Trinity

A couple of my co-workers are Jehovah's Witnesses. Another co-worker and friend of mine overheard something about them refusing to have blood transfusions. He asked me why that was, but since I didn't know I asked them. One of them took the lead in explaining to their position to me by quoting from Acts 15:20. I said I was familiar with James' address from the Jerusalem Council and offered a different understanding. I believe James was asking the Gentile converts to abstain from those things which were associated with pagan rituals and that trouble the conscience of those who lived by Old Testament dietary laws. If there was to be fellowship between the Jewish believers and Gentile believers the Gentiles were going to have to abstain from those things which a Jewish person had to avoid for conscience sake. So the Gentiles are asked to not eat meat with blood in it and that sort of thing, not to refuse a medical procedure like blood transfusion.

I'd love to learn more about that topic, but more importantly this exchange brought up the doctrine of the Trinity. This JW said something about Jesus abolishing the Law, and I said you won't find that anywhere in Scripture (see Matthew 5:17). To which she responded something like, "You know what you won't find anywhere in the Bible is the word Trinity."

I don't understand why this argument seems to carry weight with many people. You won't find the phrase "penal substitutionary atonement" in the Bible, but it nonetheless teaches that doctrine. You won't find the word Calvinism in the Bible, but that theology still best explains what Scripture teaches. I'm sure there are better examples, but you get the idea.

We are just finishing up a study of the Heidelberg Catechism, which I co-teach with my Pastor for the adult Sunday School. I taught on Lord's Day 8 which asks, "Since there is but one God, why do you speak of three: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?" The answer goes just as easily with the JW's question, why believe in the Trinity when the Bible never uses the word? The answer is, "Because that is how God has revealed Himself in His Word: these three distinct persons are one true, eternal God."

What does Trinity mean? The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology says it "signifies that within the essence of the Godhead we have to distinguish three 'persons' who are neither three gods on the one side, nor three parts or modes of God on the other, but coequally and coeternally God" (1112). Wayne Grudem simplifies it in his Systematic Theology, "God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God" (226).

So God is NOT one person, nor three gods, and not three parts of one God. God is one essence and three persons. Each members of the Trinity is a distinct Person. Each Person is fully God. And there is one God (one essence).

You can see three distinct Persons each with a distinct activity in John 14:26 where Jesus speaking says, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." You have the Father sending the Spirit, the Spirit teaching and bringing to the disciples' minds what Jesus has said to them and is speaking to them now in this verse. Three distinct activities carried out by three distinct Persons. There are many similar verses that support these points. I am just giving you a favorite of mine for each point. There may be others that you would find more convincing.

They are three distinct Person yet each Person is fully God. "There is no essential subordination in the Trinity, but there is economic subordination" (Dr. Finkbeiner). They possess the same divinity but they have different roles. The Father is fully God. "Father, the hour has come. . . . This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God" (John 17:1-3). The Son is fully God. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God" (John1:1). JW's don't argue that this verse refers to Jesus, as verse 14 makes clear. Instead they challenge the translation and claim that it should read, "and the Word was a god." This argument could only come from those ignorant of the Greek language. Even in their own dubious translation the same Greek construction is translated without the indefinite article 3 times in this same chapter. When it refers to the Father they have no problem translating it correctly. When it refers to Christ their theological presuppositions require that they make up new rules. Lastly, the Holy Spirit is God. Peter asks Ananias, "why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit", and in the following verse Peter continues, "you have not lied to men but to God." The Holy Spirit is God.

There are three Persons and they are equally God. And there is but one God. "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!" (Deuteronomy 6:4). Let's give one more verse for this (and it's one that points us to Christ for salvation), "For there is one God, and there is one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). So let us not pray to anyone else, or seek God's grace from anyone else. It is only available in Christ.

I do not mean to say that understanding the Trinity is easy, far from it. But the Scripture does clearly teach this mystery. My attempt to explain it cannot help but leave us all wanting. Dr. Finkbeiner said, "The doctrine of the Trinity is a mystery, with no adequate human analogy." Therefor I has not talked about a three leafed clover of the different physical states of water. They all fall short. Praise God for His mystery and immensity. And praise Him three in one, for He is Trinity. He is Awesome!