Defending The Trinity

Well greetings to the brightest congregation in the country, and welcome to Agape Kingdom Fellowship! My name’s Dominic Enyart, I'm host of The Dominic Enyart Show and I have noticed!... a lot of people in the world A) do not know what they believe, and B) if they do know what they believe, they often have no clue why they believe it. Typically people believe things because other people they like believe those things.

There is a massive crisis of people who are largely uninterested in thinking for themselves, which is a shame. There are a lot of funny man on the street videos of people going around college campuses and asking, “Hey Hillary Clinton believes XYZ, or Donald Trump believes ABC. What do you think of that?” And regardless of what they say, if it's Donald Trump who says it, they hate it. If it’s Hillary Clinton, they love it.

And they will be such wild, out-of-left-field beliefs, such as “Hey Hillary Clinton proposes implementing Sharia Law. What do you think of this?”

And these leftists in college, in so-called “higher education”, will say, “oh yeah! Definitely!” Simply because it was Hillary Clinton who proposed it. Now, thankfully Hillary Clinton never actually proposed we adopt Sharia Law, which is the belief that women should be severely opposed, they can’t drive, vote, choose what they wear, they must wear burkas and they aren’t allowed to cover their face.

And these college kids love to say, “Oh well if Hillary Clinton supports it then, of course, it’s good!”

They have no clue what it is.

Now I wish life were just that fun and easy- you look at a bunch of liberals saying silly things and have a laugh.

Unfortunately, we as Christians are all too often much the same. We believe things that we are taught without much skepticism, or desire to understand why it is we believe them.

About… 3 or 4 years ago, that struck me. I believe in a Christian doctrine, and I believed it rather passionately- yet I found myself unable to give a solid defense of it. I had always taken my belief for granted and not backed it up with Scripture. I had maybe a vague verse or two which supported it, but nothing definitive.

When I realized this, I went around and asked my various friends who were fellow Bible students, if they had arguments in support of this doctrine ready off the cuff. Much to my dismay, they didn’t have any super solid arguments they could rattle off the tops of their heads.

And while this doctrine is a core belief among Christians- we weren’t able to give more than a verse or two each to defend it.

The doctrine was the trinity.

So today, I’d like to explain the trinity; what it is and what it’s not. Some various objections then answer those objections.

Before we get into that, though. I want to make a quick note about heresy. The Trinity is a doctrine that a lot of Christians hold very near and dear. They are quite passionate about it, rightfully so. But now this passion has a pretty significant downside to it. Which is that every time people talk about it, inevitably people are accused of heresy. It’s a very complicated doctrine, that can be confusing and it’s difficult to pin it down and define it exactly.

Now that said, if anyone is ever talking about how they view the Trinity, they are usually called a heretic. Because there are a bunch of different beliefs about the Trinity, and whatever your belief is- it inevitably contradicts someone else’s belief.

Now that said, thinking about difficult issues like this, it can be bad when any theory is just outright called a heresy, because it discourages people from thinking about it. So the attitude you get from a lot of Christians is, “Yeah, the Trinity is one of the most confusing doctrines of Christianity and anyone who disagrees with me even slightly is a heretic.”

That’s pretty unreasonable.

And that’s a huge bummer because that discourages people from seeking the truth of who God is. They are afraid of being a heretic for coming to the wrong conclusion- even accidentally. And I believe that has lead many to just think, “I’m going to ignore the trinity- other smarter people have already figured it out.”

And so my rule of thumb is, “I like it when people are thinking about the Trinity. It’s good when people consider it. And I will only call someone a heretic if they deny the Trinity.” There’s a very Godly man I think many of you know, and he has some theories about the Trinity which I think are wayyyy incorrect. But I’m not going to call him a heretic because A) he doesn’t deny the Trinity, and B) the Trinity is confusing and it doesn’t help anyone to better understand Christ if I call him a heretic.

So as Trinity-believing Christians, why don’t give fellow Trinity believers a bit of grace on the matter, seek after who God is, and help one another through confusion. Help one another through what is considered by many Christians to be the most confusing doctrine.

So we’re going through the Trinity:

-What it is,

-Arguments against it,

-Refutations to those arguments,

-Arguments for it.

By the way my “internet pastor” Mike Winger has a really great video on this, I recommend you check that out. I’m going to draw from him a good chunk today.

So, the Trinity…

The Trinity is the Christian doctrine that there is 1 God, made up of 3 different people. Not that there are 3 Gods, but there is only 1 God made of 3 people. The 3 people of the Trinity are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

There’s a wildly popular graph that helps illustrate this, if you ever study the Trinity in any depth, you’ll run into this, Scott, maybe you could display this on the screen.

