Reference: Trinity
Easton
a word not found in Scripture, but used to express the doctrine of the unity of God as subsisting in three distinct Persons. This word is derived from the Gr. trias, first used by Theophilus (A.D. 168-183), or from the Lat. trinitas, first used by Tertullian (A.D. 220), to express this doctrine. The propositions involved in the doctrine are these: 1. That God is one, and that there is but one God (De 6:4; 1Ki 8:60; Isa 44:6; Mr 12:29,32; Joh 10:30). 2. That the Father is a distinct divine Person (hypostasis, subsistentia, persona, suppositum intellectuale), distinct from the Son and the Holy Spirit. 3. That Jesus Christ was truly God, and yet was a Person distinct from the Father and the Holy Spirit. 4. That the Holy Spirit is also a distinct divine Person.
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Jesus answered, The first is, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord;
And the scribe said to him, In truth, Teacher, thou hast well said, that He is one, and that there is no other but he;
Hastings
TRINITY
1. The doctrine approached.
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And Jesus, as soon as he was baptized, went up from the water; and, lo! the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God, descending like a dove, coming upon him. And lo! a voice from the heavens, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."
At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that, though thou didst hide these things from the wise and discerning, thou didst reveal them to babes.
Go, and make all nations my disciples, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. read more. All things were made through him; and without him was nothing made that hath been made. In him is life; and the life was the light of men. And the light hath been shining in the darkness; and the darkness received it not. There was a man, sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness of the light, that through him all might believe. He was not the light, but came to bear witness of the light. The true light, which enlighteneth every man, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world knew him not. He came to his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them he gave power to become children of God,to those who believed in his name; who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; and we beheld his glory, a glory as of an only begotten of a father. John beareth witness of him, and crieth, saying, This was he of whom I said, He that cometh after me hath gone before me; for he was before me. For out of his fullness have we all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one hath ever seen God; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath made him known.
No one hath ever seen God; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath made him known.
Jesus saith to her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? My hour is not yet come.
For God so loved the world, that he gave the only begotten Son, that every one who believeth in him may not perish, but may have everlasting life.
In these were lying a multitude of diseased persons, blind, lame, withered. (...)
And immediately the man was made well, and took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the sabbath.
And he that sent me is with me; he hath not left me alone, for I always do the things that please him.
Again there arose a division among the Jews on account of these words.
And supper being served,the Devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him,
riseth from the supper, and layeth aside his garments, and took a towel, and girded himself.
and I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever; the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot receive, because it doth not behold it, nor know it; ye know it, because it abideth with you, and will be in you.
but the Comforter, the Holy Spirit which the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things which I have said to you.
When the Comforter is come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he will bear witness of me.
When the Comforter is come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he will bear witness of me.
But because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow hath filled your hearts. But I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I depart. For if I do not depart, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
But I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I depart. For if I do not depart, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he is come, he will bring conviction to the world, of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. read more. Of sin, because they believe not in me; of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged. I have yet many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now. But when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak from himself, but whatever he shall hear, that he will speak; and he will tell you the things to come.
But when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak from himself, but whatever he shall hear, that he will speak; and he will tell you the things to come. He will glorify me, for he will receive of what is mine, and will tell it to you.
He will glorify me, for he will receive of what is mine, and will tell it to you. Every thing that the Father hath is mine. For this cause I said, that he receiveth of what is mine, and will tell it to you.
When Jesus had thus spoken, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father! the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that the Son may glorify thee;
for I have given to them the words which thou hast given me; and they received them, and knew surely that I came forth from thee, and believed that thou didst send me.
As thou didst send me into the world, I also sent them into the world.
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
The other disciples therefore said to him, We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I shall not believe.
Thomas answered and said to him, My Lord and my God!
Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but what I have I give thee. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, rise up and walk.
The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his servant Jesus, whom ye indeed delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him.
But the author of life ye killed; whom God raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. And his name, through faith in his name, made this man strong, whom ye see and know; yea, the faith which is through him gave him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
To you first, God, having raised up his servant, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.
This is the stone which was set at nought by you the builders, which is become a cornerstone. And there is salvation in no other; for there is not another name under heaven, that hath been given among men, by which we must be saved.
For in truth against thy holy servant Jesus, whom thou didst anoint, did both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the gentiles, and the peoples of Israel, assemble in this city,
But Peter said, Ananias, why did Satan fill thy heart that thou shouldst lie to the Holy Spirit, and keep back part of the price of the land? While it remained, was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why didst thou conceive this thing in thy heart? Thou didst not lie to men, but to God.
