1 John 5:7 King James Version
“For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”
Now, we know that there is one God, and that this God is Creator of the world and the universe. This God is the God of Genesis 1:1 who spoke the world into existence. Deuteronomy 6:4 says, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.” There is only one God. However, a careful study of the Scriptures will show that this God exists in three persons; that is, the Godhead is manifested in three persons. We read about the Godhead in Romans 1:20 where Paul says, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen...even his eternal power and Godhead.” In Colossians 2:9, we read that in the Lord Jesus Christ “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” “Bodily” is a reference to a man. This brings up a problem. How can God be three persons and one God at the same time? Wouldn’t this make three gods? And then, of course, this would resemble a pagan philosophy and would contradict Deuteronomy 6:4. The idea of three created gods is an old pagan idea that one can find in all the pagan “mystery religions.” The mystery religions of Rome and Greece had three-headed gods, so the Trinity itself (as a doctrine) is nothing new. The pagan religions have trinities, but their gods are a plurality of gods which we call “polytheism.”
Note that there is only one God, but the doctrine of the Trinity presents God manifested in three persons. I will explain this very briefly so that the uninitiated can understand it. One person is one person. I am only one person. I am not two. And yet, by any Scripture standard, I am three. There is nobody who is reading this right now who is not a body, soul, and spirit. First Thessalonians 5:23–24 says, “I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” Every person is a body, soul, and spirit—yet, they are one unit—and yet, they are three.
Notice that we have invisible red heat waves—a picture of the Father. Yellow light rays that are seen—picturing the Son. Blue chemical rays that can be seen by their effect—picturing the Spirit. An even more accurate picture is the sun itself. The sun puts out alpha, beta, and gamma rays. These rays are classified as light, heat, and actinic rays. No one will deny that the sun is one unit. It is one star—it is certainly not three separate stars. The sun is one unit. Anyone who knows his scientific facts knows that the sun puts out light rays which can be seen but not felt, heat rays that can be felt but not seen, and rays that can be neither seen nor felt, actinic rays. The actinic rays very plainly picture God the Father. The rays which can be seen but not felt picture Jesus Christ the Son showing up in human form. The rays that can be felt but not seen picture the Holy Spirit.
Again, we have a beautiful illustration of the Trinity in water. Water is classified as H20, and yet anybody can see, in a minute, that the term H20 is three units. One unit of oxygen and two units of hydrogen. Does this make three separate things? No, it is water; it is one thing. And yet water can appear in ice form, in liquid form, or in steam form. Do you know what ice is as a liquid? It is water. Do you know what the liquid is as ice? It is water. Do you know what the liquid is as steam? It is water. Or as someone said one time, “Three in one, one in three, and the one in the middle died for me.”
Every person is a body, soul, and spirit. I am one person, but I am revealed as the son in a physical body; as a spirit—there is in me a spirit, the spirit of man; and as a type of God the Father—a soul in me that you cannot see and you cannot feel. Every person is a trinity—they were made in the image of God; and of course, although Adam fell and his spirit died, and men became dead in trespasses and sin, they still have a spirit; howbeit, it is a dead spirit. Hence, Christ says, “Ye must be born again.”
Now, Isaiah 55:8–9 teaches us that human reason has no bearing on a study of God if a person is trying to figure out something that God has already shown them. The Lord said, “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.” We cannot find the word “trinity” in the Bible, nor can we find “triune God” in the Bible; but as far as that goes, the word “sacrament” is found in no Bible. The word “Catholic” is not a Bible word by the wildest stretch of the imagination. And there will be a hundred dollars reward for anybody who can find the word “rapture” or the word “millennium” in the Bible. We are not now dealing with technicalities of whether or not a word is found in Scripture. We are dealing with the fact that the Trinity is demonstrated in nature. In Romans 1, He says the invisible things (for example, the Godhead) are “clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.” So we can understand the Trinity by our study of sunlight and water.
The basis for the doctrine of the Trinity is very clear in the Bible. For example, at the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 3:13–17, we see the Trinity at work. God the Father spoke from heaven and said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, was being baptized. God the Holy Spirit descended like a dove and alighted on the Saviour. Here is a perfect picture of the three persons of the Trinity at work, and although all members of the Trinity are “God,” God is not split into three separate gods. When we say God the Son, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, we are not referring to three separate gods. We are referring to the fact that Jesus is God, the Holy Spirit is God, and the Father is God. This is brought out very clearly in the New Testament in Matthew 28:19 where we were told to “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name [singular] of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” There is only one name that will match the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost. This name is not Jesus. The one name that will match the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is “the Lord”; so baptizing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and baptizing “in the name of the Lord” is the same operation.
