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Trin­ity: There is one God in Three Persons

There is one God in Three Persons

[D02] v1 ©2006 www.davidcox.com.mx/tracts
This tract can be freely photocopied

This tract out­lines the bib­li­cal doc­trine of the Trin­ity, explain­ing what is this doc­trine of the trin­ity, The unity or union of God, the bib­li­cal evi­dences of the trin­ity, and briefs gives bib­li­cal proofs of the deity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, as well as briefly answer­ing an objec­tion to the Trinity.

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The Bible presents that there is only one God, but that this sin­gle God exists in three per­sons which have an inti­mate rela­tion­ship between the three per­sons. The Bible clearly indi­cates that the Father is God, the Son (Jesus Christ) is God, and that the Holy Spirit is God. There is no con­fu­sion of the per­sons (each is sep­a­rate from the other two), nor divi­sion of the sub­stance (even being dis­tinct per­sons there is still only one God). Fur­ther­more there is not more than one God. The res­o­lu­tion of this con­flict is made through a teach­ing of the Trinity.

The Trin­ity

First we should under­stand that our con­cepts of what God is and how God is are lim­ited to what God him­self has revealed in the Bible. Our logic and under­stand­ing are not sov­er­eign over the real­ity of God, but God is sov­er­eign over us. We can­not say for exam­ple that it is invalid to have one God in three per­sons if this is what the Bible presents with regard to this matter.

This is a mys­tery, and we can­not under­stand it well. If we demand that we have to under­stand some­thing before it is use­ful to us or before we accept it into our faith sys­tem, then the major­ity of peo­ple will have to stop using elec­tric­ity, cars, planes, com­put­ers, and med­i­cines. Most peo­ple do not under­stand these things either, but they are very use­ful to them, and any way you look at it, it is cer­tainly a bless­ing to them whether they under­stand them or not. Such is our sit­u­a­tion with the mys­ter­ies of God.

Our atti­tude towards basic prob­lems – We do not invent doc­trine, but we dis­cover it. The hon­est Chris­t­ian sim­ply exam­ines the Bible, and under­stands a mat­ter, and then tries to relate it to what he already knows so as to main­tain a bib­li­cal har­mony with what he already knows. We explain and hold doc­trines and posi­tions because this is how we under­stand the Bible to present to us these mat­ters, and if we can­not under­stand it and hold with­out con­tra­dic­tions, it is because we do not under­stand the Bible suf­fi­ciently. So then our goal that we strive for is to relate every­thing with­out contradiction.

The prob­lem is that the Bible affirms that there is only one true God (relat­ing to His essence, there are no other gods apart from Him) but it also attrib­utes deity to the three, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. But these three also are not three sep­a­rate Gods, but only one sin­gle God. Yet they are not each a third part of God either, but each is fully God in him­self. We have to explain this and resolve this, and our expla­na­tions about the Trin­ity are an attempt to explain this log­i­cally and bib­li­cally tak­ing into account all the points.

The Unity or Union of God

There is one God, No more: Exclu­siv­ity – Deut. 6:4; 4:35; Isa­iah 44:6–7; 45:5–6; Mark 12:29, 32; John 17:3; Romans 3:30; 1ª Corinthians 8:4–6; Eph­esians 4:6; 1 Tim­o­thy 2:5; James 2:19. The point of “one” can mean either of two things, one as in num­ber as in count­ing, 1, 2, 3, or one in unity, a qual­ity which is unique, alone, that there is no other.

Mar­riage – Both Dt 6:4 and Isa­iah 44:8 say that God is one (echad), which means one sin­gle com­posed union, which is also used in Gen­e­sis 2:4 where the hus­band and wife become “one flesh”. See also Gen­e­sis 2:24; Mat. 19:5–6; Mark 10:8; 1 Corinthi­ans 6:16; Eph­esians 5:31. The other word for absolute unity is yachid which is never used in ref­er­ence to God.

We also see this exam­ple in deal­ing with a nation, because the United States is only one, (the larger unity) but each Amer­i­can is a com­plete Amer­i­can (indi­vid­ual) with­out the United States form­ing mil­lions of Amer­i­cas. This is also true of the mil­i­tary with each branch is an army, but all branches form the mil­i­tary of the United States. There are not 3 US mil­i­taries, but one (unity under plurality).

In the con­cept of space the base con­cepts are dimen­sion, length, width, and depth. With­out each one the con­cept of “space” would not exist, but each has the qual­ity of space within it. We do not need all three to have “space” because we cal­cu­late space with only one of them. A ruler mea­sures a line. Like­wise we com­bine all three and we do not have 3 spaces but one space.

Ice and the Egg – If we put a piece of ice in boil­ing water, we see ice, water, and steam. The water exists in three states but there is only one sub­stance present. An egg con­sists of the shell, the white, and the yolk. But although there are three parts, each is “egg”, we do not have three eggs but only one.

The prob­lem is that these exam­ples are not com­pletely com­pa­ra­ble to the Trin­ity because noth­ing can explain God. The Bible affirms that there is only one God, and there are three per­son­al­i­ties within that one God. But each per­son of the Trinidad is totally God inde­pen­dent of the other two. Each is not a third part of God, but is com­pletely God in him­self. But there are not three Gods either.

