THE MOST HOLY TRINITY
The "Holy Trinity" is a very clear doctrine of the New Testament, already sketched in the Old: There is only one God, with tree persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit... each person is fully God, but there are not three Gods, only one God!.
God is a Family... the Trinity:
Elohim is God in plural, as a family:
"And God (Elohim - plural of deities) said, Let US (plural) make man in OUR (plural) image, after OUR (plural) likeness: and let them (plural) 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." (Ge.1:26 NIV).
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (plural). (Ge.1:27).
The first factor in understanding the proper definition of God from the Hebrew perspective is that the word is the plural of deity. It is similar to the word family. A family is one entity comprised of more than one member. For example, my family is comprised of four members, we are the Dominguez family and my individual title is the Father. The word "Elohim" is a specific class of beings whose individual members are further defined by the first names they carry. This class of beings is first set forth in the first chapter of Genesis. "And God created great whales, and EVERY LIVING CREATURE that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, AFTER THEIR KIND, and every winged foul after HIS KIND: and God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:21 (KJV)
That "family", says later the Bible, is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three persons but only one God. The Father is God and fully God. The Son, the Word, is God and fully God. The Holy Spirit is God and fully God. And there are not three Gods but only one God, the family of God... the most glorious mystery of the Holy Trinity in the whole Bible.
The Father is eternal and immutable, without beginning nor end... the Word, the Son is also eternal, The Father has Word from the beginning, and the Word is the Son who became flesh, Jesus the Christ. So, the Word, the Son, was not created but eternally begotten of the Father, begotten not made, one in Being with the Father always, since eternity to eternity.
On top of it,if just for a second the Word would have not existed, for that second the Father would have been no "Father" because for that second He would have had no "Son", which is an impossible, because He is eternally immutable.
The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son: The love of the Father to the Son and the love of the Son to the Father is the Holy Spirit, also eternal and immutable, as the Son and the Father... Yes, God is Love, a family of Love!.
We often try to paint the Father: Jesus tells us, he who sees me sees the Father (Jn.14:9), so the best picture of God the Father is Jesus at Bethlehem or at Calvary or as a Carpenter in Nazareth.
Since Creation, in Gen.1, the tree persons always do things together: The Father gives the order, the word... the Word Jesus makes it, and He does not need any laborers, He does everything with the power of the Holy Spirit.
This is the way I understand it: If I ask my son to put on the light, he clicks the switch and the light is on. Here, I would be the Father, my son would be the Son, but the light does not go on if there is not electrical current there... that electrical current is the power of the Holy Spirit.
And to end this example, we are the bulb!, if the bulb is broken not even the Holy Spirit can light it up!... Yes, God made us free like Him, and when he made us free He decided to respect our freedom no matter what... so, if you or I decide to spit God in His face, not even God will stop us!... and that's the reason of our "responsibility", and of Heave or Hell forever, because we were not only made "free" like God, but immortal, eternal, like God.
Some more Quotations on the Trinity:
- Only One God: Deut.6:4-5, Mk.12:29-30, Jn.10:30, 14:9, 17:11, 21,23, Ephe.4:4-6.
- Three Different Persons: Mt.3:13-17, 28:19, 1Cor.12:3-6, 1Ped.1:2, Jud.20-21, 2Cor.13:13, Tit.3:5-7, Rom.1:1-4, Gal.4:6, Rev.1:4-5
- Jesus and the Father:
- John: 2:16, 3:35, 5:17,20,37, 6:65, 8:54, 10:30, 14:9,10, 14:23-24, 16:14-15, 16:25-33, 17:1-5, 17:11,21,23,
- Matthew: 6:9,15, 7:11,21, 10:32, 11:27,12:50, 18:35, 24:36, 28:19,
- Luke: 2:49, 6:36, 12:32, 22:42, 23:34, 23:46, 24:49.
- Jesus and the Spirit: John: 14:15-17, 14:26, 16:5-15, 1Cor.12:1-11, 2Cor.13:13,
- The Spirit in the OT: Gen.1:2, Num.11:16-26, 27:18, Judg.3:10,6:34, 14:6,19, 15:14, 23:24, 1Sam.16:13, 2Sam.23:2, 2K.2:9, Is.11:2, 28:6, 63:10, Zech.7:12, Neh.9:30, Sal.51:11
Old Testament:
In Genesis God speaks in "plural": "Let us make", "to our image", "to our likeness"... it does not say, "I make", "to my image"... (Ge.1:26)... and continues, "God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them" (Ge.1:27).