We realize that all American heretics who are trying to be saved by baptismal regeneration prefer the Jewish baptism of Acts 2:38—“baptism in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” But this is the standard characteristic of all unsaved preachers who are going to hell “while quoting Scripture,” because these verses deal with Israel before the gospel of the revelation of the grace of God was given to Paul. In Acts 2:38, there are no Christians present. The term “Christian” does not occur anywhere in your Bible until Acts 11:26. In Acts 2, you are dealing with porkabstaining, temple-worshipping, Sabbath-observing, circumcised Jews whose salvation had an element of faith and works mingled with it. This is why all unsaved preachers try to get you to Acts 2:38 to give you the “plan of salvation,” because there is no plan of salvation in Acts 2:38. Acts 2:38 is Simon Peter’s Pentecostal message to the house of Israel. This is more than apparent by the briefest study of verses 14, 22, 29, and 36. Baptism for a Gentile is said to be in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Jesus is the Lord. The Holy Spirit is the Lord. The Father is the Lord. Jesus is God. The Father is God. The Holy Spirit is God. The name “Jesus” is never applied to the Father. It is true that Christ said, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9), but not once did Jesus ever call the Father “Jesus.” That is a mistaken notion that comes from not reading your Bible. Not once in the Bible is the Holy Spirit called “Jesus.” The Holy Spirit is called the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of Truth. The Lord Jesus Christ is called the Messiah, Immanuel, Christ, the Lord, the Lord Christ, Jesus Christ, Jesus, and the Son of man. Not once is Jesus Christ ever referred to as the Father. That is not all. The Father is referred to in the Bible as Jehovah, Jah, Lord, Lord God, and God, but never Jesus. Therefore, we see the correct Scriptural position is right between two heresies. The first of these is the oneness, onlyness, “Jesus only,” Acts 2:38 heresy, which has no real salvation in it. And the second is the heresy of the Russellites (whom we call “no-hellers,” down south) that teaches three separate gods when, of course, there are not.
Notice in the benediction in 2 Corinthians 13:14 Paul says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.” Notice in Genesis 1 that we find the Lord speaking of Himself in plural terms when He says in Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion.” God is plainly speaking of Himself, not as a plurality of gods, but as a plural God. That is what you have to get. You say, “I can’t understand it.” You can understand it if you can look in a mirror. You are not three people, but you are looking at body, soul, and spirit. Christ said, “And fear not them which kill the body...but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28).
Now, why would you think they were the same when Christ said they were different? Paul said, “For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit” (Col. 2:5). Why would you think they are the same when they are not? The Bible says in Hebrews 4:12–13 that the word of God is able to divide asunder the soul and spirit. Then if they are different, why would you think they are the same? They are the same because you yourself are body, soul, and spirit. You are not three individuals, but you exist in three manifestations.
God is not a plurality of gods, but He exists in three manifestations. His body is the Lord Jesus Christ. His soul is God the Father. His Spirit is plainly the Holy Spirit. As we said before, water is a beautiful illustration of this great truth. Water is H20, three components, yet it is one unit. However, this one unit appears as liquid, and when it is frozen it appears as ice, and when it is heated it appears as steam, yet it never ceases to be water. You can have water existing in all three separate forms. It is still the same stuff. It is still H20.
Another good illustration is a business firm, Smith and Company, composed of three brothers, Bill Smith, Henry Smith, and John Smith. All right, they have one name, one firm, and each brother is the head of a department—the three work together without friction as a single unit (as does the Lord), and all three have the same power.
It must be emphasized that the Trinity still remains a mystery, basically, and that no single illustration can possibly explain everything about the Trinity. For example, you can’t explain Christ saying “my Father is greater than I,” when they actually have the same essence. You can only explain that in view of the fact that when Christ makes that statement He is on the earth in human form and the Father is not. You cannot fully explain the collapse of the Trinity into a Unity in eternity after Revelation 22 when the Son will “deliver up the Kingdom unto the Father” and then He Himself will submerge into God the Father so that God may be all in all the way it was before Genesis 1:1. However, we can use some illustrations to throw some light on the difficult and complex problem of the Trinity.
