“Where Is The Trinity Found?”
6-15-2025
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Do you remember the “Where’s Waldo?” books? If you don’t remember them, that’s okay. It was just a passing fad. These popular books were really just a visual search-activity. On the pages were an elaborate drawing of a scene, usually with a large crowd of people. Waldo was hidden somewhere in that busy picture. Your job was to locate him. You’d think he’d be easy to spot because he always had the same, distinctive features: a red and white striped sweater, a matching stocking cap, large wire-rimmed glasses, and a goofy grin. But the pictures are so complicated that it’s difficult to locate the nerdy guy. Frankly, I never understood the fascination with these books. After finding Waldo a time or two, I’d get bored. Then again, watching golf on TV has the same effect.
Now granted, it’s a trivial thing finding out where Waldo is, but not when we pursue the question, “Where Is The Trinity Found?” Some people naively think that if they simply believe in “Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior” then this question doesn’t matter. They couldn’t be more wrong. Perhaps the reading of the Athanasian Creed made you go cross-eyed, but if you paid the least bit of attention, you will have discovered that the doctrine of the Trinity is essential to our salvation. To put it another way, you cannot have Jesus as your Lord and Savior without also having the Father and the Holy Spirit. The three Persons of the Trinity are inseparable. You can’t have one without the other two. So, the unity of the Trinity must remain intact and untainted for it to benefit us.
Okay, then, if the Trinity is so important, then where do we find this essential doctrine of the Christian faith? Actually, I gave you the answer in the bulletin. Did you notice that there was no sermon text listed? That’s because the doctrine of the Trinity is woven into the fabric of the whole Bible. Contrary to what critics and liars have said over the centuries, the Bible clearly teaches about the Holy Trinity from cover to cover. Sometimes, though, Christians get blindsided because they just assume that everyone accepts this. Trust me, they don’t. But since Christians are so unsuspecting, these purveyors of false doctrine are allowed to pass off what they teach as logical and factual.
For example, do you remember the book called The Da Vinci Code? In it, the author asserts that it was a secret conspiracy of the early Christian Church which created the doctrine of Jesus being true God. You may argue that his book was just fiction, but in it he makes false statements about the history of the Christian Church as if they were fact. What’s interesting is that the Jehovah’s Witnesses have a similar approach. In fact, they take it so far as to say that the doctrine of the Trinity was first introduced at the Council of Nicaea by the Roman Emperor, Constantine, who they claim was a pagan. Furthermore, they claim that the Athanasian Creed, which you confessed this morning, was unknown until the 12th Century. That’s nearly 800 years after Athanasius lived! Why, if that’s a fact then there must have been some grand conspiracy to create the Trinity, right? But their “facts” are not factual. And yet some people swallow them hook, line, and sinker.
So, who’s right? We could argue all day about who has the correct “facts” concerning the church history on this doctrine. And the record of history will clearly show that these Trinitarian conspiracy theories are the product of warped imaginations. But most people don’t have the patience for an in-depth study of the documented history on this. Besides, the concept of the Trinity is complex and illogical to our minds. And that’s why people so easily fall for these anti-Trinitarian beliefs. Oh, maybe they don’t run off and join the Jehovah’s Witnesses, but the doctrine of the Trinity gets distorted and diminished in their minds. That’s very dangerous. Because as I said before, the doctrine of the Trinity is essential to our salvation.
Which leads us back to the question, “Where Is The Trinity Found?” Well, Church history is helpful, but the Word of God has the final say for us believers. If you don’t accept the whole Bible as the inspired and inerrant Word of God, then there’s really nothing else for us to discuss. On the other hand, if you do trust that the Bible is God-breathed and without error then you have all the proof you need of the Trinity from cover to cover. This is how God went about revealing Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
“Really Pastor? I can think of some New Testament passages, but where can the Trinity be found in the Old Testament?” As Martin Luther once said, even though the doctrine of the Trinity is not revealed as clearly in the Old Testament, it is still unmistakably laid out there. When you think about that it makes sense. The world got a clearer picture of God when the Son came down and took on human flesh. And when the Holy Spirit was sent on Pentecost, He clarified the essence and work of God even further. So, it makes sense that we would see and understand the Trinity more fully in the New Testament. That being said though, there are plenty of passages which reveal the Trinity in the Old Testament. We don’t have time to go through every one of them, but let’s look at just a few.
