Is the word trinity in the Bible and what does the word mean exactly?
The word “trinity” is a term used to denote the Christian doctrine that God exists as a unity of three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
Each of the persons is distinct from the other, yet identical in essence. In other words, each is fully divine in nature, but each is not the totality of the Trinity. Each has a will, loves, and says “I”, and “You” when speaking. The Father is not the same person as the Son who is not the same person as the Holy Spirit who is not the same person as the Father. Each is divine, yet there are not three gods, but one God.
The word “trinity” is not found in the Bible. The word “bible” is not found in the Bible either, but we use it anyway. Likewise, the words “omniscience,” which means “all knowing,” “omnipotence,” which means “all powerful,” and “omnipresence,” which means “present everywhere,” are not found in the Bible either. But we use these words to describe the attributes of God. Christians use these words along with many others such as: rapture and Holy Communion,
The Father is not begotten, but the Son is (John 3:16). The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father (John 5:26). The Father sent the Son (1 John 4:10). The Son and the Father send the Holy Spirit (John 14:26; 15:26). The Father creates (Isaiah 44:24), the Son redeems (Gal. 3:13), and the Holy Spirit sanctifies (Rom. 15:16).
Matt. 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
1 Cor. 12:4-6 “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. And there are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.”
2 Cor. 13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.”
Eph. 4:4-7 “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”
1 Pet. 1:2 “According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure.”
Jude 20-21 “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith; praying in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.”
The members of the Trinity work together in complete unity, totally dependent and yet totally interdependent of each other. God the Father is the sovereign ruler of the entire universe, everything operates because of and to fulfill his eternal plan. God the Son takes this plan out of eternity and brings it into time, administering the various aspects of the plan. God the Holy Spirit makes this eternal plan, the will of God, real to men. These functions can be illustrated many times in the Bible. In the Old Testament era, the Holy Spirit did not continually abide with the believer as He does now. Instead, the Spirit came upon a man in order that he may be empowered to do God’s will, then the Spirit would leave when the work was completed or when the man sinned. This is why we read that Samson, “But he did not know the Lord has left him.” In Judges 16:20. This is also the reason King David prayed, “Take not thy Holy Spirit from me” in Psalms 51:11.
The Holy Spirit is currently engaged in the work of enabling believers to fulfill the work of the Church (I Corinthians 12-14), empowering men to preach the gospel (Acts 1:8), quickening the spirit of repentant sinners (I Peter 3:18, I Corinthians 2:10), keeping the believer secure in Christ until the Second Coming (Ephesians 1:12-14), comforting the believer (John 14-15), being the very essence of Christ indwelling the believer (John 14:16-18), and finally, the Spirit never forsakes the believer (I Corinthians 6:15-20).
Take the example of prayer. God the Father answers all of our prayers, hence we are taught to pray to, “Our Father which art in Heaven” (Matthew 6:9).
He answers our prayers on behalf of, or because of our relationship with His Son, hence we pray in Jesus name. “Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it to you.” (John 16:23)
And we pray through the power of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 26:41) revealing our needs to the Father with the help of the Spirit, “We know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself make intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered. And He that searches the hearts know what is the mind of the Spirit, because he make intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Acts 8:26-27). The Holy Spirit could correctly be referred to as our prayer partner.
Sue Ramsey
Associate Director of Bible Questions
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There are people that think of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as I am about to list them, with God the Father being the highest and authority descending as we move down the family tree.
1. God the father
2. God the Son
3. God the Holy Spirit
Many think of them in that order, but that perception is incorrect. They must be thought of in the order below, not as descending but as equals, to the point of being three and yet being one.
God the father -God the Son-God the Holy Spirit
Notice that they are three individual persons, but on the same level, or the same plane, and not listed in a downward order, but a level order.
Another way to explain the trinity is to look at yourself.
You are a woman or man, but when we see you we see your body. Inside that body is a never dying soul, yet if I were to sit and get to know you, I would then become conscious of a personality. Three, yet one.
1. The trinity is a truth that the logical mind of mankind cannot grasp. We just have to believe it.
The God of the book of Genesis is the same as the Christ of the New Testament and the Christ of the New Testament is the same as the Holy Spirit of Acts chapter two.
