Several religious bodies deny the existence of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as divine beings of the Godhead. They mock the concept of the "Trinity." Some accept only the Father as divine; others the Father and the Son. Notable among them are the Jews, Muslims, Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, World Wide Church of God, and Christian Scientists. Every major cult and non-Christian world religion will deride the doctrine of the "Godhead."

I want to show that it is biblical to maintain the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Even with all the difficulties involved in trying to explain the trinity, it is contrary to Scripture to deny that "there are three that bear record in heaven." (1 John 5:7.) Denying the trinity produces many more difficulties than it solves. It denies our redemption in Jesus.

When the "Trinity" is opposed, the deity of Jesus and the Holy Spirit are being denied. It is commendable to exalt the oneness and sovereignty of God (Deut. 6:4), but it is wrong to deny the deity of the Son and the Holy Spirit.

"Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledges the Son hath the Father also." (1 John 2:22-23.) This is a powerful statement to world religions and cults who deny the deity of the Son. They have likewise, unknowingly, rejected the Father. They think, incorrectly, that God will accept their worship of Him even while they deny the Son and the Holy Spirit.

In turn, Jesus spoke these serious words concerning any who reject the Holy Spirit. "Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him. But whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him; neither in this world, neither in the world to come." (Matt. 12:31-32.)

The apostle John wrote clearly, "There are three that bear record in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. These three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth: the spirit, the water and the blood. And these three agree in one." (1 John 5:7-8.)

It is true that the Bible does not use the word, trinity, anywhere. That alone does not make the idea or concept untrue. The Bible does not have the word, Bible, in it anywhere! Does that mean that it is wrong to refer to the Scriptures as the Bible?? Neither does it have Gospel Meeting or Sunday School. Even Jehovah is an interpolation of four Hebrew consonants. The word as found in English does not exist in Hebrew.

It is interesting to note the reasons for denying the doctrine of the Trinity. World religions and cults do so because an acceptance of it (especially the deity of Jesus) would make them too Christian. They must deny the concept of the trinity in order to bypass the authority of Jesus Christ as a divine being. Muslims remove Jesus and, in effect, replace him with Mohammed. Freemasons remove Jesus and put Hiriam Abiff in His place. The Mormons replace Jesus with Joseph Smith (saying that no one can be saved or lost except by the approval of Joseph Smith!). Self-styled prophets like Joseph Smith, Mary Baker Eddy, and Charles T. Russell must diminish the role of Jesus in order to exalt their supposed revelations and authority to speak for God.

When the Holy Spirit is rejected as a divine being, what results is a religion of materialism. It is "Sadduceeism." (Acts 23:8.) Note that those who reject the trinity are materialists (evidenced by their teachings on the nature of man, the kingdom of God, salvation, paradise, etc.).

"Never was there a more deceptive doctrine advanced than that of the trinity. It could have originated only in one mind, and that the mind of Satan, the Devil." (Reconciliation, J. F. Rutherford---Jehovah Witnesses, 100.) "The obvious conclusion is. . . that Satan is the originator of the trinity doctrine." (Let God Be True, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 101.)

"Sincere persons who want to know the true God and serve Him find it a bit difficult to love and worship a complicated, freakish-looking, three-headed God." (Let God Be True, 102.)

"Such doctrine is not of God." (Ibid, 100.) "The trinity doctrine was not conceived by Jesus or the early Christians." (Ibid, 111.)

"If it were not for the fact that this Trinitarian nonsense was drilled into us from earliest infancy and the fact that it is so soberly taught in Theological Seminaries by gray-haired professors, . . . nobody would give it a moment’s serious consideration." (The Truth Shall Make You Free, Vol. V, 166.)

"This view (the Trinity) suited well the Dark Ages it helped to produce." (Studies in the Scriptures, Vol. V, 166.)

The Jehovah Witnesses describe Jesus as a creature. The Bible says that He created all things. (Col. 1:16, John 1:3.) They likewise deny the deity of the Holy Spirit.

"The holy spirit (lower case in their writings) is the invisible active force of Almighty God which moves his servants to do his will." (Let God Be True, 108.)

"God’s holy spirit is not a God, not a member of a trinity, not coequal, and is not even a person . . . It is God’s active force, not Jehovah’s power residing within himself, but his energy when projected out from himself. . . It is not a blind, uncontrolled force, such as the forces of nature: lightning, hurricanes and the like, but it is at all times under his control . . . and therefore may be likened to a radar beam." (The Watch Tower, "The Scriptures, Reason, and the Trinity," 432-33.)

