~Home~ ~Life Lines~ ~Study Surveys~ ~Bibliology~ ~Tracts & Articles~ ~Our Printed Materials~


God is a Trinity

From Life Lines, a monthly publication of Victory Christian Center.

March, 1996

We have been studying for some time the attributes of God as they are given to us in the Bible. We have covered the facts that He is invisible, a Spirit, eternal, the Creator, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Now we will take up the fact that God is Three in One, otherwise known as the doctrine of the Trinity.

As with some of the other attributes we have studied, the word "Trinity" does not appear in Scripture; but, again, as with several of our studies, this does not mean that this truth itself is not found in Scripture. The word "Trinity" is from Latin; the first to use it in teaching on the Godhead was Tertullian, a brilliant Christian lawyer in Carthage, North Africa, around the year 200. Because the formulation or expression of the doctrine of the Trinity was a historical development in the first few centuries of the Church, many wrongly relegate it to mere tradition and express grave doubts about it if they do not reject it outright. But this is, as we shall see, a great mistake.

While it is true that the official expression or formulation of the doctrine took several centuries, it is not true that it is a mere invention of men not taught in Scripture. I will explain this more as we go along, but let me offer at this point an illustration. The essential truth of the Trinity is like the cards one is dealt in a card game. The Bible "deals" us the essential facts regarding the Trinity, but not in the form of a neatly worked out theological treatise. It gives us the facts here and there, more or less like cards randomly dealt at the start of a game. Once the player picks up his cards and examines them, the next step is to arrange them in some sort of order in his hand (depending upon the kind of game being played) so as to more readily observe and keep track of what he has in his hand as the game or round proceeds. This arranging of the cards in one's "hand" corresponds to the formulation or expression of the doctrine of the Trinity that unfolded as the Church was forced to clarify it for the purpose of refuting various misunderstandings and errors that naturally arose out of the broadness and complexity of the subject. I believe this is a valid and useful comparison of the relationship between the facts of the Trinity and the formulation of the doctrine, and I hope to demonstrate this as we go along.

The traditional doctrine of the Trinity is the only formulation and harmonization of all the facts concerning the Godhead that have been "dealt" to us in the Word of God. Any other "arrangement" of the cards does violence to some part or other of the Word of God on the subject. I wholly subscribe to the doctrine, then, not because it's traditional or what I've always been taught, but because it is the only logical and satisfactory solution to the difficulties created by all the facts as they have been dealt to us like cards in the Word of God. This is nothing more, then, than what we must do concerning any other subject in the Word of God. The Bible is not a collection of theological treatises on specific subjects-it does not come to us in that form. Many different subjects are addressed in the same chapter or book instead of only one subject being dealt with at a time. Since we believe that all of Scripture is inspired of God (2 Timothy 3:16), it must all be true. What it says on a given subject in one place, should be compared with and harmonized if possible with what it says on that subject in another. It is through this process that we arrive at a formulation of the Bible doctrine of that subject. It is simply the attempt to incorporate, coordinate, and express in a comprehensive way all that the Bible says on a given subject. That is exactly what the doctrine of the Trinity is, and it is the only formulation of the Godhead that fits all the facts without excluding or doing violence to any of them. Let us now look at the "cards" we have been "dealt" on the subject of the Godhead and demonstrate how this is so.

The first "card" we are dealt in the Word of God is that there is only one God. God is One. This is the foundation of Judaism and one of the main things that set Israel apart from all the other peoples of the world. If there were monotheists (those who believe in one God) in the world before the Hebrews, they didn't amount to anything. The ancient world, whether Egypt, Canaan, Babylon, Syria, Greece, or Rome, was decidedly polytheistic (worshiping many gods). There may have been special dedication to a single deity in a certain place, but no one assumed his was the only god. The ancient city of Ur of the Chaldees near the joining of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, out of which God called Abram was notoriously idolatrous and polytheistic. God led Abram to Canaan revealed Himself to him and Isaac and Jacob as the one and only true God, Maker and Owner of heaven and earth. From then on, He repeatedly laid it down that He was the only true God and that worship and service was due to Him alone. All other "gods" were false, and He forbid them to acknowledge them in any way whatsoever. Deuteronomy 6:4 says,

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. (All Scripture quotations are from the New International Version unless stated otherwise.)

