The Trinity: A Brief Essay by Michael T. Longson

          The Doctrine of the Trinity is a rational absurdity to most people.  Attempting to explain it is near impossible since there is nothing in human experience that can adequately explain it.  According to the Doctrine of the Trinity, which is nowhere named in the Bible, yet the doctrine is difficult to miss, God exists as three separate, co-equal persons, but do not cease to be one God.  The three separate but equal persons of God, as mentioned in the Bible, are God the Father (God)/Yahweh), God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Sprit (the Holy Spirit).

           The apostles in the New Testament affirm the Jewish belief that God is one, and that God alone should be the object of our worship, yet these same apostles give their worship, and teach others to as well, to Jesus Christ, our Lord as equal to God.  Jesus also claimed that knowing Him was equal to knowing the Father.  The Jesus Himself also refers to the Holy Spirit as another Paraclete, one like Jesus.  Since we have already established that the apostles saw Jesus as an equal of God and Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as an equal to Himself, whom it was already stated considered Himself equivalent to God, it is clear that Jesus saw the Holy Spirit as being an equal of God.  Now, since none can be equal to God except God Himself, because God, being a perfect being Himself, cannot create another perfect being.  The creation would always be less than the Creator would; therefore, a being equal to God, must be God as well, and equally so.

          After establishing a case for the divinity of both Christ and the Holy Spirit as being equally divine as God the Father, many would refute the Trinity by claiming that Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are three forms or modes of God, also known as Modalism.  This view has no Scriptural basis since at the Baptism of Jesus the Father looks on as the Holy Spirit descends upon the person of Jesus Christ as He comes upright out of the water.  Later again on the mount of transfiguration, the Holy Spirit is present within the person of Christ and the Father is present in the form of a cloud.  In both cases, several witnesses are present who testified later of the events.

      

          Based on this evidence, a clear case exists for the separate but equal existence of all three persons of the Trinity operating in one accord, yet working in three separate capacities.  Each is equal to the others while at the same time possessing separate and distinct roles in the Godhead (the term applied to the Trinity as a whole).  If one were to attempt to assign specific roles to each member of the Trinity, it may best be described as follows.  God the Father planned creation and all the aspects, God the Son performed the act of creation through His own divine person, and God the Spirit interacts and reside with those restored from the fallen creation and upon creation itself.  Space here does not permit a full explanation of the Scriptural basis for the assigning of each role; yet, the Bible is clear about the unified Godhead consisting in the three persons of God.