The concept of the Trinity has baffled many people for centuries mainly because people misunderstand or don’t want to accept the concept of the Trinity because to them it is illogical.
We must begin by acknowledging that the word ‘Trinity’ is nowhere found in the Scriptures but what we do find are the words, ‘Divine being’, Acts 17:29, ‘Divine nature’, Romans 1:20, and ‘Deity’, Colossians 2:9, which is the word ‘Godhead’. The KIV uses the word ‘Godhead’ in the KJV. The Greek word for Godhead is ‘theios’, and it means the nature of God especially as existing in three persons.
The encyclopaedia of Britannica, gives the following definition.
‘Trinity, in Christian doctrine, the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead.’
Someone once said, ‘within his own mysterious being God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The designations are just ways in which God is God. Within the Godhead there are three ‘persons’ who are neither three Gods nor three parts of God, but coequally and coeternally God.’
When Christians speak of the Trinity, they are not saying there are three separate Gods, they are saying that God is one Being who exists in three Persons. God is one in essence and three in person. The three Persons of the Trinity are co-equal and co-eternal, one in essence, nature, power, action, and will, and each of them is uncreated.
When we turn our attention to the Old Testament we find in the first sentence of the Bible, Genesis 1:1, the word ‘God’. The word ‘El’ is the singular word for ‘god,’ and the word in Genesis 1:1, is ‘Elohim,’ which is plural. When the noun ‘God’ is capitalized, it means the one, true God, the God we worship.
When the noun ‘god’ is not capitalized, it refers to a false god, Psalm 96:5. For example, the term ‘elohim’, god, is used to figuratively speak of pagan deities, Psalm 96:5, to designate human rulers, or judges, as they represent God and stand in His place, Psalm 82:1 / Psalm 82:6, and angels as His messengers, Psalm 8:5 / Hebrews 2:7.
Notice the Spirit of God is involved in creation, Genesis 1:2 / Psalm 33:6-7 / Job 26:13, and we also find God referring to Himself by the plural pronouns ‘we’ and ‘us’, Genesis 1:26-27 / Genesis 3:5 / Genesis 3:22 / Genesis 11:7. Isaiah does the same in Isaiah 6:8 / Isaiah 41:21-24.
In Isaiah 6:3, there is a threefold ascription of praise to God, there is one ‘holy’ for each Person of the Godhead. A careful reading of Genesis 19:24, tells us that Yahweh brings down sulphur and fire from the Yahweh who is in heaven above.
When we turn our attention to the New Testament we find the Bible speaks of the Father as God, Philippians 1:2, Jesus as God, John 1:1 / Titus 2:13, and the Holy Spirit as God, Acts 5:3-4. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three distinct Persons, Matthew 28:19-20 / 2 Corinthians 13:14.
The church is described as the household of the Father, 1 Timothy 3:15, the bride of the Son, 2 Corinthians 11:2 / Ephesians 5:27 / Revelation 19:7, and the temple of the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 6:19. We should also note that the Father is not the Son, John 3:16-17 / John 4:34 / John 5:30.
The Son is not the Father, John 5:31-32 / John 16:10 / John 17:20-23. The Father is not the Holy Spirit, John 14:26 / John 16:13-15. The Holy Spirit is not the Father, John 14:26 / Romans 8:27. The Son is not the Holy Spirit, John 15:26 / John 16:7. The Holy Spirit is not the Son, Matthew 1:20 / John 16:8.
We can see the distinction between the three of them when we read that the Father sent the Son into the world, John 3:16-17, therefore He cannot be the same person as the Son. The Son returned to the Father, John 16:10, and the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit into the world, John 14:26 / Acts 2:33.
Therefore, the Holy Spirit is clearly distinct from the Father and the Son. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three distinct Persons. Each person of the Trinity is fully God, yet they relate to one another in distinct ways, Matthew 3:16-17 / Matthew 28:19 / 2 Corinthians 13:14.
Notice in Matthew 28:19, that there are not three names we baptise people into but one name. In other words, God is one in essence, He has one Name but exists as three distinct persons.
I’ve heard many people say if the Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God, then logically this means there are three Gods, which goes against the Bible’s claim that there is only one God, Deuteronomy 6:4 / Isaiah 44:6-8 / Isaiah 43:10-11 / Isaiah 45:5-6 / Isaiah 46:9-11 / John 5:44 / John 17:3 / Romans 3:30 / 1 John 5:20-21.
Just as the word ‘you’ can be used in plural in the Scriptures, Deuteronomy 31:27 / Amos 6:1 / 1 Corinthians 3:16 / 1 Peter 2:5, it may come as a surprise to many that the word ‘one’ can also be used in the plural sense. In terms of the Trinity, it can be used to describe unity in a multi-Personal Being.
