One of the central doctrines of the church is that of the Trinity. It is central to our theology and our practice, and yet at the same time I believe it is one of the most misunderstood and least comprehended doctrines of the church. In the next few articles I hope to broaden our understanding and appreciation of the Trinity. I pray that this will be both helpful and edifying for you, and an exercise that will deepen your faith and commitment to our Lord and God. We will begin our examination of the doctrine of the Trinity we will look at the Biblical Background of this doctrine.
It is important to state at the outset the term Trinity does not appear in the scriptures, neither New or Old Testament. However, there are some very specific things that inform our understanding of the Trinity found in both the Old and New Testaments. One of the key understandings of the Trinity, one God revealed in three persons, is that God is one and that there is only one God. The Old Testament clearly assumes the unity of God, that there is one God and only one God. The Old Testament informs our understanding of the monotheistic nature of our faith and theology. This primary attribute of God is the reason that we do not have three gods in our theology, and while it may have been simpler to develop a theology that has three gods but it would have indicated that Christianity is not connected to the God of the Old Testament, and that Jesus and his disciples could not have remained Jewish in any sense.
The New Testament holds to the unity of God and while it does not explicitly state the Trinity, it is alluded to on many occasions. While affirming the understanding of one God, the New testament presents the formula for the Trinity and it does so in numerous locations. The come it two primary formats the twofold and threefold patterns The twofold or Binitarian formulas are found in the following: Romans 8:11, 2 Corinthians 4:14, Galatians 1:1, Ephesians 1:20, 1 Timothy 1:2, 1 Peter 1:21 and 2 John 1:13. Galatians 1:1-2a gives a nice understanding of the twofold pattern. Paul writes, “1Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2and all the brothers with me.”
The threefold or Trinitarian formulas are also displayed in the New Testament. The following passages will show this threefold pattern: Matthew 28:19, 1 Corinthians 6:11, 1 Corinthians 12:4ff, Galatians 3:11-14, Hebrews 10:29 and 1 Peter 1:2. Matthew 28:18-20 may well be one of the best known of these threefold patterns. The apostle recounts the words of Jesus, “18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Clearly both patterns exist in the writings of the New Testaments, arguments about which is the older, which is the earliest format are much bigger that which was written first, this is because within the Gospel of Matthew, for example, there are traditions that predate the earliest of Paul’s letters. It is fair to say that both two fold and three fold patterns are present early in the Christian tradition, and there is good evidence that Jesus himself gave us the patter of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
What we do not find in the New Testament is a fully developed doctrine of the Trinity. This doctrinal development will come as the church continues to mature and wrestle with the revelation of God in three persons, and yet retain the unity of One God.
http://www.oldtestamenttrinity.blogspot.com/