The doctrine of the Trinity is consistently attacked by atheists, Muslims, Orthodox Jews and pseudo-Christian cults etc. Atheists claim the concept of three distinct Persons in One God is illogical and incoherent, and therefore jump at the opportunity to attack the doctrine as just another point against Christianity. On the other hand Muslims reject the notion that Jesus Christ can be both God and man based on the teaching of the Qur’an. Likewise non-Christian Jews reject Jesus as the Messiah to begin with. The idea that Jesus is also God along with the Father is further rejected on the claim that the doctrine isn’t monotheistic.
Pseudo-Christian cults are a slightly different story. They claim to derive all their doctrines from the Bible yet allege that it doesn’t teach that God is three Persons in One. It has been my observation that when professing Christian denominations deny the Trinity, they also tend to teach other tenets which depart from orthodoxy. In some cases they also rely on extra biblical guidance.
It would be fair to say that the doctrine of the Trinity is one of the most difficult to understand or explain. On being challenged by other Christians that the rapture isn’t in the Bible, I’ve often asked them to show me where the Trinity was. While I believe in the Trinity, I sometimes use this tactic to make a point. Most of us would have some difficulty defending the teaching. Even William Lane Craig once stated one couldn’t possibly find an adequate analogy to define the Trinity.
If we’re all honest, however, there are ideas proclaimed by science and different religions (including the New Age) which are accepted in faith, yet remain unproven or defy understanding.
For those of us who profess Christianity, the Bible should be the last word on the matter. To that end, we’ve provided several resources below. These links should help us all to understand what Scripture says about the Trinity, why it is important, and how the co-operation of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is connected to our salvation.
Creation Ministries International:
…At creation, the Father spoke the commands that caused things to come into existence. Jesus was the agent of that Creation (the Logos who John talks about in John 1; also Hebrews 1:2). Speaking of Jesus (cf. Colossians 1:13), Colossians 1:16–17 says:
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Genesis also teaches that the Spirit of God was present and active in creation, hovering over the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2). Ecclesiastes 12:1 uses the plural “Creators” although this is often masked in translation —it’s interpreted as a ‘plural of majesty’ by people who don’t see the Trinity in the Old Testament, but there are no other instances of ‘plurals of majesty’ other than places where the Trinity ‘has to be’ explained away…keep reading
Bill Craig’s Formulation and Defense of the Doctrine of the Trinity:
…we can imagine a possible world in which God is perfectly loving and yet no created persons exist. So created persons cannot sufficiently explain whom God loves. Moreover, contemporary. cosmology makes it plausible that created persons have not always existed. But God is eternally loving. So again created persons alone are insufficient to account for God’s being perfectly loving. It therefore follows that the other to whom God’s love is necessarily directed must be internal to God Himself.
In other words, God is not a single, isolated person, as unitarian forms of theism like Islam hold; rather God is a plurality of persons, as the Christian doctrine of the Trinity affirms. On the unitarian view God is a person who does not give Himself away essentially in love for another; He is focused essentially only on Himself. Hence, He cannot be the most perfect being. But on the Christian view, God is a triad of persons in eternal, self-giving love relationships. Thus, since God is essentially loving, the doctrine of the Trinity is more plausible than any unitarian doctrine of God…keep reading
A response to Muslim objections to the Trinity by Answering Islam:
…First, the very act of the incarnation requires the efforts of the entire Godhead. The Father is the sender, the Son is the one sent, and the Holy Spirit empowers. The incarnation is the foundation of the Gospel, for without the incarnation there is no Gospel. The basis of the Gospel is the sacrifice of God in human form on behalf of humanity. Therefore, the Gospel message requires a triune God. Second, Christian mission efforts are Christocentric, not Christmonistic. While the focus of all “mission” efforts is to introduce the lost to the Messiah, Christ Jesus, this is not the only focal point. At the very least, Christ’s role within the triune God must be addressed to ensure that those evangelized are coming to salvation in the true Christ. Third, it is impossible to separate the message of Christ from the Trinity. In the first two chapters of the book of Acts, the reader is informed that the power and work of the Spirit aids in evangelism. According to John’s Gospel, the convicting work of the Holy Spirit brings the lost to salvation in Jesus Christ. Therefore, one cannot address the need to recognize Christ as the Messiah without invoking the work of the Trinity. Finally, it is the goal of all mission efforts to bring people into a relationship with the one true God, so that they may glorify Him as the triune God. James White correctly observes: “We have to have knowledge of our God to worship Him correctly. If we have defective knowledge, or worse, if we have wrong information…our worship is either lessened, or it is completely invalid, as the worship of idols and false gods.” The doctrine of the Trinity is so intertwined with the saving work of Jesus Christ that it cannot be avoided nor neglected in reaching Muslims for Christ…keep reading
The Trinity (Triunity) of God by J. Hampton Keathley III:
…No man can fully explain the Trinity, though in every age scholars have propounded theories and advanced hypotheses to explore this mysterious Biblical teaching. But despite the worthy efforts of these scholars, the Trinity is still largely incomprehensible to the mind of man.
Perhaps the chief reason for this is that the Trinity is a-logical, or beyond logic. It, therefore, cannot be made subject to human reason or logic. Because of this, opponents of the doctrine argue that the idea of the Trinity must be rejected as untenable. Such thinking, however, makes man’s corrupted human reason the sole criterion for determining the truth of divine revelation…keep reading
Understanding The Trinity by Peter S. Williams:
…God the Father can say ‘I’ (John 12:28), the Son can say ‘I’ (John 17:4) and the Spirit can say ‘I’ (Acts 13:2). The Father says ‘Thou’ to the Son (Mark 1:11), the Son says ‘Thou’ to the Father (John 17:2) and the Father and the Son use the words ‘He’ and ‘Him’ in reference to the Spirit (John 14:26; 15:26). Furthermore, the Father loves the Son (John 3:35), the Son loves the Father (John 14:31) and the Spirit testifies to the Son (John 15:26). These statements indicate the reality of three different persons: “God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. These names indicate three genuine distinctions within the one personal God, and these three distinctions themselves are fully personal.” Theologian David Brown agrees that God contains “three distinct centres of consciousness, each with its own distinctive mental content”, acting in co-operation with each other….keep reading
Monergism provides a number of articles defending the importance of the doctrine which you can access HERE and HERE. An unpublished article written by the Puritan Johnathan Edwards is helpful in showing how each Person of the Triune God participates in our redemption. He wrote:
…Our dependence is equally upon each in this office. The Father appoints and provides the Redeemer, and Himself accepts the price and grants the thing purchased; the Son is the Redeemer by offering Himself and is the price; and the Holy Ghost immediately communicates to us the thing purchased by communicating Himself, and He is the thing purchased. The sum of all that Christ purchased for men was the Holy Ghost: (Gal. 3:13,14) “He was made a curse for us… that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”…keep reading
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