Throughout the history of the church, the enemies of God have attacked the Biblical teaching concerning His Nature, particularly the Deity of the Son of God. The doctrine we touch upon in this chapter is one of the most attacked (and best and most consistently defended) of all the major teachings of the Faith: God is Triune, eternally existing as Father, Son, and Spirit (three persons or personalities that are personally distinct)--yet there is only one God. This has been called the doctrine of the TRINITY since the days of the early church, but the early church wars and the philosophical debates surrounding that doctrine, have obscured the fact that the doctrine of the Trinity is solidly supported by Holy Scripture, and is directly drawn from the Scriptures.by Charles Buntin in <Bible.org>
1. The Nature of God
A. God is Spirit. He is incorporeal, invisible, and without material substance or Physical parts and free from all temporal limitations. Willmington p.594
Jesus said, “God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.” Jn. 4:24
Other are confused by the anthropomorphic expressions in the Old Testament such as God’s arms Deut 33:27, His eyes Ps 33:18 etc. They simply terms used to explain some function or characteristic of God. They do not mean that God possesses these Physical parts because he is Spirit. He performs theses functions and this helps us understand.
B. God is a Person.
He expresses and exhibits all the elements involved in personality; such as self consciousness,self- determination, intellect, emotion and will.
1. He creates Gen. 1:1
2. He destroys. Gen 18:20; 19:24-25
3. He provides.Ps 104:27-30
4. He promotes. Ps 75: 6-7
5. He cares. 1 Peter 5:6-7
6. He hears. Ps 94:9-10
7. He hates. Prov 6:16
8. He grieves. Gen 6:6
9. He loves. Jn 3:16
C. God is One. Monotheism
Deu 6:4 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
Deu 6:5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
1Ki 8:60 that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God; there is no other.
Isa 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me,
Isa 45:6 that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other.
D. God is a Trinity
Definition :
C.C. Ryrie says, “There is only one God, but in the unity of the Godhead there are three eternal and co-equal Persons, the same in substance but distinct in subsistence.”
The Trinity is the Christian doctrine that deals with and describes the nature of God. The doctrine asserts the following:
- God eternally exists in three distinct persons.
- The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father, the Father is not the Spirit, etc. <theopedia.com>
Robert Culver : “ Two expressions have traditionally been employed to designate the relations between the Father and the Son, and the Father and the Son with the Spirit. These two expressions are eternal generation of the Son by the father and the eternal spiration or (procession) of the Spirit from the Father and the Son.They began to be employed about the time of the Nicean Council in A.D. 325.They express in spiritual language the idea that the Son and the Spirit were eternally with the Father in the Godhead.
John 1:14 refers to our Lord as the ‘only begotten’ of the Father.Joh 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
(Only-begotten )- This term is never applied by John to any but Jesus Christ. It is applied by him five times to the Saviour, Joh_1:14, Joh_1:18; Joh_3:16, Joh_3:18; 1Jo_4:9. It means literally an only child. Then, as an only child is especially dear to a parent, it means one that is especially beloved. Compare Gen_22:2, Gen_22:12, Gen_22:16; Jer_6:26; Zec_12:10. On both these accounts it is bestowed on the Saviour.
1. As He was eminently the Son of God, sustaining a special relation to Him in His divine nature, exalted above all human beings and angels, and thus worthy to be called, by way of eminence, His only Son. Saints are called His “sons” or children, because they are born of His Spirit, or are like Him; but the Lord Jesus is exalted far above all, and deserves eminently to be called His only-begotten Son.
2. He was especially dear to God, and therefore this appellation, implying tender affection, is bestowed upon him). Barnes Notes
And John 14:16, 26 and 15:26 speak of the Spirit as ‘proceeding from the Father and the Son.
Joh 15:26 "But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me.