Mormons have a complex doctrine of God. They believe that he was once a man and became a god. He now has a physical body. Further, they think that Adam was God the father and that he had many wives! (God was a polygamist!) Note the following:

"God himself was once as we are now and is an exalted man." (The Journal of Discourses, Joseph Fielding Smith, vol. vi, 3.) "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become." (Millennial Star, Lorenzo Snow, former president of the Mormon Church, vol. 54.)

"The Father has a body of flesh and bone as tangible as man’s; the Son also, but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of spirit." (Doctrine and Covenants, Sec. 130:22.)

"When our father Adam came into the Garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body and brought Eve, one of his celestial wives with him. He is our father and our God and the only God with whom we have to do." (The Journal of Discourses, Bringham Young, vol. 1, 50.)

"Many men say there is one God; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are only one God! I say this is a strange God anyhow. . . all are to be crammed into one God." (Joseph Smith’s Teachings, E. F. Parry, 55.)

Mormons believe in many gods and that the number is constantly increasing as more humans become gods. They do not have a problem with the idea of a trinity because three persons possess deity; they have a problem with the oneness of those three persons. Mormons are polytheists, like pagans of old.

They do not believe in three persons in one Godhead. God is our Father and Mother; Christ is the true idea of God; and the Holy Spirit is divine science. (Science and Health With Keys To The Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, 256, 515.)

"God’s Word reveals that God and the Word---two supreme personages--coexisted always---and before anything had been created---including this earth and the entire universe.

"In the quotation above, Christ was in the same image---form and shape---as God. Perhaps it will make God more real to you when you realize he is in the same form and shape as a human being. More proof of this will be given later.

"There was a time, therefore, when those two Personages coexisted and nothing else did.

"No third Person is mentioned---no ‘Ghost.’ Is God, then, limited to only two Persons? The false Trinity teaching does limit God to three Persons. But God in not limited. As God repeatedly reveals, his purpose is to reproduce himself into what well may become billions of God persons. It is the false Trinity teaching that limits God, denies God’s purpose and has palpably deceived the whole Christian world. Both God and the Word themselves are SPIRIT, and project their spirit." (The Plain Truth, Herbert Armstrong, October 1985, 17.)

"How did this Trinity doctrine enter traditional Christianity?

"It most emphatically did not come from the Bible. I have quoted Revelation 12:9 saying that all nations have been deceived by Satan the devil. How, then, did this wily Satan introduce this doctrine into ‘Christianity?’

"He did it through his great false church, AD 33 by Simon the Sorcerer, described in the 8th chapter of the book of Acts as the leader of the Babylonian mystery religion in Samaria. . . Simon did not accomplish this in his lifetime. But succeeding leaders, with the headquarters moved to Rome, did , later gain political control over the Roman Empire and its medieval successor, called The Holy Roman Empire.

"About the same time another controversy was raging, between a Dr. Arius of Alexandria, a Christian leader who died AD 336, and other bishops, over calling God a Trinity. Dr. Arius stoutly opposed the Trinity doctrine and had many followers.

"In AD 325, the Emperor Constantine called the Nicene Council to settle these controversies. Constantine was not then yet a Christian, but as political ruler he assumed control. The Council approved both the Easter-Sunday doctrine and the Trinity. Constantine, then civil ruler, made it a law. But he was not able to make it truth!" (The Plain Truth, Herbert Armstrong, October 1985, 19.)

"Finally, in briefest summary: God is a family composed at present of the two persons of John 1:1-4, but with many thousands, already begotten by God’s Spirit, in God’s true church, soon to be born into that divine family at Christ’s return to earth.

"Both God and Christ are composed of spirit, formed and shaped as a human person, but with eyes like flames of fire and faces bright as the sun full strength!" (Armstrong, 20.)

"God’s Spirit is the power that emanates from God---from the Father and the Son. . . The Holy Spirit is the power or energy by which God creates, inspires His servants, imparts His mind and attitude to His people and performs, in this physical realm, works that would be physically impossible---even resurrection from the dead!" (The Good News of the World Tomorrow, Herbert W. Armstrong, Sept. 1986, 19-22.)

Mr. Armstrong describes the Father and the Son in the image of man---physical beings. But the Holy Spirit is a spirit and capable of dwelling in us; a task that the Father and Son cannot do since they are physical beings! So, he concludes that understanding the nature of the Holy Spirit is the key to eternal life. "Belief in a trinity hides from man the very power of God that can live within us and make us into powerful spirit beings with eternal life and the character, nature, form and shape of the living God. When we understand the truth, what a delight and supreme gift the Holy Spirit of God is!" (Ibid, 22.)

