T H E
T R I N I T Y
by
Dave Hunt
Many Christians are at a loss to understand, much less to defend, the
"Trinity" when that word is not even
found in the Bible. To deal with that issue, we must begin with God, as
the Bible itself does.
There are two general concepts of God: (1) pantheism/naturalism, that
the universe itself is God; and (2) supernaturalism, that the Creator is
distinct from His creation. Within these are two more
opposing views: (1) polytheism, that there are many gods; and (2)
monotheism, that there is only one true God.
Monotheism itself is divided into two rival beliefs: (1) that God is a single
being; and (2) that God has always existed in three persons who are
separate and distinct yet one. Obviously, Christians are the only
ones who hold the latter view--and even some who call themselves Christians
reject it. Yet it is the only logically and philosophically
coherent view of God possible
Pantheism has the same fatal flaws as atheism. If
everything is God, to be God has lost all meaning and so nothing
is God. The problems with polytheism are equally obvious. There
is no real God who is in charge, so the many gods fight wars and steal
one another's wives. There's no basis for morals, truth or peace
in heaven or earth. Polytheism's basic problem is: diversity without
unity.
The
belief that God is a single being is held by both Muslims and Jews,
who insist that Allah and Jehovah are single entities.
It is also held by pseudo-Christian cults such as the Jehovah's Witnesses and
Mormons - - -
and by various aberrant Christian groups who also deny the deity of Christ.
Some Pentecostals claim that God is a single being and
that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are God's three "titles" or
"offices."
Here we have unity without diversity.
That God must have both
unity and diversity is clear. The Allah of Islam (like the Jehovah
of Jehovah’s Witnesses and Jews), for instance, is incomplete
in himself, unable to experience love, fellowship and communion
before creating beings with whom he could have these experiences. The
Bible says that
"God is love"
But the God of Islam and Judaism could not be love in and of himself--
or whom could he love when he was alone before creation?
This belief that
God is a single entity (Unitarianism) and not three persons existing
eternally in one God (Trinitarianism) was
first formulated in the early church around 220 A.D. by a Libyan
theologian named Sabellius. He
attempted to retain Biblical language concerning Father, Son and Holy Spirit without acknowledging the triune nature of
God. Sabellius claimed that God existed as a
single being, who manifested Himself in three
activities, modes or aspects: as Father in the creation, as Son in
redemption, and as Holy Spirit in prophecy and sanctification. This
heresy, though condemned by the vast majority
of Christians, survives to this day.
The Bible presents a God
who did not need to create any beings to experience love,
communion and
fellowship
This God is complete in Himself, being three persons: Father, Son and
Holy Spirit, separate and distinct yet at the same time eternally One
God. They loved and communed and fellowshipped with each other and
took counsel together before the universe, angels or man were
brought into existence. Isaiah "heard the voice of the LORD
[in eternity past] saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go
for us?" (Is 6:8). Moses revealed the same counseling together
of the Godhead: "And God said, Let us make man in our image
after our likeness"; and again, "[L]et
us go down and there confound their language" (Genesis 1:26; 1
1:7). Who is this "us" if God is a single entity? Why
does God say, "the man is become as one of us"?
(Genesis 3:22)
Moreover, if God is a
single being, then why is the plural Hebrew noun Elohim
(literally "Gods") used for God repeatedly? In fact,
this plural noun is in the center of Israel's famous confession of
the oneness of God! The Shema declares, "Hear,
0 Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord" (Deuteronomy 6:4 Mark
12:29). In the Hebrew it reads, "Jehovah our Elohim (gods) is one [echad]
Jehovah." The Hebrew word echad allows
for a unity of more than one. For example, it is used in Genesis 2:24
where man and woman become one flesh; in Exodus 36:13 when the various
parts "became one tabernacle"; in
2 Samuel 2:25 when many soldiers "became
one troop"; and elsewhere. Nor is the word Elohim the only way in which God's plurality is
presented. For example, Ecclesiastes 12:1:"Remember now
thy creator [lit. "Creators"]"; and Isaiah 54:5: "For
thy Maker is thine husband [lit. "Makers,
husbands"]" Unitarianism has no explanation for this
consistent presentation of God’s plurality all through the Old
Testament. Although the word "trinity" does not occur in
the Bible, the concept is clearly there, providing the unity and
diversity that makes possible the love, fellowship and communion within
the Godhead. Truly the Trinitarian God is love--and He alone
Jesus said, "The Father loveth the Son, and
hath given all things into his hand" (John 3:35).
God's love is not just toward mankind but first of all among the three
Persons of the Godhead. And three Persons they must be.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit can't be mere offices, titles or modes in which
God manifests Himself, for such cannot love,
consult and fellowship together. Not only is the Son presented
as a person, but so are the Father and the Holy Spirit. The Bible
presents each as having His own personality: each wills, acts, loves,
cares, can be grieved or become angry. "Offices" or
"titles" don't do that! Unitarianism isn't Biblical--and
it robs the Godhead of the necessary qualities of true Deity.
