The Doctrine of the Trinity: Is it Biblical?
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Some of my friends have called the doctrine of the Trinity, the triune Godhead, an invented doctrine by the Catholic church at the Council of Nicea of AD 325.
The standard Catholic Nicene Creed which I learned when a child says:
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
and of all that is, seen and unseen.We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation,
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered, died, and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in fulfillment of the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge
the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he
is worshipped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic
and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism
for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.
I agree with all of the above if we define “one holy catholic and apostolic church” as the spiritual Body of Christ founded on the Bible, not that man-made religion of Rome, the Pope and the cardinals, bishops and priests of the Roman Catholic church today.
The Nicene Creed expresses a triune God, the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Does the Bible teach this?
Abraham Entertains Strangers Genesis 18:2
Genesis 18:1 ¶And the LORD appeared unto him (Abraham) in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;
2 And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,
The all-capitals “LORD” of Genesis 18:1 is number H3068 in Strong’s concordance. In the KJV it is the same as the Name Jehovah, the Latinization of the Hebrew יְהֹוָה (YHWH), the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible. Clearly, LORD in Genesis 18:1 is God, and yet there appeared three men!
Some Christians think that YHWH should be pronounced Yahweh, not Jehovah. For sure there was no J sound in Hebrew. It was a Y sound or Yehovah. Take your pick.
The all-capitals “LORD” appears 9 more times in Genesis chapter 18:
Genesis 18:13 And the LORD said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?
Genesis 18:14 Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
Genesis 18:17 And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do;
Genesis 18:19 For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.
Genesis 18:20 And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;
Genesis 18:22 And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD.
Genesis 18:26 And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.
Genesis 18:33 And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.
It’s interesting that the all-capitals LORD appears 10 times in Genesis 18. “In Genesis 1 we find the phrase “God said” 10 times, which is a testimony of His creative power. God gave the 10 Commandments to man. Ten therefore represents man’s responsibility to keep the commandments. A tithe is a 10th of our earnings and is a testimony of our faith in the Lord. ” – (quoted from https://www.biblestudy.org/bibleref/meaning-of-numbers-in-bible/10.html)
There is also a first-letter-only capitalized word in Genesis 18, “Lord”. In Strong’s concordance, it’s designated number H136. In Hebrew, it’s pronounced Adonay. The name Lord in the verses below are all Strong’s H136.
Genesis 18:3 And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant:
Genesis 18:27 And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes:
Genesis 18:30 And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there.
Genesis 18:32 And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.
Genesis 18:31 And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty’s sake.
These verses are clearly referring to the Godhead.
There is yet one more case of the word in Genesis chapter 18, and it’s written in all lower case “lord”. In Strong’s concordance, it’s H113, adonadon, meaning master.
Genesis 18:12 Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?
Sarah was clearly referring to her husband Abraham who she called lord.
To sum up Genesis 18, the word LORD appears 10 times and the word Lord appears 5 times. Both LORD and Lord refer to God. In each case Abraham was talking to 3 people when he was talking to God! This indicates to me the first proof of a triune God, the Trinity, after Genesis 1:26 in which God is referring to Himself in the plural!
Genesis 1:26 ¶And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Are there other examples in the Bible that indicate a triune God? The KJV uses the word Godhead exactly 3 times!
Acts 17:29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.
Romans 1:20 For 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; so that they are without excuse:
Colossians 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
The Gospel of Matthew tells us we are to be baptized in three Names:
Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
The clincher Scripture for me that proves the Trinity is
1 John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
The Word is of course referring to Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh.
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Yes indeed, the doctrine of the Trinity, the triune God, is certainly biblical!
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