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The Holy Trinity
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Not too long ago, in an attempt to witness to several people via
electronic mail through computer networks, I made a statement as
to what constitutes my faith. As part of that statement, I said
that I believe in the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son and
God the Holy Spirit. One of the people to whom I was trying to
witness was of the Jewish faith and he rejected the concept of
the Trinity.
The Holy Trinity is fully supported in Scripture in both the Old
Testament and the New Testament. In this article, I would like
to share some of these Scriptures and how they proclaim the
existence of God in Three Persons.
The idea of the Trinity is found early in the Bible in Genesis
1:26, "Then God said, Let us make man in Our image, according
to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the
sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all
the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the
earth.'" As we see here, God said "Let us make man in Our image.
. ." indicating that we (man) are made in the image of God and
others. We know from reading Scripture that the angels are
different from us in many respects. The fact that angels do not
have gender is one. Therefore, it is unlikely that God would
have been referring to Himself and the angels in this passage.
The Bible does not speak of any other beings in heaven. The only
conclusion that we can draw from the use of the plural pronoun
"Our" is that God was referring to Himself along with at least
one other being or person on a level with Him.
The plural pronoun "Us" is also used in Genesis 3:22a where the
Lord said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know
good and evil." Again indicating that there is more than one
person in the Godhead.
The History Of SpainThe History of Spain, and how it all begun. The Iberian Peninsula was first inhabited ..... Those who reject the idea of a Holy Trinity usually accept or
have some belief in God. They just do not believe that the Holy
Spirit and Jesus Christ are a part of God. Therefore let's take
a look at the Holy Spirit and the preexistence of Christ.
The Holy Spirit
References to the "Spirit of God" abound in the Old Testament.
"The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the
face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the
face of the waters." (Genesis 1:2) The first occasion is in the
second verse of Genesis. We see here that God was at least two
different persons God the Father and God the Holy Spirit at
the beginning of creation. Many other Scriptures refer to the
Holy Spirit in some manner. Here are just a few: "My Spirit"
(Genesis 6:3), "Spirit of God" (Genesis 41:38), "Your Holy
Spirit" (Psalms 51:11), "Spirit of the Lord" (Isaiah 11:2), and
"My Spirit who is upon you" (Isaiah 59:21). Throughout the Old
Testament we see these and many other references to the Holy
Spirit.
In the New Testament we find that the Holy Spirit is more fully
explained, and we know in more detail the purpose that the Holy
Spirit has in our lives. He is a comforter or helper for us, as
Christians.
The Holy Spirit was there when Jesus was conceived in the womb
of Mary, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After
His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came
together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit." (Matthew
1:18) The Holy Spirit was there when Jesus went up into the
wilderness to undergo the temptations of the devil, "Then Jesus
was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by
the devil." (Matthew 4:1) The Holy Spirit was there when the
apostles needed guidance to preach the gospel and write the New
Testament and do it without error, "For the Holy Spirit will
teach you in that very hour what you ought to say." (Luke 12:12)
Even though the Holy Spirit was present and active in the life
and ministry of Jesus, this was not the only purpose which the
Holy Spirit would have for us. The Holy Spirit would fulfill
another very important role for God. Jesus taught the disciples
about the purpose of the Holy Spirit during His ministry. "He
who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart
will flow rivers of living water.' But this He spoke concerning
the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the
Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet
glorified." (John 7:38,39) "And I will pray the Father, and He
will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you
forever; the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive,
because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for
He dwells with you and will be in you." (John 14:16,17) "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
things that I have said to you." (John 14:26) "But when the
Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the
Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of
Me." (John 15:26) "Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon
you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued
with power from on high." (Luke 24:49)
As we see in these selected Scriptures, the Holy Spirit was
given to the apostles to guide and direct them as they
established the church, preached the gospel and wrote the New
Testament. Even those of us that boast of an impeccable memory
can not remember everything that is said and done. Of course,
the fact that the apostles were being taught by Christ and the
fact that they witnessed the wonderful miracles that He
performed would make the events stand out in their memories much
more than the average event. Nonetheless, humans are not
flawless when it comes to remembering events and teachings. It
was therefore necessary for God to provide a means by which the
apostles could have 100% perfect memories when it came to
remembering the teachings of Christ and the events that
surrounded His ministry. God provided the Holy Spirit to fulfill
this need.
But we too have a need for the Holy Spirit today. As we try to
live a good faithful Christian life, it is difficult. It is
difficult because of the constant bombardment of temptations
sent our way by Satan himself. We need constant guidance and
direction to be able to withstand those temptations and "fight
the good fight." Again, God has provided! He has provided the
Holy Spirit to meet that need.
How do we know that God has given us the Holy Spirit? Because
the Scriptures tell us so, "Then Peter said to them, Repent,
and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the
Holy Spirit.'" (Acts 2:38) For an excellent description of the
Holy Spirit dwelling in us as Christians read Romans chapter 8.
The Preexistence of Christ
Was Jesus just a prophet, a good man, a man of God; or was He in
fact the Son of God? If we are to believe in the Christian
concept of the Holy Trinity, then we must be able to show
evidence that Christ existed as part of the Trinity prior to His
coming to earth as Jesus.
The Old Testament is replete with prophecies concerning the
coming of Christ. There have been volumes written and still more
shall be written in the future on this aspect of Jesus Christ.
The first prophecy in the Bible concerning the coming of Christ
is found in Genesis 3:15, "And I will put enmity between you and
the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise
your head, and you shall bruise His heel." From this verse
forward we see prophecies in Deuteronomy, 1 Samuel, Job, Psalms,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. Over
and over again these prophecies point to the coming of Christ:
"The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him." (Isaiah 11:2);
"For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given." (Isaiah
9:6); "Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him."
(Daniel 7:14) and "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O
daughter of Jerusalem! Behold your King is coming." (Zechariah
9:9) These are but a few of the many prophecies of the coming of
Christ.
But did Christ exist prior to His coming in the form of man?
Again there are many Scriptures which point to the preexistence
of Christ. The Gospel of John clearly indicates that Christ was
at the beginning of time. Here is what the book of John has to
say about Christ: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with
God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing
was made that was made." (John 1:1-3)
Jesus also said that He was in existence prior to the time of
His ministry here on earth: "Your father Abraham rejoiced to
see My day, and he saw it and was glad.' Then the Jews said to
Him, You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen
Abraham?' Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you,
before Abraham was, I am.'" (John 8:56-58)
There is yet another area of this discussion which I will not be
able to develop to any reasonable extent. That area is the fact
that the Old Testament has many different "types" of Christ.
These are persons in the Old Testament who posses certain
characteristics or attributes of Christ. They were mere men, but
their lives point to the coming Christ. There were several of
these in the Old Testament. Perhaps we can develop these in
future articles.
As I draw this article to a close, I feel that the subject has
not been given justice for there is so much more that can be
said about the reality of the Holy Trinity. However, I sincerely
hope that I have given you enough to strengthen your faith and I
encourage you to study this subject further.
All Scriptures quoted are from the New King James Version unless
otherwise noted.
About the author:
Stephen Kingery is an author, preacher, teacher and founder of
The Home Bible Study Institute.
Visit our site at http://www.james1-22.org
Permission to use is granted if attributed to author and his
website.
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