Last week I began a series of articles on the doctrine of the Trinity. My plan had been to split the series into three posts. (1) Why is the Trinity important? (2) Where in the Bible can we find the Trinity? And (3) how do I explain this doctrine. That’s all very ordered and succinct is it not? Well…upon reflection I think that would necessitate skipping over some pretty important aspects of this all-important doctrine. The Trinity is so important that I don’t want to leave any stone unturned as we examine it together.
So, my plan is now to progress through the doctrine of the Trinity by way of the doctrines of which it is composed. In other words, the Trinity isn’t just one doctrine. It is the simultaneous belief in three biblical doctrines:[1] (1) absolute monotheism, (2) three divine persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), and (3) the equality of those three persons, or, to quote the Athanasian creed, the belief that, “the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.”[2] Since it is necessary to understand each of these doctrines, I think it will be wise to treat them all individually. So this week…
Absolute Monotheism[3]
The doctrine of monotheism (the belief in only one God) is foundational in Scripture. I mean, Genesis opens by saying, “In the beginning God,” not “the gods,” but “God” singular.[4] Adam and Eve knew there was only one God. Cain and Abel knew that there was only one God. Noah and his sons knew that there was only one God. Yet look how quickly men devised gods for themselves and, as Paul put it, “exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”[5]
We don’t know much about the religious practices of the people before the flood, only that, “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”[6] What we do know is that by the time Abram was born, some ten generations after the flood, he was born into a pagan, polytheistic society. Now, if ten generations sounds like a lot to you, just try to keep in mind that, if my math is correct, all ten generations listed in Gen. 11:10-26 were still alive when Abram was born. The flood generation was still alive. We read in Joshua 24:2, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods.’”
Before the people who had been rescued by God and spared his wrath in the flood had even died, mankind had already begun to exchange the glory of God for lifeless images. That’s why Moses had to proclaim to Israel, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”[7] God called Abraham out of Ur, and then called Israel out of Egypt, in order to bring them out of polytheism and into a knowledge of the one true God. Yet the people (as all people are) were stubborn. It took a long long time for this lesson to sink in. Just read through 1 and 2 Kings sometime and count how many kings led the people to worship other gods (hint: the answer is all the kings in the North and most of the Kings in the South).
Because the people were continually exchanging the truth of God for a lie, God sent prophets like Isaiah to proclaim the truth. We read in Isaiah 43:10-11, “‘You are my witnesses,’ declares the LORD, ‘and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.” It’s difficult to get clearer than, “Before me no god was formed, nor shall there by any after me.” Isaiah cannot be misunderstood. He’s saying that there is only one true and living God.
Yet Isaiah also provides other useful passages on the doctrine of monotheism. He writes in Isaiah 45:5-6, “I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other.”[8] He writes again later in the same chapter, “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.”[9]
Does anyone actually dispute this?
To give a short answer: yes. Many people, to this day, deny that there is only one true, living, eternal, creator God. The most prominent example of a religion that does this would be Mormonism. Mormonism believes that there were gods who existed prior to the god that they worship, and they further teach that those who follow the teachings of Mormonism can become gods themselves.[10] Yet the most prominent way monotheism is denied today will most likely come from just your average secularist. It’s fashionable in our day to assert that an insistence upon one God and only one God is terribly backward and intolerant. Who is to say where the truth really lies?
You see, the claim that there is only one God is a claim of exclusivity. “I am God, and there is no other,” is another way of saying that the gods of all religions in the world, save one, aren’t real. It is to say that those who worship those other gods are in error, and that is an error with eternal consequences. God said in Isaiah, “I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.” So, as we seek to understand and study the doctrine of the Trinity, we first must start with this exclusive claim. There is only one God, and besides him there is no other. He is the one, living, true, eternal, creator God. “All the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens.”[11]
This is a controversial claim in our day, but it’s true. Any right doctrine of God must start here. Next week, we’ll take the next step an examine what the Bible says about the three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. How can we say there is only one God, yet speak of three persons? Don’t worry, I’ll answer all questions perfectly next week.[12]
[1] How convenient that the Trinity just happens to be composed of three doctrines. Easier to remember that way.
[2] Our friends in the United Reformed Churches in North America have provided a full text of this creed at https://www.urcna.org/creeds.
[3] You know, it’s amazing how often this issue comes up. Many of the verses I’ll be using in the rest of this article were actually taken from a post about witnessing to Mormons. It can be found at https://www.aomin.org/aoblog/mormonism/100-verses-for-witnessing-to-mormons/.
[4] I realize that someone may respond that אֱלֹהִ֑ים is plural, and it is. However, this is what is called a “plural of majesty.” In fact, the plural is also used in Deut. 6:4, “שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יְהוָ֥ה אֶחָֽד.” The entire point of Deut. 6:4 is that there is only one God, so I don’t think that the plural, Elohim, rather than the singular, El, would be a good argument for the Bible somehow teaching polytheism. This is an example of how Hebrew grammar is simply different than English grammar.
[5] Rom. 1:25
[6] Gen. 6:5
[7] Deut. 6:4
[8] Lest there be any confusion from me saying, “Isaiah writes…” when it is clear God is the one speaking, we believe that Scripture has both a human and a divine author. So what we read in Scripture is the God-breathed, inerrant word of the one and only true and living God. Yet we may also speak of the human author having written these words because that is the means God used to deliver his word to us.
[9] Is. 45:22
[10] For more information see Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults: The Definitive Work on the Subject (Bloomington, MN: Bethany House, 2019), 217-302.
[11] Ps. 96:5
[12] Please excuse my self-deprecating joke. These are obviously weighty matters that are difficult to answer quickly and succinctly. I do believe there are answers, though, and I hope to show that next week.
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