TRINITARIAN APOLOGETICS: IS THERE A TRINITY?

TRINITARIAN APOLOGETICS: IS THERE A TRINITY?

By: Daniel McMillin

THE IMPORTANCE OF TRINITARIAN THEOLOGY

The Christian faith is built upon the foundation of the triune God. The doctrine of the Trinity identifies the persons of the Godhead and how they relate, the divine essence or substance that the divine persons share, and the activity of the divine persons within the economy.[1]  God the Father has revealed Himself through His word, the Scriptures, and the divine Logos, the Son, whom He sent to redeem the sins of humanity, where the Spirit of God moved the human authors to write the Scriptures and sanctified the incarnate Son. In this way, the Father works through the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. As a Christian theist, I believe that there is a God, and that He is triune. Since apologists are to defend the Christian faith, they must defend the Trinitarian faith, and the Christian faith is based upon the doctrine of Trinitarianism.

It is my contention that apologists need to address trinitarian issues because they are incredibly relevant to the Christian faith. The Trinity is under attack on all sides. Those who deny the presence of the Trinity in Scripture and the coherence of the doctrine itself are propositions offered by atheists, Muslims, Jews, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Christian theists. In my paper, I argue that the best defense for the three pillars of the Christian faith (the existence of God, inspiration of Scripture, and divinity of Christ) is the Trinity.

What makes the Christian faith so unique is that it is simultaneously monotheistic and trinitarian. The doctrine of the Trinity is, as Martin Luther said, “the highest article on which all others hang.”[2] Similarly, Scott Swain suggested that “The doctrine of the Trinity is not simply one article among many within the Christian confession. It is the first and fundamental article of the faith, and the framework within which all other articles receive their meaning and import, because the triune God is the efficient, restorative, and perfecting principle of all things in nature, grace, and glory.”[3] If Trinitarianism is lost then the Christian faith collapses. David Baggett notes that the doctrine of the Trinity historically “has often functioned apologetically for articulating the Christian faith against false belief—both inside and outside those who claim to be part of the Christian church.”[4] Those who assault the doctrine of the Trinity must prove that “the doctrine is logically incoherent or lacking in biblical justification.”[5]

In this paper, I propose an apologetic model that is Trinitarian-oriented. My approach will offer trinitarian arguments to defend the doctrines of (1) God: His existence is triune—He is three persons, one essence; (2) The Bible: His revelation is triune discourse—He reveals Himself through the Son by the Spirit; and (3) Christ: His divinity is best understood as triune—His relationship with the Father and Spirit proves His divine nature.[6] This paper will answer the following questions: Is there a Trinity? Has the Trinity revealed Himself? Is Jesus a divine person of the Trinity?

IS THERE A TRINITY IN SCRIPTURE?

John of Damascus rightly suggested that “no one has ever known God unless God Himself revealed it to him.”[7] We require divine revelation to know the divine. Thankfully, God has revealed Himself through general revelation (Ps. 19:1; Rom. 1:20) and special revelation (2 Tim. 3:16-17; 2 Pet. 1:20-21). The majority of arguments for the existence of God focus on general revelation. This, of course, is a very helpful approach for arguing God’s existence with atheists and agnostics alike who will not accept the appeals to special revelation. Thus, the arguments offered from general revelation are given much precedence. General revelation is quite clearly seen in Paul’s argument at the Areopagus in Acts 17 and is useful in his appeal to knowing God’s divine attributes through creation. Many of the classical arguments that are proposed, like the teleological, cosmological, ontological, and moral arguments, offer a general revelation that supports the claim that there is a God.[8] However, these arguments do not take us to the next step to affirm that the God of the Bible exists. The only way to know that the God of the Bible exists is for Him to reveal Himself to us. We would not know that there is a God without Him first revealing Himself.

HAS GOD REVEALED HIMSELF AS TRIUNE?

