The Trinity. There is only one God.

There is only one God. And yet, even long before before Jesus Christ came in the first century, the early books of the Bible speaks of three "persons": The Father, The Son, The Spirit. This comes up in multiple occassions throughout the Bible. Let's take a look at some of these:

The Spirit

Here are some examples of mentions of the Holy Spirit of God:

  • The Holy Spirit was present during creation of the world.

    The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

    ~ Genesis 1:2

  • The Holy Spirit was prophesied by Isaiah to come upon believers:

    until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest.

    ~ Isaiah 32:15

  • God promised that the Holy Spirit would be within His followers:

    And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

    ~ Ezekiel 36:27

    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 that I have said to you.

    ~ John 14:26

From the small sample of passages above, we can see that The Holy Spirit is God. He is presently here amongst believers to point people to Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God

Jesus is mentioned in the first book of the Bible after just the first three chapters. Here God was speaking to the devil who just successfully tricked Adam and Eve by lying. "He" in "He shall bruise your head" refers to Jesus whose heel would be nailed to the cross:

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

~ Genesis 3:15

We'll go though more example passages about Jesus below:

  • God declared the future coming of His son. This was fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ:

    I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.

    ~ Psalm 2:7

  • Here the psalmist refers to "the Son" with descriptions of the Lord to whom even kings and rulers can take refuge in. This was fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ.

    Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

    ~ Psalm 2:10-12

  • Here the proverb speaks of God having a son:

    Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name? Surely you know!

    ~ Proverbs 30:4

  • The book of Isaiah prophesied about a coming saviour:

    For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

    ~ Isaiah 9:6-7

    And here Jesus applied that prophesied saviour in the book of Isaiah to himself:

    “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”

    And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

    ~ Luke 4:18-21

  • King Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon who exiled the God's people into his own kingdom saw Jesus in the burning fire protecting three of His followers:

    He answered and said, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods.”

    ~ Daniel 3:25

  • God spoke about having a son:

    When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

    ~ Hosea 11:1

  • Christ is spoken of as one who embodied God himself:

    See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

    ~ Colossians 2:8-9

  • Jesus said that Moses wrote about Him over a thousand years prior, therefore declaring that He was the coming Saviour, the prophesied son of God.

    For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.

    ~ John 5:46

  • Jesus was the Word of God who became flesh, referred to as the Son of the Father:

    And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

    ~ John 1:14

  • Jesus declared that He and the Father are one. Jesus is God and the Father is God. They are one in essence.

    I and the Father are one.

    ~ John 10:30

  • Jesus is the image of the invisible God. He has been since the beginning. Jesus is God:

    He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

    ~ Colossians 1:15-17

Jesus was present from the beginning. He was the promised prophesied Saviour that would come and He did come and become the prophesied suffering servant to appease the wrath of God towards the sinfulness of mankind. Jesus Christ points people to God the Father.

God the Father

That leaves us with the last member of the one-essence three-persons God, The Father or sometimes referred imperfectly in English using the word God. The Hebrew word was Yahweh, a word so holy that it is not to be spoken of loudly.

Here are some verses about God the Father:

  • There is only one God. In this verse two of the three persons in the one-essence God are mentioned and to both are given the descriptions of God:

    yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

    ~ 1 Corinthians 8:6

  • All three persons in the one-essence God are mentioned:

    The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

    ~ 2 Corinthians 13:14

  • God the Father declares that He is the one and only God:

    Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.

    ~ Isaiah 44:6

  • God the Father declared publicly that Jesus Christ was His son:

    And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

    ~ Matthew 17:4-5

  • God the Father sent an angel to say to Mary that Jesus' name will be Emanuel which means God is with us. Therefore Jesus was acknowledged as God by God the Father:

    “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us).”

    ~ Matthew 1:23

  • God the Father symbolically described as He seated upon the throne:

    At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.

    And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

    “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

    And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

    “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

    ~ Revelation 4:2-11

Did God have the Son Jesus together with Mary?

This question is often asked by those who view Jesus as only a man and not God. Jesus was fully-God and fully-man. Jesus Christ was pre-existing together with God the Father prior to His coming to earth as a fully-God and fully-man in the body of Jesus. So, Jesus was born from a virgin, but Jesus came into human form through her although she was a virgin.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

~ Isaiah 7:14

Conclusion

God the Father is God, Jesus is God, the Holy Spirit is God, but God is not Jesus, Jesus is not the Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit is not God.

God is one in essence and three in persons. Does this make logical sense? Yes. It would not make sense if someone says A is not A, or B is not B. However, it makes perfect sense when someone says A is not B, but both A and B are true.

He is the one and only God and there is no other.

Humans have limited ability to understand. Just like a single cell organism has difficulty understanding the concept of a blue whale is one being, humans have a difficult time trying to understand God who revealed himself as three in one. It would be convenient if the one and only God revealed himself to us as one in one for our limited minds to fully grasp. But the reality is God is one, but he is three in persons and we should be grateful and thankful that He sees it fit for us to know Him intimately such that He revealed His truth that He is one in essence, but three in persons.