What is the Trinity?
Who is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit?
Are these really three people?
Are they really just modes or manifestations of the same person?
How can three people be one at the same time?
These questions come up a lot when discussing this topic. Hopefully, by the end of this blog, we will be able to answer a lot of these questions.
The doctrine of the Trinity is probably one of the most important and misunderstood doctrines within the church. Many people dismiss the Trinity due to a lack of understanding. For most of my life, I was one of those people. I spent most of my adult life in a church that denied the doctrine of the Trinity and it wasn’t until recently, within the last 3 years that I learned to embrace this doctrine and learned to see the importance of having a proper view of God.
I feel both uniquely qualified and unqualified to talk about this subject. As someone who has both taught against this doctrine and now teaching for this doctrine, I feel like I am in a unique position to address this topic without the accusations of traditionalism or ignorance.
Once we look to the Scriptures and weigh the evidence, I hope that we can all gain a better perspective of this doctrine and realize the importance this doctrine has on our relationship with God.
In this post, there are 3 main topics I want to try to cover. I won’t be able to go into as deep of a dive as this topic probably deserves but I will do my best to give you enough information along with some resources that will help you gain a greater understanding of this all-important topic.
The 3 main points I want to address in this post are,
The Old Testament implicitly teaches the doctrine of the Trinity
The New Testament explicitly teaches the doctrine of the Trinity
Church History affirms the doctrine of the Trinity
But before we get too far into this conversation I think it is important to define our terms. What is the Trinity? Many people who deny the doctrine of the Trinity do so NOT because they prove it to be false, but because they have a faulty view of what the doctrine of the Trinity even teaches.
In the book, The Forgotten Trinity, James White gives this definition of what the Trinity is. “Within the one Being that is God, there exists eternally three coequal and coeternal persons, namely, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
There is already a lot to unpack here. My goal in writing this is to make this statement make sense. The first thing we must understand is that there is only one God. God is not one of many, the Father, Son, and Spirit are not three different gods. Christianity has always affirmed the idea that God is undeniably one.
Many people who deny the Trinity say that Trinitarians believe in three gods or in some form of polytheism where the Father, Son, and Spirit are all separate divine beings. This is not what the doctrine of the Trinity is.
Hank Hanegraaff describes it this way.
“When speaking of the Trinity, we need to realize that we are talking about one what and three who’s. The one what is the Being or essence of God; the three who’s are the Father, Son, and Spirit. We dare not mix up the what’s and the who’s regarding the Trinity.”
Robert Bowman in his commentary, The Biblical Basis of the Doctrine of the Trinity summarizes the position of Trinitarianism this way,
“It is often alleged that the doctrine of the Trinity is not a Biblical doctrine. While the word Trinity is not in the Bible, the substance of the doctrine is definitely biblical. The doctrine is simply a formal way of systematizing the following six propositions, which may be viewed as premises of the doctrine.
There is one God ( i.e., one proper object of religious devotion).
This one God is a single divine being, called Jehovah or Yahweh in the Old Testament (The LORD).
The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is God, the LORD.
The Son, Jesus Christ, is God, the LORD.
The Holy Spirit is God, the LORD.
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each someone distinct from the other two.”
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
The Shema is regarded by most Jews as the most important prayer in Judaism. This is because it reminds them of the key principle of faith, there is only one God. Jesus actually refers to this passage in Matthew 22 when someone asks him what the greatest commandment is. The understanding that God is one is critical to the Christian faith.
The Old Testament implicitly teaches the Trinity
Traditionally Trinitarian theology is always taught from the New Testament first. This is wise because it's not until the New Testament that we see the progressive revelation of God revealed through the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
I chose to start here due to my background with the Oneness doctrine. We were taught that the doctrine of the Trinity was a foreign concept to the Old Testament and that the Old Testament teaches a strict monotheism that insists God is numerically one.
Being able to see the complexity of God here first, in the implicit teaching of the Old Testament, helped me embrace the clear and explicit teaching of God as revealed in the New Testament.
Genesis 1:1-3 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, Let there be light”
Here we find an interesting passage found on the very first verse of your Bible. We see God, we see the Spirit of God and we see the Word of God. Again, the point here isn’t that the Old Testament explicitly explains this doctrine, the point is if the doctrine of the Trinity is true we will start to see patterns emerging even within the Old Testament that will make sense once we get the full revelation of God through Jesus in the New Testament.
Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness,…”
There are many ideas and opinions on this verse. Is God speaking within the Trinity? Is he simply speaking to the angels? Is he using the plural of majesty? What is happening here?
First, Ancient Jews did not use the plural of majesty. Second, angels were present during creation but we are not created in the image of God and angels, we are made in the image of God alone.
So this passage seems to indicate a plurality within God.
Another passage that seems to indicate this plurality is found in Genesis 11:5 this is the story of the tower of babel.
“But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other. So the Lord scattered them from over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.”
Again, we see this plurality within the one God. Verse 7 says, “Let us go down..” This could be a nod to the Trinity or it could be God speaking to his angels. Context is important here. Notice verse 8, “So the Lord scattered them…”
God scattered them by himself, so why the plural language here? Let’s keep looking.
Genesis 19:24 “Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah - from the Lord out of the heavens.”
Again, notice the language used here. The Lord rained fire down from the Lord out of heaven. It appears that we have two Lords in this passage.
The Angel of the Lord
Genesis 16:7-11 “The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going? I’m running away from my mistress Sarai, she answered. Then the angel of the Lord told her, Go back to your mistress and submit to her. The angel added, I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count. The angel of the Lord also said to her: You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery.”
This is the first time we encounter this mysterious figure known as the angel of the Lord. We probably find him earlier in the Bible, but this is the first introduction to this angel.
Who is he? Is he just another messenger of God? Is he a special angel? Or Could this actually be the second person in the Trinity? Notice, this angel speaks in a way that is unique. Only God can increase descendants, yet this angel says that He will do it.
What is Hagar’s response to all of this? The Bible says, So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You are a God of seeing, for she said, truly I have seen him who looks after me (Verse 13).
Perhaps the most frequently missed part of Hagar’s response, and one worth thinking long and hard over, is how the text identifies the God who spoke to her simply as “Yahweh.” Did you see it?
The angel of the Lord is speaking to her, so she calls Yahweh who spoke to her something. The text calls the angel Yahweh.
So right off the bat, we can see this character is going to be vitally important going forward. Now, if this is in fact showing a complexity to God that would later be revealed in the New Testament, the pattern should continue.
The angel of the Lord appears to Hagar again in Genesis 21.
Genesis 21:17 “God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”
There is a clear distinction in this passage between God and the angel of God. We see that God heard the boy and the angel of God spoke to them. So is this angel just another angel? No. This angel says, “Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”
So we see that even when there is a clear distinction being made in the Bible between God and this angel of God, this angel still speaks in ways that only God can speak in.
Genesis 22:1-2 “Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, Abraham! Here I am, he replied. Then God said, Take your son, your only son, whom you love - Isaac - and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
Verse one makes this abundantly clear. God tested Abraham. This is important, follow me for a minute here. God tests Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his son Isaac. He tells Abraham to take his son and go to a mountain to offer him as a sacrifice. As Abraham is about to sacrifice Isaac something happens.
Genesis 22:11 “But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, Abraham! Abraham! Here I am, he replied. Do not lay a hand on the boy, he said. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
Notice the parallels between this passage and verse 1. In verse 1 the Bible says, Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him Abraham! Here I am, he replied. Now in verse 11 the Bible says that the angel of the Lord calls out to Abraham and says, “Abraham! Abraham! Here I am, he replied.”
This type of parallel is showing that the angel of the Lord is the “God” who told him to go in the first place.
Again in verse 11, we see more evidence that this angel is unique. He tells Abraham, “I know that you fear God because you have not withheld from me your son.”
What? How can the angel of the Lord say that Abraham didn’t withhold his son from him when God was the one asking for him to offer Isaac? The story doesn’t end there.
Genesis 22:15 “The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
First, we see that the angel of the Lord again says that Abraham did not withhold his son from him, and now we see this angel is now telling Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars, which is calling back to the covenant God made with Abraham in Genesis 12. The angel of the Lord says the reason that he would be blessed is “because you obeyed me.”
Just an interesting side note as we process these passages and their connection to the Trinity and more importantly their connection to Jesus. This mountain that Abraham was at is the same place where Jesus was eventually crucified. Why is this significant?
As the angel of the Lord stops Abraham from offering his son on the altar, Abraham notices a ram caught in the thicket. Abraham takes the ram and offers it in place of Isaac as a burnt offering. He would call that place “The Lord will provide.”