Listen to Job as he speaks of understanding God
Job 11:7-10 “Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? Deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. If he cut off, and shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder him? {hinder in the Hebrew means to turn him away?”
Listen to what the commentator Adam Clarke said about God two hundred years before .
“What is God? A Being self-existent, eternal, infinite, immense, without bounds, incomprehensible either by mind, or time, or space. Who then can find this Being out? Who can fathom his depths, ascend to his heights, extend to his breadths, and comprehend the infinitude of his perfections?”
Job 36:24-26 “Remember that thou magnify his work, which men behold. Every man may see it; man may behold it afar off. Behold, God is great, and we know him not, neither can the number of his years be searched out.”
2. Evidences from Scripture to the truth of the Trinity.
Mt 28:19 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
In almost every translation that is available including Luther’s, the word name is singular, and yet it is followed by all three figures of the god head.
That is a small and often over looked point.
John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Word ( Greek: logos, log’-os: the Divine Expression (i.e.) Christ)
John 1:2-3 “The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (Christ was from the beginning God).”
John 10:30 “I and my Father are one.”
1John 5:7 “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”
John 14:10-11 “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.”
John 14:26 “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
John 16:7 “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.”
The word translated “him”, comes from the word that means “The Breath of God.”
1 John 2:20 “But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.”
1 John 2:27 “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.”
Romans 8:9-11 “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”
John 10:17-18 “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh 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 commandment have I received of my Father.”
1 Corinthians 3:16 “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”
1 Corinthians 6:19 “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”
2 Corinthians 13:5 “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?”
Galatians 4:19 “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you…”
Ephesians 4:6 “One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”
Philippians 2:13 “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
Colossians 1:27 “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
1John 4:4 “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
I believe if we study these verses, we will find proof positive that God is God, God is Christ and God is the Holy Spirit.”
Thus if we accept that the Bible teaches, and it does, that the Holy Spirit lives within the converted, then we must accept that God Himself lives within our very souls.
How?
Now that is a question!
It is and can only be accepted by faith and look at the next verse, that explains faith.
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. {substance: or, ground, or, confidence}.”
Note the wording of the American Standard Version of the Bible.
Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen.”
Look at the definition of the word translated substance in the King James Version. from Strong’s Concordance of the Greek language.
Greek word: hupostasis
a setting under (support), i.e. (figuratively) concretely, essence, or abstractly, assurance (objectively or subjectively):–confidence, confident, person, substance.
By simple faith we believe the truth of the Trinity based on the evidence of the Holy Scripture.
I trust this will answer the question of the Trinity.
James Avery
Associate Director of Bible Questions
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The word Trinity is not found in the Bible, although the concept of one triune God is found throughout the Scriptures. Christians have believed in the Trinity since apostolic times, although common heresies in the fourth century that in some way denied either Christ’s divinity or humanity required Christian leaders to specifically define the nature of the Trinity. The word has its origins in the Latin word Trinitas, which means “three in one”.
How God can be one, yet make Himself known in three distinctive, co-eternal, personal ways is one of the mysteries of the faith. In Genesis 1:26, God says “Let us make man in our image and likeness”. We know there is only one God, yet this couldn’t have been addressed to the angels, as they are not made in God’s image. In Matthew 28:19, the apostles are directed to baptize in the “name [not names] of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”. God’s distinctive ways of ways of revealing Himself are emphasized, while it’s obvious that God is one. Finally, in 1 John 5:7-8: “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.”
So, while the word Trinity isn’t in the Bible, The Trinity is a Scriptural concept that helps us understand the nature of the one God.
YSIC, AJ
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There is no mention of the trinity in the New Testament. However in the first book Genesis there is mention of the three persons of God in Genesis chapter 18. Genesis 18:2 Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. Reading the chapter it illumes the Godhead.
Ilan Mann
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The word “trinity” is not found in the Bible. The trinity is a doctrine stating God exists in three persons in one: The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit.
The Latin meaning of trinity is: “three-ness” or “three are one.” The Greek word for trinity means: “a set of three” or “the number three.”
The idea of God as a trinity is borne out in Scripture. Matthew 28:19 “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…”
1 John 5:17 “For there are three that have record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”
Ephesians 4:4-6 “There is one body and one Spirit…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.”
