Triune God

    For the past several months we have been going through the book of Revelation, and one night a few weeks ago we got into a discussion about God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and it led to us discussing the Trinity.  

    Now what I find interesting and what seems to be the number one argument when it comes to the doctrine of the trinity is that the word Trinity cannot be found in the bible. Many will say things like "How can you believe in a doctrine when the word for that doctrine cannot be found anywhere in scripture. 

    The truth is that they are correct in saying that the word Trinity cannot found anywhere in any of the 66 books of the bible. But does that mean that the doctrine is incorrect or that it is a false doctrine?  Well to answer that question I would say No. Just because the word trinity is not found in the bible does not mean the doctrine is not found in scripture. Just like you can read throughout the bible and you will never find God saying "you should not smoke meth" but I think we can all agree that there are enough principals in scripture that would point you to the idea that the bible speaks against it. 

    When it comes to the doctrine of Trinity we find the principals from the very first few chapters of Genesis.  We see it throughout the bible in various stories and passages of scripture all the way to the last book of the bible, book of Revelation. 

 “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”- (Gen 1:26)

    Notice that here in the very beginning God is speaking to himself in the plural. In fact the word for God in the bible is Elohim which in Hebrew is in a plural form. 

“And the Holy Spirit descended upon Him (Jesus) in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, (that’s the Fathers Voice)  “You are my beloved Son, in you I am well pleased”- (Luke 3:22)

   Notice here that all three persons of the Trinity is represented; God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  

    There are many many other passages that out line the doctrine of the Trinity throughout the scriptures. 

 The Baptist Faith and Message define the Trinity as "The eternal triune God reveals himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.”

    Now the definition is one thing understanding it far different. The idea of the trinity is a bit hard to wrap your head around. There is One God, and Only ONE God. The doctrine of the Trinity is not a doctrine of polytheism ( the belief in many God's) it is a monotheistic ( the belief in One singular God) doctrine. This being said this one God has three distinct persons. God the Father is God, God the Son is God, and God the Holy Spirit is God. All three are God and yet all there are separate but equal persons.

 

    Some have tried to make since of the Trinity by using various illustrations. None of those illustrations can really explain the doctrine quite correctly. I think the best illustration I think fits best for me  is what my professor shared to us in seminary when we were talking about the doctrine of the Trinity, He said "God in one and one in three and the one in the middle saved me". 

    Now none of these illustrations are perfect and they still don't fully explain the doctrine of the Triune God we find throughout the bible. In fact the doctrine of the Trinity is one of those great mysteries of how it all works and no one really fully understand this doctrine completely .
John Wesley very appropriately said "Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man, and then I will show you a man that can comprehend the Triune God"

    And I think here lies something for us to grab ahold of. Many times we want to know it all. We don't like feeling there is something we don't know or even worse can't know. When I was going to school I struggled with tests and I did not like the idea that my peers were learning things that I struggled to grasp. 

    However we need to understand that when we are talking about God and who He is, there are things we will never know. We need to be ok with not knowing certain things, in fact we talk about God, we should expect it. Think about it how could you and I who are finite, limited beings ever comprehend a limitless, timeless, eternal, all powerful and all knowing God. I mean there are things we don't know about creation. There are planets that we have explored. There are large areas of our own planet that we our selves have not seen. We are all the time discovering new creatures. So why would we think we would know everything about the one who created all things? 

    Finally, would we really want a God we could fully and completely understand? Isn't far better to have a God we can't understand, but who understands us? I think it is. So take some time today and thank Him that even though you cannot fully understand Him completely, He understands you.