The Trinity Series
Introduction to the Doctrine and Issues
The Trinity is a doctrine that attempts to describe the nature of God. That is, is God one being with one person who has taken on different roles? Or is God one being with 3 persons who are co-equal, co-eternal and work in harmony? Or are there actually many beings with one person each who are Gods? This last question has a few variations to it as you can see in the image.
There are some other aspects of God’s nature that are also debated, but none so hotly as this one. But basically it boils down to how many persons God has. That may seem like an odd concept, so let me see if I can make it not so odd. Trinitarians (such as myself) like to make a distinction between a “being” and a “person.” Being is the substance of someone or something. For example, rocks have a being, dogs have a being, and we humans have a being. Now it should be said that each rock, each dog and each human has their own being. And that is what Trinitarians say about God, there is only one being who is God (the one, true, living God as opposed to other “so-called” Gods (1 Corinthians 8:4-6)).
Please click on each blogs button to read it. There is so much to discuss which is why this is a series.
The question then is; how many persons does God have? Trinitarians say that God has three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Unitarians say that God only has one person, but that He played three different roles (or has/had three different modes) and called Himself the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as needed. Most cult groups will give the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit their own being and own person. Though some cult groups will say that the Holy Spirit is only a force, and therefore has neither a being nor a person.
This series of blog posts will go over all of the verses that we Trinitarians use to show that God is indeed only one being who has three persons. I understand that this can be difficult to comprehend at first, and that is something that I will deal with here. Essentially, since God is a spiritual being (though the Son has an exalted physical being) and since God is infinite and eternal, it makes sense that God could have more than one person. Essentially it’s like a hard drive system. We humans only have enough hard drive space to contain one person in our being. But God has an infinite amount of hard drive space, and so He could have an infinite amount of persons, though He has only revealed three. I do not want you to think that all of the “gods” of all of the other religions could be another “person” of the one, true, living God. That is not what I’m saying at all. That would really be a discussion for a separate blog post, which I may add on to this series. But what I am saying is that God is on a different plain of existence than we are. He created the dimensions that we inhabit, and therefore is outside of them. He could very easily have more persons than we do. After all, His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9). Why couldn’t His being and personage be higher than our being and personage?
I will add buttons to this page as the posts get written. Please return every now and again to see the latest post. I will let you know when I have felt like I have covered this subject. Though I am always open to writing another post in respond to objections if need be.
Here we discuss the Biblical teaching that there is only one God, and not many.
Here we discuss how there is a definite plurality in the singular nature of Yahweh. While the word Trinity is not in the Bible, the concept it teaches is.