From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Part 12 of a series. Read part 11.

The church today is especially vulnerable to the lies of Mormonism because the doctrine of the Trinity is often poorly taught �¢?? if it is taught at all.

The Apostle Paul told the Corinthian church, "I fear" for you. Paul feared that if someone came along with another doctrine of "God" that is not according to Holy Scripture, the Corinthians "may well put up with it."

But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted �¢?? you may well put up with it! (2 Corinthians 11:3-4)

This is exactly what is happening in the nominally Evangelical church today. Mormonism comes along, preaching another Jesus, preaching other gods, denying the Trinity - and growing numbers of self-described Evangelicals are putting up with it, and even welcoming it. Here is the reason: In the last several generations, the Evangelical church has lost its grasp of the fullness of the Biblical doctrine of God, and especially the Biblical doctrine of the Trinity. The Trinity is a foundational Christian doctrine. Even small deviations from Biblical truth can have devastating consequences.

The teaching of the doctrine of the Trinity is severely neglected in today's churches. This is a very dangerous situation. Today we even find some radio and television preachers who call themselves Evangelical, openly denying the doctrine of the Trinity.

Under such conditions, it is no wonder that an essentially pagan religion like Mormonism, which denies the Biblical Trinity, can gain a hearing and a foothold in the nominally Evangelical church. When you do not have a firm grasp of the truth about the God of the Bible, a firm grasp of the fact that the one true and living God declares that He alone is God, one God revealed in three Persons, and that there is no other god �¢?? you can easily put up with Mormonism.

Repetition of the Truth Is Good For Us

And so I want to make sure that you, my reader, understand the importance of this great doctrine. Perhaps I am about to remind many of you of things you already know very well. But we all need to be reminded. We need repetition of the truth in order to maintain a firm hold on the truth.

But perhaps there are others reading this series who have been in churches in which the doctrine of the Trinity has not been properly taught. I hope that if you have been in that situation you will pay especially careful attention to the rest of this article - not because of what I say, but what Scripture says. The doctrine of the Trinity is a vast subject that permeates Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Of necessity we can only address a representative selection of passages in this article. But if you delve further into the Word of God you will find that they are truly representative, and that nothing else in Scripture contradicts them.

Declarative Truth

And so, what does the Bible teach about the Trinity? First of all, you will not find the word "Trinity" anywhere in the Bible. But that fact gives us no reason to deny the doctrine of the Trinity. You will not find the phrase "Second Coming of Christ" anywhere in Scripture either. But it would be utterly foolish to deny the doctrine of the Lord's Second Coming just because those words as such do not appear in the Bible. Scripture is full of the teaching of the fact of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ from beginning to end. It is just as full of the fact of the Trinity from beginning to end.

We must understand how the Bible teaches the doctrine of the Trinity. The Bible does not set out to prove the existence of God. The Bible states the existence of God as propositional truth. It states it as revelation. "In the beginning God created..." (Genesis 1:1).

And again in the opening verses of the Gospel of John: "In the beginning was the Word [Jesus Christ], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God."

It is the same in the opening verses of Hebrews: "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers through the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son..." The fact of God is declarative truth, revealed truth (very Biblical terms - both superior, I believe, to the common apologetical term "propositional truth").

The same is true for the doctrine of the Trinity. It is declared, revealed truth. Man does not come to this knowledge on his own. God by His Word and by His Spirit reveals it to us. The Trinity is a doctrine that human wisdom cannot fully comprehend or explain. It can only be accepted - on the basis of God's propositional revelation in His Word.

Not Three Gods, But One

According to Scripture, the one true, living, and eternal God, is composed of three united persons of one substance and power, without separate existence. The triune God is revealed in three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Many passages declare the triune God, including these:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! (Deuteronomy 6:4)

Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner." (John 5:19)

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit... (Matthew 28:19)

I [Jesus] and My Father are one. (John 10:30)

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. (2 Corinthians 13:14)

Contrary to the teachings of Mormonism, the one true God presented in Scripture is not three gods, but one. God is one in essence, but three in persons, the three persons forming a single unity. All three persons of the Godhead are God from all eternity. The Son is declared to be eternally begotten of the Father in passages such as these:

I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, "You are My Son, today I have begotten You." (Psalm 2:7 - words that are repeated and clearly linked to Jesus in Hebrews 1:5)

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.' " And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared [literally, exegeted] Him. (John 1:14-18)

In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. (1 John 4:9)

The Holy Spirit is declared to eternally proceed from both the Father and the Son in passages such as these:

But when the Helper comes, whom I [Jesus] shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. (John 15:26)

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!" (Galatians 4:6)

Not Only a New Testament Doctrine

It is also important to understand that the Trinity is not only a doctrine found in the New Testament. It is very much an Old Testament teaching as well. At various places in the Old Testament, God is referred to as a unity (which in English is translated the first-person singular pronoun "I"), but at the same time God is spoken of as a plurality (which in English is translated as the first-person plural pronoun "we"). You will find that kind of language, for example, in these passages:

Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever..." (Genesis 3:22)

"Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." (Genesis 11:7)

Also 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." (Isaiah 6:8)

Among the Hebrew names for God in the Old Testament, the plural name Elohim is used over 2,000 times. This is the Old Testament name for the Triune God - a unity who is a plurality. It is Elohim - the triune God - who created the heavens and the earth and everything in them in Genesis chapter one. It is Elohim, the triune God, who gave the Ten Commandments to Moses in Exodus chapter twenty. It is Elohim, the triune God, who says, "I am God, there is no one else" in Isaiah 46:9.

