The Angel of God in the Old Testament is a particularly strong indication of
the Trinity (Gen. 16:7-13; 22:1,2, 11-18; 31:11-13; 48:15,16; Exo. 3:2-6;
13:21 and 14:19; 23:20-23 and 33:14; 32:34 - compare Exo. passages with
Judges 2:1-4 and Exo. 20:1,2; Josh. 5:5:13-15; Judges 6:11-23; 13:18-22; 2
Sam. 24:16; Zech. 12:
. In every context the Angel of God speaks and
performs deeds as if he were God himself, but distinguishes himself from
God.
The Old Testament also contains references to the Son (Psa. 2:12) and to the
Holy Spirit (Gen. 1:2). There are many passages which depict God's Word and
Spirit as co-causes with God of his work (Gen. 1:2; Psa. 33:6; Isa 42:1;
Hag. 2:5,6). Included in this category are passages that tend to
personalize God's Word (Psa. 33:6; 107:20; 147:15-18; Isa. 55:11; 63:10).
The Trinity is also alluded to in those passages in which the Messiah as a
Divine speaker refers to the Lord and/or the Spirit as having sent him (Isa.
48:16; 61:1 [see: Luke 4:16-18]; Zech. 2:10,11). The distinct persons of
the Trinity are also implied in Isaiah 63:9,10. Isaiah speaks of the Lord,
the Angel of his presence, and his Holy Spirit as distinct persons.
These implications in the Old Testament that God is triune in his nature
were prepatory for the fuller revelation of the New Testament (ibid., p.
29,30). Concerning this B. B. Warfield states:
The Old Testament may be likened to a chamber richly furnished but dimly
lighted; the introduction of light brings into it nothing which was not in
it before; but it brings out into clearer view much of what is in it but was
only dimly or even not at all perceived before. The mystery of the Trinity
is not revealed in the Old Testament; but the mystery of the Trinity
underlies the Old Testament revelation, and here and there almost comes into
view. Thus the Old Testament revelation of God is not corrected by the
fuller revelation which follows it, but only perfected, extended and
enlarged (p. 30, 31).
In the New Testament, the doctrine of the Trinity is not seen as a gradually
developing doctrine; it appears as a fully mature concept. The theme of the
New Testament caused the doctrine to be the fully established conception of
God within the Christian community. The process of redemption was God's
complete revealing of himself to man; the incarnation and the subsequent
manifestations of the Holy Spirit set forth the full revelation of the
Trinity. Consequently, the New Testament writers did not consider
themselves to be departing from the God of the Old Testament, but rather
felt that the God of the Old Testament had made himself more fully known to
man through the redemptive process. The doctrine of the Trinity constitutes
the conception of God set forth through the incarnation of the Son and the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the basic proof that God is a
Trinity lies in the support for the deity of the Son and the deity of the
Holy Spirit. Thus, the whole mass of the New Testament is evidence for the
Trinity because the core of the New Testament is concerned with the
documentation of the deity of Christ and the deity of the Holy Spirit
(Warfield, p. 35).
The New Testament abounds with proof for the deity of Jesus Christ. In
eight passages, Jesus is described by the Greek word Theos (God): John
1:1-3; 1:18; 20:28; Rom. 9:5; Titus 2:13; Heb. 1:8; 2 Pet. 1:1; 1 John 5:20.
Divine attributes, such as eternality (Isa. 9:6; John 1:1,2; Rev. 1:8;
22:13), omnipresence (Matt. 18:20; 28:20; John 3:13), omniscience (John
2:24,25; 21:17; Rev. 2:23), omnipotence (Isa. 9:6; Phil. 3:21; Rev. 1:
,
immutability (Heb. 1:10-12; 13:
, and in general, every attribute of the
Father is ascribed to the Son (Col. 2:9).
The New Testament also depicts Jesus as exercising Divine prerogatives and
works: creation (John 1:3,10; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2,10), providence (Luke
10:22; John 3:35; 17:2; Eph. 1:22; Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3), the forgiveness of
sins (Matt. 9:2-7; Mark 2:7-10; Col. 3:13), resurrection and judgment (Matt.
