The TriUnity of God

1
The Tri-Unity of God

• A Biblical Understanding

2
Understanding the Infinite

• Before we start this series , we need to say
  upfront that even with this study, we will NOT be
  able to define the Infinite God!

• The finite will NEVER be able to comprehend the
  Infinite! EVER!

3
If we did

• God wouldnt be God!

"But who is able to build a house for Him, for
the heavens and the highest heavens cannot
contain Him? So who am I, that I should build a
house for Him, except to burn incense before
Him? 2 Chronicles 26
4
Like Defining Light

• Is Light a particle or a wave?

• BOTH!

5
We cant even conclude!

• The exact nature of visible light is a mystery
  that has puzzled man for centuries. Greek
  scientists from the ancient Pythagorean
  discipline postulated that every visible object
  emits a steady stream of particles, while
  Aristotle concluded that light travels in a
  manner similar to waves in the ocean. Even though
  these ideas have undergone numerous modifications
  and a significant degree of evolution over the
  past 20 centuries, the essence of the dispute
  established by the Greek philosophers remains to
  this day.

6
Under the Microscope
7
Only vehicle for seeing or Understanding God

• The Bible

• The Bible gives us the only information we have
  about God and His nature.

8
1st Revelation of God about Himself

• Bereshith (Genesis 11)
• In the beginning God created the heavens and the
  earth.
• Elohim gods the word can be used both for
  the true God as well as for the false gods.

9
Elohim  (el-o-heem) Strong's Number  0430

• Noun Masculine plural 
• Definition 
• rulers, judges
• divine ones
• angels
• gods
• (plural intensive - singular meaning)
• god, goddess
• godlike one
• works or special possessions of God
• the (true) God
• God

10
Elohim

• The Hebrew word translated "God" is the word El
  or Elohim. Elohim is the plural form of El. The
  plural form is used 2607 of the 2845 times the
  word "God" is used in the Old Testament. Not only
  is the word for God usually used in the plural
  form, but several verses refer to God as "Us"

11
Us

• Genesis 126 Let us make man in our image
• Genesis 11- 5 The LORD came down to see the city
  and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6
  The LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and
  they all have the same language. And this is what
  they began to do, and now nothing which they
  purpose to do will be impossible for them. 7
  "Come, let Us go down and there confuse their
  language, so that they will not understand one
  another's speech."

12
Isaiah 68

• Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom
  shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I
  said, "Here am I. Send me!"

13
Jewish position

• Us God the Angels Midrash Bereshith
  page 25, 26

14
The SHEMA

• Deuteronomy (Devarim) 64

15
Shema Yisrael

• Adonai Elohaynu, Adonai Echad

• The nearest thing to a Jewish Creed

16
Proclaims a Monotheistic Faith

• Hear, O, Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord
  is ONE!

17
Monotheism

• The religious conception of a single,
  transcendent god. It contrasts with polytheism
  (belief in many gods) and pantheism (belief in
  God as synonymous with the universe). Judaism,
  Christianity, and Islam are the principal
  monotheistic religions.

18
Distinctive between Monotheism and Polytheism

• Belief in ONE God, vs. belief in many gods

• Issue is NOT that you worship other gods, the
  issue is that you BELIEVE that there are other
  gods!

19
Hebrews Believe there is but ONE GOD

• Period! There ARE NO other Gods!

• You are My witnesses," declares the LORD, "And My
  servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know
  and believe Me And understand that I am He.
  Before Me there was no God formed, And there will
  be none after Me. -Isaiah 4310

20
Isaiah 448

• 'Do not tremble and do not be afraid Have I not
  long since announced it to you and declared
  it? And you are My witnesses. Is there any God
  besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know
  of none.' "

21
Isaiah 4522

• "Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the
  earth For I am God, and there is no other.

22
There is NO God, but ONE

• Yet, we shall see a plurality within the Godhead.

23
Shema!

• The Lord is ONE!

