God is not
some unknowable, impersonal divine essence, such that
our own personalities ultimately become an illusion. Nor
does "He" or "It" or "She" manifest through our alleged
"higher consciousness" so that God and our true self are
one. God is not the universe itself nor is the universe
His body (pantheism, panentheism). God is not the
originator of all religions (syncretism) or an eternally
hidden deity who is perpetually unknowable,
unapproachable and indescribable (mysticism). God is not
unipersonal or monistic.
One God in
Three Persons—the Doctrine of the Trinity
The Trinity
is not a symbol of various religious, metaphysical or
psychological concepts, nor is the Trinity tritheistic
(three gods) or exist in three different modes or
aspects (modalism). The doctrine of the Trinity was
never derived from ancient pagan religions. In
fact, the only rational explanation of the Trinity is
divine revelation.
Among all
religions that have ever existed, the Christian concept
of God is entirely unique, for in the totality of
religious history, there is only one concept of an
infinite-personal triune God. While every religion fits
one of the preceding (or related) descriptions, no other
religion has a Trinity. Divine revelation accounts for
our knowledge of the Trinity. Indeed, the biblical
concept of the Trinity is at once so unexpected and
complex, and yet so practical, that it could never have
been invented by men in its biblical formula. For
example, only the existence of the biblical Trinity
logically explains the unity and diversity in creation.
Only it explains both the human personality and the many
triune manifestations in nature (man as body, soul,
spirit; space as height, width, length; time as past,
present, future; matter as energy, motion, phenomena;
family as man, woman, offspring; and so on). (See also
Francis Schaeffer, He Is There and He Is Not Silent.)
In the
following material we will document that the Bible
teaches the doctrine of the Trinity and therefore no
other concept of God. It is important to note here that
the Bible teaches both monotheism and trinitarianism. It
teaches a monotheistic view—that there is only
one true God—and a trinitarian view—that this one
true God exists eternally as three Persons. This "triunity"
of God was defended from earliest times as Christian
theologians and apologists carefully safeguarded both
the unity of God against tritheism and maintained the
respective deity of the three Persons of the Godhead. As
Gregory of Nyssa stated in his letter to Ablabius, "To
say that there are three gods is wicked. Not to bear
witness to the deity of the Son and the Spirit is
ungodly and absurd. Therefore one God must be confessed
by us according to the witness of Scripture, ‘Hear
Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord’ (Deut. 6:4), even
if the word ‘deity’ extends through the holy trinity."1
There Is Only
One True God
The Bible
does not teach any form of tritheism or polytheism, as
in the Mormon faith, but that there is only one true God
from all eternity. As Jesus taught: "Now this is eternal
life: that they may know you, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom you have sent" (John 17:5).
The following
scriptures prove there is only one God:
• ... the
only true God... (John 17:3)
• there is
no God but one (1 Corinthians 8:4)
• there is
but one God, ... (1 Corinthians 8:6)
• For there
is one God... (1 Timothy 2:5)
• This is
what the LORD says... "I am the first and I am the
last; apart from me there is no God" (Isaiah 44:6)
• I am the
LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no
God (Isaiah 45:5)
• I am the
LORD, and there is no other (Isaiah 45:6)
• I am God,
and there is no other; I am God, and there is none
like me (Isaiah 46:9)
God Is a
Trinity or Triune
Simultaneously, this one true God has revealed that He
is three Persons, or centers of consciousness, within
one Godhead. Because the concept cannot be fully
comprehended does not mean the doctrine is irrational or
cannot be accurately defined. A good definition of the
Trinity is provided by noted church historian Philip
Schaff:
God is one
in three persons or hypostases [distinct persons of
the same nature], each person expressing the whole
fullness of the Godhead, with all his attributes. The
term persona is taken neither in the old sense
of a mere personation or form of manifestation (prosopon,
face, mask), nor in the modern sense of an
independent, separate being or individual, but in a
sense which lies between these two conceptions, and
thus avoids Sabellianism on the one hand, and
Tritheism on the other. [Sabellianism taught that God
was one person only who existed in three different
forms or manifestations; tritheism refers to a belief
in three separate gods.] The divine persons are in one
another, and form a perpetual intercommunication and
motion within the divine essence. Each person has all
the divine attributes which are inherent in the divine
essence, but each has also a characteristic
individuality or property, which is peculiar to the
person, and can not be communicated; the Father is
unbegotten, the Son begotten, the Holy Ghost is
proceeding. In this Trinity there is no priority or
posteriority of time, no superiority or inferiority of
rank, but the three persons are co-eternal and
coequal.2
The biblical
doctrine of the Trinity is vital to understand because
it concerns who God is, which is essential for
having a proper realization of the nature of God as
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To understand the Trinity
is to understand God as He has revealed Himself to be.
To misunderstand the Trinity is to fail to understand
who God is.