God would not allow Abraham to offer his son as a sacrifice because God already had a plan in place to offer his own son. That is why the place is called the Lord will provide.
Paul would later draw on this in Galatians 3:8 when said, “Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance through Abraham: All nations will be blessed through you.”
Quoting from the book, The Angel of the Lord it says,
“In the story, the angel is certainly speaking for the Lord ( whom we would call the Father). That is what angels do after all; they speak for others. But it could also read that he is speaking for himself. Such is the strange way we will discover that the Angel often talks… The Angel distinguishes himself from Jehovah, speaking of Him in the third person, and that, on the other hand, in the same utterance he speaks of God in the first person.
Something we want to point out now is that when we come to the NT, this is very similar to the strange way that Jesus often speaks about himself, especially in the Gospel of John. Here he tells them over and over that he is distinct from the Father (John 5:17, 6:32, 8:16).
Yet he also says that to see him is to see the Father (John 14:9) and that he and the Father are One (John 10:30). That kind of language is not new. It comes virtually every time the Angel of the Lord shows up.”
Judges 2:1 “The angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land I swore to give to your ancestors. I said, I will never break my covenant with you,”
Again, we see language associated with the Angel of the Lord that is only reserved for God himself.
In Judges 8 the Angel of the Lord is the one who meets Gideon, then we see in verse 14 it says, “The Lord turned to him and said,”. So we see two figures in this story, God and the Angel of the Lord. Maybe the author of judges is just using these two titles interchangeably to refer to the same person?
Let’s look at verses 20-23 “The angel of God said to him, Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth. And Gideon did so. Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seem the angel of the Lord face to face! But the Lord said to him, Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”
So after the offering is consumed by the fire we see that the angel of the Lord disappeared, then the Lord is still there speaking with Gideon. It is obvious from the text that we are talking about two different people.
Two more passages on the angel of the Lord and we will move on.
Genesis 48:15-16 “Then he blessed Joseph and said, May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the Angel who has delivered me from all harm, may he bless these boys.”
Wait, what?! It seems as if Jacob is referring to three different people here in his prayer. He says the God who my fathers walked faithfully, the God who has been my shepherd, and the angel who delivered me!
Zechariah 3:1-4 “ Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire? Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, Take off his filthy clothes. Then he said to Joshua, See I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.”
Here we see the angel rebuking Satan by saying the Lord rebuke you, a reference to another Lord other than this angel, and we also see this angel forgive sins. This angel is somehow both Yahweh and not Yahweh. This is the consistent teaching of the doctrine of the Trinity.
Other Trinitarian passages in the OT
Isaiah 48:16 “Come near me and listen to this: From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret; at the time it happens, I am there. And now the Sovereign Lord has sent me, endowed with his Spirit.”
In this passage we find God sending another person who has been endowed with His Spirit. Is this a prophet that he is sending? No. Back up to verse 12 and see the context of who is speaking and who is being sent.
“Listen to me, Jacob, Israel, whom I have called: I am he, I am the first and I am the last.”
If this is starting to sound like the New Testament that’s good! It means we are getting somewhere!
Isaiah 63:7-10 “I will tell of the kindnesses of the Lord, the deeds for which he is to be praised, according to all the Lord has done for us - yes, the many good things he has done for Israel, according to his compassion and many kindnesses. He said, Surely they are my people, children who will be true to me; and so he became their Savior. In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them.”
Again, this feels almost like it belongs in the New Testament. We find God, the Angel, and the Holy Spirit all present in this passage. Clearly an allusion to the Trinity.
Proverbs 30:4 “Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Whose hands have gathered up the wind? Who has wrapped up the waters in a cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is the name of his son? Surely you know!”
There’s so much more that we could cover but for the sake of time, we have to move on.
The New Testament Explicitly Teaches the Doctrine of The Trinity
There is so much that we could focus on in this discussion. It is impossible for us to cover everything within the time frame that we have for this topic. So instead of trying to cover as much as possible, I will instead focus on one particular area.
One of the greatest Trinitarian apologetics that we possess wasn’t written by scholars hundreds of years removed from the times of the New Testament. It is a book that is found in our New Testament. The Gospel of John.
John 1:1-3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”
The first 18 verses of John chapter 1 are known as the prologue of John. What is a prologue? A prologue is used to give readers extra information that advances the plot. It’s the opening to a story that establishes the context and gives background details, often some earlier story that ties into the main one.
