STUDY IN THEOLOGY #3 -- The Trinity 1. Proof The Trinity Exists In this study we will deal with the Trinity. The Trinity, of course, is not a Roman invention as you hear falsely presented by the Campbellites, nor is the Trinity the half accomplished thing taught by the followers of Judge Rutherford and Pastor Russell, nor is the Trinity some "Jesus only" doctrine picked up by many charismatic groups. All of these groups have trouble with the word of God and none of them are sound in doctrine, nor can their adherents study the Bible properly; therefore, they get into all kinds of trouble. One group says, "Well, if you've seen Christ, you've seen the Father; therefore, the Father's name is Jesus," which, of course, is nonsense. Jesus is the name of a human being--a man. God is a spirit. On the other hand, when the followers of Pastor Russell and Judge Rutherford get into the same mess, they would not think of calling the Father "Jesus," so they bend over backward the other way, go clean overboard and make as bad a mess and try to pretend the Father is one God and the Son is another God. This ancient heresy was called "Arianism" and it was discussed in the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. The followers of the Watchtower Society have never yet corrected the false teaching, nor have they analyzed it, nor can they discuss it. Men who ignore the lessons of history are condemned to repeat the lessons of history. So, we find the New American Standard Version in John 1:18 teaching the ancient Arian heresy of two Gods, an uncreated God--God the Father, and a created God--Jesus Christ. This heresy is called Russellism or Arianism and was supposedly settled at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. 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. Now, 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. Now, 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--the 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. Or, 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. Now, 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 H0, and yet anybody can see in a minute that the term H0 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 liquid is as ice? It is water. Do you know what 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." Now, the unsaved man cannot understand these simple facts nor can the people who teach "Jesus oneness, onlyness." These people are not able to grasp simple, basic, primitive, primary, grade school truths. The facts are that water is water appearing in three forms and sunlight is the sun appearing in three forms. That is a fact. It can be proved. And yet the uninitiated (who spend a lot of time quoting scripture they know nothing about and preaching the Bible without studying it and perverting the word of God because they are not interested in what the doctrines have to say) can never understand this simple basic truth that a trinity is a common ordinary phenomenon of nature. 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. Now, 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. 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 of (in the NAME--SINGULAR) the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Now, 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. Now, 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 pork- abstaining, 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 Lord. Jesus is God. The Father is God. The Holy Spirit is God. The name "Jesus" is never applied to the Father. Now, 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 blasphemy 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, and Jeh, and Lord, and 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 Southerners call "no-hellers") that teaches three separate gods when, of course, there are not. Notice in the benediction in II 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. Now, 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 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. Now, as we said before, water is a beautiful illustration of this great truth. Water is H0, 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 H0. 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, "The 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 into 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. Now, the Trinity can act as a unit. The Holy Spirit and the Son and the Father work as a unity in the following operations. The Trinity acts as a unity in creation, in the incarnation, in redemption, in salvation, in communion, in prayer, in glory, and in regeneration. I will show you how the attributes of God the Father are the same attributes given to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the Holy Spirit by the scripture. 2. 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 else's. 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. 3. 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 shall be 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--Outer Space, Twilight Zone, Star Trek, The Thing From Outer Space and the Jupiter and Venus kick--and all the pretty little television shows put on 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 direct blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, 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; and ninety 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 II 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. 4. 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..." (I Peter 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" (II 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. 5. The Trinity Acting in Salvation Now, 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 II 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 see 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 sheet. 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 I Corinthians 6 we read about the Holy Spirit 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. 