This verse was one of the most familiar to any Jew, as it, along with verses 5-9, and two other passages formed what was called the Shema, a prayer which was to be repeated twice a day as well as recited in unison in public gatherings, a kind of creed of the Jewish faith. In the fourth chapter, thirty-fifth verse, the Lord said that Israel had been shown all the signs and miracles associated with the Exodus and His appearance and voice at Sinai (4:32-34) for this reason:

"You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other."

Isaiah, in his invectives against Israel's later idolatry and apostasy, stressed that the Lord is God and there is no other:

"You are my witnesses," declares the Lord, "and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. (Isaiah 43:10,11)

"This is what the Lord says-Israel's King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God....Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one." (Isaiah 44:6,8)

"Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God." (Isaiah 37:20)

Many other texts could be cited that declare that God is one, that there is only one true God, the God of Israel and the Bible, but these are enough to establish it. The Bible is intensely monotheistic. In fact, we might have included this as a separate attribute-one great truth concerning Him is that there is only one God. We would call this His Unity. But we have elected to included it as part of our study of the Trinity. And it is not just the Old Testament that stresses this important fact; the New does so as well. And how could it be otherwise? A fact so fundamental to the Being of God and so vigorously attested to in the Old Testament could never be undone in the New. Whatever changes may appear between the dispensations, that God was no longer one God could not possibly be one of them. If the New Testament should teach that there is more than one God, it would be a flagrant violation of the revelation of God in His Word, the Old Testament, and would therefore be undeniably false. The writers would be worthy of death as blasphemers. Thus we see the Unity of God emphatically upheld in the New Testament:

...The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one.

(Galatians 3:19,20)

...We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many "gods" and many "lords"), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. (1 Corinthians 8:4-6)

For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 2:5)

So, the first card we have been dealt says, "There is but one God." It is an unassailable and unalterable fact that must be reckoned with in any formulation of the doctrine of His Being.

Jews and Moslems scoff at the doctrine of the Trinity as a monstrous Christian novelty. But we did not "invent" the Trinity. The church was forced to conclude it by another "card" that was "dealt" us in the incarnation. God became man in the person of Jesus Christ and dwelt among us. The second card says, "Jesus Christ is God." And the third card says, "Jesus Christ is not the Father." Now what are we to do? Some, even from the earliest days of Jewish Christianity called Ebionites sought to deal with the newly found difficulty by denying the truth of the second card. They rightfully saw that Jesus was not the Father, and since there was only one God, Jesus could not have been divine. They accepted Him as the long promised Messiah but denied His deity. It was also the solution embraced later by the Arians, named after an early fourth century bishop of Alexandria. Another movement which arose near the end of the second century in Asia Minor attempted another route to harmonization and denied that Jesus was a person distinct from the Father, in effect denying the third "card." There was only one God, the Father, they said, but there were three manifestations, actions, or modes of expression. In effect, then, Jesus and the Holy Spirit were but different modes of the Father. This is known as Monarchianism or modalism. And each of these, Arianism and Monarchianism, at different times spread so widely that they threatened to become the faith of the Church. But they were both wrong.

The New Testament is clear that "the Father" is God. Notice carefully one of the texts we have already cited, 1 Corinthians 8:6-"Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things and for whom we live...." 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 reads,

But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in ever good deed and word.

That "God" in the first sentence to whom Paul gives thanks is the Father is evident from the way he passes on to mention the Lord Jesus Christ. God (that is, the Father), he says, called them through the gospel that they might share in the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he adds, "May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father...," clearly marking the distinction between the two. Neither modalism (that God is one person, acting in three different ways) nor the belief that Jesus and the Father are the same persons are possible according to countless plain statements of fact in the New Testament. To conclude either of these is to strip untold statements of plain, obvious meaning.