There can be little doubt that Mohammed believed the Christian Trinity to consist of the Father, the Virgin, and their Child. It is not surprising then that he not only denounced the doctrine strongly but also repudiated the whole idea of the Sonship of Christ, understanding it as he did in terms of physical generation.

"Then God will say, Jesus, son of Mary, did you ever say to mankind, Worship me and my mother as gods besides God? Glory to You, he will answer, How could I ever say that to which I have no right? If I had ever said so, You would have surely known. You know what is in my mind, but I know not what is in Yours." (Surah 5:116-17.) But note John 5:22-23. "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son; that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him."

The greatest sin, shirk, according to Muslims is adding to God. They are strong in their objections to three bearing witness in heaven. They are strict monotheists.

The denial of the doctrine of the trinity dates back at least to the fourth century AD. Modern sects have embraced the teachings of Arius of Alexandria, Egypt. It received public attention and a thorough discussion among church leaders of the day. Two major councils were devoted to this issue (held at Nicea and Constantinople).

Philip Schaff, The History of the Christian Church, vol. 3, 618f, wrote: "The Arian controversy relates primarily to the deity of Christ, but in its course it touches also the deity of the Holy Ghost, and embraces therefore the whole mystery of the Holy Trinity and the incarnation of God, which is the very center of the Christian revelation. The dogma of the Trinity came up not by itself in abstract form, but in inseparable connection with the doctrine of the deity of Christ and the Holy Ghost. If this latter doctrine be true, the Trinity follows by logical necessity, the biblical monotheism being presumed. . . If God is one, and if Christ and the Holy Ghost are distinct from the Father and yet participate in the divine substance, God must be triune."

Nebuchadnezzar once demanded of his wise men to tell him his dream and its interpretation. They replied that no one on earth could do such a thing. They said, "None can show it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh." (Daniel 2:11.) But John wrote, "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory as the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth." (John 1:14.) This is what the Trinity is all about. Did God come to earth and dwell among men? Is there a Father, Son and Holy Ghost, who are divine?

Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria in 313, rejected the church’s teachings about the Trinity. A full contest between the two opposing views broke out in 318 or 320 AD. Arius and his followers were deposed and excommunicated by a council of a hundred Egyptian and Libyan bishops at Alexandria in 321 AD, for their denial of the true deity of Christ. At the Nicean Council, 325 AD, the books of Arius were burned and his followers were branded as enemies of Christianity. This council was the most important event of the fourth century. It was an intellectual victory over a dangerous error, and of greater significance than all the bloody victories of Constantine that followed. Arius died in 336 AD at the age of 80 years. Just before his death, he was acquitted of the charge of heresy by a council in Jerusalem in 335 AD. What caused such a controversy? What did Arius teach about Jesus and the Holy Spirit?

Anthanasius summed up the controversy this way: "The whole substance of Christianity, all reality of redemption, everything which makes Christianity the perfect salvation, would be utterly null and meaningless, if He who is supposed to unite man with God in real unity of being, were not himself absolute God, or of one substance with the absolute God, but only a creature among creatures. The infinite chasm which separates creature from Creator remains unfulfilled." (Scaff, 642.)

Arius taught the following: "The Father alone is God; therefore, he alone is unbegotten, eternal, wise, good and unchangeable, and he is separated by an infinite chasm from the world. He cannot create the world directly, but only through an agent, the Logos. The Son of God is pre-existent, before all creatures, and above all creatures, a middle being between God and the world, the creator of the world, the perfect image of the Father, and the executor of his thoughts, and thus capable of being called in a metaphorical sense God, and Logos, and Wisdom. But on the other hand, he himself is a creature, that is to say, the first creation of God, through whom the Father called other creatures into existence; he was created out of nothing by the will of the Father before all conceivable time; he is therefore not eternal, but had a beginning, and there was a time when he was not." (Schaff, 645.)

Once Arius lowered Jesus to the status of one created and having robbed him of divine essence, he could not consistently allow him any divine attribute in the strict sense of the word. He limited his duration, his power, and his knowledge, and expressly asserted that the Son does not perfectly know the Father, and therefore cannot perfectly reveal him. The Son is essentially distinct from the Father.

Arianism taught that there are two gods, an uncreated and a created, supreme and a secondary god, and thus far relapsed into heathen polytheism. Jehovah Witnesses continue this teaching in their New World translation of John 1:1. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." (KJV) They alone translate this passage: "And the Word was a god." By this they mean that Christ was a secondary god, lower than God the Father, not on an equality with him. Then the Holy Spirit is even lower than the Word. Since the Holy Spirit is believed only to be a force sent forth from the Father and Son, he is less than the creature Christ!

