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The doctrine
of the Trinity is one of the most important doctrines
of the Christian Faith. It separates truth from
error, orthodoxy from heresy. It is crucial to
know who God really is. If we would have true
spiritual power, if we would experience God's
blessing, and if we would have eternal life, we
must come to know God, and become loyal to God.
We must think of God as He is, not as we think
He is. Idolatry does not consist only in bowing
before statues. The essence of idolatry is having
thoughts about God that are untrue and unworthy
of Him.
The knowledge
of the HaSheeloosh HaKadosh (the Holy Trinity)
does not come from nature, but from divine revelation.
Reason may lead us to believe in the oneness of
God, but it takes God's self-disclosure to reveal
His Tri-unity, His Three-in-Oneness. It took special
revelation, God's self-disclosure in His Word,
to reveal that His nature is one of Plurality-in-Singleness,
Trinity-in-Unity, Three-in-Oneness. Since God
has revealed His unique Tri-une nature, it is
essential that we think of God as He is or suffer
the most dire consequences.
There
are many people who reject everything that they
cannot understand or explain. They toss out anything
that does not make sense to them, or does not
seem reasonable. Applying this principle to Almighty
God (for whom nothing is impossible), they conclude
that it is impossible that He can be Three and
yet One. They deny the Trinity on the grounds
that it doesn't make sense to them.
These
people forget that their whole life is surrounded
by mysteries they do not understand. They fail
to consider that any real explanation of even
the simplest phenomenon in nature lies in hidden
obscurity, beyond their comprehension. Despite
the great advancements in science over the past
five hundred years we still can't answer most
of the questions that the Almighty posed to Job:
Have you ever commanded the morning, and caused
the dawn to know its place? Have you walked in
the recesses of the deep? Can you bind the chains
of the Pleiades, or loose the cords of Orion?
Can you lead forth a constellation in its season,
and guide the Bear with her satellites? Do you
know the ordinances of the heavens, or fix their
rule over the Earth? Do you give the horse his
might? Is it by your understanding that the hawk
soars, stretching his wings? Is it at your command
that the eagle mounts up?
Do you
know why your nose appreciates the smell of a
rose but is repulsed by the odor of rotting garbage?
Do you understand how your eye can see? Do you
understand why electrons spinning around the nucleus
of an atom don't go flying off into space? Do
you understand the zoo of subatomic particles
like protons, neutrons, electrons, leptons, baryons,
gluons, muons, taus, neutrinos, mesons, and the
various quarks that are the basic building blocks
of energy and matter? We don't fully understand
the workings of a simple cell in our bodies, or
how a seed grows. We don't understand why a baby
takes its first breath. Most of us don't know
why a rainbow forms the way does, or how a beautiful
sunset takes shape, or how a computer computes,
how a fax faxes or how electricity works. This
universe, even after all our advances in science,
is still an inscrutable mystery. Since we can't
understand the fall of a leaf from a tree, the
hatching of a robin's egg in our front yard, the
mystery of a caterpillar spinning a cocoon and
emerging as a spectacular butterfly, how a spider
knows to spin a complex, strong and beautiful
web, how a salmon returns to the exact spot in
the river where it was born three years earlier,
why should we expect to fathom the greatest mystery
of all, the eternal, all powerful, all knowing
and all wise Three-in-One God? No finite being
is capable of understanding an infinite God.
The
fact that the Trinity cannot be satisfactorily
explained is actually a strong argument in its
favor, because the Uncreated is ultimately
unknowable by any created thing. One wise man
observed this: We think more loftily of God
by knowing that He is incomprehensible and above
our understanding than by conceiving Him according
to our crude understanding. God cannot
be fully known by man, unless the unknowable could
be known, and the invisible seen, and the inaccessible
attained, and the incomprehensible understood.
If we could understand God, then He would have
to be less than God.
In fact
God's divine revelation, the Bible, affirms the
total inability of the human mind to come to know
the mystery of the Holy Trinity. He lives in unapproachable
light. No man has seen Him or can see Him (1 Timothy
6:16). The Lord can never be comprehended as He
is in Himself. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it
wise King David admitted (Psalm 139:6). Our
best efforts to grasp the mystery of the Trinity
will always be futile. Only by faith, by trusting
and believing God's special revelation, the Bible,
can we come anywhere close to knowing Him.
The
Trinity was first hinted at in the Tenach (the
Hebrew Scriptures):
In the first verse of the Jewish Bible, God
is revealed as a unity with a plurality.
