By Mike Oppenheimer
From his book, The Trinity: The Triune Nature of God
If we are to grasp who God is, we must understand the core doctrine of the nature of God. Acceptance of the biblical view is what separates one from other views such as the polytheism found in Hinduism or the strict monotheism of Islam. How does God define Himself, and how do we explain and clarify the God of the Scriptures?
Since its beginning, the church (with the Scriptures as its foundation) has held that God is one, yet three persons in one. A lack of understanding on this subject does not justify the belief that God is Father only. We must acknowledge what has been communicated to us through the Scriptures—not that we have to understand it completely in every respect, but as believers, we need to apprehend what God has revealed through His holy Word.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Iglesia ni Christo, Christadelphians, and Oneness Pentecostals (Jesus Only) all have their own views of the character of the Son, all of which differ vastly from what the Bible reveals. A biblical understanding of the nature and character of the Son is crucial to understanding the nature and character of God.
The Trinity doctrine is criticized by many who claim it was developed hundreds of years after the apostles died and was not accepted until the fourth century. But an honest examination of church history clearly reveals the records of early church writings. As assaults against the primacy of the Scriptures were launched, godly men rose to the challenges to defend and affirm what the Scriptures themselves say.
Christology became the key to having a clear understanding of the nature and character of the Son. Was He merely a created being, or was and is He the Son of God, preexistent with the Father before He became incarnate as the man called Jesus?
The main argument used against the biblical view of the Trinity is that one cannot find the word “Trinity” in the Bible. Nor can there be found in Scripture the phrases “three persons” or “God the Son.” The fact is, the word “Bible” is not in the Bible either. We use this word to describe all sixty-six books that make up our Old and New Testaments. Even chapter and verse numbers are not found in the original writings but came many centuries later, yet we accept and use them. We use these terms to explain biblical terminology to make plain what is written.
The Trinity doctrine was drawn from the Scriptures out of necessity to answer a series of errors, the first which was called modalism (oneness), a heresy that sprung up in the middle of the second century.
The word Trinity comes from the Latin word trinitas, which means three-in-one or threefold, much like the Hebrew word echad (a plural unity). The Trinity is not describing three substances but three distinct identities (persons) existing simultaneously, all of whom share the one essence of God. This does not mean they are three Gods nor are the persons separate from the essence; rather they abide as one in it. God is triune as persons but in nature is One. Athanasius coined the phrase in his debates, “not dividing the substance nor confusing the persons.” In nature, they cannot be separated; in person, they have always been distinct in their identity but in relationship with each other. A. H. Strong stated:
In the nature of the one God there are three eternal distinctions . . . and these three are equal. . . . “The doctrine of the Trinity does not on one hand assert that three persons are united as one person, or three beings in one being, or three Gods in one God (tri-theism); nor on the other hand that God merely manifests himself in three different ways (modal trinity, or trinity of manifestations); but rather that there are three eternal distinctions in the substance of God.”1
While angels are called spirits, God is an uncreated Spirit, the One who created the angel spirits and the cause of all things existing, seen and unseen. God is not divisible among the distinctions of persons but indivisible. Distinguishing the differences of being and person can be related thus: “being” is what makes something what it is; it is its essential nature; “person” is what makes someone an individual identity. From the beginning, God has revealed Himself as one being that is plural in persons.
With no disrespect intended, in mathematical terms, the nature of God would not be 1+1+1 = 3, which would be tritheism, but rather 1x1x1 = 1, which would indicate a unified one. None of the persons of the Godhead can exist without the others. They all make up the one God in unity. However, if any one of the three appears, it is a God appearance. The essence is not wholly exclusive to only one of these at a time. Nor is it transferred from the Father to the Son (as if the Father becomes the Son or the Son becomes the Holy Spirit). All three have simultaneously existed together throughout eternity as the one God according to the Bible. Each person has a position and a relationship to each other.
Endnote:
Augustus H. Strong, Systematic Theology (1903, Kindle edition), p.144, Kindle location 9717.