25:31,32; John 5:19-29; Acts 10:42; 17:31; Phil. 3:21; 2 Tim. 4:1), and the
final dissolution and renewal of all things (Eph. 1:10; Heb. 1:10-12; Phil.
3:21; Rev. 21:5) (see: Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof, p. 94, 95).
The New Testament also affirms the deity of Jesus in calling him Yahweh.
Old Testament prophecies concerning Yahweh are quoted in the New Testament
as being references to Jesus (compare Mal. 3:1 and Luke 1:76; Joel 2:32 and
Rom. 10:13; Isa. 45:23 and Rom. 14:10). (Buswell, p. 104, 105). These
examples are adequate to demonstrate that the New Testament contains a
myriad of proof for the deity of Jesus Christ.
The deity of the Holy Spirit may be proven through a line of reasoning
similar to that used to demonstrate the deity of the Son. Peter uses the
terms Holy Spirit and God interchangeably in Acts 5:3,4, thus directly
calling the Holy Spirit God. Divine attributes are ascribed to the Holy
Spirit: omnipresence (Psa. 139:7-10), omniscience (Isa. 40:13,14, compare
with Romans 11:34), omnipotence (1 Cor. 2:11; Rom. 15:19), and eternality
(Hebrews 9:14). Divine works are performed by the Holy Spirit such as
creation (Gen. 1:2; Job 26:13), regeneration (John 3:4,5; Titus 3:5), and
the resurrection of the dead (Rom. 8:11) (Berkhof, p. 97, 9
.
The Holy Spirit is also ascribed the qualities of personhood and personality
in Scripture. These qualities consist of mind, will, and emotions. For
example, in Romans 8:26, 27, the Holy Spirit helps in prayer, searches
hearts, is said to have a mind, and intercedes for the saints (see also 1
Cor. 2:11).
1 Corinthians 12:11 states that the Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts to
various Christians "just as he wills." Ephesians 4:30, in providing ethical
exhortations, urges Christians not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, thus
attributing emotion to the Holy Spirit. In Acts 5:3,4, Peter said that
Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit. One does not lie to an impersonal force.
This passage not only affirms the deity of the Holy Spirit, but also
demonstrates his personhood. The following passages teach that the Holy
Spirit will teach, speak, guide, convict of sin, witness, comfort, glorify
Christ, give gifts, etc. All of these are qualities of personality: John
14:26; 15:26; 16:14; Acts 13:1-3; 16:6,7; 20:22,23; 21:11; Rom. 8:14-16,
26,27; 1 Cor. 2:10,11; 12:1-3, 12,13; Galatians 5:22-25; Ephesians 1:13,14;
4:30; Titus 3:3-5; Hebrews 10:29; Jude 20; Revelation 22:17.
These proofs of the deity of the Son and the Holy Spirit implicitly teach
the triune nature of God.
Even though the doctrine of the Trinity is basically taught implicitly in
the New Testament, it is also explicitly set forth in numerous passages.
The teaching of Jesus affirms a Trinitarian concept of God. Concerning this
B. B. Warfield states: He [Jesus] has much to say of God his Father, from
whom as His Son He is in some true sense distinct, and with whom He as He
represents the is in some equally true sense one. And He has much to say of
the Spirit, who represents Him Father, and by whom He works as the Father
works by Him (ibid. p. 37).
A good example of this is the discourses of Jesus in the gospel of John.
