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. 

The Methodology Of Prayer...

"We both have access to the Father through Christ by one Spirit" (Eph. 2:18, CEV). 
"But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you" (Matt. 6:6, HCSB). 
"... 'I assure you: Anything you ask the Father in My name, He will give you'" (John 16:25, HCSB).  
"When ye pray, say, our Father" (Luke 11:2, KJV).  

In the spirit of the Reformation:  "I dissent, I disagree, I protest!"  We are not captive to church dogma and each of us has a right to interpret Scripture.  

NB:   We all should pray as if it all depends on God, but work like it depends on us!  Both Arminian and Calvinist would concur.  

Christians have the prerogative to pray in Christ's name, using His authority, to access the throne room of the Father (cf. Heb. 4:16), and boldly in the Spirit at that!  Most Christians are timid in their prayers and don't pray like sons but like servants!  Jesus told us to pray like this when praying corporately as His body:  "Our Father in heaven..."  Jesus had the audacity to claim God as His unique Father, even though Jews had considered themselves children of God, this was a bold assertion to claim.  It seemed He was making Himself equal to God, calling God His Father.

"And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba, Father!' So you are no longer a slave but a son and if a son, then an heir through God" (Gal. 4:6, HCSB).  We need to lay hold of our divine privilege as a child of God and enjoy the right to access God's dimension in the third heaven.  "The argument from silence in that the Bible doesn't forbid praying to Jesus is flimsy and flakey at best and almost anything could be proved with such dialectic.  It should be plain that we ought to pay due respects to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving Him due honor to whom honor is due as we engage the potential of the full Godhead.

The only biblical template for prayer is the Lord's prayer despite its over-familiarity, it is not meant to be a recitation nor a to make prayer look like a cakewalk.  By and large, there are no hard-and-fast rules for prayer procedure except that it be done in the divine formula of access to God, whether assumed and conscious or not.  Jesus seemed to espouse certain conditions for prayer or protocol and never deferred to the tradition of the elders.  There is no correct or set way or pattern to pray in that God does hear all believers' prayer, but the power is in the equipping of the saints in knowing to whom we are praying and availing ourselves of the rights of sons and daughters of God.  However, there exists proper etiquette with God or S.O.P. for all things are to be done in an orderly fashion per 1 Cor. 14:40.  "For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father" (Eph. 2:18, HCSB).  This means that all three persons of the Godhead or Deity are involved in our prayers! Thus, efficacious prayer avails with the concerted work of the tri-personality (the three personas of the Godhead).

Just like in creation being done cooperatively all three members of the Trinity co-equally involved; i.e., from the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit.  The Trinity accomplished our salvation:  the Father authored, purposed, and planned it; the Son executed, accomplishes, and fulfilled it, and the Spirit applies and makes it known all in concert!  Basically speaking, the Father originates or initiates; the Son reveals and makes manifest, and the Holy Spirit executes, fulfills, and applies.  Likewise, the whole Trinity is cooperating in our prayer life:  we pray addressed to the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit!  We are exhorted to always pray "in the Spirit."  Jesus' involvement means more than attaching His name to the end with the formula "in Jesus' name" for good measure as if it's a magic formula or hokum.

Prayer can be summed up:  we pray to the Father, in the name of the Son, in the power of the Spirit.  We look to Scriptural warrant and precedent for examples to echo in prayer.  Paul showed powerful prayers to the Father.  He went to the  TOP!   In the Old Testament, and we are not living in the Old Testament, they prayed to the LORD God of Israel, for instance, but we have a more revealing person to address a prayer to now that we know Jesus.  Jesus set the example in praying to the Father and the Lord's prayer is likewise.

However, we must not forget that it is in Him that we have such access to the Father and He has given us a license to pray in His authority.  As Eph. 3:12, HCSB, says, "In Him we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him."  Just like knowing a person intimately gives us power in communication and fellowship, even giving us boldness in requests, so knowing the Father and availing our rights as a child of God gives us power in prayer, so it is like putting God in a box to see Him as only one person of the Godhead and not as a triune Being working in synergy.  Sometimes it is appropriate to address Jesus directly in prayer, but He is seated at the right hand of the Father in glory and we have the right to go to the top as it were and use His authority as a passkey to heaven's very throne room of grace.