Due to the rise of modern biblical criticism, there has been a paradigm shift concerning the doctrine of the Trinity where individuals are now asking whether the Trinity is actually in the Bible in the first place.[9] Additionally, there are those who suggest that the doctrine is incomprehensible because God cannot be mathematically one and three at the same time.[10] To defend the doctrine of the Bible, I will offer a model for interpreting Scripture in Trinitarian terms and provide a biblical basis for the doctrine of the Trinity.

What is the source of the doctrine of the Trinity? The Bible is the best resource for the doctrine of the Trinity because the Bible is Trinitarian. God’s self-revelation is trinitarian, and His holy Scriptures are best understood as a resource of trinitarian discourse. As Swain said, “The Bible is the product of the Triune God through which he (mysteriously) adumbrates and attests his self-presentation to his people. This, in part, is what it means to affirm that the Bible is in the Trinity.”[11] The battleground for Trinitarian warfare takes place within the realm of Scripture. Most of the time, as apologists, it is best to fight in the opponent’s area so that you may attack on their playing field and win. In those cases, most of the debates are focused primarily on reason rather than Scripture. However, in this case, since the attack is directed toward a doctrine located in Scripture, it is permissible to stand your ground and defend the faith.

How does God reveal himself in Trinitarian terms? Brandon Crowe helpfully noted that “doctrine is not a mere list or collection of the Bible’s word; rather, doctrine is a type of speech about God which at times requires drawing together a set of themes and patterns across the scope of the biblical canon. So, seeing the doctrine of the Trinity will require more than mere proof texts or word studies—it will require following the logic and grammar of Scripture.”[12] So, how do we discover the doctrine of the Trinity? In Scripture, we see the economic and immanent Trinity through the unity of the Old and New Testament canon, the divine missions, inseparable operations, shared divine nature, and relations. I will offer two arguments for the Trinity: (1) theological-canonical[13] and (2) ontological argument.

THEOLOGICAL-CANONICAL ARGUMENT: THE ECONOMIC TRINITY AS REVEALED THROUGH THE BIBLICAL STORY

The Two Testaments

The language of the Bible is Trinitarian. When describing the Bible, Warfield said, “The whole book is Trinitarian to the core; all its teaching is built on the assumption of the Trinity; and its allusions to the Trinity are frequent, cursory, easy, and confident.”[14] The New Testament writers did not have to provide a systematic discourse on the doctrine of the Trinity because they wrote with the assumption that the Father, Son, and Spirit are God. The language of the Biblical writers was framed by the Trinity.

Some suggest that the Old Testament does not support the doctrine of the Trinity because it does not explicitly teach the doctrine in Trinitarian terms. In fact, it is quite the opposite since the Israelites were heavily monotheistic. While it may be true that the Old Testament does not offer a clear picture of the Trinity, there are glimpses of the plurality of persons in the God of Israel, which adumbrated (“shadowed forth”) the doctrine of the Trinity.[15] The doctrine of the Trinity is a mystery that is ultimately revealed through the incarnation. But before progressing to the doctrine of the incarnation, we must confront the glimpses of trinitarianism in the first covenant.

It is certainly unproblematic to assert the claim that “there is one God” according to the Hebrew Bible, but it becomes more of a challenge to progress to trinitarianism. Furthermore, the Christian theist must assert the union between the Old and New Testaments. So, is the God of the Israel the God of the New Israel? In 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul certainly affirms the unity between the one God of the Old Testament and the one God of the New Testament. Paul affirms monotheism when he says, “There is no God but one” (1 Cor. 8:4), but he then identifies the “one God” as “the Father” and “Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 8:6) as well as the “[Holy] Spirit” (1 Cor. 8:12). Paul did not abandon his prior monotheistic convictions of Judaism, rooted in the Shema (Deut. 6:4) when he converted to Christianity (Acts 9). Rather, his understanding of monotheism was enlightened by the person of Christ as he views the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as the one holy Trinity. Paul’s understanding of the Trinity is rooted in the monotheism of Judaism and so when Paul identifies the three persons of the Godhead with the one God of Judaism, he is suggesting that the theology of trinitarianism is grounded in the Old Testament.[16]  But as we read our New Testaments, we see the unfolding revelation of the Triune God in a truer sense. As Herman Bavinck noted, “The true development of the trinitarian ideas of the Old Testament is found in the New Testament.”[17] 

ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT: THE IMMANENT TRINITY AS REVEALED IN ETERNITY

Divine Nature and Name

God is the eternal I AM. In Exodus 3:14-15, after Moses asks what God’s name is, the Lord responds, “I AM WHO I AM.” As a result, Moses is supposed to say that, “I AM has sent me to you.” He is “The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Now, God’s name is to be remembered “forever” throughout “every generation.” On the surface level, this title does not appear to have much meaning other than to say that this God is only a few hundred years old and dates back to Abraham’s time, but in light of Jesus’ “I AM” statements throughout the Gospel of John, this name has an especially important place in relation to Jesus’ identity. Stephen Wellum notes that “in all of Jesus’s ‘I am’ sayings, then, he continues to bear witness internationally and explicitly to his self-identification as God the Son incarnate.”[18]

John 8:58 is one of the most profound texts on Jesus’ “I AM” title because He explicitly identifies Himself with the God of Israel by saying, “Before Abraham was, I AM” (5:58). Jesus is not only identifying Himself as the God of Israel but as the God who existed prior to Abraham. That is the God who created the universe and existed prior to creation. Jesus’ allusion to Exodus 3:14 entails the fact He is the eternal “I AM.” Since Jesus is the “I AM” then “Christ therefore is and always is; for he who is, always is.”[19] The statement “I AM” reveals His divine nature. As Donnie DeBord suggested, “When God described himself as “I AM” it was more than just a name—it was a description of his entire being.” When He says, “I Am” He is not saying He was or will be but that He is. John is affirming that Jesus shares the divine name and possesses divine attributes. Jesus’ statements reveal that each divine person enjoys the unity of substance. “Divinity itself is identical to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”[20] The three persons of the Trinity share the divine essence. As such, we may affirm that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God.

Divine Relations and Conversations

The relations between the three persons are best seen through the “Inner-Trinitarian conversations” revealed to us in Scripture. It is as though the Trinity allows us to catch a glimpse into eternity and listen to a conversation between the three divine persons. We require the Trinity’s self-revelation to know each person. As such, texts that reveal the divine self-naming, self-presentation, and self-revelation aid in our understanding of who God is in and of Himself.[21] In sum, God knows Himself as Triune, so it is best to see what He has to say about Himself. “the revelation of the Trinity is the extending of a conversation happening.”[22]

One of the best examples of the Inner-trinitarian conversations is found in the synoptic Gospels where we read about the baptism of Jesus (Matt. 3:13–17, Mark 1:9–11, and Luke 3:21–22). Origen summarized the event when he said, “In the Jordan the Trinity was manifested to humanity. The Father bore witness, the Son received witness, and the Holy Spirit gave confrontation.”[23] The gospel message is about the work of the Trinity centered on Jesus.[24] When reading the New Testament, the reader ought to leave recognizing that the Trinity permeates every page of the Bible. But as we read the Scriptures, we cannot isolate the Son from the Father and Spirit since they perfectly relate to one another. As such, we require Trinity to reveal the distinctions between the persons. In the baptism of Jesus, the three persons of the Trinity are distinguished by their distinct names: Father, Son, and Spirit. Scott Swain wrote, “What distinguishes the persons of the Trinity from each other are their relations to each other, not their relations to us.”[25] This text demonstrates Jesus’ divinity by His divine name and relation with the divine persons. “The revelation of the Trinity is a matter of divine self-revelation, divine self-presentation, divine self-naming.”[26] 

In the baptism of Jesus, it is as though God is opening the curtain and allowing us to hear a conversation between the three persons of the Trinity. This is due in part because, as Fred Sanders notes, “the revelation of the Trinity is the extending of a conversation already happening.”[27] Swain suggests, “Biblical texts where we overhear inner-Trinitarian conversations—conversations where the persons of the Trinity speak to or about each other—are among the Bible’s primary modes of Trinitarian self-revelation.”[28] What we see in the economy allows us to catch a glimpse into the immanent Trinity. While this revelation of the Triune God does not perfectly unveil the ontological Trinity, it does reveal fundamentally that God is Triune since God is distinguished between the persons through the proper names: Father, Son, and Spirit.

