By Greg Holt

This writer has recently been dealing with some people who are attempting to persuade me shall we say, that the doctrine of the Trinity is false. Another one is that Jesus is merely the son of God, and not God the Son.

So if one disbelieves in the Trinity, the Triune God – is your salvation in doubt? This writer will say yes. What about belief in Jesus as God, if one does not believe that Jesus is much more than the son of God, and is in fact God Himself – then is that person’s salvation in doubt? No, this particular person’s salvation is not in doubt – this particular person was never saved to begin with.

I have of course taken some time to respond to these people because these issues really bother me, and are a burden on my heart. These particular people are self-assured that they are saved, that they do indeed possess the God-given gift of eternal life – except that they do not. These people along with various others, will stand before Christ at the end, and in complete shock – will be told by Christ the Judge, go away from Me, I never knew you. Matthew 7:21-23

Galatians 3:1 O foolish Galatians (Christians), who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? (Non-italics mine)

The Trinity, you can look all you want (as pointed out by unbelievers) in the Bible, the Trinity will not be found in it. Yet the Bible does support the doctrine of the Trinity.

God is one; there is only one God.

Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD
Galatians 3:20 Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.

There are three distinct Persons of the Trinity, yet one God

Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…

God said: let us make man in our image. The text of Genesis would not use plural words denoting more than one if there was not more then one distinct manifestation of God (not to be confused with the unbiblical belief of modalism) if you will, or more properly, more than one Person.

Genesis 11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language…

And again, the word in reference to God used in the text is us, more than one.

Matthew 3:16-17 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: 17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

In this text of Matthew we see all three of the Persons of the Trinity represented. Jesus, (God the Son) who is both God and man is baptized, then the Spirit, (God the Spirit) alights upon Jesus, then God the Father expresses His pleasure in God the Son – Jesus.

Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost

In Matthew 28:19, Jesus is speaking, and He says, teach all nations about God, and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit – all three Persons of the Trinity.

God is one God, but is three distinct Persons. Can we fully explain this? No. Does that make the doctrine of the Trinity untrue as some claim? No it does not. Insisting that the Trinity is false because we cannot find the word Trinity in the Bible and because we cannot fully understand it is like saying that time does not exist because we cannot physically see it.

Galatians 3:26 says that we are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Why does Paul make that distinction? The answer is because God exists in three Persons, and this passage yet again affirms the deity of Christ. We place our faith in Jesus Christ, (Ephesians 2:8-9) through that faith we are saved, and through that faith we have an unlimited connection to the throne of grace, to the Father. Hebrews 4:14-16

1 John 2:23 Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.

We are told we must believe in Jesus as well as the Father. This is crystal clear, if you do believe in Jesus as God, then you do not have the Father – meaning that one is not saved. Eternal salvation requires belief in Jesus as God.

2 Timothy 1:8-10…according to the power of God; 9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, 10 But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel

The claim that Jesus is merely the son of our God and not God Himself is totally ridiculous. I will not here go into all the Scriptures that people like to throw at me and others loudly proclaiming the Christ is just a man, what utter foolishness. If one has read the Bible, even only the New Testament, it is blindingly obvious that Jesus Christ is God.

The Bible MUST be read in context, it MUST! One cannot cherry pick verses to prove one’s own point. You might be thinking well, this author is doing exactly that with the verses he selected. Well, you would be wrong. This writer does not pick a verse here and there and claim it proves unbiblical foolishness such as Christ is not God. I am not proving my point, I am merely pointing out what the Bible teaches. Yes I pick from the many verses, but at the same time, I can back up any verse used with many others, that is called context.

Context is king. When reading the Bible and attempting to understand what it is saying to us, we must be able to confirm what we think it means through other verses, as well as this – does what we think the particular verse means line up with the context of the chapter we are reading? If not, then we may have misunderstood the meaning of that verse or verses.

The doctrine of the Trinity and the fact that Jesus is God is backed up all throughout the Bible; there is ample evidence of these facts.

In John 10 Jesus says He gives eternal life to people, and that none will be “plucked” out of His hand. Jesus also states that He and the Father are one.

John 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

John 14:6-7 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also… 

The meaning in the above verses is very clear, Jesus is not only the son, Jesus is God. No one who believes disputes that the Father is God. How is it then that despite the overwhelming amount of evidence in the Bible that Jesus IS God, people disbelieve? NO man comes to the Father but by me (Jesus). If the only way to the Father is through Jesus Christ, then Jesus must be God.

If you had known me (Jesus), you should know my Father as well. How can that statement be misconstrued?

In Matthew 19 Jesus says that all should be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus also says that all power, in heaven and on the Earth has been given to Him. How can anyone thinking logically – determine that Jesus is just a man after reading these statements? Would God really share His power with a mere man? Not hardly. Could a mere man even begin to be able to handle the immense power of God? Could a mere man have taken the sin of the world upon His shoulders, on the cross? Nope. But Jesus being both God and man could and did do all of the above.

John 14:13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son

Is the Father (whom those that believe do not dispute is God) going to glorify Himself in the Son if said Son is a mere man? Not a chance, God does not, and will not share His glory with any man.

Another idiotic argument thrown at me was this: Jesus died on the cross, God cannot die, and therefore Jesus cannot be God.

WOW, really?

First let me remind everyone that Jesus stated Himself in John 10:18 that He willingly lays down His life, and has the power to take it back up again – no one takes it from Him.
Second, Jesus human body died, His spirit did not. When we as humans die, it is only our physical body that dies, our spirit, which is eternal does not die. This is a small part of why Jesus inhabited a human body, the spirit cannot die, but the body can.

Yet another fallacy is that since Christ is subservient to the Father (and this IS true) He cannot possibly be God. Wrong.

Christ is subservient to the father, and the Spirit is subservient to the Father and Jesus, so what. This does not mean that Jesus is not God, or that Jesus and the Spirit are in any way less then the Father. This is simply how God has chosen to do things, who are we to question that?

The Father only – knows the timing of the end.

Jesus created the universe and maintains it through His power. The same is true of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus intercedes for us with the Father

We come to the father through Jesus

Jesus prayed to the Father to send the Holy Spirit to us
The Holy Spirit lives within us

Jesus has been given all power and authority in Heaven and on the Earth

Jesus will rule for a set time and then hand the Kingdom over to the Father

The Father works through Jesus and the Spirit

The point is that all three are God; all three have their “jobs” if you will. The Trinity is real, and Jesus IS God.

Jesus is the literal bridge between the Father and us; you cannot have one without the other.

Jesus paid the price for our sin, the price decreed by God, that God then came to Earth and paid, so that He could forgive us and bless us, gifting us with eternal life, which is what He desired from the beginning, that we screwed up. We as humans completely messed up the plan, and God in His infinite love and mercy stepped up and paid the price for what WE did wrong.

And THAT ought to blow your mind, it does mine.

Related: The Must Read Interview With Satan: How to be Saved