And there you see, [explain graph]

Similar to diagrams of an atom, this is not a direct picture of what the Trinity looks like, but if you find it to be helpful, use it. The word Trinity- break it down, it’s “Tri” which is 3. And “Unity” which means 1. So “Trinity” is 3 in 1.

Some are confused and they think the Trinity says, “there are 3 Gods in 1 God.” Or “3 persons in 1 person.” Neither of those is the case. That would be a flat-out contradiction- it’s not. But there are 3 “whos” and 1 “what.” The 3 “whos” are the Son, Father, and Holy Spirit. The 1 “what” is “God.”

And so just a few quick Bible verses that indicate how this works:

Isaiah 43:10, “...Before Me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after Me...”

So we recognize quite clearly that God is one. There are not multiple Gods, but God is one. That’s monotheism, “mono” meaning 1, and “theism” meaning the belief in a god. Altogether the belief in 1 God.

God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.

God the Father, 1 Peter 1:1-2 “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To the pilgrims… elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father… Grace to you and peace be multiplied.”

So there we see pretty clearly, God the Father.

Now as to the Son, we can look at Paul’s writings in Colossians 2, verses 8 and 9. And before I pull these up, notice here that Paul is warning about anyone who would bring deception by saying things that are not according to Christ. So Paul is saying “be careful of anyone who makes claims not according to Christ.” And then He makes a claim about Jesus being God. So let’s take a look, at Colossians 2, verses 8 and 9. “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”

So in Him- in Jesus- dwells the fullness of the Godhead *bodily*. In Jesus dwells the fullness of the Godhead. That’s powerful proof that Jesus is God. And keep in mind that’s in the context of Paul saying “be warned of people who disagree with this.” So he’s essentially saying “HEY THIS IS IMPORTANT! JESUS IS GOD! DON’T BE DECEIVED!

Quick tangent. Something you’ll hear a lot of Christians say is, “Oh Jesus is 100% God and 100% human.” I personally hold to that belief. A common rebuttal to that is, “oh well then you have Him being 200% so that doesn’t work.” I think that’s a pretty silly argument. If you have a green box, the box is 100% green, and 100% a box. That’s not a contradiction, and that’s not making the box 200% in any way, that’s simply saying both of these descriptions are 100% true. And of course, they are.

Then we see the Holy Spirit portrayed in Acts chapter 5, verses 3-4 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit…?... You have not lied to men but to God.”

So Peter is referring to the Holy Spirit as God.

Now that shows one verse for each- there are many for each, but that gives us a little framework to go off of.

And so many cults and false religions will reject Christianity and argue against it from a Biblical perspective. Now almost all of the time, the arguments against the Trinity- pretty much always are saying “Only God the Father is God.” And so they deny Jesus’ deity, and they deny there’s a difference between the Father and the Holy Spirit.

The cults and false religions that deny the trinity include these guys-

Christian Science

Mormons

Jehovah’s Witnesses

Islam

Mother God Cult

Unitarians

Some Hebrew/Jewish sects

So if you’re evangelizing to these guys, you’ll need to know how to defend your beliefs.

The objections you’ll see are as follows:

How could Jesus be God if He said “the Father was the only true God”?

John 17:1-3, Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come… they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Jesus said, “my Father is greater than I.” (John 14:28) How can God be greater than God?

John 14:28, You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I.

How can Jesus be God’s Son and be God? You can’t be someone’s son and be them!

Jesus was created. (Colossians 1:15) The implication is that since Jesus was created He cannot be God.

Colossians 1:15, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

Why doesn’t the Bible ever explicitly say Jesus is God?

Why doesn’t Jesus Himself ever claim that He’s God?

How could Jesus be God if He said “the Father was the only true God”? (John 17:3)

Jesus said, “my Father is greater than I.” (John 14:28) How can God be greater than God?

How can Jesus be God’s Son and be God? You can’t be someone’s son and be them!

Jesus was created. (Colossians 1:15) The implication is that since Jesus was created He cannot be God.

Why doesn’t the Bible ever explicitly say Jesus is God?

Why doesn’t Jesus Himself ever claim that He’s God?