We first begin with God the Father. Both a voice from heaven, God the Father, and the testimony from a prophet, John the Baptist, declare Jesus’ divine identity.[29] The Father and the prophet affirm the person and mission of the Son or Messiah. The Father, who is assumed to be divine, declares the Son’s identity at His baptism.

Now we turn to God the Son, who is revealed as a divine person and promised Messiah. The declaration of the Father is a quotation of two Old Testament texts: Psalm 2:7 and Isaiah 42:1-4. The citation of each of these texts suggests that “Jesus is appointed as king in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.”[30] As such, since Jesus is identified as divine by God the Father, and this divine declaration is confirmed by the Holy Spirit’s anointing we may conclude that Jesus is fully divine. Jesus’ Sonship is declared by the Father who shouts from heaven that this is His “beloved Son.”[31] The Scriptures confirm this through the Father’s testimony and the Son’s life. “This event certainly signals a functional identity with God.”[32] Jesus is anointed as the Christ or Messiah by the Holy Spirit. Once Jesus received the Holy Spirit at His baptism, we see that He commissioned and empowered Him through His earthly ministry. Jesus’ Sonship is about His relationship with the Father and Spirit. Here, we catch a glimpse at the Trinity and see the eternal relationship the Father, Son, and Spirit have enjoyed before the foundation of the world.

Finally, we see the Spirit of God descending “like a dove” to unveil the glorious Trinity. The Spirit’s descent represents His empowerment of the Messiah’s mission. The presence of the Spirit in this scene was for the anointing of the Son to demonstrate that He is the promised Messianic-King. “In the event of his baptism and the affirmation of the Father, then, the New Testament presents Jesus with the self-understanding that he comes as the promised Davidic Son-King to fulfill God’s covenantal promises that culminate in the coming of God himself to save a people for himself.”[33] 

A second way the members of the Godhead relate to one another is through what is called “coinherence.” The divine persons eternally dwell in each other. In John 14:10, Jesus spoke of His relationship with the first person of the Trinity by saying, “The Father who dwells in me does his works.” In John 17:21, Jesus said that He desires that the world may know the unity of the Trinity when he said, “As You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us.” The coinherence of the Trinity means the divine persons are “in” one another eternally. Vern Poythress defines this doctrine by saying, “The coinherence of the persons means that each is completely present to the others. Each has complete knowledge of the others. Each acts with the others in the works of God in creation, redemption, and consummation.”[34] Furthermore, “Though each person is distinct from the other two persons, each person is never in isolation from the other two persons.”[35] By necessity, each person of the Trinity is inseparable from the others. Since the divine persons dwell within each other, the Trinity is, therefore, indivisible. In light of the inseparable operations of the Trinity, we see that “the indwelling of the persons of the Trinity means that we cannot separate the activities of the three persons.”[36] The three divine persons' mutual indwelling is the blessed unity of the Trinity which allows us to use the correct terminology to articulate the divine essence. As a result, “When we speak of the Trinity of God,” Louis Berkhof noted, “we refer to a trinity in unity, and to a unity that is trinal.”[37]

REVELATION AS TRINITARIAN DISCOURSE: THE BIBLE IN THE TRINITY

Herman Bavinck noted, “The entire Christian belief system, all of special revelation, stands or falls with the confession of God’s Trinity. It is the core of the Christian faith, the root of all its dogmas, the basic content of the new covenant.”[38] To properly understand the nature of Scripture, one must understand the nature of God, chiefly that He is triune. In order to locate the doctrine of the Trinity in Scripture, one must first see that the Scriptures are Trinitarian discourse. As Fred Sanders said, “The Trinity is in the Bible because the Bible is in the Trinity.”[39] To defend the inspiration and reliability of Scripture, one must properly understand that the Bible is the divine revelation of the Triune God. That is, the Bible’s character is best understood in reference to the author’s nature. As Sanders wrote, “A truly Christian doctrine of revelation must borrow its character from the doctrine of the Trinity.”[40] Revelation offers clarity on the nature of God, and the nature of God offers clarity on revelation.