Jesus is direct in his assertions that he and the Father are one (John
10:30) and that this oneness entails a unity of interpenetration (John
10:38; 14:10,11). Jesus' unity with the Father is seen clearly by his claims
of eternality (John 8:58; 17:5,1
(ibid. p. 3
. His speaking of himself
as the Son of God (John 5:25; 9:35; 10:36; 11:4) also affirms his equality
with the Father because the Jewish usage of the term "son of. . ." conveyed
the idea of equality and identity of nature. The Jews understood that when
Jesus called himself the Son of God, he was identifying himself as equal and
identical with God (John 5:18; 10:33) (Buswell, p. 105). Jesus also
stressed that he possessed a personal distinctness from the Father. He
explained his presence in the world as involving a coming forth out of God
(John 8:42; 16:2
. Jesus spoke objectively of the Father sending him into
the world (John 8:42; 17:21), of an interchange of emotions between the
Father, himself, and his disciples (John 16:26, 28, 30; 17:33), and of his
having fellowship with the Father (John 7:29). Therefore, Jesus not only
claims a oneness with the Father, but also purports that there is a
distinction of person between them: a subject-object relationship that
involves an exchange of emotions, such as love (John 17:23,24) and of an
action and reaction upon each other (John 17:
(Warfield p. 39).
The teaching of Jesus also supports the deity of the Holy Spirit and
declares that a subject-object relationship also exist between the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit. In Jesus farewell discourse, he stated:
"These things I have spoken to you, while abiding with you. 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
14:25,26 NASB)." This passage demonstrates a personal distinctness between
the three persons of the Godhead. The unity of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, however, is set forth in the same discourse. After stating
that the Spirit would come in his stead, Jesus said that he would not leave
his disciples as orphans, but that he would come to them (John 14:1
.
Therefore, in this discourse, Jesus indicated that there is a unity between
himself and the Holy Spirit. Consequently, the teaching in John 14
indicates a distinctness of the persons in the Godhead and also indicates
that where the Spirit is present, so also is Christ, and where Christ is
present, so also is the Father; both a distinction and unity of the persons
of the Godhead is suggested and, thus, the doctrine of the Trinity is
presupposed (Buswell, p.114-115).
The most direct pronouncement of Jesus concerning the Trinity is found in
the great commission. Matthew 28:19 states: "Go therefore and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the
Holy Spirit. . . (NASB)." Before examining what this passage asserts, it is
important to note what it does not assert. It does not say, in the names
(plural) of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, as if to
indicate three different persons. Neither does it state, in the name of the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as if to imply that the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit are designations for a single person. The passage does declare the
unity of the Godhead in its singular use of "name;" it also sets forth the
distinctness of each person in the Godhead through the repetition of the
definite article before each name. Therefore, this passage teaches the
unity of the Godhead, in that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit each
have a common usage of the one name; it also designates a distinct
personhood to each of the three members of the Trinity: the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit (Warfield, p. 42).
B. B. Warfield summarizes this well:
This is a direct ascription to Jehovah the God of Israel, of a threefold
personality, and is therewith the direct enunciation of the doctrine of the
Trinity. We are not witnessing here the birth of the doctrine of the
Trinity; that is presupposed. What we are witnessing is the authoritative
announcement of the Trinity as the God of Christianity by its Founder, in
one of the most solemn of His recorded declarations (p. 44).
The triune nature of God, evidenced in the redemptive process, underlies the
teaching of the New Testament. It is an assumed fact and a pivot upon which
the early Christian community's conception of God turned.
Historically, a theological problem arose concerning the relationship
between the three persons of the Trinity. Neo-Stoic and Neo-Platonic ideas
existent in the second century influenced Christian thought. The result was
that a concept of the Godhead arose that proposed a subordination of the Son
and the Holy Spirit to the Father in their modes of subsistence
(Logos-Christology). Monarchianism, a reaction against this concept of the
Godhead, stated that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were only
different expressions of the one Divine person. The Church, particularly
through the work of Tertullian, came to a balance between these two
positions. Under the leadership of Athanasius, the Church's formal
declaration of the Trinity was set forth by the Council of Nicea in A. D.
325 (Warfield, p. 57-5
. However, traces of subordinationist thought were
still present in the Nicean Creed in the form of the idea of an eternal
generation of the Son. This concept is captured in the Nicean Creed by its
phrase: "God out of God" (theos ek theou). Eternal generation essentially
postulates that the Father is the beginning or author of the being of the
Son. Consequently, only the Father has being in himself. Eternal generation
does not mean a creation of the Son by the Father and it does not suggest a
pattern modeled after human generation (i.e. there is no reference to a
female personage in the Godhead). Neither does it attempt to separate or
divide the Divine essence. The concept does claim that the Son is eternally
begotten or generated by the Father. The eternality of the Son was
recognized by the Church at the time of the Council of Nicea in that claimed
that the Son was eternally begotten. This concept, however, tends to
subordinate the Son to the Father in modes of subsistence as well as
operation because it uses elements of language that are inherent from the
Logos-Christology.
