I love the Trinity and want you to as well. I'm not talking about an abstract doctrine, I'm talking about my God. The doctrine of the Trinity describes my God in living detail and it's glorious if you see it. The first objective is to define the doctrine precisely and plainly because most objections stem from misunderstanding. Abstraction is dangerous here. Abstractions are made to help us understand real things, but if we can't make it back from abstraction, we haven't understood anything real. The second objective is to prove the doctrine based on the Bible. Finally, once the properly defined doctrine is understood and established based on the Word of God, we want to consider why a philosophy grounded in this three-in-one God is so much better than any philosophy man can come up with.
Article 1. We believe in the one true and living God, the Father, the Word, the Holy Ghost.
The first description of God is that there is one God. He only is God and is completely unique--that is the first pillar of the doctrine of the Trinity. The article goes on to describe the one true and living God as the Father, the Word, the Holy Ghost. This is not merely three different names for a single person, but three distinct persons that partake in the being or essence of the one God--or the Godhead. The third pillar is that each of these three divine persons share the full and complete nature of God equally and eternally. Many complaints against the doctrine of Trinity act as if we're saying God is one and three in the same sense, which would be a logical contradiction, so we will clarify that the threeness is the persons and onness is the being. The three persons relate to each other in eternal love and communion, and each exist together in one self-sustaining, eternal being with divine attributes such as absolute power, absolute wisdom, and changelessness.
The Old Testament emphasizes the unity and uniquness of God throughout.
De 6:4-5 Hear, O Isreal: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Is 43: 10-11 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.
Is 44:6 Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.
Is 45:18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.
These are just a few examples where God declares himself as one God. He claims authority over the whole universe as its creator, and particularly over Isreal as his redeemer. This is the first boundary as we ponder the nature and person of God is that there is a fundamental unity and oneness relating to his existence and authority that is not shared with any other being.
The second pillar, relating to the distinctness of the three persons, becomes vivid in the incarnation and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lu 1:35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
Mt 3:16-17 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
I chose these two as examples showing Jesus revealed himself as the Son of God and showing a clear distinction between himself and the person of the Father and that of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of God and Holy Spirit are just synonyms of the Holy Ghost so can be used interchangeably. But clearly the names of Father and Son are not synonyms and so must be talking about two distinct persons. The scene at the baptism shows while the Son was in the water, the Spirit descended; and then after the Spirit descended, the voice of the Father spoke from heaven. This can only be understood as three distinct persons and not merely three names nor three offices of the same person.
The Jewish leaders rejected Christ appealing to the Old Testament teachings of the unity of the Godhead, but the plurality of persons in the Godhead doesn't contradict the unity of God. I look at the pattern of the Beloved in Song of Solomon 2:8-9. In this story there is an account of the Shulamite woman seeing her beloved coming from the mountains, then seeing him behind her wall showing himself through the lattice of her window. I can relate to that image because when a person is close to you, more details about their appearance are visible than when they were distant. God was visible to his people in the Old Testament time, but he came closer in the incarnation. There were hints and evidence of the plurality in the nature of God in the Old Testament, but the distinct persons of Father, Son, and Spirit were not made explicit until God came in the flesh. The key is to not make a false choice between either accepting unity or plurality, but to learn how God combines both in his nature.
The third pillar is the full divinity and equality of each individual person. In Jn 5:17-23 we see that Jesus was claiming that God was his Father in a sense that gave him the same nature as his Father. We pray to the Father by the Spirit of Adoption (Rom 8:15), but Jesus was the only begotten Son (Jn 3:16). In this passage Jesus claims to do all the works as the Father including quickening the dead, executing judgment, and receiving honor from men. In the prologue of John, Jn 1:1-3, Jesus is ascribed being God, eternally present with God, and creating all things. This passage definitely identifies Christ as the one true and living God of the Old Testament as well as being present with the other persons who are also God. In Christ's prayer in Jn 17, he shines some light on that eternal presence with God as glorifying one another (v.5), being one (v.22), and loving one another (v.24). The Spirit was present in creation (Gen 1:2), inspired Holy Scripture (2Pe 1:21 + 2Ti 3:16), formed Christ's human nature (Lu 1:35), sent by the Father to guide the church into all truth, and reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment (Jn 16:7-16). Each of these actions attributed to the Holy Spirit prove that he is fully and eternally God. Finally, they are each named during each Baptism into his church (Mt 28:19), which wouldn't make sense unless they all were completely and equally divine.