It is for that reason that the doctrine of inspiration is best understood in terms of the triune God. Since the Scriptures are “God-breathed” and the God of the Bible is Trinitarian, then this doctrine is best understood as Trinitarian discourse (2 Tim. 3:16-17). The Bible is “from God” and reveals that God is three, which causes us to go back and say that the Bible is from the triune God. The Scriptures are “breathed out by the triune God himself for the purpose of revealing their triune Author for us and our salvation.”[41] The Bible is from the Triune God, who reveals Himself as triune. Divine revelation acts as the medium of the knowledge of God’s triunity.

The Bible is the product of the triune God. Each person of the Trinity is involved in the work of inspiration inseparably. “Scripture is,” as Wellum notes, “the product of the triune God, who by nature is a communicative being. God’s external actions are ‘one and indivisible,’ although specific acts terminate on specific divine persons. In the case of scripture, inspiration is a triune act of the Father speaking through the Son and by the Spirit as the person who brings to completion God’s action in and through the human authors.”[42] Horton summarizes the work of the Trinity in this way, “The Father speaks the Son through the perfecting agency of the Spirit.”[43] Similarly, Vanhoozer writes, “The Father initiates communicative action, the Son executes it, and the Spirit carries it out to completion.”[44] 

            The Christian faith is unique because it has a revelation, and various world religions appeal to a source of revelation. The Muslims have the Koran, and the later-day saints have the Book of Mormon, but simply appealing to revelation does not entail that it is genuinely from God. The distinguishing marker of the Christian faith is that the Bible is an authentic revelation of the Triune God. Thus, the nature of the Trinity is fundamental to understanding the nature of Scripture. As Karl Barth wrote, “The doctrine of the Trinity is what basically distinguishes the Christian doctrine of God as Christian, and therefore what already distinguishes the Christian concept of revelation as Christian, in contrast to all other possible doctrines of God or concepts of revelation.”[45] 

The doctrine of the Trinity is the Christian faith’s chief distinction from all other religions. The doctrine of the Trinity is most certainly different from polytheistic religions since it is rooted in monotheism, but it is also dissimilar to other models of monotheism. As Wellum pointed out, those religious groups that hold a monotheistic view similar to Christianity, like Judaism and Islam, possess a “formal” similarity but are “materially” different. As such, “Christian theology is in total antithesis to all non-Christian thought” simply because the Christian faith affirms the doctrine of the Trinity.[46] 

THE TRINITARIAN RELATION AND ACTIVITY OF THE SON: THE SON IN THE TRINITY

“In the beginning,” God is first revealed to us as the Creator of the universe (Gen. 1:1). God created the entire cosmos (“the heavens and the earth”) by the power of His word. All things that He made from nothing are said to be “good.” In John 1:1-4, we see that “in the beginning,” Jesus is identified as “God” through His title, the “Word,” and His relation to time, or for that matter, His existence outside of time since He existed prior to creation, and His relation to God, since He both “was with God” and “was God.” He is the God who created all life since “all things were created through him” and within Christ “was life.” Here, Jesus is identified as the Creator in Genesis. Jesus performs divine works. 

In Deuteronomy 6:4, God reveals Himself as “The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” Simply because He is the one God of Israel who has redeemed His people through the Exodus, His people are to “serve only him” (Deut. 6:13). In John 5:19-23, we see that Jesus is to be honored as God because He is God and He inseparably acts with God. That is, He does not work apart from God the Father or Spirit. Instead, the Father, Son, and Spirit work in harmony. As Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son likewise does these things. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing, and he will show him greater works than these so that you will be amazed. And just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whom he wants. The Father, in fact, judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all people may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.”

