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Acts 20:27
“I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.”
Much more can be said about the one true God, the God of the Bible, than that He is the one and only God. Over the next several months, we will do just that, considering His names and attributes as well as His being a Trinity of three divine persons in one divine essence. We are going to start, however, with a look at God as the Holy Trinity, the church’s confession that God is one in essence and three in person, each person truly and equally God.
As we begin our study, we remember that many people call themselves Christians but reject the doctrine of the Trinity. For instance, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, while affirming that there is only one God, do not believe that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are truly and equally God. They would say, like the ancient Arians before them, that the Son of God is not truly God but only the first and greatest being created by God. Other groups, such as the Oneness Pentecostals, believe that there are three fully divine persons but that there is no real distinction between Them. They affirm the ancient heresy of modalism, which views Father, Son, and Holy Spirit more like roles or states than distinct persons. God is Father at one time, then He takes on the role of the Son, and then He takes on the role of the Holy Spirit. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three divine persons who share an eternal communion with one another.
All these groups and others would claim that their beliefs are based on Scripture, but they can make this claim only with a very selective reading of Scripture. Any passage of the Bible, taken on its own and without reference to everything else the Bible says, might lead a person to one of the false conclusions listed above. Proper biblical interpretation, however, always reads a single passage in light of the entire canon of Scripture. We are to be concerned with the whole counsel of God and how each element of that counsel fits with and helps us understand the other elements. This was the approach that the Apostles took, proclaiming to their hearers the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27).
Fundamentally, why do we affirm the doctrine of the Trinity? Because we understand that true Christians are whole-Bible Christians. We know that we must believe everything the Bible says and that the passages of Scripture ultimately never contradict one another. When we read the Bible with those convictions, the text compels us to confess that God is one in essence and three in person.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Seeking to know and believe all that the Bible teaches may not be very popular in our day, but it is nonetheless essential. Faithful Christians take all of God’s Word into account and seek to understand how all its passages harmonize with one another. Sound doctrine always takes all of Scripture into view, and false doctrine is more selective, not considering the full scope of God’s Word.
For further study
- Exodus 24:3
- Deuteronomy 5:32
- Psalm 119:130
- 1 Corinthians 8:5–6
The bible in a year
- Exodus 34–36
- Matthew 23:1–22