Trinity

 2. Do you believe God is Triune (Gen. 1.1,26; 3.22)- Trinity of the Father, Son, Spirit (Matt. 3.16-17, Mark 1.9-11, Luke 3.21-22)-, Who created "all things by Him [Jesus]" (John 1.3)?

Do you believe firstly that Jesus is God (deity)? "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" (Is. 9.6). Father here does not refer to God the Father, but that Jesus is the head, founder, originator, producer, protector, honored, ruler, chief.

(a) God is Triune (Gen. 1.1,26; 3.22)-the Trinity of God the Father [paterology], God the Son [Christology] and God the Holy Spirit [pneumatology]. "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall bear witness of me" (John 15.26). "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever" (John 14.16). "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). "Who is like Me?" (Is. 40.25) He is holy, righteous, uncreated (aseity), called theology proper. And see Matt. 3.16-17; Mark 1.9-11; Luke 3.21-22; John 3.34,35; 16.13-15; Rom. 14.17-18; 15.30; 1 Cor. 6.11, 17-19; 12.4-6; 2 Cor. 3.4-6; 13.14; Gal. 4.6-7; Eph. 2.18; 4.4-6; 5.18-20; Col. 1.6-8; 1 Thess. 5.18-19; Tit. 3.4-6; Heb. 9.14; 1 Pet. 1.2; 1 John 3.23-24; 4.13-14; Jude 20-21. A test of someon's salvation is if they accept the Trinity. Incarnation, omniscience and omnipresent are not in the Bible but are proven. Church fathers used the word Trinity: Clement of Rome AD 96, Ignatius AD 90, Justin Martyr AD 155, Theophilus AD 168, Irenaeus AD 180, Tertullian AD 197. In the OT, "The LORD said unto my Lord" (Ps. 110.1) referring to God the Father and God the Son. "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre" (Ps. 45.6) referring to Jesus. "Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows (v.7). God the Son is mentioned first and following, thy God the Father is mentioned. "If ye had known me, YE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN MY FATHER ALSO: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? HE THAT HATH SEEN ME HATH SEEN THE FATHER; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?" (John 14.7-9);

(b) the Persons of the Godhead are co-equal, co-inherent and uncreated One Being as Jesus said, "I and the Father are one" being (John 10.30), "one Lord" (Deut.6.4) "from everlasting to everlasting" (Ps. 41.13, 90.2, 93.2, 103.17, 106.48, Hab. 1.12), "for ever and ever" (1 Chron. 16.36, 29.10, Neh. 9.5). "Believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him" (John 10.38). "I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. Is there a God beside me? yea, [there is] no God; I know not [any]" (Is. 43.10, 44.8). It is God "who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. No one has seen the Father except the one [Jesus] who is from God; only he has seen the Father" (1 Tim. 6.16, John 1.18). I like John 8.16,29 "It is not I alone," declared Jesus, "but I and he who sent me... And He who sent me is with me." That's co-equality. In Isaiah 9.6 the Son is the "everlasting father," the author of our existence. Isaiah 40.28 says "The Lord is the everlasting God" and in Habakkuk 1.12, the rhetorical question is asked, "O Lord, are you not from everlasting?" In Colossians 1.16 we are told that "All things were created by him [Jesus]" who is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End (Rev. 22.13,16). "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist" (Col. 1.16,17). "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1.1). Jesus is the Word who was with God the Father in the beginning, and Jesus is God, thus, co-equal with the Father as "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made" (v.3).

(c) the Father is not the Son, nor is the Spirit the Father and nor is the Son the Spirit--"No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known" (John 1.18). "Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is HIS SON'S NAME, if thou canst tell? Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar" (Ps. 30.4-6);

(d) in the agreement of the council of the Godhead before the foundations of the world and universe, the Father spoke, the Son created and the Spirit renews creation ("By His Spirit He adorned the heavens" Job 26.13). "Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8.31-32). Who is this man who is claiming that we should follow His word if not God? The Jews tried to stone Jesus to death for what reason other than He was claiming He could forgive sins which only God could do for eternal forgiveness;
(e) when we pray to God we pray to the Father through the Son by the Spirit;
(f) the life of the Father and the Son is the Spirit;
(g) the Son emptied Himself of His independent attributes to enter into creation, "existing in the form of God" (Phil. 2.5) as a man (1 John 4.2), the promised "seed" (Gen. 3.15), in which His own spirit when He became a man was not the Holy Spirit;
(h) Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, is the fullness of the Godhead bodily for "Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God" (Rom. 9.5);
(i) our Lord Jesus has one will, not two wills, since Jesus is one Person (John 5.30);
(j) He is fully God, and fully man when in creation having the body of a man and though He died, He wears this garb of a resurrected body forever;
(k) He was upon His death "made alive in the spirit" (1 Pet. 3.18);
(l) He "became a life-giving spirit (and Spirit)" (1 Cor. 15.45) because after His resurrection, He lives in Christians by the Spirit for this latter Person to communicate the reality of Christ to us;
(m) now raised in His physically spiritual body, Christ Jesus is at the right hand of the Father; and
(n) when He returns, He will return with the same body He had when He was taken up (Zech. 14.4, Acts 1.11, Rev. 1.7).