TRINITY

     

       How can there be Trinity, a Three-in-one God?

         The Trinity is one of the greatest mysteries.  The Bible teaches that the Godhead consists of Three Deity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, all of the same substance, Co-equal, Co-exist, Co-eternal.

  (I John 5: 7-8)  For there are three that bear record in Heaven, the Father, the Word (Christ), and the Holy Ghost. These Three are ONE (One in Unity, Purpose, and Harmony). There are three that bear Witness in earth, the Spirit, the Water (of the word of God) and the Blood (Christ), and these three in agreement as one.

  (Matthews 3: 16,17)  At Jesus' baptism the Holy Spirit, descended (on Jesus) like a dove, the Father spoke from heaven about Jesus "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."  Jesus was baptized (in Jordan river) by John the Baptist, a man who was sent by God to prepare the way for Christ.

  ~~~~ 1. Who is God Heavenly Father?

         He is God of ALL creation, the Creator of ALL. He is God of the Most High.  He is All Powerful and sustains the Universe.  He exists outside the Universe, yet He is present throughout the Universe and is its Ruler.  He exists in Nature, but He is not Nature, nor do the laws of Nature bind him.  He is the source of all life and everything that is.

         God is a Spirit, Eternal and ever living.  He has no Beginning or End.  He is the essence of love, and He is Loving. He is also a Righteous Judge, totally fair and just.

         He is the Substance of All human virtue. He is All Wise and All-Knowing.  He can do anything and everything we cannot do. He is everything good that we would like to be. So, we say that God is Omnipotent (All-Powerful) or Omniscient (All-Knowing) or Omnipresent (Present everywhere). We can describe God by contrasting Him with our human limitations.  As human beings we are mortal, but God is immortal!  We are fallible, but God is Infallible!

~~~~ Apostolic fathers writings: About God the Father.

~~~ Justin Martyr (A.D. 160) To the Father of all, who is unbegotten there is no name given... These words---- Father, God, Creator, Lord,  are not names. Rather, they are appellations derived from His good deeds and functions. As to the name of God the Father and Lord of the universe.... If anyone dares to say that there is a name, he raves with a hopeless madness. The name of God the Father had been published to no one. Neither must you ask for a name of God. God is His name.

    ~~~~~  2.  Who is Jesus Christ?

  (John 1:1-3, 10, 14) In the beginning was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God (The Father) and the Word was God (Deity).  The same was in the beginning with God.   All things were made by Him (Christ's Co-Creator), and without Him (Christ) was not any thing made that was made.  He was in the world, and he made the world, and the world knew Him not.  And the Word (Christ) was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.

  (Philippians 2: 5-11)  Let this mind be in you, which was also, in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not Robbery to be equal with God.  But made himself of NO reputation, and took upon him the form of a Servant, and was made in the likeness of men.   Being found in fashion of a man, he humble himself and became obedient unto death, even unto the Death of the Cross.  Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name, which is above every name.   At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father.

 

          The Bible says Jesus is the image-the mirror likeness-of the invisible God.  Christ is the Second Person of the Triune God. He is the Son of God who assumed human Flesh in the womb of Mary and became a man through the Holy Spirit's conception.  Christ Himself God as well--at once fully (100%) God and fully (100%) man.  He is Eternal.  He is OMINIPOTENT (All-powerful), OMNISPRESENT (Present everywhere), OMNISCIENT All-Knowing) as well.  Christ has all the Divine attributes of God the Father, yet He shared in our humanity, Except for sin.  He is Eternal.  Christ has all attributes that God the Father and God the Holy Spirit have.

~~~~ Apostolic fathers writings: About Christ's divinity.

~~~ Justin Martyr (A.D. 160) For Jesus is King, Priest, God, Lord, and Man. He deserves to be worshiped as God and as Christ. Brethren, it is fitting that you should think Jesus Christ as God the Son---- as the Judge of the living and the dead. If you had understood what has been written by the prophets, you would NOT have denied that He was God, Son of the Only, Unbegotten, Unutterable God.

       Jesus Christ was with the Father before the ages, and in the end. The Son of God is older than All His creatures, so that He was a Fellow-Counselor with the Father in His work of Creation. This is He who existed! before all, who is Eternal Priest of God, King, and Christ.

