodly and absurd. .therefore one God must be
confessed by us according to the witness of Scripture, "Hear Israel, the
Lord your God is one Lord" (Deut. 6:4), even if the word "deity" extends
through the holy trinity."12
So, how do we know that the doctrine of the Trinity is biblical? That the
Trinity is a biblical doctrine can be seen from five simple statements
supported by the Bible. And, since the Jehovah's Witnesses are one group so
adamantly opposed to the doctrine as being something "pagan," "unreasonable"
and "of the devil," we thought it might be instructive to them to cite their
own Bible, The New World Translation (NWT; 1970 edition), in support of the
doctrine. (In the scriptures below, the term "Holy Spirit" is not
capitalized because Jehovah's Witnesses believe that "holy spirit" is merely
God's active, impersonal force, not a true Person.) Thus, even the New World
Translation teaches the doctrine of the Trinity.
1. There is only one true God: "For there is one God, and one mediator
between God and men." (1 Timothy 2:5 NWT, emphasis added; cf. Deuteronomy
4:35, 6:4; Isaiah 43:10).
2. The Father is God: "There is actually to us one God the Father.(1
Corinthians 8:6, NWT, emphasis added; cf. John 17:1-3; 2 Corinthians 1:3;
Philippians 2:11; Colossians 1:3; 1 Peter 1:2).
3. Jesus Christ, the Son, is God: ".but he [Jesus] was also calling God his
own Father, making himself equal to God": (John 5:18 NWT, emphasis added);
"In answer, Thomas said to him [Jesus]: 'My Lord and my God!'" (John 20:28
NWT, emphasis added, cf. Isaiah 9:6; John 1:1 Romans 9:5; Titus 2:13; 2
Peter 1:1).
4. The Holy Spirit is a Person, is eternal, and is therefore God: "However,
when that one arrives, the spirit of the truth, he will guide you into all
the truth, for he will not speak of his own impulse, but what things he
hears he will speak and he will declare to you the things coming" (John
14:13 NWT, emphasis added). The Holy Spirit is also eternal: "the
Father.will give you another helper to be with you forever, the spirit of
the truth" (John 14:16-17) "How much more will the blood of the Christ, who
through an everlasting spirit offered himself without blemish to God."
(Hebrews 9:14, NWT, emphasis added). The Holy Spirit is therefore God: "But
Peter said: 'Ananias, why has Satan emboldened you to play false to the holy
spirit..' You have played false, not to men, but to God" (Acts 5:3, 4 NWT,
emphasis added).
5. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons with equal
authority: ".Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the
Holy Spirit"; "Now I exhort you, brothers, through our Lord Jesus Christ and
through the love of the spirit, that you exert yourselves with me in prayers
to God for me"; "The undeserved kindness of the Lord Jesus Christ and the
love of God and the sharing in the holy spirit be with all of you" (Matthew
28:19; Romans 15:30; 2 Corinthians 13:14 NWT, emphasis added).
In Scripture, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are clearly
distinguished, yet there is only one God. Thus, "There is. one Spirit. one
Lord [Jesus]. one God and Father of all." (Ephesians 4:4-6; cf., 1
Corinthians 12:4-11). Further, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are never
identified as one Person only, as modern modalists teach, such as the United
Pentecostal Church/"Jesus Only" groups. For example, in John 6:38 Jesus
says, "I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him
that sent me." In that the will is the essence of personality, we certainly
have two personalities here.
For 1,900 years the historic Christian Church has found in the Bible the
doctrine of the Trinity. This can be seen by anyone who reads the Church
Fathers and studies the historic creeds. The creeds declared faith in only
one God, yet clearly taught that both the Son and the Holy Spirit were God.
For example, the Creed of Nicaea in 325 A.D. was the creed of 318 church
fathers. It reads, "We believe.in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
begotten of the Father as only begotten,. Light from Light, true God from
true God, begotten not created."13
The Constantinopolitan Creed of 381 A.D., a creed of 150 church fathers,
reads, "[We believe] in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Life-giver, Who
proceeds from the Father, Who is worshiped and glorified together with the
Father and Son,."14
Although the official, precise definition and explanation of the Trinity
codified at Nicaea (351 A.D.) and Constantinople (381 A.D.) is lacking in
the New Testament and writings of the early church leaders, the fact of the
Trinity was clearly recognized by both the apostles and post-apostolic
fathers. Scholars of historical theology could be cited in abundant
confirmation, e.g., "The second-century Fathers were convinced that the
Godhead is a triad."15
And,
"From the Old Testament and the Judaism of the intertestamental period, the
early church accepted the conviction that God, the maker of heaven and
earth, is one.. In addition, even before the canonization of the New
Testament books, the apostolic traditions and popular faith of the church
were indelibly marked by the notion of a plurality of divine persons. The
idea of the triadic manifestation of the Godhead was present from the
earliest period as part of Christian piety and thinking. But no steps were
taken to work through the implications of this idea and to arrive at a
cohesive doctrine of God. The triadic pattern supplies the raw data from
which the more developed descriptions of the Christian doctrine of God will
come."16
Thus, in his book on the Trinity, God in Three Persons, E. Calvin Beisner
has provided an in- depth study of the historic development of the Trinity
from apostolic times through the final form of the Nicene Creed which was
adopted at the Council of Constantinople in A.D. 381. He includes a
line-by-line comparison of the Creed with New Testament teaching, proving
that the doctrine of the Trinity as thus formulated is biblical.17
Indeed, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are so effortlessly and
consistently linked in Scripture that to assume God is not three Persons
makes it impossible to understand some passages. For example, consider the
following Scriptures:
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Corinthians 13:14).
