We believe in one God existing in three persons...

We believe in one God...infinitely perfect and eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

As God progressively revealed Himself to His people over time, He revealed through Jesus Christ that there are actually three persons making up the one Godhead. This revelation is called the doctrine of the Trinity and has been the source of tremendous confusion for numbers of believers. Because of misunderstanding concerning this teaching, many groups, such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, have splintered off from orthodox Christian teaching and even formed their own movements. This splintering off is not unreasonable, however, when one considers how teachers have explained the doctrine of the trinity throughout the centuries. It is frequently taught as a contradiction which somehow makes sense to God but which mankind is not able to comprehend. This is an unfortunate treatment of the doctrine of the Trinity and betrays the ignorance of those who promote such a teaching. The doctrine of the Trinity is a clear teaching of the Scriptures, and when properly understood, does not require one to accept a contradiction.

This doctrine states that there are three persons in one God. In other words, there are three distinct persons who alone have the essence of what it takes to be God (Don’t let the word person throw you for a loop. To say God is personal is not the same thing as saying He is human. It simple says that He has personality and distinguishes Him from the New Age idea of an impersonal life force or energy). There are two primary ways in which people distort the doctrine of the Trinity. On the one hand they diminish the unity within the Trinity, and on the other hand, they diminish the diversity.

On the surface, the fact that the Trinity consists of three distinct persons may appear to be no different than what the Greeks and Romans believed with their pantheon of gods (Zeus, Aphrodite, Hermes, etc.). The difference between the Greek and Roman gods and the doctrine of the Trinity, however, is that the separate Greek and Roman gods had their own distinct personalities, their own distinct powers, and their own distinct wills. One might be more loving while another might be more wrathful. One would have the gift of speed while another would have the power to make people fall in love. Moreover, the ancient literature about these gods portrays them as a conniving and deceitful group willing to betray their fellow gods in order to get their own way. Thus, they had their own distinct wills. This idea would be an inappropriate expression of the Trinity, for although the members of the godhead are distinct persons, they have the same personal characteristics, the same divine characteristics, and the same will and purpose.

Scripture calls the three persons comprising the Trinity the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three beings have the same essence in that they all possess the same personal characteristics which were described in the previous summary; each one is equally loving, just, holy, faithful, and gracious. Accordingly, the members of the Trinity possess the same divine characteristics in that each one is omniscient, omnipotent, and eternally existing. Likewise, they each have the same will. It would be impossible, for example, for the Son to want something that the Father does not, or for the Holy Spirit to desire something that the Son does not. Together they have the same will. Jesus expressed the unity between Himself and the Father when He said to His disciples, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work." (John 4:34), and again, "I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me." (John 5:30). Because Jesus was of the same essence as the Father, He could legitimately say to the disciple who asked to see the Father, "Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, ’Show us the Father’?"10 "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.11 Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me." (John 14:9-11).

While it is important to emphasize the Biblical teaching on the unity of the godhead, it is equally as important to emphasize that there are still three distinct persons within the godhead. Some people have distorted the doctrine of the Trinity by saying that there is only one person instead of three. Just as an ice cube can melt and become water, and the water can become heated until it becomes steam, these people teach that there is only one person who left heaven and took the form of the Son and then left the earth and took the form of the Holy Spirit. This teaching, which is called modalism, is also an incorrect expression of the doctrine of the Trinity. The Bible clearly teaches that there are three equal persons in the one godhead, but that these three persons have different roles. The apostle Paul described the different roles within the godhead saying, "For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,4 in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:3-4). Jesus Himself also spoke concerning the different roles of the members of the godhead saying, "These things I have spoken to you, while abiding with you.26" "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." (John 14:25-26).

For many people, the fact that Jesus, God the Son, has a subordinate role must mean that He is a subordinate being to God the Father. A simple illustration will show the fallacy behind this logic. In any given business, some people are in positions of leadership and make the decisions while others are in a subordinate role of making those decisions happen. Despite their different roles, hopefully no one would say that people in positions of leadership are superior beings to those who follow their orders. Even though they have different roles, they are equal in their nature as human beings. In contrast, animals are inferior to human beings, for they do not possess the same capacity to relate to God as humans (My apologies to any animal rights activists, but God’s word does say that humans are superior. Do not think, however, that this gives us the right to destroy the earth or abuse animals. On the contrary, it gives us a responsibility to protect the earth and care for animals. But I digress). Therefore, although Jesus has a subordinate role, He is still equal to God in His nature.

Despite these truths, the Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) will still argue that the Bible does not teach that Jesus Christ is equal with God. Rather, they believe that Jesus was the first created angel and that together with God, he formed the rest of creation. In talking with a JW, one will readily notice that they have a profound knowledge of the Scriptures and might conclude from this that they also have the proper interpretation. Although they do have a good knowledge of the Scriptures, I cannot accept their conclusion about the nature of Jesus because the Biblical evidence overwhelmingly declares that Jesus is God (that is, of the essence of God).

