The Divine Anatomy -
Understanding the Trinity from the Scriptures

Introduction

     Sometimes I think of myself a bit like the Susan Boyle of theology. Picture a large auditorium filled with PhD’s; Doctors of Theology, each one has a suitcase filled with degrees and academic accomplishments. Then I come out on the stage and one of them asks me what are my qualifications for being there.
     "I’ve read my Bible almost exclusively for over forty years.”
    Everyone rolls their eyes in unison.
     “And what are you going to be teaching us today?” he asks with a smirk.
    “I’m going to explain the Trinity.”
     They all break out into uproarious laughter and I hear one of them say, “Think so?”
     I recently shared the following study with an Evangelical Doctor of Theology. He said, “You have a wonderful thesis for your doctorate – now you just need two hundred and thirty hours of schooling.”
     I was really blessed because I do not have a big education and what I do know does come directly from immersing myself in the Word of God and seeking God directly for my answers, and I give Him all the glory for it. I remember spending hours just sitting and resting in the Lord as the Holy Spirit continued to bring me Scriptures and link them together. God did this for me because I had been thrust into a theological tailspin and I needed help.
     I had been a Christian for over forty years and a highly respected theologian had told me I was teaching a heresy because I chose to explain God in very simple terms in a way I thought a Muslim would be able to understand the Trinity. I said that because God is omnipotent and nothing is impossible to Him (which is a concept that is readily understood by a Muslim) God can operate as three at the same time. He said what I was teaching was Modalism, a heresy that had been rejected by the early church.
     I sought the Lord and He heard me and gave me what you are about to read over a period of two years. After it was finished, my husband and I were having breakfast with an evangelical Trinitarian theology professor. I began to explain to him why I was called a heretic and explained my definition of the Trinity. He said what I was teaching was Trinitarianism. I was amazed and he deftly explained to me the difference between Trinitarianism and Modalism, which I will do for you now.
     Modalism teaches that God is Father in the Old Testament, Jesus in the New Testament and the Holy Spirit in this present age. This doctrine cannot be supported by the Scriptures because the Scriptures show clearly all three are present and operational simultaneously which is the basis for the doctrine of Trinitarianism, and is very clearly supported by the Scriptures.
     In Romans we see Jesus is at the right hand of the Father as our High Priest making intercession for us, (Romans 8:34) while the Holy Spirit is in the believer (Romans 8:9). We also see evidence of all three operating together at the same time at Jesus’ baptism. Jesus is in the water, while we hear the voice of God and see the Holy Spirit descend as a cloudlike dove (Matthew 3:16,17). God, the Messiah and the elements of the Holy Spirit are revealed as being present and operational in different ways all through the Old Testament.
     I have since learned that we can descibe the Trinity in very simple terms and not delve into heresy as many missionaries are learning.
     Also, I would like everyone to know that I have not been indoctrinated into anybody's particular denominational theology, therefore this is an objective study that is based thoroughly upon the Word of God. While it is not a “written in stone” definition of the “Three”, it is based fully upon the Scriptures - and if a doctrine cannot be taught exclusively from the Word of God, then we have no business teaching it as the Word of God.
     I give God all the glory for this work and I praise Him for the beauty His word contains.
    A note for our diners: this is a large meal, take small bites, chew thoroughly, season with logic and allow ample time for digestion. Enjoy.

The Omnipresent God - The Father

God is a Spirit - John 4:24.
Do I not fill the heaven and earth? saith the Lord - Jeremiah 23, 24.
In Him we live and move and have our being - Acts 17:28.

Jesus said that God is Spirit, (singular). God is one Spirit. Hear, Oh, Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord - Deuteronomy 6:4. This is the shema. Jews are required to recite it twice a day. In the ancient world, the Jews were the only people who recognized that there is one God. All other nationalities at that time were polytheists, people who believed in more than one god.
     The belief that there is only one God is called monotheism, and it is the basis for the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths.
     There is only one God and He is one Spirit. The minute we have more than one spirit, we have more than one god and we are jumping the fence into polytheism.
     The Apostle Paul said –

…God is one – Galatians 3:20.
There is none other God but one - I Corinthians 8:4.