Bib­li­cal Evi­dences of the Trinity

(1) The use of the plural by God of Him­self in Gen­e­sis 1:1–2, 25–27; 3:22; 11:6–7; Isa­iah 6:8.
The three per­sons are clearly seen here:
(2) Zechariah 12:10 (Jeho­vah = Jesus).
(3) In the Incar­na­tion of Jesus Luke 1:35.
(4) In the Bap­tism of Jesus Luke 3:21–22.
(5) In the teach­ings of Jesus Christ John 14:16–17, 26; 15:26.
(6) In Paul’s epis­tles 2 Corinthi­ans 13:14; Phil. 2:10 with Isa­iah 45:22–23.
(7) In the Great com­mis­sion which Jesus gave to his dis­ci­ples in Matthew 28:18–20.
(8) In Cre­ation (Gen. 1:2; Heb. 1:2/Isa 44:24; 45:18; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16; Acts 17:24–25.

God is love — 1 John 4:8 declares that “God is love.” But the Bible con­demns love of self as a sin. In order for bib­li­cal love to exist, we need the per­son doing the lov­ing (God the Father), the per­son beloved (God the Son), and the evi­dence of that love from one to the other (God the Spirit sent by the Father to the Son). All of this lines up per­fectly with the Bible’s teach­ing of the Trin­ity. The trin­ity is not option, but essential.

The sit­u­a­tion of dif­fer­ent per­sons within the Deity per­mits dif­fer­ent sit­u­a­tions to exist. 1 Tim­o­thy 2:5, Jesus is God but is also the medi­a­tor between God and man. 1 John 2:1 Jesus is our lawyer before God that defends us before God as Judge. Isa­iah 53:6 speaks of God putting the iniq­uity of all on Jesus. He that put and he that received what is put are two dis­tinct peo­ple, not the same.

Sent and being sent – Jesus says that His Father sent him (John 14:24) and the Spirit was sent by both the Father (John 14:26) and the Son (John 15:7). Each per­son is dis­tinct, and their con­scious­ness is dif­fer­ent within each per­son of God.

Pray­ing – Jesus prayed to God the Father to send the Holy Spirit (John 14:16). If we posit that this is one sin­gle per­son of God talk­ing between him­self tak­ing dif­fer­ent “per­son­al­i­ties” or hats (Modal­ism) then we call this demen­tia or crazi­ness (men­tally unsta­ble)! Is this what we want to call God? No. The only ratio­nal expla­na­tion is the Trinity.

The Father is God

Directly called God – The phrase “God the Father” occurs 13 times. John 6:27; 1 Cor. 8:6; Gal. 1:1, 3; Eph. 6:23; Phil. 2:11; 1 Thes. 1:1; 2 Tim. 1:2; Titus 1:4; 1 Peter 1:2; 2 Peter 1:17; 2 John 1:3; Jude 1:1. (1 Cor. 8:6)

The Son is God

Called God – Hebrews 1:8; Col. 2:9

For­gives Sin – Luke 7:47–50

Receives wor­ship – Heb. 1:6; Mt. 14:33. The angels refused wor­ship for them­selves Rev. 22:8–9. The Devil sought it for him­self Mt. 4:9. Men of God refused it when offered to them Acts 14:13–15

Eter­nal – John 1:1–3; 8:56–58.

Cre­ator – Eph. 3:9; Col 1:16–17

Full­ness of the God­head – Col. 2:8–9.

The Word of God was God, he was with God (two per­sons) John 1:1–3, 14 (incarnation).

Alpha and Omega – Rev. 1:8; Isa­iah 44:6 (Jesus = Jehovah).

Lord – Romans 10:9 (Jesus = Lord) cites Joel 2:32 where the Hebrew is “Jeho­vah” God.

Sav­ior – Eph 5:23; Phil. 3:20; John 4:42; Luke 2:11; Acts 5:31; Titus 1:4; 2:13; 3:6; 2 Peter 1:11; 2:20; 3:18; 2 Tim­o­thy 1:10; 1 John 4:14.

Only God is the Sav­ior – Titus 1:3; 2:10; 3:4; 1 Tim. 1.1; 2:3; 4:10; Ps. 7:10; 17:7; 106:21; Isa. 43:4; 45:15; Luke 1:47; 2 Sam. 22:3; Jude 1.25.

The Spirit is God

He is called God – Acts 5:3–4.

Omnipresent – Psa. 139:7–12

Omni­scient – 1 Cor. 2:10–11

Cre­ator of the world – Gen 1:2

Gives life – Rom 8:11; 1 Peter 3:18

Coun­selor – John 14:26

Eternal – Heb. 9:14

Sav­ior – John 3:5–6; Rom 8:9; Titus 3:5–7.

They nor­mally attack his Per­son­al­ity – Intel­li­gence 1 Cor. 1:11. Sad­ness. Speaks 1 Tim. 4:1; Rev. 14:3. Teach John 14:26; Neh. 9:20. Reveals the future Luke 2:26. Gives tes­ti­mony Rom 8:16. Guides into Truth John 16:13. Reproaches John 16:8. Makes inter­ce­sion Rom 8:26. Dis­trib­utes gifts 1 Cor 12:11. You can blas­pheme against him Mat 12:31–32.

Objec­tions to the Trinity

John 14:28 “my Father is greater than I” – Refers to the posi­tion in heaven that is greater than Jesus posi­tion when he was on earth. Phil 2:5–11 makes clear that Jesus is equal with the Father accord­ing to divine nature. It is like in an army, two gen­er­als may be of equal rank, but one is tak­ing a posi­tion over the other in an aspect of the war (to make things more orderly). The used in John 14:28 is meizon not kre­it­ton which is used to describe some­one who is supe­rior in nature. Kre­it­ton is used in Heb. 1:4 which says that Jesus is supe­rior in nature to the angels. In the same way the argu­ment that Jesus sub­jected him­self to the will of God proves He is not God resolves itself in the same manner.

Con­clu­sion

The Trin­ity is not some­thing eas­ily under­stood, because we are deal­ing with the very essence of God, but this is what the Bible presents.