Shortly after I committed my life to Jesus Christ I had some people knock on my door selling a magazine called the Watchtower. They said they were Christians, so I invited them into my apartment. We talked for a while, and they showed me the latest issue of their magazine. The cover story was called "Should You Believe in the Trinity?" They asked me if I believed in the trinity, and I said, "I think so." They told me the trinity was a pagan doctrine that was not taught in the Bible. They pointed out that the word "trinity" never occurs in the Bible. They said that people who believe in the trinity worship three gods, not one God. Well I was understandably confused, because I knew I didn’t worship three gods.
A few months later there was another knock on my door. These were clean cut looking college age guys riding ten speed bikes and dressed in crisp white shirts and ties. They said they were going door to door telling people about Jesus Christ, and again I invited them inside. Because of my earlier visitor, I immediately asked these two young Mormon missionaries if they believed in the trinity. They said, "Oh yes, we believe in the trinity." But as we started talking, it became clear that they believed in three separate gods, just like my earlier visitor had claimed.
I remember thinking, "Maybe the trinity is a pagan doctrine."
I was really confused by now. I went to one of our pastors and he gave me some books and tapes to help me understand the Bible’s teaching about the trinity. But since then I’ve noticed that lots of Christians don’t understand how God can be both three and one.
We’re in the midst of a series through God’s attributes called SIMPLY GOD. Today we’re going to talk about the God Who Is 3-in-1. In other words we’re going to talk about the trinity, specifically looking at the logic of the doctrine of the trinity.
1. Only One True God.
We start with the Old Testament because this is where the Bible itself starts. The Old Testament consistently presents us with the idea that there is only one true God. Since there is only one true God, we worship Him alone.
Let’s look at a few verses that demonstrate this.
Deuteronomy 32:17-- They sacrificed to demons, which are not God-- gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear (NIV).
Deuteronomy 32:39-- "See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand."
Now you can find statements like these about there being only one true God on almost every page of the Old Testament, but I chose these two verses because they go back to Moses himself. This passage is predicting a time when Israel would forsake the true God and worship false gods. Here Moses says that these false gods are indeed supernatural beings—-he calls them "demons"—-but that they are not true Gods.
But the God of Israel here claims to be the only true God, the only author of life and death, the God who can bring both calamity and healing. This claim that there’s only one true God lays at the heart of the first commandment. God commanded the Israelites to have no other gods before him because He was the only true God. Only the true God created the heavens and the earth, only the true God liberated Israel from their slavery in Egypt. Throughout the Old Testament the people of Israel faced the temptation to break this first commandment by worshipping false gods.
Now because of this conviction that there’s only one God, CHRISTIANS ARE MONOTHEISTS. Along with Judaism and Islam, the Christian faith is one of three monotheistic faiths in the world. All three of these faiths believe that there’s only one true God.
This is where my Mormon friends falter, because although they say they believe in the trinity, they stumble on this fundamental point. Look at what Bruce R. McConkie, a mormon apostle says about the trinity:
"There are three Gods--the Father, Son and Holy Spirit--who, though separate in personality, are united in one purpose, in plan, and in all the attributes of perfection" (McConkie 317).
By definition, the Latter Day Saint church is not monotheistic because they believe in more than one god. If believing in the trinity meant believing in three separate gods who have joined together in some sort of divine committee, then the doctrine of the trinity would contradict the Old Testament. But what I mean by the term "trinity" is very different than what the Latter Day Saints mean by the term.
Since the Bible starts in the Old Testament with God’s oneness, that’s a good place for us to start. We worship only the true and living God.
2. Three Individuals Rightfully Called God
This brings us to our second part of the logic of the trinity: In the Bible we discover three separate individuals rightfully called God.
Now it’s important to underline that term "rightfully" because lots of things are wrongfully called gods. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 8:5, "For...there are [many] so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth..." Satan himself is called a god in 2 Corinthians 4:4 because many people inadvertently serve Satan, but of course Satan isn’t the true God.
Back in the Old Testament God told Moses that he’d be like a god to the Egyptian Pharaoh (Exodus 7:1), but of course that doesn’t mean that Moses is the true God. So although the term "god" gets applied to lots of things and people in the Bible, this doesn’t mean that person or thing is rightfully called God. But in the Bible we encounter three different individuals who are RIGHTFULLY called God.
In the Bible we find that THE FATHER IS RIGHTFULLY CALLED GOD.
2 Peter 1:17-- For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased" (NIV).
The phrase "God the Father" occurs about 40 different times in the Bible. In fact, "Father" is the dominant New Testament way of describing God. Nobody disputes this claim, that the Father is God. But we need to be careful at this point, because lots of people assume that since God usually describes the Father that the term God must always describe the Father, and that’s simply not true.
We also discover in the Bible that JESUS CHRIST IS RIGHTFULLY CALLED GOD.