These tendencies toward the essential subordination of the Son led to a
misinterpretations of John 15:26. Instead of correctly interpreting the
verse in its immediate context that after the ascension of Christ, the Holy
Spirit would be manifested in the Church, the early Church followed
subordinationist ideas and postulated that the Holy Spirit "proceeded" from
the Father and the Son (the Eastern branch of the Church claimed the Holy
Spirit "proceeded" only from the Father). The Church said this procession,
like the generation of the Son, is eternal and, therefore, protected the
deity of the Holy Spirit. However, this concept also tended to subordinate
the Holy Spirit ontologically and, thus, make him a quasi-dependent being
(Buswell, p. 119). Therefore, the Nicean Creed defended the essential deity
of the Son, but it contained components of subordinationist thought which,
if unwarrantably emphasized, could make the Son inferior to the Father
ontologically. This same subordinationist thought could also lead to the
Holy Spirit being understood as ontologically inferior. Because of these
problems, it became necessary in later church history to reassert the
self-existence of the Son and the Holy Spirit.
John Calvin, in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, reemphasized that
the Son was God in himself. In Book 1, Chapter 13, Article 19 of the
Institutes. . ., Calvin cites Augustine for support and contends that the
Father and the Son is each God in respect to himself, but each derives his
personhood of Father or Son from the relationship he sustains with the
Father or Son. Calvin emphasizes this point in 1,13,25 in stating that each
person of the Trinity is deity and exists in himself. However, the
personhood of each member of the Trinity stems from his relationship with
the other persons of the Godhead. Therefore, the Father is not the deifier
of the Son. Finally, in 1,13,29, Calvin says, "Indeed it is foolish to
imagine a continual act of begetting, since it is clear that three persons
have subsisted in God from eternity." In summary, Calvin contends that the
Son is God in himself and derives his hypostatic distinction of Son from his
relationship to the Father and the Father is God in himself and derives his
hypostatic distinction of Father from his relationship to the Son. The
nature of this relationship simply remains a mystery since God has not
revealed it.
The solution to the seeming paradox of an equality and subordination
existing in the Trinity simultaneously lies in understanding the difference
between the ontological and economical Trinity. Ontologically, each member
of the Trinity is equal; each is God in himself and has self-existence.
However, Scripture teaches a subordination of the Son to the Father and the
Holy Spirit to the Father and the Son in an economic or administrative
sense. In the administrative aspects of redemption, the Father sends the
Son and the Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit. There exists,
therefore, a divine order in the intra-personal relationships of the members
of the Trinity. However, the modes of procession between the members of the
Godhead are a mystery; the mode of paternity or filiation between the Father
and the Son is an incommunicable property. Therefore, it is impossible to
explain the precise nature of the relationships between the different
members of the Godhead. It is important, however, to maintain a balance
between the ontological Trinity and the economic Trinity; neither must be
allowed to overshadow the other. Historically, serious errors have occurred
particularly when the administrative aspects of the Trinity have been
applied in an ontological sense. This has usually resulted in the Son and
the Holy Spirit being demeaned.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism summarizes the doctrine of the Trinity
well:
Are There more Gods than one? There is but one only, the living and true
God. How many persons are there in the Godhead? There are three persons in
the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are
one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory (Questions 5, 6).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Berkhof, Louis. 1939. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: Eardman's.
Buswell, J. Oliver, Jr. 1962. A Systematic Theology of the Christian
Religion. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Calvin, John. 1960. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Philadelphia: The
Westminster Press.
Warfield, B. B. 1952. "The Biblical Doctrine of the Trinity." Biblical and
Theological Studies. Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing
Company.
