S4 E10: The Trinity--Part 2

Season 4 of Spirit-Led Hope covers the Doctrine of God, or theology, from a Spirit-led perspective. In this episode, Glenn continues a discussion of the Trinity. The episode looks at the Biblical evidence for the Trinity in both the Old and New Testaments. Importantly, Glenn clarifies that the New Testament does not create a new doctrine, but reveals what the Old Testament taught all along.

This episode has a transcript. If your podcast player does not support transcripts, please go to the Transcripts section of https://spiritledhope.com/ . These transcripts have been edited for accuracy and are typically of higher quality than those produced automatically by many podcast apps.

Season 4 is part of a long term goal to study systematic theology from a Spirit-led perspective. If you want to know more about systematic theology, or expand your study, Glenn is using the following text as a helpful framework to make sure the main topics are covered:  Foundations of Pentecostal Theology, by Guy P. Duffield and Nathaniel M. Van Cleave.  The book is published by Foursquare Media and Glenn is using the Second Edition published in 2016.         

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Transcript

S4 E10 TRANSCRIPT 

THE TRINITY—PART 2 

INTRODUCTION

Hello everyone and welcome to Spirit-Led Hope. My name is Glenn Erichsen, and in this episode, we are looking at:

     THE TRINITY—PART 2

In this episode we are going to look at Bible verses concerning the Trinity. If you have not yet listened to Episode 9, which is Part 1, please do that before listening to this episode. It is less than 18 minutes long, and it will allow me to avoid unnecessary repetition in this episode. You will also find this episode easier to understand.

THE BIBLE REVEALS GOD’S TRIUNE NATURE OVER TIME

When we talk about the triunity of God, or anything about what God is like, our authority is the Bible. If the Bible does not teach about the triunity of God, then this concept should be disregarded. But the Bible does indeed teach about the Trinity.

The difficult part is that you will not find any place in the Bible where there is an explicit, localized, teaching about the triunity of God (like what I am doing here). And we need to be intellectually honest about this. The word “trinity” is never used in the Bible. At the same time, it is not difficult to see evidence in Scripture of God’s Three-in-Oneness…if you look. And this is also where intellectual honesty is required. People come up with all sorts of gyrations when reading Scripture to avoid or negate verses that point to the Trinity.

If you look at the whole of Scripture, the New Testament very clearly presents the three Persons in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Old Testament seems to focus more on the Oneness of God. And yet, even in the Old Testament, there are plenty of indicators that point to the Trinity. We will look at those, in just a moment. But the main takeaway here, is that the triunity of God is revealed progressively until it is fully seen in the New Testament.

THE TRINITY IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

Let us go ahead now and look at some of the ways the Old Testament points to the triunity of God. We are not going to look at every verse because that would be a very long episode. But I want to show enough examples so that you will know what to look for when you do your own study.

First, it is obvious that the Old Testament teaches that God is One. We discussed this in the last episode. God made it very clear that he alone is God. And this was necessary because the Israelites were coming out of Egypt, which was polytheistic. In Deuteronomy we read the Shema which, today, is an important affirmation of Judaism. Here is part of it:

“Listen, Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

Deuteronomy 6:4,5 CSB

Even though we know with certainty that the Old Testament teaches the Oneness of God, things get very interesting, right away, when we read the first two verses of the Bible.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Genesis 1:1,2 CSB

In the last episode we mentioned that the Hebrew word for God used here is “Elohim” or “Elohim” depending on how you were taught to pronounce it. The interesting thing about “Elohim” is that it is a plural word. Yet, it is typically used with a singular verb, which is fascinating. The Hebrew word “Adonai,” for Lord, is also plural. These names for God appear to suggest a plurality. The very names for God used in the Old Testament allow us to consider the Trinity.

And what about the Spirit of God mentioned in Genesis? Is the Spirit of God, the same as God? We see the Spirit of God, or the Spirit of the LORD, mentioned throughout the Old Testament. What is going on there? There seems to be an acknowledgement of a distinction within God.

This really shows up in Isaiah 48:16 where someone identified as “the servant of the Lord” says this:

“Approach me and listen to this. From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time anything existed, I was there.” And now the Lord GOD has sent me and his Spirit.

Isaiah 48:16 CSB

Through the lens of the New Testament, this appears to refer to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But even if you do not believe that, the verse still seems to show a distinction between God and his Spirit.

Then there is also the mention of “us” in a few places like Genesis 1:26…

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness…”

Genesis 1:26 CSB

We see this use of “us” a couple of more times in the book of Genesis, and we also see it in the book of Isaiah when Isaiah has this incredible encounter with God. In Isaiah 6:6, Isaiah says:

Then I heard the voice of the Lord asking: Who will I send? Who will go for us? I said: Here I am. Send me.

Isaiah 6:6 CSB

When you accept the truth of the Trinity, these references to “us” make perfect sense. But if you do not believe in the Trinity, then you must find a way to explain who “us” is. Some of the common ways people talk around the Three-in-One explanation is to say that the author is using a “royal we” like some kings do, or to assume that there are other beings present, like angels. But if you look at these verses in context and the whole of the Old Testament, those explanations, at least to me, do not seem to work.

Just like the references to the Spirit of God seem to point out distinctions within God, there are other verses that do the same thing. One of most famous is found in Psalm 110:1. It is famous because Jesus quoted this and said it applied to him. As I read this, you will hear me refer to two Lords…listen.