J.Gill explains “which proceedeth from the Father; Christ is not content to describe him by his work and office, as, an, advocate and comforter, and as the Spirit of truth: and from his mission by him from the Father; all which shows his usefulness and authority; but also from his nature and essence, which is the same with the Father's; and from his peculiar personal and distinctive character, expressed by his proceeding from the Father; and which is mentioned, as what is distinct from his mission by Christ, from the Father before spoken of; and designs no other, than the eternal, ineffable, and continued act of his procession, from the Father and the Son; in which he partakes of the same nature with them, and which personally distinguishes him from them. The ancient Jews (x) spoke of him just in the same language; "the Spirit of God", in Gen_1:2; they say is the Holy Spirit, מאלהים דנפיק, "which proceedeth from God": very pertinently does Christ take notice of this his character here, when he was about to speak of him as his testifier:” J. Gill
False Views concerning the Trinity:
There are two serious errors:
a. The Error of tri-theism: This says that the trinity consists of three separate( but co-operating Gods.
b. The error of Modalism. According to this view:
In Christianity, Sabellianism, (also known as modalism, modalistic monarchianism, or modal monarchism) is the nontrinitarian belief that the Heavenly Father, Resurrected Son and Holy Spirit are different modes or aspects of one monadic God, as perceived by the believer, rather than three distinct persons within the Godhead.
The term Sabellianism comes from Sabellius, a theologian and priest from the 3rd century. Modalism differs from Unitarianism by accepting the Christian doctrine that Jesus is fully God.
Oneness Pentecostalism teaches that God is one Person, and that the Father (a spirit) is united with Jesus (a man) as the Son of God. However, Oneness Pentecostalism differs somewhat by rejecting sequential modalism, and by the full acceptance of the begotten humanity of the Son, not eternally begotten, who was the man Jesus and was born, crucified, and risen, and not the deity. This directly opposes Patripassianism and the pre-existence of the Son, which Sabellianism does not.
Note Oneness Pentecostals believe that Jesus was "Son" only when he became flesh on earth, but was the Father before being made man. They refer to the Father as the "Spirit" and the Son as the "Flesh". But they believe that Jesus and the Father are one essential Person. Though operating as different "manifestations" or "modes". Oneness Pentecostals reject the Trinity doctrine, viewing it as pagan and un-Scriptural, and hold to the Jesus' Name doctrine with respect to baptisms. They are often referred to as "Modalists" or "Sabellians" or "Jesus Only". Oneness Pentecostalism can be compared to Sabellianism, or can be described as holding to a form of Sabellianism, as both are Nontrinitarian, and as both believe that Jesus was "Almighty God in the Flesh", but they do not totally identify each other.
However, it cannot be certain whether Sabellius taught a dispensational Modalism or taught what is known today as Oneness since all we have of his teaching comes through the writing of his enemies. All of his original works were burned. The following excerpts which demonstrate some of the known doctrinal characteristics of ancient Sabellians may be seen to compare with the doctrines in the modern Oneness movement:
Sabellianism was doctrine adhered to by a sect of the Montanists.Wikipedia.
3. Old Testament Passages regarding the Trinity
a. The first name used for God in Gen 1:1 was Elohim. This name is plural in form but joined to a singular verb.
a. The first name used for God in Gen 1:1 was Elohim. This name is plural in form but joined to a singular verb.
b. Gen 1:26 And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creepers creeping on the earth.
“The plural form of the sentence raises the question, With whom took he counsel on this occasion? Was it with himself, and does he here simply use the plural of majesty? Such was not the usual style of monarchs in the ancient East. Pharaoh says, “I have dreamed a dream” Gen_41:15. Nebuchadnezzar, “I have dreamed” Dan_2:3. Darius the Mede, “I make a decree” Dan_6:26. Cyrus, “The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth” Ezr_1:2. Darius, “I make a decree” Ezr_5:8. We have no ground, therefore, for transferring it to the style of the heavenly King. Was it with certain other intelligent beings in existence before man that he took counsel? This supposition cannot be admitted; because the expression “let us make” is an invitation to create, which is an incommunicable attribute of the Eternal One, and because the phrases, “our image, our likeness,” when transferred into the third person of narrative, become “his image, the image of God,” and thus limit the pronouns to God himself. Does the plurality, then, point to a plurality of attributes in the divine nature? This cannot be, because a plurality of qualities exists in everything, without at all leading to the application of the plural number to the individual, and because such a plurality does not warrant the expression, “let us make.” Only a plurality of persons can justify the phrase. Hence, we are forced to conclude that the plural pronoun indicates a plurality of persons or hypostases in the Divine Being.”Barnes Notes.