If Christ is not honored, then God is not honored. Jesus is not replacing God but is coequal with God. As Wellum writes, “The Son is not the Father; the Son does only what the Father does; the Son does all that the Father does. The Father and the Son are distinct from each other yet perform the same works. The Son does no less and no more than the Father—they are perfectly united in their work.”  In addition, “It is this eternal and intimate Father-Son relationship that accounts for Jesus’s authority and ability to do as the Son all that the Father does as the Father. And it is this Son, the promised image-Son whose identity has been progressively unfolded through the biblical storyline, who finally comes in the person of Jesus Christ.”[47] According to John’s Gospel, Jesus is coequal with the Father and is worthy of divine honor.

THE VALUE OF A TRINITARIAN APPROACH TO APOLOGETICS

This Trinitarian approach to apologetics provides a defense for the Christian faith. This approach establishes three major elements that ultimately distinguish Christianity from all other religions. (1) There is one God; this distinguishes the Christian faith from tritheism and polytheism; (2) The Father, Son, and Spirit are divine; this distinguishes the Christian faith from Unitarianism and all Christological heresies; and (3) The Father, Son, and Spirit are not identical; this distinguishes the Christian faith from modalism. In sum, the Trinitarian approach provides the best safeguard for the God of the Bible and allows Christians to not only argue for a divine being but for the Triune God of the Christian faith.

WORKS CITED:

[1] See the Nicene Creed for a concise definition of Trinitarianism.

[2] Martin Luther, Treatise on Good Works (1520), WA 7:214.27. Michael Reeves highlights the fact that Reformation theology “was built on (and shaped by) explicitly Trinitarian foundations.” (“The Holy Trinity” in Reformation Theology: A Systematic Summary. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), 189. See also, Richard A. Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics: The Rise and Development of Reformed Orthodoxy, ca. 1520 to ca. 1725. Vol. 4, The Triunity of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003).

[3] Scott R. Swain, “Divine Trinity,” 78.

[4] David Baggett, “Apologetics and Worldview” in The Trinity in the Canon: A Biblical, Theological, Historical, and Practical Proposal. Ed. Brandon D. Smith (B&H Academic, 2023), 434.

[5] Baggett, “Apologetics and Worldview,” 435.

[6] For clarification: each of these doctrines will be not incorporated in the paper in a systematic way but will be interwoven within the argumentation throughout the paper.

[7] John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith.

[8] Many apologists argue for the existence of God by appealing to the plausibility of theism but do not progress to the next level of the Christian faith, trinitarianism. It is important to know that there is a God who created everything, but that is not where the Christian faith stops. Christian theists affirm not only that there is a Creator but that there is a God who has revealed Himself as the blessed Trinity. Before progressing any further, I want to clarify that these classical arguments are wonderful avenues that every apologist should travel when defending the existence of God. In this paper, I am not proposing that we abandon these apologetic arguments. Instead, I want to stand on the foundation that has been laid by these arguments and progress from theism to an explicitly Christian-Trinitarian theism.

[9] Unitarians, Muslims, and atheists often weigh this argument against Trinitarians, especially in light of the textual variant in 1 John 5:7-8 otherwise known as the Johannine comma. 1 John 5:7-8 only appears in eight manuscripts, the earliest is a fourth-century Latin manuscript. There are no authentic Greek manuscripts. Later, a forgery of a Greek manuscript was presented to Erasmus so he could add it to his Greek New Testament. None of the Greek Fathers quotes these verses in their writings. Most textual critics suggest that these verses are not original to 1 John. Additionally, most modern translations do not include these verses in the text. See, Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1994), 647-649; Daniel B. Wallace. Revisiting the Corruption of the New Testament: Manuscript, Patristic, and Apocryphal Evidence (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2011).

[10] In my previous paper, I offered a critique of social Trinitarianism’s attempt to resolve the supposed incomprehensibility of the doctrine. Additionally, I provided the classical model as a resolution for the criticisms on this matter.

[11] Scott R. Swain, The Trinity and the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2016), 12.

[12] Brandon D. Crowe, The Biblical Trinity: Encountering the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in Scripture (Lexham Press, 2023), 1.