Now this is a more controversial claim, because my Jehovah’s Witness friend would vigorously deny this claim.
But look at the evidence for yourself.
John 20:28--Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
This passage couldn’t be clearer that Thomas is calling Jesus Christ the true God. Notice that both titles "Lord" and "God" are addressed to Jesus, so we can’t claim Thomas said "my Lord" to Jesus and then looked up and said, "my God" to the Father. Both were said "to him," that is, to Jesus.
Also it’s important to know that the way the Greek text reads, Thomas literally says, "The Lord of me and the God of me," so it’s impossible that he means Jesus is "a god." Since Thomas uses the definite article "the" (Greek ho), he’s not just saying Jesus is like a god or a supernatural being.
Jesus commends Thomas for his faith, and pronounces a blessing on those who believe the same thing Thomas believed without having to see Christ for themselves.
But this is just one of hundreds of verses in the Bible that identify Jesus Christ as God. Isaiah 9:6 predicted that Jesus would be the Mighty God as well as the prince of peace. When Isaiah saw Yahweh’s glory in Isaiah chapter 6, the New Testament claims that this was Jesus Christ’s glory Isaiah saw (John 12:39-41). Peter describes Jesus Christ as "our God and Savior" in 2 Peter 1:1. The apostle Peter calls Jesus "our great God and Savior" in Titus 2:15.
We find Jesus Christ doing things in the Bible that only God can do, things like forgiving people’s sins, raising himself from the dead, and receiving worship.
In order for my Jehovah’s Witness friend to deny that Jesus Christ is rightfully called God he has to resort to a Bible translation that actually changes verses in order to fit his belief system.
Now when we say Jesus Christ is God, that doesn’t mean that Jesus Christ wasn’t also human. Clearly Jesus Christ was human as well. Sometimes people point to verses that describe Jesus’ humanity as if that somehow proves that Jesus isn’t God. We read in the Bible about Jesus weeping, getting tired, getting hungry, and so forth. But as Christians we believe that Jesus Christ is BOTH fully human AND fully God, that both are true simultaneously. We believe that the eternal son of God took on human form at Christmas.
Let me given you an analogy about how both can be true. Imagine meeting a friend who’s never been to the church. Imagine you mention to your friend that a guy named Tim Peck is one of the pastors at the church you attend. Your friend says, "Hey, I know a Tim Peck, but he’s a teacher at a local university." As you talk, it seems like you’re talking about the same guy--37 years old, graduate from Upland High, spikey hair, four boys, married 17 years to a wife named Chris--but you’re confused, because you know me as a pastor but your friend knows me as a college instructor. Which is true? Well they’re both true of course, because me being a pastor doesn’t eliminate the possibility that I also teach part time at a university. The fact is that I do both.
It’s the same thing with Jesus being both fully God and fully human; both are true.
Now it’s also important to note that the Bible does not teach that Jesus Christ BECAME God. Some people view the title "God" as being like an honorary degree that’s bestowed on someone who doesn’t actually earn it. These people think Jesus lived such an awesome life that he became divine. But the Bible teaches that Jesus IS God, not that he BECAME God by living a special life. He lived a special life because he was already God himself in human form. So Christ is rightfully called God in the Bible.
We also find in the Bible that the Holy Spirit is rightfully called God.
Acts 5:3-4-- Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God."
Notice several important insights here: First that this guy Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit, which of course assumes the Holy Spirit is a personal being who can be lied to. I often hear people refer to the Holy Spirit as an "it" but the Bible teaches the Holy Spirit is a personal being, a "he." You can’t lie to your kitchen sink, you can’t try to deceive your car, you can’t lie to gravity. You can only try to deceive a personal being. The Bible reinforces this idea when it also says you can grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph 4:30), blaspheme the Holy Spirit (Matt 12:34), outrage the Holy Spirit (Heb 10:29), and quench the Holy Spirit (1 Thess 5:19). The Holy Spirit is a personal being.
But we also find here that to lie to the Holy Spirit is to lie to God, which is another way of saying that the Holy Spirit is God. If the Holy Spirit is a personal being that can be lied to and if Ananias’ lie to the Holy Spirit was also a lie to God, then it makes sense that the Holy Spirit is rightfully called God.
There are other passages that suggest the Holy Spirit is God as well, for instance when Paul says "the Lord is the Spirit" (2 Cor 3:17) and when Hebrews calls him "the eternal Spirit" (Heb 9:14).
So we find here that there are three individuals legitimately called God: God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
3. One God In Three Persons
Now our question is how to put these ideas together. If the Bible teaches that there’s only one true God but the Bible also teaches that we can rightfully call the Father God, Jesus God, and the Holy Spirit God, does this mean the Bible contradicts itself?