Plural
Title:
"Elohim"
is the third word of the Hebrew Scriptures: In
the beginning "Elohim" - "God"
(Genesis 1:1). Elohim comes from a root that
means "strength, might, or power”. "Elohim"
is the most common word for "God" and
is used over 2300 times in the Scriptures. "Elohim"
is plural and can be literally translated as "gods".
Exodus 12:12 refers to "all the elohim
(gods) of Egypt”. "Eloah" is the
singular form of "Elohim”, but it is used
much less frequently - only 250 times. This plural
name that is applied to the One God is a hint
of the plural/singular nature of God that is more
fully revealed in the rest of the Scriptures.
Plural
Verbs:
Normally the plural name "Elohim" is
followed by a singular verb. But there are
several fascinating instances when "Elohim"
is accompanied by a plural verb. Genesis 20:13
literally says in Hebrew that Elohim (God)
they caused me to wander from my father's
house... And in Genesis 35:7 Elohim (God)
they appeared to him. 2 Samuel 7:23
says: What nation on the Earth is like Your
people Israel, whom Elohim they went to redeem
for Himself. Psalm 58:11 declares that
surely there is a God they judge the
Earth.
Plural
Pronouns:
There are times when plural pronouns are used
to describe the One God. The Lord God, speaking
in Genesis 1:26 says: Let Us make man
in Our image according to Our likeness.
(See also Genesis 3:22, 11:7 and Isaiah 6:8 for
other instances of plural pronouns that refer
to God).
Plural
Nouns:
There are several intriguing occurrences where
plural nouns refer to the one God: The LORD...
He is a holy God [literally holy Gods] (Joshua
24:19). Remember your Creator [literally
Creators] in the days of your youth (Ecc.
12:1). Let Israel rejoice in his Maker [literally
Makers] (Psalm 149:2). For your
Maker [literally Makers] is your husband
[literally husbands] (Isaiah 54:5).
Plural
Descriptions:
In the Tenach there are mysterious plural descriptions
of the Three-in-One God. King David writes: The
Lord (Adonai) says to my Lord: sit at my right
hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for
Your feet (Psalm 110:1). Psalm 45:6-7 records
this: Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;
a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your
kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated
wickedness, therefore God, Your God has
anointed You with the oil of joy more than Your
fellows. The divinely inspired author of the
letter to the Messianic Jews applies this passage
to Messiah, declaring that Yeshua is God, and
that His Father is God (see Hebrews 1:8-9).
In Genesis
1:1-3 God (Elohim, which is a plural), the Spirit
of God and the Word of God (and God said...),
are all involved in the creation of the universe.
In Isaiah
48 One speaks who calls Himself the first and
the last, and the One who founded the Earth. He
goes on to say that from the first I have not
spoken in secret, from the time it took place
I was there. And now the Lord God has sent
Me, and His Spirit (Isaiah 48:12-16).
The Creator who is speaking claims to have been
sent by the Lord God and His Spirit!
Throughout
the Tenach, God is pictured sitting on His throne
in Heaven, and at the same time He is present
everywhere throughout the universe (where can
I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your
Presence? - Psalm 139:7), and at the same
time the Spirit of God was dwelling in the
prophets, and at the same time the Shechinah
(God's Dwelling Presence, the Glory of God, the
Holy Spirit) was manifested in the Jerusalem Temple
(1 Kings 8:27)!
From time
to time God manifested Himself as the enigmatic
Angel of the Lord, a mysterious messenger
being (angel means messenger) who appeared throughout
our people's history. When He appeared this mysterious
angel was treated as God Himself. He possessed
divine prerogatives, He had divine authority,
and He received divine worship. When Manoah, the
father of Samson, finally realized that he was
dealing with the Angel of the Lord, he said to
his wife, we shall surely die, for we have
seen God (Judges 13:21-22). In that same
chapter, God is mentioned, the Angel of the Lord
(who is called God), is mentioned, and the Spirit
of God is mentioned. See Genesis 16:7, 9, 11,
Exodus 3:2-6, Judges 2:1-4, 6:11-22 for other
appearances of this mysterious Angel of the Lord.
