Some Unusual Proofs for the Trinity
Table of Contents
In this post I will be sharing some uncommon prooftexts for the Trinity by focusing on verses, which have a threefold pattern or structure.
The Triune God that Blesses
The Levitical priests were commanded to bless God’s people by pronouncing a threefold benediction:
“Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them: Yahweh bless you, and keep you; Yahweh make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; Yahweh lift up His face on you, And give you peace.’” Numbers 6:22-26
Not coincidentally, the NT writers begin and end their letters with invocations to the Father, Son and/or the Holy Spirit:
“to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace FROM God our Father AND the Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 1:7
“Grace to you and peace FROM God our Father AND the Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 1:3
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” 2 Corinthians 13:14
“Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, FROM God the Father AND FROM Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.” 2 John 1:3
“John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, FROM the One who is and who was and who is to come, AND FROM the seven Spirits who are before His throne, AND FROM Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood—and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the might forever and ever. Amen.” Revelation 1:4-6
The 7 Spirits refer to the perfection of the Holy Spirit, to the Spirit’s perfect nature and works, since 7 is the number of completion and perfection (Cf. Genesis 1:31; 2:1-3; 15:1).
What makes this interesting is that one will not find a prayer to some other entity beside or alongside of God, Christ and the Spirit. It is these three, and these three alone, that the inspired authors invoke and pray to bless the communities of God.
The Thrice Holy Trinity
The prophet Isaiah received a vision where YHWH appeared to him in a visible shape, wearing a visible robe, and visibly seated upon a visible throne:
“In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, is Yahweh of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory.’ And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called out, while the house of God was filling with smoke.
“Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of hosts.’ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. And he touched my mouth with it and said, ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is atoned for.’
"Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for US?’ Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!’ He said, ‘Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not know. Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.’” Isaiah 6:1-10
Pay close attention to the plural pronoun “US,” since this already points to a plurality within God.
The Apostle John sees something similar to the prophet Isaiah:
“Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and upon those thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads. And out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. And before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. And the first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within, and day and night they do not cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.’” Revelation 4:4-8
Note how these spirit creatures in the visions of Isaiah and the Apocalypse refer to God as being thrice holy. They do not cry out holy one time or two times or four or more. Rather, they only do so three times.
The God-breathed Scriptures describe the Father, the Son and the Spirit as being holy.
The Father
“And I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are.” John 17:11
The Son
“And immediately there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, saying, ‘What do we have to do with You, Jesus the Nazarene? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!’” Mark 1:23-24
“The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses.” Acts 3:13-15
Astonishingly, John quotes Isaiah 6:10 to prove that it was actually Jesus whom the prophet saw visibly seated on his throne!
“Although Jesus had performed so many miraculous signs before them, they still refused to believe in him, so that the word of the prophet Isaiah would be fulfilled. He said, ‘Lord, who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’ For this reason they could not believe, because again Isaiah said, ‘He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and turn to me, and I would heal them.’ Isaiah said these things because he saw Christ’s glory, and spoke about him.” John 12:37-41
John 12:41 tn Grk “his”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The referent supplied here is “Christ” rather than “Jesus” because it involves what Isaiah saw. It is clear that the author presents Isaiah as having seen the preincarnate glory of Christ, which was the very revelation of the Father (see John 1:18; John 14:9). sn Because he saw Christ’s glory. The glory which Isaiah saw in Isa 6:3 was the glory of Yahweh (typically rendered as “Lord” in the OT). Here John speaks of the prophet seeing the glory of Christ since in the next clause and spoke about him, “him” can hardly refer to Yahweh, but must refer to Christ. On the basis of statements like 1:14 in the prologue, the author probably put no great distinction between the two. Since the author presents Jesus as fully God (cf. John 1:1), it presents no problem to him to take words originally spoken by Isaiah of Yahweh himself and apply them to Jesus. New English Translation (NET)
The Holy Spirit
“Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” Psalm 51:11
Remarkably, whereas John claimed it was Jesus that appeared in Isaiah 6, the blessed Apostle Paul says that it was actually the Holy Spirit!
“And when they disagreed with one another, they began leaving after Paul had spoken one word, ‘The Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers, saying, “Go to this people and say, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; And you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; For the heart of this people has become dull, And with their ears they scarcely hear, And they have closed their eyes; Lest they might see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart and return, And I heal them.’”’” Acts 28:25-27 – Cf. Isaiah 6:9-10
It now makes sense why Isaiah 6:8 records the Voice of YHWH as asking, “who will go for Us?”
According to the New Testament, the plural “Us” refers to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, since they all visibly appeared to Isaiah as the one God.
The Land/Earth of YHWH
In the book of Jeremiah, God repeats the refrain land/earth three times:
“O land, land, land, Hear the word of Yahweh!” Jeremiah 22:29
“O earth, earth, earth, hear Yahweh’s word!” World English Bible (WEB)
The inspired Scriptures teach that the land/earth were created by and belong to the Trinity.