1 Peter 1:2 “…who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ.”
Sandra McGarrity
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Yes, I believe this is so. The Nicene Creed pretty much tells us that as we state our faith…
I BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST ALMIGHTY, MAKER OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. AND IN JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, WHO WAS CONCEIVED BY THE HOLY GHOST…..
Just in that line of the Creed it states the Trinity. That Jesus Christ is the Almighty, He is Jesus Christ Our Lord, and He Is The Holy Ghost……… The Triune God.
Although the word Trinity does not appear in the Bible, if one is a Christian it is impossible not to feel and believe this.
DeeDee
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The word Trinity is Not found in the Bible. I am taking a seven year course In BSF. We are studying Matthew, Genesis, Letters of Paul, Romans, Minor prophets, John, and the Life of Moses. In Genesis when God said In Gen. !:26 “I will make man in our Image.” That is the first time Trinity is used. The Second one is in Matthew when Jesus is being Baptized Matthew 4:16 “The heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a Dove.” Those are the only two places I know of. I am sure there are more.
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No, the word trinity is not in the Bible, but it refers to God being three persons in one. That is, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. One person but with three distinct personalities.
Stephan
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Yes it is in the Bible, An the meaning is the three in one, the Father, the son and the Holly Spirit.
Johnny Richardson
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The word “Trinity” is not in the Bible. It means “tri unity” and is tri (three) in unity (one). Even though the word is not in the Bible the teaching is there. For example, at the baptism of Jesus, we have Jesus present being baptized by John the Baptist, we have the Father speaking from heaven saying “this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove.” In 1 John 5, there are three that bear record in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. According to John 1: 1 and 14 the Word is Jesus Who became flesh and dwelt among men.
Don White
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No, the word trinity does not appear in the Bible but is implied in several texts, to mean God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit. Trinity stands for three in one, or three persons that make up one God. Difficult to understand with our finite minds, but true nonetheless. For some texts that refer to God in more than one person try Lk 3:22; John 14:7,16-17; or Old Testament texts, Gen 1:26; Isa 6:8.
Richard Kidwell
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Here we see the trinity explained fully. Triune God expressed as one He (Father God) who was manifest in the flesh (Christ Jesus) justified as the (Holy spirit of God), performing mighty wonders in the power of the Spirit, who was seen of by the angels in heaven, and came to earth preaching the good news, giving power to his disciples who believed on Him, resurrected from the grave and now in glory seated on His throne. These statements confirm all which is written of Our Saviour. Below are scripture backup. 1 Timothy 3:16 (KJV) “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”
1 Tim 3:16 (ASV) “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the spirit, Seen of angels, Preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.”
Elaine Jehu
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Although the word trinity is not used in the Bible, the idea of it is referred throughout the Bible. From the Old Testament with the first part of the trinity, God, to the beginning of the New Testament, Jesus, to now where the Holy Spirit dwells in those who accept him. Trinity is defined of the God head the Father (God), the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit.
Robert Papajeski
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The word trinity is not in the bible (King James Version). The word trinity means God existing in three forms God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit
I will quote the following verse to back up my answer
Matthew 28:19: “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”
Weldon Siongok
Nairobi Kenya
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The word “trinity” is not in the bible. However, although the word is not there, the concept of the trinity is there. It means “God in three persons i.e God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
The first instance in which the trinity is implied in the bible is in Genesis chapter 1 verse 26. “And God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” However, the doctrine of the trinity is a complex one. We as Christians believe just as much as the Jews believe, that God is one. We do not believe in three Gods. We will recite with the Jew, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.” (Deuteronomy 6 verses 4-9). In the new Testament we are reminded that there is “one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all.”
However, we believe that there are three persons within God, each with knowledge, feeling and will, namely Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
I would suggest that no one really fully understands the Trinity. Perhaps the best illustration we could use is that of light, heat and air. Each of these three make up the environment, yet each obeys its own laws. Together, they make up the environment.
The bible speaks of each of these elements in relation to God.
Light: “This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5) Heat: “For our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29) Air, breath or Wind: “The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes: so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Eric Lisk