Famous quotable lines worth noting:    "When you can't stand life, kneel!:  "Crises have kept me on my knees!"  "Pray as if everything depends on God; work as if everything depends on you!":  "Better heart without words than words without heart!"  "I have often gone to my knees, simply because there was no place else to go!"  "When it is hardest to pray, pray the hardest!"  "Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon his knees!"

NB:  The Oneness Pentecostals or Apostolic Pentecostals deny the Trinity and have done away with the Father and have reverted to old heresy of modalism and are pejoratively referred to as the "Jesus only" movement.  This is a red flag that those who value sound doctrine are leary of.  Praying without biblical precedence opens Pandora's box and is highly problematic.  

 A word to the wise is sufficient:  tradition must bow to conviction and we do not interpret Scripture in light of experience or feeling, but experience and feeling in light of Scripture.  One of the battle cries of the Reformation was sola Scriptura or Scripture alone (as our authority); we must appeal to Holy Writ to settle all doctrinal matters and not tradition; the Catholic faith exalts tradition as equal status to the Bible, and this is one thing that distinguishes Protestants.  Tradition must be concordant with Scripture!  

One need not fear they're out of their league or that their prayers are anemic, because God sees the heart and the Spirit translates our prayers!  

NB:  Paul the apostle was always careful to give the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ his due and reverent attention in addressing the Godhead in prayer.  Indeed, the historical orthodox doctrine has been to address the Father in all prayer in Jesus' name in the power of the Spirit.  Paul exhorts us in 1 Cor. 4:6 HCSB, emphasis mine:  "...' nothing beyond what is written.'"  

NB:  People act out their faith for four reasons:  reason--it sounds logical; emotion--it feels good; culture--everyone does it; tradition--we've always done it.  But Christianity is countercultural and challenges us to throw down the gauntlet and cross the Rubicon of the truth based solely on the Word of God.  

CAVEAT:  IGNORING SCRIPTURAL PRECEDENTS FOR THE SAKE OF TRADITION OR CUSTOM IS THE GATEWAY TO HERESY AND EXALTING TRADITION ABOVE OR EQUAL TO SCRIPTURE AS ROMANISM ESPOUSES.   

Jesus Himself taught us how to pray corporately or as a church:  "Our Father who is in heaven...."   And I take His Word at face value.  God is more than a projection or throwback to our need for.a father figure but is our all in all through the Trinity.  It is true that some have rejected God on this account for they had no father figure or thought God was just a throwback to our need for one.  Our heavenly Father knows our hearts and we need to have that more than a doctrine of prayer by all means.  However, we ought to be obedient to the plain teaching of Scripture and realize this is to our advantage to see prayer the way God does.  (The principle for Bible interpretation is that we interpret the obscure in light of the plain and what may be implied in light of what is obvious--the implicit in light of the explicit.)

We all should inquire and do some soul searching as to whether we know the Father and can say that we are His children.  If we pray only to one member of the Godhead without regard to others, we are unduly discriminating and should wonder whether it's warranted or Scriptural and if we know the Father; e.g., imaging the pastor praying thus:  "O God..." Wouldn't this be sufficient to conclude he isn't familiar with the Father or even the Lord and seems estranged or alienated from a distant God--perhaps to a foreign God or unknown God?  God invites us to call Him Father even in the Old Testament:  see Jeremiah 3:19, ESV, which says,  "... And I thought you would call me, My Father...."

"Now to Him who has power to strengthen you ...  according to the command of the eternal God ... to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ--to Him be the glory forever!  Amen." (Rom. 16:25-27,  HCSB, italics and boldface mine).   

