Over the years there have been many distortions of the biblical doctrine of the Trinity, which is the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as three distinct spiritual Persons in one Godhead. The word “Godhead” or the “Divine Nature” appears in the New Testament three times in Acts 17:29, Romans 1:20 and Colossians 2:9. It simply means “that which is divine.” There are various Bible references that indicate that there are three divine Personalities Who are eternal and are identified as God, Christ and the Holy Spirit. The English word “God” is the translation of the Hebrew word “Elohim,” which is a plural of the Majesty. The plural form “Elohim” carrying with it the actual meaning of the Godhead appears more than three thousand times in the Old Testament. This means that in most cases when the English reader reads the word ”God” in the Bible in the singular sense, the Scriptures are actually referring to the Godhead, in the plural sense. For instance, when in Genesis 1:1 we read, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” translated literally from Hebrew, in the language Moses wrote, it would read, “In the beginning Gods created…” This is how the plural word “Elohim” would read.
There was a plurality of divine beings in the beginning when this creation was perfected. This is evidently clear as we read in Genesis 1:26, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…’”—a plurality of persons being used. The Godhead was present “in the beginning.” God was behind the whole creation, planning it (Hebrews 1:1); Christ, the Son, was present (John 1:1-3, 14; Colossians 1:16-17) and the Holy Spirit was present (Genesis 1:1-2). Throughout the Old Testament, the idea of a plural God is present in the word Elohim, used for God in its pages, but in the New Testament it is made clear that the Elohim, the plural God or the Godhead is composed of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:18; John 5:17; 8:16; 13:3; 16:7, 27-28; Acts 2:33; 10:38; etc.). The apostle Paul, in Romans 15:30, asked the brethren at Rome to pray for him and mentioned the Godhead. The Godhead is also mentioned in the apostle’s benediction to the church at Corinth (2 Corinthians 13:14).
There are some, however, who teach the false doctrine that there is only one Person in the Godhead, revealing Himself in three different ways as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Hence, they deny the biblical doctrine of the Trinity and teach that Jesus is the only God, that He alone is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They believe these are only three different titles of the same Person. They go so far as to teach that all those who have been baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as Christ commanded in Matthew 28:19, must be baptized again in the name of Jesus only to be saved!
Surely, the Bible definitely teaches that there is but one God (Deuteronomy 6:4; 1 Corinthians 8:4), but the Bible also teaches, as already observed, that the one true God exists in three distinct Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is not playing three separate roles one after the other, but He exists independently, eternally and simultaneously in the three-fold relationship. This is not to say that there are three Gods in one, but there is only one God or Godhead in which there are three distinct spiritual Persons—the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They all are of the same substance—literally character (Hebrews 1:1-3). They are infinite in being, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent.
The unity of the Godhead consists not in the unity of purpose only but in the common nature, in the sameness of Divine Nature. We witness all of these three relating to one another at the baptism of Jesus in Matthew 3:16-17, where we observe, first, “Jesus came up immediately from the water,” second, “the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him,” third, “And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’” Here we clearly observe the three divine Persons of the Trinity together. Yet, someone objects by saying, “The Bible never uses the word Trinity; therefore, we shouldn’t.” The truth is, the Bible never uses the word “Bible” either. However, in both cases the idea is in the Scripture, so the words can’t be wrong. The term “Trinity” is not a biblical term, that is, it does not appear in the New Testament, but it is a biblical concept. When Christ gave, what we rightly call, the “Great Commission” (again, not a biblical phrase but biblical concept) to His disciples, He sent them to make disciples of all nations by “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). The command was given by the authority of each of these three Divine Persons in the Godhead.
Also, some verses of the Scriptures make no sense unless God is triune. According to John 14:16-17, to His disciples Christ said, “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” The question is, how could the Father send another Helper, other than Jesus, if the other Helper is also Jesus? Again, in Mark 13:32 Christ said that neither the angels in Heaven nor the Son knows the day of His coming, but only the Father knows. What a gross lie that would be if He and the Father were the same Person! Would it not be mockery for Jesus to cry, as we read in Matthew 27:46, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” if He Himself were the Father?
To speak of three eternal and divine Persons in the one Godhead is to recognize the relationship that exists between the three in the divine nature, God—the Father, Word (Jesus)—the Son and the Holy Spirit, Who is also called the Helper (John 14:26; 16:7). The three Persons of the Godhead are one true God, the Elohim, Who created in the beginning the heavens and the earth and together accomplished the work of salvation of man. Of course, in accomplishing the work of salvation of humanity there is implicated a certain relative subordination in the modes of operating of different Persons, by which it is the Father Who sent the Word, the Son to be the propitiation for the sins of the world. The Son, after His propitiatory death, burial and resurrection, returned to the Father for the glory that He had with the Father before the world was. The Spirit was sent to apply redemption to men (John 14:25-26; 16:5-15; Acts 1:1-8; 2:1-4). Yet, the three Persons of the Godhead are uniformly represented in the Scriptures as in their essential nature each alike God over all.
