The Trinity is defined as:
A. Three persons in one person
B. Three Gods in one God
C. Three persons in one God
The Correct Definition: A word not found in Scripture but used to express the doctrine of the unity of God as subsisting in three distinct persons. The propositions involved in the doctrine are these:
Within the unity of the One God there are three distinct Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three share the same nature and attributes (essence). In effect then, the three Persons are the One God.
1) The Father is a person called God - II Peter 1:17
2) The Son is a person called God - John 1:1
3) The Holy Spirit is a person called God - Acts 5:3,4
4) There is only One True God - Galatians 3:20; James 2:19
It must be kept in mind that the sense in which God is "one" (spirit-nature) is different from the sense in which he is "three" (persons). The combination of the two elements do not contradict each other because they refer to the Godhead in different respects: one to nature; the other to persons.
God cannot exist without the tri-unity of Father Son, and Holy Spirit just as man cannot exist without the tri-unity of body, soul and spirit.
The Bible tells us in Genesis that man is made "in the image" of God. (Genesis 1:27) An image is a reversal of the reality. For example, when you look in the mirror you see an image of yourself which is a reversal of you. (If you hold up your right hand the image in the mirror looks like it's holding up its left hand.)
Therefore:
God (1 nature) = Father, Son, Holy Spirit (3 persons)
Man (1 person) = body, soul, spirit (3 natures)
In the Athanasian Creed quoted in part below we see that answers A and B above are specifically rejected:
"For we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity. Neither CONFOUNDING THE PERSONS ("A") nor DIVIDING THE SUBSTANCE ("B"). For the person of the Father is one; of the Son another; of the Holy Spirit another. But the DIVINITY (divine nature) of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is ONE, the glory equal, the majesty equal...Thus the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. And yet there are NOT THREE GODS, but one God only..."
There are no separations or divisions in God. He is not composed of any parts at all, but three personal distinctions within God, each of whom is fully God. The three persons are one divine being.
THE TRINITY - MISREPRESENTED
It has been the pattern of the Watchtower Society for over 100 years to do one of two things in regard to the Trinity:
1) They will mis-define it as 3 Gods in 1 God, or 3 persons in one person
2) If they define it properly as 3 persons in 1 God, they will try to refute it as if this definition was saying one of the above. This practice will be illustrated in quotes drawn from Watchtower material:
Charles Russell in his Studies in the Scriptures Vol.5, 1899, p.55 describes the Trinity like this:
"They declare in one breath that there is only one God...yet in the same breath they declare that there arethree Gods. But how could there be three Gods and yet only one God?"
and again on p.59 Russell says:
"The doctrine of the Trinity holds that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one in person, equal in glory and in power as stated in the church creeds."
Also in Let God Be True, 1952 p.100 the Society stated:
"The doctrine in brief is that there are three gods in one." (See also WT 4/1/70 p.210)
In their booklet, The Word - Who is He According To John? the Society says on p.6:
"But even then, how could John say that the Word, as God the Son was the Trinity made up of three persons? How could one person be three?"
and on p.7:
"Since we cannot scientifically calculate that 1 God (the Father) + 1 God (the Son) + 1 God (the Holy Ghost) = 1 God, then we must calculate that 1/3 God (the Father) + 1/3 God (the Son) + 1/3 God (the Holy Ghost) = 1 God."
God is triune; not triplex, so the correct formula is 1x1x1=1.
In the Watchtower booklet, "Should You Believe in the Trinity?", there are further misrepresentations of the Trinity definition:
p.19) "Paul also said that Christ entered heaven itself so that he could appear in the actual presence of God in our behalf. If you appear in someone else's presence, how can you be that person?"
(p.27-shaded block) "Someone who is "with" another person cannot also be that other person."
In all the above Watchtower quotes we find both "confusion of persons" and "division of substance" - conditions not supported by the Athanasian Creed.
This is deceptive teaching on their part. Any confusion that the reader may have after reading their literature is due to Watchtower misrepresentation, a condition they would desire for the sake of establishing their special brand of "truth."
A PAGAN DOCTRINE?
The doctrine of the Trinity has nothing to do with the pagan teachings of other religions. It is true there are pagan "trinities" which date back to Babylon, but these pagan triads are the residuary fragments of the lost knowledge of God; not different stages in a process of theological evolution, but evidence of a moral and spiritual degradation.
