The Trinity, Trick or Treat??

This is a question that has long been debated among Believers of all sects and Denominations of Christianity. There are those who claim that it can't be true since it's not specifically mentioned in the Bible. But then again, neither is the word "Rapture", or the term "Eternal Security"*; yet support for both are abundantly clear in Scripture. With Halloween just over a month away*, I figured the title was appropriate. ;)

Our answers in this article will be covered in 3 major sections. The first being the Supremacy of Jesus, as shown in Scripture, the second, the Transfiguration and how it proves Jesus' Divinity, and finally, we will explore passages and verses that reveal the Trinity itself. This is, I feel, the best approach to this issue because, before we can see the Trinity as a reality, we need first to establish the truths of Who Jesus was/is in light of the full context of Scripture. At the same time, our exploration of the Trinity itself will reveal the Holy Spirit as an independent person of the Trinity, and not just the "essence of the power of God", as some have phrased it.*

Just to let you know one more thing, the passages and verses used here are taken from the NIV, simply because that's my default search. The notes, however, are from my paper Bible, which is a NKJV Study edition. (unless otherwise noted) The material here does not cover every single support of any given topic in this article. (Although it will almost seem like it before we're done. ;p) All references are provided in Biblical Order within their respective categories for easy access. Most emphasis is mine. And one last thing before we dig in... I have chosen to place the footnotes at the end of each section rather than having to make more notes so I don't forget what I'm saying by the time I scroll to the bottom. (I realized after finishing most of it, that I should have just put them in as I went. Oh well, maybe if I have another lengthy article, I'll remember to do that.) ;p

Footnotes:

1. Look for my post, "Eternally Saved By Grace", elsewhere on this blog page.

2. As to my commentary on the title, Halloween is now less than a month away, as this article has taken the better part of the last 2 weeks to write.

3. A brief search for non-trinitarian churches other than JW and Mormon list Unitarians, Christadelphians (that's a new one on me), and Oneness Pentecostals. As you may know, Arianism was determined as a heresy at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D.

   
   

Now that we've established the premise of this article and it's primary source, along with a couple of editorial notes, let's begin, shall we??

The Supremacy of Jesus

This aspect of our answer as to the validity of the Trinity can be viewed in several categories. They are as follow:

• Creation -- Genesis 1:1 is the first place we see Jesus represented in Scripture. I'm sure we all know it, but for the sake of good form, here it is -- "In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth." -- In order to gain a better perspective on this, we turn for just a second, to the New Testament book of John. The book opens with a statement that echoes Genesis 1:1, and goes on to explain it in further detail. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." When we look at the language being used here, we find that the Greek word for "word" is "logos", as you may know. Now, "geeking out", as my Head Pastor phrases it; we'll dig further into the Greek language and syntax for just a moment. The "In Depth" text box on this page of my Bible basically tells me that, because the phrase "Theos en ho logos" literally means, "The Word was God", and the fact that "Theos", in this instance is a predicate and precedes the noun "logos" and a verb, then it's only natural for it to appear here without the article "ho", which means "a". This proves unequivocally that Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, and any other groups who consider themselves "Christians", but don't recognize the Divinity of Jesus as clearly brought out here, are wrong. Besides which, as the text box also points out here, denying the Divinity of Jesus poses 2 serious problems. For one, it results in Polytheism, and for two, it ignores the Greek Grammar lesson we have just covered.* Some other major verses that speak to Jesus' relationship with Creation are John 1:18, John 5:24-30, and John 14:9. The first and third both talk about the fact that only Jesus has ever seen the Father, and that the Father is revealed, or described, in Jesus. The second refers to Jesus being the source of Eternal Life by authority of the Father.

  Ephesians 1:3-4, meanwhile, tell us that, "...He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world..."* We then come to the question of whether or not Jesus was, Himself, created. The overwhelming answer according to Scripture is NO. Let me show you why -- Turn with me, if you will, to Colossians1:15-20. This passage is key to understanding the truth of Jesus' eternal existence. Colossians 1:15-20

  New International Version

  The Supremacy of the Son of God

  ¹⁵ The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. ¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. In our exploration of this passage, we will once again be looking at a bit of the Greek language in that time and place.* First of all, the phrase "image of the invisible God" challenges us to ask, "What does that mean, exactly??" As we dive deeper into this, we find ourselves presented with thoughts of mirrors or rubber stamps. (AI overview uses wax seals) We see the exact same likeness as the original, just in a different form. The Greek word here is actually "eikon", conveying the idea of exact image, not just in appearance, but in nature and character. As you may have already guessed, our English word "icon" stems from this same idea. Secondly, we get to grapple with the word "firstborn". For the "low down" on the In Depth information provided here, we take note that the phrase "of all creation" is the genetive case*. We then look at the definition of "begotten" in this context, and the fact that the word "other" doesn't appear at all. We see also that the words "of all creation' are the object of the word "firstborn", not the other way around. We further observe the fact that "begotten" is not the same as "creation", as the two are clearly distinguished in the passage above. Man begets more men. God only begets God, ad infinitum. Creation is a different matter entirely, as it speaks to the point of a new item coming into existence from other sources. The word "begotten", in the Greek is "monogenes". This means "one and only", something "unique", or "one of a kind". The first part of this word is familiar, "mono" = "one" (for example, a monocle is a single eye glass). The second, "genes", denotes the concepts of "kind", "family, "offspring", or "class". As with most words, specific context dictates the meaning in use. In this instance, the idea is that of a close and unique relationship between God the Father and God the Son. The picture here is of family, but NOT of offspring, as we see the two clearly separated in our list of possibilities. Another term brought out in my notes on this point is "kainos". This means "something new in quality, nature, or kind, distinct from what has existed before. It also suggests superiority. This differs from the word "neo" which simply speaks of the age of a given object or idea. We can gather from all of this that Jesus is, in fact, eternal. We are then faced with the simple logic of the fact that, if Jesus created all things, then He clearly could not create Himself, right?? The Greek word for "all things" is encompassed by the concept "panta", which in the context of our passage here, means "the absolute totality of all created things". Flipping back, just for a second, to Romans 8:29, we gain more perspective on the term "firstborn". In this context, the word used here is "arche". This is the Greek word for "beginning, origin, or source.

  Looking then, at 1 Corinthians 15:20 and 23, we see Jesus described as the "firstfruits" of those who have fallen asleep. This is an illustration from farming; given with the understanding that the seed determines the crop. In this instance, more Christians. Cross-referencing this with our previous verse in Romans, we see that Jesus is, then, the source of our Salvation, as He created a new "species", or "type" of human in His death and resurrection.

  1 Thessalonians 5:16 is of relevance here in the fact of Paul talking about the 2nd Coming of Christ, "with the voice of an archangel". Now I happen to know that the JWs seem to think that Jesus IS the Archangel Michael. This verse, as it actually speaks of the Victorious Leader being announced by a separate person, debunks this idea out of hand. We can also see this in Jude, verse 9, where Michael is speaking about the Lord to Satan. Now, JWs, why would Michael be speaking of himself as a separate person here?? I'll wait.

  James also spoke of Jesus as the "firstfruit" of Christianity. Turning to chapter 1, verses 17-18, we discover that he is seeking to encourage his audience in faith despite the trials they are facing as Believers in Christ. Within the two verses of our Scripture here, James is bringing out the point that "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above..." NKJV Now, in researching the deeper meanings of the Greek lexicon, we find that there are 2 separate definitions for the word "gift". The first use gives us the phrase "dosis agathe". This refers to the act of giving something good. The second is "dorema teleion", which speaks of the gift having been received. Taken together, we get the idea that Jesus was this "Perfect Gift", and as mentioned above, the firstfruit of Christianity, and therefore, Head of the Early Church.* (Revelation1:5)

  Another place we find Jesus being spoken of as God's "begotten Son", aside from John 3:16, of course, is Hebrews 1:1-8 -- (not that the rest is invalid, I'm just trying to save space) To edit, (although not nearly done yet) as I discovered a couple more key passages that speak to the pre-existence of Jesus. One was the Ephesians verses included above. The other is 1 Timothy 3:16*. This is of such significance that I'm putting it in whole!!

  1 Timothy 3:16 New International Version

  ¹⁶ Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great:

  He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit,^[a]was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory. Although this is copied and pasted from the NIV, let me share the notes (in brief) on this verse from my NKJV. First of all, it tells us that this is an excerpt from a hymn of the Early Church. It then goes on to give cross-references for each line. Manifested (or appeared) in the flesh - See John 1:14, Justified in the Spirit - See Matthew 3:15-17, John 16:7, +10, and Romans 1:4. Seen by angels - refers to the angelic witness of Christ's ministry and resurrection. Preached among the Gentiles - See Colossians 1:23. Believed on in the world - See 1 Corinthians 1:18-25. Received up in glory - See Acts 1:9 and Hebrews 1:3-4. Which brings us to our aforementioned passage -- Hebrews 1:1-8

  New International Version

  God’s Final Word: His Son

  1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. ³ The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. ⁴ So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.

  The Son Superior to Angels

  ⁵ For to which of the angels did God ever say,

  “You are my Son;  today I have become your Father”^[a]?

  Or again,

  “I will be his Father, and he will be my Son”^[b]?

  ⁶ And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says,

  “Let all God’s angels worship him.”^[c]

  ⁷ In speaking of the angels he says,

  “He makes his angels spirits, and his servants flames of fire.”^[d]

  ⁸ But about the Son he says,

  “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.

  This is another passage in which there is a lot to unpack. Starting in verse 2, we read that Jesus is "heir of all things". The footnote here says that this is because He is the eternal Son of God Himself. Then we are once again presented with the words "made the worlds". The original Greek word used here is "aiwn", meaning "ages", as opposed the more common word, "cosmos", which indicates the physical world, or other organized systems. The footnote goes on to say that it shows Jesus as Lord of all history. Verse 3 begins with the idea that Jesus is "the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being" This denotes a direct source of light, like the sun, as opposed to reflected light like the moon. At the same time, we are drawn back to our passage in Colossians in reference to the point of "exact representation". In the Greek, this could be illustrated by a stamped coin from the die. It is also interesting to know that the word "person", seen in our text from Colossians, involves the "nature" or "being" (or essence) of the object/person in question. (The idea of cookies made from a single batch of dough just occurred to me here.) Although separated by the process, each contains the exact ingredients of the others. The next thought we are confronted with is that of Jesus sustaining the universe. This brings us back around to Genesis 1, thus proving the direct presence and power of God is equally found in Jesus as in the Father. The end of verse 3 speaks to the redemption of sin, but we'll discuss that more in a few minutes. In connection with the theme of Creation here, we can also see that the Sabbath was established by Jesus. For proof of this, we turn to Mark 2:2:23-3:6. This passage discusses the truth that Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath. Now, in order for that to be the case, it can only be that He was present with the Father at the Creation of the World. This can be observed when we notice the pattern of the story from Genesis 1. "The evening and the morning were the first day...". The pattern ends with Day 7, at which point, He settles into His Creation to take charge of it, with the help of Adam and Eve.* My footnote also mentions the fact that, as High Priest, Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father; unlike the Levitical Priests who never sat because they never finished their job. This speaks to the power of Jesus being so great that, although He continues to sustain the universe throughout eternity, He doesn't NEED to stand up in order to accomplish this task. This can also be found in Luke 22:69. The remainder of this passage, and of the chapter explains how Jesus is superior to the angels in Heaven, because The Creator is inherently above His creation. (See also Romans 9:5) Some other passages or verses that speak to the fact of Jesus' pre-existence are Genesis 19:1-15, Exodus 24:9-11, 2 Kings 6:16-20*, Psalm 2:7, John 8:58, John 17:5, Hebrews 13:8, and 1 John2:14. Footnotes: 1. Ignoring the Greek Language shows that these people don't truly care about the full context of Scripture. They are "cherry-picking" from the resources and choosing to distort the message of the Bible to suit their own opinions and agendas. 2. The fact that Ephesians 1:3-4 says that God "chose us in Him...", in no way means that Predestination (the core tenet of Calvinism) is accurate. Any passage or verse used to support this idea is misinterpreted. What it's really saying is simply that God had planned the existence of the Church before time, as we know it, became a "thing". 3. As many of us understand, languages can, and inevitably do, change over time. Meanings and uses evolve, new words are coined to embrace new ideas, or to name new items, etc... this is why looking to the original context is critical to our proper understanding and interpretation of Scripture. The "KJV only" crowd does a major disservice in this by claiming that as the "only Bible worth opening", as it were. It's been proven many times that the newer translations accurate to the original "spirit" of the message, and that's what ultimately gives us the right answers. NOT the words themselves. 4. The fact that Scripture clearly denotes Jesus as the Head of the Church is something the Catholic Church should pay more attention to. I could go into the whole "petros" vs "petra" bit, but that's a discussion for another day. 5. Another quick observation on the term "firstborn" is that we have more than one example in Scripture speaking to the fact that "firstborn" does not always mean "oldest". Rather, it can also be indicative of position for inheritance. Jacob and Esau are probably the best known in this case. 6. For clarification, the genetive case in the Original Greek is an independent clause that is subordinate to the main one and has no grammatical connection. 7. A number of years ago now, when my father was researching for his own website, which, sadly never got very far; he did a study on every "3:16" verse in the Bible. The results would amaze you!! 8. The fact that Genesis 3 speaks of God walking in the Garden with Adam and Eve tells us two things: One, when He finished His work and "rested", the indication here is that of "settling into it", as one would a new home. Two, it tells us that the idea of community has always been the basis from which God works.

