Neither the term Trinity, nor any that expresses the notion of Triunity is contained in Scripture, but the mysterious truth that these words represent is stamped upon the entire revelation of God. Nevertheless, virtually all Christian associated cults have removed the Trinity from their theology (e.g. Jehovah’s Witness, Christian Science, Mormon, Unitarian Universalist, Scientology, Unification Church, the Way International and the Worldwide Church of God). Furthermore, some groups, claiming to be mainstream Christian, have done likewise, such as Jesus Only (Oneness Pentecostal) and the 20th century UMC. In 1987, UMC Bishop Emerson Colaw issued the 3rd edition of Beliefs of a United Methodist Christian. In the words of Bishop Colaw:
"By having affirmed that as United Methodists we believe in the Holy Spirit, we hasten to add that the Christian faith, contrary to what is often assumed, does not have three distinct persons, separate from each other, as God...No doctrine is more misunderstood than the Christian concept of the Trinity. When we say "God in three persons, blessed Trinity," however, we are using the word persons in the sense in which the word Persona was used in the theater of classical Greece and Rome. It meant the mask, put on by actors, in order to play different parts. The word was taken over by early theologians to express the diverse forms of God's activity without destroying the concept of God's unity...The number three is incidental. We are simply saying that these are the ways we know God, and we are also saying that all these expressions are manifestations of the One God." (Colaw, p 33-34)
Because rejection of the Trinity is not an outlier among those professing to be Christian, there is a vague sense among Christians that it doesn’t really matter whether we de-emphasize the Trinity or not. After all, we still worship the same God; therefore no real damage is done one way or the other. Herein lies the problem; we don’t really worship the same God! Samuel Wakefield captured the importance of properly viewing the Trinity:
“IT ESSENTIALLY AFFECTS OUR VIEWS OF GOD AS THE OBJECT OF OUR WORSHIP, whether we regard him as one in essence and one in person or admit that in the unity of the Godhead there are three equally Divine persons. These are two very different conceptions, both of which cannot be true. The God of those who deny the Trinity is not the God of those who worship the Trinity in Unity, so that either the former or the latter worship a being which does not exist; and, so far as it respects any reality in the object, they might as well worship a pagan idol.
But as the object of our worship is affected by our respective views on this great subject, so also is it character. For if the doctrine of the Trinity is true, then those who deny it do not worship the God of the Scriptures, but a fiction of their own framing, and are, therefore, guilty of idolatry. If it is false, Trinitarians, by paying Divine honors to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, are equally guilty of idolatry, though in another mode. The importance of the doctrine must, therefore, be obvious to all…
If the doctrine of the Trinity is denied, how is it to be accounted for, that in the Old Testament God should be spoken of in plural terms, and that this plurality should be restricted to thee? How is it that the very name Jehovah should be given to each of them, and that repeatedly on the most solemn occasions? How is it that the incarnate Messiah should be invested with the loftiest attributes of God; and that acts and characters of unequivocal divinity should be ascribed to the Holy Spirit also? How is it that in the New Testament the name of God should be given to both, and that without any intimation that it is used in an inferior sense? How is it that, in the very form of initiation by baptism into the Church of Christ, the ordinance, which itself is a public and solemn profession of faith, is to be performed in the one name of Father, Son and Holy Ghost?” (Wakefield, p 180-183)
Some scholars have claimed the concept of the Trinity is, for all practical purposes, missing from the Old Testament. It is true that the Old Testament does not refer to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit by those specific names, but references abound, in the Old Testament, to each member of the Holy Trinity separately as well as all three members simultaneously.
- Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…” (Gen 1:26)
- And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. (Gen 3:22)
- The first person of the Trinity appears, by various names, throughout the Old Testament.
- The second person of the Trinity appears, by various names, in Gen 22:15-18, 32:24-30; Hos 12:4-6; Ex 23:20-21; Ps 2:2-7; Prov 8:22-31; Isa 7:14, 9:6, 44:6 and other locations.
- The third person of the Trinity appears, by various names, in Ex 17:7 cf Heb 3:7-9; Gen 1:2, 6:3, 41:38; Ps 139:7; Job 33:4; Num 11:25; Judges 14:6; 2 Sam 23:2; Micah 2:7; Isa 48:16; Joel 2:28 and other locations.
If we want to call ourselves Christian, it behooves us to clarify our thoughts on this issue. We would do well to remember a core belief of Christianity:
The one true God exists as three distinct, transcendent, immanent, infinite, eternal, and immutable persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
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- The one true God (Deut 4:35, 6:4; Isa 43:10, 44:6-8; I Cor 8:6; 1 Tim 2:5) exists as three distinct,
- transcendent (1 Kings 8:27),
- immanent (Acts 17:27,28; Col 1:16-17),
- infinite (1 Kings 8:27),
- eternal (Isa 57:15) and
- immutable (Mal 3:6) persons:
- God the Father (John 5:18, 10:29, 14:28, 17:1-3; 1 Cor 8:6; Phil 2:11),
- God the Son (Isa 7:14, 44:6; John 1:1-14, 5:18, 10:30, 20:28, 8:58 cf Ex 3:14; Rom 9:5; Phil 2:5-11; Col 1:15-18; Titus 2:13, Heb 1:8; 1 John 5:20; Rev 22:13-18) and
- God the Holy Spirit (Ex 17:7 cf Heb 3:7-9; Mat 28:19; Acts 5:3-4, 13:2 cf Gal 1:1 and 1 Tim 1:1; 1 Cor 3:16; 2 Cor 13:14; 2 Tim 3:16 cf 2 Pet 1:21; Heb 9:14).
Some have claimed the Holy Spirit is not a person. This claim is refuted by the following Scriptures: (John 14:26, 15:26, 16:7-11, 14; Acts 5:3, 13:2, 16:7; Rom 8:16, 26; 1 Cor 12:11; Eph 1:14, 4:30).
(see also Sections 1.19, 2.7, 2.13, 2.14, 2.15, 2.16, 2.17, 2.18, 2.19 and 2.20 of Theology Corner)