The Adamic heritage of monotheism was so eroded by the time we arrive at the book of Exodus, that we find the pagan triad of Osiris, Isis, and Iberis holding sway in Egypt. Thus, from Genesis to Malachi, we see God reaffirming monotheism in the minds of the people. Israel had dwelt 400 years among the polytheistic Egyptians and acquired a taste for additional gods. For this reason, the Trinity is not clearly revealed in the Old Testament, but implicitly taught. It was only in the later centuries when the Catholic Church began to borrow from pagan imagery of trinities of gods in order to substantiate the worship of Mary.
The Witnesses like to refer others to a book by Alexander Hislop entitled "The Two Babylons." This book allegedly links the Trinity doctrine with Pagan Babylonian roots. However, the Society fails to mention two revealing passages quoted by Hislop:
"While overlaid with idolatry, the recognition of a Trinity was universal in all the ancient nations of the world proving how deep-rooted in the human race was the primeval doctrine on this subject, which comes out so distinctly in Genesis." (p.18)
"Will anyone after this say that the Roman Catholic Church must still be called Christian, because it holds the doctrine of the Trinity? So did the Pagan Babylonians, so did the Egyptians, so do the Hindus at this hour, in the very same sense in which Rome does. They all admitted a Trinity, but did they worship THE Triune Jehovah, the King Eternal, Immortal and Invisible." (p.90)
So Hislop was showing that the doctrine of the Trinity is indeed found in the Bible and then proceeds to describe its corruption down through pagan history and by the Roman Catholic Church.
OLD TESTAMENT EVIDENCE OF THE TRINITY
GENESIS 1:26,27
In verse 26 God says:
"Let US make man in OUR image."
The Witnesses say that God is speaking to the Word (Michael the Archangel in their doctrine.) But Genesis 5:1 indicates that the image is the image of God ONLY:
"In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;"
verse 27: "So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."
It must be noted that the word "image" is singular. The word would have had to be plural ("images") if God was speaking to an angel, for angels are never spoken of as being created in the image of God and man is never spoken of in the Bible as being created in the image of angels!
When God uses the word "US," He is talking to another being, or beings, exactly like Himself in nature - and this nature is a shared one because of the singularity ("image") used in the creation process. Furthermore, the word "us" doesn't limit the number to "two" beings sharing this "God" nature.
The best explanation of these verses comes from the comments of the early Church Fathers whose writings serve as commentaries on specific Biblical passages. Some of these men had a great deal to say about Genesis 1: 26, 27:
...God speaks in the creation of man with the very same design, in the following words: 'Let Us make man after our image and likeness...[God] conversed with some one who was numerically distinct from Himself, and also a rational Being. These are the words: 'And God said, Behold, Adam has become as one of us, to know good and evil.' In saying, therefore, 'as one of us,'[Moses] has declared that [there is a certain] number of persons associated with one another, and that they are at least two. For I would not say that the dogma of that heresy which is said to be among you is true, or that the teachers of it can prove that [God] spoke to angels, or that the human frame was the workmanship of angels. But this Offspring, which was truly brought forth from the Father, was with the Father before all the creatures,..." Justin Martyr - Dialogue with Trypho, ch. 62
"Now man is a mixed organization of soul and flesh, who was formed after the likeness of God, and moulded by His hands, that is, by the Son and Holy Spirit, to whom also He said, "Let Us make man." Irenaus Against Heresies, Book IV, Preface, section 4
"It was not angels, therefore, who made us, nor who formed us, neither had angels power to make an image of God, nor any one else, except the Word of the Lord," Irenaus Against Heresies, Book IV, ch. 20, section 1
"For with Him (God) were always present the Word and Wisdom, the Son and the Spirit, by whom and in whom, freely and spontaneously, He made all things, to whom also He speaks, saying, "Let Us make man after Our image and likeness;" Irenaus Against Heresies, Book IV, ch. 20, section 1
"But who else is superior to, and more eminent than, that man who was formed after the likeness of God, except the Son of God, after whose image man was created?" Irenaus Against Heresies, Book III, ch. 33, section 4
"For never at any time did Adam escape the hands of God, namely the Son and the Spirit, to whom the Father speaking, said, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." Irenaus Against Heresies, Book V, ch. 1, section 3
"For by the hands of the Father, that is, by the Son and the Holy Spirit, man, and not [merely] a part of man, was made in the likeness of God. Irenaus Against Heresies, Book V, ch. 6, section 1
"But He, (the Word of God) the very same who formed Adam at the beginning, with whom also the Father spake, [saying], "Let Us make man after Our image and likeness," Irenaus Against Heresies, Book V, ch. 15, section 4
"And therefore throughout all time, man, having been moulded at the beginning by the hands of God, that is, of the Son and of the Spirit, is made after the image and likeness of God:" Irenaus Against Heresies, Book V, ch. 28, section 4
"But to no one else than to His own Word and wisdom did He say, "Let Us make." Theophilus to Autolycus, Book II, ch XVIII
Simply stated:
Man was made by God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
ISAIAH SEES AND HEARS A TRIUNE JEHOVAH!