Also by Mike Oppenheimer:
(image from the cover of The Trinity by Mike Oppenheimer; taken from bigstockphoto.com; used with permission)
Note more commands given Personally:
Acts 10: 19-20
“And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.””
Acts 11:11-12a
“And behold, at that very moment three men arrived at the house in which we were, sent to me from Caesarea. And the Spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction.”
In addition to the above pictures of unity and Personhood from Scripture is Matthew 28:19 – “having gone, then, disciple all the nations, baptizing them — to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”. The use of a name with the Holy Spirit (specifically by the Son in the same breath as the Father and the Son) is telling, as is the command from Jesus that the name of the Holy Spirit be used in union with that of the Father and the Son in the baptismal prescription before all Christians.
All of the above pictures and concepts seem to speak to unity as well as Personhood, which corresponds to what is known as the concept of the Trinity.
John 14 is full of references to unity, not only of the Son to the Father but the Son to the Holy Spirit. Jesus speaks of asking the Father for “another” to come and abide with His people once He returns to Heaven, also speaking of a later time when Jesus will return:
John 14:16-18
“and I will ask the Father, and another Comforter He will give to you, that he may remain with you — to the age; the Spirit of truth, whom the world is not able to receive, because it doth not behold him, nor know him, and ye know him, because he doth remain with you, and shall be in you. ‘I will not leave you bereaved, I come unto you”
In what way would He be “another”? Given the context, it does not appear to be a matter of distinction of essence or nature. Also given the context and language, clear allusions of Personhood are evident concerning the one who would be “another Comforter”. Thus, it appears to be a matter of One with shared essence with Jesus yet distinct Personhood, allowing this other Comforter to come to God’s people and remain with them until the bodily return of Jesus.
Furthering the point that Jesus’ return will be bodily:
Acts 1:11b — “this Jesus who was received up from you into the heaven, shall so come in what manner ye saw him going on to the heaven.'” (YLT)
The clear picture of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit in the accounts of the baptism of Jesus (Luke 3, Mark 1, and Luke 3) seems to speak to unity as well as distinct Personhood.
Luke 3:21-22 — “And it came to pass, in all the people being baptised, Jesus also being baptised, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit came down in a bodily appearance, as if a dove, upon him, and a voice came out of heaven, saying, ‘Thou art My Son — the Beloved, in thee I did delight.’”
Scripture makes clear that the Holy Spirit was distinctly present (Σωματικῷ εἴδει, “in a bodily appearance” per Luke 3:22) alongside physically incarnate Jesus.
The issue of bodily presence evidently reappears when Jesus tells His disciples of His leaving Earth and returning to Heaven:
John 14:2-3 — “in the house of my Father are many mansions; and if not, I would have told you; I go on to prepare a place for you; and if I go on and prepare for you a place, again do I come, and will receive you unto myself, that where I am ye also may be”
Many verses also appear to indicate the Personhood of the Holy Spirit as opposed to what some contend, somehow only seeing Him as the power of God.
Romans 8:26-7
“And, in like manner also, the Spirit doth help our weaknesses; for, what we may pray for, as it behoveth [us], we have not known, but the Spirit himself (pneuma autos) doth make intercession for us with groanings unutterable, and He who is searching the hearts hath known what [is] the mind of the Spirit, because according to God he doth intercede for saints.” 1) To Whom is intercession being made, and from Whom? 2) Is there a clear translation of Scripture that makes “the mind of the Spirit” read as anything but a characteristic of Personhood, especially as another is described as having known what is “the mind of the Spirit”?”
Acts 5: 3-4
“But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.””
How does one lie to power?
Acts 13:2
“Now as they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart then to Me (Hagios pneuma eipon dē aphorizō moi) Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
Who is “Me”, a Person or a power?
Ephesians 4:30
“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
How does one “grieve” power?