Godhead? Is that a Biblical
term? Yes, indeed. It occurs three times in the King James
New Testament in Acts 17:29, Romans 1:20, and Colossians 2:9. In
contrast to theos, which is used consistently
throughout the New Testament for "God," three different but related
Greek words occur in these verses (theios,
theiotes, theotes) which
the King James translators carefully designated by the special word,
Godhead. That very term indicates a plurality of being. Paul
wrote, "[I]n him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Col
2.9). Did he simply mean that in Christ dwelt all the fullness of
Himself? That would be like saying that in me dwells all the
fullness of me. Well, of course it does--- so why say it, and what
does it really mean? Nothing!
Does it simply mean that in Christ dwells all the fullness of Deity, as some
non-KJV translations render
it? That, too, would be redundant--or it would detract from the deity
of Christ. For if Christ is intrinsically
God, then what is the point of saying that "in Him dwells all the
fullness of Deity"? Of course it
does! But if Christ is the Son and there are two other persons in the
Godhead, then it does mean something. It
means that just as Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one God, so, when the Son
became man, He brought that fullness of the Godhead with Him into flesh.
In Romans 1:20 Paul argues that God's "eternal power and Godhead"
are seen in the creation He made. God's eternal power--but His
Godhead? Yes, as Dr. Wood pointed out years ago in The Secret of the Universe, the triune nature of God is stamped
on His creation. The cosmos is divided into three: space, matter
and time. Each of these is divided into three. Space, for
instance, is composed of length, breadth and width, each separate and
distinct in itself, yet the three are one.
Length, breadth and width are not three spaces, but three dimensions
comprising one space. Run enough lines lengthwise and you take in
the whole. But so it is with the width and height. Each is
separate and yet distinct, each is all of space--just as the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, yet each is God.
Time also is a trinity: past, present and future-- two invisible and one
visible. Each is separate and distinct, yet each is the
whole. Man himself is a triunity of spirit, soul and body, two of which
are invisible, one visible. Many more details could be given of
the Godhead's triunity reflected in the universe. It can hardly be
coincidence.
The Hebrew word Elohim (Gods) occurs about
2,500 times in the Old Testament, while the
singular form occurs only 250 times and most of those designate false
gods. Genesis 1:1 reads, "In the beginning Elohim created the heaven and the earth" ; i.e., literally, "GODS
created the heaven and the earth." Though a single noun is
available, yet the plural form is consistently used for God. And
in violation of grammatical rules, with few exceptions, singular verbs
and pronouns are used with this plural noun.
Why?
At the burning bush it was Elohim (Gods) who spoke
to Moses. Yet Elohim did not say, "We
are that we are," but "I AM
THAT I AM" (Exodus 3:14). One cannot escape the fact
that all through the Bible God is presented as a plurality and yet as
one, as having both diversity and unity. This is unknown among all the world's religions! To reject the
Trinity is to reject the unique God of the Bible.
The New Testament presents
three Persons who are distinct, yet each is recognized as God. At the
same time we have repeatedly the clear statement that there is only one true
God. Christ prays to the Father.
Is He praying to Himself? "[T]he Father sent the Son to be the Savior
of the world" (I John 4:14). Did He send Himself'?
Worse yet, did one "office" pray to and send a
"title"? Father, Son and Holy Spirit have distinct
functions, yet each works only in conjunction with the others. Christ
said, "[T]he words that I speak unto
you I speak not of myself [on my own initiative]: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works" (John
14:10); "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another
Comforter .... Even the Spirit of truth" (John
14:16-17). Throughout the New Testament
Father, Son and Holy Spirit are separately honored
and act as God, yet only in concert with one another.
The Old Testament also presents three
Persons in the Godhead interacting. For example:
"Hearken unto me, 0 Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the
first, I also am the last. Mine hand also hath laid the foundation
of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens-from the time that
it was, there am I: and now the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent
me" (Isaiah 48:12-16). The One speaking through Isaiah refers
to Himself as "the first and the last" and the Creator of all, so
He must be God. But he speaks of two others in the same passage
who must also be God: "the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath
sent me." Jesus presented a similar passage to the Pharisees
(Matthew 22:41-46) when He asked them who the Messiah was, and they
said, "The Son of David." He then quoted Psalm 110:1: "The
LORD said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool." Then Jesus asked them,
"If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?" (Matthew
22:45). The Pharisees were speechless. Unitarianism cannot explain
these two "Lords."
It is a mystery how God
can exist in three Persons yet be one God; but it is also a mystery how God could have no beginning and create everything out
of nothing. We
can't understand what a human soul or spirit is. Nor can we
explain love or beauty or justice. It is beyond human capacity to
comprehend the full nature of God's being. But neither can we
understand what it means for us or anything else to exist-- nor is can we
comprehend what space is or what time is or matter. For every door
science opens, there are ten more unopened doors on the other
side. The more we learn, the more rapidly the unknown
expands before us like receding images in a hall of mirrors. The
Jehovah's Witnesses and other Unitarians argue that because the Trinity
can't be understood it can't be. But the fact that it is beyond
human comprehension is no reason for rejecting what the Bible presents
so consistently to us.
God is telling us about Himself so that we may believe in
and know Him.
We dare not reject what He says or lower it to the level of our finite
minds.
Written primarily to respond to
teachings of The United Pentecostal Church.
Also see Global Peace and the Rise
of Antichrist, Chapter 18
For more information contact:
The Berean Call www.thebereancall.org
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