understanding the Trinity
It's all about God's Love for You

Copyright 2013 by H. D. Shively


Chapter One - One that is Three

The Scriptures tell us that there are “three” – One Spirit, One Messiah and One God the Father.

There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, (Jesus)one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. – Ephesians 4: 4-6.

        In this verse the Apostle Paul is recording what has previously been revealed in the Old Testament where we see the Three in Isaiah 42:1. -

Behold My servant, whom I uphold; My elect, in whom My soul delights; I have put My Spirit upon Him: He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles (Isaiah 42:1).

        In this messianic passage, God the Father gives His Holy Spirit to the Messiah.

        The basis of Trinitarianism is that the "Three," God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit all operate simultaneously. All Three are distinct from each other, yet they are all one. Each is the totality of the other, which means you cannot have one without the other. They are not separated; they are One Spirit operating as one inseparable unit. This distinguishes Biblical Trinitarianism from tritheism, which is the worship of three individual, separate gods/personalities as one.

        The premise of the Three operating at the same time is supported one hundred percent by the Word of God. The Apostle Paul tells us that God is seated on His throne while Jesus is at the right hand of the Father at the same time the Holy Spirit is in the believer –

        Who is he that condemns (can condemn us)? It is Christ that died, yes rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us – Romans 8:34.
For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father – Romans 8:15.
…the Spirit of God dwells in you…Romans 8:9.


       

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At Jesus’ baptism we see Him in the water as the Holy Spirit descends from Heaven and we hear the voice of the Father declare that Jesus is His beloved Son. -

And Jesus, when He was baptized, went straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, “This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” – Matthew 3:16,17.

        In Daniel chapter seven, we are shown the Messiah as the Son of Man being brought in clouds, (an element often associated with the Holy Spirit,) before the Ancient of Days (God the Father).

I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him - Daniel 7:13.

        From these Scriptures we can see that all three operate at the same time, and all three are distinct from each other. What makes them a “Trinity” is their unity. The word trinity comes from the Latin word, “trinitas” which means “a union of three.” In this study we shall see how the scriptures reveal how the Three are unified and how all three are “God” through that unification. However, Biblical Trinitarianism does not teach that Jesus is God the Father. Christians need to understand that whenever we use the word “God” in relation to Jesus, to the Jewish and Muslim minds we are saying that Jesus is God the Father. Jesus is not God the Father, they are two distinct “persons” that are one. To understand this relationship and its significance to us, is the goal of this journey into the mystery of what man has christened the “Trinity."

        Before I begin, the reader needs to understand that this study is based on a trichotomist’s view of God. And it is important to understand this concept before we start to explore the universe of how our wondrous God has chosen to reveal His construction to mankind.

Trichotomous or Dichotomous?

        There are lots of tricky sounding words that have been cut and pasted into Christian theology. The words themselves are not found in the Scriptures, but they are used to define concepts that are contained in the Word of God.
        The word “trichotomy” or “trichotomous” is used to describe the belief that human beings consist of “three” – spirit, soul and body.
        The apostles were trichotomous in their theology. The Apostle Paul said – And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ – I Thessalonians 5:23.
        The Scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments make a distinction between the soul and the spirit; the spirit being the body's life force. In the Old Testament the word for spirit is Ruach, in the Greek, Pneuma. The word for soul in the Hebrew is Nephesh, in Greek, Psuche (psoo-khay).
        Sometimes the words for spirit and soul are used interchangeably and the meanings overlap. The word for spirit is used on occasion to indicate the soul, and vice versa. Because of this there arose out of the murky swamp of theological definitions the ominous two-horned “dichotomous.” A dichotomist believes the spirit and the soul are the same, therefore humans are merely two, soul and body. Some folks even go so far as to label anyone who is a trichotomist as a heretic. It is time for the three-horned trichotomus to stop being chased through the swamp to turn and defend its theological right to exist. Actually, the dichotomus position originated with Plato, was perpetuated by Augustine and eventually adopted by Calvin.

        I’m sure no one would want to deliberately offend the Apostle Paul by accusing him of being a heretic for his comment in I Thessalonians 5:23, yet that is what those critics of the tricohotomist position are doing when they contradict the Apostle who said - Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ – I Corinthians 11:1. The Apostle Paul was a very fine Hebrew scholar and who I am sure, recognized the distinction in the Hebrew of soul and spirit; the spirit being the life force, and the soul the actual person. Following the Apostle’s example I don the name tag that designates me as a trichodomist. Now I must respond to the growling protests of the dichotomists in our audience who think the Apostle Paul is wrong.
        I am willing to acknowledge that the words soul and spirit are sometimes used interchangeably; at the same time I also recognize that they are also used separately, indicating that they are two distinct elements. Can both concepts be reconciled? Yes, they can.

        It is generally understood by those who follow the trichotomous theology that the spirit gives life to the body and influences the soul. The soul is understood to be the person of anyone. We save souls, because the soul survives the death of the body and must be cleansed by faith in the atonement through Messiah Jesus in order to inherit eternal life.
What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul (psuche)? - Mark 8:36.
He will redeem his soul (nephesh) from going down to the pit, and his life shall see light - Job 33:28.


