My current videos and podcasts are surrounding a logical proof and explanation of the Trinity. We all of the content that I cover in this I thought it would be a good resource for proving the Trinity. So here are my notes. . . more to come.
I have several videos going through these notes if you want to see them all just go the playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRCeWLB1w0YAM95Fr2AxtDzeT6FhAGHbi
Trinity Notes
- Lay the groundwork
- We should expect things about God to be beyond our understanding
- Reality, in fact, is usually something you could not have guessed. That is one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It is a religion you could not have guessed. If it offered us just the kind of universe we had always expected, I should feel we were making it up. But, in fact, it is not the sort of thing anyone would have made up. It has just that queer twist about it that real things have. So let us leave behind all these boys’ philosophies–these over simple answers. The problem is not simple and the answer is not going to be simple either.” C.S. Lewis
- Just because something is beyond our comprehension, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t true.
- Tesseract, from math not from Marvel
- Fermats theorem made in 1637 solved in 1998
- We should expect things about God to be beyond our understanding
- Lay out a logical proof (make sure they agree that it is true)
- There is only one God
- The Father is God
- Jesus is God
- The HS is God
- They are not each other
- If this proof is fair then when we run into things that make us doubt the trinity we can once again refer to the proof and simply asses whether it disproves one of these premises and if it doesn’t it is still perfectly reasonable to say “I don’t know how it works, but I know it’s true”
- There is a vaccine for Covid, we know it works but if I can’t explain how it works it wouldn’t mean that the vaccine doesn’t work.
- There is only one God
- Explicit verses
- Deuteronomy 4:39- Know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.
- Isaiah 44:5-6- I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.
- Deuteronomy 4:35- To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him.
- Isaiah 44:10- “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.
- Psalm 86:10- For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God.
- Psalm 83:18- That they may know that you alone, whose name is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth.
- 1 Timothy 1:17 – To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
- Isaiah 45:18 For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the Lord, and there is no other.
- Isaiah 46:9– Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me
- Deuteronomy 32:39- “‘See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
- Within the storyline
- Elijah at Mt. Carmel: Notice Baal doesn’t burn up some of the alter and God just destroys it all. Baal does nothing demonstrating that Baal is not simply a lesser God but not a God at all.
- The Arc of the Covenant captured:
- The Ten Plagues: nowhere does it claim that the Egyptian Gods were able to do something. Even the sorcerers producing the snakes or the blood are not accredited to another god but just ‘magic arts’
- Explicit verses
- The Father is God
- The Son is God
- Jesus is worshiped (Prosekenio)
- Matthew 2:11 by the Magis
- Matthew 21:9 and John 12:13 by the use of the word Hosanna
- Matthew 28:9 the women take hold of his feet and worship him
- Matthew 14:33 after he walked on water
- Matthew 28:16-17 after the resurrection
- John 9:37-38 the blind man after being healed
- Hebrews 1:6 Angels commanded to worship him by God
- Prophecies
- Prepare the way for the Lord
- Isaiah 40:1-11; Mark 1:1-8, Mathew 3
- Son of Man
- Daniel 7:13-14 the son of man is worshiped
- Matthew 26:64, Mark 2:10-11
- Mark 8:31
- Prepare the way for the Lord
- The Name of Jesus
- In whose name should we meet?
- Matthew 18:20- For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
- 1 Corinthians 5:4- So when you are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present,
- Demons are subject to whose name?
- Luke 10:17- The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
- Acts 16:18- 18 She kept this up for many days. Finally, Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her.
- Repentance and forgiveness should be preached in whose name
- Luke 24:47- and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
- In whose name are you to believe and receive forgiveness of sins?
- John 1:12- Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God
- John 3:16- For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
- Acts 10:43- All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
- 1 John 3:23- And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us
- 1 John 5:13- I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life
- In whose name should we meet?
- Jesus is worshiped (Prosekenio)
- By whose name and no other do we obtain salvation?
- Acts 4:12- Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.
- Whose name should be invoked as we bring our petitions to God in prayer?
- John 14:13-14- And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
- John 15:16- You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
- John16:23-24- In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
- In whose name is the Holy Spirit sent?
- John 14:26- But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
- Whose name and authority was invoked by the disciples in healing the sick and lame?
- Acts 3:16- By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.
- Acts 4:7-10- They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.
- Acts 4-7:30- Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
- Whose name did Paul tell us to call upon?
- 1 Corinthians 1:2- Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.
- Whose name is above every name?
- Ephesians 1:21- far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come
- Philippians 2:9-11- Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
- Who are we to be witness’ of?