Wherefore I testify to you this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men;
whose are the fathers, and from whom, as to the flesh, was the Christ. He who is over all, God, be blessed for ever! Amen.
that with one accord ye may with one mouth glorify God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But I beseech you, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love produced by the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in prayers to God for me;
but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
and my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit, and of power; that your faith might not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. read more. But we do speak wisdom among the perfect; not, however, the wisdom of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nought;
Concerning the eating of the things offered in sacrifice to idols, then, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one.
in whom ye also are built together into a dwellingplace of God in the Spirit.
one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.
who, being in the form of God, did not regard it as a thing to be grasped at to be on an equality with God,
For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are made full in him, who is the head of all principality and power; read more. in whom also ye have been circumcised with a circumcision not performed by hand, in putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ,
Paul, and Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be to you, and peace.
but of the Son: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; and the sceptre of thy kingdom is a sceptre of righteousness.
Thou believest that God is one; thou doest well; the demons also believe, and tremble.
chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you.
Morish
A word only used to convey the thought of a plurality of Persons in the Godhead. This was revealed at the baptism of the Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit descended 'like a dove' and abode upon Him; and God the Father declared "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." That the Father is a distinct Person and is God is plainly stated, as in Joh 20:17. Many passages prove that the Lord Jesus is God: one will suffice: ". . . . in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life." 1Jo 5:20. That the Holy Spirit is a Person and is God the following passages clearly prove: Ge 1:2; Mt 4:1; Joh 16:13; Ac 10:19; 13:2,4; 20:28; Ro 15:30; 1Co 2:10. The three Persons are also named in the formula instituted by Christ in baptism. Mt 28:19. Yet there is but one God. 1Ti 2:5. Satan will have an imitation of the Trinity in the Roman beast, the false prophet, and himself. Re 13:4,11; 20:10.
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Then was Jesus led up by the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted by the Devil.
Go, and make all nations my disciples, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;
But when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak from himself, but whatever he shall hear, that he will speak; and he will tell you the things to come.
Jesus saith to her, Touch me not; for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren, and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God.
And while Peter was meditating on the vision, the Spirit said to him, Behold, men are seeking thee;
And while they were ministering to the Lord, and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.
They therefore being sent forth by the Holy Spirit, came down to Seleucia, and from thence sailed to Cyprus.
Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Spirit made you overseers, to feed the church of the Lord, which he purchased with his own blood.
But I beseech you, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love produced by the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in prayers to God for me;
and ye are made full in him, who is the head of all principality and power;
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
And we know that the Son of God hath come, and hath given us understanding, that we may know the True One; and we are in the True One, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and everlasting life.
And they worshipped the dragon, because he gave the authority to the beast; and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like to the beast, and who is able to make war with him?
And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon.
And the Devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet; and they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Watsons
TRINITY. That nearly all the Pagan nations of antiquity, says Bishop Tomline, in their various theological systems, acknowledged a kind of Trinity, has been fully evinced by those learned men who have made the Heathen mythology the subject of their elaborate inquiries. The almost universal prevalence of this doctrine in the Gentile kingdoms must be considered as a strong argument in favour of its truth. The doctrine itself bears such striking internal marks of a divine original, and is so very unlikely to have been the invention of mere human reason that there is no way of accounting for the general adoption of so singular a belief, but by supposing that it was revealed by God to the early patriarchs, and that it was transmitted by them to their posterity. In its progress, indeed, to remote countries, and to distant generations, this belief became depraved and corrupted in the highest degree; and he alone who brought "life and immortality to light," could restore it to its original simplicity and purity. The discovery of the existence of this doctrine in the early ages, among the nations whose records have been the best preserved, has been of great service to the cause of Christianity, and completely refutes the assertion of infidels and skeptics, that the sublime and mysterious doctrine of the Trinity owes its origin to the philosophers of Greece. "If we extend," says Mr. Maurice, "our eye through the remote region of antiquity, we shall find this very doctrine, which the primitive Christians are said to have borrowed from the Platonic school, universally and immemorially flourishing in all those countries where history and tradition have united to fix those virtuous ancestors of the human race, who, for their distinguished attainments in piety, were admitted to a familiar intercourse with Jehovah and the angels, the divine heralds of his commands." The same learned author justly considers the first two verses of the Old Testament as containing very strong, if not decisive, evidence in support of the truth of this doctrine: Elohim, a noun substantive of the plural number, by which the Creator is expressed, appears as evidently to point toward a plurality of persons in the divine nature, as the verb in the singular, with which it is joined, does to the unity of that nature: "In the beginning God created;" with strict attention to grammatical propriety, the passage should be rendered, "In the beginning Gods created," but our belief in the unity of God forbids us thus to translate the word Elohim. Since, therefore, Elohim is plural, and no plural can consist of less than two in number, and since creation can alone be the work of Deity, we are to understand by this term so particularly used in this place, God the Father, and the eternal Logos, or Word of God; that Logos whom St. John, supplying us with an excellent comment upon this passage, says, was in the beginning with God, and who also was God. As the Father and the Son are expressly pointed out in the first verse of this chapter, so is the Third Person in the blessed Trinity not less decisively revealed to us in Ge 1:2: "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters:" "brooded upon" the water, incubavit, as a hen broods over her eggs. Thus we see the Spirit exerted upon this occasion an active effectual energy, by that energy agitating the vast abyss, and infusing into it a powerful vital principle.