Some Trinity / divinity of Christ verses
Isaiah 44:6
“This said YHWH, King of Israel and his Redeemer, YHWH of Hosts: “I [am] the first, and I [am] the last, and besides Me there is no God.”
The above may be looked at in the light of what may seem an apparent overlap of declarations as to the First and the Last, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End (archē kai telos) in the book of Revelation. Some of those verses seem to correspond with the Almighty who was, and is, and is to come (with wording appearing to correspond to the Father as described in Revelation 1:4), while in Revelation 22:13, Christ evidently describes Himself as the Beginning and the End:
Rev 1:4-5
“John to the seven assemblies that [are] in Asia: Grace to you, and peace, from Him who is, and who was, and who is coming, and from the Seven Spirits that are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born out of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth; to Him who did love us, and did bathe us from our sins in His blood.”
Revelation 1:8
‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, beginning and end, saith the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is coming — the Almighty.’
Revelation 21:5-6
“And He who is sitting upon the throne said, ‘Lo, new I make all things; and He saith to me, ‘Write, because these words are true and stedfast;’ and He said to me, ‘It hath been done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End; I, to him who is thirsting, will give of the fountain of the water of the life freely.”
Revelation 22:12-13
“And lo, I come quickly, and my reward [is] with me, to render to each as his work shall be; I am the Alpha and the Omega — the Beginning and End — the First and the Last.”
Isaiah 48:16-17
“Come near to Me, hear this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning, from the time of its being, I [am] there; and now Lord YHWH has sent Me, and His Spirit.” Thus said YHWH, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I [am] your God YHWH, teaching you to profit, causing you to tread in the way you go.”
John 5:22-23
“For neither does the Father judge any one, but all the judgment He has given to the Son, that all may honor the Son according as (kathos, also ‘even as’ in some translations) they honor the Father; he who is not honoring the Son, doth not honor the Father who sent Him.”
Romans 10:1-13, esp. 9-13
“that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him out from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Verse 13 quotes Joel 2:32a in which the word “Lord”…
Isaiah 44:6
“This said YHWH, King of Israel and his Redeemer, YHWH of Hosts: “I [am] the first, and I [am] the last, and besides Me there is no God.”
The above may be looked at in the light of what may seem an apparent overlap of declarations as to the First and the Last, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End (archē kai telos) in the book of Revelation. Some of those verses seem to correspond with the Almighty who was, and is, and is to come (with wording appearing to correspond to the Father as described in Revelation 1:4), while in Revelation 22:13, Christ evidently describes Himself as the Beginning and the End:
Rev 1:4-5
“John to the seven assemblies that [are] in Asia: Grace to you, and peace, from Him who is, and who was, and who is coming, and from the Seven Spirits that are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born out of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth; to Him who did love us, and did bathe us from our sins in His blood.”
Revelation 1:8
‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, beginning and end, saith the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is coming — the Almighty.’
Revelation 21:5-6
“And He who is sitting upon the throne said, ‘Lo, new I make all things; and He saith to me, ‘Write, because these words are true and stedfast;’ and He said to me, ‘It hath been done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End; I, to him who is thirsting, will give of the fountain of the water of the life freely.”
Revelation 22:12-13
“And lo, I come quickly, and my reward [is] with me, to render to each as his work shall be; I am the Alpha and the Omega — the Beginning and End — the First and the Last.”
Isaiah 48:11c — “My glory I will not give to another.”
Isaiah 42:8 xx “I am the LORD [Yahweh]; that is My name; My glory I give to no other, nor My praise to carved images.”
Revelation 19:10 — “Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
Revelation 5:13-14 — “And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshipped.”
What is said per Revelation 5:13-14 evidently is said to the Father and to the Lamb, heard as being given by creatures apparently at the same time, with no apparent distinction made except for Personhood. It seems telling that God would allow for such an image of worship and glory to evidently be shared before all creatures.
1st john 5-7 there are three that bear record in heaven the father, the word , the holy ghost.
many perverted bibles exclude this passage.
the GOD HEAD REMOVED IN ROMANS 1-20