- Acts 1:8- But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
- He does things only God does
- Forgive sins
- Matthew 9:1-8
- Mark 2:1-12
- Create the world
- I alone stretchered out the heavens Isaiah 44:24
- John 1:1-3
- Colossians 1:17
- I alone stretchered out the heavens Isaiah 44:24
- Forgive sins
- All things hold together by him Colossians 1:17
- John 14:13-14- And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
- He must be divineAtonement: If Jesus is not divine then you have two problemsThe atonement could not work. It would not be a perfect lamb As an infinite God he is able to cover an infinite amount of sin, as a man he would only be able to cover one other persons. To be a mediator between God and man.The atonement is not neededSalvation must come from the Lord. If Jesus is not divine it proves that none of us really need him or the sacrifice of the cross. In essence the importance of the cross is lost. Necessity via other modes:All things hold together by him Colossians 1:17Questioning if Jesus needed to be divine is also a red herring in a way if we can simply say Jesus was divine. It is seeming more important to know that Jesus IS divine then it is to know WHY he is or WHY MUST he be divine.
- He must be man
- In order to suffer and sympathize
- He would not be an example for us to follow
- To be a mediator between God and Man
- He must be man
- The Holy Spirit is God
- What if the Holy Spirit is just an impersonal force?
- Neutral gender in the Greek
- Doesn’t mean that it is neutral in gender. Objects have genders in other languages it doesn’t mean that desks are male and cars are female
- HS is grieved
- Ephesians 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
- HS has a will
- 1 Corinthians 12:4-7
- HS has a mind
- 1 Corinthians 2:10
- HS has fellowship
- 2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.
- Philippians 2:1 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
- HS gives instruction
- Nehemiah 9:20 You gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst.
- Neutral gender in the Greek
- What if the Holy Spirit is just an impersonal force?
- HS speaks Acts 8:29; 11:12; 13:2HS Witness’Acts 5:32 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.HS prays/intercedes Romans 8:26-27 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. HS commands acts 10:19-20 And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. 20 Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation,[a] for I have sent them.”John 14:17 you HIM for HE dwells with you.HS is a teacher John 14:26 he will teach you all thingsHS is called a person/helper by JesusJohn 16:13-14 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.John 15:26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.
- Things Holy Spirit does that only God does
- Was a part of creation
- Genesis 1:2 the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters
- Psalm 104:30 When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.
- Holy Spirit speaking for someone was equal to God speaking for someone.
- Mark 13:11 Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.
- Matthew 10:19-20 When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. 20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
- Luke 21:14-15 Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, 15 for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.
- Jesus and the father will be with them through the HS
- Romans 8:9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him
- Prophets words are carried along by the Holy Spirit and the scriptures of prophets come from God according to
- 2 Peter 1:21 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
- 2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
- To be born again we must be born of the Spirit
- John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.
- Titus 3:5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
- Lying against the Holy Spirit is lying against God
- Acts 5:3-4 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”
- Unpardonable sin
- Matthew 12:31-32 And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
- Omnipresent
- Psalm 139:7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
- Omniscient
- 1 Corinthians 2:10-11 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God
- Was a part of creation
- The Holy Spirit is seen as lesser in scripture
- Difference in function does not indicate inferiority in nature
- Things Holy Spirit does that only God does
- The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are not each other
- Is Holy Spirit same as the son?
- Jesus says the father will send the Holy Spirt
- John14:25-26; All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you
- 15:26-27; “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.
- 16:7-15 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
- John 14:16-17 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[a] in you.”
- Jesus says the father will send the Holy Spirt
- Jesus is not the father
- Jesus prays to the father
- God sends his son
- The HS is not the father
- The Father sends the HS
- They all show up distinctly at Jesus baptism Mark 1:10-11
- Is Holy Spirit same as the son?
- Another Approach:
- God is love
- love must be given to something or something in order to be possessed.
- Nothing other than God existed before creation
- Therefore, God must exist as at least two persons in order to be love before creation
- Why you’re doing it wrong with analogies
- The clover
- The egg
- The Oreo
- Water
- Better analogies
- Bronze statue
- Fluffy the three headed Dog
- Objections
- Jesus seems to be a man
- He doesn’t know things
- He can’t do things without the father
- There is only on God. . . . 1 Corinthians 8:6
- Verses that need classificaaiton
- Spirit of God is equal to the spirit of Christ
- Unless the Gospels lay it out. . . it’s not true
- Then we have a bunch of other concepts like justification, sanctification etc. that we also can’t accept.
- Jesus seems to be a man
BEARDED DISCIPLE 