Peter introduces his first epistle:

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance. (1 Peter 1:1,2)

The Father is called God, and if plain words may be taken in their plain sense as they must, He and Jesus Christ are not the same person. Nowhere are the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit spoken of as mere modes of expression, but real Persons. All the attributes of "personhood"-thought, action, will, being, etc., are assigned to them.

So, our fourth "card" says, "The Father is God," and our fifth says, "The Father is not the same as the Son." Let's review the five cards we have thus far been "dealt" by the Word of God: "There is but one God," "Jesus Christ is God," "Jesus Christ is not the Father," "the Father is God," and "the Father is not the same as the Son."

Arians, whether ancient or modern, among whom are the Jehovah's Witnesses (falsely so-called), and Unitarians (modernists) deny the deity of Jesus. For Jehovah's Witnesses, He is Michael the Archangel, the highest of all created beings, "a god" (from a deliberate perversion of John 1:1). It would be impossible that Jesus were "a" god, for this in itself would be a contradiction of the truth they seek to preserve, that there is only one God. And, needless to say there is not a shred of Scripture for Jesus being Michael the Archangel; what's more, there are Scriptures that are dead set against it, namely Hebrews 1:4-7,13; and 2:2,3,5-

So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father"? Or again, "I will be his Father, and he will be my Son"? And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, "Let all God's angels worship him." In speaking of the angels he says, "He makes his angels winds, his servants flames of fire." (1:4-7)

To which of the angels did God ever say, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet"? (1:13)

For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord....It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. (2:2-5)

Most modern liberal Arians reject Christ's deity on rational, not Scriptural, grounds; they deny that the Scriptures are inspired in any real sense.

Does the New Testament really teach that Jesus is God? There can be no doubt at all that it does, so clearly and repeatedly and in so many ways that it is a fundamental pillar of Christianity. Since we have covered this rather fully in other issues (August, September, and October, 1991, "Jesus Is Lord"), we will only give an outline of it here without quoting all the texts in full.

There are many proofs in the New Testament that Jesus is God: 1) many passages directly declare it, 2) Jesus Himself claimed it, 3) Old Testament references to Jehovah (the Hebrew YHWH) are applied to Jesus in the New Testament, and 4) the same activities, attributes, and titles that belong exclusively to God are ascribed to Jesus.

(1) The passages that declare His deity directly are Matthew 1:21-23, "'They will call him Immanuel'-which means, 'God with us'"; John 1:1-3, "...the Word was with God, and the Word was God"; John 1:18, "God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side"; John 20:28, "Thomas said to him, 'My Lord and my God"; Romans 9:5, "...Christ, who is God over all, forever praised!"; Philippians 2:6,7, "Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing"; Colossians 2:9, "For in Christ the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form"; Titus 2:13, "...our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ"; Hebrews 1:8, "But about the Son he says, 'Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever"; 2 Peter 1:1, "...our God and Savior Jesus Christ"; 1 John 5:20, "And we are in him who is true-even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life"; and Isaiah 9:6, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given....and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Of course these are more than enough to establish His Deity beyond question, but there is much more-

(2) Jesus' claimed He was divine in John 5:17-29, "'My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.'...he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God....'that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father'"; John 8:24,28, "...if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins....When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he" (King James Version, italics indicating the word "he" is not in the original; compare Exodus 3:13-15, "I AM has sent me to you"); John 8:51-59, "'...before Abraham was born, I am!'...At this, they picked up stones to stone him" (see Leviticus 24:10-16,23); John 10:30-39, "'...I and the Father are one.' Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, 'I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?' 'We are not stoning you for any of these,' replied the Jews, 'but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.'...'the Father is in me, and I in the Father.' Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp."

