The Trinity

Introduction:

What do I think of the Trinity? I believe in it since for years. Its biblical, divine, and totally true. Many heretics like Modalists, Oneness, Unitarians, and others deny it, but I will never. This is a simple, yet concise exposition to back up the honorable truth of the Trinity. I will divide this response into 3 reasons why I believe in the Trinity, which is a Philosophical Reason, a Biblical Reason, and a Historical Reason. Now it begins.

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I. Philosophical Reason

First, many anti-Trinitarians have confusion over the real definiton of the Trinity, therefore that is one of the many reasons that they deny it as a biblical fact. The Trinity is a belief of one God not 3, but God makes manifest into 3 members or persons making God a complex, compound, yet unified being.



The Son, Father, and the Holy Spirit is God, the Son is not the Holy Spirit or the Father and likewise for the rest of the members. There are therefore 3 yet one in the Godhead, not 3 gods, but the Trinity exists as having one substance, power, nature, eternity, and essence.

This isnt too far fletched to believe since it expresses the distinction, yet the unity of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the sense of unity, there are cases where unity doesnt mean solitary oneness.


One example is man. Man has a mind, body, and spirit, yet man isnt a solitary being acquiring of one concept, but has compound unity within his or hers existence. Another is time made up o the past, present, and future, or physics consisting of matter, space, and motion.


The same goes for God though the later concepts deals with nature (Gods creation) and God is outlined in this way solely by the scriptures.


God is infinite and omnipotent and can do this because he is all powerful and the concepts of God being a compound being is bounded by the scriptures.

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II. A Biblical Reason

The Trinity is all over the Bible. Just because the word Trinity is not mentioned in the Bible doesnt mean that the Trinity as a concept isnt maintained in the scripture. Oneness, communion, theology, essence, Incarnation, Sola Scriptura, Rule of Faith, Bible Law, Aramaic, etc. are literally mentioned in the Bible as words, but that doesnt mean they dont exist in the realm of Christendom or as concepts. The same goes for the Trinity.

The Godhead is found in the Bible and that means Trinity. To validate the Trinity as biblical, bible verses must be used to outline the main concepts of the Trinity which are:

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a). Distinctions or Differences Between the Father and the Son

The Father is not the Son, therefore the Trinity is validated. But to validate it, you need Sola Scriptura and its provided easily by these verses.

i). One of the best verses is from Mt. 3:13-17:

13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
14 But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:
17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

In those verse the Father in audible voice says This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. The Father in that situation identifies Christ as his Son.


The Father didnt change his mode, use ventriloquism imitating Christ, but made manifest of a distinction by the communication going forth between 2 member therefore denoting compound unity.



Christ was in the flesh in that moment of time and in his human body cant create a voice from heaven saying he is the Son, because someone else is describing him which is the Father.

ii). 1 John 1:1-3:

"001:001 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
001:002 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
001:003 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ."

In those verses, it described that the Father exists with the Son. If the Father was purely identical to the Son, the Bible would say that the Father is the Son.


No such verse exists no where in Gods word that the Father is the Son at all. One of the concepts of the Trinity is the denial of the Son being the Father and this verse simply outlines this.

iii). John 3:14-19:

14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
15. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."


In those great verses, the Bible explicitly calls Christ alone who is begotten. Only the Son of God, not the Father or the Holy Spirit. This is true because the Bible says so therefore the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are Not Identical at all.



The Trinity is just a belief in one God with coequal, coeternal, distinct persons that share the nature of one God not 3 gods as the famous misconception maintains. Not to mention that Christ made a blatant difference between himself (Christ) and the Father by saying that the Father was greater than I signifying position only not power or essence.

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b). Plurality or Compound Unity of one God

This is a concept that exists in the OT especially. Genesis 1:1-4 is one of the easiest verses to show that. It reads 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was
upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the
face of the waters.
1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided
the light from the darkness. And v. 26 says that 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all
the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth.

God in those verses means Elohim and Elohim is a Hebrew plural noun making a possiblility of one unifed compound being. Thats evident by the prefix im presenting a mult-Personal God.


One the verse that says Let us create man in our own image has the similar point. If God was a solitary being he will say I instead of us but he said us [which is a plural pronoun in reference to himself not to angels] since Almighty God which is in heaven created the universe by himself and exists as a Trinity to do it. You can more at Genesis 3:22, Isaiah 6:8, etc.

ii). Deut. 6:4 shows that Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

and when that is literally translated it reads Shema Israel, Yehovah Elohim (Adonai) echad! One is translated as echad meaning a group united as one not a solitary one which would mean yachid in Hebrew. This source outlines this.

the only word that applies to God (Elohim) in the O.T., then this would be a death sentence of the Trinitarian believers. The word yachid means an absolute or solitary one. (Francis Brown, S. R. Drivr, and Charles Briggs, A Hebrew English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Oxford, Charendon, 1966, pg. 402).

"Elohim conveys both the unity of the one God, and yet allows for the plurality of Divine Persons as expressed in the historical Christian doctrine of the Trinity. It is unique to monotheistic Israel and is not found in the language of any of her polytheistic, Semitic neighbors (Jack B. Scott, S.V. "elohim", in Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, 2 vols:, Chicago, Moody Press, 1980, 1:44).

The unity in multiplicity is the essence of the Trinity or a plurality in one unity (God)

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c). Distinctions between the 2 Members of the Trinity and the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is very special here. Its unique. According to the Bible, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son:

John 15:26-27
26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: 27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

There is no time in the Bible where the Son, Father, and the Holy Spirit were identical or were the same person in the whole scriptures at all. Also in John 16:7, Christ referred to the future arrival of the Comforter to the church. The Comforter is the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit existed for all time, it didnt exist to the church in a great massive way to perform gifts, etc. yet. When Christ ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit arrived in full power to the church at Pentecost. Logic and Gods word tells me that the Holy Spirit wasnt Christ, was not on the cross, etc since the Holy Spirit is invisible and cant be seen by our own physical eyes or mind.

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III. A Historical Reason:

I know now tons and I do mean tons of Early Church History, so its like that. One of the greatest lies to confuse the Trinity is that ROMAN CATHOLICISM CREATED THE TRINITY AT THE NICENE COUNCIL AT 325 A.D. WHAT A GROSS LIFE AND FURTHER CAN BE THE TRUTH.


Pagan concepts did crept into the early church from the 100s 400s, but the Trinity is an established facts maintained by non-pagan Bible believing early Christians. Its fully outlined in the Holy Scriptures. The TRUTH IS THAT CHRISTIANS MENTIONED THE NAME TRINITY SINCE 180 A.D. AND CHRISTIANS BELIEVED IN THE CONCEPTS OF THE TRINITY SINCE THE TIME OF CHRIST.

The first man recorded written-wise who wrote the word Trinity was Theophilus of Antioch and he wont a pagan or a Catholic since Catholicism wasnt invented until 314 A.D. Theophilus said:

But the moon wanes monthly, and in a manner dies, being a type of man; then it is born again, and is crescent, for a pattern of the future resurrection. In like manner also the three days which were before the luminaries, are types of the Trinity,. of God, and His Word, and His wisdom (180 AD, Theophilus of Antioch Chapter XV. - Of the Fourth Day, To Autolycus 2:15)

The word was from the Greek Triados meaning Trinity and he usd it to describe God. Trinity can be used even before 180 A.D., but this is the earliest record so far before 180 A.D. Other early Christians like Justin Marytr, Ignatius [bishop of Antioch and brave Christian], Polycarp, Athenagarus, and others have shown quotes believing in distinction of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, denial of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as one person, and other points to show the Biblical Trinity in concept. Heres examples of that:

"...Our teacher of these things is Jesus Christ, who also was born for this purpose, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judaea, in the times of Tiberius Caesar; and that we reasonably worship Him, having learned that He is the Son of the true God Himself, and holding Him in the second place, and the prophetic Spirit in the third, we will prove. For they proclaim our madness to consist in this, that we give to a crucified man a place second to the unchangeable and eternal God, the Creator of all; for they do not discern the mystery that is herein, to which, as we make it plain to you, we pray you to give heed" (Justin Martyr First Apology 13:5-6, Christians Serve God Rationally [A.D. 151]).

"For they speak of Christ, not that they may preach Christ, but that they may reject Christ; and they speak of the law, not that they may establish the law, but that they may proclaim things contrary to it. For they alienate Christ from the Father, and the law from Christ. They also calumniate His being born of the Virgin; they are ashamed of His cross; they deny His passion; and they do not believe His resurrection. They introduce God as a Being unknown; they suppose Christ to be unbegotten; and as to the Spirit, they do not admit that He exists. Some of them say that the Son is a mere man, and that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are but the same person, and that the creation is the work of God, not by Christ, but by some other strange power." (Ignatius, Epistle to the Trallians, Ch. VI).

