Presentation on theology of God proper by Todd Linn, PhD; The Trinity

1. THE TRINITY
A Biblical Examination of the
Nature of God

2. “Try to understand the Trinity and you
will lose your mind . . .”
● “ . . . but fail to understand the
Trinity and you will lose your
soul!”

3. It IS Possible to Understand the Trinity
● We may not have exhaustive knowledge of
the doctrine but we can know it enough to
state it clearly and understand it deeply.
● This provides believers with the intellectual
basis to defend the faith and worship our
Triune God.

4. GOD’S UNITY
● The Scriptures make it clear that there is ONE and
ONLY ONE God.
● God is one God. He is completely unique among the
other so-called gods.

5. Deuteronomy 6:4-5
● “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the
LORD is one!
● You shall love the LORD your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, and with all
your strength.”

6. Isaiah 44:6
● “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.”

7. God is one God but the OT allows for a
plurality of persons to exist as God
● The term is applied to at least two persons.
● Psalm 110:1—
● “The LORD said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right
hand, till I make Your enemies Your
footstool.’”

8. God’s Unity (continued)
● Several times when God is referring to
Himself, He uses “us” instead of “me.”
● Genesis 1:26—
● “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our
image, according to Our likeness;’”
● Isaiah 6:8—
● “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:
‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for
Us?’”

9. God’s Unity (continued)
● God is portrayed as having a son who is
himself God:
● Psalm 2:6-9—
● “Yet I have set My King on My holy hill of
Zion. I will declare the decree: The LORD
has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I
have begotten You . . .’”

10. ● Isaiah 9:6—
● “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son
is given; and the government will be upon
His shoulder. And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

11. God’s Tri-unity (continued)
● The Father is called God (John 6:7;
Galatians 1:1; Romans 1:7)
● The Son is called God (John 8:57-59;
Matthew 1:22; Acts 20:28)
● The Spirit is called God (The Holy Spirit is
clearly a person, a “He” and not an “It”—
Acts 5:3; Romans 8:27; Ephesians 4:30)

12. God’s Tri-unity: The three persons of the trinity
appear together in many passages of the Bible:
● In the OT: Isaiah 48:12-16; Isaiah
59:19-20; Isaiah 63:7-10.
● In the NT: Matthew 3:16-17; Matthew
28:18-20, etc.

13. God’s Tri-unity in the NT
● Matthew 3:16-17—
● “When He had been baptized, Jesus came
up immediately from the water; and behold,
the heavens were opened to Him, and He
saw the Spirit of God descending like a
dove and alighting upon Him. And
suddenly a voice came from heaven,
saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased.’”

14. God’s Tri-unity in the NT
● Matthew 28:18-20—
● “Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit . . .”

15. The Trinity: Definitions and Illustrations
● Definition—
● “God is three in person but one in
essence.”
● “God is three persons yet one God. God
the Father, Son and Spirit are one and the
same substance (nature, essence, or
reality) yet, within the nature of God they
are three distinct and separate persons.”

19. Illustrations:
● The triple point of water—
● Water in a vacuum tube at zero degrees
centigrade will contain liquid, ice, and
vapor yet all will be H2O.
● An Egg—
● An egg has three parts: white, yolk, and
shell, but is one egg.

20. Illustrations (continued):
● The Sun—
● The sun itself which we do not see is like
the Father. The light from the sun which
we do see is like the Son. The power of
the sun which makes plants grow is like the
Spirit.

21. Wrong views of the Trinity . . .

22. Two Unbiblical Views
1. Mormons:
● Their view of the Father: God the Father is the
resurrected Adam. He was once a man but he
became a finite god who is now populating the
earth with his many celestial wives.
● Their view of the Son: Christ is an ordinary man
who became a god. He was not produced by a
direct act of the Holy Spirit but by actual sexual
relations between God the Father (Adam-god)
and Mary.

23. Two Unbiblical Views (continued)
2. Jehovah’s Witnesses
● Their view of the Father: Jehovah is the high
god.
● Their view of the Son: Jesus is “god-like” but
not Jehovah. Prior to his earthly life, he was
Michael the Archangel. At his incarnation he
became a man. At the resurrection Jesus went
back to his former state as an invisible spirit
without a body.

24. ● Their view of the Holy Spirit: “So the holy
spirit is the invisible active force of Almighty
God which moves his servants to do his
will” (A quote from, Let God be True,
p.108). Thus, the deity and the personality
of the Holy Spirit are both denied.

25. ● Their view of the Trinity: “The trinity was
not conceived by Jesus or the early
Christians” (Let God be True, p.93). “The
plain truth is that this is another of Satan’s
attempts to keep the God-fearing person
from learning the truth of Jehovah and His
Son Christ Jesus” (ibid., p.93).

26. What if I enter into conversation with a
cult member?
● In conversations with cult members, the Trinity
is often the place to begin. Probe with two
kinds of questions:
1. Who was Jesus Christ?
2. What is Christ’s relationship to the Father and
the Son?
● Initial answers from cultists will sound orthodox.
But as you ask questions and define terms you
will quickly find a radical difference in their
Christ and the Christ of the Gospels.

27. Conclusion . . .

28. ● The Trinity is NOT a logical contradiction. For
God to be three persons and yet one essence is
logically possible.
● We do know the WHAT of the Trinity: God is
three persons but one essence.
● But the HOW of the Trinity—the exhaustive
knowledge of how the persons of the Trinity
relate to each other—is a mystery.

29. It is what we CAN know coupled with what we CANNOT
know that compels us to worship such a great God!