God is identified as the Father in passages such as these:

Do you thus deal with the Lord, O foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father, who bought you? Has He not made you and established you? (Deuteronomy 32:6)

Doubtless You are our Father, though Abraham was ignorant of us, and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O Lord, are our Father; our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name. (Isaiah 63:16)

Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another by profaning the covenant of the fathers? (Malachi 2:10)

God is identified as the Son in Psalm 2:

Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him. (Psalm 2:12)

God is identified as the Spirit in many passages including these

The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:2)

When they came there to the hill, there was a group of prophets to meet him; then the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them. (1 Samuel 10:10)

The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue. (2 Samuel 23:2)

The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. (Job 33:4)

Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. (Psalm 51:11)

You who are named the house of Jacob: "Is the Spirit of the Lord restricted? Are these His doings? Do not My words do good to him who walks uprightly?" (Micah 2:7)

Isaiah 48:16 is a very clear Trinitarian statement. Here Scripture declares that Jehovah, the Father, sent Messiah, Jesus Christ, into the world, with His Holy Spirit:

"Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord God and His Spirit Have sent Me." (Isaiah 48:16)

It Is The Trinity Who Saves Sinners

One final and very vital point about the doctrine of the Trinity: Without the Trinity, there is no salvation. During the 20th century, it became very common for the church to use the phrase "Jesus saves." It became the title of a hymn that was familiar in past generations, although it is not heard as often today. Jesus is indeed our Lord and Savior; Scripture calls Him by that title often. But as we look at Scripture we find that Jesus does not act alone in our salvation. In Ephesians chapter one, beginning at verse three, we read this:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He [God the Father] chose us in Him [God the Son] before the foundation of the world...

And then verse seven:

In Him [in Jesus] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace...

And then verse thirteen:

In Him [Jesus] you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were [notice] sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

Here we find that all three persons of the Trinity are directly involved in our salvation, each in a different way. God the Father, the First Person of the Trinity, sent God the Son, Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, into the world to be the propitiation for sin on the cross. Jesus was able to make this atonement because of His incarnation through the virgin birth, which was brought about by the Holy Spirit. Because of this supernatural conception and birth, Jesus is both holy God and perfect man.

And so God the Father planned our salvation. God the Son accomplished our salvation. And then, God the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, applies that salvation to individual sinners. The Holy Spirit regenerates the sinner. Furthermore, Ephesians 1:14 tells us that the indwelling Holy Spirit is, literally, the down-payment on our final redemption from this sinful world and our deliverance into the glories of the world to come.

The doctrine of the Trinity is not merely a technicality. It is essential truth. Truly, the Bible teaches that "the Trinity saves." There is no salvation apart from the work of each person of the Triune God. Paul said to the Philippian jailer, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31). But to believe on the Christ of the Bible - to believe in the God of the Bible - is to believe in the Trinity. To not believe in the Trinity is to not believe in the Christ of the Bible.

Compromise On the Trinity Is Unacceptable

Once the church starts diminishing or abandoning the doctrine of the Trinity, it opens the door to all kinds of false gods and false doctrines. When any church denies or diminishes the Trinity, or when any church teaches a doctrine of the Trinity that adds to, takes from, or changes this doctrine as it is taught in the pages of Scripture, that church teaches a false god and a false salvation. That church is a false church that puts souls in danger.

Likewise, any church that neglects the doctrine of the Trinity, or does not teach this doctrine in its fullness, robs its people of the essential understanding of the God who saves, the God they are to worship and serve. Once a church embarks on that path, it is in immediate danger of falling into deeper error, and altogether departing from the true faith.

That is the principal reason why Mormonism is such a clear and present danger to the Evangelical church today.

At the beginning of this series, I quoted a statement from the president of one of the world's most well-known theological seminaries. He said that Evangelicals need to have a give-and-take dialogue with Mormons. One wonders just what he would propose to "give" of sound doctrine in such a dialogue, and what heresies he would propose to "take" from Mormonism. Christ's church needs nothing of the sort. God's judgment rests upon any person or any church that would give up anything of the true doctrine of God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ, God the Holy Spirit, or the true doctrine of the Trinity. This is serious business.

And dear reader, this is a matter of your own soul. If you are a Christian, if you are truly trusting in Jesus Christ for your salvation, I pray that God will burn the truth of the Trinity more deeply into your heart. If you are not a Christian, I pray that you will come to understand the infinite effort to which the triune God of the universe has gone, to reconcile sinners to Himself.

As we continue this series, we are going to examine what the Bible says about the true way of salvation, and how Mormonism teaches a false salvation.

Next: The Necessity of Discernment

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