The Biblical Trinity Explained
Every Christian is familiar with the trinity, it is generally summarized as this:
- There is only one God
- The Father is God
- The Son is God
- The Holy Spirit is God
- Yet each is not the other
It has also been summarized as: "God is three in persons but one in essence". Scripture most clearly says that there is only one God (Exodus 20:3), yet there are still three persons. The Son is able to call the Father "you" and prays to the Father, which shows a distinction of persons. John writes "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God."The Nicene creed describes the trinity thus:
We believe in one God,the Father, the Almighty,maker of heaven and earth,of all that is, seen and unseen.We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,the only Son of God,eternally begotten of the Father,God from God, Light from Light,true God from true God,begotten, not made,of one being with the Father;through him all things were made.For us and for our salvationhe came down from heaven:was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,and became truly human.For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;he suffered death and was buried.On the third day he rose againin accordance with the Scriptures;he ascended into heavenand is seated at the right hand of the Father.He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,and his kingdom will have no end.We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,who proceeds from the Father [and the Son],who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,who has spoken through the prophets.Social trinitarianism is a new form of trinitarianism, which has became more and more popular overtime. In this article I seek to establish the biblical basis for the classical trinitarian view, and as a result I critique the social trinitarian view. Social trinitarians often believe that God has three minds, three wills, three centers of emotion and of consciousness, having a more loose sense of the unity of God. While I see social trinitarianism as intellectually tempting due to it being much easier to comprehend, we should not decide doctrines on the basis of which one is easier to understand.
Misconceptions
However, in the modern day there exists some confusion about the trinity. Many people believe that there are three centers of the will and three minds in God, however I believe this position has some problems with it, as I believe this position is not the most faithful to scripture and is not the Nicean position (though Nicaea itself is only authoritative insofar as it aligns with scripture). The people who teach that view are called "social trinitarians".
My problem with identifying "will" and "mind" as being the concept of what "person" means is that it would imply that because Christ was only one person, He would have had only one mind and one will (as the Bible teaches that Christ has two natures, human and divine yet being one person). Yet, if Christ had no human mind, we fall into problems with Hebrews 2:17, which states that Christ was like us in "every way": Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. It is thus implied that Christ had a human mind, being able to feel human emotions and feel pain as a human.
Another major point to make is that Jesus was tempted by Satan, yet as God cannot be tempted (James 1:13), it necessarily follows that Christ had two wills, one human (in which Christ was tempted) and one divine, though they are united. Similarly, though Christ had a human mind and a divine mind, they are united in such a way that Christ in His human mind is in harmony with the divine mind.
The scriptures also speak of God's mind and will in the singular, implying only one mind within God, such as Paul in Romans 11:34 says "For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?
There are also many texts which speak of one will in God (Romans 12:2, 1 Thessalonians 5:18, John 7:17). Logically, it would also be necessary that there is one will in God, because if there are three distinct wills, there must be some difference in these wills, however that would cause contradiction in God and also mean that the will of the Son may be "lesser" than the will of the Father, which would entail a kind of subordination.
Yet as we are not unitarian, we can say that the one divine will and mind is "operated" by three agents (the Father, Son and Holy Spirit).
These texts together mean that "will" and "mind" are not properties of what "personhood" means, but are properties of nature, thus as Christ had two natures He had two wills, and as there is only one nature in God, God has one will.
What does "person" mean then?
The word "person" might be misleading, as its semantic meaning has changed overtime, which is why some theologians want to change the word to "subsistence" (which is literal translation of the Greek word "hypostasis" used in the Nicean creed), however the word "subsistence" does not mean much to the average English speaker and may sound too "fancy". The problem is that human language often is problematic in describing divine truths. A very short description of the word "person" or "subsistence" would mean is "who", or "I", there are three "I"s in one God. Yet, to go into detail, the Bible teaches that the three persons are distinguished by relations of origin (a theological concept to describe begetting and spiration).
The Son is eternally begotten from the Father. This is a hard doctrine to understand, yet it is clearly affirmed in the bible. To get an idea of what the doctrine means, here is a quote from A.A Hodge, from His "Outlines of Theology":
"The eternal generation of the Son is commonly defined to be an eternal personal act of the Father, wherein by necessity of nature, not by choice of will, he generates the person (not the essence) of the Son, by communicating to him the whole indivisible substance of the Godhead, without division, alienation, or change, so that the Son is the express image of His Father's person, and eternally continues, not from the Father, but in the Father, and the Father in the Son."