~~~ Irenaeus (A.D. 180) Christ Himself, therefore, together with the Father, is God of the living, who spoke to Moses, and who was also manifested to the fathers. It is plain that Jesus was Himself the word of God, who was made the Son of man. He received from the Father the power of remission of sins. He was Man, and He was God. This was so that since as man He suffered fro us, so as God He might have compassion on us.

       The Son has been Eternally Co-existing with the Father. Form of old, Yes, from the beginning, He was always reveals the Father. He was with the Father from the beginning. He is prior to ALL creation.  Christ, who was Co-existent with His Father before ALL time, and before the foundation of the world, always had the glory proper to Divinity.

~~~ Origen (A.D. 225) Jesus Christ Himself is the Lord, and Creator of the soul. The Canaanite woman came and worshipped Jesus as God, saying, " Lord, help me." We now believe Jesus Himself, when He speaks respecting his divinity: " I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life."

~~~ Novatian (A.D. 235) If Christ was only man, how did he say, "Before Abraham was, I am." For no man can be before someone from whom he himself has descended. Nor can it be that anyone could have been prior to him of whom he himself has taken his origin. Yet, Christ, although He was born of Abraham, say, that He is Before! Abraham.

        Why, then should man hestitate to call Christ "God." when he observes that He is declared to be God by the Father, according to the Scriptures?.... reasonably, then whovever acknowledges Jesus to be God may find Salvation! in Christ as God. Whosoever does NOT acknowledge Him to be God the Son will Lose Salvation that he could NOT find elsewhere than in Christ as God.

         Jesus strongly refuted his adversaries by the example and witness of the Scriptures. He said, "If He called them gods, to whom the words of God were given, and the Scriptures can not be broken, you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world "You Blaspheme" because I said, " I am the Son of God."

          By these, Jesus did NOT deny Himself to be God but rather, He confirmed the assertion that He was God... Nevertheless, He refutes the charge of blasphemy in fitting manner with lawful tact.  For He wished that He should be thus understood to be God, as the Son of God! He did not wish to be understood to be the Father Himself!... He is God, therefore, but God in such a manner as to be the Son, NOT the Father.

~~~~ Tertullian (A.D. 213) The Father is NOT the same as the Son, for they differ from each other in the manner of their being. For Christ who ever spoke to Moses was the Son of God HImself, who, too, was always seen. For no one has ever saw God the Father and live.

  ~~~~ 3. Who is the Holy Spirit?

          The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Trinity and proceeds from the Father, which is worshiped and gloried together with the Father and the Son.  The Father, as the Prime mover, brings forth the creative thought.  The Son, as the Word, expresses the thought. The Spirit activates the creative Word and relates it that which is created.   So, humanity can understand the will and mind of God for mankind through the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. 

(John 16:8,13-15) Jesus said unto the disciples "When He (The Comforter, Holy Spirit) comes, He will reprove the world of Sin and of Righteousness, and of Judgment of sin.  Howbeit when He comes, the Spirit of Truth is come and He will Guide you into All Truth.  For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come, and He shall glorify Me.   All things that the Father hath are Mine.  Therefore, saith I, He shall take of MINE and shall show it unto you.  

  All Three Divine Persons of the Godhead are Eternal.  The Father exists and has existed forever.  With him always existed His expression, the Christ (Son).  The Father has always loved the Son, and the Son loved and served the Father.  From that relationship of love arose the Spirit of God, who is eternal and has existed forever.  ALL three existed before there was anything that could begin---Three distinct Divine Persons, ALL functioning as ONE in Unity, Purpose and Harmony on everything they do.

