The Trinity: Understanding the Three In One God

The doctrine of the Trinity has been confusing for many people, and those who try to explain it end up leading students to question whether or not it’s heresy. So in this article I will explain what the Trinity is and what it is not according to scripture.

First of all, the word “trinity”, just like the word “bible”, isn’t found in the Holy Scriptures because these are simply words men have used to describe the nature of something. In this case, the nature of God’s plurality.

Trinity simple means: a group of three people or things. God is a family-like group of three people, united as one. The keyword to remember is unity. The trinity consist of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They are united as one. That means they’re in agreement all the time.

The only difference between them are their roles in their family-like group. The Father leads and the Son follows the Father and the Holy Spirit works as well. So when God continues to say, “I am one God,” he’s saying that “we’re united as one.” But to make it clear to mankind that there are not three different gods in heaven, or that each have different agendas, he implicitly says he is one.

Different members of the Trinity have interacted with mankind. In the old testament, Israel and other nations usually interacted with the Father. In the new testament, people interacted with the Son. Throughout human history, and now, the Holy Spirit leads and gives power and knowledge to men. But the Holy Spirit, and the Son of God are joined to the Father and they are in unity.

What the Trinity is not

The trinity is not three people all doing their own thing, fighting among themselves and having disagreements like Egyptian and Roman gods.

The Trinity is not one person expressing himself in three different ways (like the three states of water), or what the Oneness doctrine may allude to.

The Trinity is not three people with 33.3_X% power making up a total 100% when joined together.

The Trinity is three different people, all equally powerful, all working together in unison. Therefore they are all called God because they are apart of the God family. When you’re referring to the Most High God, you’re talking about a unified group.

When we say “God the Son”, or “God the Father”, or “God the Holy Spirit”, we’re making it clear that these people are apart of the God family. God is prefixed because some say Jesus isn’t God, but rather a created being with limited power. And some say that the Holy Spirit isn’t God or even a person, but rather a powerful force of some kind. No. They are all God, apart of the God family.

The Trinity is a family

Think of a normal human family. There’s a father, a mother and a child (perhaps a son). They are one group all bearing the same last name of the father, yet they are all separate people. It’s the same with the Trinity. Think of the Trinity as a family from now on—a better term would be the “God Family.” All members of the God Family bear the same name, or in their case, the same “nature and power.” They are all different people, but are unified.

When the scriptures says, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God [is] one LORD“ (Deuteronomy 6:4), it just means unity and not that there is one person. God is three persons in complete unity. The problem with mankind is they don’t read the scriptures with the help of the Holy Spirit and therefore get confused.

Some deliberately twist the scriptures to dismember the Holy Spirit and Jesus from the God Family so they don’t have to obey their instruction or leadership. But what they’re really doing is rejecting God’s close family members whom he placed in our lives for a support and salvation.

Don’t you think a father/husband would have a problem with a person who rejected his son or wife, but claimed they loved him? This is what groups within the Israelite nation and other Gentile religions do when they attempt to circumvent Jesus and go directly to the Father.

The triune nature of God in scripture

We can see the Trinity clearly from this scripture:

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth (Gen 1:26)

Here we see that God uses the word OUR which means plurality. Later on we find that there are three persons:

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. (1 John 5:7)

We know the Word is referring to Jesus because it’s mentioned here:

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth… For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1:14,17)

Earlier in the same chapter, we get the understanding that Jesus (the Word) was with God, but also was God.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. (John 1:1-2)

Now that can confuse some people as they think: How can Jesus be with God, but be God at the same time? It makes perfect sense if you understand that Jesus is apart of the God Family and has the same power as the Father. Therefore Jesus is God, or better said, “God Nature.”

The Holy Spirit is referred to as God too:

But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God (Acts 5:3-4).

The Holy Spirit is clearly a person who possesses a mind, emotions, and will of his own:

• He thinks and knows (1 Corinthians 2:10).
• He can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30).
• He intercedes for us (Romans 8:26-27).
• He makes decisions according to his will (1 Corinthians 12:7-11).
• He is the Comforter and Counselor that Jesus promised to come (John 14:16, 26, 15:26).

The Holy Spirit isn’t mentioned often in the greetings of Paul’s letters to the churches because the Holy Spirit isn’t the figurehead of salvation—Jesus is. And the Father is often mentioned along with Jesus because he is the one that authorized Jesus to be our Lord and Savior.

So while the Holy Spirit may not be as prominent to us as the Son and the Father is, it doesn’t make him less of a person or no less God either. The scriptures are clear we need the Holy Spirit to be like Jesus (Galatians 5:16).

So with just those few scriptures, the Trinity is clearly present in the bible. All three are called God because they all have the same nature. God is unified as one group. The revelation about the Trinity is that they are a family.

Here’s another way of understanding it: Look at God as a status. There are only three with that status and they are united as one. Unlike what gurus and false teachers claim, no man can reach God status or become God. Satan tried that and look where he’s headed. There are only three with that status and they are unified as one.

Begotten vs Created

Jesus was the only begotten son of God. Begotten means to “bring forth.” God the Father didn’t create Jesus, he brought him forth. Jesus was always in his father, and then his father brought him forth. The Father brought forth Jesus like human parents bring forth a son.

Parents don’t create children, but rather the seed of the man which was always inside the man fertilizes the egg of the woman, a child is born and then birthed through the woman. This is what happened in heaven, Jesus was brought forth from his father or birthed. But Jesus was also birthed or brought forth on earth through Mary by the Holy Spirit (Matt 1:18).

Do you see the God Family at work with Jesus? The Father brought forth Jesus in the spirit realm and the Holy Spirit planted his “God seed” in Mary and she birthed, or brought forth, Jesus in the physical realm.

Christ Jesus is equal to his Father

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: ⁶ Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: ⁷ But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: ⁸ And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. ⁹ Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: ¹⁰ That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; ¹¹ And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:5-11)

In the above passages it mentions that Jesus is equal to God. Jesus is exactly like his Father with just a different position and duties in his family. When he was born through Mary he surrendered his God powers—therefore he became a mere man, but still remained a member of the God Family.

Jesus merely allowed his form to be changed from Godhood to manhood and then solely relied on the power of the Holy Spirit and the leading of his Father to live a perfect life and do all those miracles while on earth.

While Jesus was here, he showed us exactly how we should live. We can be like Jesus. And if we continue to follow his example, we can one day be joined eternally to the family of God. While we’ll never be God status (meaning all powerful, all knowing and all present) we are blessed with all spiritual blessings and that’s good enough for me.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ (Eph 1:3).

This ministry is no longer in service. I left the Christian faith and no longer agree with some of the content posted here. However, this website will remain available for archive purposes. Read the details in my last post.