The Trinity

The Trinity is the belief that God is one being consisting of three co-existing, co-eternal persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Also see Jesus Never Claimed to be God. (CURRENTLY UNFINISHED)

Why the Trinity is Important
There are various aspects of the Trinity that are essential to Christian doctrine:
 * If Jesus isn't God, and is just a created being, then should be pray to him? The Bible clearly calls us to pray to Jesus (See John 14:14, 1 Corinthians 1:2, Acts 7:54-60). If we pray to a created being, we are guilty of idolatry and worshipping the creation rather than the creator (Romans 1:25).
 * If Jesus is not God, we attribute our salvation to a created being, rather than God himself. Could a created being really take the full weight of our sins? Salvation comes only from the Lord (Psalm 3:8; 37:39, Jonah 2:9, Revelation 7:10), but it was Jesus who died on the cross and gave us salvation. So only God can give us atonement for our sins, not a created being. So by necessity, whoever was on the cross had to be God. The same goes for the Holy Spirit, which, if He is also a created being, then how He able to guide and sanctify us?
 * This also makes God seem very apathetic to us, as he sent someone else to do the work of saving us, apparently being unwilling to come and do it himself.
 * Also, the multi-personal nature of God would show that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were in perfect unity and love before the creation. A simple monotheistic god of "oneness" would be alone in eternity and not be able to show love to anyone. Because God is three distinct yet co-existing persons, there can be perfect love between them. This adds to the character of God that He would decide to create something out of contingency, not out of necessity. God did not have to make us and the universe, because there was already perfect unity with himself via his three persons. This makes everything more about God, and less about us, which is fundamental to distinguishing Christian theology from the theology of other religions.

Three Persons Mentioned Together
These three passages below contain all three persons of the trinity put together, yet still distinct from one another.

Matthew 3:16-17

 * "And when Jesus was baptised, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Jesus is baptised by John, the "Spirit of God" comes upon him and a third entity speaks from heaven. These clearly indicate the three persons involved in the Godhead.


 * "At Christ's baptism there was a manifestation of the three Persons in the sacred Trinity. The Father confirming the Son to be Mediator; the Son solemnly entering upon the work; the Holy Spirit descending on him, to be through his mediation communicated to his people."

Matthew 28:19

 * "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

The text also states that baptism should be in the "name" (singular) of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, indicating that there is unity between the three, yet they are still distinct.


 * "Baptism was to be no longer, as it had been in the hands of John as the forerunner, merely a symbol of repentance, but was the token that those who received it were brought into an altogether new relation to Him who was thus revealed to them. The union of the three names in one formula (as in the benediction of 2 Corinthians 13:14) is in itself a proof at once of the distinctness and equality of the three Divine Persons."

Titus 3:4-6

 * "But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour."

Paul refers to God as "our Saviour" and then refers to Jesus as "our Saviour." Isaiah 43:11 states that God is our only saviour and so this passage is in agreement that Jesus is not only the Saviour, but therefore God.

The Holy Spirit is also mentioned as having the power to wash us of our sins, something which only God can do (Psalm 3:8; 37:39, Jonah 2:9, Revelation 7:10).

Titus 1:3 also calls Jesus God, because Paul receives his commission to preach by Jesus and states this command came from "God our Saviour."


 * "By "God our Saviour" is not meant the Lord Jesus Christ, though he is commonly designed by our Saviour, and is several times called God our Saviour in this epistle; see Titus 1:3 and who is truly God, and the only Saviour of lost sinners; and whose kindness and love towards them has appeared in many instances; as in his suretiship undertakings for them, in his assumption of their nature, and in his suffering and dying in their room and stead: and yet it appears from Titus 3:6 that God our Saviour here, is distinguished from Jesus Christ our Saviour there; and therefore here must be understood of God the Father; who contrived the scheme of salvation, appointed Christ to be his salvation, and made a covenant with him..."

The Holy Spirit
In the below passages we will see the attributes of the Spirit revealed:
 * 1) The Spirit is a person
 * 2) The Spirit is equal to God
 * 3) The Spirit has a voice
 * 4) The Spirit has a mind
 * 5) The Spirit is omniscient
 * 6) The Spirit is eternal
 * 7) The Spirit is what inspired God's Word

John 14:26

 * "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 have said to you."

John states that the Holy Spirit is a person, referring to the Spirit as He.


 * "'He shall teach you all things;' he shall more fully explain to you all things. Three of the apostles themselves had already in this chapter discovered great degrees of ignorance as to the doctrine of the Trinity, Christ’s union or oneness with his Father."

Acts 5:3-4

 * "But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”

Verse 3 says Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit, but in the very next verse Peter states Ananias lied to God, indicating that the Holy Spirit and God are one.


 * "... the sin here committed was one of special magnitude - so great as to be deemed worthy of the immediate and signal vengeance of God. Yet the sin against the Holy Spirit is uniformly represented to be of this description. Compare Matthew 12:31-32; Mark 3:28-29. As these sins evidently coincide in enormity, it is clear that the same class of sins is referred to in both places; or, in other words, the sin of Ananias was against the third person of the Trinity."


 * "Compare Psalm 139:1-4. The word "God" here is evidently used in its plain and obvious sense as denoting the "supreme divinity," and the use of the word here shows that the Holy Spirit is "divine." The whole passage demonstrates, therefore, one of the important doctrines of the Christian religion, that the Holy Spirit is distinct from the Father and the Son, and yet is divine."

Acts 13:2

 * "While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

Luke states that the Holy Spirit has a voice.


 * "While the personality of the Holy Ghost is manifest from this language, His supreme divinity will appear equally so by comparing it with Heb 5:4."

Romans 8:27

 * "And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."

Paul states that the Holy Spirit has a mind.


 * “The Father knows (and welcomes) the ‘mind of the Spirit,’ because in its requests it is in Divine harmony with His own.”

1 Corinthians 2:10

 * "... these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God."

Paul states that the spirit searches "everything," indicating He is omniscient.


 * "God has revealed true wisdom to us by his Spirit. Here is a proof of the Divine authority of the Holy Scriptures... In proof of the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, observe, that he knows all things, and he searches all things, even the deep things of God. No one can know the things of God, but his Holy Spirit, who is one with the Father and the Son, and who makes known Divine mysteries to his church. This is most clear testimony, both to the real Godhead and the distinct person of the Holy Spirit."

Hebrews 9:14

 * "... how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God."

The author of Hebrews gives the Holy Spirit the attribute of being "eternal" which is an attribute only of God (Deuteronomy 33:27, Job 36:26, Psalm 102:12)


 * "Spirit of God, and the sacrifice thus offered could, therefore, accomplish effects which would be eternal in their character. It was not like the offering made by the Jewish high priest which was necessarily renewed every year, but it was under the influence of one who was "eternal," and the effects of whose influence might be everlasting. It may be added, that if this is a correct exposition, it follows that the Holy Spirit is eternal, and must, therefore, be divine."

2 Peter 1:21

 * "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

The Holy Ghost is what inspired men to write the Bible. 2 Timothy 3:16 states that all scriptures is from God. Therefore the Holy Spirit is God.


 *  "... neither Moses, nor David, nor Isaiah, nor Jeremiah, nor Ezekiel, nor Daniel, nor any other of the prophets, prophesied when they pleased, but when it was the will of God they should; they were stirred up to prophesy, not by any human impulse, but by a divine influence... that the speech of the prophets, when the Holy Spirit clothed them, in all their words was directed by a divine influence, and the prophet could not speak in the choice of his own words, ''

The Son
The below passages state that:
 * 1) God's blood was shed on the cross
 * 2) The Christ is God over all
 * 3) Christ was the form of God
 * 4) The Christ is the saviour, and therefore God

Acts 20:28

 * "Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood."

Luke writes that the blood that was shed on the cross is his own blood, indicating the deity of Christ.


 * "It is the church He has purchased with his own blood. The blood was his as Man; yet so close is the union between the Divine and human nature, that it is there called the blood of God, for it was the blood of Him who is God."

Romans 9:5

 * "To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen."

Paul explicitly states that Christ is God.


 * "Over all, which is antithetic to, of whom, shows both the pre-existence (προὗπαρξιν) of Christ before the fathers, in opposition to His descent from the fathers according to the flesh, and His infinite majesty and dominion full of grace over Jews and Gentiles; comp. as to the phrase, Ephesians 4:6; as to the fact itself, John 8:58; Matthew 22:45. They are quite wrong, who fix the full stop either here [after πάντων], (for the comma may be placed with due respect to religion); for in that case the expression should have been, εὐλογητὸς ὁ θεός [not ὁ—θεὸς εὐλογητός], if only there had been here any peculiar occasion for such a doxology; or [who fix a full stop] after σάρκα; for in this case τὸ κατὰ σάρκα would be without its proper antithesis [which is, “who in His divine nature is God over all”].—Θεὸς, God) We should greatly rejoice, that in this solemn description Christ is so plainly called God."

Philippians 2:5-6

 * "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped."

Paul quotes from Isaiah 52 in this passage concerning the messiah. Paul was convinced that the man who appeared to him on the road to Damascus was God.


 * "... a phrase which perhaps better conveys what the original words suggest, that the reference is to equality of attributes rather than person (Lightfoot). The glorious Personage in view is not another and independent God, of rival power and glory, but the Christ of God, as truly and fully Divine as the Father."

Titus 2:13

 * "... waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ."

Sceptics have claimed that the passage is stating the glory of our great God and Saviour and that this passage is in reference to the Father, not Jesus. But as we looked at earlier in Isaiah 42:8, God does not share in his glory with anyone. If Jesus is the glory of the father, then Jesus is the same entity as the Father.


 * "'epifaneia,' by us translated appearing, is attributed only to the Second Person in the Blessed Trinity, 2 Thessalonians 2:8 1 Timothy 6:14 2 Timothy 4:1,8. From this text the Divine nature of Christ is irrefragably concluded; he is not only called God, but 'megav yeov,' the great God, which cannot be understood of a made God."

Titus 3:4-6

 * "But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour."

God is our saviour, just as stated in Isaiah 43:11. If Jesus is the saviour, then he and the Father are the same.

Deuteronomy 6:4

 * "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one."

This statement is often used to show the Unitarian character of God, however, upon closer analysis, it is clear that this verse is not excluding the possibility of a triune God.
 * 1) In context, Deuteronomy 6:4 is a statement regarding the contrast between God and the many polytheistic religions that surrounded Israel at the time, and to show that exclusivity of God amongst all these false deities. Verse 14 states, "You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the people who are all around you." So in context, verse 4 is a statement about God being exclusive in contrast to early pagan grouping of gods.
 * 2) The words used in this verse do not restrict God to oneness. The word for "one" in this verse is the Hebrew word echad (אֶחָד), which, depending on the context, can mean compound unity (multiple things as one) as well as singularity, like how we would refer to one team or one group, which obviously consists of multiple individuals. The same word is used in Genesis 2:24 when describing a man and a woman becoming "one flesh," as well as in Genesis 11:6, when it states the people of the world were of "one language." This does not exclude multiple persons, but affirms the monotheistic nature of God (which Christians obviously believe).
 * 3) The word for God in this passage is Elohim (אֱלהִים), which is a plural of eloah (אֱלוֹהַּ). A strictly literal translation of Deuteronomy 6:4 would then read: "Hear O' Israel YHWH our God (plural) is united."

Early Judaism
Daniel Boyarin's research into the matter of multiple persons in the Godhead during the days of early Judaism concluded that a multiple-person God was not foreign to Jewish beliefs and did not contradict their monotheism. He writes that the early Jews:

"...believed that God has a divine deputy or emissary or even son who functioned as an intermediary between God and the world in creation, revelation and redemption."

Commentary Sources


Academic Sources


Ancient Sources