[LEAVE LIST OF OBJECTIONS ON SCREEN]

Now there were some other objections I ran into, which I think are pretty easily explained, I’m not going to include those here. Things like, “oh the word Trinity doesn’t appear in the Bible.” Or “Oh God prays to God! That doesn’t make sense!” And it’s like- well obviously the different members of the Godhead fellowship with one another- and if praying is “talking to God” then yes, the members of the Godhead talk to each other. Note: It’s not different Gods talking to one another, it’s different Persons talking to One Another. Of course those objections are silly. These are bad arguments… I won’t use much time on those. Today I’m only going to go through the more difficult ones that I found.

And so I mentioned that most of the arguments against the Trinity are against Jesus being God- take a glance at all those major objections- notice they all attack the idea that Jesus is God. And so these conversations about the Trinity- 99% of the time they come down to the divinity of Christ. The Trinity- the divinity of Christ- basically.. just… the same conversation.

So we’re put on the defensive here- we have to answer these objections. But most of you guys know me- I don’t like to play defense, I like to play offense so I’m going to answer these common objections and then give some really solid arguments FOR the Trinity, FOR Christ being divine.

[TAKE OFF SCREEN]

So, how can Jesus be God if He said, “the Father was the only true God”?

John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

There are a few things to consider when answering this. First of all, the world at the time for the most part was a polytheistic world. That is, they believed in many different Gods. Jim has his copy machine god, Tony has his fire extinguisher god. Right? Everyone had a million and one different gods for each aspect of their lives. One god to pray to on every different subject under the sun. Including the sun! The sun itself was a god they prayed to.

And so when Jesus prayed to the Father and said, “You, the only true God” He was not contrasting the Father with Himself, rather He was contrasting the Father with the hundreds of other gods- the false gods of the day. And note two verses later in verse 5,

John 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

Can you guys imagine the audacity of a created being who goes to God almighty, and says “glorify me”? I cannot. I cannot. The purpose of creation is to bring honor and glory to God. Not the other way around. God doesn’t exist to bring His creation glory, but vice verse. And here Christ says “Glorify Me” then note “together with Yourself.” Jesus here is putting Himself on the same level as the Father. I glorified You, now You glorify Me. “I scratch your back, you scratch mine.”

And Jesus here- it’s not the first time He identified Himself being in Oneness with the Father.

Check out John chapter 10:38, Jesus says, …though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.”

So here Jesus is saying the Father and Himself are together, they are within one another. Which ties in so beautifully with that verse we read from Colossians, “the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily.” It ties in beautifully with the doctrine of the Trinity. Wow.

Jesus said, “my Father is greater than I.” How can God be greater than God?

This is an argument we hear from Jehovah’s Witnesses a lot specifically. And they show that there is a hierarchy among the Godhead. And they say, “well if there were really 3 equal parts of the Godhead- why not represent them as brothers That way they’re on equal footing.”

I’m going to talk about marriage here in a bit, but a quick analogy. In marriage, the man and woman are of equal value. Both image bearers of God. Yet the man is the head of the marriage. That does not mean they are not one together. That does not mean He is entitled to more glory. It does not mean he is better than her. It doesn’t mean he’s older than her. It’s just the natural order to have a hierarchy. And just like how a woman who submits to her husband brings honor to her husband, her family, and herself- so too the Son, when He submits Himself to the Father- that does not lessen the value of Jesus. Quite the reverse actually. Christ’s humility and submission even further exalts who He is. When Jesus came in the manger as a newborn babe, relatively physically weak, when He emptied Himself of His powerful attributes- that only served to further glorify and exalt Him.

And if you might accuse me of just using human philosophy to come up with this idea, I point us to Philippians 2. By the way, as I was preparing this morning, this passage from Philippians really moved me. And I’m a fan of Bible memorization and I think this section will be my section to next memorize.

Philippians 2:5-11, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Speaks for itself. Christs humility will further exalt Him. And notice it’s not at the name of the Father that every knee shall bow, it is at the name of Jesus that every knee shall bow.

And notice how Jesus here keeps in alignment with our 3 “whos” and 1 “what” theology. He does not say “God is greater than Me.” He says “The Father is greater than I.”

How can Jesus be God’s Son and be God? You can’t be someone’s son and be them!

And notice how the bait and switch there. We do not say that God the Father and the Son are the same person. If we take a look at this helpful graph again…

Very clearly we see… in fact that’s the first thing… The Father is not the Son! So while they are within one another- yes- they are not the same person. They both make up the Godhead, but they are not the same person. They do not have the same will. Their wills align as they are both Holy God. Trinitarians do not teach they are the same person. In fact we see they have different wills quite clearly, when the Son talks to the Father in

Luke 22:41-42 …He knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”

They are the same God, yet not the same Person. So when defending your belief of the Trinity, be careful of these word games that are meant to trip you up.