For John, he is introducing a theme that will run throughout his gospel. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all begin with either his genealogy or introducing Jesus as Messiah. John gives us a glimpse of the past in order to prepare us for what he is going to say about Jesus.
He doesn’t start with the humanity of Christ, he goes all the way to the beginning to establish that Jesus is God.
John’s prologue deliberately mirrors the creation story of Genesis 1. We have already looked at how even within the story of Genesis we see the plurality of persons on display. All three members of the Trinity were active during the creation process.
Here John points to that reality to show that this Jesus was the Word of God that created and has now come to us in the flesh.
Where do we think John got the understanding of Jesus as the Word of God? A Jewish follower of Christ didn’t just invent this idea out of thin air. He got the idea from the Old Testament itself.
Psalm 33:6 “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.”
Again, quoting James White,
“In the Old Testament there are dim reflections upon a similar concept. “The Word of the Lord” came to have a deep significance to the Jewish people. Such passages as Psalm 33:6, give us the idea that there was more to the “word” than one might see at first glance, During the few centuries prior to the coming of Christ, Jewish theologians and thinkers would see in such phrases as “word of the Lord” and in the ‘Wisdom of God” references to a person rather than an abstract concept.”
Verse 14 “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, This is the one I spoke about when I said, He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.)”
Again, John is very clear. Not only is Jesus the Word of God, but he is God and he is not the same person as the Father. John says he comes from the Father.
John 1:18 “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.”
I want you to really consider what this passage is saying. No one has ever seen God? Didn’t we read many Old Testament passages that show God appearing to people?
I’m going to quote from James White here,
“John tells us that no one has seen God at any time. Is this true? Are there not many instances of men seeing God in the Old Testament? Did not Isaiah say that he saw the Lord sitting upon His throne in the temple (Isaiah 6:1-3)? So what is John saying? How can we understand his words?
The key is found in the final phrases of verse 18, specifically, ‘who is at the Father’s side.’ When John says ‘no one has seen God at any time,’ he is referring to the Father. No man has seen the Father at any time. So how do we have knowledge of the Father? The Only Son has revealed him.
Another important fact to note from this verse is that if indeed no one has seen the Father, then what does this tell us of the Son? Who did Isaiah see in Isaiah 6? Who walked with Abraham by the oaks of Mamre (Genesis 18:1)? None other than the reincarnate Jesus Christ, the eternal Word or Logos. John will develop this later in his gospel, as we shall see when we examine those passages that identify Jesus as Yahweh.”
Father, Son, and Spirit
The Scriptural truth that the Father is not the Son, nor the Son the Spirit, is rather easily demonstrated. We begin with the fact that the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father, actions incomprehensible outside of recognizing that the Father is a separate person from the Son.
John 3:35 “The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands.”
John 5:20 “For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.”
Just as the Father loves the Son, so the Son loves His disciples. The Disciples are separate persons from the Son; hence, the Father is a separate person from the Son as well.
John 15:9 “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Now remain in my love.”
John 17:23-24 “I in them and you in me, so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then they would will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
Certainly, the best-known example of the existence of three persons is the baptism of Jesus recorded in Matthew 3:16-17.
“As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Here the Father speaks from heaven, the Son is being baptized (and is again described as being the object of the Father’s love, paralleling the passages cited from John), and the Spirit is descending as a dove. Jesus is not speaking to himself but is spoken to by the Father. There is no confusion of persons at the baptism of the Lord Jesus.
The Transfiguration of Jesus in Matthew 17:1-9 again demonstrates the separate personhood of the Father and the Son.
Matthew 17:1-3 “After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as the light. Just then appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.”
Matthew 17:5 “While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am Well pleased. Listen to him!”
The Son’s preexistent glory is unveiled for an instant in the presence of the Father in the cloud. Communication again takes place, marked with the familiar love of the Father for the Son. Both deity and the separate personhood of the Son are clearly presented in this passage.
The Father speaks to the Son again in John 12:28 “Father, glorify your name! Then a voice came from heaven, I have glorified it, and will glorify it again. The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him.”
Again, the distinction between Father and the Son is maintained. This is a conversation, not a monologue.
Some of the most obvious passages relevant to the Father and the Son are found in the prayers of Jesus Christ. These are not mock prayers, Jesus is not speaking to himself. This isn’t how I used to see this, this isn’t Jesus’ humanity praying to his deity. He is clearly communicating with another person, that is the person of the Father.