Our God is one God who is one unlimited, omnipresent, omniscient Spirit and -

with God nothing shall be impossible – Luke 1:37.
Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me? – Jeremiah 32:27.

     He knows the thoughts of every human being on this planet and every human being who has ever lived – For I know their works and their thoughts – Isaiah 66:18.
     He is omnipresent and can be in more than one place at a time. He can keep track of the ever changing number of the hairs on our heads (Matthew 10:30) as He is conversing with the angels around His throne while He oversees His collection of billions of galaxies, monitors our heart beats and contemplates the motives behind our prayers.
     He could, through His Spirit, have a detailed, intimate conversation simultaneously with every human being on this planet and still be one.
     We must grasp this concept of His unlimited omnipresence if we are to comprehend anything about Him at all.
     Because God is unlimited, He has the capability to operate in the plural or as more than one if He so chooses, because nothing is impossible to Him – but He is never more than one.

Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but the same God which works all in all (I Corinthians 12:4-6 KJV).

     God the Father, is One God who is One Spirit. The Hebrew word for spirit is ruwach. God tells us in His word that He also has a “soul,” which is His "person" or being. In the Hebrew this word is nephesh.

Behold! My servant whom I uphold, My elect One in whom My soul (nephesh) delights! - Isaiah 42:1.
Be instructed, O Jerusalem, lest My soul (nephesh) depart from you, lest I make you desolate, a land not inhabited - Jeremiah 6:8.
Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land, with all My heart and with all My soul (nephesh) - Jeremiah 32:41.
I will set My tabernacle among you, and My soul (nephesh) shall not abhor you - Leviticus 26:11.
The Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul (nephesh) hates - Psalm 11:5.

    God is Spirit and He has a soul which is His being, intelligence, His “person” which is the “Head” and is the head of Christ ( I Corinthians 11:3.)

    Human beings are made in the image of God.

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

     We also have a spirit and a soul. The prophet Isaiah says -

With my soul (nephesh) have I desired Thee in the night, yea, with my spirit (ruwach) within me I will seek Thee early, for when Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness – Isaiah 26:9.

   God is Spirit, His Spirit fills the universe and beyond for infinity. His soul or “Person” directs the operations of His spirit. God wills, sends, and ministers His Spirit to create and interact with men.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth…And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters – Genesis 1:1,2.
Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created – Psalm 104:30.
I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh - Acts 2:17, Joel 2:28.
He therefore that ministers to you the Spirit, and works miracles among you… Galatians 3:5.
God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will... Hebrews 2:4.
And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which works all in all - I Corinthains12:6 KJV.

    We can see from these Scriptures the interaction of a Mind that wills and a Spirit that responds.

    The soul, the "person", is not the spirit and the spirit is not the soul. These two are "distinct" from one another, they perform different operations simutaneously, but they cannot be separated from one another. The two are one.

   God’s invisible Spirit can interact with men and speak through His prophets and can manifest visibly as cloud and fire. We have many examples of this throughout the Old and New Testaments. But at the same time God is also described as light that no man can approach ( I Timothy 6:16 .)
     If God’s Spirit can interact and communicate with people like the gentle rays of the sun, then we can assume that God’s soul, His person, is like the sun itself, an unapproachable light.
     God’s invisible Spirit encapsulates God’s soul like the encasing on an electrical cord. We can touch the cord, but not the electrical power it is insulating.
     Jesus Christ is the image of God’s invisible Spirit, His Ruwach and His unapproachable light, His soul, His being, His Nephesh.

Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature – Colossians 1:15.
Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the Light which no man hath seen, nor can see – I Timothy 6:16.
He who has seen Me has seen the Father – John 14:9.

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copyright 2007 by H.D. Shively