6. The Trinity in Communion God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are active in communion. God the Father invites us to come to Him for fellowship in Ephesians 2:18, "For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." But this is on the grounds of God the Son being our reconciliation, II Corinthians 5:19, "To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation," and it is God the Holy Spirit that effects this union and communion. Read Ephesians 2:18 again. We read about the Holy Spirit Himself making intercession for us which shows us that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit act conjunctively in prayer. God the Father is the one who receives the request. Requests are made to the Father, but they are made in the name of the Son (John 16:23, "...Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you"), and it is God the Holy Spirit who directs us in our requests and leads and guides us in our praying. So, the doctrine of the Trinity is not a Catholic or pagan doctrine at all. The doctrine of the Trinity is a Biblical fact. The two stupid blasphemies that come from perverting this fact were set up, first by a group of people who insisted that there were three separate gods, with Jesus Christ as a minor God--and these people lay very little emphasis on the Holy Spirit, if any emphasis at all. The second blasphemy is what we call the "Jesus oneness, onlyness `blasphemy'," which teaches that God the Father is Jesus Christ, which of course is nonsense. Jesus Christ is the name of God the Son. Now, the scriptures appealed to by the reprobates who pervert the word of God are numerous and, of course, to the uninitiated and to the student who does not study "to show himself approved unto God" it all seems very logical. For example, if I wanted to prove the name of God the Father was Jesus Christ, I would turn you to Isaiah 9 and John 14. I would point out that Jesus Christ said, "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father." That is a good boffo to try to prove a lie with. Then I would turn to Isaiah 9 and try to show that Christ's name shall be "called" the everlasting Father. You see? Now, this is the kind of jam that people get into by taking two or three verses out and trying to make the Bible line up with the two or three verses. All heretics operate in this fashion. The Campbellite heresy prevalent since 1800 was erected on the stupid grounds that the whole Bible was to be regulated to Mark 16:16 and Acts 2:38. The Catholic blasphemy that will be used by the pope to control the United Nations teaches that the whole Bible is to be regulated according to Matthew 16:16-18. There is not a charismatic nut in this country that isn't trying to make the whole Bible line up with Acts 2 and I Corinthians 14, which is the height of folly, the uttermost stupidity of the very worst, vulgar, blasphemous and obscene sort. After all, the Bible was not written just to prove two or three verses that you and your friends have perverted to attract attention. The Bible is the word of God. The Bible clearly, from cover to cover, presents the Father, Son and Holy Spirit working as a unit. And you will notice the verses we use to prove this are not two or three verses lifted out of context, but verse after verse in the context in which it appears. For example, when the Lord Jesus Christ said, "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father," He was speaking of His bodily appearance in the flesh--God the Father appearing in the flesh. At no time does He imply that anybody has seen God the Father as God the Father is in the Spirit. The Bible says in John 1:18, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." And again we read that God is a spirit and he dwelleth "in the light which no man can approach unto," nor man can see, nor any math hath seen (I Tim. 6:16). So, we see by the scripture that these cute little denominational perversions that are erected on the grounds that "this verse teaches this, therefore, the whole Bible should be regulated to this verse" are obscene vulgarities of the very worst sort and beneath the serious student of the word of God. Of course, we have trouble with the interdenominational groups who say, "Well, any doctrinal teaching is denominational teaching," which is also a lie. The scriptures were written primarily to teach doctrine. This is apparent from II Timothy 3:16 which says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine...." The very first purpose that God had in writing the Bible was to teach sound doctrine. The Bible tells us that in the last days they will "heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears" and they will not endure "sound doctrine" (II Tim. 4:3- 4). Now, in "sound doctrine" the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are said to be spoken of as working together in creation, in the incarnation, in redemption, in salvation, in communion, and in prayer. You say, "How many verses?" Eighteen in a row, and more coming up. When the Bible said Christ the Son shall be called "The everlasting Father" (Isa. 9:6), it is merely saying the Son shall be called that. At no time are the titles ascribed to God the Father addressed to Jesus Christ. Now, Jesus Christ the Son has the same attributes, since He was God manifest in the flesh, but the term "Jehovah" is the name applied to God the Father in the Old Testament; and although we know Jesus as a member of the Trinity and not as a created god or a separate being from God, in His earthly life He is never called Jehovah: He is called Jesus Christ. And when He says, "I AM," to the group and applies to Himself the name of "Jehovah I am," He lets us know that He is a member of the Trinity, coequal with God, and He is coequal with Jehovah. As a matter of fact, the term "King of kings and Lord of lords" is the "Jehovah of jehovahs" in the book of Revelation. But again, this is dealing with the manifestation of Jehovah God the Father as the Son, and at no time are you ever told to