In the Book of Genesis alone there are at least 3 different places where God uses plural pronouns when referring to Himself. For example, He says, “Let us create man in our image.” I can assure you He is not schizophrenic. And don’t fall for the rebuttal that says God was speaking to the angels. Why in the world would God say that He would create mankind in the image of Himself and angels? God and angels are not identical beings. But if He was speaking with the other persons of the Trinity then the use of the plural makes perfect sense.
If you look at Numbers chapter 6, God gives the words of a blessing that Aaron is supposed to speak over the Israelites. You will hear it at the end of our service today in the Benediction. Why a triple repetition in this blessing? Oh, you say it was just the poetic style of that day? Well, what about in Isaiah 6 when the prophet sees a vision of heaven? You will sing the words of those angels in the Communion liturgy shortly: “Holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabaoth...” Another triplicate. Hmmm....
Okay but that’s not very specific. Well, the Holy Spirit is mentioned in the activity of the creation in Genesis 1. In Isaiah 63 it says that Israel had rebelled and grieved the Holy Spirit. If He’s not the third person of the Trinity how is that possible? Regularly the Old Testament tells us how the Spirit of the Lord descended on the judges, the kings, and the prophets of Israel bestowing on them the power to do their divinely ordained tasks. David wrote in Psalm 51, “Create in me a clean heart oh God, take not your Holy Spirit from me!” You’ll be singing that in the liturgy in just a minute.
What about the Son of God? Well, He’s there in the Old Testament too even if we don’t always recognize His activity. St. Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 10:4 that the rock which supplied water to Israel in the wilderness was none other than Jesus. And in several other places the Son of God appears in a human form in the Old Testament. Don’t confuse these momentary appearances with the incarnation when the Son of God united Himself permanently with human flesh. Even so, in these temporary forms He appeared and His activity was revealed in the Old Testament.
In the Gospels, Jesus links the Old and the New Testament witness to the Trinity. Keep in mind, the people Jesus spoke to only knew the Old Testament. And yet we don’t hear a single objection from the Jews when Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit. Likewise, when He promises to send the Holy Spirit to His disciples. No questions and no objections. Furthermore, the term “Son of God” is used regularly in the New Testament to refer to Jesus. Again, the argument of the Jews wasn’t whether there was a Son of God but whether Jesus was Him. As I said before, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity may not have been fully clear to the people of the Old Testament era, but the Trinity was most certainly revealed there. That’s what the New Testament writers then did. They took these new revelations and showed the world how our Triune God had operated in the past, and how He continues to work in the hearts and minds of people on to the end of time. One more thing. It’s worth noting that the Bible clearly assigns to Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit the same attributes of God the Father. Jesus and the Holy Spirit do what only God can do and display the same divine essence. That certainly helps reveal the truth about the Holy Trinity.
I know you really want me to go on with more passages pointing you to the Trinity in the whole Bible, but we’ll save that for another time or for Bible Study. Suffice it to say that the Trinity is clearly found in the Holy Scriptures from cover to cover. God revealed Himself to us as such for a reason. And it all has to do with our salvation. If Jesus is not the Son of God and the second person of the Trinity then His death on the cross did not atone for our sins and that means we’re in big trouble! If the Holy Spirit does not exist as the third person of the Trinity, then Jesus is a liar for promising to send a fictitious spirit to aid us in our faith. And if the Holy Spirit is a myth, then we’re lost without faith in the first place because He is the one who creates that faith within us.
Praise God, though, the doctrine of the Trinity is true and gloriously revealed to us in the Scriptures. Yes, fully understanding the Trinity is beyond what our puny little minds can grasp. And yet we believe this mystery by faith. St. Augustine once said, “If you cannot find out what God is, beware lest you make Him what He is not.” May we rejoice then that God has revealed Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and by faith may we all worship the blessed Holy Trinity. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!