"The Son of God is the Word of the Father in thought and actuality. By him and through him all things were made, the Father and the Son being one. Since the Son is in the Father and the Father is in the Son by the unity and power of the Spirit, the Mind and Word of the Father is the Son of God. And if, in your exceedingly great wisdom, it occurs to you to inquire what is meant by `the Son,' I will tell you briefly: He is the first- begotten of the Father, not as having been produced, for from the beginning God had the Word in himself, God being eternal mind and eternally rational, but as coming forth to be the model and energizing force of all material things" (Athenagoras, Plea for the Christians 10:2-4).

In fact the Non-Catholic St. Patrick believed in the Blessed holy Trinity by saying it in his Breastplate and Confession:

St. Patrick said "[T]here is no other God, nor has there been heretofore, nor will there be hereafter, except God the Father unbegotten, without beginning, from whom is all beginning, upholding all things, as we say, and his Son Jesus Christ, whom we likewise to confess to have always been with the Father--before the world's beginning . . . Jesus Christ is the Lord and God in whom we believe . . . and who has poured out on us abundantly the Holy Spirit . . . whom we confess and adore as one God in the Trinity of the Sacred Name" (Confession of St. Patrick 4).


447 AD St. Patrick "I bind to myself to day the strong power of an invocation of the Trinity--the faith of the Trinity in Unity, the Creator of the universe" (The Breastplate of St. Patrick 1).



All of these people arent heretics. Those denied the Trinity in the early church like Noetus, Sabellius, and others were the real pagan heretics and they were also rebuked by real Christians like Hippolytus. Hippolytus was a Bible believer and not a Papist who worshipped the Trinity by saying:

Hippolytus "As far as regards the power, therefore, God is one. But as far as regards the economy there is a threefold manifestation, as shall be proved afterwards when we give account of the true doctrine" (Against The Heresy Of One Noetus)

Hippolytus said:

"A man, therefore, even though he will it not, is compelled to acknowledge God the Father Almighty, and Christ Jesus the Son of God, who, being God, became man, to whom also the Father made all things subject, Himself excepted, and the Holy Spirit; and that these, therefore, are three. But if he desires to learn how it is shown still that there is one God, let him know that His power is one. As far as regards the power, therefore, God is one. But as far as regards the economy there is a threefold manifestation, as shall be proved afterwards when we give account of the true doctrine. In these things, however, which are thus set forth by us, we are at one. For there is one God in whom we must believe, but unoriginated, impassible, immortal, doing all things as He wills, in the way He wills, and when He wills." (Against The Heresy Of One Noetus)

Hippolytus also said that "She hath mingled her wine" in the bowl, by which is meant, that the Saviour, uniting his Godhead, like pure wine, with the flesh in the Virgin, was born of her at once God and man without confusion of the one in the other. "And she hath furnished her table:" that denotes the promised knowledge of the Holy Trinity." (Hippolytus on Prov 9:1, fragment, "Wisdom hath builded her house."

Note that Hippolytus in his history rebuked the pro-Modalist Roman Bishop Zephryrinus who supported the anti-Trinitarians in the 200s.



Independent groups like the Anabaptists, Donatists, Novatians [I have Trinitarian quotes from both Donatus and Novatian], Celtic Christians like St. Patrick, Columbanus, and Columba, Lollards, Waldensians, and others worshipped the Trinity or the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.


The Bible even commands you to baptize in all 3 members at Mt. 28:18-20:



18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
That pronounced the 3 members as one for baptism and 1 John 5:7:

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

I know that verse is controversial, but it was mentioned on all old English Bibles (i.e. Tyndale, Coverdale, Wycliffe, Great Bible, Geneva, Bishop, KJV, and all of the Protestant Reformers) for 600 years straight and came first writtenly discovered by Tertullian and Cyprian then Priscillan, Athanasius, Waldensian version ,etc.



Just because 1 John 5:7 exists on few manuscripts doesnt mean that its an added verse or a lying concept or a fraud. To deny the Trinity is to call Hippolytus, Tertullian, Ignatius, Polycarp, the Bible, and God himself a transformer being or a liar and that in it of itself is making a big mistake. It will make not that change or mistake ever.



Like always Christopher Lancaster, we Trinitarians are not wanting to paganize you but show you the truth and wake up to accept and worship the Blessed Trinity who is God Almighty.

I hope to God that you will do this.


By TruthSeeker24

SOLA SCRIPTURA
SOLA FIDE
SOLA GRATIA
SOLA CHRISTO
SOLA GLORIA DEO

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS.

SEPTEMBER 29, 2003

2: 24 pm. EST