The most important thing we know about the Trinity is that it exists. It is not a Roman doctrine. It is a Bible doctrine. It is not the doctrine of Pastor Russell and Judge Rutherford. We firmly believe—any Christian firmly believes—that there is one God eternally existing and manifesting Himself to us in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The Trinity Acting In Creation
All right, first of all, in creation, notice this, please. God the Father spoke in Genesis 1:3 and said, “Let there be light.” That is God the Father speaking. But notice in John 1:1 that He is acting in unity with the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. In John 1:1 we read, “In the beginning was the Word.” We also see in John 1:3 that “All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” So the Son was active in the world creation back there in Genesis 1. But notice, the Holy Spirit is not left out either. God the Holy Spirit moved upon the face of the waters in Genesis 1:2. We read in Genesis 1:2, 3, “darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said.” Then, we plainly have Bible references no matter who thinks what or no matter whose opinions may be taken above anybody elses. We plainly have three Scriptural references that teach that in creation God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit were all active.
The Trinity In The Incarnation
All right, in the incarnation (that is, the coming of God the Father to manifest Himself in the flesh as a man), God the Father is said to have given His only Son. John 3:16, “For God [there is the Father] so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son” (there is Jesus Christ). So the Son was born into the world. You know what the Lord said about that Son? He said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him” (Matt. 17:5). Plainly, the Son is active in the incarnation. After all, the Son was born and was called Jesus, Immanuel, which means “God is with us.” So the Son is born into the world, but that is not all. When the Son was born into the world, the Holy Spirit was the medium of conception. In Luke 1:35, Mary was told “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.” The holy thing born of her was begotten of the Holy Ghost. Therefore, we learn that God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are not only active in creation, but they are also active in the incarnation. The coming of God to this earth will be as a man (the super-humanoid from outer space) to bring peace on earth, the real peace, from the real “humanoid,” from the right God. Therefore, all space programs—Twilight Zone, Star Trek, The Thing From Outer Space, and the Jupiter and Venus kick—and all the pretty little television shows built around plots about getting the folks from outer space to come and help you to bring peace on earth, are what we call contradictions of the truth. That is, they are direct falsehoods, and they are aimed against the word of God.
In the word of God the “visitor from outer space”—who has been here and returned—told you what to do to get life, told you what to do to have peace; 90 percent of the population of the world has never paid any attention to Him and never will. Therefore, Christ said in John 5:43, “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.” This one is spoken of in 2 Thessalonians 2; he is called the Son of perdition, the son of damnation, the Man of sin, Apollyon, the destroyer, and the Antichrist. So the next man from outer space, of course, will be the wrong man. Once you put that negative construction on the beings from other planets, you set yourself at odds against all modern scientific research, for it is based on the evolutionary hallucination that if we can contact life on other planets it is bound to be a superior form of life that will come down here and help us solve our problems. That form of life has already been here and returned. And, I might add, is coming again after the world accepts the Antichrist
as the head of the United Nations.
The Trinity Acting In Redemption
The Father and Son are active in redemption, and so is the Holy Spirit. Notice that God the Father accepted the sacrifice as a perfect sacrifice in Hebrews 10:8–12. No one has to be told that the Son Himself offered Himself up as the sacrifice. In redemption, God the Son is the main person involved. He offered Himself up as our substitute. The Bible says, “the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God” (1 Pet. 3:18). The Bible says, “For he [that is, the Father] hath made him [that is, Christ the Son] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21). The Bible says, “But he [that is, the Son] was wounded for our transgressions, he [that is, the Son] was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him [that is, the Son]; and with his stripes [that is, the Son] we are healed” (Isa. 53:5). And he goes right on to say in Isaiah 53:10, “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.” The reference plainly is to God the Father.
