Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

To: malakhi
The Old Testament clearly teaches the Trinity. The verse of Scripture that is probably the greatest doctrinal statement in the Old Testament is found in the Book of Deuteronomy:

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

If you want a literal translation, it is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our plural God is one God!” The word one is echad, the same word used back in Genesis 2:24 when God said, concerning Adam and Eve, “And they shall become one flesh.” Two persons become one. In that mysterious relationship of marriage, two people are made one, which is evident always in the child. They shall be one flesh, though two—two in one. This is the word used in Deuteronomy 6:4 (my paraphrase), “Hear, O Israel: Elohim—our plural God, our Trinity, tri-personality—is one God!” The mysterious One, like Adam and Eve made one flesh, is three Persons in one. That is a wonderful truth and unfathomable by human reason.
Scripture, you see, teaches the Trinity. The Old Testament repeatedly declares the plurality of God. If you go back to the first chapter of Genesis, you will see this again:

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
(Genesis 1:26–27)

Notice that God said, “Let Us make man in Our image.” It is plural. Then in the eleventh chapter of Genesis, at the Tower of Babel, God said:

“Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city.
(vv. 7–8)

We see here that the Lord scattered them, but He said, “Let Us go down.” The Trinity came down, but He is still one God.
Moving on in the Old Testament we find that Isaiah said:

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)

Before this, Isaiah had gone into the temple and heard the seraphim saying, “Holy, holy, holy”—not twice, not four times, but three times. It was a praise to the triune God. Holy is the Father, holy is the Son, and holy is the Spirit.
In Ecclesiastes we read the familiar words, “Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth” (12:1). The word Creator is Boreacho, which means “Creators,” plural. “Remember now thy Creators, thy Trinity”—for the Trinity was involved in creation, as you well know. We are told that God the Father was the Creator, “In the beginning God created . . .” Both the Gospel of John (1:3) and the Epistle to the Colossians (1:16) tell us that the Lord Jesus Christ was the Creator. Also we are told that the Holy Spirit of God was the Creator: “The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). Thus it is evident that the Trinity was involved in creation just as the Trinity is involved in redemption.

In the Old Testament, Israel witnessed to a polytheistic world—a civilization with many gods—concerning the unity of the Godhead. That was the mission of Israel in the ancient world. The mission of the church in this day is to a world not given to polytheism (the worship of many gods), but to atheism (the worship of no god). To our godless civilization we are to witness to the Trinity.

BigMack

46,381 posted on 04/07/2003 10:12:23 AM PDT by PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46374 | View Replies ]


To: PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain
If you want a literal translation, it is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our plural God is one God!” The word one is echad, the same word used back in Genesis 2:24 when God said, concerning Adam and Eve, “And they shall become one flesh.” Two persons become one.

Not that I'm disputing this or anything but how do you know in the Shema "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one God" that the "Lord our God" part is plural?

46,390 posted on 04/07/2003 10:35:54 AM PDT by Invincibly Ignorant
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46381 | View Replies ]

To: PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain
The Old Testament clearly teaches the Trinity.

I could not disagree more strongly.

The verse of Scripture that is probably the greatest doctrinal statement in the Old Testament is found in the Book of Deuteronomy

It takes a monumental torture of the plain meaning of that passage to read it as saying other than what it clearly says.

This is the word used in Deuteronomy 6:4 (my paraphrase), “Hear, O Israel: Elohim—our plural God, our Trinity, tri-personality—is one God!”

Elohim is not even found in this verse!

The name of God used here, in both instances, is YHWH, not Elohim.

Echad can mean either singular or plural unity (as "one" does in English: "one chair" or "one dining room set"). The specific meaning in the passage is determined by context. I cannot read the context here as indicating anything other than singular unity. It doesn't say "the LORD is One Trinity"; it says "the LORD is One".

I am and there is none else;
Beside Me, there is no God (Elohim).
I engird you, though you have not known Me,
So that they may know, from east to west,
That there is none but Me.
I am and there is none else,
I form the light and create darkness,
I make weal and create woe--
I do all these things. (Isaiah 45:5-7)

46,392 posted on 04/07/2003 10:36:22 AM PDT by malakhi (Visualize global warming. Help stamp out winter!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46381 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson