The Holy Trinity | Unpacking a Cardinal Doctrine for Divine Enlightenment, Supernatural Powers and Triumphant Living – Rev Dr Koku Foli Adomdza HRH, Chancellor, President & Senior Fellow, Corpus Jehovah Fellowship, Supreme JEHOVAH GOD Ministries & Missionaries

Post date: Jul 06, 2015 8:13:44 PM

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The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity is Foundational to the CHRISTIAN FAITH. It is crucial for properly understanding:

-what The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe is like,

– how He relates to us, and

– how we should relate to Him.

But it also raises many difficult questions such as:

– How can The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe be both one and three?

– Is the Holy Trinity a contradiction?

– If Jesus is The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe, why do the Gospels record instances where He prayed to The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe?

While we cannot fully understand everything about the Holy Trinity (or anything else), it is possible to answer questions like these and come to a solid grasp of what it means for The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe to be three in one.

Understanding The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe is a Holy Trinity:

The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity means that there is one The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe who eternally exists as three distinct Persons — GOD The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Stated differently, The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe is One in Essence and Three in Person.

These definitions express three crucial truths:

(1) GOD The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons,

(2) each Person is fully The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe,

(3) there is only one The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe.

The GOD GOD The Father, GOD GOD The Son and GOD GOD The Holy Spirit are distinct Persons. The Bible speaks of GOD The Father as The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe (Philippians 1:2), Jesus as The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe (Titus 2:13) and GOD The Holy Spirit as The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe (Acts 5:3–4). Are these just three different ways of looking at The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe, or simply ways of referring to three different roles that The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe plays?

The answer must be no, because the Bible also indicates that GOD The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons. For example, since GOD The Father sent GOD The Son into the world (John 3:16), He cannot be the same person as GOD The Son. Likewise, after GOD The Son returned to GOD The Father (John 16:10), GOD The Father and GOD The Son sent GOD The Holy Spirit into the world (John 14:26; Acts 2:33). Therefore, GOD The Holy Spirit must be distinct from GOD The Father and GOD The Son.

In the baptism of Jesus, we see GOD The Father speaking from heaven and the Spirit descending from heaven in the form of a dove as Jesus comes out of the water (Mark 1:10–11). In John 1:1 it is affirmed that Jesus is The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe and, at the same time, that He was “with The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe,” thereby indicating that Jesus is a distinct Person from The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe GOD The Father (cf. also 1:18). And in John 16:13–15 we see that although there is a close unity between them all, GOD The Holy Spirit is also distinct from GOD The Father and GOD The Son.

The fact that GOD The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons means, in other words, that GOD The Father is not GOD The Son, GOD The Son is not GOD The Holy Spirit, and GOD The Holy Spirit is not GOD The Father. Jesus is The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe, but He is not GOD The Father or GOD The Holy Spirit. GOD The Holy Spirit is The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe, but He is not GOD The Son or GOD The Father. They are different Persons, not three different ways of looking at The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe.

The personhood of each member of the Holy Trinity means that each Person has a distinct center of consciousness. Thus, they relate to each other personally — GOD The Father regards Himself as “I” while He regards GOD The Son and Holy Spirit as “You.” Likewise GOD The Son regards Himself as “I,” but GOD The Father and GOD The Holy Spirit as “You.”

Often it is objected that “;If Jesus is The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe, then he must have prayed to himself while he was on earth.” But the answer to this objection lies in simply applying what we have already seen. While Jesus and GOD The Father are both The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe, they are different Persons. Thus, Jesus prayed to The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe GOD The Father without praying to Himself. In fact, it is precisely the continuing dialog between GOD The Father and GOD The Son (Matthew 3:17; 17:5; John 5:19; 11:41–42; 17:1ff) which furnishes the best evidence that they are distinct Persons with distinct centers of consciousness.

Sometimes the Personhood of GOD The Father and Son is appreciated, but the Personhood of GOD The Holy Spirit is neglected. Sometimes the Spirit is treated more like a “force” than a Person. But GOD The Holy Spirit is not an it, but a He (see John 14:26; 16:7–15; Acts 8:16). The fact that GOD The Holy Spirit is a Person, not an impersonal force (like gravity), is also shown by the fact that He speaks (Hebrews 3:7), reasons (Acts 15:28), thinks and understands (1 Corinthians 2:10–11), wills (1 Corinthians 12:11), feels (Ephesians 4:30), and gives personal fellowship (2 Corinthians 13:14). These are all qualities of personhood. In addition to these texts, the others we mentioned above make clear that the Personhood of GOD The Holy Spirit is distinct from the Personhood of GOD The Son and GOD The Father. They are three real persons, not three roles The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe plays.

Another serious error people have made is to think that GOD The Father became GOD The Son, who then became GOD The Holy Spirit. Contrary to this, the passages we have seen imply that The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe always was and always will be three Persons. There was never a time when one of the Persons of the GOD-head did not exist. They are all eternal.

While the three members of the Holy Trinity are distinct, this does not mean that any is inferior to the other. Instead, they are all identical in attributes. They are equal in power, love, mercy, justice, holiness, knowledge, and all other qualities.

Each Person is fully The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe. If The Supreme Jehovah GOD, Creator of the Universe is three Persons, does this mean that each Person is “one-third” of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe? Does the Holy Trinity mean that The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe is divided into three parts?

The Holy Trinity does not divide The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe into three parts. The Bible is clear that all three Persons are each one hundred percent The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe. GOD The Father, GOD The Son and GOD The Holy Spirit are all fully The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe. For example, it says of Christ that “in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9). We should not think of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe as like a “pie” cut into three pieces, each piece representing a Person. This would make each Person less than fully The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe and thus not The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe at all. Rather, “the being of each Person is equal to the whole being of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe.”[1] The divine essence is not something that is divided between the three persons, but is fully in all three persons without being divided into “parts.”

Thus, GOD The Son is not one-third of the being of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe, He is all of the being of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe. GOD The Father is not one-third of the being of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe, He is all of the being of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe. And likewise with GOD The Holy Spirit. Thus, as Wayne Grudem writes, “When we speak of GOD The Father, GOD The Son and GOD The Holy Spirit together, we are not speaking of any greater being than when we speak of GOD The Father alone, GOD The Son alone, or GOD The Holy Spirit alone.”[2]

There is only one Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe. If each Person of the Holy Trinity is distinct and yet fully The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe, then should we conclude that there is more than one The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe? Obviously we cannot, for Scripture is clear that there is only one The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe: “There is no other The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe besides me, a righteous The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe and a Savior; there is none besides me. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:21–22; see also Isaiah 44:6–8; Exodus 15:11; Deuteronomy 4:35; 6:4–5; 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:2; 1 Kings 8:60).

Having seen that GOD The Father, GOD The Son, and GOD The Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, that they are each fully The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe, and that there is nonetheless only one The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe, we must conclude that all three Persons are the same The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe. In other words, there is one The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe who exists as three distinct Persons.

If there is one passage which most clearly brings all of this together, it is Matthew 28:19: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of GOD The Father and GOD The Son and GOD The Holy Spirit.” First, notice that GOD The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinguished as distinct Persons. We baptize into the name of GOD The Father and GOD The Son and GOD The Holy Spirit. Second, notice that each Person must be deity because they are all placed on the same level. In fact, would Jesus have us baptize in the name of a mere creature? Surely not! Therefore each of the Persons into whose name we are to be baptized must be deity. Third, notice that although the three divine Persons are distinct, we are baptized into their name (singular), not names (plural). The three Persons are distinct, yet only constitute one name. This can only be if they share one essence.

Is the Holy Trinity Contradictory?

This leads us to investigate more closely a very helpful definition of the Holy Trinity mentioned earlier: The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe is one in essence, but three in Person. This formulation can show us why there are not three The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universes, and why the Holy Trinity is not a contradiction.

In order for something to be contradictory, it must violate the law of non-contradiction. This law states that A cannot be both A (what it is) and non-A (what it is not) at the same time and in the same relationship. In other words, you have contradicted yourself if you affirm and deny the same statement. For example, if I say that the moon is made entirely of cheese but then also say that the moon is not made entirely of cheese, I have contradicted myself.

Other statements may at first seem contradictory but are really not. Theologian R.C. Sproul cites as an example Dickens’s famous line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Obviously this is a contradiction if Dickens means that it was the best of times in the same way that it was the worst of times. But he avoids contradiction with this statement because he means that in one sense it was the best of times, but in another sense it was the worst of times.

Carrying this concept over to the Holy Trinity, it is not a contradiction for The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe to be both three and one because He is not three and one in the same way. He is three in a different way than He is one. Thus, we are not speaking with a forked tongue — we are not saying that The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe is one and then denying that He is one by saying that He is three. This is very important: The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe is one and three at the same time, but not in the same way.

How is The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe one? He is one in essence. How is The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe three? He is three in Person. Essence and person are not the same thing. The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe is one in a certain way (essence) and three in a different way (person). Since The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe is one in a different way than He is three, the Holy Trinity is not a contradiction. There would only be a contradiction if we said that The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe is three in the same way that He is one.

So a closer look at the fact that The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe is one in essence but three in person has helped to show why the Holy Trinity is not a contradiction. But how does it show us why there is only one The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe instead of three? It is very simple: All three Persons are one The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe because, as we saw above, they are all the same essence. Essence means the same thing as “being.” Thus, since The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe is only one essence, He is only one being, not three. This should make it clear why it is so important to understand that all three Persons are the same essence. For if we deny this, we have denied The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe’s unity and affirmed that there is more than one being of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe (i.e., that there is more than one The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe).

What we have seen so far provides a good basic understanding of the Holy Trinity. But it is possible to go deeper. If we can understand more precisely what is meant by essence and person, how these two terms differ, and how they relate, we will then have a more complete understanding of the Holy Trinity.

Essence & Person:

Essence. What does essence mean? As I said earlier, it means the same thing as being. The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe’s essence is His being. To be even more precise, essence is what you are. At the risk of sounding too physical, essence can be understood as the “stuff” that you “consist of.” Of course we are speaking by analogy here, for we cannot understand this in a physical way about The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe. “The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe is spirit” (John 4:24). Further, we clearly should not think of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe as “consisting of” anything other than divinity. The “substance” of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe is The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe, not a bunch of “ingredients” that taken together yield deity.

Person. In regards to the Holy Trinity, we use the term “Person” differently than we generally use it in everyday life. Therefore it is often difficult to have a concrete definition of Person as we use it in regards to the Holy Trinity. What we do not mean by Person is an “independent individual” in the sense that both I and another human are separate, independent individuals who can exist apart from one another.

What we do mean by Person is something that regards himself as “I” and others as –You.” So GOD The Father, for example, is a different Person from GOD The Son because He regards GOD The Son as a “You,” even though He regards Himself as “I.” Thus, in regards to the Holy Trinity, we can say that “Person” means a distinct subject which regards Himself as an “I” and the other two as a “You.” These distinct subjects are not a division within the being of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe, but “a form of personal existence other than a difference in being.”[3]

How do they relate? The relationship between essence and Person, then, is as follows. Within The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe’s one, undivided being is an “unfolding” into three personal distinctions. These personal distinctions are modes of existence within the divine being, but are not divisions of the divine being. They are personal forms of existence other than a difference in being.

The late theologian Herman Bavinck has stated something very helpful at this point: “The persons are modes of existence within the being; accordingly, the Persons differ among themselves as the one mode of existence differs from the other, and — using a common illustration — as the open palm differs from a closed fist.”[4]

Because each of these “forms of existence” are relational (and thus are Persons), they are each a distinct center of consciousness, with each center of consciousness regarding Himself as “I” and the others as “You.” Nonetheless, these three Persons all “consist of” the same “stuff” (that is, the same “what,” or essence). As theologian and apologist Norman Geisler has explained it, while essence is what you are, person is who you are. So The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe is one “what” but three “who’s.”

The divine essence is thus not something that exists “above” or “separate from” the three Persons, but the divine essence is the being of the three Persons. Neither should we think of the Persons as being defined by attributes added on to the being of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe.

Wayne Grudem explains:

But if each person is fully The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe and has all of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe’s being, then we also should not think that the personal distinctions are any kind of additional attributes added on to The Being of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe. . . . Rather, Each Person of the Holy Trinity has all of the attributes of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe, and no one Person has any attributes that are not possessed by the others.

On the other hand, we must say that the Persons are real, that they are not just different ways of looking at the one being of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe . . . the only way it seems possible to do this is to say that the distinction between the persons is not a difference of ‘being’ but a difference of ‘relationships.’ This is something far removed from our human experience, where every different human ‘person’ is a different being as well. Somehow The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe’s being is so much greater than ours that within his one undivided being there can be an unfolding into interpersonal relationships, so that there can be three distinct persons.[5]

Illustrations of The Holy Trinity:

There are many illustrations that have been offered to help us understand the Holy Trinity. While there are some illustrations that are helpful, we should recognize that no illustration is perfect. Unfortunately, there are many illustrations which are not simply imperfect, but in error. One illustration to beware of is the one that says, “I am one person, but I am a student, son, and brother. This explains how The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe can be both one and three.” The problem with this is that it reflects a heresy called modalism. The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe is not one person who plays three different roles, as this illustration suggests. He is one Being in three Persons (centers of consciousness), not merely three roles. This analogy ignores the personal distinctions within The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe and mitigates them to mere roles.

Key Points:

Now to quickly recap Key Points of our discussion thus far.

The Holy Trinity is not belief in three The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universes. There is only one The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe, and we must never stray from this.

This one The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe exists as three Persons.

The three Persons are not each part of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe, but are each fully The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe and equally The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe. Within The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe’s ONE Undivided Being there is an Unfolding into Three Interpersonal Relationships such that there are Three Persons. The distinctions within The GOD-head are not distinctions of His Essence and neither are they something added onto His Essence, but they are the Unfolding of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe’s one, undivided being into three interpersonal relationships such that there are three real Persons.

The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe is not one person who took three consecutive roles. That is the heresy of modalism. GOD The Father did not become GOD The Son and then GOD The Holy Spirit. Instead, there have always been and always will be three distinct persons in The GOD-head.

The Holy Trinity is not a contradiction because The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe is not three in the same way that He is one. The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe is one in essence, three in Person.

Practicalisation:

The Holy Trinity is first of all important because The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe is important. To understand more fully what The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe is like is a way of honoring The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe. Further, we should allow the fact that The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe is triune to deepen our worship. We exist to worship The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe. And The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe seeks people to worship Him “in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). Therefore we must always endeavor to deepen our worship of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe — in truth as well as in our hearts.

The Holy Trinity has a very significant application to prayer. The general pattern of prayer in the Bible is to pray to GOD The Father through GOD The Son and in GOD The Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:18). Our fellowship with The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe should be enhanced by consciously knowing that we are relating to a tri-personal The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe!

Awareness of the distinct role that each Person of the Holy Trinity has in our salvation can especially serve to give us greater comfort and appreciation for The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe in our prayers, as well as helping us to be specific in directing our prayers. Nonetheless, while recognizing the distinct roles that each Person has, we should never think of their roles as so separate that the other Persons are not involved. Rather, everything that one Person is involved in, the other two are also involved in, one way or another.

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Notes

1- Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, (InterVarsity Press and Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), p. 255, emphasis added.

2- Ibid, p. 252.

3- Ibid, p. 255. While I believe that this is a helpful definition, it should be recognized that Grudem himself is offering this as more of an explanation than definition of Person.

4- Herman Bavinck, The Doctrine of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe, (Great Britain: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1991 edition), p. 303.

5- Grudem, pp. 253–254.

Further Resources:

1- Augustine, On the Holy Trinity

2- Herman Bavinck, The Doctrine of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe, pp. 255–334

3- Edward Bickersteth, The Holy Trinity

4- Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, chapter 14

5- Donald Macleod, Shared Life: The Holy Trinity and the Fellowship of GOD’s People

6- C. Sproul, The Mystery of GOD The Holy Spirit

7- C. Sproul, Essential Truths of the Christian Faith, pp. 35–36

8- I. Packer, Knowing The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe, pp. 57–63

9- John Piper, The Pleasures of The Supreme Jehovah GOD Creator of the Universe, Chapter 1

10- James White, The Forgotten Holy Trinity