What
about the Shema? Some have objected that the
Shema (Hear O Israel, the Lord our God,
the Lord is One - Deut. 6:4) reveals that
God can only be a simple unity. But there are
two Hebrew words for "one" - "echad"
and "yachid”. "Echad”, which is used
to describe the oneness of God in the Shema,
connotes a composite or group oneness, as in the
unity of a husband and wife, which are said to
be "one" flesh (Genesis 2:24). "Yachid”,
which is not used in the Shema, connotes
an absolute oneness, as that of an only son (Genesis
22:2). The Shema teaches the unity of God,
based on a oneness that allows for a composite
Three-In-Oneness.
The
doctrine of the Trinity was clearly revealed by
Messiah Yeshua:
God's singular/plural nature was hinted at, but
not fully understood by the holy Jewish prophets
and priests in the Tenach. It took the revelation
of the Son of God to clearly and fully reveal
God's Three-in-Oneness.
In
many ways Messiah Yeshua claimed equality with
God:
Messiah Yeshua did not hesitate to use the plural
when speaking of Himself along with the Father.
We will come to Him and make Our abode with
him (John 14:23). I and My Father are One
(John 10:30). He stated that the person who had
seen Him had seen God (John 14:8-9). He told us
that we are to be immersed in the name (singular)
of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit
(Matt. 28:19). When Yeshua told a group of Jewish
leaders, Before Abraham was, I Am (John
8:58), He claimed to be the same eternal "I
Am" that appeared to Moses at the burning
bush (See Exodus 3:14). He claimed to be omnipresent,
which is only applicable to God. He stated that
wherever two or three are gathered in His name,
He is there in their midst (Matt. 18:20). He promised
to be with each one of His followers to the end
of time (Matt. 28:20). He claimed the attribute
of omnipotence when He said that all authority
in Heaven and on Earth has been entrusted to Him,
and that He has power over all things (Matt. 28:18).
Even though
honor and worship is something that only God can
receive, Yeshua instructed us that He was to be
equally worshiped along with the Father. All
are to honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.
He who does not honor the Son does not honor the
Father who sent Him (John 5:23). He claimed
to be the proper object of our faith, and that
if we believed in Him we would live forever but
if we didn't we would miss eternal life (John
3:16, 8:24).
Yeshua
claimed to do mighty works that only God can do:
He claimed that He is the source of life (John
14:6), and that He gives eternal life to whom
He wishes (John 5:2), when God alone is the Source
and Giver of life. Even though God is the only
one that prayer may be directed to, Yeshua claimed
that He hears and answers prayers from all people
at all times in all places. Whatever you ask
in My name, that I will do, that the Father
may be glorified in the Son. If You ask Me
anything in My name, I will do it (John
14:13-14). He claimed that He sends the Holy Spirit
(John 15:26), something that only God can do.
He claimed that He indwells all believers (John
14:23), something that only God can do. He claimed
that He will be the One who raises the dead on
the Last Day (John 10:37-38, 11:25), something
that only God will do. He claimed that on the
Day of Judgment all human beings will appear before
Him for their judgment (John 5:22, 27), something
that only God will do. He claimed to have authority
to forgive sins, something that only God can do
(Luke 5:17-26).
Messiah
Yeshua made these claims about Himself. By
doing so He was the first to clearly reveal these
truths about the unique unity of nature and relationship
between Him and His Father. Then He proved His
claims by doing signs and wonders and mighty acts
of power that demonstrated that He was supernaturally
sent and empowered by God. Yeshua demonstrated
His power to heal. He showed His power to raise
the dead. He demonstrated His power over nature.
He manifested His power over Satan and the hosts
of Hell.
He proved
that He had authority over His own life, authority
to lay it down and authority to take it up again.
Since God would never allow a liar or a deceiver
to be raised from the dead, Yeshua's resurrection
from the dead was the final demonstration that
everything that He said and did and claimed was
done with God's blessing and approval, and that
what Messiah Yeshua said was the absolute truth.
That is why a leading rabbi like Nicodemus could
say to Him: Rabbi, we know that You come from
God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs
that You do unless God is with Him (John 3:2).
However, most of the Jewish leaders were not like
good rabbi Nicodemus. Many were furious with Yeshua
because they understood that He was a man who
was making Himself out to be God (John 10:33).
It was not Yeshua's claim to be the Messiah
that led to His crucifixion; it was His claim
to have equality with the Father, to be God in
the flesh, that outraged the religious leaders
of His day. They rejected His claim of oneness
with God, which led to the most dire consequences
in their own lives and the life of the entire
nation of Israel that has lasted to this day.
One modern rabbi made this observation: "Is
your master God? For now I realize only God can
demand of me what Yeshua is asking. (A Rabbi
Talks With Jesus, Doubleday, 1993, pp. 53-54).