• Word for ONE is Echad

24
Eshcol cluster of grapes

• Exodus 243

Then they came to the valley of Eshcol and from
there cut down a branch with a single echad
cluster of grapes
25
Echad - Other Examples

• For this reason a man will leave his father and
  mother and be united to his wife, and they will
  become one echad flesh. (Genesis 224)
• Now the whole earth used the same echad
  language and the same echad words. (Genesis
  111)
• And the LORD said, "Behold, they are one echad
  people, and they all have the same echad
  language. And this is what they began to do, and
  now nothing which they purpose to do will be
  impossible for them. (Genesis 116)
• Then we will give you our daughters and take your
  daughters for ourselves. We'll settle among you
  and become one echad people with you. (Genesis
  3416)

26
Echad - Other Examples

• Then Moses came and recounted to the people all
  the words of the LORD and all the ordinances and
  all the people answered with one echad voice,
  and said, "All the words which the LORD has
  spoken we will do!" (Exodus 243)
• The whole echad assembly numbered 42,360, (Ezra
  264)
• They will be my people, and I will be their God.
  I will give them singleness echad of heart and
  action, so that they will always fear me for
  their own good and the good of their children
  after them. (Jeremiah 3238-39)

27
Another word could have been used to express the
idea of absolute oneness

• in the Hebrew to put this to rest yachid

28
Yachid - Examples

• And He said, "Take now your son, your only
  yachid son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the
  land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt
  offering on one of the mountains of which I will
  tell you." (Genesis 222)
• And he said, "Do not stretch out your hand
  against the lad, and do nothing to him for now I
  know that you fear God, since you have not
  withheld your son, your only yachid son, from
  Me." (Genesis 2212)
• and said, "By Myself I have sworn, declares the
  LORD, because you have done this thing, and have
  not withheld your son, your only yachid son,
  (Genesis 2216)

29
Yachid Other Examples

• When Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah,
  behold, his daughter was coming out to meet him
  with tambourines and with dancing. Now she was
  his one and only yachid child besides her he
  had neither son nor daughter. (Judges 1134)
• Deliver my soul from the sword, My only yachid
  life from the power of the dog. (Psalms 2220)
• Turn to me and be gracious to me, For I am lonely
  yachid and afflicted. (Psalms 2516)
• Lord, how long wilt Thou look on? Rescue my soul
  from their ravages, My only yachid life from
  the lions. (Psalms 3517)

30
Yachid Other Examples

• God makes a home for the lonely yachid He
  leads out the prisoners into prosperity, only the
  rebellious dwell in a parched land. (Psalms 686)
  
• When I was a son to my father, Tender and the
  only yachid son in the sight of my mother,
  (Proverbs 43)
• O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth And
  roll in ashes Mourn as for an only yachid son,
  A lamentation most bitter. For suddenly the
  destroyer Will come upon us. (Jeremiah 626)

31
Yachid Other Examples

• "Then I shall turn your festivals into mourning
  And all your songs into lamentation And I will
  bring sackcloth on everyone's loins And baldness
  on every head. And I will make it like a time of
  mourning for an only yachid son, And the end of
  it will be like a bitter day. (Amos 810)
• "And I YHVH will pour out on the house of David
  and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit
  of grace and of supplication, so that they will
  look on Me whom they have pierced and they will
  mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only yachid
  son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like
  the bitter weeping over a first-born. (Zechariah
  1210)

32
Conclusion

• If the Shema had intended to express absolute
  oneness, it would have used the Hebrew word
  yachid instead of echad. However, the word yachid
  is never used in reference to God (Elohim)!

33
Plurality in the Godhead

• Does Scripture indicate that this is true?

34
Genesis 19

• 24 Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah
  brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven,
  25 and He overthrew those cities, and all the
  valley,

35
Isaiah 4816

• "Come near to Me, listen to this From the first
  I have not spoken in secret, From the time it
  took place, I was there. And now the Lord GOD has
  sent Me, and His Spirit."

• Who is speaking? God!