Elohim seems to be the general appellation by which the Triune Godhead is collectively distinguished in Scripture; and in the concise history of the creation only, the expression, bara Elohim, "the Gods created," is used above thirty times. The combining this plural noun with a verb in the singular would not appear so remarkable, if Moses had uniformly adhered to that mode of expression; for then it would be evident that he adopted the mode used by the Gentiles in speaking of their false gods in the plural number, but by joining with it a singular verb or adjective, rectified a phrase that might appear to give a direct sanction to the error of polytheism. But, in reality, the reverse is the fact; for in De 32:15,17, and other places, he uses the singular number of this very noun to express the Deity, though not employed in the August work of creation: "He forsook God," Eloah; "they sacrificed to devils, not to God," Eloah. But farther, Moses himself uses this very word Elohim with verbs and adjectives in the plural. Of this usage Dr. Allix enumerates many other striking instances that might be brought from the Pentateuch; and other inspired writers use it in the same manner in various parts of the Old Testament, Job 35:10; Jos 24:19; Ps 109:1; Ec 12:3; 2Sa 7:23. It must appear, therefore, to every reader of reflection, exceedingly singular, that when Moses was endeavouring to establish a theological system, of which the unity of the Godhead was the leading principle, and in which it differed from all other systems, he should make use of terms directly implicative of a plurality in it; yet so deeply was the awful truth under consideration impressed upon the mind of the Hebrew legislator, that this is constantly done by him; and, indeed, as Allix has observed, there is scarcely any method of speaking from which a plurality in Deity may be inferred, that is not used either by himself in the Pentateuch, or by the other inspired writers in various parts of the Old Testament. A plural is joined with a verb singular, as in the passage cited before from Ge 1:1; a plural is joined with a verb plural, as in Ge 35:7, "And Jacob called the name of the place El- beth-el, because the Gods there appeared to him;" a plural is joined with an adjective plural, Jos 24:19, "You cannot serve the Lord; for he is the holy Gods." To these passages, if we add that remarkable one from Ecclesiastes, "Remember thy Creators in the days of thy youth," and the predominant use of the terms, Jehovah Elohim, or, the "Lord thy Gods," which occur a hundred times in the law, (the word Jehovah implying the unity of the essence, and Elohim a plurality in that unity,) we must allow that nothing can be more plainly marked than this doctrine in the ancient Scriptures.
Though the August name of Jehovah in a more peculiar manner belongs to God the Father, yet is that name, in various parts of Scripture, applied to each person in the holy Trinity. The Hebrews considered that name in so sacred a light, that they never pronounced it, and used the word Adonai instead of it. It was, indeed a name that ranked first among their profoundest cabbala; a mystery, sublime, ineffable, incommunicable. It was called tetragrammaton, or the name of four letters, and these letters are jod, he, vau, he, the proper pronunciation of which, from long disuse, is said to be no longer known to the Jews themselves. This awful name was first revealed by God to Moses from the centre of the burning bush; and Josephus, who, as well as Scripture, relates this circumstance, evinces his veneration for it, by calling it the name which his religion did not permit him to mention. From this word the Pagan title of Iao and Jove is, with the greatest probability, supposed to have been originally formed; and in the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, there is an oath still extant to this purpose, "By Him who has the four letters." As the name Jehovah, however, in some instances applied to the Son and the Holy Spirit, was the proper name of God the Father, so is Logos in as peculiar a manner the appropriated name of God the Son. The Chaldee Paraphrasts translate the original Hebrew text by Mimra da Jehovah, literally, "the word of Jehovah," a term totally different, as Bishop Kidder has incontestably proved, in its signification, and in its general application among the Jews, from the Hebrew dabar, which simply means a discourse or decree, and is properly rendered by pithgam. In the Septuagint translation of the Bible, a work supposed by the Jews to have been undertaken by men immediately inspired from above, the former term is universally rendered ?????, and it is so rendered and so understood by Philo and all the more ancient rabbins. The name of the third person in the ever blessed Trinity
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Go, and make all nations my disciples, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;
God is a spirit; and they who worship must worship in spirit and in truth.