[13] Brandon D. Smith, The Trinity in the Canon: A Biblical, Theological, Historical, and Practical Proposal (Brentwood, TN: B&H Academic, 2023) and Brandon D. Crowe and Carl R. Trueman, The Essential Trinity: New Testament Foundations and Practical Relevance (InterVarsity Press, 2016) are two excellent resources that offer a historical, theological, and canonical basis for the doctrine of the Trinity. 

[14] B.B. Warfield, “The Biblical Doctrine of the Trinity,”

[15] Sanders distinguishes the Old Testament revelation from the New by saying Old Testament “primarily promised and foreshadowed” while the New Testament “analyzed and indicated” the doctrine of the Trinity. Sanders, “Trinity” 898. Gregory of Nazianzus, in his Five Theological Orations, distinguishes texts that state the doctrine of the Trinity and are not written (agraphan).

[16] The arguments for Trinitarianism are within the bounds of monotheism. The best approach to the doctrine of the Trinity is to begin with God’s oneness and then progress to His threeness.

[17] Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics: God and Creation. Ed. John Bold. Trans. John Vriend (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2004), 2:269.

[18] Stephen Wellum, Systematic Theology: From Canon to Concept, Volume 1 (Brentwood, TN: B&H Publishing, 2024), 168.

[19] Ambrose, On the Christian Faith, 5.1.26

[20] Dolezal, All That Is In God, 117

[21] Swain, The Trinity, 39

[22] Sanders, The Triune God, 241.

[23] Origen, Fragments on Matthew, 58.

[24] “Watch Jesus and think Trinity.” (Fred Sanders, Deep Things of God, 137)

[25] Scott Swain, The Trinity, 33.

[26] Scott Swain, The Trinity, 39.

[27] Fred Sanders, The Triune God, 241.

[28] Scott Swain, The Trinity, 39.

[29] “Voices from heaven acknowledged the person of Christ at his birth, his baptism, his transfiguration and during the concluding days of his ministry. At his baptism Jesus was honored by the attestation of both the Spirit and the Father.” (McGarvey, The Fourfold Gospel, 58)

[30] Köstenberger, Biblical Theology, 436.

[31] The premise of Bart Ehrman’s How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee (Harper One, 2015) is that Jesus never claimed to be God. In this book, he rejects the authenticity of the “I AM” Johannine statements that have been offered in this paper. However, regardless of whether or not Jesus claimed if He was God, it is clear from this text that God declares from heaven that He is divine, and the Spirit’s anointing verifies this fact. For a thorough criticism of Ehraman’s work see Michael F. Bird’s How God Became Jesus: The Real Origins of Belief in Jesus' Divine Nature—A Response to Bart D. Ehrman (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2014).

[32] Wellum, God the Son Incarnate, 151-152.

[33] Stephen Wellum, God the Son Incarnate, 152.

[34] Vern S. Poythress, The Mystery of the Trinity: A Trinitarian Approach to the Attributes of God (Phillipsburg, NJ:P&R Publishing Company, 2020), 91.

[35] Poythress, The Mystery of the Trinity, 91.

[36] Poythress, The Mystery of the Trinity, 97.

[37] Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 73.

[38] Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 333.

[39] Sanders, The Triune God, 44. “The Trinity is a biblical doctrine. But it is not enough to say that the mystery of the Trinity is in the Bible unless we recognize that the thing we are calling the Bible is a set of texts that were written, redacted, and canonized to prepare for and report on the missions of the Son and the Spirit.”

[40] Sanders, The Triune God, 91.

[41] Barrett, Simply Trinity, 110.

[42] Wellum, Systematic Theology, 297.

[43] Horton, Christian Faith, 158.

[44] Kevin Vanhoozer, “Triune Discourse: Theological Reflections on the Claim That God Speaks (Parts 1-2)” in Trinitarian Theology for the Church: Scripture, Community, Worship.  61.

[45] Barth, Church Dogmatics, I.1.31.

[46] Wellum, Systematic Theology, 672.

[47] Wellum, God the Son Incarnate, 160.