The presentation of the attributes of God reaches the highest pinnacle of revelation. The capstone is that incomprehensible mystery of the Trinity. To the most reverent and inquiring mind it will forever remain a dark but enticing secret. To the hearts of men of goodwill this unfathomable mystery of the Godhead will provide the necessary compulsion for everlasting wonder and ineffable worship.
The doctrine of the triunity of God is exclusively a revelation from God. Untrammeled human reason may lead one to the unity of God, but only divine revelation discovers the triunity of God to men. This teaches that the nature or essence of God is one, but that within this one essence there are three eternal distinctions presented under the figure of persons. This means that in one sense God is one, but in another sense God is three.
The word trinity is most often used in referring to this aspect of deity. But there is a sense in which this term is inadequate, because it lays emphasis upon three persons of the Godhead to the exclusion of the unity of essence. For that reason, it seems best to adopt the term triunity which brings the three persons into view and yet at the same time makes it clear that this is a trinity in unity.
The importance of this doctrine must not be minimized. It is the fundamental of the fundamentals of the Christian faith. This doctrine differentiates the Christian faith from that of any other religion. Without this doctrine there could be no divine Saviors, no divine Holy Spirit, no incarnation of God in human flesh, no atonement effecting a transaction between persons of the Godhead, no God of eternal love, no impartation of divine life to men. In fact, all the distinctive truths of Christianity are wrapped up in this great fact. Even the veracity of the Scriptures is at stake. If this is not what is taught in divine writ, then the movement of the Scriptures is to deceive. And if the Bible is deceptive in this area, then there is no fundamental of the Christian faith that can be trusted.
It is an obvious fact that the complete revelation of the triunity of God is given in deeds rather than words. As one theologian put it, "The doctrine of the Trinity is not so much heard, as overheard, in the statements of Scripture. The history and record of experience relating to the Trinity came first. Later, the Church formulated the doctrine of the triunity. It is true that the word trinity does not appear in the Bible. But the idea saturates the Bible. Godly Jews believed in a God who dwelt in heaven, and He was referred to as Father. When Christ came those Jews who knew God recognized Christ as God, though distinct from the Father. When the Spirit came on Pentecost, these same Jews were impressed with the fact that He was God, but different from the Father and from Christ. When at last the New Testament writers recorded their thoughts in books which now make up the New Testament, there was no conscious effort to formulate a new doctrine. They just recorded what happened.
As one great theologian has written, "It is a great mistake to regard that doctrine as a mere speculative or abstract truth, concerning the constitution of the Godhead, with which we have no practical concern, or which we are required to believe simply because it is revealed. On the contrary, it underlies the whole plan of salvation, and determines the character of religion (in the subjective sense of that word) of all true Christians. It is the unconscious or unformed faith, even of those of God's people who are unable to understand the term by which it is expressed. They all believe in God, the Creator and Preserver, against whom they have sinned, whose justice they know they cannot satisfy, and whose image they cannot restore to their apostate nature. They, therefore, as of necessity, believe in a divine Redeemer and a divine Sanctifier...It is not, therefore, by any arbitrary decision, nor from any bigoted adherence to hereditary beliefs, that the Church has always refused to recognize as Christians those who reject this doctrine."
I. In the Old Testament the doctrine of the triunity of God is not clearly taught, but in certain passages there are strong intimations.
1. The plural name for God (Elohim) appears in the original Hebrew text more than 2000 times. It appears in the first verse of Genesis. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Moreover, it is used with a singular verb, and it is almost always used elsewhere with a singular verb.
Some exegetes refer to the Hebrew word for God as an intensive plural, and suggest that it may thereby be used in a singular sense. In any event, while it does not denote a trinity, it does suggest a plurality in unity.
2. The plural pronouns used of God in the Hebrew text are further intimations of a plurality in unity that may suggest the Trinity. At the creation of man, "God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26; underlining mine). After the fall God deliberated, "Behold, the man is become as one of us" (Gen. 3:22). In the divine council at the tower of Babel, God said, 'Go to, let us go down, and there confound their languages" (Gen. 11:7). As Isaiah beheld the glory of the Lord in the temple, he heard God say, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us" (Isa. 6:8).
3. The plural verb in the Hebrew is used occasionally with the name for God (Elohim). Here is an instance. "And he built there an altar, and called the place El-bethel; because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother" (Gen. 35:7). This may intimate that the writer had no difficulty in recognizing a plurality of persons in the experience of Jacob and therefore did not hesitate to indicate this by the plural of the word for God and the plural of the verb "appeared."
4. It is very evident that God's name is applied to more than one person in some of the texts of the Old Testament. This is true in Gen. 19:24. "Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven" (underlining mine). In Psalm 45:6-7, two persons are involved and both are called God. This is especially evident in Ps. 110:1 where two persons are called Lord, as a comparison of Matt. 22:41-46 will attest.
Two persons appear in Hos. 1:6-7. One person is speaking, namely, God, and yet He declares that He will save His people "by the Lord their God." Isa. 44:6 reads, "Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his Redeemer the Lord of hosts: I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God." Here the Lord the King of Israel and the Lord the Redeemer are both claiming to be one God. Along with the above the writer of Proverbs propounds some questions concerning God: "What is his name, and what is his son's name?" (Pro. 30:4).
5. Certain Old Testament passages strongly intimate that the number of persons purporting to be God is three. The Aaronic benediction recorded in Numbers 6:23-27 uses the word Lord or Jehovah three times, and then equates this usage as "my name." There are those who feel this follows the pattern found later in the New Testament in which the blessing of the one God subsisting in three persons is invoked.
There is a suggestion that all three persons of the Godhead are depicted in creation as set forth in Ps. 33:6. There is the word pointing to Christ, and the Lord indicating the Father, and finally the word breathe, which is the word for spirit, singling out the Holy Spirit. From other passages it is clear that all three persons of the Godhead were involved in creation, and perhaps this passage includes all three acting as one God.
When Christ appeared in the synagogue of Nazareth, He used Isa. 61:1 and applied it to Himself. Three persons appear in this passage. There is the speaker, the Lord of Isa. 60:22. There is the Spirit of the Lord God with whom He was anointed. And there is the Lord, the Father who anoints Christ.
Isaiah 63:9-10 also presents a similar instance: three persons appearing in the passage and denoting one God. The pronoun "he" of the passage is the Father; "Angel of his presence" is the Lord Jesus Christ; and "his Holy Spirit" is the third person of the Trinity. Yet the entire passage suggests that there is just one God who is involved.
Even the opening verses of the Bible testify to the presence of three persons. There is God in verse one; then the Spirit in verse two; and finally the word ("God said"), the third person in verse 3.
Perhaps the strongest passage in the Old Testament is Isa. 48:16. The speaker points to the Father, the Lord God. He then refers to his Spirit, and then admits He, the Christ, has been sent. This speaker is identified as the first and the last in verse 12, and as the Redeemer of Israel in verse 17.
The strong emphasis in all these passages is upon the unity of God. But there is an underlying tone of plurality in this one God, and in some cases it suggests that that number is three. These intimations are sufficient to alert the Bible scholar to the possibility of further revelation in the unfolding truth about God.
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