There are conditions for effective prayer:  Praying according to God's will; entering His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; abiding in Christ's Word; being thankful, confessing known sin, and having faith that He will answer!  Prayer is successful when it changes you not God, who doesn't need change and cannot change.   Soli Deo Gloria!

The Trinity In Symbiosis

Is there something in the deal for me? Remember, it's not all about you!  Is it a win-win situation, as it were?  These are normal questions. Symbiosis is defined as a cooperative venture in which all involved parties benefit from each other in a give and take relationship.  There are several examples of symbiotic relationships in Scripture, including the husband-wife, the parent-child, and the employer-employee relationships. There are even examples in nature such as zebras and ostriches herding together because of the senses of smell and hearing of the zebra and the good eyesight of the ostrich, that they become mutually beneficial and complement each other. The phrase "You rub my back, I'll rub yours" takes on a whole new slant. Each party participates only because he gets something out of the deal--sort of like making a profit as a motive--they are all in sync, in cahoots, and on the same page!

"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all"  (2 Cor. 13:14, ESV).  This verse shows the cooperating work of the Trinity.  There is subordination in the Trinity, but subordination does not denote, nor connote inferiority, but orderliness and respect for authority as voluntarily given.  Christ voluntarily became subordinate for us (the doctrine of the kenosis, whereby He voluntarily submitted and emptied Himself of any independent use of His divinity), because we were insubordinate to Him!

God is a unity and exists in a tri-personality (three persons, personas, or self-distinctions), but is only one in essence or being--all members are equally God and have the same divine attributes, known as the tri-unity of God.  God is thrice holy:  "Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD God Almighty, " it says in Isaiah 6.  Even though the God the Father is called that and the Son proceeds from the Father in submission, doesn't define Him as domineering or of lording it over the Son, who voluntarily submits (submission does not mean inferiority).

Now The Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son and has another role.  The fact that at creation God said, "Let us make man in our image" shows that God is a plurality (Deut. 6:4 says that the Lord is one as in echad) [Hebrew for unity, like in a cluster of grapes].  They act together and there is never any conflict of interest or selfishness at stake--it is like the Three Musketeers, who sang, "All for one, and one for all."  It's a win-win-win proposition!  We can no more explain the Godhead or Deity than why three lights on the ceiling all make one light in the room or why matter usually exists in three states (gas, liquid, and solid--each equally the same substance).

The whole issue is how does God have a symbiotic relationship?  All members must be benefiting and working together for each other in love and not thinking of them self first.  They all have different roles to fulfill and work in harmony to complete the unified will of God in them. For example:  In salvation, the Father planned, initiated, originated, or purposed it; the Son revealed it, and the Holy Spirit applied and executed it.  God the Father is the author of our salvation, God the Son is the agent who actually redeems and accomplishes it; and God the Holy Spirit is the power behind the work itself who sanctifies and regenerates.  They all need each other and you cannot say one part of the effort is more important because they are all necessary for salvation to be complete. All members submit to each other within the confines of their "job description," if you will.  They all know their roles to fulfill and do not interfere with each other's work--there is no conflict of interest and it is a win-win-win victory!

Truly it was revolutionary for the God the Son to incarnate and submit to the Father in completing His will--He had to relinquish in the Garden of Gethsemane and say "Thy will be done" to the Father. Jesus only said what the Father told Him to say and did what He saw the Father doing.  Jesus so humbled Himself that He is exalted above all and all authority has been given to Him.  Jesus also said, "I and the Father are one" (cf. John 10:30).  All that we can know of God and see of Him is in Jesus, His personification.  To say that God is three and He is one may sound like a violation of the law of noncontradiction; however, He is three in another sense that He is one and this is no contradiction. We do not say that God has three roles (like a man being a father, husband, and brother), and manifests Himself threefold, but that He is one in essence or being, but three in personhood--a three-in-oneness.  Soli Deo Gloria!

How To Explain The Trinity

DISCLAIMER:  NO ONE CAN FULLY FATHOM GOD'S DIVINE NATURE MANIFESTED IN THE TRINITY; HOWEVER, ILLUSTRATIONS AND REASON CAN GIVE INSIGHT AND FAITH.