3) Among the Old Testament references to "Jehovah" (the Hebrew tetragrammaton, YHWH, the personal name of God, usually designated in English by LORD in all capitals) applied to Jesus in the New Testament are: Matthew 3:1-3 (Isaiah 40:3), "Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him;" Luke 1:67,68,76 (Isaiah 40:3), "And you my child [John the Baptist], will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him"; Luke 3:2-4, "Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him"; also John 1:22-31; Philippians 2:10, "...that at the name of Jesus [Isaiah 45:23, YHWH] every knee should bow...and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father"; Romans 10:13, "...for, 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord [Jesus, verses 9-12] will be saved'" (quoting Joel 2:28, YHWH).

4) Activities, attributes, and titles reserved for God alone are attributed to Jesus-creating: John 1:3,10, "Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made"; Colossians 1:16, "...by him all things were created"; Isaiah 40:28, "...The Lord [YHWH] is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth"; saving: 1 John 4:14, "...the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world"; also 2 Timothy 1:10; Titus 1:4; 3:6; compare Isaiah 43:11, "I, even I, am the Lord [YHWH], and apart from me there is no savior"; Isaiah 45:21,22, "...there is no God apart from me [YHWH], a righteous God and a Savior"; judging: John 5:22,27, "The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son....He has given him authority to judge"; Matthew 25:31,32, "When the Son of Man comes in his glory....All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate...the sheep from the goats"; compare Joel 2:11,12, "Come quickly, all you nations from every side and assemble there....for there will I [YHWH] sit to judge all the nations on every side"; forgiving sins: Mark 2:5-7,10, "'Son, your sins are forgiven.'...'He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?'...'But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...'"; compare Jeremiah 31:30, "For I [YHWH] will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more"; raising the dead: John 5:21, "For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it"; compare 1 Samuel 2:6, "The Lord [YHWH] brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up"; light: John 8:12, "I am the light of the world"; compare Isaiah 60:19, "...for the Lord [YHWH] will be your everlasting light"; shepherd: John 10:11, "I am the good shepherd"; compare Psalms 23:1, "The Lord [YHWH] is my shepherd"; first and last: Revelation 1:17; 2:8; "I [Jesus] am the First and the Last"; compare Isaiah 44:6, "This is what the Lord [YHWH] says-Israel's King and Redeemer, the Lord [YHWH] Almighty: I am the first and I am the last"; the holy one: Acts 2:27; 13:35 with Isaiah 41:4; 48:17; 49:7; 54:5; addressed in prayer: Acts 7:59, "...Stephen prayed, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit"; Revelation 22:20, "'Yes, I am coming soon.' Amen. Come, Lord Jesus"; 1 Corinthians 16:22; worshiped: Hebrews 1:6, "When God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, 'Let all God's angels worship him"; Matthew 2:2,8,11, "...they bowed down and worshiped him"; also Matthew 14:33; 28:9,17; John 9:38; Revelation 5:12-14, "'Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive...honor and glory and praise!'...'To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!'"; compare Exodus 20:3,5, "You shall have no other gods before me....You shall not bow down to them or worship them"; also Exodus 23:25; Deuteronomy 34:14, "Do not worship any other god"; compare also Acts 10:25, "As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. But Peter made him get up. 'Stand up,' he said, 'I am only a man myself""; Colossians 2:18, "Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize"; and Revelation 22:8,9, "...I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing [these things] to me. But he said to me, 'Do not do it!...Worship God!'"; unchangeable: Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever"; compare Malachi 3:6, "I the Lord [YHWH] do not change".