• Authority -- The fact that Jesus was present in Creation brings us naturally to the subject of His authority. In a recent sermon, my pastor brought out a brief list of ways in which we see Jesus' authority on display throughout His Earthly Ministry.

  1. Heaven and Earth - Matthew 28:18 tells us that Jesus has been given full authority. In this passage, He is commissioning His Disciples to use it in their own ministries of preaching and healing after they have received the power of the Holy Ghost for guidance. One example of Jesus' authority here is found in Mark 4:41 when He calms the wind and waves on the Sea of Galilee.

  2. Teaching -- Although this is evident in most of what He said, the reference used here was Mark 1:22. As this was the start of our still current Sermon Series, "The Time Has Come"*, taken from verse 15 of this chapter, the next couple of references include verses close on to this.

  3. Demons -- Mark 1: 27 shows Jesus exorcising A LOT of demons from a single man. Also, in James 2:19, we read that even the demons believe in Jesus, and tremble at His Name. Without going down "rabbit holes" that cause us to stray from our focus here, let me just say that it boggles the imagination to know that there are Christians who don't believe in anything supernatural aside from God. The Bible clearly tells us otherwise.*

  4. Sickness and Disease -- While our initial reference here is Mark 1:31, we know that there are numerous other examples of Jesus healing people in the Gospels. For the sake of time and space, we'll just look at one other. In John 5:6-7, we find Jesus at the Pool of Bethsaida. From this account, we take notice that Jesus doesn't need the water in order to heal the man who had been lame since birth. Also, from the story of the Woman with the Issue of Blood, we see that He didn't even have to be aware of what was happening until after the fact. (See Mark 5:24-34, since we're already here) I have a note here that, for the rest of us, healing was accomplished on the Cross, and that this relates to the water from the Pool of Bethsaida. Instead of the pool being water, it was the "pool of the spiritual realm" that He stirred through the Sacrifice of His human body.

5. Miracles -- As we are well aware, Jesus performed other kinds of supernatural acts aside from healings (including the resurrection of Lazarus in John 11). Our journey leads us at this point, to Mark 6:31-44. This is the account of the Feeding of the 5,000. While I've heard it joked about with people saying, "the real miracle lay in getting Jews to share anything"; there are 2 major points to consider here. First of all, this is the only miracle to be included in all 4 Gospels. Secondly, they all make it abundantly clear that the people had brought nothing with them to eat.

6. His own Life -- Both John 2:19 and 10:18 show that Jesus had full control over His life. In the first verse, He has just finished clearing the Temple of money changers, and is responding to the Religious Elite about this. In doing so, He says, "Destroy this Temple, and in 3 days I will raise it up." (NKJV) When we come to John 10:18, Jesus has just compared Himself to a Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. He says here, "No one takes it from Me; but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father." This shows definitively that Jesus has the full power of God at His disposal. (as if maintaining the universe were not enough) Besides these, John 5:17, as well as Jesus' High Priestly Prayer from John 17 show the fact that, in calling God "Father", He was effectively equating Himself with God in the eyes of the Jews. (See also 1John 2:24) According to Jewish Law and Tradition, God was a single being*. The Shema,

found in Deuteronomy 6:4 is taken literally. "God, the Lord is One...". This raises the dichotomy, however, of the fact that the Hebrew terms "Adonai" and "Elohim" are both grammatically plural. It is explained by context as "plural of majesty" as God is the Highest of the High. Under the meaning for Elohim, it also speaks to a concept of plural unity, as we saw earlier in Genesis 1:26. As my pastors say, anywhere we see a "problem" in Scripture, it's just God's invitation for us to dig deeper for the truth. Thus, this, and other articles on here. (Speaking of which, I just found another article that explains the difference between the words "echad" and "yechad". [Nov. 27th] I hope this helps someone - https://www.bible.ca/trinity/trinity-oneness-unity-yachid-vs-echad.htm

• One Mediator -- The point brought out above, of Jesus' authority as High Priest lends itself to this next subject. Galatians 3;20, 1 Timothy 2;5, and Hebrews 9:15 all refer to Jesus not only as our Mediator, but as our ONLY Mediator*. (emphasis mine)

• Forgiveness of Sin -- This is another major thing the Religious Elite (Pharisees and Sadducees) had against Jesus, aside from His habit of calling God "Father". From the time God established the Levites as Priests under Moses' leadership and set up the Sacrificial System, it was understood that only God could forgive sin. The Priests were simply there to ensure the right animals were being sacrificed for the right sins, and to then offer prayers of penitence to God during the burning of them.* While all of this can be found in the book of Leviticus, our references will begin in the book of 2 Chronicles. Verse 14 of chapter 7 is one that is well known, especially among American Evangelicals. It reads, "if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."* NJKV We turn our attention next, to Psalm 103:3, as it refers to the benefits of God, which are later found in Christ. As we look at this chapter, we notice that David is listing things that he has discovered about God's love, power, and abilities. In this verse, he mentions both the forgiveness of sins and the healing of diseases. Flipping over a bit to Psalm 86:5, we find a prayer of David's. The 1st part of verse 5 sees God as "good, and willing to forgive". Next, in Psalm 130:3-4, we find the author awaiting the redemption from God that he is sure will come. Verse 3 acknowledges the innate weakness of humanity in the eyes of God, and verse 4 shows us that the author is confident of God's forgiveness. (Most likely because he has seen it in the past, possibly more than once. Or at least heard about multiple occasions on which Israel has received it.) The Prophet Jeremiah quotes from God in his revelation that there will be an New Covenant established between God and Israel. We read in verse 34 of chapter 31 where God has said, "... I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." NKJV Our last OT reference here comes from Daniel 9:9; which is read in the context of Daniel's prayer for the people exiled in Babylon with him. At this point, he is recognizing the fact that forgiveness belongs to God. Our first stop in our journey through the New Testament, in this moment, is Mark 2:7-10. In the earlier bit of the chapter, Jesus has healed and forgiven a paralytic. Now, the Religious Elite are questioning Him on it. The basic truth He leaves them with is that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. Second stop, Mark 4:12. Jesus has just told the Parable of the Sower. He is now quoting from Isaiah 6:9-10, the ending of which speaks to the point of sins being forgiven. Next, in Luke 7:36-50, we have the account of the woman who washes Jesus' feet with expensive oil. This passage takes place at the home of a Pharisee. During the discussion, Jesus shares a parable about forgiveness, having His listeners answer which person was shown greater mercy. The story concludes with Jesus forgiving the woman of her sins and sending her on her way; Saved by nothing more than her faith.* Our fourth stop is 1 Corinthians 15:3. Here, Paul is conveying the truth, as revealed to him by those who knew Jesus personally, that Jesus died for our sins. While this doesn't speak directly to the point of forgiveness in so many words, it is inherently understood as part of the package of Salvation. We will now look at Ephesians 1:7. Here, Paul lists the top 2 best things about Salvation. Redemption through Jesus' blood, and forgiveness of sin according to His grace. (See also Ephesians 4:32) Our next 2 stops are found in Colossians. First of all, in verses 13-15 of chapter 2, we find Paul expounding on the advantages of Salvation in Christ over the Legalism of the Judaic Laws.* The end of verse 13 speaks to the fact of Jesus' having forgiven all trespasses*. Verse 15 shows that, because of this, the powers and principalities of this world no longer have the power to hold us, due to the fact that, one of the things accomplished in His death on the Cross was to disarm them. (Their final defeat will come later. See Revelation 20:14) Flipping just one page over, we have Colossians 3:13. At this time, Paul is admonishing the people to forgive each other in light of the fact that Christ has already forgiven them. As we come to the end of this portion, we turn nearly to the end of our Bibles. 1 John 1:9 tells the Christian that, if we ask forgiveness for our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The important thing to understand here is that, since the moment Jesus died on the Cross, the forgiveness has been available. It doesn't just start when we pray. The point of our asking forgiveness is to recognize where we've gone wrong; and to repent from it. When we do, we then feel more deserving of the forgiveness that has already been provided. 1 John 2:12 tells his readers that he is writing to them "... Because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake." This, of course, in reference to Jesus.

• Receives Worship -- Another aspect to the Supremacy and Deity of Jesus is the fact that He accepted worship. As with His penchant for equating Himself with God by claiming Sonship, and forgiving sin, this was one of the "thorns" in the side of the Religious Elite. (Whether they directly observed this, or simply heard about it from others, it had to have made them jealous of Jesus' influence.) In researching this earlier, I was led to the place in Matthew 20:20-28 where James' and John's mother bows down and asks Jesus to give her sons positions of honor in Heaven. What I found in this was the fact that not all bowing inherently speaks to the point of worship in the context of the Bible. Rather, in this instance, she was simply showing respect or obeisance. What I learned about the usage of the Greek was that both the concepts of respect and reverence are covered by the same word, "proskuneo"; which simply refers to the act of prostration. The exact meaning, as we've seen before, is shown by the context. The Hebrew word for this is "shachah". At the same time, there is another word for obeisance that speaks to the point of respectful and attentive listening. It is "hypakoe". In the case of James' and John's mother, she was not worshipping, per se, but simply showing respect. To begin with, we have the Davidic Covenant, found in 2 Samuel 7. Verse 14 sees God promising that He will be a Father to His people forever. The key here is that Biblical prophecies often have two stages of fulfillment. In David's case, Solomon was the immediate while Jesus was the latter. This sets Jesus up to receive homage from His followers. Now, I realize that I didn't use the word "worship" here, but I'll get back to that in a bit. In the Gospels, there are a number of occasions on which we find Jesus receiving worship. You'll notice that He didn't deny any of it. Our starting point for this aspect of Jesus' Deity is found in Matthew 14:33.* This is the final verse of the story where both Jesus and Peter have just been walking on the water. The verse reads, "Then those who were in the boar came and worshipped Him, saying, 'Truly You are the Son of God'." Matthew 28 is the Resurrection of Jesus, as rendered by the one to whom the story was told. In verse 9, we see the women worshipping the Risen Lord. Shortly after this, verse 17 shows that when the Apostles saw Him, some worshipped; but others doubted. We then turn over to Mark 5:2-6. Here, we have the Man of the Gaderenes. This is the same passage we visited earlier in talking about Jesus' authority over demons. As the story begins, the man sees Jesus from afar, recognizes Him, and begins running toward Him and worshipping Him. (To me, this shows that his faith was strong enough in that moment to overpower the demonic possession long enough for this to happen.) As we know, the story ends peacefully, at least for the man, as Jesus has then moved the demonic spirits into a herd of pigs. Moving on, we go to Luke 24:52. Upon the event of Jesus' Ascension, the Apostles now looked to the future with joy and worshipped Him for Who He was/is. Next, we find ourselves "eavesdropping", if you will, on Jesus' conversation with the Woman at the Well. To find them, turn to John 4, starting at verse 7, and ending with verse 26. In verses 23-24, Jesus is telling her that those who worship God will do so in spirit and in truth. When the woman responds to this by saying that she knows that "Messiah is coming, (who is called Christ)", and that "When He comes, He will tell us all things." Jesus' reply is this - "I who speak to you am He." It's interesting to note in this, that it's the first time Jesus is telling anybody Who He is. This supports the fact that He never denied worship, because He truly was/is God in the flesh. In looking at our next passage, I'm not sure it's one I've honestly ever seen before. I just know that it was on a list when I was first researching for this article. John 9 describes the events of the Pharisees having excommunicated a man who had recently been healed by Jesus. Upon hearing about this, Jesus and the Apostles immediate sought him out. Verses 33-41 tell of this encounter. The scene opens with Jesus addressing the man by asking if he believes in the Son of God. He affirms that he does. Jesus then replies, saying, "You have both seen Him and it is He who is talking with you." The man responds in worship. The rest of the passage is about Jesus' following conversation with the Pharisees about True Vision and True Blindness, as my Bible heading puts it. We see in this the 2nd time that Jesus is speaking plainly about Who He is. (Granted, we don't know the exact order of events between the two encounters, but we're taking this as that based on the other accounts of Jesus' Ministry in the Gospels.) Our next Scripture takes place after Jesus' Resurrection, and before His Ascension. Turn over to John 20:24-29. This is the account of "Doubting Thomas" and his change of heart after seeing and feeling physical proof of Jesus' Risen Body. Verse 28 sees him believing and worshipping in saying, "My Lord and my God!!" Leaving the Gospels behind, and proceeding into the Letters of Paul, we find ourselves landing in Philippians 2.