The Trinity, a term coined by the Church Father and lawyer Tertullian, is terminology for our God who is one in essence (i.e., that they share the attributes of divinity such as omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence), and is three in person--i.e., uniting three personas.  You might say He is triune or has a tripersonality.  He is a threesome, that in one sense is three, and in another only one.  God is one in the sense of a union or of being one like one cluster of grapes (from the Hebrew Echad).  Each of the members of the Godhead work together for one purpose, goal, and will to accomplish it with different job descriptions or roles:  In our salvation, the Father planned it and authored it, the Son accomplished it and achieved it, and the Holy Spirit applies it and completes it; In creation as well as in salvation, the Father initiates, the Son redeems, and the Holy Spirit regenerates.  This is like three functions of matter in the three states of solid, liquid, and gas. Water, ice, and steam are all the same element chemically, though they have different properties.

How can you say that there are three and one and not be contradictory?  If you mean it in a different sense it is no contradiction. According to the law of noncontradiction, something cannot be something and not be something in the same sense at the same time!  If you have three lights on in a room and behold only one light doesn't that mean there is but one light with three sources?  One person may say, from his viewpoint, that there are three lights, and another that there is only one!  It all depends upon perspective.  Charles Taze Russell, who founded the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, said this doctrine was illogical and therefore rejected it; however, God's nature isn't necessarily perceptible, apparent, nor lucid to our feeble minds.  You may say it is simple arithmetic:  1 + 1 + 1 = 3; however, 1 X 1 X 1 = 1.

No one can adequately explain the Trinity because the finite cannot contain the infinite, as the Latin maxim says.  We have to take it on faith that this is so!  God will give us enough to take the leap of faith, but He expects us to have faith and not let our cerebral doubts get in the way.  Our intellects can be a stumbling block to our faith, get in the way, and hinder true faith--God honors the faith of a child.

What I'm getting at is that you cannot fathom nor explain this doctrine, even if you have all eternity! We cannot peg God, put Him in a box, nor analyze Him to our specs or satisfaction!  Just accept it by faith and realize that God is infinite and you are finite and cannot comprehend God. God boggles our mind and just thinking about Him is mental gymnastics. There is always more to God than we apprehend--this is called the profundity of God.  God speaks to us in baby talk, or lisping, and is condescending to our level to have a relationship with us, who are in His image--that's why we are capable of it.

In conclusion:  I confess I cannot fully comprehend it, but I believe despite this.  You don't need all the answers to have faith, just go in the direction of the preponderance of the evidence like a jury is instructed to do.  God with the flow!  When the majority of the evidence suggests or dictates a conclusion--go with it!  Behold the "three-in-oneness" of God. "God in three persons, blessed Trinity."  They say the Trinity is not three ways of looking at God (like a man may be a husband, brother, and son), nor three persons or personas that together make up or complete God (this is called tritheism and is like the parts of an egg or apple together make up the whole egg or apple), but a threesome and a union incomprehensibly made one.    Soli Deo Gloria!

The Trinity's Value

A sure sign of a cult is that it denies the Trinity and hence the deity of Christ. Tertullian first used the term "Trinity" in the third century, but the doctrine was really defended by Athanasius in the fourth century, who was called the Father of Orthodoxy. The term is not found in Scripture, but neither is Providence, Incarnation, or Deity of Christ. There are two main heresies: modalism, which says that God merely expresses Himself in three ways, like a person being at once a husband, employee, and son simultaneously (the Oneness Pentecostals take this stand); and tritheism, which says the three together are God.

The orthodox position is that God is three persons (the tripersonality), each person is fully God, there is one God. This is not a contradiction, but a paradox beyond our comprehension. To say that God is three persons and God is one person is a contradiction. It is better to think of God not one person, but as being personal. Personalities cannot exist in isolation and neither can love, and God is love. "God in three persons blessed Trinity" goes the hymn. God is trinitarian, manifesting a "three-in-oneness" of personality.