God is like the "sun": The sun is the Father; the light is the Son; the heat is the Holy Spirit... only one sun, only one God.
In the "creation" of Gen.1, the Father gives the "order"; this order is made by the Word, the Son; but the Son does not need engineers nor architects, nor workers... he does everything with the power of the Holy Spirit... and, in fact, the Spirit is the first person of God mentioned in the Bible, in Gen.1:2.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.(Jn.1:1-3... Colos.1:15-17).).
In Gen.2:24 God created "marriage" at the image of God, "the two of them become one flesh"... and the actual beautiful plan of God for marriage is "3 persons in one flesh", "husband, wife, and God", like the Trinity!, and marriage would be like "a piece of heaven on earth"!... but many marriages are like "a piece of hell on earth", because the 3 persons are "husband, wife, and Satan"... if you are in sin, your marriage is hell, even if you are a millionaire... guaranteed!... if you want to fix your marriage, it is easy, live with Jesus in your heart, and your marriage will be a piece of heaven on earth... guaranteed!.
The Trinity is also represented by the "three men" who visited Abraham in Gen.18:2.
God is repeatedly "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob", in Ex.3:6, 3:15, Lk.20:37... symbolizing the Holy Trinity: Abraham is God the Father, Isaac is God the Son, and Jacob is God the Holy Spirit... Jacob was transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit from "Jacob", a cheater, into "Israel", the kindest man in the Bible.
God is Himself a community of love: The Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, and this love of the Father to the Son and of the Son to the Father is the Holy Spirit: Three persons, but only one true God.
- The Son exists from eternity, as the Father, because if at any moment the Son would have not existed, the Father would not have been a Father at that moment, and that's an impossible, because one of the characteristics of God is that he is immutable, unchangeable, the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow... and the Holy Spirit has also the same eternity, because he is the mutual love of the Father and the Son, eternally, immutable.
In the Baptism of Jesus:
The three persons appear distinctively (Matt.3:16-17, Mar.1:10-11):
1 - The "Son" is a person, fully God and fully man, Jesus the Christ, the Messiah.
2 - The "Father" is a person who claims, "this is my beloved Son".
3 - The Holy Spirit is a person, descending like a dove coming upon Jesus.
The Holy Spirit:
Peter teaches that the Holy Spirit is the person most important now in our lives, because the Father already created us; the Son already redeemed us; and the Holy Spirit is the person who sanctifies us now, who makes us to appropriate in our lives the redemption of Christ, for the glory of the Father (1Pet.1:2).
The Holy Spirit comes to our lives as a "dove", very humble, wanting to nest in our hearts, but with the hurricane power of Pentecost of Acts 2, able to fill our lives with the love of Christ, for the glory of the Father, and of his Church, and for our own good.
Come, Holy Spirit, on any person reading these lines, make in him the same job you did in Virgin Mary, fill him with Jesus, to serve the neighbor and to sing the praises of the Lord, like Mary did in Luk.1:35, 39-56... it is the essence of the Pentecost in Act.2... and in our lives!.
Anything Jesus did on earth was with the "power of the Holy Spirit":
- He was conceived in the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luk.1:35);
- He went about doing good and healing the sick by the power of the Holy Spirit (Act.10:38);
- He offered himself on the Cross through the eternal Spirit (Heb.9:14);
- Resurrected by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom.8:11);
The Spirit is the life of the Church:
He guides the Church now, fills her with life... he is the Lord and giver of life, the one who inspired all the Holy Scriptures (2Pet.1:21).
Do you need a good Lawyer?:
Take the Holy Spirit, your Great Lawyer, your Advocate, your Guide, your "Paraclete", "the one who is always at your side" (Jn.14:16, 16:7-13).
Everything good in the Bible:
Everything good in the Bible was made by the power of the Holy Spirit: The "creation" of Gen.1, as we commented; Moses was filled with the Spirit and that same Spirit was given to other 70 in Num.11; Samson, Gideon, and all the Judges were filled with the Spirit; Saul, David, Solomon, were anointed with the Holy Spirit; all the Prophets were inspired by the Spirit (2Pet.1:21)... and Joel says that in the last days, now!, God will poor out his Spirit upon all flesh, upon all humanity, prophecy fulfilled in the Pentecost of Acts 2:16-21. Holy Spirit
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