For through him [Jesus] we both have access to the Father by one Spirit
(Ephesians 2:18; cf., 3:11-16).
But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray
in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy
of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life (Jude 20, 21).
To further illustrate, try answering the following questions without
concluding that the Bible teaches the doctrine of the Trinity:
1. Who raised Jesus from the dead? The Father (Romans 6:4; Acts 3:26; 1
Thessalonians 1:10)? The Son (John 2:19-21; 10:17, 18)? The Holy Spirit
(Romans 8:11)? Or God (Hebrews 13:20; Acts 13:30; 17:31)?
2. Who does the Bible say is God? The Father (Ephesians 4:6)? The Son (Titus
2:13; John 1:1,14; 20:28)? The Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3, 4)? Or God
(Deuteronomy 4:35; Isaiah, 45:18)?
3. Who created the world? The Father (Ephesians 3:9-14; 4:6)? The Son
(Colossians 1:16, 17; John 1:1-3)? The Holy Spirit (Genesis 1:2; Psalm
104:30)? Or God (Genesis 1:1; Hebrews 11:3)?
4. Who saves and regenerates man? The Father (1 Peter 1:3)? The Son (John
5:21, 4:14)? The Holy Spirit (John 3:6, Titus 3:5)? Or God (1 John 3:9)?
5. Who justifies man? The Father (Jeremiah 23:6, cf. 2 Corinthians 5:19)?
The Son (Romans 5:9; 10:4; 2 Corinthians 5:19, 21)? The Holy Spirit (1
Corinthians 6:11; Galatians 5:5)? Or God (Romans 4:6; 9:33)?
6. Who sanctifies man? The Father (Jude 1)? The Son (Titus 2:14)? The Holy
Spirit (1 Peter 1:2)? Or God (Exodus 31:13)?
7. Who propitiated God's just anger against man for his sins? The Father (1
John 4:14; John 3:16; 17:5; 18:11)? The Son (Matthew 26:28; John 1:29; 1
John 2:2)? The Holy Spirit (Hebrews 9:14)? Or God (2 Corinthians 5:19, 21;
Acts 20:28; 1 John 4:10)?
Thus, although one member of the Trinity may have a more prominent part in a
specific action or role such as creating, redeeming, etc., all three Persons
are still involved. What this means is that it is proper for purposes of
illustration to substitute (or include) any specific Person of the Trinity
in any event in the Old Testament or New Testament where the term "God" is
used. In fact, Scripture itself does this. In Acts 28:25-26 the Holy Spirit
is said to speak to Isaiah, but in Isaiah 6:8-9 the speaker of the same
words is said to be God.
In his Christian Theology, Millard J. Erickson offers six points that must
be included in a proper understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity:
1. There is only one God.
2. Each Person in the Godhead is equally deity.
3. The threeness and oneness of God constitute a paradox or an
antinomy-merely an apparent contradiction, not a genuine one. This is
because God's threeness and oneness do not exist in the same respect-i.e.,
they are not simultaneously affirming and denying the same thing at the same
time and in the same manner. God's oneness refers to the divine essence; His
threeness to the plurality of persons.
4. The Trinity is eternal-there have always been three persons, each of whom
is eternally divine. One or more of the Persons did not come into being at a
point in time or at some point in time became divine. There has never been
any change in the essential divine nature of the triune God. He is and will
be what He has always been forever.
5. The function of one member in the Trinity may for a time be subordinate
to one or both of the other members, although this does not mean He is in
anyway inferior in essence. Each Person of the Trinity has had, for a period
of time, a particular function unique to Himself. In other words, the
particular function that is sometimes unique to a given Person in the
Trinity is only a temporary role exercised for a given purpose. It does not
represent a change in His status or essence. When the second Person of the
Trinity incarnated and became Jesus Christ, He did not become less than the
Father, although He did become subordinate to the Father functionally. In
like manner, the Holy Spirit is now subordinated to the ministry of the Son
(John Chs. 14-16), as well as to the will of the Father, but He is not less
than they are.
Certain examples may illustrate this. A wife may have a subordinate role to
a husband, but she is also his equal. Equals in some business enterprise may
elect one of their number to serve as head or a chairperson for a period,
without any change in rank. During World War II, the highest ranking member
of an aircraft, the pilot, would nevertheless carefully subordinate his
decisions to the bombardier, a lower ranking officer.