  
  

  Philippians 2:1-11

  New International Version

  Imitating Christ’s Humility

  2 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ² then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. ³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

  ⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

  ⁶ Who, being in very nature^[a] God,    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;⁷ rather, he made himself nothing    by taking the very nature^[b] of a servant,    being made in human likeness.⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,    he humbled himself    by becoming obedient to death—        even death on a cross!

  ⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place    and gave him the name that is above every name,¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,    to the glory of God the Father.

  For us "Trinitarians", this passage is among the most important in establishing the Divinity of Jesus. First of all, we take heed to the point that Jesus effectively "set aside His glory" or "made Himself of no reputation", as suggested by verse 7. A brief search on this passage leads to the fact that the concept being conveyed here is that of "emptying oneself". The Greek word here is "kenosis". We see this idea expressed in other version as "stripping Himself of all privileges and rightful dignity". This lends itself to the idea that there was something for Him to have given up, therefore, the logical conclusion here, based on the full context of Scripture as we've looked at it thus far, is that Jesus is, in fact, Divine. Getting back now to our focus on worship, the end of this passage predicts that, in the end, "...every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father." Returning now to Hebrews 1, and taking a closer look at verse 6, see the Father saying, "Let all the angels of God worship Him." This shows us that it isn't just Jesus "hogging the spotlight", if you will, and ACTING like He deserved worship. We see in this the truth. The Father is literally encouraging the angels to worship Jesus. Our final passage on the subject of worship is Revelation 7:9-10. This tells about the worship of God and the Lamb in the New Heaven.

• Character -- As we saw earlier, the phrases "radiance of God's glory", "exact representation", and the word "firstfruits" all indicate not only the same nature and source, (remember the examples of sun, rubber stamp, and cookie dough??) but the same character or behavior. There are several ways in which Scripture supports this, both in the Old and New Testaments. Pay attention as we look at qualities of both God and Jesus in the following lists --

  1. Omniscience: The idea of God knowing all is Biblically sound. It is shown in various places throughout Scripture, including, but not limited to -- 1 Samuel 2:3, where his mother, Hannah, describes Him as "the God Who sees", as her desire for a son has come to fruition. 1 Kings 8:39 is part of Solomon's prayer in dedicating the Temple. Here, he is seen saying, "...You know every human heart...". In Psalm 139:1-6, we read about how God knows David's thoughts. Proverbs 15:3 finds Solomon echoing his earlier thoughts on God knowing the hearts of all men. Parallel verses in the New Testament are found in Matthew 6:8, in which Jesus says that, "your Father knows what you need before you ask". Another story I like to bring out on this subject is from Luke 19:1-10. The tree Zacchaeus climbed to see Jesus was already growing before he needed it!! I say, "God is good!!", and you say ... " Colossians 2:3 tells us that, "in Him (God) are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 2. Omnipotence: We see the overwhelming power of God right from the Beginning. Genesis 1 and 2 tell the Creation story from slightly different angles, therefore including certain details in one that don't show up in the first.* In chapter 3, we observe Him transforming the Serpent and "amputating" his legs, as it were. Looking at chapter 7, we are witnesses to the Flood. Later, in Exodus 7:14-11:10, we read of God sending the 10 Plagues on Egypt, then manna in the desert. In the New Testament, we see our examples from earlier, outlining Jesus' authority and power, culminating, of course, in His victory over sin and death in His death, burial, and resurrection. (See Isaiah 53 and 1 Corinthians 15:55-57)

3. Gentleness: We find evidence of God's gentleness throughout the Old Testament, as well as we do of Jesus in the New. Some references are 2 Samuel 22:36 and Psalm 18:35, both of which speak to the point of God's protection and gentleness. The reference from Psalms echoes David's praise in saying, " You have also given me the shield of Your salvation; Your right hand has held me up, Your gentleness has made me great." Psalm 23 and Isaiah 40:11 describe the coming Messiah as a Shepherd. Likewise, we find Jesus speaking of Himself as a Good Shepherd in John 10, verses 11 and 14. We can also relate verse 11 back to our earlier point of Jesus having control over His own life. A couple of other places we can see gentleness as an attribute of the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit, are Matthew 11:28-30, where Jesus is inviting those who are heavily burdened to rest with Him, as He is "gentle and humble"; and Galatians 5:22-23, as gentleness is among the Fruits of the Spirit. This will remind us, once again, of our earlier discussion on "firstfruits". It stands to reason that, if gentleness is found not only in the Father and Son, then must be true that the Holy Spirit is of the same Nature, being that gentleness is one of the "crops" listed as His fruit. Are you with me on this?? 4. Holiness: While Exodus 3 finds Moses staring at a Burning Bush from which God is speaking, saying, "Take off your shoes, the place you are standing is holy ground."*, Luke 1:35 describes the baby Jesus as holy. 5. Merciful: In Exodus 34:6-7, we read of God speaking of Himself as "merciful and gracious". References to the mercy of God are abundant in the Psalms, and Hebrews 2:17 says that Jesus had to become human in order to become a "merciful and faithful High Priest. (In looking for the context here, the entire chapter supports Jesus' Deity.*) 6. Humble: A brief search on the humility of God shown in the Old Testament led me to the following article - It's a Hebrew word study on the word "humility" - https://jewsforjesus.org/blog/old-testament-word-study-on-humility Meanwhile, I'm sure many of us are familiar with the humility of Jesus as brought out by Paul in Philippians 2. 7. Forgiving: Evidence of God's forgiveness is abundant throughout the Old Testament. From His mercy on Adam and Eve in sparing their lives and simply protecting them from further temptation in the Garden, to the cycle of Israel's turning away and embracing of God as their Ultimate Authority and Covenant Partner, we see a plethora of occasions on which God extends His forgiveness. At the same time, looking through the Gospels provides us with an ample selection of scenes in which we see Jesus doing the same. Two of the most poignant examples are found in Luke 23:24, when Jesus is on the Cross, asking the Father to forgive those responsible for His impending death, and John 21:1-14. This is when Jesus reinstates Peter to fellowship after his denials ahead of the Cross.

8. Righteousness and Innocence: Although I had these listed separately in my notes, I realize that they are really part of the same point; so I decided to combine them here. First of all, the account of the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 15, and Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac in chapter 22 both foreshadow Jesus' Sacrifice as blood sealed the Covenants.* in Deuteronomy 32:4, we read an excerpt from the song Moses recited for the Israelites, "He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.". Looking through Psalms, we find chapter 19:7-12. This passage begins with the words, "The laws of the Lord are perfect..."* Jumping over a bit to chapter 92, verse 15, we see the Psalmist referring to God as an upright Rock, and saying that there is no wickedness in Him. Then, in Jeremiah 23:6, one way in which he prophesies of Jesus is to say that He would be, "the Lord, our Righteous Savior" (NIV). Similarly, in Isaiah 53:11, Jesus is spoken of as a "Righteous Servant". Of course, both of these passages also relate to Jesus as Messiah. We'll tackle that next. But before we do, we'll look at some places in the New Testament that speak to our point of God's righteousness and innocence here. Matthew 27:4 finds Judas lamenting over his betrayal of Jesus. We read his words concerning his acknowledgement that, because of him, "innocent blood" had been shed. Turning over to 2 Corinthians 5:21, we see where, "God made Christ, Who was without sin, to be made righteousness for us..." In1 Peter 1:19, he refers to Jesus as "spotless"; and in his second book, chapter 2, verse 22, we see that Peter calls Him "guiltless". Finally, we discover from 1 John 3:5, that there is no sin in God.

Footnotes:

1. Look for my Sermon Summary posts both here and on the Groups Page. (Wix changed things recently, and I'm not sure that everything was moved.) 2. In terms of "supernatural experiences" apart from God, I have had personal encounters more than once.

3. The idea of God as a single being is contradicted throughout the Bible, as we are currently seeing. In reading the words of Jesus in the Gospels, His consistency in berating the Pharisees and Sadducees for their spiritual blindness, tells us that, while the Godhead is represented in 3 persons, God is still worshipped as a single Deity. Therefore, they needed to set aside their pride and position if they were truly to understand the Hebrew Scriptures that gave them such knowledge and power. So, this maintains the Shema as an accurate statement of faith whether the Jews accept Jesus as Messiah or not.

Giving us a perfect segue to our next section --

Jesus is The Messiah

In spite of what many Israelis/Jews still believe; The Bible leaves us no doubt as to the truth of this statement. The first issue is that these people insist on ignoring the New Testament entirely. They firmly insist that the Tanakh, or Hebrew Scriptures, are all they need in order to understand God.* The major point they are missing is that, when you take the Bible, Old Testament AND New, and treat it like one, comprehensive and complete story of God -- as one should -- you see that the Prophecies all have 2 distinct fulfillments. The first is the more immediate, and therefore obvious one. For example, the fact that Sarah eventually gets pregnant with Isaac takes precedence over the 20+ years it took to happen. The second is seen in Jesus, as brought out in the writings of Paul; especially in Romans. Just as the Abrahamic Covenant was God's way of beginning a New Nation through a single man, His New Covenant of Salvation with us was started through Jesus.* This not only supports the idea of Biblical Prophecies having 2 moments and methods of fulfillment, but also shows how one is physical and the other spiritual. This is yet another way in which God is continually working to restore all things to Himself in bringing Heaven and Earth together. (See Colossians 1:19-20) Until the rest of the Jews/Israelis are willing to not only read the New Testament, but accept it as part of the Scriptures of God, they will never understand that Messiah came in the form of Jesus a bit over 2,000 years ago.* They need to realize that, just because the life and ministry of Jesus were not what their ancestors may have been expecting, doesn't mean it hasn't come true. Which, if I'm being honest, is another things that boggles the imagination. It just seems to me like, with all the focus on spiritual things in the Old Testament, most especially in the 10 Commandments, but also by many of the Psalms, that they would understand that Messiah would NOT be here about human concerns like overthrowing the Roman Empire. Rather, His Mission would be Spiritual in nature. (Which becomes abundantly clear in the New Testament, especially considering the moment at the Last Supper when Jesus literally writes Himself into the Passover Story.)

Let's look at the evidence, shall we?? To borrow a line from Rogers and Hammerstein, "Let's start at the very beginning; a very good place to start..." lol

The first place we find that supports the idea of Jesus' having been prophesied in the Old Testament is Genesis 3:15. Here, we have God admonishing the Serpent for his part in convincing Eve to eat from the Tree. He says, "... He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel..." We see this fulfilled when Jesus is battered ahead of His Crucifixion and yet gains the victory over sin and death in His Resurrection. (Now, granted, this did not have a more immediate fulfillment, but nowhere else in Scripture do we see this answered, either.)

In researching this topic, I came across a listing of how Jesus was the fulfillment of various "types", (or "roles") we find cast in the Old Testament --

The first was Adam. We see this pointed out by Paul in Romans 5:14, calling Jesus "the 2nd Adam, due to beginning a "New Race", much like my example of Abraham, above. Next, we have a connection drawn between Abel and Jesus, found in Hebrews 12:24. The point being this, while Abel's blood "cried out" for vengeance on his brother, Jesus' blood offers forgiveness. This truth inherently speaks to the fact, as noted throughout the book of Hebrews, that Jesus came to establish a "Better Covenant" than the one previously held between God and Israel. Another way in which it was better was/is that it doesn't only include them, but literally ANYONE who accepts Salvation.* Following this, the next parallel is between Jesus and Moses, or more specifically, the bronze serpent. For this part of the story, we turn to Numbers 21:4-9 where we read about how the Israelites could look at the snake on the pole and be healed of their bites from "fiery serpents".* Jesus later recalled this in John 3:14 when speaking of Himself as being lifted up on the Cross to achieve the opportunity for our Salvation. In John 6:32, we see Jesus clarifying the fact that, while the manna given out by Moses was a physical, and therefore temporary source of nourishment and life, His Sacrifice would be a permanent, Spiritual source of "true bread".* Last, but certainly not least, we come to the aforementioned event of Passover. While the original holiday was celebrated upon the Israelites freedom from exile in Egypt, it became a lasting memorial that was to be observed for all time by them and their descendants. As Gentile Christians, we receive Communion in the 20/20 hindsight of Paul's Passover narrative, found in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. Flipping back just a few pages to chapter 5, verse 12, we see Paul referring to Jesus as "...our Passover Lamb..." .

While there are numerous other passages and verses throughout the Old Testament, I'll just name a few here for the sake of both time and space.