As for the idea that Jesus is the Father or that He, the Father and the Holy Spirit are only modes or manifestations of a single Person, almost every page of the New Testament contains more than one statement that contradicts it. The only way anyone could hold this view would be to forsake rationality and strip plain words of their plain meaning, making them sheer nonsense. It would mean that the Father was His own Son and the Son His own Father, and that when the Father sent the Son He sent Himself, that He came from Himself, all of which is absurd. It would mean that when the Father spoke from heaven at the descent of the Spirit upon the Son, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17), it was only the Son "throwing His voice" into the clouds like a ventriloquist, and that the Father only loved Himself and was pleased with Himself. It would mean that Stephen had a false revelation when, at the point of death from stoning, he cried, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God" (Acts 7:56). The "oneness" of Father and Son of which Jesus spoke (John 10:30; 14:9,10) is a unity, not an identity of persons, just as a husband is one with his wife. When Jesus said, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9), He did not and could not mean that He Himself was the Father, but only that He was just like the Father. This is evident from the statements immediately following in verses 10-13: "I am in the Father, and ...the Father is in me," and "I am going to the Father." Besides, it would flatly contradict plain statements He made elsewhere-"No one has ever seen God [that is, the Father], but God the One and Only [that is, the Son], who is at the Father's side, has made him known" (John 1:18), and "No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father" (John 6:46). It is obvious, then, that He meant He was exactly like the Father. As Hebrews 1:3 puts it, "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation [Greek, image or photograph] of his being." We could go on and on, but suffice it to say that the entire New Testament militates against any such view that there is no distinction of the persons of the Father and the Son. And any talk of the need for a revelation from God to understand it to be so is foolishness.

Our "cards" therefore so far stand thus: 1) there is only one God, 2) Jesus Christ is God, 3) Jesus Christ is not the Father (and the Father is not the Son), and 4) the Father is God. Now we are dealt another which says, "The Holy Spirit is God."

References to the deity of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament are not as abundant as those to Christ's. This is in keeping with the supporting, not leading, role of the Spirit in man's redemption: His mission is not to attract attention to Himself but to carry out the will of the Father and exalt the Son.

The Holy Spirit is expressly called "God" in 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."

First, Peter said, "You have lied to the Holy Spirit," and then went on to say, "You have not lied to men but to God."

In Paul's introduction to the subject of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, we find the Spirit directly associated with "Lord" and "God":

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.

1 Corinthians 2:9-11 reads:

However, as it is written: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him"-but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

That the Spirit "searches all things, even the deep things of God" and "knows the thoughts of God" seems to necessarily imply His deity.

Blasphemy, it seems, is an offense against God, and Jesus warned that speaking against or blaspheming the Holy Spirit was an eternal sin, never to be forgiven:

And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. (Matthew 12:31,32)

In Hebrews 10:15,16, the author uses the terms "the Holy Spirit" and "the Lord [YHWH]" interchangeably:

The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: "This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds." (Hebrews 10:15,16)

He is quoting Jeremiah 31:33 where "the Lord" is a translation of the divine name, YHWH. The Holy Spirit is thus identified with God Himself.

And in 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 also the Holy Spirit is identified with "the Lord":

But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Even though in our last two references the Spirit is identified with God, in many other references, just as with Christ and the Father, it is clear that He is a distinct person. In fact, in Matthew 12:31,32 above we clearly see that He stands in distinction to Christ in that blasphemy against the Spirit carries a more severe penalty than blasphemy of Christ.

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says,

...the Holy Spirit in the NT is never an object of worship or prayer. Still, the Spirit performs some divine functions. He judges (Jn.16:8-11), pours out the love of God (Rom.5:5), gives joy (14:17), hope (8:17-25), peace (8:6), regeneration (Jn.3:5), and faith (2 Cor.12:9)....Finally, the Spirit is intimately conjoined with Christ, and with God and Christ, in the many NT bipartite and tripartite formulas. Again, the implication is that the authors of these formulas regarded the Spirit as the same sort of being as God and Christ-particularly in those places where similar divine functions or attributes are predicated of them (2 Cor.13:14; 1 Cor.12:4-6). (ISBE, Geoffrey W. Bromiley, gen.ed.; Eerdmans: Grand Rapids,MI; 1988, Vol.4, p.916, "Trinity" by Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.)