36
God The Father

• Do you thus repay the LORD, O foolish and unwise
  people? Is not He your Father who has bought you?
  He has made you and established you. (Deuteronomy
  326)
• "He will cry to Me, 'Thou art my Father, My God,
  and the rock of my salvation.' (Psalms 8926)

37
The Father

• For Thou art our Father, though Abraham does not
  know us, And Israel does not recognize us. Thou,
  O LORD, art our Father, Our Redeemer from of old
  is Thy name. (Isaiah 6316)
• But now, O LORD, Thou art our Father, We are the
  clay, and Thou our potter And all of us are the
  work of Thy hand. (Isaiah 648)
• "Have you not just now called to Me, 'My Father,
  Thou art the friend of my youth? (Jeremiah 34)

38
My Father

• "Then I said, 'How I would set you among My sons,
  And give you a pleasant land, The most beautiful
  inheritance of the nations!' And I said, 'You
  shall call Me, My Father, And not turn away from
  following Me.' (Jeremiah 319)

39
Son Father?

• For a child will be born to us, a son will be
  given to us And the government will rest on His
  shoulders And His name will be called Wonderful
  Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of
  Peace. (Isaiah 96)

40
The Son

• Do homage to the Son, lest He become angry, and
  you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be
  kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in
  Him! (Psalms 212)

41
Gods Son

• Who has ascended into heaven and descended? Who
  has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has
  wrapped the waters in His garment? Who has
  established all the ends of the earth? What is
  His name or His Son's name? Surely you know!
  (Proverbs 304)

42
Son of Man

• "I kept looking in the night visions, And behold,
  with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man
  was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days
  And was presented before Him. "And to Him was
  given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the
  peoples, nations, and men of every language Might
  serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting
  dominion Which will not pass away And His
  kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.
  (Daniel 713-14)

43
God the Spirit

• The Holy Spirit, is also found extensively in the
  Old Testament.

• Genesis 12 Genesis 63 Exodus 313 Exodus
  3531 Numbers 1117 Numbers 1125, 26, 29
  Numbers 242 Numbers 2718 Judges 310 Judges
  634

44
God the Spirit

• Judges 1129 Judges 1325 Judges 146, 19
  Judges 1514 1 Samuel 106, 10 1 Samuel 116 1
  Samuel 1613, 14 1 Samuel 1920, 23 2 Samuel
  232 1 Kings 1812 1 Kings 2224 2 Kings 216
  1 Chronicles 1218 2 Chronicles 151 2
  Chronicles 1823 2 Chronicles 2014 2
  Chronicles 2420 Nehemiah 920, 30

45
God the Spirit

• Job 334 Psalms 5111 Psalms 10430 Psalms
  10633 Psalms 1397 Psalms 14310 Isaiah 112
  Isaiah 301 Isaiah 3215 Isaiah 3416 Isaiah
  4013 Isaiah 421 Isaiah 443 Isaiah 4816
  Isaiah 5921 Isaiah 611 Isaiah 6310 Isaiah
  6311, 14 Ezekiel 22 Ezekiel 312, 14, 24
  Ezekiel 83 Ezekiel 111, 5, 24

46
God the Spirit

• Ezekiel 3627 Ezekiel 371, 14 Ezekiel 3929
  Ezekiel 435 Joel 228, 29 Micah 27 Micah
  38 Haggai 25 Zechariah 46 Zechariah 712
  Zechariah 1210 Malachi 215

47
TANAKH

• The Older Testament (TANAKH) does reveal the
  concept of God being one God, consisting of three
  persons. How can God simultaneously exist as both
  singular and plural? It is a logical
  impossibility if God were restricted to the three
  dimensions of space and one dimension of time of
  our physical universe.

48
Brit Chadasha Newer Testament John 1

• 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
  with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the
  beginning with God. 3 All things came into being
  through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into
  being that has come into being.
• 14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among
  us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only
  begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

49
Hebrews 1

• 1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in
  the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2
  in these last days has spoken to us in His Son,
  whom He appointed heir of all things, through
  whom also He made the world. 3 And He is the
  radiance of His glory and the exact
  representation of His nature, and upholds all
  things by the word of His power. When He had made
  purification of sins, He sat down at the right
  hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as
  much better than the angels, as He has inherited
  a more excellent name than they.

50
Hebrews 1

• 8 But of the Son He says, "YOUR THRONE, O GOD, IS
  FOREVER AND EVER, AND THE RIGHTEOUS SCEPTER IS
  THE SCEPTER OF HIS KINGDOM.
• 9 "YOU HAVE LOVED RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HATED
  LAWLESSNESS THEREFORE GOD, YOUR GOD, HAS
  ANOINTED YOU WITH THE OIL OF GLADNESS ABOVE YOUR
  COMPANIONS."