Not only
was the Three-in-Oneness of God hinted at in the
Tenach (the Hebrew Scriptures), and made clear
by Messiah Yeshua, but His Jewish representatives
taught that Yeshua is God in human form, and therefore
the Trinity is true: Even though these Jewish
men were trained in the Shema (Deuteronomy
6:4 - Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the
Lord is one) and the first and second commandments,
they stated as absolute fact that Yeshua is the
source of all life (something that is only true
of God - see John 1:4, 5:21, 14:6). They claimed
that He created all things (see John 1:3). They
taught that He preceded all things; that all things
were created by Him and for Him; that He upholds
all things, and in Him all things hold together
(Col. 1:16-17, Hebrews 1:3). They claimed that
in the future Yeshua will first dissolve and then
remake the entire universe (something that only
God can do - see Heb. 1:10-12, Phil. 3:21, Rev.
21:5). They claimed that like God, Messiah Yeshua
is immutable - He never changes - He is the same
yesterday, today and forever (see Heb. 13:8).
They taught that Yeshua has the very form of God,
which means He has God's essential attributes.
He possesses inwardly and displays outwardly the
very essence and nature of God; Messiah Yeshua
is God's equal, and possesses complete equality
with God (Phil. 2:6-8). They taught that Messiah
Yeshua radiates God's glory and exactly represents
God's nature (Heb. 1:3). They claimed that the
Lord God was pleased for all His fullness to dwell
in Yeshua (Col. 1:19), and that in Yeshua all
the fullness of God dwells in bodily form (Col.
2:9).
These
Jewish apostles taught the Three-In-One nature
of God by the worship Messiah Yeshua receives:
It is very clear from Holy Scripture that God
alone is to be worshiped. No man, woman, saint,
angel, or any created being is ever to be worshiped.
But these Jewish emissaries testify that since
He is equal to God, Messiah Yeshua is to be worshiped
by both angels and men: Let all the angels
of God worship Him (Heb. 1:6). Those who
were with Him in the boat worshiped Him saying,
You are certainly God's Son! (Matt. 14:33).
These apostles declare that throughout eternity
Messiah Yeshua will be worshiped by all created
beings: At the name of Yeshua every knee will
bow of those who are in Heaven, and on Earth and
under the Earth, and every tongue confess that
Yeshua the Messiah is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father (Phil. 2:10-11). To Him who
sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be
blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever
and ever (Rev. 5:13).
The
Trinity of God is seen by the titles these Jewish
representatives call Messiah:
They called Him the Savior (a title which can
only apply to God - see Is. 45:21, Acts 4:12,
2 Peter 2:20). They refer to Him as the Redeemer
(which properly applies to the God of Israel -
see Is. 41:14, Col. 1:14, Titus 2:13-14). Like
the God of Israel, Yeshua is called the First
and the Last (see Isaiah 44:6, Rev. 1:17). Like
Israel's God, Yeshua is the Holy One of Israel
(see Isaiah 43:14, Acts 3:14). They recognized
that Yeshua is the unique Son of God, the One
who bears the same divine nature as His Father
(see Psalm 2:7-12, Matt. 16:16, 26:61-64). These
Jewish emissaries called Yeshua "Lord"
in the Brit Chadasha (New Testament) with the
same frequency and regularity that the God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is called "Lord"
in the Tenach (Hebrew Scriptures). Yes Lord,
you know that I love you. Yes, Lord, I have believed
that you are the Messiah, the Son of God. Lord
Yeshua receive my spirit. Believe in the Lord
Yeshua and you shall be saved. And the Lord said
"I am Yeshua”. The grace of our Lord Yeshua
the Messiah be with you. He is the King of kings
and the Lord of lords, the Lord of all, the Lord
of the living and the dead, the Lord of all who
are in Heaven and on Earth and under the Earth.
These Jewish apostles are in complete agreement
with the prophet Jeremiah who said that the Messiah's
name ("name" means nature, essential
characteristics) is "Adonai Tzidkaynu”, "the
Lord our Righteousness" (Jeremiah 23:5-6).
Perhaps
strongest of all, these Jewish representatives
claimed that Messiah Yeshua was "God":
These Jewish men sent by the Master of the Universe
claimed that Yeshua was eternally with
God (In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God), and that He is completely,
totally, and fully identified as God, and that
He is in fact God (and the Word was God
- see John 1:1-2). My Lord and my God
declared Thomas when he saw the resurrected
Yeshua (John 20:28). The author to the Messianic
Jews writes: But of the Son He (God) says,
Your throne O God is forever and ever
(Heb 1:8). In other words, God the Father acknowledged
that His Son was truly God.
