Why the Mystery of the Trinity Is So Inscrutable

Have you noticed that more people are talking about God? Here in America, people at school, at work, in public places and in high office are talking more openly about good, evil, “spiritual war,” Satan, Jesus and God.

But who is God?

Nothing could be more important to your faith, to your life, than who God is. Yet Christians disagree on this fundamental question.

In America and beyond, the largest churches teach the trinity: one God essence—yet three distinct persons—yet only one being.

Is this who God is?

Many people who believe this doctrine admit they don’t understand it. Many more who consider themselves Christians believe things that conflict with it. For example, many believe that God is an eternal divine being who at some point created a lesser divine being, who became Jesus Christ. Others have differing beliefs about God and Christ.

Are these millions worshiping the God revealed in the Holy Bible? Are you?

Don’t Look for ‘Trinity’ in the Bible

Only one teaching about who God is can be true. Many Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant priests and preachers assert that God is a trinity—and those who don’t believe this mysterious doctrine are not actually Christian.

Is the Christian God, the God of the Bible, a trinity?

The early history of Christianity, including the controversies addressed at the a.d. 325 Council of Nicaea (article, page 11) show, if nothing else, that the trinity was not settled doctrine. The very purpose of Nicaea was to apply civil and political pressure to a Christian dispute over who God is.

“The word trinity is not used anywhere in the Bible,” Herbert W. Armstrong wrote in Mystery of the Ages Chapter 1, “Who and What Is God?” “I am going to make completely clear, as we proceed, God has not limited Himself to a ‘trinity.’ The surprising truth, once understood, is the most wonderful revelation the human mind could receive or contain! The very first idea or teaching about God being a trinity began in the latter half of the second century—a hundred years after most of the New Testament had been written.”

Other government-ordered councils, such as the a.d. 381 Council of Constantinople, established the trinity as official doctrine.

But it did not establish it as truth.

The true teaching about who God is matches what Jesus Christ Himself taught and what His disciples taught and canonized in the Bible.

So what does the Bible teach about who God is?

Encyclopedia Britannica notes, “Neither the word trinity nor the explicit doctrine appears in the New Testament.” The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says, “The term trinity is not a biblical term, and we are not using biblical language when we define what is expressed by it as the doctrine.”

There is one passage that trinitarians use to support the doctrine. The King James translation of 1 John 5:7-8 states, “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.”

Look up the same passage in the New Living Translation, New International Version, Revised Standard Version, the Moffatt translation and many other versions and you will see something like this: “For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and all three agree.” A great chunk is missing. Why? Because everything else was inserted by Catholic writers.

What, then, do the (unaltered) scriptures of the Gospels teach about God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit?

What Is the Holy Spirit?

Before looking at what the Bible establishes about the relationship between God and Jesus Christ, consider what it says about the Holy Spirit.

The Catholic-originated trinity asserts that the Holy Spirit is a person, the third member of this triad. The Bible never says the Holy Spirit is the third member of the being that is God. In fact, it never says that the Holy Spirit is a person or being at all. Luke 1:35 defines the Holy Spirit as not a person but a power—the power of God. “The Holy [Spirit] shall come upon thee,” the angel told Mary, “and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee ….”

The Holy Spirit is the impersonal power of God.

Asserting that the Holy Spirit is a person causes major confusion over Christ’s birth. Matthew writes that Mary “was found with child of the Holy [Spirit]” (Matthew 1:18). If the Holy Spirit were a person, then Jesus Christ’s father would be the Holy Spirit, not the Father. But read what Jesus said (about 190 times in the Gospels and Revelation) and emphasized about His Father. He was focused on His actual Father, not the Holy Spirit.

In Ephesians 1:13-14, Paul writes that this Spirit is the “earnest [down payment] of our inheritance.” In Acts 1:5, Christ tells the disciples that they would soon be “baptized with [immersed into] the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:4 describes them being “filled with the Holy [Spirit].” Acts 10:45 says it was “poured out” over the Gentiles. Luke 11:13 states that God will give that Spirit to all who ask Him. These verses are describing not a person but a power.

John 3:34 says Christ had the Holy Spirit without measure. This makes no sense if the Holy Spirit is a person.

1 Corinthians 2:11 contrasts the Holy Spirit with “the spirit in man”: “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” This and other passages show that the human brain, unlike animal brains, is empowered by a spirit. This is what enables him to understand “the things of a man.” But the human spirit within you is not a different, distinct being.

God uses His Spirit to create, to perform miracles and to reveal the things of God—the plan of God, the potential for man and, yes, the very nature of God. In fact, you cannot understand the nature of God without His Spirit (see verses 10-14).

