 |
| The Debate over the Trinity |
The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the most important in the Christian faith, yet it also causes much confusion and objection, especially because the term ‘Trinity’ is not itself found in the Bible. This term was developed primarily by Tertullian, a Greek scholar, who described the Godhead by the word trinitas. Tertullian wrote, “I testify that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are inseparable from each other... My assertions is that the Father is one, the Son is one, and the Spirit is one - and that they are all distinct from each other.”
From this comes our three affirmations which are central to the doctrine of the Trinity:
- There is but one God;
- The Father, the Son and the Spirit is each fully and eternally God;
- The Father, the Son, and the Spirit is each a distinct person.
Nowhere does the Bible explicitly teach this combination of assertions. It may, nevertheless, be claimed that the doctrine of the Trinity is a profoundly appropriate interpretation of the biblical witness to God in the light of the ministry, death, resurrection and exaltation of Jesus.
In order to show that the doctrine of the Trinity is in fact a true Biblical understanding, it will be necessary to show that the above affirmations are found in the Bible. Below is a brief study on the Scriptural basis for the affirmations. I do not profess to have included everything as to do so would require a lot more study and I would end up writing multiple books on the subject, however it should make it clear that Scripture is definitive on the doctrine of the Trinity.
There is but one God
How can there be a Trinity when the Old Testament insists there is only one God? If the Old Testament is right, how can John assert that the Word (later identified with Jesus) is God? Does this mean that the one God became a human being and so all of God was on earth? Does it imply there are two (or, with the Holy Spirit, three) Gods? We can attempt to look, only briefly, at what the Bible says on this topic.
Firstly, it is quite right that the Old Testament teaches that there is only one God or, better, that God is one. We need only look at Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” What is more, the New Testament also affirms the same doctrine. For example, James 2:19 reads, “You believe that there is one God. Good!” As in Deuteronomy, an even better translation would be, “You believe that God is one.” The unity of God and the fact that there are no other gods besides him is a foundational doctrine of the Bible.
Secondly, the New Testament also teaches that Jesus was divine. John 1:1 reads, “God was the Word.” This verse is only one of several verses indicating this fact.
The question therefore must be are there not three Gods? The answer is that the New Testament does not give an explanation, but it does give facts, which were later used by the early church to make an explanation of how there can be three beings but not more than one God. As pointed out above, the New Testament makes clear that there is only one God. The doctrine of “God is one” is foundational New Testament teaching, just as it is also true in the Old Testament. The New Testament also makes clear that Jesus (and also the Holy Spirit) is God. This can lead us to think that all of God perhaps became incarnate in Jesus and then in the Holy Spirit. This theory, however, does not sit well with New Testament teaching. Jesus is constantly distinguishing himself from the Father. For example, in John 11:41–43, he thanks the Father that he has heard him and then goes on to speak of the Father sending him. This is part of an ongoing dialogue between the Father and the Son. There is a constant discussion about the Son and the Father, which makes them equal, but at the same time distinguishes them. Thus the Father did not become incarnate in Jesus.
In the three subheadings below, Scripture will specifically show us that God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are all God. If they are all God, and the verses above are true then the Bible has given perfect proof that there is a Holy Divine Trinity of one God in three Persons.
God the Father is God
Throughout Scripture the Father is acknowledged as fully Divine, He is fully God. Because this fact is recognised as beyond question, a mere sampling of biblical evidence will be presented. 1 Corinthians 8:6 reads, “yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist” and Deuteronomy 4:35-39 outlines that, “To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him … that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.” These two verses make it blatantly clear that there is only one God – God the Father – and that there is no other god besides him. Psalm 96:4-5 confirms this further by saying that there is only one God and that there are no other gods anywhere that are equal to Him, “For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols”.
Jesus Christ is God
John 1:1-4 clearly affirms the full deity of Christ, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” Here Christ is referred to as “the Word”, and John tells us that he was “with God” and “was God”. The Greek text echoes that of Genesis 1:1 and therefore reminds us that John is talking about something that was true before the world was made. He is telling us that the Word is God and was always fully God. In John 1:14 he enlightens us further by declaring that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John proclaims most clearly that the Word is Jesus Christ the Son of God, who is God and was with God at the beginning of time. Paul writes to the church of Colosse saying that, “In him [Jesus] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.” Paul therefore makes it clear that Jesus is fully God. Jesus himself confirms these statement in John 10:30 when he says, “I and the Father are one” and when he does not correct Thomas’ realisation that Jesus is “My Lord and my God” in John 20:27.
These verses provide major evidence to prove that Jesus Christ is truly God – and as such is truly the second Person of the triune Godhead.
The Holy Spirit is God
To complete the doctrine of the Trinity, it must be shown and proven from Scripture that the Holy Spirit is also God. In Acts 5:3-4 it is inferred by Peter that the Holy Spirit is God when he rebukes Ananias, “why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?… You have not lied to men but to God.” Indeed in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he claims that, “no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God”, for this to be true the Holy Spirit must be God in order to have the ability to be able to know the things of God the Father. No human has perfect ability to know all things of God. Only Jesus and the Holy Spirit have this capability within the Godhead itself. The Bible says that humans will only “know in part” with what knowledge we can acquire from God.
Conclusion
If we believe that all of Scripture is “God breathed” (the whole of the Bible has come to us from God the Father, through the Holy Spirit) then all of the above verses, especially when they are grouped together show that God is one God in three Persons – with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit being the three, distinct Persons of this triune Godhead – and with all three Persons of this Godhead being co-equal and co-eternal.
1 John 5:7 in the NKJV sums this up in one concise yet profound verse, “For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.”
The doctrine of the Trinity is not something that the early Christian church simply made up, the Bible contains countless references to the plurality and unity within the Godhead. Christians have not ‘perverted’ what the Bible tell us, instead they have sought to define what the Word of God states to be true in the doctrine of the Trinity.
No comments:
Post a Comment