Grace Bible Church
Basic Training in Doctrine
July 24, 2007
Apologetics for the Doctrine of the Trinity, Part 2
“If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God, except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, then I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him.”
“Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle front besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.” Martin Luther.
When expounding on all related texts to the Son and the Holy Spirit it is clear that they are both God along with God the Father. When this is seen in the Scripture the interpretation of plural majesty has to be thrown out.
GEN 3:22
“like one” = k’achab (singular “One”)
“of Us” = mimenuw (plural preposition).
Achab is used most famously in the phrase written in Due 6:4: Shema Yisrael (Hear O Israel) Adonai Eloheynuw (the Lord is our Elohim), Adonai echab (the Lord is One).
1. There is only one true God.
2. The Father is God.
3. Jesus Christ, the Son, is God.
John 20:28
In answer Thomas said to him: “My Lord and my God!” (NWT)
ISA 9:6 For there has been a child born to us, there has been a son given to us; and the princely rule will come to be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. (NWT)
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
(NASB)
John 1:1 In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god. (NWT)
John 1:1
kaí [and] theós [God] eén [was] ho [the] Lógos [word]
“and the word was God.”
The Journal of Biblical Literature says that expressions “with an anarthrous [no article] predicate preceding the verb, are primarily qualitative in meaning.” As the Journal notes, this indicates that the lo’gos can be likened to a god.
Colwell, Harner, and Mantey as well as all decent translations have stated that theos in John 1:1 is not indefinite and should NOT be translated “a god.”
ROM 9:5 to whom [the Jews] the forefathers belong and from whom the Christ [sprang] according to the flesh: God, who is over all, [be] blessed forever. Amen. (NWT)
ROM 9:5
hoón [whose] hoi [the] patéres [fathers] kaí [and] ex [from] hoón [whom] ho [the] Christós [Christ] tó katá [according to] sárka [flesh] ho [who] oón [being / is] epí [over and above] pántoon [all] Theós [God] eulogeetós [blessed / worthy of praise and glorification] eis [for] toús aioónas [ever] Ameén
“Christ” = nominative masculine singular
“is” = nominative masculine singular
“God” = nominative masculine singular
Thus, our Lord is spoken of as God, the One who is well-spoken of, eulogized, praised, forever.
(Kenneth Wuest)
Titus 2:13
while we wait for the happy hope and glorious manifestation of the great God and of [the] Savior of us, Christ Jesus, (NWT)
Grandville Sharp’s rule as defined by Wuest: When there are two nouns in the same case connected by kai (and), the first noun having the article, the second noun not having the article, the second noun refers to the same thing the first noun does and is a further description of it.
According to the Grandville Sharp rule both expressions (God and Savior) refer to the same individual, Jesus Christ.
Titus 2:13
toú [the] megálou [great] Theoú [God] kaí [and] Sooteéros [Savior] heemoón [our] Ieesoú Christoú [Jesus Christ]
2 Pe 1:1 Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith, held in equal privilege with ours, by the righteousness of our God and [the] Savior Jesus Christ: (NWT)
2 Peter 1:1
Toú [the] Theoú [God] heemoón [our] kaí [and] Sooteéros [Savior] Ieesoú [Jesus] Christoú [Christ]
4. God the Holy Spirit is a Person and is God.
a. The Holy Spirit is a person:
JOB 33:4
The Spirit of God has made me,
And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
b. The Holy Spirit speaks.
Matt 10:20
For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.
Acts 8:29
And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.”
Acts 10:19
And while Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you.”
Acts 11:12
And the Spirit told me to go with them without misgivings. And these six brethren also went with me, and we entered the man’s house.
Acts 13:2
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 28:25
And when they did not agree with one another, they began leaving after Paul had spoken one parting word, “The Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers
c. The third person masculine singular personal pronoun is used to describe God the Holy Spirit.
“He” here in verse 14 refers to the Spirit of truth mentioned in verse 13 – the Holy Spirit.
The word for “spirit” is pneuma.
The Greek noun pneuma was given the gender of neuter.
The first word in verse 14 in the Greek is the Greek pronoun ekeinos and it refers back to the Spirit of truth in verse 13 – it refers back to pneuma.
Nominative signifies that it is the subject of the sentence.
Singular makes it clear that ekeinos refers to the Spirit of truth, rather than any other noun in the previous sentence.
The neuter form of this pronoun in the nominative singular would be ekeino.
We have ekeinos. This is the MASCULINE form of this pronoun.
He used this opportunity to clarify for all future readers of this Gospel that the noun pneuma does not refer to an “it”.Pneuma is a He, the Third Person of the Trinity!
d. God the Holy Spirit is God:
Who spoke through Isaiah? Adonai who is Jehovah.
Adonai asks, “who will go for Us?” We have the plural use in the prepositional phrase for the Trinity.
Isaiah spoke these things because He saw His glory and he spoke of Him.
Isaiah saw the glory of Jehovah, which is Jesus Christ according to John 12:41.
The three uses of “Holy” refers to the three members of the Trinity. Interestingly Jehovah is used in verse three instead of Elohim to emphasize that they are one.
e. It is God the Holy Spirit that gives life.
1 Tim 6:13
I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things
The Holy Spirit Sovereignly distributes spiritual gifts.
The Holy Spirit is eternal.
John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. 1 Cor 12:11
But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills. HEB 9:14
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
“eternal” is the Greek adjective aionios which means eternal.
Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the NT:
As a predicate of God aionios contains not merely the concept of unlimited time without beginning or end, but also of the eternity which transcends time.
“to the East” is a preposition and a noun paneh, in the presence, in the face of in front of, against, or in defiance of his brethren.