The apostles
looked forward to the blessed hope and the appearing
of the glory of our great God and Savior, Messiah
Yeshua (Titus 2:13). Messiah’s Jewish representatives
are in perfect harmony with the prophet Isaiah,
who wrote that the Messiah will be the son that
is born to us and "El Gibor", the "Mighty
God" (Isaiah 9:6-7).
The attack
on the doctrine of the Trinity in the fourth century
by Arius and others was aimed at this claim to
Messiah Yeshua's deity and therefore the doctrine
of the Trinity. During the Arian controversy many
of leaders of the Church met at Constantinople
in 381 AD and adopted a very clear and strong
statement of faith dealing with the Three-in-One
nature of God. I believe in one God, the Father
almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth, and of all
things visible and invisible. And I believe in
one Lord, Yeshua the Messiah, the only begotten
Son of God. Born of the Father before all ages,
God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God.
Begotten, not made, of one substance with the
Father. By whom all things were made.
This creed
also declares that the Holy Spirit is fully God
and equal to the Father and the Son: And I
believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver
of life, who proceeds from the Father and the
Son. Who together with the Father and the Son
is adored and glorified. For more than
1600 years this statement has stood as the final
test of orthodoxy and genuine Biblical faith,
for it condenses and expresses in theological
language the teaching of both the Tenach and the
New Testament, concerning Yeshua's divinity and
the truth of God's Three-in-One nature.
How does
the truth of the Trinity harmonize with the statement
of Yeshua: My Father is greater than I
(John 14:28)? And the declaration of the resurrected
Son of God to Mary: Go to My brothers and say
to them, “I ascend to My Father and your
Father, and My God and your God”? And
Paul’s statement in Ephesians 1: Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah?
In what sense is God the Father, the God and Father
of Messiah Yeshua?
Things
make sense when we understand three things:
1. The
unity of nature between the three Persons of the
Trinity.
2. The
hierarchy of authority within the Trinity.
3. The
distinctions of Persons within the Trinity.
1. The
unity of nature between the three Persons of the
Trinity. Father, Son and Spirit are divine, eternal,
uncreated, all-powerful, all-knowing, etc.
2. The
hierarchy of authority within the Trinity. The
Son is equal to the Father in nature, but the
Father is superior to the Son in position and
authority. The Father sits on the main throne
in Heaven. The Son sits at the right hand of the
Father. The Son does not send the Father. The
Father sends the Son. The Son is sent by the Father.
The Father commands the Son. The Son obeys the
Father. The Son never commands the Father. The
Son is superior to the Spirit. The Son sends the
Spirit.
3. The
distinctions of Persons within the Trinity. The
Son is not the Father. The Father is not the Son.
The Son and the Father are not the Spirit. The
Father did not become incarnate. The Son was incarnated.
Conclusion
Knowing
that the Trinity was hinted at in the Tenach and
made clear by Messiah Yeshua and His divinely
inspired representatives demonstrates that the
Old and New Testaments are in perfect agreement,
and that the New Testament is the true spiritual
heir of the Old Testament.
The true
Messianic Community has not hesitated to teach
the Three-in-Oneness of God. Without pretending
to understand this mystery, the community of saints
has given its witness to this revealed truth and
repeated what the Holy Scriptures teach. Just
as the presence of God was in the pillar of fire
by night and the cloud by day leading the people
of Israel, declaring to all the world, "These
are My people”, so belief in the Trinity has
since the days of the Apostles, shone above the
true Messianic Community as she journeyed through
the years. Purity and power have followed
this faith. Under this banner have gone forth
Jewish apostles and prophets, pastors and teachers,
martyrs and songwriters, reformers and evangelists.
God's approval and blessing has rested on their
lives and labors. However they may have differed
on minor matters, the knowledge of the Trinity
bound them together. But error, heresy, apostasy
and destruction have come to those who deny this
Biblical truth.
The mystery
of the Trinity. Understand it? Never! So humble
your limited, finite human understanding, become
like a child and simply believe what God has revealed
in His Holy Scriptures about His Three-In-Oneness!
[I
am indebted to The Knowledge of the Holy
by A.W. Tozer, and Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum for
much of this article]
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