        Dichotomists believe that the soul gives life to the body. But the Scriptures show us that the soul is a created entity -"The souls which I have made" (Isaiah 57:16). - That which is created does not have the ability to give life, especially sinful souls that require redemption. Only God has the power to create life from nothing. However, in the original Greek it is indicated that the soul can also be part of the life force. Yet, at the same time the very definite distinction between soul and spirit still exists, leading us to the conclusion that spirit and soul are two distinct elements of a human’s construction that are one to the point of being indistinguishable from each other, but they can also function separately. Therefore because of the intimate union of soul and spirit, there is the appearance of the soul being part of the life force.
        Let’s take a look at this example from the Scriptures that illustrates the distinction between soul and spirit.
The prophet Isaiah says,
With my soul (nephesh) have I desired Thee in the night, yea, with my spirit (ruach) within me I will seek Thee early, for when Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness – Isaiah 26:9.

        The prophet’s soul/person desires God, he seeks Him with his spirit.

And Mary said, My soul (psuche) does magnify the Lord, and my spirit (pneuma) has rejoiced in God my saviour – Luke 1:46,47.

        Mary’s soul, her person, who she is, magnifies, her spirit rejoices. Therefore, the spirit and the soul can operate simultaneously in separate functions.

        The soul/person is made by God through His Spirit and given life by His breath -
The Spirit of God has made me (the soul/person) and the breath (neshamah) has given me life – Job 33:4.
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath
(neshamah) of life; and man became a living soul (nephesh). – Genesis 2:7
As the Lord liveth, that made us this soul
(nephesh) - Jeremiah 38:16.

        The word neshamah (breath), which can also mean spirit, is used in reference to the life force in a human to distinguish it from God’s Holy Spirit (Ruach). The word ruach can be used to designate man’s spirit and also God’s Holy Spirit. We must then examine the texts that we are studying to determine the usage; whether the word ruach is being used to designate a human spirit, or God’s Holy Spirit.
        Jesus said that “It is the spirit (pneuma) that quickens” (gives life) – John 6:63.
For the body without the spirit
(pneuma) is dead – James 2:26.
        Here Jesus and the Apostle James are telling us that the pneuma/spirit is the life force.
        When we die -
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit (ruach) shall return unto God who gave it – Ecclesiastes 12:7.
        While the spirit, or life force, can return to God upon the death of the human body, the soul, which is the person, cannot return to God unless it is redeemed; that is sanctified by the atonement of Jesus Christ.
        We see from the examples given to us in the Scriptures that when someone dies, their spirit, the life force returns to God, but the soul remains. When Abel was murdered by his brother Cain, his spirit, his life force returned to the God who gave it, but his voice was heard crying out from the ground -And He (God) said, What have you done? the voice of your brother's blood cries to Me from the ground (Genesis 4:10). The person/soul that needed to be saved remained behind.
        The Hebrews believed that after the death of the body, souls were separated into two dwellings based on their deeds. The righteous dead remained in paradise and the wicked were in hell to await the resurrection of the dead. So we see that when the beggar Lazarus died in Jesus' parable, his spirit returned to God, but Lazarus' person/soul is seen in paradise with Abraham - And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom (Luke16:22,23).
        The Apostle Peter tells us that after Jesus died on the cross He was sent by the Spirit to hell where He ministered the Gospel to the souls there.Their spirits/life forces had returned to God, but their souls, their persons, who they are, remained in hell or paradise awaiting redemption.For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometimes were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water (I Peter 3:19,20).

        The writer of Hebrews tells us that – The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart – Hebrews 4:12.

        Here the Word tells us that there are two; soul and spirit. The context indicates that these two are united so closely they are also like two parts of one body, the joint, (the bone), and the marrow, the inner part of the bone. The Scriptures are showing us by this comparison of soul and spirit and bone and marrow, that these two things that are so intimately connected as one are also two and can be separated.
        Therefore, the soul/person of anyone is intimately joined to the spirit in such a union of the two, so as to make the two completely one to the point of being indistinguishable from the other, yet they can operate separately and be separated from each other upon death.
        Because soul and spirit are so closely united, we can begin to see why in the Scriptures the two elements of spirit and soul are sometimes used interchangeably and viewed as one.
        As we proceed in this study we will see this principle operating in the relationship of the Father and the Son.

In His Image

        The Bible tells us that people are made in the image of God; And God said, Let us make man in our image (Genesis 1:26). Humans are also one that is three - body, soul and spirit, so the concept of the Trinity is not a mystery that cannot be explained. God has placed everything we need to know about His miraculous construction within the pages of His Word. One of my favorite Scriptures is Proverbs 25:2 – It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter. When we combine our seeking with a child-like inquisitiveness, God is most happy to oblige us and He responds by opening His Word and begins to reveal His secrets to His children. Jesus said, “I thank You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to babes” – Matthew 11:25.
       Come children, we are about to begin an inspirational game of “Seek and you shall find….”

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