51
Colossians 1

• 13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness,
  and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved
  Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the
  forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the
  invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16
  For by Him all things were created, both in the
  heavens and on earth, visible and invisible,
  whether thrones or dominions or rulers or
  authorities--all things have been created through
  Him and for Him.

52
Colossians 1

• 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things
  hold together. 18 He is also head of the body,
  the church and He is the beginning, the
  firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will
  come to have first place in everything. 19 For it
  was the Father's good pleasure for all the
  fullness to dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to
  reconcile all things to Himself, having made
  peace through the blood of His cross through
  Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in
  heaven.

53
Philippians 2

• 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also
  in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in
  the form of God, did not regard equality with God
  a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself,
  taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made
  in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in
  appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by
  becoming obedient to the point of death, even
  death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God
  highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name
  which is above every name, 10 so that at the name
  of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in
  heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and
  that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ
  is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

54
Seeing God

• Genesis 183 2813 3231 Exodus 249-11
  Joshua 514-15 Judges 617-23 138-22

55
No one has seen Father

• John 646 - "Not that anyone has seen the Father,
  except the One who is from God He has seen the
  Father.

56
John 537

• "And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of
  Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time
  nor seen His form.

57
John 147

• "If you had known Me, you would have known My
  Father also from now on you know Him, and have
  seen Him."

58
John 149

• Jesus said to him, "Have I been so long with
  you, and yet you have not come to know Me,
  Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father
  how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?

59
John 8

• 58 Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to
  you, before Abraham was born, I am." 59 Therefore
  they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus
  hid Himself and went out of the temple.

60
John 10

• 30 "I and the Father are one." 31 The Jews picked
  up stones again to stone Him. 32 Jesus answered
  them, "I showed you many good works from the
  Father for which of them are you stoning Me?" 33
  The Jews answered Him, "For a good work we do not
  stone You, but for blasphemy and because You,
  being a man, make Yourself out to be God."

61
Blasphemy Leviticus 2411, 16

• 11 The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the
  Name and cursed. So they brought him to Moses.
  (Now his mother's name was Shelomith, the
  daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.)
• 16 Moreover, the one who blasphemes the name of
  the LORD shall surely be put to death all the
  congregation shall certainly stone him. The alien
  as well as the native, when he blasphemes the
  Name, shall be put to death.

62
No One has seen God at Any Time

• 1 John 412 - No one has seen God at any time if
  we love one another, God abides in us, and His
  love is perfected in us.

• CE 90 60 years AFTER Yeshua crucified!

63
Mikvah of Yeshua Matthew 3

• 13 Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan
  coming to John, to be baptized by him. 14 But
  John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I have need
  to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?" 15
  But Jesus answering said to him, "Permit it at
  this time for in this way it is fitting for us
  to fulfill all righteousness." Then he permitted
  Him. 16 After being baptized, Jesus (2nd Person)
  came up immediately from the water and behold,
  the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of
  God (3rd Person) descending as a dove and
  lighting on Him, 17 and behold, a voice out of
  the heavens (1st Person) said, "This is My
  beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."

64
Acts 756 - Stephen

• and he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened
  up and the Son of Man (2nd Person) standing at
  the right hand of God (1st Person)."

• Wheres the Spirit (3rd Person) ?

65
In the Body of Messiah John 16

• 5 "But now I am going to Him who sent Me and
  none of you asks Me, Where are You going?' 6
  "But because I have said these things to you,
  sorrow has filled your heart. 7 "But I tell you
  the truth, it is to your advantage that I go
  away for if I do not go away, the Helper will
  not come to you but if I go, I will send Him to
  you. 8 "And He, when He comes, will convict the
  world concerning sin and righteousness and
  judgment 9 concerning sin, because they do not
  believe in Me 10 and concerning righteousness,
  because I go to the Father and you no longer see
  Me 11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler
  of this world has been judged.

66
Acts 15-8

• 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be
  baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from
  now." 6 So when they had come together, they were
  asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You
  are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He said
  to them, "It is not for you to know times or
  epochs which the Father has fixed by His own
  authority 8 but you will receive power when the
  Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be
  My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea
  and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the
  earth."