There are multiple texts which affirm this doctrine. Firstly, the mere fact of being called the "Son" implies begetting, yet as Christ has been eternally the Son, He must have been eternally begotten. Now, opponents of classical trinitarianism often argue that Christ became the Son by becoming a human, however as Christ is called "Son" prior to the incarnation in the Old Testament (Proverbs 30:4), we can safely say that Christ's sonhood is not grounded in the incarnation. However, there are explicit texts to affirm this doctrine:
John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 5:26, "For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself."
John 6:57-58, "As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me. 58 This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate, and died, he who eats this bread shall live forever."
Another text to explicitly affirm this doctrine is Hebrews 1:3 which says:3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Sam Shamoun comments on this text: "There are several points which we can glean from this very crucial text. The first point is that Jesus is the very exact imprint, the very exact copy, the perfect reflection of God's own substance, nature, essence etc. That is the meaning of the Greek word charakter, that Jesus is the precise and perfect imprint left by the Original or the Source. The author of Hebrews is basically saying that the Father is the underived Source of all Deity with the Son being the perfect duplicate of that Deity. If God's substance is eternal, then Christ must be eternal also since he is the exact imprint. If God's substance is infinite, then Christ must also be infinite seeing that he is the exact copy of it."
A similar point is made in Colossians 1:15.
Another text that is more ambiguous is Proverbs 8, which describing wisdom says: "I have been established from everlasting, From the beginning, before there was ever an earth.", some believe that Paul the apostle connected this text to Jesus by saying that Jesus is the "wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:24), yet I believe this to be a bit ambiguous and not the strongest text to use.
Similarly, the Holy Spirit eternally "proceeds" from the Father and the Son, as John 15:26 states:But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.
Most theologians in the west also believe that He proceeds from the Son as well, as the scriptures call the Holy Spirit "The Spirit of Christ" (the genitive "of" often means "from" in Greek). Jesus also "breathes forth" the Holy Spirit (John 20:22) and the Holy Spirit is sent "in the name of the Son" John 14:26. Commentators have also noticed that Revelation 21:1 seems to be a representation of the trinity. Revelation 22:1 talks about a river of the water of life "flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb", now this text describes a literal river, yet the river is meant to represent the Holy Spirit (as water is commonly used to symbolize the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5)), Who "flows" from the Father and the Son.
The reason why eternal generation and eternal procession are important is because if we deny those and we ask "how do we tell the persons apart", we will have no answer, yet eternal generation and procession gives us this answer.Answering objectionsThe doctrines of eternal begetting and spiration have been opposed by many of those who social trinitarianism, these are often strawmen (such as eternal generation promoting the subordination of the Son). Additionally, I would like to use caution in denying a doctrine only because it is incomprehensible. The main biblical argument used against eternal generation comes from Luke 1:35 which is argued to show that Christ was not the Son in eternity, the text reads: "And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.", However there exists a really simple explanation of this verse, the text merely says that Christ will be "called" or recognized by men as the Son, not that He was not yet the Son. So this text is not saying that Christ became the Son in time, but that Christ will be understood as being the Son by men due to becoming incarnate.Some also point to Psalm 2:7 which says: "I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You". However, this text was not applied by the New Testament to the incarnation. In ancient Jewish custom, when king was anointed, he was said to be "begotten" by God, this is why Solomon for example is called God's son (2 Samuel 7:14). Thus Psalm is not saying that Christ became the Son in the incarnation, but refers to his anointing as king. This text was applied to the resurrection by Peter (Acts 13:33), however it will have its ultimate fulfilment in the millennium.
Inseparable operations
Due to having one will, the three persons work as one. This is affirmed in John 5:19 which says:
Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
We see in the Bible that all three persons work as one, for example all three persons are involved in the resurrection. Theologians have often explained the biblical data by saying "All three persons work indivisibly yet not indistinctly). As we see in the incarnation, each person of the trinity works in the incarnation, but not indistinctly as only the Son became incarnate.
Is there submission in the trinity?
Because there is only one will in God, it would mean that there is no submission. The verses which speak of submission should be interpreted as Christ in his human nature (Christ had two natures, one human one divine and as will is an aspect of nature, he had two wills). Thus Christ submits to the Father in His human will but not in His divine will. This is affirmed by Paul in Philippians 2:8:
And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
If Christ "became" obedient, it means there was a time where no subordination existed.