The Psalms have Messianic prophecy in many chapters, but perhaps none so vividly expressed as in 22-24. Some know these as "The Shepherd Psalm Trilogy". The first, more commonly referred to as "The Suffering Servant" (See also Isaiah 53), reflects Christ's work on the Cross, as the shepherd must be willing to lay his life down for the sheep. As you may recall, we covered this point in the course of Jesus' authority over His own body. The 23rd Psalm is one of the best known and comforting in the collection. It speaks of both provision and protection, thus bringing a sense of peace to the flock. Jesus reflects this in His provision of Salvation, offered to any who wish to join His Flock. Chapter 24 closes out the Trilogy in prophetic praise to the ultimate victory of the Shepherd over all enemies for all time. This is shown in Revelation 4:11, 5:13, and 7:11-12, just to name a few. Other places in Psalms that reference Jesus as Messiah include, but are not limited to, 45:6, 89:27, 97:7 (cf. Deuteronomy 32:43), and 110.

As you may know, another Old Testament book that has A LOT to say about Messiah is Isaiah. For example, Isaiah 9:6 is probably the clearest, most prominent of all --

"For to us a child is born,  to us a son is given,  and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

This can be cross referenced with Hebrews 1:8, which reads, ^8 "But about the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.". In looking at this passage earlier, we saw that the Father is speaking here about the Son. To my mind, there can be no more obvious or greater support for the Divinity of Jesus than this. While we're here, it's also noteworthy that Psalms 45:6 and 89:27, mentioned just above, speak to the veracity of this passage as well. In the early chapters of Isaiah, my NKJV Study Bible has an "In Depth" article on "Immanuel" (God with Us). It discusses various interpretations; but ends up definitively citing Jesus as the ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy that a virgin maiden would one day deliver a Child. A detailed look at the Hebrews words here, is included.

Isaiah 42:1-4 is another passage that speaks, not only to the point of Jesus as Messiah, but also to the person of the Holy Spirit. The verses also talk about other elements of Messiah as mentioned in other places, such as the servant and the reed.*

The last Scripture we will look at in Isaiah is found in chapter 61:1-3. Isaiah 61:1-3

New International Version

The Year of the Lord’s Favor

61 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,^[a]2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,³  and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.

This passage is echoed in the Gospel of Luke as Jesus is reading it in chapter 4:16-19. He goes on to tell the them that this Scripture is fulfilled in their hearing. (vs. 20-21) There is no denying Jesus' words here. He was telling them, in no uncertain terms, that He, was/is Messiah.

One book that is not so commonly considered as part of this discussion is Hosea. In chapter 11, verse 1, he speaks prophetically to the coming of Messiah by saying, "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son." Getting the full context here takes a little minute. First of all, we look at the fact that God has considered Israel as His son from the time He chose Abraham to begin it. Thus the lower-case "s". What's important to remember here is that, as we said earlier, Biblical prophecy tends to have, at minimum, a two-fold fulfillment pattern. One immediate and physical, and the other later and spiritual. (Sometimes, as in this case, the latter is both.) So for the later fulfillment of this verse, we look to Matthew 2:13-15 where the bit from Hosea is repeated to show connection. At the same time, the note in my Bible, for the Matthew passage, also directs the reader to John 15:1. That, as you may recognize, is where Jesus calls Himself the True Vine. For further clarity on this reference, we need to know that, throughout the Scriptures, one of the "nicknames", if you will, for Israel is the "vine", or "branch". (See Isaiah 5:1-7 and Jeremiah 2:21 [vine], and Isaiah 11:1 [branch of Jesse]

Further on in the Old Testament, we come to Zechariah. In verse 9 of chapter 9, we read first, of praise to the coming King, as we saw in Psalm 24. Then, in anticipation of Jesus' Triumphal Entry, found in Matthew 21, and each of the other 3 Gospels, in turn, we read of the colt of a donkey. Coincidence?? I think not. (See also Genesis 49:11 for both vine and donkey references.)

Now, as we look at the New Testament for evidence of Old Testament prophecies fulfilled, we start our search in Matthew 5:17. Here, Jesus talks about how His purpose is not to abolish the Jewish Laws, but to fulfill them. This, as with any contractual update, means that, once the terms have been accomplished, each is rendered null and void in their turns. (More on this in the following section)

Skipping back for just a second, to Matthew 1:22, we have the fulfillment of Isaiah 9:6. A son born to a virgin. Flipping over just a bit to chapter 26, verse 54, we find Jesus discussing how the Scriptures are meant to be fulfilled unless He is subjected to suffering. (See Psalm 22, from above. Also, Isaiah 53)

Our next stop is Luke 4:21. Jesus has just been reading from Isaiah 61. He finishes by telling His audience that He is the long-awaited Messiah, as indicated in the passage He had just finished. (See also, John 4:4-29 and Mark 5:1-20) We then turn over to Luke 24:24. This relates to all the things in the Jewish Laws that would be covered by His Sacrifice.

Looking at Luke 24:45-48, Jesus has appeared to the Disciples sometime after His Resurrection. Here, He speaks plainly after having "opened their minds so they could understand spiritual things", saying, "This is what was written: 'The Messiah will suffer and and rise from the dead on the third day...' You are witnesses of these things."

In John's Gospel, while we've already looked at 1:1, we can read down a bit to verse 14 for one of the most important in this discussion. Here, John definitively declares that, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us...". If you recall from earlier in this article, we saw that Jesus was "the Word", as indicated in the first verse of this book. Next, we see that verse 18 of chapter 13 recalls the Psalm 41:9 prophecy of His betrayal with bread. Acts 1:16 also speaks to this point.

Romans 8:4 mentions the fact of "the righteous requirement of the Law being met in us... through Christ Jesus..." In Romans 9, verses 1-5, we read Paul's lament over Jerusalem and how their rejection of Jesus puts him in anguish due to the fact, brought out in verse 5, that He is, in truth, "Messiah, who is God over all... "

Ephesians 3:9 speaks to the Believer finding fullness in God through Christ.

Although we spent a bit of time in Colossians 1 earlier in our "adventure" here, chapter 2 also has something to tell us. In verse 9, Paul clearly states that, "For in Christ, all the Deity of God dwells bodily." Other translations use the term "Godhead" here. This makes it abundantly obvious that there is more than a single entity embodied in this. To this point, an analogy I had come up with a couple of years ago works well. I have been known to describe the Trinity as a Business Partnership in which all 3 have equal power and authority. Of course, unlike most human partnerships, all concerned have a vested interest in the success of the company. As well they should, being, as we've seen, the same in source, nature, and behavior. Later, I'll tell you the more recent (and better) analogies I've discovered.

Footnotes:

1. The Tanakh, as I have recently discovered, includes all of the Old Testament as we know it, but in a more consolidated form that is also presented in a different order. My understanding here is that the Apocrypha remains a separate collection unto itself.

2. As my pastor recently pointed out, God always starts with one person when creating a new thing. (Adam, Abraham, Jesus)

3. The years are approximated due to a possible 6 yr. variation between the Gregorian and Julian calendars. (Also, the fact that this change was made in direct connection with Jesus should be a significant clue to the non-believer as to His significance. 4. The fact that we can clearly see in the New Testament the witness of the Gospel being extended to the rest of the world by Jesus' Great Commission makes the idea that Jesus came ONLY to the Jews invalid. Looking back at the Old Testament, especially the Abrahamic Covenant, we can easily see that it has always been God's intention that Israel SHARE the blessings of God to the World. (and not just their own "world", but the entirety of humanity.) This is supported by Jesus' encounter with the Woman at the Well, and other stories where Gentiles are involved. (And btw, that word is NOT used only in reference to other Israeli Tribes, but also those of other ethnicities and backgrounds. For that matter, we know that Moses was married to a Gentile. This helps to debunk the beliefs of certain sects of Judaism in this matter. (See also -- 1 Kings 17:17-24, which includes mention of both an "upper room" and the fact that Elijah laid his body on the boy 3x. Acts 10:34-43 and 11:18 also speak to the point of impartiality on God's part.)

5. Some of you may not realize that the symbol for our Medical System comes from this account.

6. The reference to True Bread is clearly symbolic in nature, as is the bread (or crackers) used in Communion. This is a point of Dogma the Catholic Church persists in misinterpreting.

The next part of this article will focus on many of the ways in which Jesus effectively abolished the Old Testament Jewish Laws. And, yes, I'm well aware of what He said Matthew 5:17. Let me show you the key points from the overview on this search, then we'll explore from Scripture why the idea is accurate.

Jesus Abolished the Jewish Laws

Key Points from Jesus's Teaching:

• Matthew 5:17:

  Jesus's direct words are, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them". 

• Fulfillment, Not Abolishment:

  Jesus's mission was to fulfill the Law, which means he brought it to its ultimate purpose and completion. 

• The Law's Purpose:

  The Law served as a diagnostic tool to reveal sin and establish God's holiness. Jesus fulfilled its purpose by providing the way to overcome sin and attain righteousness through his death and resurrection. 

• The New Covenant:

  His death ushered in a New Covenant, where God's Law is written on people's hearts rather than just external commands. 

• The End of Ceremonial Law:

  While the moral principles of the Law remain, the need for the specific animal sacrifices and rituals prescribed in the Old Testament was abolished by Jesus's single, perfect sacrifice. 

• Heart Transformation:

  Jesus emphasized a deeper, spiritual understanding of the Law, focusing on the inner attitudes and purity of heart, not just external actions. 

Now, my notes were written down long before I did this quick search in the moment, so I'm not going to go "point for point" here, but I'm sure the verses and passages I mention will suffice to cover the ground regardless.

Since we established the point earlier of how the book of Isaiah is essentially "bursting at the seams" with references to Jesus as Messiah, we will begin in Jeremiah. Starting in Jeremiah 3:15, we read of God's promise to provide shepherds, "...according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding." It's important to understand here that the word "shepherd", used throughout the Bible, is always indicative of a major leader. We see this held true from Moses, to David, to Jesus. Each one, a shepherd of either literal sheep or of people. Today, we view Pastors as our shepherds, as they serve God's purpose in providing us with "food" from the Word of God and in protecting us from the influences of Worldly thinking as they offer spiritual support in our faith journey. (Along with this, the support of our fellow "sheep" is also beneficial.) Of course, the Ultimate Shepherd of the Church is still, and always will be, Jesus.

Turning over to Jeremiah 31:31-40, we find God's promise of a New Covenant, to be established at a later date. Due to the length of this passage, I won't include it here, but the gist is that, once this is done, Jerusalem will be, "....holy to the Lord. It shall not be plucked up or thrown down anymore forever." (vs.40b)

Of course, we all know that the City of Jerusalem as Jeremiah, and even Jesus knew it, has been under attack and foreign rule numerous times. However, if you search the question of "In what ways has Jeremiah 31:40 been held true?" The overview of results will show that Bible Scholars have determined it to have a 3-stage fulfillment. First, the return from exile, followed by the post-exilic period, and purification of the valley. Secondly, the Spiritual fulfillment upon Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection; thus establishing a "New City" of Believers. This also relates to the idea of Jerusalem being seen as the "Spiritual City of God". Finally, as Christians, we look to the future glory of the Millennial Kingdom and New Jerusalem. (I highly encourage you to dig into this more on your own)*

Shifting our attention, once again, to the New Testament, we come back to the context of Matthew 5:17-18. The Greek word used here for "fulfill" is "plerosai". This speaks to the fact of having completed an established goal. It denotes a perfect result. All of this clearly indicates that there is nothing more that needs to be done concerning the Old Covenant. As with any contract, updates render the prior agreement null and void. The point was not to change anything, but to finish it. Not to do away with the spiritual morality, but only the legalistic rigidity of the laws as written. I've seen something in the course of my research that suggested this was what Jesus meant when He said, "It is finished" as He hung on the Cross. I would have to concur. In our search for truth, we will discover a plethora of ways in which Scripture supports this. Let's look, shall we??

Mark 12 opens with a story that may be less familiar; but as we look at it, we come to realize that, in directing His comments to the Pharisees and Sadducees through the Parable of the Tenants (verses 1-12), His purpose was to show that the Old Laws were over. Through His coming Sacrifice, which had already been set in motion, a New Covenant would be taking its place.*

Luke 16:17 gives us an example of the OT Law vs God's Law. Here, we see Jesus responding to the Pharisees and Sadducees derision after He had called them out by the Parable of the Unjust Steward. He says, "...the law and the prophets were until John..." (NKJV, emphasis theirs) He goes on to say that something new is taking their place and that, "...it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail."

In John 8:31-32, Jesus is speaking to His Jewish followers about how only true discipleship of Him will lead to Spiritual truth and freedom. We see this echoed in John 14:6, when Jesus says that, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life..."

