Chapter 1To Know... The Eternal Living God THE TRINITY IS ONE
Shema, Yisrael, Yahweh elohenu, Yahweh
echad. 
The Shema, which is the first word in the Hebrew of Deuteronomy 6:4, and is used to describe the entire verse, is the cornerstone of Jewish theology. In a time when pagan mythology was replete with many gods, the declaration that the Creator was the single God marked the Jewish faith as distinct in the world. But a fuller revelation of God was not understood until the Christian theologian Athanasius in 296 A.D. defined the doctrine of the trinity: one God in three persons. The word trinity is not found in the Bible, but is a doctrinal term. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost and these three are one. 1 John 5:7. The New Testament revelation of the Godhead was implied in the Old Testament as this example demonstrates. "From the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord Yahweh [1] and his Spirit [2], hath sent me [3]" (Isaiah 48:16). Here's another example: "Then Yahweh [1] rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Yahweh [2] out of heaven" (Gen. 19:24). Here's a simple example: And God said, 'Let us make man in our image" (Gen. 1:26). Another way of stating this is that there is Yahweh the Father, Yahweh the Word, and Yahweh the Spirit. The heart of God, or the Godhead, that makes Him one person in three, is the same in the Father, Word, and Spirit. God is one person because of agreement. "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" (Amos 3:3). Agreement brings a bonding that creates unity. Friends disagree, but they remain friends because they find agreement. This is why goodbyes are sad, and death is grievous. Bonding from agreement gets torn by separation, which causes sorrow. This is a real spiritual bond that creates unity. The church should stand together in unity through agreement. Paul said that we should be "endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph. 4:3), until "we all come in the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God" (Eph. 13). Church unity should be based upon the basics of the doctrine: the knowledge of the Son of God. Disagreements over many "doubtful disputations" (Rom. 14:1), which are the minor doctrines, should be overlooked just as two friends overlook minor faults in one another to maintain their friendships. God has had this unity for all eternity. In terms of mind, will, and emotions there is agreement of thought, intent, and expression. Implied in this agreement is the understanding that Yahweh the Father has a mind, will, and emotions [18]; Yahweh the Word has a mind, will, and emotions [19]; and Yahweh the Spirit has a mind, will, and emotions [20]. Hence three persons. Yet they are not three different people, but one person. A stereo or surround sound system can be used for comparison. A stereo is one unit, yet within that unit are two amplifiers that produce the right and left channels. It is still one unit, yet has two amplifiers. The amplifiers are identical and receive one signal, yet produce two channels. The unity of God that comes by agreement is seen in the following examples. The source signal is the Father. Jesus (the Word made flesh) said, "the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself; but the Father that dwelleth in me" (John 14:10). Later He said of the Holy Spirit, "for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear [from Jesus], that shall he speak" (John 16:13). So the Father speaks through Jesus, who in turn, speaks through the Holy Spirit, thus having one voice and will by agreement. The will of the Father is submitted to by the Word, who in turn is submitted to by the Spirit. Likewise the mind of the Father and the feelings of the Father are submitted to and expressed by the Word, and then by the Spirit. The comparison of the amplifiers in the stereo, however, falls short in that the Word and the Spirit have the capacity to think independently, even though they are all part of the one mind of God. INTEGRITYThe unity of God is more than just a matter of agreement. God is one being, not three separate beings. The three persons of God are integrated as one being. To integrate means "to make whole by the bringing together, or addition of parts" [21]. An example, for those familiar with computers, is the Microsoft Works software which is one system that expresses itself as three functions: word processor, spreadsheet, and database. It is considered an integrated system since it is really only one program. God is a God of integrity since He is one being. The doctrine of the trinity gives depth in understanding God, but it also is a point of hair splitting confusion. Until New Testament times God was seen as a single entity. The gospels and the Pauline epistles awakened the understanding of the godhead. Bishop Athanasius formally defined the doctrine for the church after that awareness began. But the confusion I see is in addressing the Father separately, or the same with the Holy Spirit. We perceive no difference in the trinity with our personal experience of Him. When Jesus said, "My Father is greater than I" (John 14:28), I don't believe that he was making a doctrinal distinction between the Word and the Father. I believe that he was speaking as a man regarding God as his Father. For all practical purposes, God as an entire entity is our Heavenly Father, as well as his. Going further, the man, Christ Jesus, who is our brother in the flesh, is also our Heavenly Father. Isaiah said of the Messiah, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:...and his name shall be...The everlasting Father..." (Isa. 9:6). The writer of Hebrews quotes Old Testament verses, with an apparent implication that this is the voice of Jesus in the Old Testament, with both points in mind. "Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren" (Heb. 2:12), and "Behold I and the children which God hath given me" (Heb. 2:13). Not only is Jesus our Heavenly Father, Jesus is the Holy Spirit sent to dwell in our hearts. Paul said, "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying 'Abba, Father'" (Gal. 4:6). On the practical level, Jesus is my Heavenly Father, Jesus is the Word made flesh, and Jesus is the Holy Spirit. FUNCTIONS IN THE GODHEADFor