The Unity and Plurality of God John Stevenson

The Unity and Plurality of God © John Stevenson, 2012

• There is only one God. • The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are all God. • The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are each separate persons.

• God is one. Hear O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one. (Deuteronomy 6: 4). For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 2: 5).

• God is one. • God is unique. To you it was shown that you might know that the LORD, He is God; there is no other besides Him (Deuteronomy 4: 35).

• God is one. • God is unique. “You are My witnesses, ” declares the Lord, “And My servant whom I have chosen, in order that you may know and believe in Me, and understand that I am He. Before me there was no god formed, and there will be none after Me. ” (Isaiah 43: 10).

• The name Elohim. • The use of the Plural Pronoun for God. Then God said, “Let US make man in OUR image, according to OUR likeness. . . ” (Genesis 1: 26).

• The name Elohim. • The use of the Plural Pronoun for God. Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of US, knowing good and evil. . . ” (Genesis 3: 22).

• The name Elohim. • The use of the Plural Pronoun for God. “Come, let US go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. ” (Genesis 11: 6).

• The name Elohim. • The use of the Plural Pronoun for God • The Deity of Jesus Christ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1: 1).

• The name Elohim. • The use of the Plural Pronoun for God. • The Deity of Jesus Christ. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1: 14).

• The name Elohim. • The use of the Plural Pronoun for God. • The Deity of Jesus Christ. • The Triune Baptismal Formula. “…baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. ” (Matthew 28: 19).

• The name Elohim. • The use of the Plural Pronoun for God. • The Deity of Jesus Christ. • The Triune Baptismal Formula. • God deals with God.

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom. 7 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of joy above Your fellows. (Psalm 45: 6 -7).

A Psalm of David. The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet. ” (Psalm 110: 1).

• He Creates all things All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being (John 1: 3).

• He Creates all things In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1: 1).

• He Creates all things Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, “I, the LORD, am the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself, and spreading out the earth all alone” (Isaiah 44: 24).

• He Creates all things • He forgives sin “But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” -- He said to the paralytic-11 “I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home” (Mark 2: 10 -11).

• He Creates all things • He forgives sin “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins. ” (Isaiah 43: 25).

• • • He Creates all things He forgives sin He is called God For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9: 6).

• • • He Creates all things He forgives sin He is called God. . . looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus (Titus 2: 13).

• • • He Creates all things He forgives sin He is called God But of the Son He says, “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever, And the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom. ” (Hebrews 1: 8).

• • He Creates all things He forgives sin He is called God He is the Alpha and Omega “I am the Alpha and the Omega, ” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. ” (Revelation 1: 8).

• • He Creates all things He forgives sin He is called God He is the Alpha and Omega “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, 18 and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. ” (Revelation 1: 17 -18).

• • He Creates all things He forgives sin He is called God He is the Alpha and Omega …the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1: 15)

• • He Creates all things He forgives sin He is called God He is the Alpha and Omega …in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2: 9).

• He speaks And while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (Acts 13: 2)

• He speaks …but say whatever is given you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit. (Mark 13: 11 b).

• He speaks • He teaches And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. (Luke 2: 26).

• He speaks • He teaches But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. (John 14: 26).

• • • He speaks He teaches He warns But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons (1 Timothy 4: 1).

• • He speaks He teaches He warns He helps And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever (John 14: 16).

• • • He speaks He teaches He warns He helps He can be grieved And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption (Ephesians 4: 30).

Matthew 3: 16 -17 After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, 17 and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased. ”

John 14: 26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. ”

John 15: 26 -27 “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, 27 and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning. ”

Acts 2: 32 -33 “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. 33 Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. ”

Romans 8: 16 -17 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

1 Peter 1: 1 -2 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.

GOD Father Son Spirit • The Father planned • The Son executed the plan • The Spirit reveals the plan

Father Son Spirit GOD GOD

GOD (Father) Son Spirit

Father “And now, glorify Thou Me with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. ” (John 17: 5). Son Spirit

Father “. . . for Thou didst love Me before the foundation of the world. ” (John 17: 24 b). Son Spirit

Father t no Is Is Is no t GOD Is Is Son Spirit Is not

Similar or Same? • Homoiousia: Sees the Son as essentially similar but not identical substance with Father. • Homoousia: Sees the Son as of same substance with Father. The Nicene Creed accepted the description of the Son as being Homoousia with the Father – o`moosion tw Patri

• One God in three Gods • Three persons in one person • Three persons in three Gods

We must remind ourselves that Christian theology does not believe God to be a person. It believes Him to be such that in Him a trinity of persons is consistent with a unity of Deity. In that sense it believes Him to be something very different from a person, just as a cube, in which six squares are consistent with unity of the body, is different from a square. — C. S. Lewis.

Flatlanders, attempting to imagine a cube, would either imagine the six squares coinciding, and thus destroy their distinctness, or else imagine them set out side by side, and thus destroy the unity. Our difficulties about the Trinity are of much the same kind. — C. S. Lewis.

What are the practical ramifications of the doctrine of the Trinity?

Does the doctrine of the Trinity affect your prayer life?