"All sorts of people are fond of repeating the Christian statement that "God is Love".  But they seem not to notice that the words "God is Love" has no real meaning unless God contains at least two Persons.  If God was a single person, then before the world was made He was not Love.  Of course, what these people really mean when they say "God is Love" is often something quite different:  they really mean Love is God." - C.S. Lewis

     It is "impossible" for anyone to truly comprehend the Trinity of God.  God is One, yet He is a unique One.  God is a "compound unity" of three Persons so close to, so exact to one another, each in submission to one another, so as to move and act as a unified yet incomprehensible One.

     Many mock Christianity by stating "You do not know anything about arithmetic.  How can three be one?"  Yet on closer examination we will see that, without a Triune God, there can be no real concept of God as we know Him.  It is the attribute of the Trinity that makes the Godhead believable.

The Biblical Proof of the Triune God

Deuteronomy 6:4 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: "

     The Jews often quote the above passage to prove that God is not in three Persons but only One.  What is "often neglected" is that there are "two different words" in the Hebrew used for "one".

YACHID:  meaning "an absolute unity or properly '1' "  This word's use is illustrated in Genesis 22.2, where God said to Abraham:

Genesis 22:2 "And he said, Take now thy son, thine only (YACHID) son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah;  and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. "

The word YACHID is "never used" in the Bible for the Godhead.

ECHAD:  meaning "a compound unity, several composites which make a whole or a combined '1' ".  We can define this word's usage in passages such as:

Genesis 1:5 "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.  And the evening and the morning were the first  [echad]  day."

ECHAD is also found in Genesis 2:24, where we read:

Genesis 2:24 "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one  [echad]  flesh. "

ECHAD is also used of God in Deuteronomy 6:4 and in many other passages that refer to the compound unity of the Godhead.  When we compare "echad" as used in other passages to Deuteronomy 6:4 we see that God is "not an absolute One" but a "compound unity".  This unity is made up of three Persons. Just as "Day" is made up of "evening" and "morning", and "one flesh" is made up of "man" and "wife", the Godhead is composed of "Father", "Son", and "Spirit".

In other passages we see clear presentations of the Doctrine of the Trinity:

Isaiah 48:12-16 "Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called;  I am he;  I am the first, I also am the last.  Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens:  when I call unto them, they stand up together.  All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear;  which among them hath declared these things?  The LORD hath loved him:  he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.  I, even I, have spoken;  yea, I have called him:  I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.  Come ye near unto me, hear ye this;  I have not spoken in secret from the beginning;  from the time that it was, there am I: .... "

     So far in Isaiah's text we see "God speaking".  It couldn't be anyone but God, for He describes Himself as the "first, I also am the last".  He uses God's Divine title of "I am he".  This denotes His eternality, His forever existence:

Exodus 3:14 "And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM:  and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."

     He also claims to be the "Creator of the Heavens" and the earth.  God is clearly speaking here, but in last part of the text, without changing context, God says:

".. and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me .."

     Notice that "God says that God sent Him".  In fact, God says that God "and His Spirit" sent him.  This is nothing less than an Old Testament vision of the throne room of God.  In the throne room the One God sent Jesus to be man's redemption.  The other Being present was God the Spirit.  They "both" sent Christ so that man might be saved.

The Logical Necessity of the Trinity

     See if you can follow this line of reasoning:  We know that God is perfect, and we know that God's Love is therefore perfect.  If God is perfect (and He is), then He may only be aware that He is through relationship within His Being.  Perfect Love "demands" an object.  Since God pre-existed man, He "must have been Love" before the existence of mankind.  In order to recognize Himself as Love before mankind, and Love demands in object, then He "must be in at least Two Persons", yet be One God.

     But Two Persons in the Godhead would not be enough for perfect Love.  As God is perfect His Love "must be perfect".  To be perfect it must be exercised and return unconditionally.  Had there only been Two Persons in the Godhead then Love would "have been conditional" and of necessity returned between the Two.  If there are Three in the Godhead then either Member can offer unselfish Love without expecting return.  This would be unconditional Love.  The Son could Love the Spirit, the Spirit the Father, each Person could love the next selfishly.  Without expecting return God could recognize in His assets the attribute of Perfect Love.

     If you cannot understand this line of reasoning then there are other simpler proofs of God's Triune nature.  These proofs are found when you see the "necessity" of the Doctrine of the Trinity as it influences and is supported by the doctrine of Redemption.

     First, the Doctrine of the Trinity is essential for "any lasting plan of redemption" for man:

II Corinthians 5:19 "To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them;  and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation."

     Since the fall of Adam the "foremost theological discussion" has been, "How can men become reconciled to God?"  Man, by his own volition, chose to follow Satan.  "Man must pay" the penalty.  But how can man pay the penalty of the Fall?

     Some say that since "we were not there" at the Fall "we are not accountable".  But to say this is to oversimplify the problem.  When God created man in the Garden he was perfect, without sin.  When man disobeyed God he fell into sin and Spiritual death.  Our children are "genetic replicas" of what we are.  If the parents are black the child will be black.  If the parents are white the child will be white.  Though the combinations of parents "do not always" produce the expected child, this is the norm.