This is
important because if we are to worship God "in spirit
and truth" (John 4:24), as Jesus commanded, we must know
and worship the one true God as He really is. To fail to
do this is to fail to know and worship God, and this
cannot bring Him glory. Thus, those who reject the
Trinity, by definition, deny the nature of God. Without
a biblical theological formulation about God, heretical
views arise. This in turn can lead to rejection of the
one true God and the worship of a false God. And if the
Bible is clear on anything, it is clear that faith in a
false God cannot save people from their sins. Jesus
Himself emphasized the importance of having an accurate
knowledge of God when He said, "This is eternal life:
that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom you have sent" (John 17:3).
In his
Christian Theology, Christian theologian Millard J.
Erickson offers six points that must be included in a
proper understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity (the
following is the authors’ paraphrase of Erickson’s
points):
1. There is
only one God
2. Each
Person in the Godhead is equally deity.
3. The
threeness and oneness of God constitute a paradox or
an antinomy—merely an apparent contradiction, not a
genuine one. This is because God’s threeness and
oneness do not exist in the same respect; that is,
they are not simultaneously affirming and denying the
same thing at the same time and in the same manner.
God’s oneness refers to the divine essence; His
threeness to the plurality of persons.
4. The
Trinity is eternal—there have always been three
Persons, each of whom is eternally divine. One or more
of the Persons did not come into being at a point in
time or at some point in time became divine. There has
never been any change in the essential divine nature
of the triune God. God is, and God will be what God
has always been forever.
5. The
function of one member in the Trinity may for a time
be subordinate to one or both of the other members,
although this does not mean that that member is in any
way inferior in essence to the others. Each Person of
the Trinity has had, for a period of time, a
particular function unique to Himself. In other words,
the particular function that is sometimes unique to a
given Person in the Trinity is only a temporary role
exercised for a given purpose. It does not represent a
change in His status or essence. When the second
Person of the Trinity incarnated and became Jesus
Christ, He did not become less than the Father in
essence, although He did become subordinate to the
Father functionally. In like manner, the Holy Spirit
is now subordinated to the ministry of the Son (John
14-16) and to the will of the Father, but He is not
less than they are. Certain examples may illustrate
this. A wife may have a subordinate role to a husband,
but she is also his equal. Equals in some business
enterprise may elect one of their number to serve as
head or a chairperson for a period, without any change
in rank. During World War II, the highest ranking
member of an aircraft, the pilot, would nevertheless
carefully subordinate his decisions to the bombardier,
a lower ranking officer.
6. Finally,
the Trinity is incomprehensible. Even when we are in
heaven and fully redeemed, we will still not totally
comprehend God, because it is impossible that a finite
creature could ever comprehend an infinite being.
Thus, "Those aspects of God which we never fully
comprehend should be regarded as mysteries that go
beyond our reason rather than as paradoxes which
conflict with reason."3
Prior
knowledge of the Trinity, especially in its theological
formulation, is not necessary for a person to be saved.
But once saved, it is vital for Christians to know the
true nature of the God who has so graciously pardoned
them. This explains why the Church has always recognized
the importance of a proper understanding of God and
maintained that those who reject the scriptural
view of God, as long as they do so, cannot be saved.
Consider Dr. Schaff’s comments about the Athanasian
Creed:
[It] begins
and ends with the solemn declaration that the catholic
[universal] faith in the Trinity and the Incarnation
is the indispensable condition of salvation, and that
those who reject it will be lost forever. This
anathema [divine curse], in its natural historical
sense, is not merely a solemn warning against the
great danger of heresy, nor, on the other hand, does
it demand, as a condition of salvation, a full
knowledge, and assent to, the logical statement of the
doctrines set forth (this would condemn the great mass
even of Christian believers); but it does mean to
exclude from heaven all who reject the divine truth
therein taught. It requires everyone who would be
saved to believe in the only true and living God,
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one in essence, three in
persons, and in one Jesus Christ, very God and very
man in one person.4
As Vladimir
Lossky once put it boldly, "Between the Trinity and Hell
there lies no other choice."5 Only personal
bias or ignorance can explain cultic attempts to deny
the biblical Trinity. It is significant that even some
Unitarians who reject the Trinity still confess it is a
biblical teaching based on "its obvious sense, its
natural meaning" as found in Scripture. These words of
George E. Ellis, a nineteenth-century Unitarian leader,
illustrate the biases of anti-trinitarian groups and
liberals who refuse to accept the Trinity on personal,
not biblical, grounds. Ellis confesses, "Only that kind
of ingenious, special, discriminative, and in candor I
must add, forced treatment, which it receives from us
liberals can make the book teach anything but
Orthodoxy."6 No less an authority than the
great Princeton theologian B. B. Warfield pointed out
that the doctrine of the Trinity "is rather everywhere
presupposed" in Scripture.7 This is, for
example, clearly demonstrated in Edward Bickersteth’s
fine work, The Trinity.
