By Reinder Bruinsma
What do Muslims and Jehovah’s Witnesses have in common? Apart from the fact that they are found all around the world, both strongly reject the doctrine of the Trinity. They confess one Almighty God (Allah or Jehovah) and do not recognize the full eternal deity of Jesus, nor the full divine personhood of the Holy Spirit. Seventh-day Adventists, however, join most other Christians in their belief in a Triune God. They believe there is only one God, but that the God- head consists of three “Persons”—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Number two of the Fundamental Beliefs of the Adventist Church says, “There is one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a unity of three co-eternal Persons.” Belief number three adds these significant words: “The qualities and powers exhibited in the Son and the Holy Spirit are also those of the Father.” In other words, Father, Son, and Spirit exist and “operate” in the same way. This is echoed in the statement by the Lord: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
In all fairness, it should be admitted that throughout its history, many members of the Adventist Church have doubted the doctrine of the Trinity, or totally rejected it. Several of the key Adventist leaders of the early period were staunch anti-Trinitarians, and although the church has officially fully embraced the concept of the Trinity, there are even today many in the church who deplore this.
It worries some Adventists that the term “Trinity” does not appear in the Bible. And in this they are right. But this is also true of other terms that are part of the Adventist vocabulary, such as “investigative judgment,” “close of probation,” or “stewardship.” The crucial question is: Is the concept behind this theological term biblical?
Those who have made some study of the subject of the Trinity will know that one text in particular used to be quoted as proof for this doctrine. In the King James Version, 1 John 5:7 reads, “There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one.” Modern scholarship has clearly demonstrated that, with high probability, these words did not occur in the original text and were added by a copyist in the second century. Therefore, most recent Bible translations have dropped this text from their versions.
There are, however, a number of clear statements in the Bible that have become the building blocks for the doctrine of the Trinity. In Matthew 28 we read the final words of Jesus, as He gave His mission mandate to His disciples: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (vs. 19). Among the other passages in which Father, Son, and Spirit are referred to in unison is this text found in Paul’s words to the Corinthian believers: “May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14).
Other texts also suggest that the doctrine of the Trinity is the all-pervasive pattern of divine action. The following passage, to which several others could be added, is from Paul’s epistle to the church in the Greek city of Ephesus: “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In Him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit” (2:19–22; italics added).
A careful analysis of what the Bible says about the nature of Christ shows that He was and is (as Christians have con- fessed through the centuries) “very God of very God.” And the Holy Spirit is described as on a par with the Father and the Son. Thus, there is a solid basis for the concept of the Trinity. And even though her husband James was one of the Adventist “pioneers” who did not believe in the Trinity, Ellen White expressed herself ever clearer in favor of this teaching. I quote from her book Evangelism: “There are three living persons of the heavenly trio; in the name of these three great powers—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—those who receive Christ by living faith are baptized . . .” (p. 615). She emphasized Christ’s full divinity by stating that “in Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived” (Desire of Ages, p. 530), and she clearly supported also the divine personhood by referring in the same book to the Holy Spirit as “the Third Person of the Godhead” (p. 671).
When speaking about God we must never forget that it remains impossible for us humans to adequately express the inexpressible in human words. Our words can never fully explain who and what God is. What does it mean when theologians say that the three Persons of the Godhead are of one substance? For want of a better word, the term “substance” is used to stress their full equality in the status and character of Father, Son, and Spirit. The word “person” is used because we have no other good way to indicate that we are not dealing with a non-personal “something” but with Beings that are “personal,” albeit in a more elevated sense than we.
When dealing with the doctrine of the Trinity, a friend of mine, who is a university professor in systematic theology (doctrines), asks his students to read a rather unique novel, The Shack (2007), by the Canadian author Wm. Paul Young. The main character in the book suffers a terrible tragedy. His daughter appears to have been brutally murdered. Four years later this event still hangs like a dark cloud over his life. He then receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, in which he is invited to come to a shack in the Oregon wilderness. There he meets the Trinity. The three “persons” are pictured as humans: God the Father takes the form of an African-American woman who calls herself Elousia and Papa; Jesus is a Middle-Eastern carpenter, and the Holy Spirit appears as an Asian woman named Sarayu. Although at first most readers may wonder where this will lead, many have experienced reading this book as a great faith-building experience. When I asked my friend why he wants his students to read this book he told me that he wanted to impress upon them that, when thinking and speaking of God and of the subject of the Trinity, we must realize that no human language will ever be adequate to express the divine.
The concept of the Trinity is one of the great paradoxes of the Christian faith. We must never downplay the basic truth of Deuteronomy 6:4: “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” When referring to the three “persons” we must make sure to avoid any suggestion that there are in fact three Gods, who together form some kind of heavenly management board. On the other hand, when emphasizing the oneness of God we must not give the impression that there is just one Being, who plays three different roles. God is one and three— it is beyond our human mind to understand this. But, when all is said and done, we are not expected to understand God, but to worship Him in all awe and humility.
–Reinder Bruinsma has served the Adventist Church in publishing, education, and church administration on three continents. He writes from the Netherlands where he lives with his wife Aafie. Among his latest books are In All Humility: Saying “No” to the Last Generation Theology and a daily devotional titled Face-to-Face with 365 People from Bible Times. Email him at: [email protected]