There are many more scriptures that demonstrate the Trinity and a long history of debates that we can't get into, but I hope there is enough there to understand what the doctrine teaches and that there is clear biblical support for it. Hopefully, it will convince those that agree that the Bible is the truth. However, for those that find the Trinity so unbelievable that it is a stumbling blockto accepting the Bible, I think taking some time to consider this issue from a secular standpoint would be helpful.
The conscious investigation of the nature of reality or being is called metaphysics or ontology. Historically in secular ontology, there have been beliefs set forth about the ultimate unit of realitythat goes in one of only two directions--monistic and atomistic. Monism is the belief that underneath all material and forces is one substance that explains the unity and harmony of all things. Atomism is the belief that the world is comprised of manydiscrete units or atoms that explain the variety and distinctions we experience. Monistic ontologies prioritize unity and try to explain change and variety in terms of the overall unified system. Atomistic ontologies prioritize diversity and try to explain relationships and laws in terms of the interplay betweenthe nature of individual things.
For the last couple hundred years, secular philosophy has not given metaphysics much attention as they realized that we can't resolve the differences of such ideas on the basis of our natural reason. Notwithstanding the suspicion of metaphysical arguments, one's belief about the fundamental nature of reality certainly determines what one considers good and bad approaches to wisdom in every aspect of life and society. Bible believers aren't neutral or accommodating to secular metaphysical theories. We believe that being is fundamentally aself-existent God that created everything we experience. So as we attempt to gain wisdom and learn the meaning and relationships of the various aspects of the world, our fundamental knowledge from God's word guides us. In God’s word we find that not only does a perfectly unified Godhead provide a basis for understanding and believing that there is harmony and order in all the diversity of life, we also find that particularity of individuals, and loving relationships are as equally fundamental as unity in the eternal Godhead.
The whole history of Western Philosophy is an unresolved tension between an ultimate reality that is one unchanging essence or several diverse particulars. Ignoring what ultimate reality is, and saying metaphysics is unimportant, hasn't changed the fact that in discussing moral norms, political authority, and factuality; people have fundamentally incompatible views and engage in bitter but unresolvable arguments because one position is based on a monistic metaphysic while the other is atomistic. If you want proof, just log on to social media, like X, and observe how intractable some of the discussions on politics/civil rights are. Monistic arguments always run in the direction that swallows up individuals and diminishes the freedom and uniqueness that we know and love; this understandably triggers a reaction from those to protect individuality. Atomistic arguments always tend to diminish meaningful relationships and obligations undermining social order and cohesion; this understandably triggers a reaction from those seeking to preserve order and harmony.
The Bible allows us to resolve this dilemma because it teaches about a God that need not prioritize unity over diversity norprioritize diversity over unity. The particularity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is not lost in the unity of the Godhead, neither is the unity lost in the particularity. They are one by sharing an eternal essence, exhaustively knowing each other, and absolutely loving each other. A Unitarian god could have created discrete particulars, but things like relationships, love, and distinction of individuals would be secondary or temporary and all things would ultimately resolve into the sovereign power of one. Likewise, polytheistic or subordinate gods might have love and individuality as eternal, but unity and harmony wouldn't be necessary or ultimate. I am not saying that the doctrine of the Trinity was thought up to be a solution to a philosophical problem—it clearly wasn't. Trinity is forced upon us by makingsense of the plain and clear teachings of scripture given to us by God. However, I do believe it gloriously avoids such an impossible dilemma that we've seen play out over history and gives comfort to those that believe it.
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