c. Gen 3:22 And Jehovah God said, Behold, the man has become as one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever,
d. The Confusion at the Tower of Babel
Gen 11:7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they cannot understand one another's speech.
e. The usage of the same word, Echad, in Gen2:24 and Deut. 6:4. Echad is Hebrew for one. These passages teach that God is one, as a husband and a wife are one. A Unified plurality. Instead the Holy Spirit chose to use the Hebrew word, "echad" which is used most often as a unified one, and sometimes as numeric oneness. For example, when God said in Genesis 2:24 "the two shall become one [echad] flesh" it is the same word for "one" that was used in Deut 6:4.
This is most troubling for Anti-Trinitarians since the word yachid, the main Hebrew word for solitary oneness, is never used in reference to God
f. The teachings of King Agur.
g. The plural Forms in Eccles 12:1 and Is 54:5
Ecc 12:1 Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, while the evil days do not come, nor the years draw near, when you shall say, I have no pleasure in them. The Original has “Creators”
Note YLT Ecc 12:1 Remember also thy Creators in days of thy youth, ...
Isa 54:5 For your Maker is your husband; Jehovah of Hosts is His name; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall He be called. Maker was “Makers”
For thy Maker is thine husband - Both these words, ‘maker’ and ‘husband,’ in the Hebrew are in the plural number. Barnes
h. The Triune Conversations in Isaiah
Isa 6:8 And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I; send me!
Isa 48:16 Come near to Me, hear this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning. From its being, I was there; and now the Lord Jehovah, and His Spirit, has sent Me.
Isa 63:9 In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them, and carried them all the days of old.
Isa 63:10 But they rebelled, and troubled His Holy Spirit; therefore He was turned to be their enemy, and He fought against them.
i. The Conversation between the Father and the Son in the Psalms.
Psa 2:1 Why do the nations rage, and the peoples meditate on a vain thing?
Psa 2:2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers plot together, against Jehovah and against His anointed, saying,
Psa 2:3 Let us break their bands in two and cast away their cords from us.
Psa 2:4 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; Jehovah shall mock at them.
Psa 2:5 Then He shall speak to them in His anger, and trouble them in His wrath.
Psa 2:6 Yea, I have set My king on My holy hill, on Zion.
Psa 2:7 I will declare the decree of Jehovah. He has said to Me, You are My Son; today I have begotten You.
Psa 2:8 Ask of Me, and I shall give the nations for Your inheritance; and the uttermost parts of the earth for Your possession.
Psa 2:9 You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
and also Psalms 45:6-8
4. New Testament Passages regarding the Trinity.
a. The Baptism of Christ.
Mat 3:16 And Jesus, when He had been baptized, went up immediately out of the water. And lo, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon Him.
Mat 3:17 And lo, a voice from Heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
b. The temptation of Christ.
Mat 4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit up into the wilderness, to be tempted by the Devil.
c. The teaching of Jesus
Joh 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, so that He may be with you forever,
Joh 14:17 the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him nor know Him. But you know Him, for He dwells with you and shall be in you.
The Greek word here translated “another” is allos, meaning ‘another of the same kind.’ Heteros is the Greek word for another of a different kind. It is never used in referring to the Trinity.
Joh 14:26 But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, what-ever I have said to you.
d. The Baptismal Formula
Mat 28:19 Therefore go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Mat 28:20 teaching them to observe all things, whatever I commanded you. And, behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the world. Amen.
e. The Apostolic Benediction.
2Co 13:14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
5. A Scriptural Summary of the Trinity
a. The Father is God Jn 6 44-46; Rom 1:7; 1Peter 1:2.
b. The Son is God; Is 9:6; Jn 1:1; Titus 2:13; Heb 1:8
c. The Spirit is God; Acts 5:3; Hebrews 9:14
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