John 15:12 is in the context of the Vine and the Branches. Jesus tells them to love one another as He has loved them. This is phrased as a command, thus replacing the first 4 of the 10 Commandments, in essence. Two other places where we find this same idea in Scripture - but oddly enough, not in my notes here - are Matthew 22:34-40 and Mark 12:28-34. These are the same account of where the question of the Greatest Commandment is brought up. Jesus' response is one I'm sure we're all familiar with, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind... You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all of the Law and the Prophets." In these two short lines, Jesus effectively condensed the 10 Commandments down to just 2.* As mentioned above, the point was not to change the "essence" of the Law, simply the letter. While the command to love God encapsulates the first 4 Commandments, the second covers the other 6. Speaking to the point of the other 600+ rules and regulations of the Judaic Code, we will come to understand that the Sacrificial portion were covered by Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. Those, in reality, are the only ones that need concern us. The others, especially about food and drink, were only ever meant to be temporary, as they were initially for the protection of the Israelites in the desert and the preservation of their food during that time. At the same time, those, along with the medical/personal issues, were intended to set God's People apart as they established a New Nation. (Also, the progress of medicine rendered the old ways harsh and unnecessary.) In Jesus, all of this would be resolved. This is supported by Romans 13:8-10, where Paul is telling them that they should "Owe no man anything but to love them. for to love one another is to fulfill the law." By this, we can see that Paul meant the "Law of God", as suggested by our Matthew 5 verses. In fact, we will find that every place Paul, or any of the other New Testament authors whose books are presented after the Gospels, mention "the law", it either refers to those Old Testament Laws that no longer apply, or to "God's Law of Love". Which one it is depends on the context of the passage. Also, Galatians 5:13-14 speak to the point of not using our human desires as license to sin; but using our freedom in Christ to serve others with love.*

Skipping back now to Romans 7, if we just look at the section titles, they show that the entire chapter tells us various ways in which Salvation in Jesus is better than the Laws of the Old Testament. (Remember, context is key) In my NKJV, the titles read as follow - Freed from the Law (verses 1-6) This portion uses the analogy of marriage to show how the Roman Jews would not be committing "adultery" to the Old Covenant by embracing the New. Sin's Advantage in the Law (verses 7-12) This speaks to the point that law only serves to identify sin; but that no sacrifice short of Jesus' can effectually clear it from our record. Paul concludes this paragraph by saying, "Therefore, the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good." In this, Paul is saying that while the sacrifice of Jesus has freed them from the Laws of the Judaic Code, God's Law of Love is holy, etc... Law Cannot Save from Sin (verses 13-24) In reading the prior section, we see that part of Paul's commentary here is that the existence of the law not only identifies sin, but in doing so, awakens the desire for it. Here, he explains his own struggles in knowing better, but not finding it easy to do better. (There, I just simplified one of Paul's most confusing passages for you. You're welcome!!) He is acknowledging in his own way, the fact that Salvation doesn't automatically make us perfect. This shows us that sin is not a "law problem", but a "heart problem". Without the availability of Salvation to rescue us from the eternal death of both body and spirit, brought by the consequence of the Laws of the Old Covenant, we would not have the option to choose Eternal Security in Jesus. While it remains true that our bodies will eventually die, short of Jesus' Return, that is, the promise of Salvation assures us not only of new bodies, but the eternal existence of our spirit. (See 1 Corinthians 15 for details)

Speaking of which, our next verse is found in 2 Corinthians 3:6. This echoes what we just saw in Romans 7 and expands on it. Paul brings out the fact that, while sin against the Old Laws leads to death, God has provided Salvation through Jesus AND the power of the Holy Spirit to enable us to defeat our sinful desires. Following the idea through to its natural conclusion, we come to understand that it's only by God's grace that we are offered Salvation, and therefore it's only up to Him to guarantee that relationship. Proof positive that there's no way for us to earn our way into Heaven. It's like God offering us a Trust Fund. We can only reject it BEFORE the fact of receiving from it. (Not gonna lie, I just had to look that up) Once accepted, it's up to the person who gave it to take it back. Thankfully, God is not human in nature. We can trust Him to never renege on His promise of Salvation. (See Numbers 23;19, Matthew 28:20, and Hebrews 13:5 and 8)

Continuing in Romans, we turn over to chapter 10, verse 4. In this verse, Paul is elaborating on the death of the OC Law by maintaining that it was effectually "killed" along with Jesus on the Cross. This, as you may realize, supports what I had mentioned before about how Jesus' words, "It is finished" clearly referred to the Sacrificial Laws of the Old Covenant. At the same time, it also lends credence to the truth that only Jesus can Save.

Next, we turn to Galatians 2:21, another place in which Paul is explaining that the Old Covenant laws were ineffective to save them/us from eternal non-existence. If so, he says, "... if righteousness (right standing with God) comes through the (OC) Laws, then Christ died for nothing."

Continuing on the same page, (at least in my Bible) we come to Galatians 3:13 in which Paul is comparing the Old Covenant Laws to a "curse" we have been freed from by Jesus' death and resurrection. As we've seen in other verses in this section, this was because, by itself, the Law cannot Save. Only a change of heart by the working of the Holy Spirit in the process of our sanctification can do that. And this requires that we receive God's promise of Salvation. The power of the Holy Spirit then becomes the immediate "payout" of our "Trust Fund". By following His lead, other benefits inherently follow.

Our next stop in this wonderful book is Galatians 3:24-25. This pair of verses supports my earlier suggestion that the Jewish Laws of the Old Testament were only ever meant to be temporary. In this passage, Paul is stating that the OC Laws were nothing more than a "tutor", pointing ahead to Jesus and the New Covenant that would replace the Old, when the time was right. This, of course, refers us back to our opening NT passage in Matthew 5 when Jesus spoke of "all things having been accomplished". Paul is explaining to them that, just as the OT Laws were a tutor, training us to follow Jesus later, now our faith is a tutor, training us for Heaven.

Just a page or 2 on, we arrive at Galatians 5 where we see Paul extoling the advantages of their/our freedom from the OC Law. He explains here that, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free..."* Salvation in Christ meant that they were free from the Legalistic, fear-driven, shame inducing Judaic Codes of moral conduct. In Christ, we are freed from the burden of responsibility to maintain our position with the Father. This doesn't speak to the point of our fellowship, only to our Eternal Security, as mentioned above. (as in any family relationship, a "falling out" doesn't end the fact of your blood connection) Like we said above, the Law of God is only love, not rules.

This leads us to our next verse, found in Galatians 6:2. Paul's words recall our earlier idea that God's Law is Love. Here, Paul is encouraging the people to "bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the Law of Christ." When we help each other out, whether by prayer, money, or physical effort, we show love to our neighbors, thus obeying Jesus' Commandment of Matthew 22 and Mark 12. This inherently reflects our love towards God, because if we are not in good fellowship with Him, then we will have a harder time loving others.

Moving on to Ephesians 2:15, we find ourselves reminded of our theme in this portion of the article. Proof that Jesus' death and resurrection abolished the Old Covenant Laws, once and for all. (I'm cheating a little here, but mainly because this is the most complete overview I can find for this verse. Also, I've been working on this since about 3 o'clock this afternoon. It's now almost 9:00)

Ephesians 2:15 (NIV) reads: "For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups into one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new people from the two groups, thus making peace". This verse explains that Jesus, through His death, abolished the system of law, including its commandments and regulations, to unite Jews and Gentiles into one unified body, eliminating their past hostility and creating a new, peaceful community.

For our last bit of Scripture in this section, please turn your Bibles to Hebrews 8. In this chapter, the author is focusing his treatise on 3 major points of one essential truth.

• The High Priest of the New Covenant - In verses 1-5, he first establishes the fact that Jesus is the High Priest, and that this is a better arrangement, as He was chosen for being PART of God, and not just an imperfect man. (As we saw earlier, the fact that Jesus is called the Son of God inherently makes Him part of the Godhead.)

• The New Covenant is Established on Better Promises - In verses 6-7, he argues by logically pointing out that, "...if there had been nothing wrong with the first covenant, no place would have been sought for another." (NIV)

• Recalling prophecy of the New Covenant and affirming it will not end - Verses 8-13 mostly quote from our Jeremiah 31 passage above. The author concludes by citing the fact that God called it a "New Covenant". He deduces from this that God has thus rendered the Old Covenant obsolete, and that what is obsolete will, by necessity, disappear. (Makes sense to me, and actually reminds me of that old Chinse story about the Stone Peach. This story, if you're not familiar, basically tells about a village where there was a long-standing tradition that only the oldest member could pick the peaches. One day, a young boy comes along, noticing that one of the fruits near the bottom was softer than others. He realizes the truth and calls attention to the fact that the peaches don't need the "magic" of someone old to pick them, but simply need time to ripen. The old rule is then abolished as unnecessary. The moral being that a bit of curiosity can bring a sweeter, deeper truth to light.)

Footnotes:

1. A couple things about the "Spiritual City of God". First off, it put me mind of the song by Steve Green, "Looking for a City". The Biblical reference for this is Hebrews 11:10. I also want to caution you not to get caught up in the details of Eschatology here. A former pastor of mine actually said that he had become "disinterested" in it. He came

to this decision when he heard about a fellow clergyman who suggested that the details of Christ's Return are really none of our business. I've come to agree. Meanwhile, a brief search to find a name here, led me to find that this idea actually originated with Jesus in passages like Acts 1:6-7. (More on this later.)

2. Concerning the passage in Mark 12, there is obviously far more to examine. One of these weeks, I'll catch up with my Sermon Summaries (mentioned above). Look for this one in a month or so, hopefully.

3. In saying that Jesus effectively condensed the 10 Commandments down to 2, I am in no way suggesting that they are not important. As I said above, the moral basis of God's Law remains intact. I'm only showing here that Jesus Himself repeatedly rendered the Judaic Codes in a general sense, obsolete.

4. The truth is, although our Salvation in Christ freed us from the powers of sin and death (at least spiritually speaking), it does not stop us being human. We are still going to sin once in awhile. The key lies in understanding that our goal should be to reduce our frequency (and possibly types) of sin. We need to realize that we are Saved BY Grace, not TO it. That being said, within the past week, I discovered a serious error in judgement on this by Martin Luther. This seems to have led to an erroneous assumption by at least some Catholics that ALL Protestants believe in the idea of "sinning gloriously", as Martin Luther phrased it, because it's in our nature. He justified this by the idea that all is forgiven, regardless of what we do.

5. Galatians 5:1 never ceases to remind me, at least within the past 30 yrs., of a young performer who toured the Methodist Church circuit around that time. Ami Sandstrom (Shroyer). She wrote a song, "It is for Freedom", I believe it is, based on this text.

The Transfiguration

I feel that the Transfiguration is one of the 2 key events of the Gospels that supports the Divinity of Jesus. The first being His baptism, which will be covered in our exploration of the Trinity in our final section of this article. Once again, it simply boggles the imagination how certain groups entirely ignore portions of the Bible that don't fit their belief systems; yet still call themselves "Christian" based solely on the fact that they believe in God. The words of 2 Timothy 3:5 come to mind - "...having a form of godliness, but denying its power. And from such people turn away." In the previous verses, Paul has warned Timothy of a variety of bad behaviors among members of the Early Church. A careful reading of verse 5 on the end of this list indicates the denial of God's power as a separate issue; not that the people who engage in the afore listed practices are necessarily the same individuals as those who "have a form of godliness...". The gist of the note in my Bible is that those listed last may appear to be religious, but engage in forms of worship that are not connected to a living relationship with Jesus. It speaks of these activities as "empty". It then calls the reader's attention to Isaiah 1:10-18 and Matthew 23:25-28. The first has God rebuking Israel for sacrifices and ceremonies, instead calling them to humble service of their neighbors. The latter, as I suspected, is one of the many passages in which Jesus is berating the Pharisees and Sadducees.

The truth is abundantly obvious for those willing to look at the full context of Scripture.

Matthew 17:1-13

New International Version

The Transfiguration

17 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. ² There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. ³ Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

⁴ Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

⁵ While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

⁶ When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. ⁷ But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” ⁸ When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

⁹ As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

¹⁰ The disciples asked him, “Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”

¹¹ Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. ¹² But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” ¹³ Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.

My notes indicate 5 aspects of the Transfiguration. How well each may be covered is anybody's guess, as I compiled this part over a year ago, but I'll give it a go --

1. Proves Divinity - For this, we revisit 2 of our earlier passages, just briefly. First of all, Philippians 2:5-11, as we saw previously, is one of the key pieces of evidence in the "trial", if you will, of Jesus' Divinity. Although the wording is somewhat different among various versions of the Bible, the core truth is still there. Starting in verse 6, we look at the word "form", or "likeness". This speaks to the "essence" of God, and therefore the same source. Something I just realized I forgot to mention earlier is the Greek term for "form of God". It is "morphe theou". Quoting from the Word Focus box in my Bible, "The Greek word for form was generally used to express the way in which a thing exists and appears according to what it is in itself...." In brief, the text affirms that, from this, one can accurately confirm the Deity of Christ. Secondly, in verse 7, we focus on the phrase "taking the form of a servant". Notice in particular the word "taking". This tells us that something was being added, not exchanged or subtracted. In this case, humanity was added to Jesus' Divinity. Although some versions use the phrase "set aside" in reference to His Divine Nature, this only refers to the privileges (or location, for lack of a better word). It in no way speaks to the idea of His having set aside the abilities inherent in Divinity. The evidence of His miracles bears this out. Now, I realize that there has been debate as to whether or not Jesus had been capable of miracles ahead of His Public Ministry and appearance of the Holy Spirit at His baptism. However, the fact that the Pentecost was only necessary for His Followers to receive power from the Holy Spirit, suggests that He may well have spent time earlier in doing "smaller" things like healing the wings of birds, or whatever. Also, the fact that Mary was confident in His abilities at the Wedding at Cana supports the idea that this was due to her having experienced prior moments of His having used His power. As we already looked at the bit about emptying, I won't repeat it here.

