The Athanasian Creed, widely accepted and followed by present-day Protestant denominations and the Vatican, says the Trinity is to be worshipped. It talks about three Persons of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, but all being one God. Jesus said we need to know what we worship (John 4:22). So it becomes important that we study the Scriptures and try to understand whom the Bible says we need to worship.
Surprisingly the word Trinity is not found in the Scriptures. Among the titles used by the Trinitarian Creed - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, we find only one of these terms in the Bible - ‘God the Father’. The Bible has 3500+ instances of the word ‘god’. Obviously, almost all those refer to God himself. Nevertheless, we notice places where ‘god’ has other applications too. Yes, as Paul says, ‘indeed there are many gods and many lords’ (1Corinthians 8:5 NASB). So where do we see other gods in the Bible?
‘There are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ’ (1Corinthians 8:5-6 NASB)
Having confirmed the Father as our God, the Apostle says we have one Lord as well – Jesus Christ. As we saw before, this Lord is not the same word as the LORD (all capitals) Yahweh. This Lord (Greek:Kurios) means Master. Paul is saying we have one God, the Father and one Master, Jesus Christ. Why is Jesus our Master?
He answered them, ‘My Father is working until now, and I myself am working.’ For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God (John 5:17-18). Although it doesn't mention the Holy Spirit, this verse is usually quoted to support a co-equal trinity. Let us study this verse's context and also look at other passages where Jesus directly states what kind of relationship he has with the Father.
Trinitarians promote the theory that God and Jesus always existed eternally – with no beginning. If the question is asked whether Jesus and God will always exist, then the answer is yes, according to the Scriptures. But if the question is about whether God and Jesus both did not have a beginning, then the answer has to be researched further from the Scriptures. Let us look at some passages on this topic. Also the terms Father and Son themselves help us understand it better.
The third part of the Trinity - the Holy Spirit - is not declared as God anywhere in the Bible. And it was declared God in a Creed only in the 5th century (More on the history later). So what do we know about the Holy Spirit from the Scriptures? What is Spirit first of all? And why is it called Holy? What are the influences of the Holy Spirit? What did Jesus say about the Spirit? Alongwith the answers to these questions, let us also study a bit of Greek grammar along the way.