God the Father is active in redemption, and God the Son is active in redemption. That is not all. God the Holy Spirit is active in redemption, for we read in Hebrews 9:14 that when Jesus Christ offered up the perfect substitute, the perfect, propitiatory, vicarious atonement for sinners, Jesus offered Himself “through the eternal Spirit.” Then we see the Trinity acts as a unity in creation, in the incarnation, and in redemption. God is one God in three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and there is no order of importance down the line. The three are not one at the top and one on the middle level and one at the bottom. The three are on the same level, with the Father coming first, the Son coming second, and the Holy Spirit coming third. The Son is related to the Father by regeneration; the Holy Spirit is related to the Son by procession. Suffice it for now to understand that Jesus Christ was the Father manifest in the flesh. Although not being a substitute for the Father, He was God the Father manifest in the flesh as God’s Son. You cannot explain how God the Father could have still been up there and Him down here, but it was so. You can’t explain how the Holy Spirit could have descended upon Him while He was being baptized, and yet, He had not the Spirit “by measure” (John 3:34), for all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily in Him, but we know it is so. The Trinity is a great mystery, but it is a Scriptural mystery. It can only be understood and comprehended by reading the word of God itself and believing the word of God as the word of God stands.
The Trinity Acting In Salvation
Speaking further in these matters, the Trinity acts as a unity in salvation. The perfect picture of this in the Bible is the father who received his son home. The Bible says God “hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Eph. 1:6), and Christ said, “no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6); therefore, the prodigal son coming home from the far country is a beautiful picture of a boy being welcomed and accepted by his father upon his return. Notice in Luke 15:22 and 23 that the father welcomed the sinner, forgave him, supplied his clothes, and put on a celebration. It’s a perfect picture of the reconciliation of the sinner. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that God “hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” The Bible says we are “accepted in the beloved.”
The Father welcomes and accepts any sinner who receives His Son. This is perfectly apparent by the fact that the Bible says when a man receives Christ he is predestinated to be adopted (see Eph. 1:5), and when a man receives Christ he is predestinated “to be conformed to the image of his Son” (see Rom. 8:29). Both of these operations—the conformation of the image of Christ and the adoption—begin when the sinner receives Jesus Christ. He is accepted by the Father, placed in the family, and his final destination will be to be conformed to the very Son of God Himself.
Notice that the Son is also active in salvation. He goes to seek the lost sheep to save them. He said in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” In Luke 15:4, we have a perfect picture of this in the parable of the lost sheep where we are told there were sheep on the side of the mountain and the shepherd goes out there and finds the lost sheep. John 1:11, 12 says, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.” So God the Son is active in salvation.
Furthermore, God the Holy Spirit seals the new convert when he is saved. We read in Ephesians 1:13 that when a man believes on Jesus Christ he is sealed with the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, we read in Ephesians 4:30, “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” In 1 Corinthians 6, we read about the Holy Spirit being active in this work, and saying the born again sinner is not only sanctified by the blood of Christ but he is also sanctified by the Spirit of God. So God the Trinity works in unity. God the Holy Spirit, God the Father, and God
the Son are all active in salvation. That is not all.
So let us worship this great God, this One who is superior to us; this great One, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, the Almighty who can manifest Himself in three different ways: as the Eternal Spirit He sustains the universe; as the Eternal Spirit in glory sustains and upholds all creation, He knows all the thoughts of man, His eyes are in every place beholding good and evil; He can manifest Himself as a literal, visible human man in physical flesh, who can suffer like we suffer, who was tempted like we are tempted, who died like we die, and who shed blood like we shed blood. “In all things it behoved him to be made like unto His brethren” that He might be tempted, that He might suffer, that He might die as a man, and that by the grace of God He might “taste death for every man” so that He might be able to take the sinner’s place and save us poor, wretched sinners. This Great One can also manifest Himself as the breath of the wind of God entering the defiled, degenerate, darkened body, or vessel, of the unholy, cleansing that temple, sweeping it out and cleaning it, regenerating that man, giving him a new life and a new birth, placing him into the body of Christ, and making sure of his eternal destination—to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. He manifests Himself as the Holy Spirit of God who teaches and guides us into all truth and inspired the word of God, for holy men of God “spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” He preserved that word intact for us to this day—the Scriptures that He Himself had “God-breathed” and preserved. He is the Holy Spirit who can guide and lead us into all truth and show us things to come; the Holy Spirit who will glorify Christ and speak not of Himself—not of the “Holy Ghost”—but will speak of Jesus Christ Himself. Let us worship that One.
Let us each thank God for the Trinity—the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—for that which they have personally done for those of us who are saved, and that which they are doing right now in this world, keeping it from falling apart and becoming a den of terror which it will become after the body of Christ is caught out and the great Tribulation begins.
Source: Theological Studies Vol 1 - Trinity by Dr. Peter S. Ruckman
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