KNOW YOUR FAITH, LIVE YOUR FAITH,TEACH YOUR FAITH!

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God, Amen.  

Today my beloved we continue our series on the Trinity. We ask the question “What are the Biblical proofs for the Holy Trinity?” 

For those of you who have listened to the first video, we discussed  What the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity is. If you have not yet done so, I would suggest you watch that video prior to this one. It will set the foundation for the discussion we will have in this video.  

Now, in the first video we discussed what the Orthodox Christian faith teaches about the Holy Trinity: One God: which is 3persons or hypostasis, in one essence. But where did we get all this information? As a matter of fact, the word “Trinity” does not appear anywhere in all of scripture, so what scriptural evidence and Biblical passages does the Church use to explain how it formulated it doctrine of the Trinity. Well lets go ahead and see what some of those passages are.  

  

Now lets be very clear my beloved, although the Bible may not explicitly use certain terminologies and words, or address specific themes, it does not mean that the implicit doctrines found within Scripture have nothing to say on the subject. While the Bible may well be silent in addressing specific subjects or using specific terms, when we combine what is explicitly taught within scripture along with the wealth of knowledge received from Holy Tradition, we can formulate all the necessary teachings of the Church as revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.  

For instance, as we stated, the term Trinity does not appear in the Bible. But the Bible does very clearly, and several times over refer to God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Lets take a look at only a few of the many cases:  

Genesis1: 1-3 

“1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.” 

In this first example, at the very opening words of Holy Scripture, we suddenly see the appearance of God almighty, the Father, the unbegotten, who is the source of everything. Then we also see His Holy Spirit that hovers over the waters, and finally we Hear the Word of God, spoken by Him and through His Word he creates all the universe. This is the same Word that John spoke of in the opening passages of His Gospel when he says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” So there you have it, in the very first verses of scripture, we see Father, Son, and Spirit – the Co-Essential Holy Trinity!  

Later on in that same first chapter of Genesis God does something interesting when He is about to create humanity and scripture says:  

Genesis 1: 26  

“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” 

Here we are introduced to something interesting. Although the author of the book of Genesis has always spoken about God in the singular form, he suddenly quotes God saying that He is an “US”. “Let us create man in our image, according to our likeness!” We now see a different side to God, that He is one, and yet He is diverse. He us unity, and yet community! Yet another scriptural reference to how we understand the Trinity.  

And then we fast forward to the teachings of Christ Himself after the Resurrection where he is commissioning the disciples to spread the gospel everywhere and He says:  

Matthew 29:19  

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” 

His insistence that they baptize in the name of all three – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is a clear demonstration as to how you cannot come to know the One God unless you know Him as three Persons. 

And this was very clearly understood by St Paul in the very early years after the ascension of Christ where St Paul then begins to adopt a formula, that the Church uses until today, to bless the people in the name of the Trinity. St Paul teaches us and says:  

2 Corinthians 13: 14  

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.” 

Which today, has been slightly modified and is commonly spoken by the Bishop or Priest and is said: The Love of God the Father, the grace of His only-begotten Son, Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, and the gift and communion of the Holy Spirit Be with you all. Amen 

Another well known scriptural passage in support of the doctrine of the Trinity is that of the baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Interestingly, this feast is appropriately called in the Church the “Theophany” meaning the revelation of God, or better yet the appearance of God. Why do we call this moment Theophany? Let’s read the passage together:  

Matthew 3 

 “16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 

Take a look at the icon on the screen. Notice how even in the icon the Church attempts to show us the revelation of God the Trinity. We see that God is revealed because in this passage we have the Father present through the voice that was Heard, depicted on the icon as the beam and ray coming down from Heaven upon the head of Christ. We also clearly see the Son Incarnate, Our Lord Jesus Christ standing in the waters of the Jordan. And we also see the Holy Spirit, which is present in the form of the dove, descending upon Our Lord. So here again we have the Holy Trinity, present in all Glory – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  

This passage was understood as such a clear sign of the Trinity the St Augustine says:  

“Here then we have the Trinity presented in a clear way: the Father in the voice, the Son in the man, the Holy Spirit in the dove. This only needs to be barely mentioned, for it is so obvious for anyone to see. Here the recognition of the Trinity is conveyed to us so plainly that it hardly leaves any room for doubt or hesitation. [Augustine of Hippo – Sermon 2.1]  

Therefore my beloved, if anyone tries to tell you that the Trinity is not scriptural, tell them to look again closely, and they will see God as He would have himself reveled to us.  

Remember,  Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith.  

And to God be the Glory, now and forever, and unto the ages of all ages. Amen.