the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead. Romans 1:20. The Godhead is the totality of who God is. It is the unity of His being, and can be called the heart of God. It is made up of each individual being in God. Each member of the Godhead is God, but together they make up the single being of God. While there is an order of submission that is agreed upon, this order has always been. God does not change. He is eternal. The only thing about God that can change is his form. When the Word became the man Jesus Christ, "in him dwell[t] all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9). In honor of what he did at Calvary, the order of submission has been temporarily changed in that "he [the Father] hath put all things under his [the Son, Jesus] feet" (1 Cor. 15:27a). But this is in terms of stewardship, since "it is manifest that he [the Father] is excepted, which did put all things under him" (1 Cor. 15:27b). "And when all things shall be subdued unto him [Jesus], then shall the Son also be subject unto him that put all things under him that God may be all in all" (1 Cor. 15:28). The man, Christ Jesus, is equal in all capacities with the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. Each member of the Godhead has specific functions that provide distinctions between them. The FatherAll of God is spirit, therefore all of God is meaning, agreement, and life. The Father, however, is the determining meaning of God, and is what the godhead revolves around. Just as a word is only noise without meaning ascribed to it, so, too, would be the Word and Spirit without the Father. The Father is the center and core of God's being. It is the Father that is the source of omniscience. It is the will of the Father that determines all things, hence, omnipotence begins in the Father [22]. And while the Father is a substantive entity, as the meaning of God, He is formless, hence is the source of God's omnipresence. Our human spirits were modeled upon the Father. The WordThe Word, that was with God, and was God made flesh, is the form of the Father just as the sounds are the form of the word. The word is the expression of the meaning. This is "the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15). It is the Word that was the image upon which Adam was based. That is what was meant when God said, "Let us make man in our image" (Gen. 1:26). That is why Jesus said in Revelations 1:11 that he was the "first and the last." He was the first in that Adam was based upon Him, and the last when the Word became flesh (John 1:14), and as such is called the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45). The restoration of man from the Fall through the new birth "put[s] on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him" (Col.3:10). The Word has the middle position of the Godhead which puts Him in a unique spot. The Word hears the Father and expresses the Father to the Spirit. Likewise, the Spirit inputs the Word from creation, which is then given to the Father. Our human souls [23] hold the same position as the Word in our triune makeup. And as such, the Word can be considered the "soul" of God. The SpiritThe Spirit is the substance of God that touches the creation. It was the Spirit that "moved upon the face of the waters" (Gen. 1:1) in creation. It is the Spirit that comes in us at the new birth (1 Cor. 3:16). It is the Spirit that communicates to us (John 14:26). And it is the Spirit that judges and convicts sin in the world (John 15:8). As such He is the vehicle of God to release God's expression, just as the lungs, vocal chords, tongue and lips release the sounds that form the words. The Father can move through the Spirit without the Word, just as our human spirit can create body postures without vocal expression. The leading of the Spirit (Rom. 8:14) is the Father nudging us by His Spirit without speaking to us, experienced as peace or checks (i.e., a sense of restraint) in our spirit. And, because all of God is spirit, and therefore life, when we pray and we become aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit, His life force affects our behavior. The Holy Spirit is the equivalent of God's spiritual "body." 
The ManFinally, the man Christ Jesus is the full expression of God. "For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9). It is the man, Jesus, who is the restored image of God in man. It is the man, Jesus, who is Lord over all creation (Phil. 2:9-11). It is the man that saved us, in that he is the same flesh as Adam, which justified the rest of Adam's flesh (i.e., all mankind: Rom. 5:8-19), by his perfect obedience to God. It is the man, Jesus who is the "new creature" (2 Cor. 5:17) that we will be like when he returns (Phil. 3:21). For we are members of his corporate body (1 Cor. 12:12). It is the man Jesus that connects us to God. This view of the trinity is helpful in answering some puzzling verses. In particular, if God knows everything, then why does He say things like, "It repented Yahweh that he made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart" (Gen. 6:6), before He destroyed the world in the Flood? The distinction is that Yahweh the Father is omniscient, but Yahweh the Spirit, who is involved with the creation in the time continuum, experiences the grief and repents of making man. In other words, the Father knew He would destroy the world, but the Spirit who is submitted to the Word and the Father is not given that knowledge, so He can experience life on earth as we do in time. Omniscience is in the Father, and the Holy Spirit has omniscience through the Father, but the Father does not always reveal all things to the Holy Spirit. This is why Jesus could not answer the question concerning the time of his second coming. "But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father" (Mark 13:32). Furthermore, Jesus spoke as a man, so the Father knew, but the Word didn't, the Spirit didn't, neither did the Son know of the time. Another perplexing question, is how could the Word become man and the Father send the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove at his baptism in the river Jordan (Matt. 2:16 & 17), if the Father has to move through the Word to the Spirit by that line of submission? The answer is because the Father can move through the Spirit without the Word. |