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The Holy Trinity

God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God.

Definition from Grudem, Systematic Theology, p.226

     Summary  (top)

Trinity is the technical name given to the teaching about God, which says that there is only one God, but this God exists in three persons. So while there is only one God, God the Father is God, Jesus Christ is God and the Holy Spirit is God. They are distinct persons, that is, the Father is not Jesus, and Jesus is not the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is not the Father. Yet there is only one God.

This is the Biblical teaching I show further below, but it must be remembered that the Trinity is taught in the Bible, even though, quite frankly, we don't understand how it works. Still, we would be getting ahead of ourselves to expect to understand the existence of God! As Milne puts it: "If we did not encounter deep mystery in God's nature there would be every reason for suspicion concerning the Bible's claims. For all its difficulty the Trinity is simply (!) the price to be paid for having a God who is great enough to command our worship and service."1

     Content of this study  (top)

     Introduction  (top)

The word trinity is never found in the Bible, it is simply the name given to the complex teaching of the tri-unity of God that is found throughout the Bible, although we see that it is progressively revealed from Old Testament to New. That is, whereas the Old Testament is more inclined to suggest or imply that God exists in three Persons (for example Gen. 1:26, 3:22; Ps. 45:6-7 cf. Heb. 1:8; and Isaiah 63:10), the New Testament reveals this truth more explicitly (e.g., 2 Cor. 13:14, 1 Pet. 1:2, and Jude 20-21).

The teaching on the Trinity found on this page, in this site and indeed, in generally accepted Christian teaching, is not supposed to explain the tri-unity of God, but is instead intended to preserve and contain the Biblical teaching concerning God. Many make the mistake of expecting to understand how the Trinity works, and expect a study such as this to explain it. Let me be clear that this page will attempt nothing of the sort, but will merely bring out the various teachings of the Bible that when placed beside each other speak of the majestic deity who created us, and in a way beyond our understanding, exists as Three persons yet One.

The Biblical Teaching

The Biblical teaching of the Trinity is best summed up in three definite statements:

     God is Three Persons  (top)

As God is three persons, the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit and the Spirit is not the Father. We can also say that backwards: the Father is not the Spirit, the Spirit is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father. They are not three roles played by the same person, nor are they three gods in a cluster.

The distinctions above mentioned are seen in a number of passages throughout the Bible, a selection given here:

That God the Father and Jesus Christ are separate persons is quite obvious, but some have questioned whether the Holy Spirit is indeed a distinct person, rather than the "power" or "force" of God at work in this world. But there are several different indications in the New Testament as to the distinct nature of the Spirit:

     These Three Persons are each fully God  (top)

God the Father is God  (top)

We need only look to the first verse of the Bible to see that God created heaven and earth. We also see throughout the Bible that God is clearly Lord over all, and is prayed to by all, including Jesus.

Jesus Christ is God  (top)

There are several passages that affirm the deity of Christ, a selection is found below:

The Holy Spirit is God  (top)

It must first be noted that the passages mentioned above indicating that the Holy Spirit is on an equal level with God the Father and God the Son, coupled with the understanding of the deity of these two, indicates in itself the deity of the Holy Spirit. But there are verses as well:

     There is one God  (top)

The Bible is very clear on the fact that there is but one God:

     Objections  (top)

That the Trinity doesn't appear in the OT  (top)

As mentioned in the introduction, quite often it is believed that the doctrine of the Trinity is unscriptural because "it doesn't appear in the Old Testament". Well, below I've listed a number of passages, that in various ways allude to the plurality of God in the Old Testament, and even passages where the individual and divine persons of Christ and the Holy Spirit are mentioned.

It is worth further noting that the New Testament is a response to the Incarnation of Christ; that is, the New Testament was written as a response to God coming to earth in human form. Now when you consider that twenty-seven books were written in response to God coming to earth; His ministry, His person and His teachings concerning Himself (among other things); it seems that you would expect our understanding of God at that point to grow immensely. The Trinity is just one such place where the previous limited teaching on the nature of God was greatly supplemented with the fuller teaching of God as man among us and God the Holy Spirit within us.

     Old Testament Passages alluding to plurality within God

There are many occasions when God speaks of Himself in the plural:

Some attempt to explain the plurality displayed here along a similar line to the "Royal 'we'"; that is, the term a monarch may use to describe themself, applying the plural instead of the singular - "We came to the conclusion..." rather than "I came to the conclusion..." However, to our best knowledge this practice was only developed in relatively recent centuries, certainly not during the time of Moses and before! So it is not a suggestion that should be taken too seriously.

The only plausible possibility aside from a true plurality within the godhead, is that God refers to the angelic community in heaven. But this doesn't make sense, as such a definition would imply God asking His creation (the angels) for their advice, and including them in His glory and power, and seems to be more a possibility-out-of-desperation rather than the actual implied and desired meaning of the verse.

Several passages clearly speak of more than one person who is God:

     The 'Angel of the Lord' called 'God'

The 'Angel of the Lord' is in several places explicitly called 'God' or 'the Lord'. This messenger is clearly distinct from God, and yet can be referred to as God:

It should be noted that theologians are divided on the issue of whether or not 'The Angel of the Lord' can be associated with the preincarnate Christ. Some insist that every instance of "The Angel of the Lord" is a reference to Christ, others that only some are a reference to the preincarnate Christ, and others, that it was just an angel who didn't specifically preface his comments with "These are the words of the Lord".2 Nevertheless, it does seem clear that this angel, or "messenger" of the Lord is in several places explicitly called God and treated as God, as and such serves as a reminder of the possibility of the plurality of God, if not a direct reference to Christ before His incarnation.

     The Spirit of God as Divine in Himself

While "God's Spirit" is mentioned throughout the Old Testament, His distinction from the Father is only made clear in a few passages, mostly as the two are mentioned at the same time clearly doing different things or in different places:

     Conclusion to OT witness to the Trinity

The above passages do not expressly teach the tri-unity of God as Father, Son and Spirit, but they do insist upon a certain unity in diversity in the make up of the one God. There is definitely a plurality, there is definitely the Father and the Spirit, and possibly another. In summary, the Old Testament definitely points to the New Testament's idea of the Trinity.

It is interesting to note that the New Testament church, which was initially full of Jewish converts who would have been thoroughly versed in the OT - and indeed whose only standard for proper teaching was the OT - readily accepted the obviously divine teaching on the Son and the Spirit in the early Church. It is hard to imagine this happening if the Jews did not have some understanding of the plurality of God beforehand.

     Conclusion  (top)

The three different persons of the Trinity are one not only in purpose and in thought, but also in essence - in their essential nature. God the Father is God, Jesus Christ is God and the Holy Spirit is God, but there are not three Gods, there is only one God. This 'threeness' of God is also the basis for the teaching that God is love. He does not need us to live in a relationship with him, He has lived in a loving relationship in Trinity for all of eternity.3

Related Links

1   B. Milne, Know The Truth (2nd Ed.), p.79.   (jump back to text)

2   See L. Goldberg, "Angel of the Lord" entry in W.A. Elwell (Ed.), "Theological Dictionary of the Bible", p.23; J.B. Taylor, "Angel of the Lord" entry in J.D. Douglas et. al. (Eds.), "The New Bible Dictionary", p.37; S.E. Meier, "Angels" article in B.M. Metzger (Ed.), "The Oxford Companion to the Bible", pp.27-28.    (jump back to text)

3   See B. Milne, Know The Truth (2nd Ed.), p.79 for more on this.   (jump back to text)

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