In many places in the New Testament, but not all, the Spirit is spoken of as a person. Plantinga writes:

A number of NT passages seem to treat the Holy Spirit impersonally....Thus the Spirit is able to fill or endow a person (Lk.4:1; Acts 2:4; etc.), or is granted as a gift (Lk.11:13; Rom.5:5; etc.), or is poured out like fluid (Acts 2:17f.; Tit.3:6)....On the other hand, the NT contains a number of references to the Spirit or Paraclete that are undeniably personal. The Spirit speaks (Acts 21:11), searches (1 Cor.2:10), bears witness and intercedes (Rom.8:16,26), teaches (Jn14:26), apportions gifts (1 Cor. 12:11), exercises will (Acts 16:6f.), can be grieved (Eph.4:30), reflects (Acts 15:28), appoints (20:28), sends (13:4), and is lied to (5:3). The Johannine account of the Paraclete is especially rich in personal language....On the one hand, the apparently impersonal statements are not conclusive. For even if the Spirit is a gift, persons can be gifts-as the Son is in Jn.3:16....What tips the balance in favor of a personal concept of the Spirit in the NT generally is the appearance of the Spirit's name in bi- and triadic formulas. Thus, if in Rom.8:26,34 Paul attributes the same intercessory function to Christ and the Spirit, and if intercession is a personal function, and if Christ is a person, then a reasonable inference is that the Spirit is a person too. The same is true of the reference to "another counselor" in Jn.14:16 (cf. Heb.10:5-8,15-17,29). NT triadic formulas (Mt.28:19 ["...baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"]; Rom.14:17f. ["...righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God"]; Gal.3:11-14; 4:6 ["...God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, 'Abba, Father'"]; 2 Cor.1:21f. ["Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts"]; 2 Cor.3:3; 13:14 ["May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all"]; 1 Pet.1:2 ["...chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ"]; etc.) are similarly suggestive....[O]n balance the NT data present and support a personal concept of the Spirit. (Ibid.)

And so, a few more cards are dealt us from the NT: "The Holy Spirit is God," "The Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son," and "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct persons."

It is true that some references concerning the Son and the Spirit place these in a subordinate position to the Father or the Son. Some falsely conclude from this that the Son and the Spirit must not be divine. But the references to subordinate roles for the Son and the Spirit can by no means cancel out the large number of references we have cited for the deity of the Son and the Spirit, respectively. What the subordination of the Son and Spirit to the Father means is that this information must be added to our hand of cards dealt to us and become part of that which we must incorporate into any final formulation of the doctrine of the Godhead. Plantinga continues:

Through John's Gospel runs the richest vein in the NT for the Church's doctrine of the Trinity-a wide, deep, and subtle account of divine distinction-within-unity. In John, Father, Son, and (usually) Spirit/Paraclete are clearly distinct divine persons who play differentiated roles in the general divine enterprise of life-giving and life-disclosing. Yet their primordial and unexplained unity is revealed and exemplified by common will, work, word, and knowledge, and by reciprocal love (except for the Spirit) and glorifying. The same six phenomena that distinguish the persons-especially by subordination of Son and Spirit-also unite them....The Son in John is on a mission: He does not do His own will, but that of His Father, the One who sent Him (4:34; 5:30,38; 8:29; etc.). Though the Son has a will of His own (17:24), He subordinates it to the Father. The Spirit in John is subordinate in turn to the Son. He functions as pure agent, bestowed by Jesus (1:33; 20:22) and sent as Paraclete (14:26; 15:26; 16:13f.) to combine the functions of advocating legal assistant and comforter to the community of believers. Yet this very super- and subordination of wills that distinguishes the three also unites them. For only one divine will is expressed-that of the Father who sends the Son and (with the Son) the Spirit. The sending idea itself...suggests both that "the one who sends is greater than the one sent" (TDNT, I, 421) and also that "the one sent by a man is as the man himself" (I, 415). The Son's work, similarly, is that of His Father (5:19-22,36; 9:3f.; 14:10). And the Paraclete...reveals and applies the work of the Son (15:26; 16:8-11,14). This Father-dominated order of work is itself unifying, but some Johannine expressions also suggest something more like equality, at least between Father and Son. [8:16-18; 14:23; 1 Jn.2:24]....In 5:17..."My Father is working still and I am working." Precisely the claim of mutual agency of Father and Son provokes the charge that Jesus is "making himself equal with God." Works and word are closely yoked in John....The Son utters not His own words, but those of His Father and sender (3:34; 7:16; 8:26; etc.)...The Paraclete, in turn, teaches the words of the Word (16:14)....Once again the same phenomenon of word, revelation, and teaching both distinguishes and unites. The functional subordination of Son and Spirit insures that only one message is taught. But there is also a true mutuality of witness. For if the Spirit witnesses to the Son, the Son also witnesses to the Spirit (15:26; 14:26). And if the Son witnesses to or reveals the Father, the Father also witnesses to the Son (17:26; 1:18; 5:36f.). The unity of will, work, and word is summed up with John's use of the Gk. panta ["all things"]. The Father authorizes the Son by giving Him "all things" (3:35; 16:15). But the believing community receives all these things only via the Paraclete (14:26; cf. 15:15f.)....[O]n the one hand there is little doubt that John presents a functional "hierarchy," the Father ultimately in control. Son and Spirit seem relatively unoriginal in function. They are always sent....On the other hand, the Son appears to be equally divine with the Father. (Ibid., p.917)