believe in two separate distinct gods. Nor at any time do the distinctions of the Trinity become muddled and lose their lines of delineation; that is, it is a clear presentation of truth and yet a mystery which an unsaved man cannot understand. So, everybody who teaches three created gods or two created gods or only one God with one person and all have the same name--these people are unsaved people who cannot understand the word of God. The Bible says in I Corinthians 2:14, "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 7. The Trinity Acting In Glory The Trinity acts in unity in glory. God the Father is to eventually receive the eternal kingdom, I Corinthians 15; God the Son is the one who will change our vile bodies to be like His glorious body, Philippians 3:21; God the Holy Spirit gives the invitation in Revelation 22:17. Again, God the Father records our new name in glory, Luke 10:20; God the Son cleanses our sins in His precious blood, Ephesians 1:7; God the Holy Spirit performs the transforming miracle of the new birth, John 3:3-6, making all three operative in regeneration. 8. Attributes Of The Trinity Now it is time to talk about the attributes of God. First of all His incommunicable attributes: His eternity, His omnipotence, His omniscience and His omnipresence. Then we are going to talk about His communicable attributes: His truth, His benevolence, His communion and His holiness. Then I am going to give you the scripture references to show you that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit all have these same attributes although all three are distinct persons. First of all on the eternity of God. God the Father is said to be eternal, Psalm 90:2. God the Son is said to be eternal, Revelation 1:8. God the Holy Spirit is said to be eternal, Hebrews 9:14. We will now take God's omnipotence or His all-powerfulness. God the Father, I Peter 1:5. God the Son, II Corinthians 12:9. God the Holy Spirit, Romans 15:19. We shall now deal with God's omniscience or His all knowledge. God the Father, Jeremiah 17:10. God the Son, Revelation 2:23. God the Holy Spirit, I Corinthians 2:11. Now we will see God's omnipresence, the fact that He is everywhere at once, His immensity. God the Father, Jeremiah 23:24. God the Son, Matthew 18:20. God the Holy Spirit, Psalm 139:7. We shall now deal with God's holiness as an attribute. God is holy. God the Father, Revelation 15:4. God the Son, Acts 3:14. God the Holy Spirit, Luke 1:15. Next we will look at God's truthfulness or honesty. God the Father, John 7:28. God the Son, Revelation 3:7. God the Holy Spirit, I John 5:6. We will now deal with God's goodness or kindness or longsuffering. God the Father, Romans 2:4. God the Son, Ephesians 5:25. God the Holy Spirit, Nehemiah 9:20. Finally, we will deal with the communion of God--God communing with man and communicating with man. God the Father, I John 1:3. God the Son, I John 1:3. God the Holy Spirit, II Corinthians 13:14. Now, there we have proof that the Son is deity and that the Holy Spirit is deity as well as the Father, without being three separate gods. They act as a unit. The same attributes ascribed to God the Father are ascribed to the Son and Holy Spirit but not the same titles. For example, although God the Father is Lord and God and God the Son is Lord and God and God the Holy Spirit is Lord and God, the exact titles are not applied. God the Father is not called the Paraclete or the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of Christ. The Son is not called by title Jehovah-jireh. He is not called Jehovah-nissi or Jehovah-rapah. He is not called Jah. Nor is the Son called the Holy Ghost; nor is the Son called the Comforter. They maintain absolutely their separate distinctions in one Godhead. A man said, "I don't understand it." You are not told to understand it. You are told to believe it. And no church told you that. The word of God told you that. The Father maintains His separate distinction although the same attributes ascribed to Jesus Christ are ascribed to the Father and vice versa. The Father is never called Christ. The Father is never called Jesus Christ. And the Father is never called Jesus. Three in one and one in three and the one in the middle died for me. You say, "I don't understand this perplexing doctrine." Woodbridge said, "He who will try to understand the Trinity fully will lose his mind. But he who will deny the Trinity will lose his soul." And that is as good as you ever heard it. These unsaved people trying to make the Father Jesus and the Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit Jesus are unsaved people who will not study the word of God or believe it. These unsaved people who are trying to make God the Father one God and Jesus Christ another God are in the same boat but on opposite ends. And the boat is sinking. The Trinity is a mystery that will remain a mystery until we meet the Lord in glory. However, this doesn't mean we can't believe it--it doesn't mean we shouldn't believe it. A Christian must believe it--it is the word of God. It is the teaching of the word--it is what the word says. The attributes ascribed to God the Father, His eternity, His omnipotence, His omniscience, His omnipresence, His holiness, His truth, His mercy and His communion, are ascribed to Jesus Christ, His eternity, His omnipotence, His omniscience, His omnipresence, His holiness, His truth, His mercy, and His communion are ascribed to God the Father. When Jesus Christ was baptized He came up out of the water as the Son, the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove came down from heaven, and the voice of the Father above said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:16-17). Now, if you start this Jesus oneness, onlyness, holiness bit, you are going to get into a mad situation because Jesus Christ was in the garden of Gethsemane praying to Himself--almost like that neurotic freak in Jesus Christ Superstar! Jesus Christ was not praying to Himself in the garden. He said, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt," Matthew 26:39. In plainer words, these two obscene, blasphemous, vulgar, non-biblical teachings which were erected from five verses of scripture are the teachings of unregenerate people who have no more respect for the word of God than for a telephone book, not even when they quote it. CONCLUSION All right, in conclusion, we realize that God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are members of the triune Godhead, exactly as an individual has a body, soul and spirit. The individual's body is a picture of God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It can be seen. The individual's soul is a picture of God the Father which can neither be seen, felt nor heard. And the individual's spirit, like air, is a picture of the Holy Spirit, for man was made in the image of God. Now, you would think that somebody could get this. If I stood on a platform in front of you and said, "He that has seen me has seen Pete Ruckman," you would believe me. But, if I turned around and said, "No man has seen Peter Ruckman at any time," you would think I was contradicting myself, wouldn't you? But the truth of the matter is that when Christ said, "He that hath seen me has seen the Father," and then turns right around and says, "No man hath seen God at any time," He is telling the truth and the contradiction is in your noodle. You see, nobody has ever seen Peter Ruckman. You have never seen Dr. Peter Ruckman a day in your life nor has anybody on this earth who has ever taken my picture or eaten a meal with me. No man has ever seen Peter Ruckman at any time in the sense of my soul, for my soul, my bodily shape within me, is invisible. But, he that has seen me has seen Peter Ruckman. Why? Because you have seen his body. Now, do you understand that? Why don't you? That is a common illustration for understanding the Trinity. If man was made in the image of God then the image of God has to be a triune image. There is no way around it. Now, you can say, "Well, now, my body is Bill Smith, and my soul is Bill Smith, and my spirit is Bill Smith." Well, that may be true of you. It is not true of God the Father. God's body is Jesus Christ. The Bible says we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son. God's body manifest is Jesus Christ. The Bible says in II Corinthians 4:4, "Is the image of God." Therefore, God's appearance on this earth is the Lord Jesus Christ. His first title, "Lord," matches God the Father who is also Lord. His second title is unique to Himself, "Jesus," a human man. And His third title indicates the work of the Holy Spirit, for Christos or Messiah means anointed. So, we see in the very name of the Lord Jesus Christ the Trinity. His first name, "Lord," indicates He is coequal with God the Father. His second name, "Jesus," indicates that He is a human man, the Son of man born of a human woman, God's Son. His third title indicates His birth is by the Holy Ghost as the anointed Messiah to Israel. They are never the same. But they are equal. Now, that's where people have a rough time with the word of God. The Bible doctrine is equal but separate. That is the basic Bible doctrine on the Trinity. And if that were not enough, it is the basic Bible doctrine of the people reading this booklet. When you die your spirit will leave your body. James says in James 2:26, "...the body without the spirit is dead." And when you die your soul will leave your body because Paul said in II Timothy 4:6, "...the time of my departure is at hand." In Genesis 35 we read that as Rachel died, "...her soul was in departing." Therefore, to teach they are the same without distinction and to indiscriminately mix them and integrate them without regard for their various distinctions is a non-biblical approach to life, philosophy, the universe and the truth. Equal with separate distinctions is the Bible approach to the Trinity. As far as that goes, it is the Bible approach to everything else. In Christ there is neither male nor female, they are equal (Gal. 3), but they are plainly separate and distinct physical creations. So, we see that there are two kinds of people who work on our minds to try to get us to think like a bunch of morons. The first class is trying to tell us that things are different and, therefore, because they are different they are unequal. Then the second class of morons is trying to tell us that they are all the same and since they are equal there is no difference. Now, this idiotic ideology is what is known as the American mentality of the twentieth century. It is the standard college curriculum taught to produce people who cannot think straight, clearly or honestly. This kind of people, when they approach a thing like the Bible doctrine of the Trinity, come apart and the nuts, bolts, pinwheels, kingpins, fan belts, carburetors and spark plugs fly all over the highway. The Bible teaches a triune Godhead composed of God the Father typified by your soul, God the Son typified by your body, and God the Holy Spirit typified by your spirit. The Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and from the Son. The Son was regenerated and brought forth and produced by the Father. The Father, God the Father, the Creator, Jehovah of the Old Testament was manifest in this flesh as the Son of God and manifest in this flesh as Jesus Christ. He was filled with the Holy Spirit. He was the Holy Spirit incarnate. He was the Godhead incarnate, and the Bible says in Colossians 2:9, "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." God is honored and God is blessed when Christian people believe what they are supposed to believe, and that is what you are supposed to believe. 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. It behooved Him in all things 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 and giving him a new life and a new birth and 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, who 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. |
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