Jesus was created. The implication is that since Jesus was created He cannot be God.

The verse they use for this Clossians 1:15

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

And so- oh there you go- they’ll say, plain as day! God is the firstborn of all creation. He was created and therefore can’t be God.

I’ll note that the first half of this sentence is showing clearly that Jesus is the image of God- that is a claim in support of Christ’s divinity. So it’s funny they take this sentence out of context. Not that they take it out of context of the entire message, but they take the second half of the sentence out of context even from the first half of the sentence which is pretty ironic.

But this word “firstborn” here. What are some things we know about it? Well we know immediately it’s a figure of speech. Many will claim the figure of speech means He was the first created, others will say it doesn’t. But we do know it’s a figure of speech. And how do we know? Well- Jesus was not even the first human who was born. He was born about 4 thousand years into creation. So to be woodenly literal here doesn’t make sense. This is literal “birth.”

Then the question becomes, okay- it’s not birth from a mother- that leaves us with two options. Either A) Jesus was created before anything else in the world.

Or B) This is referring to a hierarchy of order. A hierarchy of authority.

I’m going to note that option A- most Unitarians say that when Jesus was begotten- that implies physical birth. And so they say, “He was the first thing to ever be created and He was created only once Marry became pregnant.” It doesn’t add up. But rather than opening that can of worms I’d rather prove option B) the word “firstborn” here is referring to a hierarchy of authority.

In fact we see elsewhere in the Bible that the same word for firstborn is used to mean “the highest authority.” Again by the way- Mike Winger has an excellent video on the Trinity- I’m getting a lot of this from the work he’s done and highly recommend checking out his material on the matter. I learned this from him.

Let’s take a look at Psalm 89:27

Also I will make him My firstborn,

The highest of the kings of the earth.

There’s that same word for “firstborn” being used to show authority. In fact here we see Christ will be made… to be the first born. Christ will - in the future tense- be made firstborn. This is not a statement about the timeline of when Christ was created. Colossians is not laying out a historical timeline here.

So when Paul says firstborn here- it’s basically another way of saying Christ is “King of kings” -just reworded a tad.

Also let’s take a look at Exodus 4:22

Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Israel is My son, My firstborn.

Now was Israel actually born of a woman? No. Was Israel the first nation to ever exist? No. Was Israel higher up on God’s priority list??? … Yes… Yes it was. Firstborn is a word of order, not origination. Not timeline.

Jesus being firstborn of all creation doesn’t mean He was the first created- It means He is the highest authority over all creation.

Another claim we hear a lot in this same vein is, “Trinitarians do this thing where the word ‘begotten’- it means something different in this case than in every other case. They just completely change the meaning of the word here.”

That’s poor argument, when men beget children, they are quite literally bringing new souls into existence. Whereas Jesus said,

John 8:58

“Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”

Jesus’ Person- His soul- clearly existed long before Jesus’ physical body. And the virgin birth- that was a means for Christ to become flesh.

Next objection!

Why doesn’t the Bible ever explicitly say Jesus is God?

The short answer… It does!

We already saw Colossians 2:9 in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

I also want to check out Titus 2:11-14

The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

Now a lot of people will say “Oh God and Savior!” See that word AND there, those are two separate people!

Quick note on Greek here- The Grandvill Sharps rule- It’s a Greek grammar rule that shows us these two subjects are the same. We have two subjects in this sentence “great God” and “Savior Jesus Christ.”

And the Grandvill Sharps rule, states that when two subjects agree in gender, number, and case, and they’re connected with the greek word for “and” like here. “Great God AND Savior Jesus Christ.” And only the first subject has the definite article, but the second subject does not- they are referring to the same person. That grammatical rule here applies. Titus 2 is stating clearly- Jesus is our God- not just is He our God- He is our GREAT God.

Also notice how immediately after that- Scripture backs it up by saying God gave “Himself” - powerful stuff here.

We also see that same grammatical rule applied in 2 Peter 1:1,

Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ,

…our God and Savior Jesus Christ:

The same rule applies- this is the same person. Jesus is God. The Bible states it directly.

Why doesn’t Jesus Himself ever claim that He’s God?

Hoho! Oh boy! People who say this a little bit drive me crazy…

They a little bit drive me crazy! Because they are missing such a significant part of the Bible. Such a significant storyline that is at the heart of the Bible- right in the smack dab middle! Right at the heart of the Gospel- is ignored.