Take for example Deuteronomy 6:4, where it says, ‘Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.’ In Hebrew this is ‘Yahweh Eloheinu Yahweh echad’. A literal translation of this verse would read as follows, ‘Hear, O Israel; Yahweh (is) our Gods, Yahweh is a Unity.’
The Hebrew word ‘Eloheinu’, which translates as ‘our Gods,’ is the first-person plural variation of Elohim. The word ‘one’ used in Deuteronomy 6:4, is the Hebrew word, ‘ehud’ which functions much like the English word in that it can refer to a solitary oneness or to a complex unity.
A good example of this use of the word is found in Genesis 2:24, where Moses records, ‘for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. The words ‘one flesh’ is ‘echad basar’ in Hebrew. So here we have a man and his wife, two different persons, two separate and distinct human beings become one. They do not become a singular being, but instead, they are in unity with each other.
Jesus uses the Greek equivalent words to express the same idea when He quotes Genesis 2:24, in Matthew 19:4-6. ‘The two shall become one flesh’, ‘sarka mian’, ‘they are no longer two but one flesh’ ‘sarx mia’. So, the word ‘one’ can refer not only to a solitary oneness but also to a complex unity, 1 Corinthians 3:8. In relation to the Trinity we see that this refers to multi-Personal Being. Jesus Himself says He and the Father are one, John 10:30.
In Genesis 34:16-22, we read of two different groups of people, the Israelites and the Shechemites, and notice they come together to form one ‘echad’ people. In Genesis 41:25-26, we find Joseph telling Pharaoh that his dreams are one ‘echad’, in the same. In other words, two different dreams but they mean the same, they are one, they go together, they are united.
One doesn’t necessary mean solitary oneness, but it can mean a complex unity. If we take a closer look into the Old Testament, we find that the Hebrew word for ‘face’, ‘presence’, and ‘person’ is actually plural, Exodus 33:14 / Deuteronomy 4:37 / Job 13:8.
When we read Deuteronomy 10:17, the Hebrew says that ‘Yahweh is the Gods and Lords of all the other gods and lords’. The word ‘Creator’ used in Ecclesiastes 12:1, is also plural in Hebrew, as are the words ‘Maker’ and ‘Husband’ in Hebrew, Job 35:10 / Psalm 149:2 / Isaiah 54:5. In 2 Samuel 7:23, the words ‘God went’ are plural and the text literally says, ‘Gods, they went to redeem.’
As I mentioned at the beginning, many people don’t understand or won’t accept the doctrine of the Trinity because they think it is illogical. I wonder if these same people accept the virgin birth as logical, Genesis 3:15 / Isaiah 7:14 / Matthew 1:23.
The Scriptures clearly teach the principle of the Trinity, where God is one Being who exists in three Persons. God is one in essence and three in person. The three are one, Ephesians 4:4-6, in nature, character, and purpose and they are the same in properties, attributes and equal in power and glory, 1 John 5:1-8.
All three persons of the Godhead are self-existent, Exodus 3:14-15 / John 8:58 / Genesis 1:2. All three persons of the Godhead are omniscience, meaning all-knowing, Romans 11:33-34 / Matthew 9:4 / 1 Corinthians 2:11.
All three persons of the Godhead are omnipresence, meaning present everywhere, Psalm 139:1-10 / Jeremiah 23:23-24 / Matthew 28:20. All three persons of the Godhead are omnipotence, meaning all powerful, Psalm 62:11 / 1 Corinthians 15:25 / Romans 15:18-19.
All three persons of the Godhead are Holy, Revelation 15:4 / Acts 3:14 / Ephesians 4:30, and good, Romans 2:4 / Ephesians 5:25 / Nehemiah 9:20.
People use different object lessons to try and explain the Trinity with others, some are good, others not so good.
Someone once said, ‘here’s the beautiful thing, you don’t need to fully understand the Trinity to worship the Trinity, pray to the Trinity and enter into the life of the Trinity. They tell me that deep within the core of the sun, the temperature is 27 million degrees. The pressure is 340 billion times what it is here on Earth. And in the sun’s core, that insanely hot temperature and unthinkable pressure combine to create nuclear reactions. In each reaction, 4 protons fuse together to create 1 alpha particle, which is .7 percent less massive than the 4 protons.’
Maybe the easiest object lessons are the ones people see and speak about every day. For example, when people speak about a rugby team or a football team, everyone knows that is there is more than one person involved in the word team. They are one in terms of being a team despite having many players, with different roles and positions. The church itself is one body but made up of different parts, each having their different roles, 1 Corinthians 12:12-27.