John 17:1-3 “After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
People misuse this passage a lot to try to prove that Jesus isn’t God since he calls the Father, “The only true God.” But this argument ignores so much context found within the pages of John’s gospel. By chapter 17 it is clear that Jesus is God.
Free Bible study tip, we always interpret the obscure in light of the clear. This is why it is so dangerous to isolate Scripture to make arguments. Ignoring the context of the Gospel of John is the only way to make the argument that Jesus isn’t God. We have overwhelming evidence from just the Gospel of John that Jesus is the Word of God who was with God in the beginning and who is God Himself, which has to guide our understanding of this passage.
Another passage to consider is Matthew 11:27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Here the reciprocal relationship between Father and Son is put forth with exactness, while at the same time dictating the absolute deity of both. Only God has the authority to hand over all things, and no mere creature could ever be the recipient of the control of all things either. Jesus ‘reveals’ the Father to those he wills to do so. Obviously, two divine persons are in view here.
Paul never conflates Jesus with the Father. He always shows him to be another person besides the Father. A good place to see this is in the greetings in the Epistles.
Romans 1:7 “To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 1:3 “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
2 Corinthians 1:2 “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Galatians 1:3 “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,"
Ephesians 1:2 “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Philippians 1:2 “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
2nd Corinthians 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.”
It’s clear that the Father and the Son are distinct persons from each other. They talk to each other, and express love to each other. But what about the Holy Spirit? Is He also a distinct person? Or is the Holy Spirit just a force or power of God?
Acts 13:2 “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
One of the clearest indications of the personhood of the Spirit is His use of the personal pronoun in reference to himself. We prove our own personhood by speaking of ourselves as “I” or “Me”.
When the Spirit set aside Barnabas and Saul, he did so personally.
Also, When Jesus refers to the Spirit, he refers to him as a person.
John 15:26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.”
John 16:13-14 “But when he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.”
Look at how Paul talks about the Spirit in Romans,
Romans 5:5 “And hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who had been given to us.”
Romans 15:30 “I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.”
The love of the Spirit was as common and understandable a reality to the Roman believers as was the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. There simply is no reason to believe the Spirit was not viewed in as personal a category as the Lord himself. That is why Matthew would record these words of the Lord Jesus without ever thinking them strange:
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,”
It should be obvious by now that the Father is a person, it should be equally obvious that the Son is a person. How, then, could two persons share a single name with a nonperson? The only way that makes sense is if the Holy Spirit is just as much of a person as the Father and the Son.
And Just to remove any confusion, the Holy Spirit is a person, and the Holy Spirit is 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 have received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after if was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to human beings but to God.”
Church History Affirms The Doctrine of The Trinity
•The Council of Nicea is the boogyman of fringe Christian groups.
•The council convened in 325AD but the council was not to develop the Trinity. It was to deal with the Arian Heresy.
•Arius taught that Jesus was created. (Similar to Jehovah Witnesses)
•The Doctrine of the Trinity has always been used to fight against heresies.
Polycarp (70-155) was a disciple of the Apostle John.
“O’ Lord God almighty… I bless you and glorify you through the eternal and heavenly high priest Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, through whom be glory to you, with Him and the Holy Spirit, both now and forever.”
Ignatius 30-107 A.D.
”For if there is one God of the universe, the Father of Christ, ‘of whom are all things,’ and one Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord, ‘by whom are all things,’ and also one Holy Spirit, who wrought in Moses, and in the prophets and apostles.”
Justin Martyr 110-165 A.D.
“For, in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Savior Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they then receive the washing with water.”
Irenaeus in his writing, Against Heresies, 185 A.D. wrote,
“The Church... Has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith in one God, the Father… in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit.”
The Apostles Creed (340 A.D)
I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.
Nicene Creed (381 A.D)
I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.
The Trinity in Conclusion
We see peaks into the nature of God throughout the Old Testament. His Oneness is explicitly taught within the Old Testament and yet we find glimpses that there is more to God than meets the eye.
It is not until the light of the New Testament revelation of the Son and the Holy Spirit that we can make sense of the Old Testament passages that point to a plurality within God.
We see clear evidence that the Father is God.
We see clear evidence that the Son is God.
We see clear evidence that the Holy Spirit is God.
We see clear evidence that Church History affirms the Trinity.
We see that the Father loves and sends the Son
We see that the Son loves and obeys the Father
We see that the Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son
One God in three persons
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