This storyline is that Jesus Christ was crucified because He went around claiming He was God. He was claiming He was God and He was put to death because He unapologetically claimed to be one God.

If recall Jesus had a sign above Him that was nailed to the cross.

Matthew 27:37

And they put up over His head the accusation written against Him:

THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

If this doesn’t make you emotional- you likely do not understand the significance…

Jesus went around claiming He was the Son of God- that He was God. That He was the King of kings, Lord of lords- King of the Jews- and He was put to death for that. That was the charge against Him. That was the accusation written against Him. He was blasphemous according to them- that was His crime… according to them.

Jesus both claimed directly to be God- and acted in a way that would be blasphemous if He were not God.

Jesus’ claims that He is God:

We saw earlier both John 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

And John chapter 10:38, Jesus says, …though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.”

Those are both claims that He is in fact, God,

But I want to take another deeper look, at John 8:58 which we saw,

“Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”

A good friend of mine pointed out that when Moses went to the burning bush, Moses asked what he should say, and God says- let’s read, Exodus 3:14

And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’

You see I AM- the Great I AM- is a title that God uses for Himself. In the beginning, I AM. Before Abraham existed- I AM. As Jesus walked- I AM. Today in 2022- we worship I AM. For all eternity future we worship I AM.

A lot of people think this “I AM” is a tense. They think it’s a current tense. That’s not the case. I AM is a title. When Jesus here- when He says “Before Abraham was” that is a tense. That is past tense. Before Abraham was- I AM. That’s even before Moses- the law giver. Even before Moses- Before EVEN Abraham- before Abraham I AM.

This is a direct- powerful claim of deity!

So we see Jesus claim He’s deity, but sometimes actions speak louder than words. If hearing the words of Jesus are not enough for you- let’s take a look at how He behaved.

Jesus behaves as if He’s God:

An interesting aside, in Exodus 33:20 God states, …“You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.”

Leviticus 17:14 ...Therefore I said to the children of Israel, ‘You shall not eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.’

[PLEASE DISPLAY JOHN 6:53-56 AT THIS POINT- I WILL NOT READ]

John 6:53-56 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.

Yet Jesus’ message was I am here in the flesh. A man before you. You see My face- now drink my blood, and live. This attitude of Christ- that He is God- only God could do this. Otherwise- this is heresy.

And they did not believe He was God- which is why they crucified Him.

We also see Jesus behaving as God through the forgiveness of sin. You see one of the core arguments for Christianity is that the moral standard was given to us by God. And Jesus behaves as if He is the one chiefly involved even when it is “other people” being wronged. When other people are wronged Jesus acts as if it is Him who is chiefly involved.

We are able to forgive when someone wrongs us, but if _____A were to wrong _____B, I couldn’t go up to _____A and say, “you’re forgiven.” It’s not me who has been wronged.

But that’s exactly what we see Jesus do.

When someone wrongs a third party, Jesus shows up and says, “your sins are forgiven.” AS IF it was primarily Him who had been wronged. As if it was primarily Jesus’ standard that had been violated.

Now, what does this remind us of?

Where else in the Bible do we see someone who sinned horribly against other people, and he goes before God and apologizes to God for his sin against other people?

Well, we see that in David.

Quick recap of David’s life- he sleeps with a lady named Bathsheba who’s married to another dude. So he committed adultery. And then to cover it up- he kills Bathsheba’s husband. A guy named Uriah.

David learns a very important lesson that you can’t hide sin from God.

And then he begs and pleads god for forgiveness. And what does David say to God?

This is in Psalm chapter 51.

By the way, sometimes when I sin- I feel so ashamed- I almost feel I have to clean myself off before going and talking to God which is the wrong attitude. After you sin you should go to God immediately. And if that’s hard to do- I’ve found that reading Psalm 51 is great for that. Because this was written by David after the whole Bathsheba/Uriah scandal, and it talks about being made whiter than snow- being redeemed after sin.

But in this Psalm David apologizes to God. Note: He does not apologize to Uriah (who’s dead) or Bathsheba here. Exclusively to God.

Psalms 51 verses 3-4,

For I acknowledge my transgressions,

And my sin is always before me.

Against You, You only, have I sinned,

And done this evil in Your sight—

That You may be found just when You speak,

And blameless when You judge.

David says, “against You only have I sinned.

But… didn’t David quite clearly sin against Uriah and Bathsheba?

Yes- yes he did. So why does he say “against You only?”

David is recognizing that this standard originated from God, and that it is God’s standard who he has violated.

