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.

   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

   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.

   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  fellowshiped 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" (Gn 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"? (Gn 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" (Dt 6:4;Mk 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" (Jn 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" (Ex 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 Saviour of the world" (I Jn 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" (Jn 14:10); "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter .... Even the Spirit  of truth" (Jn 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" (Is 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 (Mt 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?" (Mt 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 can we comprehend what space is or what time is or matter is.  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.