ISAIAH 6:1-10 (Use the New World Translation)
v.1 Isaiah got to see JEHOVAH. See Acts 28:25,26 Paul is speaking and says: "The HOLY SPIRIT aptly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your forefathers saying: "Go to this people and say, "By hearing you will hear but by no means understand, and looking you will look, but by no means see." [Center column reference cites Isaiah 6:9]
v.10 (Quote continues) "Make the heart of thus people unreceptive, and make their very ears unresponsive, and paste their very eyes together, that they may not see with their eyes, and with their ears they may not hear, and that their own heart may not understand and that they may not actually turn back and get healing for themselves."
v.5 Confirms that Isaiah saw JEHOVAH.
v.8 Isaiah begins to hear the voice of JEHOVAH.
v.9 "Go and you must say to this people: "Hear again and again, O men, but do not understand, and see again and again, but do not get any knowledge."
See Acts 28:27 where the HOLY SPIRIT is said to have spoken these words. "For the heart of the people has grown unreceptive and with their ears they have heard without response, and they have shut their eyes, that they should never see with their eyes and hear with their ears and turn back and I should heal them."
See John 12:39-41
"He has blinded their eyes and he has made their hearts hard, that they should not see with their eyes and get the thought with their hearts and turn around and I should heal them." Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and he spoke about him."
Isaiah spoke about WHO? About JESUS!
CONCLUSION:
The quotes uttered in Isaiah in the Old Testament by Jehovah God were attributed to Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.
That's why in Isaiah 6:3 Isaiah says "Holy, Holy, Holy" (3 times) referring to JEHOVAH and in verse 8 JEHOVAH asks: "Whom shall I send and who will go for US?"
WHO RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD?
I Thess. I:10 - The Father raised the Son.
John 2:19 - Jesus raised Himself.
Romans 8:11 - The Spirit raised Jesus.
Acts 2:24,32 and Romans 10:9 GOD raised Him from the dead.
Jesus rose once - NOT 3 times!
But the first century rabbis DID attack the Christians on the issue of the Trinity. In a Jewish book titled "Everyman's Talmud" by A. Cohen, pp.5, 26) it states:
"The rabbis also had occasion to defend the monotheistic view of God against the attack from the early Christians who sought a foundation for their traditional doctrine in the text of the Hebrew Bible." (p.5)
"Certain doctrines in connection with the Deity were forced into general prominence and received special emphasis at the hands of the rabbis because of contemporaneous circumstances. The attribute of Unity had to be underlined when a TRINITARIAN dogma began to be preached by the new sect of Christians." (p.26) [emphasis mine] The actual doctrine of the Trinity did not come into "formulation" until the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. The Church was not challenged to precisely define the doctrine until heresy and denials began to affect it. The Church began to realize that it needed a coherent document in writing for a formal definition. It is important to note that this would NOT become a new doctrine - the Church had always verbally confessed the belief in a Triune God. The reason for a council to convene was to respond to the Arian heresy that was prominent from 318 A.D. to 381 A.D.
The common thread throughout creedal development is the combination of the threefold reference to the Godhead and the summation of the work of redemption accomplished by Christ. We arrive at the beginning of the 4th century with statements of faith which are all essentially the same in substance. Though some are written with new vocabulary to fend off misinterpretation, others used a vocabulary derived from that of the New Testament. The continuity of Trinitarian thinking in the early Church is thus seen to be unbroken.RABBINICAL ATTACK
The Watchtower Society purports that if the early Christians believed in a Trinity, then this teaching would have come under attack by the presiding rabbis of the time.
A FOURTH CENTURY INVENTION?
The Watchtower Society claims that the doctrine of the Trinity was not found before the 4th century. This is a false statement. Researching the writings of the early Christian Church will reveal a solid support for the belief that God exists in a plurality of persons. Most interestingly, the Fathers who made these statements confirm that their information was handed down to them from the teachings of the Apostles themselves!
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