Looking once again, at Hebrews 1 we are reminded that the word "brightness" inherently speaks of shining from within, not of reflected light. (Think of the Sun vs

the moon, as mentioned above) We spoke at length earlier of the term "exact imprint", so I'll leave you to review that at your leisure. I will, however, share with you now a couple of other perspectives on this passage.

Number one, we see in these verses, views of both the present and the future. Just as the veil of the Temple would be torn at Jesus' death on the Cross, Jesus Himself "tore the veil" between the revelation of God as seen in the Old Testament and the New. In fact, the entire book of Hebrews supports this thought. In relation to this, it occurs to me that the Transfiguration was just a momentary thing, proving to Jesus' most trusted Apostles Who He truly was/is. If it had been a permanent change, His body couldn't have been torn up ahead of His Crucifixion.

Number two, the concept of Jesus' Divinity can be compared to a prism:

• First of all, it is shown out in multi-faceted glory.

• Secondly, His unique authority is proven by His teachings, miracles, and foreknowledge of betrayal and death.

• Thirdly, in the guise of His humanity, His Eternal Glory was veiled. (until the moment of Transfiguration, anyway.)

• Finally, His transformed body provided a preview of Heaven. (See 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians 4)

2. Demonstration of Nature and Manifest glory prior to humanity - This concept actually relates back to the previous point, but rather than repeating myself, I'll just give you the bits that are different. We'll start in verse 5 with the voice from Heaven. This verifies Jesus as the Son in whom the Father is well pleased. This, as we can see, echoes the thoughts of Jesus' baptism; thus reinforcing the truth of His Divinity and glory, which He had shared with the Father throughout eternity past. (See John 17)

3. Six day time frame in connection with Moses and significance of his and Elijah's presence - In order to get the context of this idea, we look at the conversation between Jesus and Peter, found in Matthew 16: 21-23. Here, we have Jesus predicting His death. We then see Peter refusing to believe it, and Jesus rebuking Him as Satan because He understood that it was not only Peter's emotions at play, but evil forces trying to persuade Jesus not to sacrifice Himself for humanity. (See Ephesians 6:4-10) This also speaks to the fact that Peter savored humanity over the things of God. The intervening passage at the end of chapter 16 is Jesus' challenge to His Disciples of whether they truly have what it takes to follow Him. (Can you drink the cup??)* Chapter 17 begins by informing us that it was 6 days later that the Transfiguration took place.* Now, in order to get the full perspective of the significance of this, we have to understand why Moses and Elijah are mentioned in this scene. The main reason Moses and Elijah were present was to show the succession of Authority and fulfillment of both the Law and the Prophets. Thus, the first in each line being accounted for. Now, the connection of the 6 day time frame in this story most likely comes from the fact Moses took 6 days to prepare for his encounter with the Father on Mt. Sinai ahead of receiving the Ten Commandments. (See Exodus 24:15-18) One major connection inherent to Moses, Elijah, and Jesus is the fact that all 3 fasted for 40 days*, saw/showed the glory of God on Mt. Sinai, spoke of an "exodus" (See Luke's account of the Transfiguration in chapter 9, verses 28-36), and experienced personal "transfigurations" in the despair and disappointment of failed missions of hope in the company of fellow Believers. (See Romans 15:4) In Jesus' words, their messages "fell on deaf ears", as it were. (Just think about the times He said, "If anyone has ears to hear...") Not to suggest that Jesus failed in His overall Mission, just that not everyone He spoke to responded in a positive way. One verse that speaks to this point, and relates directly to our discussion here is Luke 16:31 where we see Jesus saying that, "...If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead." (Other references in the footnotes)

4. Transfiguration relates to metamorphosis of butterflies - This comparison is made by virtue of radical visible transformation and new existence. (or in Jesus' case True Existence revealed) The overview synopsis here brings out the fact that, while the metamorphosis of butterflies is a naturally occurring, permanent change, and the Transfiguration was a temporary display of Divine Truth, the process also mirrors our Spiritual metamorphosis in Salvation. (See 1 Corinthians 5:17)

5. The Transfiguration reinforced faith - In reading our passage above, we see in verse 4 where Peter is saying that it's good for them to be there. He then offers to build altars in memorial of this event; but Jesus tells them to keep it strictly to themselves. Peter later mentions it in a vague reference. This is found in 2 Peter 1:16-21 where is talking about not bringing "clever fables" to the preaching of the Gospel; but only the truth of Who Jesus was and what He accomplished for us. Another situation was going on at the same time that speaks to the point of weak faith in the other 9 Disciples. This is found in the passage immediately following that of the Transfiguration. (Meanwhile, back at the ranch...) Sorry... lol In this story, a man has brought his seriously possessed son to them for an exorcism. When they are unable to do it, they talk to Jesus about it after He comes back with Peter, James, and John. In response to their failure, He realizes that part of the problem was His earlier announcement of impending death. This served to weaken their faith because they didn't understand the power it would unleash in the spiritual realms (like in Star Wars, for Obi Wan, etc...) nor what it would mean for them/us in the future. In Mark 9:29, Jesus is also quoted as having said that, "this kind only comes from prayer and fasting". This showed that they were not sufficiently prepared to handle such a huge task. For Peter, James, and John, the Transfiguration increased their faith and gave them, and in turn, us, something to hold on to as proof of Who Jesus was/is.

While I have other notes relating to where Moses and Elijah exactly were, that is not relevant to the point of this article, so I'll simply write a separate one on that later. Besides which, this one is getting long enough already... I'm sure you agree!! But I'm nothing if not thorough, so you really can't argue against it either. ;)

For now, I'll finish this section off by bringing out 2 more quick points. The first relates to how Moses' and Elijah's deaths show the 2 ways in ways in which Believers in Christ will experience the 2nd Coming. While we read in Deuteronomy 34:5-7 about how God Himself buried Moses, we read in 2 Kings 2:11 that Elijah was permitted to ride directly into Heaven on a chariot of fire.

In Moses experience, we see the "dead in Christ", as mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Conversely, Elijah's "adventure", if you will, speaks to the point of "those who are alive and remain". Also in that passage.

This, in turn, brings us to our final thought for this portion of the article. The Transfiguration is representative of the 2nd Coming. In going directly to Heaven, there is no need of a bodily resurrection. Jesus speaks to this truth in Luke 9:27 when He says, "Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Kingdom of God." Now, just to clarify this, Jesus was not talking about those who were literally standing in front of Him in that moment. He was referring to the Church Age as a whole.* (See 2 Peter 3)

Footnotes:

1. The fact that Jesus is seen predicting His death in Matthew 16:21 is further support to His Omniscience.

2. The question of "Can You Drink the Cup??" also happens to be the title of a book I recently acquired by Henri Nouwen. (Can I just say here that I LOVE his work)

3. Now, just to clear up any confusion here between our passage in Matthew and the same account in Luke 9:28-36, we need to understand the time frames each were using to base their testimonies on. The online overview says that, while Matthew was going by what was known as "exclusive timing", meaning that he only included the full 24 hr. days between events; Luke used "inclusive timing". This meant that he was considering the afternoon of their departure and travel time in the mix. (Also, in looking at this again, I just noticed the note in my Bible in Luke, concerning verse 31. This is where it tells us that Jesus was talking with Moses and Elijah about His "decease", literally "exodus", as the note says. It goes on to inform me that this was an important reference to the Old Testament event, led by Moses. Just as he led the Israelites on a journey of salvation, here, Jesus was doing the same.

4. Moses' fasts can be found in Exodus 24:18, 34:28, and Deuteronomy 9:9. Elijah's is in 1 Kings 19:7-8. Jesus' fast was during His Temptation in the Desert in Matthew 4:1-11.

5. The 3 main stories that come to mind of people having rejected Jesus are -- the man who chose to go home and bury his father rather than follow Jesus (Matthew 8:21- 22), the Rich Young Ruler (Matthew 19:16-24), and the people in His hometown of Nazareth (Mark 6:1-6).

6. Reference to the Church Age here, debunks the Preterist notion of the 2nd Coming having taken place upon the Destruction of the Temple in 70 AD. There are other reasons that prove them wrong, but again, that's a conversation for another time.

The Trinity

Now that we have sufficiently covered the abundantly clear Biblical evidence of Jesus' Divinity, in His Pre-existence, Authority, and Transfiguration, we can set out to definitively prove the Trinity to be real. While this will require a certain amount of repetition from prior sections, its important to review some major points in the process of concluding the theme of this article. (As we know, a good essay contains 3 essential things, premise, support, and conclusion. or "Tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em, tell 'em, then tell 'em what you told 'em.") :D Oh, and I'm almost forgetting to share the analogies I had promised back near the beginning of our journey. Think of the term "God" as the name of your favorite sports team. I'm from New England, so I'll use the Patriots as an example. In speaking of them in a general sense, we don't list off each player's name; but just say, "Hey, did you see the Patriots play last night!? They were wicked awesome!!"* We only refer to individual players when speaking of their individual roles or gifts, right?? So if we think of God in this way, then the members are the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You might say that the Father is the Coach, giving out orders, the Son is like the Quarterback, executing them, and the Holy Spirit is like the Left Tackle, "insurance", if you will, to our winning the Game." (I realize this isn't perfect, but the general idea works.) The other analogy that could be used here is that of your favorite band.

And so, with that, we go back to the beginning --

Old Testament Trinity Passages

Genesis 1:1-2 give immediate evidence of the Trinity in the fact that all 3 entities are represented. "In the Beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth. Now, the Earth was without form, and void, and the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep." (I grew up on the KJV, what can I say??) Here, we see mention, first of all, of God. As suggested by my analogies above, this alone provides us with proof that the Trinity was present at Creation. But let's look further, shall we?? Logically speaking, if Jesus was/is the Logos (Word) of God the Father (John 1;1), and His Only begotten Son (John 3:16), Who was with Him from eternity (John 17:5), and the Spirit was hovering over the water, then wouldn't you say that was proof?? The saying, "The gang's all here!!", comes to mind in this moment.

Secondly, we read in verses 26-27, the phrase "Let US make man in OUR image." Was God schizophrenic and just talking to Himself?? Of course not. The fact that God's Nature is Love inherently requires that He exist in a community. Love requires a recipient, after all, right?? I mean, self-esteem is healthy, but that's not what this is talking about. Personally, I feel like Wm. Paul Young, author of "The Shack", gives us an absolutely beautiful depiction of the Trinity.* Even a cursory scan through the Bible, focusing on the concept of community, shows that it has always been part of His Plan for us to be in community, not only with Him in faith and fellowship, but with each other in our worship and Spiritual Growth. (See Genesis 3:8 and Hebrews10:22) Just as the Trinity comprises the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we are spiritual beings who have a soul and live in a body. I think that's fairly obvious. Are you with me??

In conjunction with this, we have Genesis 2:24 with the partnership of man and woman resulting in "one flesh". As I believe we saw earlier, the Hebrew word here is "Echad". This speaks of compound unity. (Again, the image of a team or band works well.) Oh, and another classic analogy is of water, ice, and steam. Same inherent source, but different presentations.

In Genesis 11:6-9, we find the concept repeated, "Let US go down", speaking of the scene at the Tower of Babel. The note in my Bible says that this indicates the majesty of the speaker and not the "Royal 'We'", so there's that. Confirmation that the Father was/is NOT crazy and talking to Himself, but to others Who were also present and carried equal authority and power.

Our last stop in this portion is Isaiah 6:1-8. In this passage, Isaiah is seen as hesitant to act as Prophet of God because he feels unworthy due to the impurity of his lips. (Impediment like Moses, or simply sinful humanity?? Possibly Social Anxiety?? IDK) Regardless, our key here is found in verse 8, "... Who will go for US??..." Also, I just remembered about John 14:23 where Jesus has been talking to His Disciples about leaving and preparing a place for them. In the mix, Judas is asking how Jesus planned to manifest Himself to them and not to the world. Jesus' answer is, "If anyone loves Me,... WE will make OUR home with him..." Another verse that supports this idea is 1Corinthians 12, where Paul is talking about unity in diversity. (I realize this is NT, but it goes with the theme here, okay??)

I feel this is pretty clear Biblical context, wouldn't you agree??