The Holy Spirit is often referred to as “he” in the Scriptures (e.g. John 14:17) and sometimes referred to as “it” (e.g. Acts 2:2-4). This is because the Greek language used in the original New Testament assigns even inanimate objects as masculine, feminine or neuter. The Greek word translated “spirit” is masculine, and this led some translators to refer to the Holy Spirit as “he.” The German word for garden has a masculine gender, but that doesn’t mean that a garden is an individual. The Hebrew word for Spirit is usually given a feminine form, yet this clearly does not mean that the Holy Spirit is a female. The Holy Spirit is the power of God.

Paul’s Teachings

“And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy [Spirit], it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come” (Matthew 12:32). Despite these clear instructions concerning the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Paul failed to even mention it in any of the greetings in his letters, yet he always mentioned God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son. Read 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, the greetings in all of Paul’s epistles: Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon and Hebrews. In 14 books, Paul did not once mention the Holy Spirit in his greetings in the name of the Father and the Son. This is more scriptural evidence that the concept of the Holy Spirit as a coequal member of a triune godhead was invented after the Bible was written.

Out of all 14 books Paul wrote, only one verse lists God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit together: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy [Spirit], be with you all. Amen” (2 Corinthians 13:14). In that closing sentence of Paul’s letter, the Holy Spirit is only mentioned in the context of communion, or fellowship—not as a third, distinct being.

Those claiming the Bible supports the trinity constantly quote the one place where Paul mentions Christ, God and the Holy Spirit, and ignore all the many times he leaves it out.

In 1 Timothy 2:5, he writes, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” God gives true Christians His Holy Spirit, which is inside our minds, yet it is not the “one mediator”—Christ is. This is because the Holy Spirit is a power and not a person.

In Romans 8:17, Paul did not mention the Holy Spirit when he wrote: “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” 1 Corinthians 11:3 reads, “But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.” The Holy Spirit is not mentioned.

Paul also wrote that Christ sits at the right hand of God on God’s throne (Colossians 3:1; Revelation 3:21).

The Father and the Son!

If you accept the Bible as the authority on who God is, you recognize that the Holy Spirit is not a being or part of a being. The Father is a Being, and the Son is a Being. Both are God, both are eternal, and both are love (John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:12-17; 1 John 4:16).

Search the word father in a Bible aid, and you will be overwhelmed by the number of times Jesus Christ said it and the inspiring context and meaning of each time He said His name!

If you set aside the traditions, philosophies, compromises and ideas of men, the truth about who God is begins to become wonderfully and dazzlingly clear. God is not a one-in-three, three-in-one mysterious hypostasis.

God is a Family.

God is not merely “like” a father to Jesus Christ: He is literally His Father! This is one of the main teachings Jesus proclaimed, from the beginning of Matthew to the end of Revelation. This is why He prayed, passionately, to the Father. This is why everything is done by the Father and the Son. It’s part of the reason God made man and that a God became a man.

Because God is opening His Family to man. “In other words,” Mr. Armstrong wrote, “God is now a family of Persons, composed so far of only the two—God the Father and Christ the Son. But if the Holy Spirit of God dwells in someone, and he is being led by God’s Spirit, then (Romans 8:14) he is a begotten son of God. But at the time of Christ’s return to Earth in supreme power and glory to set up the Kingdom of God, restoring the government of God abolished by Lucifer, then all beings filled and led by God’s Spirit shall become born sons of God. The God Family will then rule all nations with the government of God restored!” (Mystery of the Ages).

Some may claim this is blasphemy. but look at what the Bible says: “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God …. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:1-2). Hebrews 2:10 describes God “bringing many sons unto glory.”

Philippians 3:21 says that Christ “shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body ….” Genesis 1:26, Colossians 1 and many other scriptures draw the connection between what God looks like and what human beings look like. Unlike animals or even angels, we are created “in the image of God”!

Romans 8:19-21 show that this is the entire purpose of God’s plan: The whole universe is waiting for God’s sons to be born again as God beings.

This gospel message about God’s Family is found throughout the Bible. It doesn’t talk about the “trinity.” Instead, the Bible is full of words like Father, Son, marriage and bride—family words.

God isn’t a mysterious triad that we cannot understand!

He wants us to understand who He is. He created marriage and family to teach us about the nature of God and the God Family.

If you have never heard this truth before, the reason is the trinity. Jesus Christ taught this truth about the God Family as part of the true gospel. The apostles preached it, and God’s true Church teaches it. This truth is the truth of the Bible, but the trinity destroys it.

This crucial subject is much too important to ignore or to decide on without studying the Bible. You need to understand who God is. For guidance on where to look in the Bible for the scriptures revealing the truth, request a free copy of God Is a Family as well as Herbert W. Armstrong’s Mystery of the Ages.