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I am a born-again Christian, who is Reformed, but also charismatic, spiritually speaking. (I do not speak in tongues, but I believe glossalalia is a bona fide gift not given to all, and not as great as prophecy, for example.) I have several years of college education but only completed a two-year degree. I was raised Lutheran and confirmed, but I didn't "find Christ" until I was in the Army and responded to a Billy Graham crusade in 1973. I was mentored or discipled by the Navigators in the army and upon discharge joined several evangelical, Bible-teaching churches. I was baptized as an infant, but believe in believer baptism, of which I was a partaker after my conversion experience. I believe in the "5 Onlys" of the reformation: sola fide (faith alone); sola Scriptura (Scripture alone); soli Christo (Christ alone), sola gratia (grace alone), and soli Deo gloria (to God alone be the glory). I affirm TULIP as defended in the Reformation.. I affirm most of The Westminster Confession of Faith, especially pertaining to Providence.

Sunday, April 18, 2021

What About The Tri-unity Of God?

 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!" (cf. Deut. 6:4).  [One as in union or cluster of grapes from the Hebrew Echad.]  GOD IS ONE!  (Cf. Gal. 3:20; Romans 3:30). 

My comprehension and I do not think anyone can fully do so. “Canst thou by searching find out God.” (cf. Job 11:7). We cannot put God in a box or define Him, the point is to know Him. I am not going to prove the Trinity but show my understanding of it. I offer this as food for thought and mediation.

Christian creeds settle this issue centuries ago. The triune God is three persons in one being or essence; i.e., God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This has been described as the tripersonality or three-in-oneness of God. The three members all deserve inclusion in the Godhead equally as being fully God because the Bible clearly shows they all possess the divine nature and all the attributes like an eternity in existence, holiness, efficacious free will, omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. Only God has these traits.

They have one will but apparently different job descriptions or activities; they cooperate as One. Creation was from the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit. Salvation was proposed and authored by the Father, accomplished, secured, and carried out by the Son, and applied by the Spirit. 

There can be no conflict of will or interest in the Trinity. Jesus said that the Father is in Him and He is in the Father that they are One. A marriage can be a union or partnership and be One in a sense too: they are one. Subordination of Jesus did not mean inferiority any more than a wife to her husband.

To say that God is a threesome as a Trinity [or unity] and yet One as in there is one God is not a contradiction. The law of noncontradiction states that A cannot be A and non-A at the same time in the same sense or manner. In one sense, God is One, in another sense, He is a threesome. or unity. If I say, there is one God and there isn’t one God, that is a contradiction that cannot be reconciled. I like to think of The Three Muskateers: “All for one and one for all.” It’s not that the Father is the stern One, the Son the nice One, and the Spirit the mysterious One; they are all Christlike, fully and truly deity.

It's almost impossible to imagine an analogy; they all fall short.  God is not three persons who together make up one God nor three ways one God expresses himself as a father, husband, and brother. The Bible clearly teaches one Godhead as in Colossians 2:9. “All the fullness of the deity [Godhead] dwells in Christ in bodily form.” 


All three members are called “YHWH,” Yahweh, or in English, I AM, a title and name that Jesus assumed. Matt. 28:19 says to baptize in the name [singular] of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are all rightly addressed as Lord and God. We pray to the Father, in the name of the Son, and in the power of the Spirit (cf. Eph. 2:18).   The Father calls the Son “God” in Hebrews 1:8. Paul refers to the Spirit as Lord in 2 Cor. 3:17. 

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