THE HOLY TRINITY = ONE GOD

One God . . . or Three?

     I have touched on this topic in my book, Scripture Versus Science, and thought I would elaborate a bit here.

     Christians, Jews, and Muslims all believe there is one God. They differ, however, in how they interpret the nature of God. All three believe there is an afterlife, but their beliefs differ in how we achieve entrance to Heaven. Muslims believe they must earn entry through their actions. Jews believe they must obey all laws given them by God. Christians believe they can only achieve entry through a relationship with Christ which is sealed by the Holy Spirit. Herein lies a major problem. Both Jews and Muslims ask how we can say we worship one God when we obviously worship three Gods: The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit.

     Arabs are the core of the Islamic faith, and they believe they are descendants of Abraham and Hagar’s son, Ishmael.  Jews believe they are the descendants Isaac, who God provided to Abraham and Sarah in their old age. Christians believe they are grafted into Abraham’s line through the unique dispensation of Christ. Since Abraham is a common denominator among the three faiths, I will base my explanation of the Christian view of One God on the book of Genesis from the beginning through Abraham’s life.

The Holy Spirit

     It is easiest to argue that the Holy Spirit is not a separate deity, but one attribute of God himself. In our modern society we might compare the relationship to a computer, which is made up of many individual components, yet operates as a single unit. We can remove any single component, but it cannot fulfill its function unless wired into the computer as a whole.  Perhaps the primary problem is that we have changed the name – Jewish scriptures consistently uses the term, “the Spirit of God,” whereas Christians use the term, “the Holy Spirit.”

     Genesis 1:2 says God created and “the Spirit of God hovered over the water.” Does this indicate that God creates through His Spirit? Later on we do read, “The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” (Job 33:4)  We also see that the Spirit of God sometimes escorts. (Ezekiel 8:3, 11:1) God also places his spirit in whomever he pleases. Sometimes He might fill a person (e.g. Exodus 31:3, 35:31; Deut 34:9; Micah 3:8), and sometimes He may bestowing it only temporarily. (e.g. Numbers 24:2; I Samuel 10:10, 11:6, 19:23)

      Throughout the Old Testament it is obvious that God tends to work through his spirit, which Christians call The Holy Spirit. For us, a problem arises in that we cannot relate, since we cannot separate ourselves from our spirit and have it work semi-independently. Therefore humans have trouble understanding that the Holy Spirit is one component of a Holy God, and one with the Father. Following our computer example, perhaps the Father could be compared to the mother board, to which all components must be connected. 

The Son

     The idea that the Christ is also one with the Father and the Holy Spirit is a bit more difficult, but not impossible to comprehend. First of all, Elohim is a commonly used designation for God throughout the Jewish scriptures, starting with the creation story. I am not a Jewish language scholar, but I understand that Elohim is a plural designation. The verb associated with this word, however, is normally singular. Thus, right from Genesis 1 we see God presented as a single being, but one with multiple personified components. Adam and Eve walked and talked with God in the garden (Genesis 3:8-24), yet God told Moses, “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” (Exodus 33:20) Earlier, Jacob said, “. . . I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” (Genesis 32:30) Thus, the penalty of seeing God’s face was not something new presented to Moses. Many years later several prophets related seeing God on his throne, and it was a frightening scene.

     As we go on through Genesis, Cain talked with God (Genesis 4), Noah talked with God (Genesis 6-9), and Abraham talked with God (Genesis 12-18). In Genesis 18 Abraham greeted three men as though he knew them. In Genesis 19:1 we see that two of them were angels – who was the third? Genesis 18:33 says “when the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham” . . . How can this be? As we go through the Old Testament we periodically read of angels appearing on earth. Sometimes there is an attempt to worship them, an action quickly stopped by the angels, who said something to the effect, “don’t worship me, worship God only.” However, there is one being who DID accept worship, and this being was always designated The Angel of God. The Angel of God always appeared when there was an announcement of importance.

     Many years later The Angel of God appeared as a baby, a person we know as The Christ. He is fully God and one with the Father and the Holy Spirit – just as much as our voice and our spirit are one with our body. The difference is that He can operate fully and semi-independently in one of the three forms – we cannot. We certainly have different facets of our personality, but we can only exits and function as a whole. This is our reality and we have no basis for understand any alternate reality. We certainly cannot understand the reality in which God exists.