Shared Nature of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

In looking for all possible aspects of the Trinity in Scripture, we find that the Trinity inherently share certain characteristics. Since we already have an extensive list from earlier concerning the ways in which Jesus has all the same qualities as the Father, we will show here how the Holy Spirit exhibits one of these attributes. Not that He does display all of them, but more will be covered in our 4th section, so we'll just wait a few minutes on those.

For now, I just want to focus on a point brought out by my pastor earlier this year, I believe. And that is the fact that Scriptures show that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all displayed the emotion of mourning at various times.

Our exploration on this brings the one verse that we have to flip backward for in the remainder of this article. (Other than cross references, of course.) While the Father mourned over both mankind and Israel, Jesus mourned over Jerusalem, and the Holy Spirit is grieved at our rejection of Salvation.

Starting with the Father, we turn back to Genesis 6:6. This verse tells us that God "regretted" (NIV), or "was sorry" (NKJV) that He had created mankind, and was "grieved" (NKJV)in His heart, or "deeply troubled". (NIV) It was following this that God told Noah to build the Ark and start over.

Turning our attention now to Jeremiah 11, we see that the Judeans had broken God's Covenant to the point of incurring His anger. Not for the first time, as we know, but this chapter actually recalls some of their former rebellions and God's enduring forgiveness towards them. (Trustworthiness is actually another attribute common to the Trinity that comes to mind here.)

We skip over at this point to the New Testament to look at ways in which Jesus displayed mourning. In Matthew 17:11, we find ourselves back at the scene of the Transfiguration, but looking at a verse we've not yet focused on. This verse shows Jesus talking about how Elijah, or the ROLE of Elijah, "covered" as we saw in John the Baptist. (Think Cover Band here, same appearance and sound, but NOT the "OG", as the kids would say.)

Upon Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, as recounted in Matthew 23:37-39, we find Him weeping over the City, deeply sorrowful that they don't recognize Him as Messiah, simply because they are expecting a physical victory as opposed to a Spiritual one. Also, we can turn to John 11 and witness the events surrounding the death of Lazarus. Now, this is a verse it just occurred to me to include here, and a 2-second google search proved me right. While this chapter is most commonly used to show Jesus' humanity in grieving for His friend, a bit of a closer look reveals a deeper truth here.

In looking at Linguistic and Biblical context here, the idea of Jesus grieving for His friend simply doesn't track. What Jesus was actually grieving about here was the havoc being wreaked by sin and death that brought these people to a state of agony over Lazarus' demise. The other thing that was upsetting Him was their spiritual blindness and lack of faith in His power as "the Resurrection and the Life". (vs. 25) Looking specifically at the word "troubled", we find that the Greek term at play here is "embrimaomai". This can also be translated as "groaning", which in turn, may also be described as "indignant". He wasn't angry with the act of mourning itself, but the necessity they felt for it in the situation as it had occurred. It could even be said that, as with His flipping of the tables, seen in Matthew 21:12-17, He displayed Righteous Indignation.

Shifting our attention now to the Holy Spirit, we turn to Mark 3:29. Here, Jesus clearly delineates for His listeners/us, the difference in grieving the Holy Spirit by allowing sinful behaviors into our daily lives, and blaspheming Him by rejecting Salvation by calling Good evil and evil Good. (See verses 20-27) The 3rd thing we can do is to quench the Holy Spirit, but that's not part of our focus here. Two other passages that speak to the issue of grieving the Holy Spirit are Isaiah 63:7-14, and Ephesians 4:29-31. This supports the "personhood" of the Holy Spirit, as only a sentient being/living thing* can feel emotion. A force of purely spiritual power cannot.

New Testament Trinity Passages

We open this final major portion of this article with the key passage(s) of Trinitarian belief: Jesus' Baptism -- Let's turn to Matthew 3:13-17, shall we?? (Other Gospel accounts are found in Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:21, and John 1:29-34) I personally feel that it speaks volumes that this account is recorded in all 4 Synoptic Gospels, especially considering the facts of the diverse audiences and years in which they were written.*

Matthew 3:13-17

New International Version

The Baptism of Jesus

¹³ Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. ¹⁴ But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

¹⁵ Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

¹⁶ As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. ¹⁷ And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

As we read this passage, we find all 3 members of the Trinity present. First, Jesus Himself, coming to be baptized by John.* Secondly, we have the Father, speaking from the cloud, as He did with Moses, and finally the Holy Spirit is there in the form of a dove. At the same time, we have reinforcement to the Divinity of Jesus in the Father calling Jesus His Son. While there may be language in other passages suggesting that Jesus was not necessarily "birthed" as a Son, but "made" like a Mobster, our earlier look at His being the "radiance and express image" of God debunks this. The accounts of Jesus' baptism in the Gospels may be the only places in the New Testament that show the Trinity so definitively in both physical and vocal presence; but they are far and away from being the only places in which the Trinity is clearly spoken of. That being said, who's up for more exploring?? (In realizing how long this article already is, I'm seeing the "light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak; and remembering my Senior Trip to DC in 1988 with our teacher responding, "just 20 more minutes", when asked when we would arrive.) lol

As we press on, as it were, to the "high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippiansl.3:14), "studying to show ourselves approved" (2 Timothy 2:15), "ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within us" (1 Peter 3:15), we find ourselves next, in Luke 15 --

It has been pointed out, probably by numerous clergy, my own 3 pastors included,* that this chapter contains support for the Trinity by virtue of the fact that each story is based on one of the members thereof. The Lost Sheep, obviously refers to Jesus as our Shepherd, as do our earlier chapters of Psalm 22-24. The story of the Lost Coin calls our attention to the Holy Spirit, as the woman's friends rejoiced with her. And finally, the Prodigal Son story shows the Father's love for us, even when we have seriously messed up in life. (Two books I highly recommend are Henri Nouwen's, "The Prodigal", and the "Prodigal God" Bible Study by Tim Keller.)

Our next key passage is found in 3 of the 4 Synoptic Gospels. Just as familiar to many of us as Jesus' baptism, ahead of His Earthly Ministry, we now look after its end.

The Great Commission holds a great deal of support not just for spreading the Gospel, but for the Authority of Jesus and the truth of the Trinity. (The other 2 references are Mark 16:15-18, and Luke 24:44-49.)

Matthew 28:16-20

New International Version

The Great Commission

¹⁶ Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

It's interesting to note that there are 7 key components to the Great Commission, as 7 is the number of perfection in Scripture, as seen in the Creation account of Genesis 1. These are as follow -

• Authority of Jesus - As we covered this extensively above, I won't belabor the point here.

• Evangelism - My Head Pastor, as well as his Assistant, have pointed out an important thing about this. While the term "Evangelist" brings to mind world travel and large crowds, that is only in line with the Gifts of the Church, as outlined in Ephesians 4.* In the context of this passage, Jesus is really just saying, "As you go about your daily life, share the Gospel according to the leading of the Holy Spirit." (Bloom where you're planted, in other words.)

• Discipleship - This speaks to the individual training of the New Believer in Christ. It's not enough to simply share the Gospel with a "random" person. From there, it's important to get them into a good, Bible-preaching, non-Legalistic, Church. My own is very good. Our motto at CenterPoint of NH is this, "Living and sharing a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ." We are warm, welcoming, and ready to answer any questions, or to pray for any needs you bring. While Salvation itself is important, Spiritual Growth is also a primary need. (See 1 Corinthians 3 and Hebrews 5:11-14)

• Baptism - I'm only including this for 2 reasons. First, because they did; and secondly because it speaks more clearly to the Trinity than any other line herein contained. While I have come to understand that Salvation IS, in fact, Baptism, the aspect that relates to our focus here is the fact that, traditionally, the practice of baptism was to show allegiance to a single deity. In making it part of the Great Commission, Jesus was bringing out the truth of the Trinity. A triune Godhead as a single point of faith. This proves that Jesus was, in no way, proposing polytheism. The Jewish Prayer of Shema, found in Deuteronomy 6:4, remains solid as a valid point of Catechism. (As mentioned earlier.) Although Jesus was known for promoting unpopular ideas, this, properly understood, was not among them.

• Teaching - While this could also fit under the heading of Discipleship, the reference here is more about learning obedience than it is about Catechism and Dogma.

• Universal Scope - Jesus was no longer restricting the Gospel to Israel or it's Jewish adherents in other places. It was now being extended to "all the world". And that's why we mostly don't have to worry about the whole "travelling" bit. Unless we specifically feel God calling us elsewhere, there's already people IN other places, ready to share.

• Jesus' Presence - This mandate was given just before He Ascended. His promise to be with them, "even to the end of the age." speaks to a couple of points here. Number one, although He wouldn't be with them physically, the promise of the Holy Spirit as His replacement shows equality of status and power. Number two, the fact that Jesus specifically said, "the end of the age" supports my earlier statement that when He was talking about His death in our earlier passage, and saying that "some standing here will not see death...", that He was most definitely talking about the Church Age, and not being literal.* (As they too often thought He was)

  
  

  Looking at the significance and interpretation of the Great Commission, we discover 4 main points --

• It is a central theme of the Christian faith, encouraging us to share with others.

• Historical context, as we've established above, was that it took place immediately before Jesus' Ascension, being His final Words of instruction to His Disciples.

• The Great Commission is a Divine Mandate, inviting the Believer to participate in God's Plan of Redemption. This further supports Jesus' Divinity as there is no suggestion of His having gone off anywhere to pray immediately prior to this, in order to receive any specific orders from the Father.

• Finally, the global scope of the Great Commission has caused problems, historically speaking. In following Jesus' instructions, some have intertwined the Gospel with efforts of colonialism and political pursuits. (Que Crusaders, Inquisitions, and Christian Nationalists*, just to mention a few.)

While still in keeping with our theme of Trinity, many of the verses or passages in this final portion of Scriptural proof texts focus on the task of establishing the Holy Spirit as a person. In the course of my work on here last night, I found an overview listing ways in which the Holy Spirit also displays the characteristics of the Father, and as shown earlier, of Jesus. Now, since this is a new source from which to gain perspective on this question, my notes are not organized to specifically support each of these qualities as listed; but I guarantee that most, if not all, will be proven out in what I do have already. I'll begin with the list; then finish with my personal notes.

The first part of the list focuses on the Divine Attributes of the Holy Spirit -

1. Eternal Existence - This was shown in our brief study of Genesis 1:1-2.

2. Omnipresence - proven in the fact of His indwelling of each Believer. One of the articles that is offered in the link here has many of the same things listed, but I'll include it here anyway for the ways in which its different - https://get.tithe.ly/blog/characteristics-of-the-holy-spirit

3. Omnipotence - The proof of this is bourn out by His participation in Creation, along with His power to resurrect the physical body and spiritually renew hearts. (See Romans 6:10-11 and Ezekiel 36:26-27, respectively)

4. Omniscience - This will be covered below.

5. Holiness - Inherent quality, displayed by His work.

6. Goodness and Truth - While the point of His Truth will be covered below, proof of His goodness is relevant to our earlier look at James 1:17. Although our previous discussion focused on how Jesus is the "perfect Gift" spoken of there, the fact is that the gift of the Holy Spirit is equally perfect. This is proven out by the ways in which He guides us in our spiritual growth and guarantees our Eternal Security.

   
   

The second part of the overview list looks at the Divine Works and Functions of the Holy Spirit, as follow --

1. Creation - I know this seems redundant, but we also see here that the word "creation" is not simply about creating something from "nothing", but the broader scope is about bringing order to chaos. (This is spoken of often in my Sermon Summaries)

2. Regeneration - Mentioned above, in relation to omnipotence.

3. Illumination - Included below.

4. Empowerment - Included below

5. Sanctification - While this will also be covered below, I just want to take a moment here to say that I honestly see sanctification as an aspect of our empowerment through the Holy Spirit. I mean, just think about it, if sanctification is about our progressive resistance to sin, then isn't that the result of the Holy Spirit's indwelling and guidance?? At the same time, it's important to understand the difference between the Holy Spirit being IN us, as opposed to having the power of the Holy Spirit ON us for a specific reason. (See 1 Corinthians 12 and 14)

6. Love and Hope - Covered below.

Okay, so now that we have all of that as a basis for further study, let me show the references I had written down ahead of time.

Starting with the previously noted quality of perfection in holiness, and the correlation with His being a gift, we turn to our first Scripture here -

Luke 11:13 - tells us that the Father gives the Holy Spirit to all who ask.

John 14:26 - describes the Holy Spirit as a "Comforter" or "Helper". This supports the ideas of love and hope. At the same time, we observe that the suffix "er", as used in this context, speaks specifically of a person, and not just an object designed to fill a particular need.* The concept is that of someone who is able to bring both spiritual and emotional help as opposed to a thick blanket that offers little apart from physical warmth.

