Why I believe in the Trinity outlined in the Bible

Like the word “rapture,” you will never find the word “trinity” in the Bible. But while the words are absent from the pages of Holy Writ, their concepts are there just the same. Closely related to the doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ, the doctrine of the trinity holds that Almighty God is eternally existent in three persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. While not synonymous with the deity of Christ, to do damage to either doctrine is to do damage to the other; thus, to deny that Jesus Christ is Almighty God is to deny the trinitarian position.

While I must admit that my finite mind, like yours, cannot fully fathom the tri-unity of the Godhead, I believe it because this is what the scriptures teach. Of all the verses of the Bible, there is no verse stronger than that of I 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.” Known as the Johannine Comma, there will be many who will be quick to dispute the veracity of this verse because of its scant mention in the Greek, but this is only because they are not Greek grammarians. While I am not one, those who are should recognize that verse 8 needs a reason for the word “three” to be masculine since Spirit, water and blood are all neuter. Simply put, without verse 7 as it is in the King James, verse 8 is incomplete. Add to this its mention in the Latin, and by Cyprian and Tertullian in their writings, and there can be no doubt that John intended for us to understand that believing that Jesus is the Son of God (verse 5) is synonymous with believing in the trinity.

Now, even though the doctrine of the trinity can be plainly seen in the New Testament, this is not to say that the Old Testament does not allude to it, for it does. The Old Testament counterpart for I John 5:7 is Deuteronomy 6:4, which says: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one LORD. For those familiar with the King James, you already know that when the word “LORD” is all capitalized, the word Jehovah is right behind it in the Hebrew.

But what you may not know is that behind the English word “God” here is the Hebrew word “Eloheem” which is plural. Properly read without their English covers, this verse would read, “The Jehovah our Eloheem is one Jehovah.” While we don’t see a tri-unity, per se, what we do see is a plurality in unity. Yet when you see the Spirit of God in Genesis 1:2, then turn to Proverbs 30 and find not only God but his Son (verse 4), the plurality in the Old Testament turns out to be the same tri-unity as that of the New Testament and is the reason the Seraphim cry “holy, holy, holy” in Isaiah 6.

Thus I believe what the Bible teaches, and the Bible clearly teaches that Almighty God eternally exists in three persons: The Trinity. Yet despite what the Bible teaches, doubt still lingers in the hearts and minds of many because of their finite minds. For those, then who won’t believe unless they can “see” like Thomas, let me say that God has put his thumb print in nature, and it is our generation, and that of the last, that has had the privilege of bearing God witness. For the first 5,900-plus years of human history this has remained shrouded in obscurity because of the limitations of the human eye, but with the advent of modern science, the atom has stepped forward bearing the stamp of God. Composed of electrons, protons and neutrons, the atom indeed is a tri-unity.

But let’s go one further. Chemical energy is released when electrons interact, and this certainly is pictured in the work of the Holy Spirit, but the real energy contained within the atom is in its nucleus, known as nuclear energy. Jesus said in John 10, “I and my Father are one.” Here, my friends, is the nucleus, and when this atom was split on Calvary’s cross, God’s forgiveness was not only unleashed for mankind, but throughout all time — past, present (then) and future (now).

The fingerprints of God have always been around, and we still cannot see them, yet we believe because we have been told. How much different is this than the Bible telling us of his tri-unity?

Ron Hamman is pastor of Independent Baptist Church of Wasilla; contact him at 357-4229 or ron.hamman@gci.net