The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”

Psalm 110:1 ESV

As I read that, you could not see the distinction in the text. The first LORD was in all capitals and the second Lord only had a capital “L.” In this Psalm, David is clearly acknowledging two Lords. The first Lord is Yahweh, and the second Lord can only be someone equal to Yahweh because of the position of power at the right hand. 

If you do not believe in the Trinity this verse is very difficult to explain. It may not show the Threeness of God, but it sure shows some plurality of persons. With trinitarian hindsight, we easily understand this as God the Father speaking to Jesus the Son. 

Something I had never thought about before this episode is the existence in the Old Testament of triads…groups of three that appear in Scripture. For example, if we read the Aaronic blessing, notice how there are three sections with a reference to the LORD.

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Numbers 6:24-26 CSB

It seems possible that we could read this as if each person in the Trinity is blessing us.

We see another triad in Isaiah when he has a vision of God accompanied by the angelic seraphim. Isaiah recorded the words of these seraphim, and this is what he wrote in Isaiah 6:3:

And one (seraphim) called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

Isaiah 6:3 CSB

So here it seems possible that the angels recite a “holy” for each Person of the Trinity. 

Do I think the presence of triads is a strong proof for the existence of the Trinity? Well, let me say it this way. If I did not believe in the Trinity, then I would not make too much of it. But as someone who does believe in the Trinity, I think it is extremely interesting and very possible.

All right, there are many more examples we could show, but we need to move on to the New Testament.

THE TRINITY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

It is not difficult in the New Testament to find evidence of the Trinity. One quick and logical approach is to show that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, and then prove they are each God. If we do that, we have used the text to establish the triunity of God.

Let us follow this approach and first show that we have verses where all three Persons are presented independently. For example, at the baptism of Jesus.

When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.”

Matthew 3:16,17 CSB

Notice that after the baptism, the Father speaks to the Son. Verses like this shoot down modalism because if the Father and Son were not distinct, you would just have Jesus insanely talking to himself.

We also see the Persons mentioned separately in the great commission in Matthew, where Jesus said:

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:19,20 CSB

Here we notice that “name” is singular, even though three persons are mentioned. So, we baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not names of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This points to the Oneness of God along with his triune nature.

Now that we have shown and accept the distinctiveness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we simply need to show that each of them is God. And this is not hard. Let me quickly show you with just a few examples.

Here is a verse showing that the Father is God. Jesus said:

“Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set his seal of approval on him.”

John 6:27 CSB

Here is an example where John talks about Jesus as being God:

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true one. We are in the true one ​— ​that is, in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

1 John 5:20 CSB

And finally, here is an example showing that the Holy Spirit is God. This is taken from an account in Acts where a man named Ananias, and his wife, sold some land and then lied about how much money they got for it.

“Ananias,” Peter asked, “why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds of the land? “Wasn’t it yours while you possessed it? And after it was sold, wasn’t it at your disposal? Why is it that you planned this thing in your heart? You have not lied to people but to God.”

Acts 5:3,4 CSB

The thing to see here is that by lying to the Holy Spirit, Ananias was lying to God. In other words, the Holy Spirit is God.

So, there we have it…a basic approach. We see that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all distinct Persons, yet each one is God. There are also verses in the New Testament which stress the Oneness of God. I will let you find those on your own.

I know I have gone through this quickly, but I hope these examples inspire you to do your own study and prove to yourself that the Trinity is taught in both the Old and New Testaments. Do not just take my word for it. This is a central truth about God. I know that for me, God’s Three-in-Oneness gives me a sense of awe and wonder about God. I am fascinated by it. I also find that each Person of the Trinity is amazing in their love for me and each one expresses that love in different ways. There is a deeper intimacy with God that comes out of pursuing his triune nature.

THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE TRINITY    

I want to end this episode by revisiting something I mentioned in the last episode. I want us to reflect again on the way the disciples accepted the triune nature of God. They did this, even though they were raised to focus on God’s Oneness.

If we did not have the New Testament, it would be very difficult to predict God’s Three-in-Oneness from just the Old Testament. We would certainly scratch our heads over some of the verses we talked about in this episode…and we see that today by practitioners of Judaism. They only focus on the Oneness of God and are forced to work around those tough verses which point to the Trinity.

But we have the New Testament to illuminate what was conveyed in the Old. For us, it becomes obvious that the Old Testament did point the way towards the triune nature of God. The disciples saw this because they walked and lived with Jesus, the Messiah spoken about in the Old Testament. And then, they were filled with the Holy Spirit, who inspired the Old Testament. Suddenly, everything must have become clear to them. They show no signs of confusion about the Oneness and Threeness of God. Their writings confidently reveal that they accept both.

I like what Dr. John Frame points out in his book on systematic theology. He makes the point that the New Testament does not make up a new doctrine of the Trinity. It simply solidifies what was taught all along in the Old Testament. And the disciples understood this. They realized their belief in the Oneness of God was not threatened but made richer and deeper.

I think it is important for Christians, those who have the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit, to realize that we have a tremendous advantage when it comes to accepting the triunity of God. Not only do we have the witness of Scripture, but we have God himself affirming his triune nature. And I think this should increase our patience and compassion for people who are on their journey to meet Jesus, and struggle with the idea of the Trinity.

For many, the idea of the Trinity is so baffling that they refuse to consider Christianity. Let us be followers of Jesus, so transformed by the fruit of the Spirit, that we kindly show people the love of God and help them become disciples in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

CLOSING

In our next episode we are going to look at a way to understand three-in-one.

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As you seek God this week…

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit.  

Until the next episode, take care.

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