The Trinity.
Bible Reading:
Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear,
O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!”
One of the great mysteries of the Spirit World is the “TRINITY” of God. The Scriptures
clearly teach the distinct personality of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
At the Baptism of Jesus there was present
the “Divine Three.”
1. The
“Father” was present and spoke, saying, “This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
2. The “SON” was present in the
person of Jesus.
3. And
the “HOLY SPIRIT”
was present in the form of a “Dove.” Matthew 3:16-17.
The “Tri-Unity” of God is also
taught in the Old Testament. In Genesis 1:26, we read, “And
God said, let US make man
in OUR Image.” And when the
“Babel Builders” were constructing their “Tower,” the Lord said, “Let US go down, and confound their language” Genesis 11:7.
How to reconcile the “Trinity” with the “Unity” of God maybe difficult
to understand. Are there three “Gods,”? Or are there three “Persons” in one “God-Head?”
The Scriptures do not teach that there are three Gods; neither does it teach that God
comes in different times of human history. What the Bible does teach is stated
in the doctrine of the Trinity as: there is one God who has revealed Himself in three persons, the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and these three persons are the one God.
Although this is difficult to comprehend, it is
nevertheless what the Bible tells us, and is the closest the finite mind can
come to explaining the infinite mystery of the infinite God, when considering
the biblical statements about God’s being.
The Bible teaches that there is one God and
only one God:
“There is one God” I Timothy 2:5. However, even though God is one in
His essential being or nature, He is also three persons:
“Let us make man in our image” Genesis 1:26.
“God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one
of us’” Genesis 3:22.
God’s plural nature is referred to here, for He
could not be talking to angels in these instances, because angels could not and
did not help God create. The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ, not the angels,
created all things (I John 1:3;
Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:2).
In addition to speaking of God as one, and
referring to a plurality of God’s being, the Scriptures are quite detailed as
to naming God in terms of three persons:
There is a person whom the Bible calls the
Father, and the Father is designated as God the Father (Galatians 1:1).
The Bible talks about a person named Jesus, or
the Son, or the Word, also called God. “The
Word was God” John 1:1. Jesus was “also
calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God” John 5:18.
There is a third person mentioned in the
Scriptures called the Holy Spirit, and this person, different from the Father and
the Son, is also called God, “Ananias,
why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? … You have not lied
to men but to God” Acts 5:3-4.
The facts of the biblical teaching are these:
1.
There
is one God. This one God has a plural nature. This one God is called the Father,
the Son, the Holy Spirit, all distinct personalities, all designated God.
2. We are therefore led to the
conclusion that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God, the doctrine of
the Trinity.
3 in
1 illustration:
In attempting to explain the doctrine of the
Trinity, Christians today occasionally appeal to patterns of three in one in
the world:
The best one I think of is my own life.
1.
When
I was born, I became my parent’s son.
2.
When
I was married, I became my wife’s husband.
3.
When
we had children, I become their father.
So, I am a son to my parents, a husband to my
wife, and a father to my children. I am not three-different people, but one
person, seen in three different ways, in this example, by relationship.
The same three-ness can be seen in the Sun, its
mass, heat, and light.
The “Sun” of our Solar System
is a “Trinity.” It manifests itself in a “Threefold” manner, “Heat,” “Light,” and “Chemical Action.” These three properties of the Sun make up the Sun itself. Neither one of them by itself
is the Sun:
1. The “Heat” of the Sun is not
seen but is felt. To apply our illustration let the “Heat” rays of the Sun correspond to “God the FATHER.”
He cannot be seen, but He can
be felt, for God is LOVE (1 John 4:7, 16. John 3:16), and love can be felt
but not seen.
2. The “Light” of the Sun can be seen, and it is the “Light” of the Sun that makes the Sun VISIBLE. The “Light” rays of the Sun correspond
to “God the SON.” It is the “Son of God” that makes God VISIBLE. The Son (Jesus) came to manifest God. 1 Timothy 3:16. Jesus said of Himself “I am the LIGHT OF THE WORLD.” John 8:12.
John 1:1-14. Without the Son we would not know what God is like for He came to reveal
God, so that He could say “He that hath seen Me hath seen the FATHER.” John 14:9.
3. The “Chemical Action” of the Sun can neither be
seen nor felt, but its power is revealed in the
growing plant. The “Chemical Action” of the Sun corresponds to “God the HOLY SPIRIT.” It is the
Holy Spirit that gives life and power and forms the “Image of God” on the sensitive plate
of the “Human Heart.”
As neither the “Heat” or the “Light” or the “Chemical Action” of the Sun is the Sun, but it takes all three
to make the Sun, though each has its separate work to perform. So, the “Father,” “Son” and “Holy Spirit,” are not
each in Himself God, but they in their united capacity are GOD, each performing His Official function in the creation and preservation
of the Universe.
As the “Heat,” “Light” and “Chemical Action” of the
Sun varies according to the seasons, the “Heat” being more intense in summer than in winter,
so each Person in the “God-Head” is more manifest in one Age or Dispensation than in another. The Father was manifest in Old Testament
times.
The Son was manifest
during His earthly ministry, and the Holy Spirit is active in this Dispensation.
This will explain the words of Jesus in the “Great Commission' (Matthew 28:20) “Lo,
I am with you always, even
unto the end of the World
(Age).”
As we have the SUN with us whenever it manifests
itself in either “heat,” “light,” or “chemical action,” so we have GOD with us whenever we have Him
in any of His manifestations. So, when Jesus said “Lo, I am with you,” He meant not that He would be personally
with them, for His work now is that of a “High Priest in Heaven, but that
“God” would be with them in the person of the HOLY SPIRIT. Jesus went away that the Holy Spirit might come. John 16:7-14.
So, while there are three “Personalities” in the
“God-Head,” there is but ONE GOD. In short, we do not have to think of
three persons when we think of God; we may think of one person.