John 16:12-15 - In this passage, the Holy Spirit is referred to as, "the Spirit of Truth". Not only does this support the listing above, but equality with Jesus as found in the earlier part of John 14. To wit, verse 6, where Jesus defines Himself as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Just now, it occurs to me that the aspects of the Holy Spirit's Creative and Regenerative qualities also lends itself nicely to equality with Jesus in the point of both being access to Life in the Kingdom of God. We can see too, in Proverbs, numerous places where the Holy Spirit is spoken of as "Wisdom". Although this is a concept rather than a person, per se, I see a connection here in the fact of both the Greeks and Romans having goddesses of wisdom.

Acts 5:1- 11 - We read here of Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, who ended up dead as a result of having lied to the Holy Spirit about how much money they had received for their land. This supports the personhood of the Holy Spirit because you can't lie to a disembodied concept like "strength" or "power", you can only lie to a person.

Acts 20:28 - This passage, starting in verse 17, is about the Elders of the Church at Ephesus. Verse 28 explicitly shows the authority of the Holy Spirit in Paul's affirmation that, "the Holy Spirit has made you overseers..." (In reading through this just now, I also noticed evidence of the Holy Spirit's omniscience in Paul's comments of verse 23 where he talks about how the Holy Spirit, "witnesses in every city, saying that chains and tribulations await me.")

Romans 8:11-17 - speaks to the points of the Holy Spirit's indwelling of the Believer and the fact that He bears witness of us to the Father. Although a thought or feeling may also have the capability to "bear witness" of something, the overall Scriptural context relating to the personhood of the Holy Spirit proves that He is not just "the power of God", as some may think.

1 Corinthians 2:6-15 - Paul is speaking here about Spiritual Wisdom and the fact that the spiritual things of God can only be discerned by the help of the Holy Spirit. This not only reiterates the idea of Him as the Wisdom of God, but as our Helper. Also, this passage includes an often misunderstood idea that we can never truly know God. These people read 9 which tells them, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." (NKJV), and they stop. They give up and walk away. But, if they were to keep going, they would see the truth. Verse 10 goes on to tell us, "... God has revealed them to us through His Spirit..." (Another thought here is that use of a capital letter not only indicates Divinity, but a proper noun, in this case, a name. His roles, such as Comforter, Teacher, etc... are just titles, just as the terms "Christ" and "Savior", etc... are for Jesus.)

Galatians 5:22-23 - These verses contain the Fruit of the Spirit, which are - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. All of these are found throughout Scripture in relation to God, whether by description of the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit. They are the proof of the Holy Spirit's indwelling in our lives as we live out our faith.

Ephesians 2:18 - Speaks of access by one Spirit to the Father. While we saw earlier, in our exploration of Jesus having abolished the OT Laws by fulfilling them, thus displaying His authority over them, as seen in verse 15, here, we see evidence, once again, of the Holy Spirit being of equal authority in limiting access to the Father. We can also make another connection in this with John 14:6, as Jesus said He is the Way to the Father.

Ephesians 4:5-6 - "... one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and though all, and in you all." As we saw earlier, the ritual of water baptism indicated dedication to one god. Once again, the Shema holds true.

Ephesians 6:10-20 - Some of you may recognize the first part of this reference as the Armor of God, and you would be right. Due to the general familiarity of this passage, I won't go into a lot of detail right now. I just want to point out, briefly, that the fact of our true enemies being spiritual (vs.12) requires us to have spiritual aid in defeating them, for one. For two, the reference to the Sword of the Spirit speaks of the Bible, and for three, the passage goes on to encourage the Believer to pray "in the Spirit". Now, to be clear, this is not about Speaking in Other Tongues, as outlined in 1 Corinthians 12. That is a Spiritual Gift, given to those who specifically seek it. In the context of this passage, Paul is simply talking about regular prayers, as led and directed by the Holy Spirit. (See also, Romans 8:26-27)

Colossians 2:9 - "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." While I realize that we spent considerable time earlier, in chapter 1, and a moment in 2:13-15 in talking about how Jesus forgave sin; I saved verse 9 until now because it speaks more clearly to the reality of the Trinity than any other in the Bible. (In a single verse, at least.) The accounts of Jesus' baptism are passages.) This actually refutes my own statement at the beginning of this article that the Trinity is not specifically named in Scripture. Not to say that the word "Trinity" is used here, but only to point out that the term "Godhead", inherently speaks to there being more than one person included. Otherwise, why phrase it that way, right?? As we saw earlier, this does not suggest polytheism. (This isn't Hinduism, after all.)* Even though the focus of this section is primarily on the Holy Spirit, we're "backtracking" slightly because this verse is in Biblical order within my notes. The main thing I wanted to mention here concerns the Word Study text box in my Bible in relation to the phrase "fullness of the Godhead". - The Greek phrase for this is "pleroma tes theotetos". The word "pleroma" indicates "plentitude" and "totality". The note here says that, while the Gnostics used this to describe the totality of all gods, Paul is using it specifically to talk about Jesus. (It also says that John makes this same reference.) They go on to maintain that, since all of God's fullness resides in Christ, every spiritual reality is found in Christ. (See also, Colossians 1:19) The Greek word "theotetos" is only used here and designates the totality of God's nature and person. All the fullness of the Godhead "dwells", or "permanently resides" in the body of Jesus, the God-man. - As we established the Divinity of Jesus earlier in this article, we are continuing to show proof of the same essential qualities in the person of the Holy Spirit, thus proving the Trinity to be real.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 - This supports the Genesis 1:26 passage in terms of being the only verse in Scripture that refers to the Believer's spirit, soul, and body. For the sake of time and space, I'll just give you the gist of the Word Focus box here - The Greek words for spirit, soul, and body are "pneuma", "psuche", and "soma", respectively. Spirit speaks of the whole person as a spiritual entity. This is what is renewed upon Salvation. Soul comprises the mind, will, and emotions. (essence/personality) Soma, of course, is the physical body.

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 - These 2 verses comprise the end of one portion of Paul's letter before expressing some final thoughts, as seen in chapter 3. For the sake of convenience here, I'll share them in full. "Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work." (NKJV) Now, I did that so you could see what the footnote says about the sentence structure used here, and what it means for us in this discussion. It is brought to our attention that Paul used the singular verbs, "comfort" and "establish", with the plural subject, "Jesus Christ and the Father", to indicate the unity and equality of these 2 persons of the Godhead. (See also 1 Thessalonians 3:11)

2 Timothy 1:7 - "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of self-control." NIV (or sound mind) I understand that this is a lower-case "s" here, but when we look back, especially to the Fruits of the Spirit, we find that 2 of these are included there. The other has been indicated in other portions of our focus on the Holy Spirit. Therefore, inclusion of this verse in this list is justified. Besides which, the idea of a "sound mind", if that's your translation, speaks to the power to have peace, another aspect of the Fruit of the Spirit. (See also, Philippians 4:7)

Titus 3:5-6 - Here, we see the Holy Spirit "poured out", also in Romans 5 (as love). The wording used is "...Whom He poured out..." You can't use a personal pronoun on anything that's not a person, now can you??

1 Peter 1:2 +11-12 - My friends, the verses found here are some of the most important in proving the Trinity real. These, I'll copy and paste for your perusal.

1 Peter 1:2

New International Version

² who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood:

Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

1 Peter 1:11-12

New International Version

¹¹ trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. ¹² It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

First of all, in reading verse 2, we find the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit listed SEPARATELY. Secondly, our observations of verses 11 and 12 include the terms "Spirit of Christ", "Messiah", and "Holy Spirit". Each of these serve to support our premise of the Trinity. The Spirit of Christ clearly indicates unity and equality with both the Father and Son in the fact that He was the One prophesying of the sufferings of Messiah (or Christ, in the NKJV). To my knowledge, this is the only place in Scripture we see this attribute of the Holy Spirit in action. Reading down through verse 12, we notice that the Holy Spirit is sent from Heaven, thus attesting to His Divine Nature. The note also says that, in our Salvation, the Holy Spirit brings knowledge of the Gospel to others through us. This further confirms the fact of His indwelling.

1 John 5:1-12 - I sit corrected in my earlier assertion that Colossians 2:9 speaks more clearly to the reality of the Trinity than any other verse or passage in the Bible. This, while being the last of our Scripture references for this article, is certainly not least. Considering the length of this treatise as it already stands, I'll try to be as brief as possible here. The gist of this passage is that, our love for God is proven out by our faith, and that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ALL bear witness to our Salvation, EQUALLY. Here are verses 7-8 in full:

1 John 5:7-8

New King James Version

⁷ For there are three that bear witness ^[a]in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. ⁸ And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.

While there is plenty more I could say about this passage, it would only detract from the focus of our discussion here, so I'll refrain. I will simply say that these verses are, essentially, irrefutable evidence of the Trinity.

Footnotes:

1. In the case of a Patriots loss, however, we would say, "Dang, that was a wicked pissah!!" (This phrase may also refer to any other exceedingly disappointing situation.)

2. The fact that Wm. Paul Young doesn't actually believe in the Trinity, a point brought out in the sequel, "The Shack Revisited", by C. Baxter Krueger, Ph.D.. Has no bearing on the accuracy of his narrative in relation to it.

3. As to the idea of things that show emotion, apart from people and other animals, Science has proven that the smell of fresh cut grass displays its "anguish", if you will, at having been mown.

4. Matthew was written for a Jewish/Christian audience around 87 AD. Mark, technically the first written, was to Gentiles in Rome (Israeli, but not Jewish Believers, mostly) about 70 AD. The significance of this timing is evident in 13 with the focus on the Temple and Jesus' prediction that it would be destroyed and rebuilt, referring, of course, to His own death and resurrection. Luke's audience was Gentiles in general, dated around 109 AD, and John's, written around 90 AD, was to a broader audience of Jews, Gentiles, and Samaritans across the Greco-Roman world. (Dates based on Marcus J. Borg's expertise in "Evolution of the Word", which presents the New Testament in chronological order to the timing of each book having been written.)

5. Read my article on Baptism for more.

6. To clarify the fact of my 3 pastors, 2 are my local ones, being Lead and Assistant, respectively. The other is only heard from during some of my visits to Brattleboro, VT when I'm with my fiancé, Michael. (If I'm there on a Sunday)

7. The 4-fold Ministry Gifts are Pastor, Evangelist, Prophet, and Teacher. (The rest of us are Apostles.) I actually have a story about that, but I'll refrain for now. It's included in some of my Sermon Summaries, so that gives you an excuse to read them!! :D

8. Something I forgot to say earlier about the whole "Church Age" thing is that it's important to note the difference in the Greek words "kairos", or "era", as opposed to "kronos", which speaks of calendar dates and clocks.

9. While I generally try to avoid too much political commentary on my site, it becomes necessary on occasion. That being said, feel free to read my article on Charlie Kirk. It will clue you in to why Christian Nationalism is wrong. At the same time, I recently finished reading "One Thousand White Women", by Jim Fergus. Taken directly from his great-grandmother's journals, this is the story of May Dodd and her experiences as a volunteer in President Grant's "deal" with the Cherokee Nation. Part of this arrangement called for a Missionary and Minister to "Christianize" the "savages".

10. To the point of the suffix "er" referring to a person as opposed to an object, ASL displays this difference by way of sentence structure and other contextual points. 11. Speaking of Hinduism, however, I will tell you that I once attended a celebration of Diwali by invitation of a friend about 12 years ago. At first, I hesitated, but after he explained that it was their celebration of their goddesses winning the battle over the evil demons, I agreed. After all, you really can't argue with the core idea of Good being victorious over Evil, right?? In that way, it wasn't a problem for me to participate.

One final thought that I feel is relevant here is this, The one thing that shows the full distinction between members of the Trinity, particularly between the Father and the Holy Spirit, is this - In Matthew 24, we find Jesus speaking prophetically of the distant future. During this speech, beginning in verse 33, He says, "So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near... this generation will by no means pass away until all these things have taken place... But of that day and hour no one knows,... but My Father only." This shows us that there must be 3 separate people in the mix. If God were just a single entity, then all parts of Him would know all things, right?? As we discussed earlier, God is not schizophrenic. "God" is simply the collective name for the Trinity Who comprise the team. (See also Mark 13:32)

So there you have it, my friends. Biblical support, first, of the Supremacy and Divinity of Jesus, and then of the personhood of the Holy Spirit. All of which combines to bring us to the only reasonable conclusion to be found in Scripture as to the question "Is the Trinity real?? And that answer is abundantly clear. YES, the Trinity is, indeed, real.

I pray that any doubts have been removed, and that you continue in your journey of faith (or in the search thereof), with a greater understanding of Biblical truths.

-- God Bless!!

Although this doesn't have words, I don't feel it needs any

Would any article on the Trinity be complete without one of these??

While this isn't strictly on the Trinity, I feel it could be helpful to someone. I found it while searching for the same charts my Bible has; but without success.

This chart is in my Bible in Colossians. It may be helpful to see the references in a different presentation.

This is in my Bible in 1st John.