In the Gospel of John, for example, Jesus declared that God was His Father, and "For this cause therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God" (John 5:18). The JWs will argue that since God is the Father of all creation, it would be logical for a created angel to call Him "Father." But this explanation cannot account for the response of the Jews in wanting to kill Jesus. A Jew would not have been stoned for claiming to be an angel. Claiming to be God, however, required the death penalty. Nor do the JWs adequately account for the statement that Jesus was making Himself equal with God. According to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon (p. 307), the Greek word translated here as "equal" means "equal in quality as in quantity, to claim for one’s self the nature, rank, authority, which belong to God."

Likewise, when Jesus declared that He existed before Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, the Jews said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?" In His response to this question, Jesus called Himself, "I am," the very name by which God revealed Himself to Moses from the burning bush (See Exodus 3:13-14). Because of this claim, the Bible reveals once again that the Jews "picked up stones to throw at Him" (John 8:57-59). Moreover, after Jesus had risen from the dead, one of the disciples proclaimed when he saw Him, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28). Jesus made no attempt to correct this disciples proclamation. And as if these statements did not make it clear that He claimed to be God, Jesus put all speculation aside when He declared, "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30).

In addition to these clear statements of the Bible, there is no single verse of Scripture which closes the door to the doctrine of the Trinity. The JW’s will cry loudly the Jewish Shema, "Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD" (Deuteronomy 6:4) as a verse which does exactly that. But even this verse, which came well before God revealed His three in oneness, leaves room for the doctrine of the Trinity. The term for "one" in Hebrew is the word ƒÕƒÓƒØƒßƒÔ, a word which does not denote absolute unity in many places throughout the Old Testament. In contrast, it often denotes composite unity, a fact which argues for the Trinity. If God had wanted to close the door to this possibility, He could have used another Hebrew word which denoted absolute rather than composite unity. One must ask a JW why God, knowing that an "error" would arise in which people would call Jesus God, would not have closed the door to this possibility.

In order to arrive at their conclusion that "Jesus is not God" one must ignore basic rules of Bible study methods. In Isaiah 6:1-10, for example, the prophet Isaiah declares,

"I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.3 And one called out to another and said, ’Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.’ 4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.5 Then I said, ’Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts’" (Isaiah 6:1-3).

"God has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high;4 having become as much better than the angels (*NOTE, He does not say ’better than the rest of the angels’), 5 For to which of the angels did He ever say, ’THOU ART MY SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN THEE?’ And again, ’I WILL BE A FATHER TO HIM AND HE SHALL BE A SON TO ME?’ 6 And when He again brings the first-born into the world, He says, ’AND LET ALL THE ANGELS OF GOD WORSHIP HIM.’ 7 And of the angels He says, ’WHO MAKES HIS ANGELS WINDS, AND HIS MINISTERS A FLAME OF FIRE.’ 8 But of the Son He says, ’THY THRONE, O GOD, IS FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE RIGHTEOUS SCEPTER IS THE SCEPTER OF HIS KINGDOM’" (Hebrews 1:1-8).

Several things stand out in this passage. First, it says that Jesus is the firstborn who came into the world and is the heir of all things. Thus, He is the firstborn of all creation. Second, Jesus is the "exact representation of God’s nature." Third, the angels are told to worship Him, and fourth, He is called "God." With all of the biblical prohibitions and warnings against having other gods and worshipping any created thing, it would be highly inconsistent for God to then call the angels to worship the Christ, whom God the father refers to as "God," unless Jesus was in fact God!

If Jesus is God, however, one might be led to ask how He could have possibly become a man and why He was dependent upon God the Father during His life on earth. The apostle Paul answered this question while encouraging His readers to have the same mindset as Jesus Christ, "who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men" (Philippians 2:6-7). In one of the foremost books on different religions, the author brings out the significance of these two verses when he asserts,

"In this passage of Scripture, Paul claims full deity for Christ and maintains that in His preincarnate life He existed ’in the form of God’ and ’thought it not something to be grasped’ at to be equal with God, but took upon himself the ’form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men’ (RSV). The term equal here is another form of ƒÙƒãƒßƒÞ, namely ƒÙƒãƒÑ, which again (as in John 5:18 quoted above) denotes absolute sameness of nature, thus confirming Christ’s true deity. Further, this context reveals beyond reasonable doubt that all references to Christ’s being subject to His Father (e.g., John 5:26; 6:57) pertain to His earthly existence, during which ’he emptied himself’ to become as one of us."

The evidence presented here for the doctrine of the Trinity, and by necessity the deity of Christ, is only the tip of the iceberg. There are many more passages which could have been quoted and discussed, but these are enough to show that this doctrine is truly a Biblical teaching. In order to properly defend the faith, Christians must know what this doctrine actually teaches rather than assume that it is a contradiction which one must accept on blind faith. When clearly taught, it presents a beautiful portrait of the godhead and how each of them participates in salvation. And because all three persons of the one godhead participate in salvation, being equally God but having different roles, Jesus commanded the church to "Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:18-20).