Some have suggested that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all the same person. Much like an actor who plays more than one role in a movie, some people have suggested that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three "masks" that God wears. But this would turn Jesus into a ventriloquist at his baptism, since God the Father speaks as Jesus is baptized, and the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus in the form of a dove. In fact, many critics of the trinity think that this is what we believe. But it’s not. This explanation would maintain God’s oneness, but it would turn events like Jesus’ baptism into a charade, a clever trick.
The difficulty we confront here is very similar to a difficulty encountered for many years in physics (McGrath). It seems that as scientists have studied light they’ve observed that sometimes light behaves like a wave but other times light behaves like a particle. For many generations scientists viewed this as a paradox, because it was thought to be impossible for light to be both a wave and a particle. But with the development of Quantum theory in physics suddenly scientists could understand how light could behave like a particle in some circumstances and a wave in other circumstances, that this wasn’t a contradiction but that it could be fit together.
What quantum theory is to physics the doctrine of the trinity is to the Christian faith. Just as scientists were puzzled about how light could be both a particle and a wave, we’re puzzled about how God can be both one and three. The trinity is a kind of formula to explain how God can be both one and three.
Because there is only one true God yet the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all rightfully called God, WE WORSHIP ONE GOD WHO EXISTS AS THREE ETERNAL PERSONS: FATHER, SON AND HOLY SPIRIT.
Matthew 28:19-- Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Notice Jesus doesn’t say, "in the name of the Father, the name of the Son and the name of the Holy Spirit." He also doesn’t say, "In the NAMES of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit." The singular noun "name" refers equally to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. They all equally share the name of God together.
Because of this Bible teaching, Christians by definition are Trinitarian. Christians don’t worship three gods. Christians also don’t think that the Father and the Son are the same person. Christians worship one God who eternally exists as three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The doctrine of the trinity merely takes what is implicit in the Bible and makes it explicit. Whenever we read about God the Father, Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit in the Bible, the underlying assumptions of the biblical author are Trinitarian.
Now my Jehovah’s Witness friend disagrees with this. Let me read you a quote from a Jehovah’s Witness publication called Reasoning From the Scriptures:
"The evidence is indisputable that the dogma of the trinity is not found in the Bible, nor is it in harmony with what the Bible teaches. It grossly misrepresents the true God" (424).
Since they believe that only the Father is rightfully called God, they simply won’t accept the Bible’s teaching that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are also rightfully called God.
Now some have criticized the doctrine of the trinity because the word trinity doesn’t appear in the Bible. That’s certainly true. The term trinity was first used by a second century Christian named Tertullian. But that shouldn’t trouble us too much, because after all the word "Bible" doesn’t occur in the Bible either. The real issue isn’t whether the word is in the Bible or not, but whether the concept is biblical.
Other people have criticized that because the doctrine of the trinity wasn’t universally accepted until the council of Nicea, which was about three hundred years after the New Testament was completed. But consider the a parallel situation from the history of mathematics (McGrath). For thousands of years classical mathematics was unable to figure out how to solve certain kinds of geometrical problems directly. But in the 18th century Sir Isaac Newton and a philosopher name Leibnitz both discovered calculus. This new mathematics of calculus enabled a person to solve certain geographical problems directly, without resorting to the long, complicated process in classical mathematics. The discovery of calculus was an enormous step forward in mathematics. Now what exactly did Newton and Leibnitz discover? The geometric problems were the same, but what they essentially discovered was a new way of handling the same numbers. Since it took mathematics thousands of years to discover calculus, we can hardly complain that it took the church a mere few hundred years to articulate the doctrine of the trinity.
The doctrine of the trinity doesn’t suggest any new data any more than calculus offered new numbers. All the doctrine of the trinity did was suggest a simpler way of handling the data.So this is the logic of the trinity. There is only one true God, yet there are three individuals in the Bible rightfully called God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Thus it must be true that the one true God exists as three eternal persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We worship one God; we worship the triune God.
Now undoubtedly there is mystery involved in the trinity. The fact that we can state the doctrine of the trinity in a coherent way doesn’t mean we can fully comprehend how God can be both three and one. But again, this shouldn’t concern us too much. After all, it hardly seems strange that the infinite creator of the universe can’t be fully understood and comprehended by his own creation. In fact, we should be worried if we think we can fully understand God and figure God out. That would make us God’s peer, his equal. Our attempts to put God into the box of our own understanding are really attempts at exalting ourselves to godhood, or at least to make ourselves God’s equal. Since God is the creator, if He didn’t reveal himself we’d know nothing about Him. And GOd has revealed himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one true God in three persons.
Sources
McConkie, Bruce R. 1979. Mormon Doctrine. Salt Lake City, UT: Bookcraft.
McGrath, Alister. 1997. Studies In Doctrine. Zondervan Publishing.
Reasoning From the Scriptures. 1989. Brooklyn, NY: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.