The Father
“For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to inhabit all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His offspring.’
“Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to suppose that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the craft and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now commanding men that everyone everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He determined, having furnished proof to all by raising Him from the dead.” Acts 17:23-31
“and to bring to light for all what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things;” Ephesians 3:9
The Son
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men… He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him… And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:1-4, 10, 14
“Who rescued us from the authority of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. And He IS before all things, And IN Him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:13-17
“God, having spoken long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days spoke to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds, who is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power; who, having accomplished cleansing for sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” Hebrews 1:1-3
“But of the Son He says, ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, And the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom.’… And, ‘You, Lord [the Son], in the beginning founded the earth, And the heavens are the works of Your hands; They will perish, but You remain; And they all will wear out like a garment, And like a mantle You will roll them up; Like a garment they will also be changed. But You are the same, And Your years will not come to an end.’” Hebrews 1:8, 10-12
The Holy Spirit
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.” Genesis 1:1-2
“By His Spirit He adorned the heavens; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent.” Job 26:13 New King James Version (NKJV)
“The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” Job 33:4
“You hide Your face, they are dismayed; You take away their spirit, they breathe their last And return to their dust. You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the ground.” Psalm 104:29-30
The Temple of the Trinity
The book of Jeremiah also has God repeating the phrase, “the temple of YHWH,” thrice:
“Do not trust in lying words, saying, ‘This is the temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh.’” Jeremiah 7:4
Here’s another rendering:
“Do not trust the words of this saying, ‘This is Yahweh’s temple, Yahweh’s temple, Yahweh’s temple!’ It’s a lie.” Names of God Bible (NOG)
Interestingly, the Holy Bible teaches that God’s Temple belongs to the Trinity.
For instance, Malachi announced that the Lord was going to appear in his temple after having sent a messenger ahead of him to prepare for his coming:
“Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord (ha adon), whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,’ says Yahweh of hosts.” Malachi 3:1
The phrase ha adon is used for the one true God YHWH in all of its other occurrences:
“Therefore the Lord (ha adon), Yahweh of hosts, The Mighty One of Israel, declares, “Ah, I will be comforted concerning My adversaries, And I will avenge Myself on My enemies.” Isaiah 1:24
“For behold, the Lord (ha adon), Yahweh of hosts, is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah Both supply and support, the whole supply of bread And the whole supply of water,” Isaiah 3:1 – Cf. 10:16, 33; 19:4
The New Testament teaches that the messenger was John the Baptist, and that Jesus is that very Lord of Malachi that the Baptist was sent ahead of!
“This is the one about whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You, Who will prepare Your way before You.’” Matthew 11:10 – Cf. Luke 7:27; Mark 1:2
What makes our Lord’s quotation of Malachi 3:1 so remarkable is that he identifies the object of the singular pronouns “I,” “My,” “Me,” as two distinct Persons, namely, the Father and himself!
Note that in Malachi, God says that he would send his messenger ahead of “Me,” meaning himself. And yet Jesus changes the pronoun to the second person singular “You,” and “Your.”
In other words, instead of quoting the prophecy as “I am going to send My messenger ahead of ME,” Jesus switches it to “I am going to send My messenger ahead of You, to prepare Your way before You.” In so doing, Jesus identifies the one God as both the Father and himself since he has the Father speak these words directly to him.
Therefore, according to Jesus, God’s temple belongs to both the Father and him.
Elsewhere, the Father and Son are described as the one sanctuary of the new heavens and earth,
“And I saw no sanctuary in it, for the Lord God the Almighty AND the Lamb are ITS sanctuary.” Revelation 21:22
What makes this rather astonishing is that the OT teaches that YHWH alone places his temple/sanctuary among his people:
“And I will cut a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will give them the land and multiply them and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever. My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. And the nations will know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.” Ezekiel 37:26-28
The NT further proclaims that believers are the sanctuary indwelt by God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit:
“However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” Romans 8:9-11
“Do you not know that you are a sanctuary of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” 1 Corinthians 3:16
“Or do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?” 1 Corinthians 6:19
“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has a sanctuary of God with idols? For we are a sanctuary of the living God; just as God said, ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘And do not touch what is unclean, And I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,’ says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:14-18
“Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” 2 Corinthians 13:5
“I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Galatians 2:20
“for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, is growing into a holy sanctuary in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.” Ephesians 2:18-22
“to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27
“a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and freeman, but Christ is all and in all.” Colossians 3:11
The threefold patterns are beginning to make sense. Since the one true God is Triune by nature, it shouldn't surprise us to discover texts where things are repeated three times. I.e., one time for the Father, the second time for the Son, and the third time for the Holy Spirit, blessed God three in One.
Unless noted otherwise, scriptural references taken from the Legacy Standard Bible (LSB).
Further Reading
Isaiah 6 and its Trinitarian Implications
The Aaronic Priestly Blessing – A Trinitarian Invocation
Answering Islam – Sam Shamoun Theology Newsletter
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