The
Attributes of God
Although we
cannot fully understand God, we still can know Him. We
know Him through a personal relationship of faith and
through a study of what the Bible teaches about His
nature.
God may be
described in terms of attributes. An attribute is an
inherent characteristic of a person or being. While we
cannot describe God in a comprehensive way, we can
learn about Him by examining His attributes as
revealed in the Bible.8
What follows
is not a comprehensive list of the attributes of God,
but it should serve well as a starting point for your
own study:
God is:
• Spirit
(God does not have a physical body)— John 4:24:
"For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must
worship in spirit and in truth"
• One (A
simple—not compound—being)—Deuteronomy 6:4: "Hear,
O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone."
• Personal
(He can be known; He can and does have relationships
with people)—John 17:1–3: "When Jesus had finished
saying all these things, he looked up to heaven and
said, ‘Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son so
he can give glory back to you. For you have given him
authority over everyone in all the earth. He gives
eternal life to each one you have given him. And this
is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to
earth.’"
•
Trinitarian (While He is One, He is expressed in the
"persons"—Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Ghost).)—2
Corinthians 13:14: "The grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the
Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen."
•
Omnipotent (All-powerful)— Jeremiah 32:17: "O
Sovereign Lord! You have made the heavens and earth by
your great power. Nothing is too hard for you!"
•
Omnipresence (Everywhere present)— Psalm 139:7-10:
"I can never escape from your spirit! I can never get
away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are
there; if I go down to the place of the dead, you are
there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell
by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will
guide me, and your strength will support me."
•
Omniscience (All-knowing)— Psalm 139:1-4: "O Lord,
you have examined my heart and know everything about
me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my
every thought when far away. You chart the path ahead
of me and tell me where to stop and rest. Every moment
you know where I am. You know what I am going to say
even before I say it, Lord."
•
Transcendent (Distinct from the universe) — Acts
17:24-25: "He is the God who made the world and
everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and
earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, and human
hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He
himself gives life and breath to everything, and he
satisfies every need there is."
• Immanent
(God is near)— Deuteronomy 4:7: "For what great
nation has a god as near to them as the Lord our God
is near to us whenever we call on him?"
•
Incomparable/Incomprehensible—2 Samuel 7:22: "How
great you are, O Sovereign Lord! There is no one like
you—there is no other God. We have never even heard of
another god like you!
• Invisible
(cf. Spirit)—John 1:18: "No one has ever seen God.
But his only Son, who is himself God, is near to the
Father’s heart; he has told us about him."
•
Inscrutable (Beyond human understanding)—Is.
40:28: "Have you never heard or understood? Don’t you
know that the Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator
of all the earth? He never grows faint or weary. No
one can measure the depths of his understanding."
• Immutable
(Unchangeable)—Malachi 3:6: "I am the Lord, and I
do not change"; James 1:17: "Whatever is good and
perfect comes to us from God above, who created all
heaven’s lights. Unlike them, he never changes or
casts shifting shadows"; Hebrews 13:8: "Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday, today, and forever."
•
Unsearchable—Romans 11:33-34: "Oh, what a
wonderful God we have! How great are his riches and
wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to
understand his decisions and his methods! For who can
know what the Lord is thinking? Who knows enough to be
his counselor?"
• Infinite
(Without known limits)—1 Kings 8:27: "But will God
really live on earth? Why, even the highest heavens
cannot contain you. How much less this Temple I have
built!"
• Eternal
(Transcends time and temporal limitations)—Psalm
90:2, 4: "Before the mountains were created, before
you made the earth and the world, you are God, without
beginning or end,… For you, a thousand years are as
yesterday! They are like a few hours!"; 2 Peter 3:8:
"But you must not forget, dear friends, that a day is
like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand
years is like a day."
In addition
to the above list, the Bible also tells us that God is:
• Good—Psalm
118:1: "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His
faithful love endures forever."
• Holy
(completely separate from evil, absolutely pure)—
Psalm 5:4-6: "O God, you take no pleasure in
wickedness; you cannot tolerate the slightest sin.
Therefore, the proud will not be allowed to stand in
your presence, for you hate all who do evil."
• Righteous
(morally perfect)—Zephaniah 3:5: "But the Lord is
still there in the city, and he does no wrong. Day by
day his justice is more evident, but no one takes
notice—…"
• True—
Hebrews 6:18: "So God has given us both his promise
and his oath. These two things are unchangeable
because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we
who have fled to him for refuge can take new courage,
for we can hold on to his promise with confidence."
•
Loving—John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he
gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in
him will not perish but have eternal life."9
Notes
1
"Gregory of Nyssa Ablabius," in William G. Rusch,
trans. and ed., The Trinitarian Controversy
(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980), pp. 149, 151-52.