The problems created by Arius far out weigh any of our "problems" in trying to explain the Trinity. They have reverted to heathen polytheism with different levels of gods. Christians simply maintain that the nature of God is more complex than first understood from the Old Testament. This is just as we should have expected. The more we learn about God the more we exclaim his greatness and infinite nature. Can a follower of Arius today explain God the Father, fully and completely, leaving nothing to mystery?? Certainly not. Athanasius said, "Man can perceive only the hem of the garment of the triune God; the cherubim cover the rest with their wings." (Quoted by Schaff, 671.)

What could possibly exist between One who is Creator and creature? Is there some explainable middle ground here? A middle being as they claim? Christians deny any such distinction. One is either Creator or created.

#1: That the Holy Spirit possesses deity (divine nature) just as the Father and Son

Far from being just a force or action of God, the Holy Spirit is described in the Bible as a divine person. The Holy Spirit is not pictured as an it, but a divine being. Here are some significant statements in the Bible:

a) Remember that Jesus said that all manner of things said against him would be forgiven, but no one would be forgiven of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. (Matt. 12:31-32.) Is it possible to blaspheme a force? Forgiveness is a act done between two persons where one has offended the other.

b) "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth." (John 14:16-17.) "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you." (John 16:13-14.) "He" occurs 8 times in those two verses. It is as if Jesus wanted to make sure that everyone understood that the Holy Spirit was a person.

c) The Holy Spirit is associated with the Father and Son in such a way as to make them equal in authority and nature.

Great Commission baptismal formula. "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." (Matt. 28:19.) Why is a "force" called a name?

Trinitarian doxology. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all."

(2 Cor. 13:14.)

Jesus’ baptism and birth. "And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water; and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." (Matt. 3:16-17.)

When the angel foretold the birth of Jesus, he explained that Mary would be found with child of the Holy Ghost. Jesus would also be called Immanuel, which is interpreted as God with us. (Matt. 1:18-23.)

Prayers are to be said to God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ. Often we leave out this important statement---"praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit." (Eph. 5:20, 6:18.)

Paul unity list. In Paul’s list of seven things that unite us, he named one God and Father of all, one Lord, and one Spirit. (Eph. 4:3-6.) "For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth: the spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree in one." (1 John 5:7-8.)

#2: That Jesus bears the express image of God the Father

"Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power." (Heb. 1:3.)

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1.)

There are three things that Jesus did while on earth that, peculiarly and uniquely, are acts of God. 1) Jesus forgave sins against God. The Jews understood the gravity of such a pronouncement. They asked, Who can forgive sins, but God? (Mark 2:7.) 2) Jesus did no sin. If he were merely a man or a prophet, he would have committed sins. Five times the New Testament expressly declares that he did no sin. (1 Pet. 2:22, 1 John 3:5, Heb. 4:15, John 8:46, 2 Cor. 5:21.) 3) Jesus offered himself as the only acceptable sacrifice for sin. A mere man’s sacrifice would not have been sufficient. (John 1:39.)

Jesus’ incarnation declares that he is divine. He came forth from heaven and lived among men. He was born of the Holy Spirit, not of flesh and blood.

#3: Christians believe that there is a Godhead

This word, Godhead, is found in the Scriptures. (Acts 17:29, Rom. 1:20, Col. 2:9.) The word means divinity, the quality or traits of being God. Sometimes it is referred to by biblical scholars as "Godhood." We understand the meaning of manhood, childhood, and personhood. These words refer to all those who possess the traits of a man, child, or person. The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit possess the qualities or characteristics of God.

The doctrine of the Trinity is important because the deity of Jesus and the Holy Spirit are at stake. If one accepts the deity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, then the concept of the Trinity naturally follows. That is what the word implies.

The difficulty of explaining the Trinity should never be used as an excuse or justification for rejecting the deity of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We have too often followed the deliberate diversion of those desiring to deny Christianity and tried to "explain" the Trinity. That is exactly what they hope to accomplish---to entangle us in the effort to describe the nature of a Trinity. Such an effort, though, is no more difficult than explaining "God" in the first place. Does a monotheists know all there is know about God?? Can they fully explain God? Of course not.

What would make a trinity unacceptable or unscriptural? What biblical principle is violated by the existence of a Trinity? There is none; not the way it is presented in Scripture. Otherwise, we have a profound conflict in Scripture.

The idea of a trinity would be wrong if: a) 2 or 3 gods existed (like Arius taught), b) they were human-like: sinful, quarrelsome, and ignorant, c) had a beginning like pagan myths.