6. Finally, as noted, the Trinity is incomprehensible. Even when we are in
heaven and fully redeemed, we will still not totally comprehend God because
it is impossible that a finite creature could ever comprehend an infinite
being: Thus, "Those aspects of God which we never fully comprehend should be
regarded as mysteries that go beyond our reason rather than as paradoxes
which conflict with reason."18
Indeed, the problems inherent in fully comprehending the doctrine of the
Trinity are also inherent in the Person of Jesus Christ. Thus, the doctrine
known as the hypostatic union assimilates all the biblical data in order to
accurately describe the nature of the Incarnation. It declares that Jesus is
undiminished deity and full humanity in one person. Jesus Christ is both God
and man. Jesus is not part human and part divine-he is fully man and fully
God.
Because of this He has two natures, one divine and one human. But He is not
two persons i.e., He is not schizophrenic. Further, He is one person with
two different kinds of consciousness (a divine consciousness and also a
human consciousness). Also, He is one person with two wills (if He truly has
two natures, then He must have two wills, one human and one divine),
however, Jesus Christ never had a conflict of wills.
Christ's two natures were not altered by their union within the one person
of Christ; both divine and human characteristics and deeds may be attributed
to the Person of Christ under any of His names whether they are divine or
human titles. Also, both the human and divine natures of Christ may be
manifested during a single event. Finally, the union of Christ's two natures
was not altered by His death, burial, resurrection or ascension but will
remain throughout eternity.19
The above material illustrates the importance of precision for accurately
formulating the biblical data-and also how easily misconceptions might arise
concerning the nature of God. This is why God encourages and commands us to
"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not
need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15).
Christians should therefore study the doctrine of the Trinity in order to
know how to effectively deal with the biblical data and answer the arguments
of those in opposition:
"And the Lord's servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to
everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who oppose him he must gently
instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a
knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape
from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will" (2
Timothy 2:24-26).
Thomas a Kempis once stated Christian priorities eloquently when he wrote
what is also a fitting conclusion to this article:
"Grant to us, O Lord, to know that which is worth knowing, to love that
which is worth loving, to praise that which pleaseth Thee most, to esteem
that which is most precious unto Thee, and to dislike whatsoever is evil in
Thy eyes. Grant us with true judgment to distinguish things that differ, and
above all to search out and to do what is well pleasing unto Thee, through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
Notes
1 q.v., "Jesus Christ," Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Aid to Bible
Understanding (Brooklyn, NY: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1971), p.
918, p. 437; Anthony A. Hoekema, The Four Major Cults (Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans, 1970), p. 295 citing Let God Be True (1952), p. 74.
2 Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Things in Which It Is Impossible for
God to Lie (Brooklyn, NY: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1965), p. 269.
3 C. T. Russell, Studies in the Scriptures - Vol. 7: The Finished Mystery,
p. 410 cited by Wilton M. Nelson and Richard K. Smith, "Jehovah's Witnesses"
in David J. Hesselgrave, ed., Dynamic Religious Movements: Case Studies of
Rapidly Growing Religious Movements Around the World (Grand Rapids: Baker,
1978), p. 181.
4 Cited by Charles S. Braden, These Also Believe: A Study of Modern American
Cults and Minority Religious Movements (New York: Macmillan, 1970), p. 371
quoting Judge Rutherford's Uncovered (Brooklyn, NY: WBTS, 1937), pp. 48-49;
Let God Be True (1946), pp. 82-83, 93.
5 See John Ankerberg, John Weldon, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About
Mormonism (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 1992), ch. 10.
6 Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1977), pp.
270, 576-77.
7 Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (Boston,
MA: The First Church of Christ, Scientist, 1971), pp. 256, 515.
8 Victor Paul Wierwille, Jesus Christ Is Not God (New Knoxville, OH:
American Christian Press, 1975), pp. 2-3, 6-7, 25.
9 Philip Schaff, ed., rev. by David S. Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom:
With a History and Critical Notes - Vol. 1: The History of the Creeds (Grand
Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983), pp. 39-40.
10 Ibid., p. 38.
11 Ibid., the Greek term was transliterated.
12 "Gregory of Nyssa.to Ablabius," in William G. Rusch, trans. and ed., The
Trinitarian Controversy (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980), pp. 149,
151-52.
13 John H. Leith, Creeds of the Churches: A Reader in Christian Doctrine
from the Bible to the Present 3rd ed., (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1982), pp.
30-31.
14 Ibid., p. 33, emphasis added.
15 J. G. Davies, The Early Christian Church: A History of Its First Five
Centuries (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1980), 97.
16 Rusch, 2, emphasis added.
17 E. Calvin Beisner, God in Three Persons (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1984).
18 Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1986,
one vol. edition), pp. 337-338.
19 For a good discussion see Robert Glenn Gromacki, The Virgin Birth:
Doctrine of Deity (New York: Thomas Nelson, 1974), chs. 9, 11-13.
Received on Wed Jul 09 2008 - 20:03:26 PDT