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The
Trinity
God is a trinity of persons: the Father, the Son, and the
Holy
Spirit. The Father is not the same person as the Son; the Son is
not the same person as the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is not
the same person as Father. They are not three gods and not
three beings. They are three distinct persons; yet, they are
all the one God. Each has a will, can speak, can love, etc.,
and these are demonstrations of personhood. They are in
absolute perfect harmony consisting of one substance. They are
coeternal, coequal, and copowerful. If any one of the three were
removed, there would be no God. (See also, "Another Look at
the Trinity")
Jesus, the Son, is one
person with two natures: Divine and Human. This is
called the Hypostatic
Union. The Holy Spirit
is also divine in nature and is self aware, the third person of the
Trinity.
There is, though, an
apparent separation of some functions among the members of the
Godhead. For example, the Father chooses who will be saved (Eph. 1:4);
the Son redeems them (Eph. 1:7); and
the Holy Spirit seals them, (Eph. 1:13).
A further point of clarification
is that God is not one person, the Father, with Jesus as a creation
and the Holy Spirit is a force (Jehovah's Witnesses).
Neither is He one person who took three consecutive forms, i.e., the
Father, became the Son, who became the Holy Spirit. Nor is God the
divine nature of the Son (where Jesus had a human nature perceived
as the Son and a divine nature perceived as the Father (Oneness theology). Nor is
the Trinity an office held by three separate Gods (Mormonism).
The word "person" is used to describe the three members of the
Godhead because the word "person" is appropriate. A person is
self aware, can speak, love, hate, say "you," "yours," "me," "mine,"
etc. Each of the three persons in the Trinity demonstrate
these qualities.
The chart below
should help you to see how the doctrine of the Trinity is
systematically derived from Scripture. The list is not exhaustive,
only illustrative.
The first step
is to establish the biblical doctrine that there is only one
God. Then, you find that each of the persons is called God,
each creates, each was involved in Jesus' resurrection, each
indwells, etc. Therefore, God is one, but the one God is in
three simultaneous persons. Please note that the idea of a
composite unity is not a foreign concept to the Bible; after all,
man and wife are said to be one flesh. The idea of a composite
unity of persons is spoken of by God in Genesis (Gen.
2:24).
There is only one
God
The first step is to establish how many Gods exist: one! Isaiah
43:10; 44:6,8;
45:5,14,18,21,22;
46:9;
47:8;
John
17:3; 1 Cor.
8:5-6; Gal.
4:8-9
- "I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides Me there is
no God" (Isaiah
45:5).
“Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel And
his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the
last, And there is no God besides Me," (Isaiah
44:6).
"I am the Lord, and there
is no other; besides Me there is no God, (Isaiah 55:5).
The
Trinity
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