     When Adam walked the earth before the Fall he was "without sin", and had a functioning human spirit.  This human spirit enabled him to physically communicate with God at will.  God walked in the Garden every day just to talk to Adam face to face.  After the Fall Adam became spiritually dead, and this relationship was lost.  Residing in him was sin, the old sin nature.  As Eve was also spiritually dead when they came together to reproduce their offspring were also spiritually dead.  Can a dead tree produce a live tree?  Death only produces death.  The offspring of Adam were "all genetically spiritually dead", having the old sin nature from birth.

     So here is the dilemma.  By the fall mankind met spiritual death.  God, in his justice, required that man pay the penalty for the Fall.  But man was not "fit payment" before God.  Before a man could repay the penalty of sin for the human race he had to pay the penalty "for himself".  And since man was spiritually dead there was "nothing that he had" that God wanted.  The dead cannot contribute to the living.  The spiritually dead cannot pay back the penalty of spiritual death.

     A substitution "could pay" the penalty for sin.  One could pay the penalty if he was "first clean" himself.  But the substitution must first be clean or else it would not be acceptable before God.  The problem was that there was "no one in humanity" who could pay back the penalty, because all mankind was spiritually dead.  The parents might raise a morally right child, but parents could not produce an offspring that was "without the old sin nature" and spiritual death.

     God knew the fix that man was in.  God had every right to destroy the human race and start over.  But if He destroyed man because of Satan's deceit, then Satan would have won a battle against God.  Thus God set out to show that, regardless of what Lucifer did, "He" could right the situation.

     But God was not ready to bring man out of spiritual death just yet.  The old sin nature brings with it an inflated ego, leading man to think that he can become righteous before God with his own works.  To disprove this God set up a system of works whereby man could see "how utterly impossible" it was to get to Heaven by his own efforts.  God set up the sacrifices first as a means of "temporary atonement" for sin.  If man obeyed God by offering the animal sacrifices religiously, then God would tolerate the fallen state of man for a time.  If man refused to obey by refusing to offer the animal sacrifices, then God classified him as an unbeliever and a heathen.  After physical death this group of people went to Hades "without hope of redemption".

     God set up another system of works that complemented the sacrifices.  This system was called the "Law" and was composed of about 2500 statutes of do's and don'ts.  Each day you woke up you had to face a "strict system of religion".  If you broke the Law, then you atoned for this by making an animal sacrifice.  On top of all this "once a year" you had to make a sacrifice to atone for portions of the Law you broke and forgot to atone for.

     This system was "less than satisfactory", and God knew it.  But He wanted to leave the system in place "until men knew it as well".  Mankind must understand that there is "nothing" that we can do before God to get out of the mess we're in.  Mankind had to know that he "could not pay" the penalty, for man was totally filthy before God.

     Man was between a rock and a hard place.  Man needed to pay the penalty for sin but could not.  God was the "only One" who could pay the penalty.  Hence the Trinity.  God had to solve the problem of man, but as Man and not God.  God lowered Himself to become Man in the Person of Jesus Christ.  "Since Jesus as God was sinless, When He took on flesh as God-Man He was also sinless".  He went to the Cross as a Man to pay for our sins.  He rose again on the third day to "show that the payment" was acceptable to the Godhead.  While on the earth as a man, Jesus used to the powers of the Spirit to perform miracles, to teach, and to lead people to salvation in Him.

     But this is not the entire story of redemption.  When man was "allowed" to temporarily redeemed himself through animal sacrifices, none of the sacrifices "had any lasting value".  Not only was the sacrifice improper in itself (for an animal cannot pay the penalty for men), but as soon as the sacrifice was made man went "back out and began to sin again".  We are all compulsive sinners.  Even as a hermit man will still find a way to sin.  Again comes the Trinity of God to the rescue.  Christ is seated at the right hand of God the Father forever, making intercession for our sins:

Hebrews 7:22-28 "By so much was Jesus made a surety  [EGGUOS, guarantee]  of a better testament  [DIATHAKA, covenant].  And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death:  But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.  Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.  For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;  Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's:  for this he did once, when he offered up himself.  For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity;  but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore. "

     When we sin now, rather than being "saved again", Christ "immediately makes intercession" for us.  This ensures that we retain our relationship with God rather than lose it.  God the Holy Spirit also "indwells" us, aiding us in making better decisions for the Lord, and convicting us to repent when we sin.  Only "through the Trinity" are we maintained in God's redemption.

     The Christian Monotheist would tell us that the Jesus manifestation makes intercession with Himself, which is "nonsense".  The Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses say that the "lesser god" Jesus makes intercession for our sins.  But a mediator or intercessor "must be equal" with both parties that He tries to reconcile.  If Jesus was merely a man He "could not" be an Intercessor, for He would not be equal with God.  If Jesus was pure God then he would not be equal with man.

     If Jesus were a lesser god that he "would not be equal" with either God or man.  Jesus must be pure God in the flesh, forever sitting at the right hand of God the Father in Heaven.  Any other combination throws our salvation away.

     "The Doctrine of the Trinity, though many may not understand it, is true. It is a foundational Doctrine in the Christian faith that cannot be lightly thrown away."