Beth-El Baptist Church

07/03/2011

Greg Tomlinson


Is the Evangelical doctrine of the Trinity true?


While many people try to use examples and illustrations of the Trinity in order to explain the doctrine of the Trinity, what is more important to evaluate the truthfulness of the doctrine. In order for the doctrine to be true, regardless of one's ability to completely comprehend the doctrine, there must be one and only one God. The Father, the Son of God and the Holy Spirit are separate and distinct individual persons. The Father, the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit are each God. They are each God by nature and not simply understood to be God by the faithful followers of Jesus Christ.


  1. How many true Gods are there?

Malachi 2:10 Deuteronomy 6:4

Mark 12:32 Isaiah 45:5


According to the Old and New Testament, there is one and only God who is God by nature as opposed to ones who are declared to be God by another.


  1. Are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit individual and unique persons?

John 15:26-27; 16:8-13; 16:25-28


The scriptures very clearly demonstrate that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are separate and unique individual persons. They are not different modes of behavior that God operates in (modalism) but they are in fact persons. Furthermore, the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Father is not the Holy Spirit. They are all distinguishable and separate. Notice for example, the use of the personal pronoun “he” used to identify the Holy Spirit.


  1. Are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit each identified to be God?

John 8:54, 58-59; 5:17-18 Acts 5:3-4


The Father is specifically and clearly identified to be God. The Son, Jesus, is indirectly identified to be God. Jesus identifies himself with the title “I Am” from Exodus 3. Furthermore, the Jews recognized that the way that Jesus identified God as His Father, he was in fact declaring himself to be “begotten” by God and therefore he is of the same essence of substance – making himself equal with God. The Holy Spirit is indirectly identified to be God in that Ananias was declared to have “lied to the Holy Spirit … lied to God”. Each of the three are definitely God.


  1. Are each God by nature?

Galatians 4:7-8 John 3:34

Romans 11:29


The pagans worship those who were by nature “not God” and Paul uses this language to identify that who the Christians worship is separate and distinct from who the pagans worshiped. Therefore, the Christians worship the one who is God by nature. Everyone who believes receives the same quantum of God – the full indwelling of the presence of God – and that God does not give the gift of the Holy Spirit without repentance. God will not give anyone the Holy Spirit and then later take him back.


  1. What is the best way to explain the doctrine of the Trinity?

Genesis 1:26-27 Genesis 2:7-8, 18


The easiest way to explain the doctrine of God is to look at Genesis. It was God who created mankind according to His own likeness and image. God then made Adam, the male but not the female, but identified that it was not good for Adam to be alone. Afterwards God made the woman. This combination strongly indicates that since Adam was created in Gods likeness as a singular being but that it is not good for Adam to be alone, then it falls to reason that in order to be more fully like God, mankind must be in a relationship. God himself is a relationship.