We are uni-personal, but God is tri-personal. This is the "tri-unity" of God that we cannot fathom and must accept by faith. The Trinity is a unity--this should not be hard to understand because three Christians can be "one in the Spirit." There are many "trinities" in nature: water is known as a liquid, ice, and steam; yet it is still the same molecule and each is just as much water as the other.

When we say there is one God we are saying one essence. Each person is coexistent, coeternal, and coequal; however, the Father is exalted and the Son is subordinate. Subordination does not mean inferiority, just like a wife being subordinate to her husband does not mean inferiority. The members of the "Godhead" (a term found in Rom. 1) have definitive roles in salvation, for instance. The Father originated and purposed and planned it; the Son fulfilled and carried it out and implemented it; while the Holy Spirit applies it. It is said that things are "out of" the Father, "through" the Son, and "in" the Spirit. There is an economy of roles in the Godhead. Creation is assigned to the Father, redemption to the Son, and sanctification to the Spirit. God the Father is our Father, Christ is our intercessor, and the Spirit is our Paraclete and Dynamo. Jesus was the "Angel of the Lord" in the Old Testament and his appearances are known as Christophanies. Jesus is our go-between and we are empowered by the Spirit to have fellowship with the Trinity.

All of the divine attributes of God are attributed to the Son and to the Spirit and they are equally "persons" of one substance or essence. The varied roles of the Trinity stress their individual personalities. However, though the Spirit is different from the Son, there is no "unChristlikeness" in the Spirit's character.

Humans could not be known as a personality in isolation from other humans in much the same way God has to be known through three persons. Multiple persons are necessary for love and personality. The Son proceeds from the Father and is begotten of the Father, but not made or created. If the Son were created, as Arius suggested, then it would be idolatry to worship Him and He couldn't redeem us as the God-man. All analogies that illustrate the Trinity fall short, but they give us an idea of the possibility of trinitarian thought.

There are several Scriptures that mention the Trinity specifically, though you could prove it the roundabout way of proving that there is one God and that each member is also God. Isa. 48:16 mentions all members of the Trinity. The baptism of Jesus mentions all three members. The benediction of 2 Cor. 13:14 puts all members in juxtaposition. Think of the baptismal formula of the "name" (singular) of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). "I am the Lord, there is no other, besides Me, there is no God" (Isa. 45:5). Each member is fully God, not one-third God--but there is no disharmony or disunity in the Godhead. Note the "plural" name of God as Elohim and in the Shema (Deut. 6:4) "the Lord is one ("Echad" one as in a cluster).

Illustrations abound: In the church, we have many members, yet one body; husband and wife are one in body, mind, and spirit in God's eyes. There is one Being, yet three personalities; just like it is possible for a mentally ill person to have multiple personalities. Each person in the Godhead relates to the others as "Him," "Me," "You," or "Us." The example in Genesis One of creation is not the plural of majesty like a king would talk, and it is not God speaking to angels, but the members of the Trinity talking to each other and speaking for each other: "Let Us make man in Our image...."

The Son is called that because that is His relationship to the Father and shows a filial fellowship and understanding. A son is not inferior to his father (subordination is not inferiority), but equal in natural endowments in essence.  Actually, the Son is called "God" by the Father in Heb. 1. Jesus was 'calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God"--and for that, they wanted to stone Him. Once you realize that Jesus is God in the flesh, it is not a very big leap to understand that the Holy Spirit is also God.

You cannot be a Christian unless you recognize the deity of Christ (2 John 9). Jehovah's Witnesses see Jesus as the first created being and not as the Creator of the universe. They see Him as "a god" not as "God." As "a son of God" not as "the Son of God." God cannot be anything else, truth is not always easy to understand. No one can fully comprehend the divine essence of the Trinity, because the finite cannot grasp the infinite. If anyone does not abide in the doctrine of Christ, he does not have the Father; it's just as simple as that (see 2 John 9).  Soli Deo Gloria!