BASIC TRUTHS - THE TRINITY

The Godhead eternally exists in three, co-equal Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and these three are one God.

The teaching of the Trinity has been an area of contention from the beginning of the Church. This is understandable when one considers the great emphasis in the Scriptures on the unity of God and the mental gymnastics needed to try to accommodate in the human mind the concept of three being one. And Patrick's shamrock illustration will not really do since each part of the leaf is not the whole leaf, whereas each Person of the Godhead is wholly and fully God. The nearest analogy is the human triune nature of body, soul and spirit (see I Thess. 5 v 23). However, the thing is more than a head matter - it must be revealed to the heart and received in faith. How can the finite human mind hope to surround and contain in its understanding, truths about the infinite and eternal One? Moreover, the teaching of the Trinity is not a mere invention of the Church under the influence of the thoughtforms of its day. No! Its foundation is laid quite surely in Scripture and its importance is fundamental to the work of salvation, for on it depends the Deity of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

The teaching proclaims that there are three Persons, 'Personalities', with different functions (but where one Person operates the whole Godhead is involved). Thus the Father is seen as the fount of all Deity. (Read Ephesians Chapter 1 vv 4 - 11). The Son eternally reveals the Father whether it be in the Old Testament appearances (the so-called theophanies) or in the Incarnation in the New Testament. (Study Matt 11 v 27; Hebrews 1 vv 1 - 3; Colossians 1 vv 12 - 15). The Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son (See John chapters 14 v 26, 16 v 7 and 15 v 26), glorifies the Son (John 16 vv 13, 14). It is the Father's love that sets in motion the work of salvation (John 3 vv 16, 17; I John 4 vv 9 & 10). It is the Son who was willing to come that through Him we might be reconciled to God, having redeemed us through His blood (Ephesians 1 v 7). Hence the Scriptures affirm that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself..." (II Cor. 5 v 19). Having experienced this work of salvation in our own lives, we too become sons of God our Father (John 1 v 12; I John 3 vv 1, 2), and brethren, heirs and joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8 vv 14 - 17). It is the Holy Spirit who pleads with the hearts of men and women to be reconciled (John 16 v 8). The Son ever lives to intercede before the Father for us. (Hebrews 7 v 25). He is our advocate, should we sin, to plead on our behalf, for His blood was shed to cover all our sin. (I John 1 vv 9 - II John 2 v 1). The Holy Spirit is the Comforter, the Paraclete, or the One who indwells believers and who 'calls' to us on behalf of the Father to guide us into all Truth (John 16 v 13), to teach us all things (I John 2 v 27; I Cor. 2 v 12), and to enable us to live lives of prayer and power (Read Romans Chapter 8 and Acts 1 v 8) - the Christ-life.

Yet they are not separate Beings but One in essential nature and where One is so are all. The Word 'Person' in this sense, it actually taken from the Latin word persona which was the role an actor played (cf. the term dramatis personae) or, more precisely, the mask which, in ancient times, he would have worn to portray a character in drama. This, however, falls far short when applied to God for the Bible does not suggest that the Trinity is simply God playing three separate roles at different stages. That heresy has long been repudiated since it denies the three distinct personalities of the Godhead. Neither dare we swing to the other extreme by holding that there are three separate Beings. In essential Being God is One. The best of which human language is capable is to present the matter in a seemingly illogical way, that God is three Persons in One essential nature and Being. But it is important for us to grasp this by faith.

The Old Testament

In the Old Testament, one finds the strongest statements emphasising the Unity of God. The confession of faith, still recited faithfully by Jewish people today (called the Shema) is central; "Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is One Lord." (Deut. 6 v 4). In spite of this it is surprising to find that God is referred to by a plural term, a plural noun which, nevertheless, is used with a singular verb. " In the beginning God..." (Gen. 1 v 1) The Hebrew word for God is Elohim which is plural. Further, one finds God speaking, not in the first person singular but plural; "Let us make man in our image after our likeness." (Genesis 1 v 26). Then, in Isaiah 6 v 8, the deliberation of God is similar: "Whom shall I send, who will go for us?" The three-fold ascription of worship a few verses previously, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts" cannot be without significance. (see also Isaiah 46 v 5)

Why did the Jews not alter these records or refuse to accept them as Scriptures, if plurality of Persons in the Godhead is a denial of the Oneness of God? Surely it must be because such plurality is fundamental to the idea of God. A God of singular personality would not be complete. He could not be Love, for love requires an object. The Son is the eternal object of the Father's love and the revelation of His will and purpose. A God of singular personality could neither love nor reveal Himself in creation.

David, in Psalm 110 v 1, said, "The Lord said unto my Lord..." In Hebrew, two different words are used, so that it reads, "Jehovah said unto my Adon (Lord)..." Using this Scripture, Jesus asked a question about the Messiah, "What think you of Christ? Whose Son is He? They say unto Him David's. He says unto them, How then does David in Spirit call Him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord... If David then call Him Lord, how is He His Son?" (Matt 22 vv 41 - 46). Do you see the truth Jesus was revealing in that very question? Yet the so-called Jehovah's Witnesses, pose the same question today to reject the very Truth of the Deity of Christ and the teaching of the Trinity, they being wilfully ignorant of the fact that it is only the teaching of the Trinity that satisfactorily answers the issue.

Finally, in the 'Wisdom' portions of the book of Proverbs one can find the eternal, pre-Incarnation Son, Christ the Wisdom of God (see I Cor. 1 v 24), the One who would, as the Word of God, be made flesh. Of that Wisdom, Who in Proverbs is spoken of as a Person, it is said, "The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was... Then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him." (Proverbs 8 vv 22 - 30).