Thus we see that the subordination of the Son and Spirit to the Father does not negate their oneness and equality with Him, but rather enhances their unity. It is the same as in the marriage relationship. The subordination of the wife to the husband does not indicate inequality by nature, for both man and woman are identical as to their species-mankind. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27). And yet even before the fall, Adam was given, for order's sake, the place of headship over his wife Eve. The fall simply brought an increased stress upon her subordination and his headship. But this subordination does not mean women are a sub-species; they are fully human, being created in the image of God as much as men are. It is the same with the subordination of the Son and Spirit to the Father. It demonstrates, not that the Son and Spirit are somewhat less than divine any more than women are somewhat less than human, but perfect unity and order in the Godhead. Just as Jesus could say, "My father is greater than I" (speaking no doubt from the vantage point of His incarnation and humiliation), so wives might say, "My husband is greater than I" without implying inferiority but only order.

Let us then make a final review of the cards we have been dealt by the Word of God pertinent to the subject of the Godhead. Lest anyone should think I am "stacking the deck," it doesn't matter what order we receive them in, and these are all of the relevant points. 1) "There is but one God," 2) "Jesus Christ is God," 3) "Jesus Christ is not the Father," 4) "the Father is God," 5) "the Father is not the same as the Son," 6) "The Holy Spirit is God," 7) "The Holy Spirit is not the Father or the Son," 8) "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct persons," and, 9) "The Son and Spirit are subordinate to and proceed from the Father." This is our "hand." We have nothing to do with its content-it has been dealt to us. Now, can we arrange or consolidate them into a single formula or statement, a doctrine? Some might say, "This is all too complicated; I don't like it." Your complaint, however, falls not me or the doctrine of the Trinity as it has been classically formulated but on God. All the cards or elements come straight out of His Word. One of the things I especially like about Christianity is that it is on a far higher intellectual plane than any other religion. In some essential ways it is wonderfully simple, but in others it is deeply profound and requires much thought. As I said at the beginning of our article, the only solution that incorporates all the elements and preserves, unifies, and harmonizes them without destroying or corrupting any of them is the traditional doctrine of the Trinity. There is only one God who exists in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each of whom are distinct yet of the same uncreated, eternal Substance, coequal and coeternal; that the Son proceeds from the Father and the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son does not negate their equality but enhances their unity.

As I said, I wholeheartedly endorse the doctrine of the Trinity because it alone, in distinction to any other formulation, preserves and harmonizes all the elements given us in the Word of God.

I must close this article but I would like to continue the subject next month as there are some other things I would like to say regarding it that I don't have space for here. I hope you value our discussion because despite the sentiments of the average Christian today, it is an extremely important, though like so many others, neglected, topic.

Until next month, God bless you all.

Leon Stump, Pastor of Victory Christian Center


Home

Back to Life Lines

email

Sign Guestbook View Guestbook

Counter

See who's visiting this page.

Background from Greenfield Graphics.

1