The belief that God is both three and one is Christianity’s most disputed doctrine. Jews argue that the Trinity is at odds with the Hebrew Scriptures, which declare God as one. Muslims accuse Christians of polytheism. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that the concept of the Trinity is pagan and unbiblical. Mormons are convinced that the doctrine was influenced by Greek philosophy. Many are suspicious of the Trinity because the word never appears in the Bible. Is it time for Christians to abandon their belief in the Trinity?
The Trinity explains what the Bible proclaims
It shouldn’t trouble people that the Bible doesn’t contain the word “Trinity.” It doesn’t have the word monotheism either, or most of the theological words that we use to describe what the Bible teaches. These words are just shorthand to help us refer to biblical concepts. The bigger question is whether the Bible teaches that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God, and that God is at the same time one God, not three.
The following are some of the Scriptures that convinced me of that.
Genesis 1:1-2
In the opening verses of the Bible, we’re introduced to a concept of God that is more complex than other beings. We hear that “God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1), but then we learn that “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). Who is this Spirit of God who appears to act separately but in harmony with God? This happens all through the Old Testament as the Spirit leads people (Psalm 143:10), carries people (1 Kings 18:12), enters people (Ezekiel 2:2), and comes upon them (2 Chronicles 20:14).
Genesis 1:26-27
Then, before we’ve even gotten out of the first chapter of the Bible, we hear God say, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). You can’t help but wonder who God is talking to. Some say that God is just addressing the angels in his royal court, but nobody believes that humans are created in the image of angels—we’re created in the image of God. God uses similar language in Genesis 3:22, 11:7, and Isaiah 6:8. The one God must be a plurality of some sort.
Isaiah 9:6
The hints of the Trinity earlier in the Old Testament reach a climax in Isaiah 9:6 and the prophecy of a Messiah who will be born as a child but called “Mighty God.” The idea that this is just a regular name that declares “God is mighty” will not do. If God is one and the Messiah is divine, then our understanding of God needs to expand. The Old Testament sets the stage for an understanding of the Trinity.
John 1:1
What is hinted at in the Old Testament becomes explicit in the New Testament. John 1:1 refers to Jesus as “the Word” when it says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” But John is merely reflecting Jesus’ own teaching. He made statements like “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30) and “before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). The people who heard Him either accused Him of blasphemy (John 10:33) or worshipped Him as Thomas did in John 20:28 when he proclaimed, “My Lord and my God!”
Matthew 28:19
The Trinity, far from being a later development of the Christian church, has been a part of Christian baptismal practices ever since Jesus commissioned the apostles. In Matthew 28:19, Jesus sends out the apostles, saying, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” If Jesus believed that the Father, Son, and Spirit were three gods, grammatically, He should have said “names,” not “name.” The “name” of the Father, Son, and Spirit points to a shared unity of the three members of the godhead. The language of the Trinity is unavoidable.
The Fellowship Affirmation of Faith describes the Bible’s teaching on the Trinity as follows:
We believe in one God, creator of all, holy, sovereign, immutable, and existing eternally in three equal persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each being truly and essentially God.
The church didn’t invent the Trinity. Christians believe it because the Scriptures teach it. That doesn’t mean that it’s easy to grasp. It describes a God who is more complex than any being we’ve ever known. But to simplify the nature of God to make Him easier to understand would be to distort who He really is.
Accept the mystery and bow before the wonder that God is both three persons and one God.
In awe of Him,
Paul