So too with Jesus!

Jesus behaves as if the standard of righteousness is HIS standard.

And this is why we must be so careful to make not make the mistake so many do of saying, “yes Jesus was a good teacher but He was not God.” Because if we are to do that- we undermine everything else. All of this. The Bible- our faith- Christianity- it doesn’t make sense if Jesus is not God. At the end of the day, Christ Himself is the message. You can take Buddha out of Buddhism, but you cannot take Christ out of Christianity.

His divinity ties everything together.

[Ended here due to time]

Alright- enough defense! Arguments Jesus being divine are bad arguments and I’m tired of playing defense so now let’s go on the offensive. Let’s show some rock solid proof that Jesus according to the Bible- unquestionably is the Christ.

Various other arguments for the Trinity and the divinity of Christ:

-The very first verse of Genesis presents the plurality of God, with Genesis 1:1 using a plural subject and a singular verb. The plural for “God” in Hebrew is “Elohim” as compared to the singular “Eloah.” So Genesis 1:1 could read, “In the beginning, gods He created the heavens and the earth.” So, did Moses make a grammatical error in the first sentence of the first book of Scripture, in what has become not only the world's best-selling book but in the most well-known sentence in the history of the world by using a singular verb with a plural subject? Of course not. No, this was intentional. By the way, the creation was a 7-day week. The entire world submits to Christ’s example by having a 7-day week. So too from this chapter, we follow His example with royalty. You may have heard a king or queen, they say “We will not allow this.” That is called the “royal we” and it comes from God’s references to Himself using the plural. For example Genesis 1:26 “Let Us make man in Our image.”

-For in Him (referring to Jesus) the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily. (Colossians 2:9)

-The Word.

So the Bible refers to a Person as “the Word.” By show of hands, who knows the name of this Person?.... His name is Jesus. John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

That… rather directly- is talking about Jesus Christ- the man. He became flesh- He dwelt among man. What do we know about this Man? What do we know about this Person who was referred to as “the Word”? Well just earlier in that same chapter. John 1:1-2 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

This describes the Trinity so beautifully. Keep in mind Jesus was the Word. In the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God.

-Marriage is two becoming one flesh. I believe that God, when designing marriage, He used that as an illustration to show how multiple people can become one entity. Marriage is a teaching tool to show who God is. And you may have heard the doctrine that man and woman together make up the image of God. When God made man in His own image, it wasn’t necessarily just male humans- but male and female humans together who are made in God’s image. And 2 in 1 is the image of God, just like how He is 3 in 1. Multiple in one. Now as to not rob glory from Himself, He designed us to be 2 “Whos” and 1 “what” rather than 3 “Whos” and 1 “what.” And in His brilliance as a designer, He created marriage to teach us about even Himself.

Thus Saith the Lord: If we count how many times the Old Testament prophets said, "Thus says the Lord" we find them using that phrase, in the New King James Version of the Bible, about 420 times. The New Testament on the other hand, never once records that phrase. Jesus Christ, with all the red ink devoted to recording His words, never once used that ubiquitous phrase, "Thus saith the Lord." Rather, Jesus proclaims, "I say to you," in the Gospels! Not a single "Thus says the Lord," but rather, "I say to you," 135 times. Christ’s message is completely self-focused. You can remove Buddha from Buddhism, you cannot remove Christ from Christianity.

Euthyphro’s Dilemma: I’ll leave guys with one last point of evidence for the Trinity. That is a dilemma posed which is supposed to “destroy Christianity!” Arghhh Scariness!!!! And essentially the dilemma is “How does God know, the He Himself is good? He can know if He’s consistent- but how would He know that He is good?” And that’s kind of a watered down version of the dilemma, but that’s it in it’s most basic form. The answer to that- which you can find on kgov.com/euthyphro spelled e-u-t-h-y-p-h-r-o

That name is so difficult to spell you could set that as your password and no one is getting in. You could tell a hacker, “hey my password is euthyphro” and they still wouldn’t know how to get in!

But essentially the answer is that from all eternity past, the 3 members of the Trinity are able to bear witness of one another. Jesus said If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not credible. But rather, as Paul teaches, “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.”

And so for all eternity past- we have 3 witnesses- the Father who has never wronged the Son, the Son never the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit never the Father, they bear witness of One Another- they bear witness that they have never been wrong. And by 3 witnesses, the matter of God’s eternal righteousness is established.

And if- say a unitarian denies the trinity- they do not have this answer. And they are left with nothing to defend against Euthyphro’s dilemma.