   There are trinities in nature.  Light can be divided into primary colors, yet light is One.   For an example, a Rainbow will reveal the individual colors separately, that are unique, yet Unfied.

          No one can know the mind, nature or thoughts of God in all their fullness, seeing that men and women are finite and God is infinite. (Isa. 55: 8-9) "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." 

  The existence of Trinity is still a Mystery to our human minds.  But one day in Eternity we will understand it clearly when we see the Father, the Son and the Spirit Face to Face.

        The Bible teaches that the Godhead Consists of Three DEITY of all the Same Substance. Coequal, Coexist, Coeternal.  We believe in the Doctrine of the "Holy Trinity." A "Triumvirate" is a government by a group of Three Men.  The Word "Trinity" means set of three.  The "Holy Trinity" in the Union of the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost in One Essence, Character, Unity, Nature, Purpose, Power.

 

         (Genesis 1:1-2) In the beginning, God (the word "God" is Plural in the original Hebrew  "Elohim") created the heavens and the earth...and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

        (Hebrews 1:8-10) But unto the Son, God saith, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever...therefore God, even thy God, hath Anointed thee with the oil of gladness...and Thou Lord (the Son), in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands." 

  

         Many references in connection with all "Three" being mentioned in the same instance as Three Distinct Divine Beings are in the Old Testament:

    (Gen 1:1-2)  The Spirit of God moved on the earth.

    (Gen 1: 26)  Let  "Us" make man in "Our" image, after  "Our"  likeness.

    (Gen 3: 22)  And the LORD said, "Behold, man is become one of Us."

    (Gen 11:16-17) Let "Us" go down there to confound their language.

    (Isa. 6:8)  "Who will go for Us?"

In the New Testament:

***** (Matthews 3:16-17) When Jesus was baptized, He straightway went up 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 Jesus.  And Lo a Voice from heaven, saying, "This is my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

         (John 14: 16-17-26) Jesus Prays to the Father that He will give the disciples another Comforter (Holy Spirit). (John 15: 26) When the Comforter comes, whom I will send unto you from the Father, He (Holy Spirit) will testify of me.

          (Matthew 28: 16-20) Jesus told the disciples "...Go ye therefore, and teach all Nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Teaching them to observe ALL things I have commanded you, and lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."

          (I John 5:7) For there are three that bear record in heaven.    The Father, the Word (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Ghost.  These Three are one (in Unity, In Love, In Purpose and in Spirit).

***** (I Cor. 15:24-28) ...Then comes the END, when Christ shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father, when He shall have put down all rule, and all authority and forever...When all things shall be Subdued unto him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto God that put all things under Christ, that God may be All in All.

~~~~ We do NOT believe in the "Triune God" in the concept that when Christ was on the earth, One-third of God was missing in heaven (that 1/3 being what Christ represented).  In other words, we do not believe that the "Holy Spirit" represents one-third of God, and that it takes the Three of them to make "ONE" complete God.  Each of the Holy Trinity is a complete Person.

"Lord God is One" Oneness in Unity!

         (Genesis 2:24) The Lord tells us that "a man leaves his father and mother and Cleaves to his wife and They become One Flesh."  Certainty this does NOT mean that in marriage a man and wife become One Person, but they become One in UNITY of their substance and are considered as One Person in God's eyes.

         (John 17:21-23) Jesus said that " the Disciples all may be One as thou, Father, art in me and I in Thee, that they also may be One in Us. That the world may believe that thou hast Sent me.  They may be One, even as we are One.   I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfect in One."

~~~~~ Just as God's people can be one in Unity by His Spirit and be Perfectly United with each other while remaining distinct persons, it is with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit that we are Perfectly United in Nature, in Character and in One Purpose.

 

~~~~~  We do NOT believe the Father became the Son, and later on came back as the Holy Spirit.  We are not saying that Jesus is the Father, or they are One Person.  They are ONE in Nature of their Unity, Purpose, and in Spirit.