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Christian orthodoxy declares that Yahuwah is one God manifested in three divine persons. It further states that this mystery was foreshadowed in the three “men” who appeared to Abraham, for example, and is demonstrated in the presence of all three “divine persons” at Yahushua’ baptism. As a response to the protest that Scripture repeatedly declares that there is only one God, orthodoxy states that the word “one” or “echad” in Hebrew can be understood as a compound one, a unity of several persons or things.
But then how is it decided when one means one and when it means more than 1? How is the Bible student to know if “echad” is (supposedly) being used in a “plural unity” manner and when it truly means just one single thing? And how are we to be certain that this plural unity equals 3, not 6 or 8? Jude 1:4b says: “[They are] ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Yahushua Christ.” Does only mean only 1 or does it mean more than 1 in that example? If it means more than one, then our Lord Yahushua Christ must have multiple personalities. I don’t know of anyone in orthodoxy who would say that Jude 1:4 is revealing a triune Yahushua. Yet when Yahuwah says He is the only one it is claimed He is more than 1.
However, let us go on to the purpose of this article which is to examine whether groupings of three in Scripture or in nature point to a triune God. Is it true that mentioning three things together proves a trinity? Does grouping three things or people together create a “three-in-one” unity?
We have long noted the insistence by orthodoxy that Matthew 28:19 supports the theory of the Trinity because Yahushua purportedly ordered the disciples to baptize “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (NIV). Matthew 3:16-17 (repeated in Luke 3:22) is used in a similar manner. Because all three “entities” — Yahushua being baptized, the Spirit of Yahuwah in the form of a dove, and the voice of his Father from heaven — are mentioned as present in one scene, the Trinity is declared to be represented and attested to. After those two passages, teachers of orthodoxy look long and hard for further 3-in-1 proofs. One stretch is 1 Peter 1:2. This verse is used to support belief in the Trinity simply because all 3 are included in one long sentence: “[You] are chosen according to the foreknowledge of Yahuwah the Father, by the sanctifying work of the spirit, that you may obey Yahushua Christ and be sprinkled with his blood.” Nothing there should suggest that the three “persons” constitute one “God” simply because they appear together.
Let’s consider other examples of three persons being grouped together in Scripture. When Moses grew tired of holding his arms up in the air during the battle between the Israelites and the Amalekites, Aaron and Hur stood on either side of him, each supporting one of Moses’ arms. Does this mean that Moses, Aaron and Hur were three persons in one essence? (Ex. 17:11-12).
When Elijah and Moses appeared with Yahushua on the mountain (Matt. 17:3), does this indicate that the three of them are three persons in one essence? No one in their right mind should believe such nonsense. Yet this is what we are told to believe whenever Yahuwah the Father, Yahushua His Son, and the holy spirit are mentioned anywhere near each other in the Bible.
Now let’s look at scriptures which mention three things together. Both Titus 1:4 and 2 John 1:3 mention 3 things together — “grace, mercy and peace will be with us.” Are they all 3 the same in essence, one substance? Are they 3 beings — Grace, Mercy and Peace — who will be “with us” literally and tangibly? Are they three virtues in one virtue, each virtue not to be confused with another virtue, yet all the same virtue? The indignant, and rightly so, response is that such a statement is ridiculous, yet that’s the same reasoning applied to 1 Peter 1:2 — that the mention of 3 things together makes them a unity.
This is blatant biased selection of scriptures to support an unsupportable belief. It would be just as easy to find 4 or 7 things listed together to prove that Yahuwah is a quad-ity or a hept-ity. Daniel 8:22 mentions the four horns that represent four kingdoms. Proverbs 6:16-19 lists together seven things that are an abomination to Yahuwah. It is ridiculous, however, to say that these passages indicate that Yahuwah is 4 or 7 persons in one God. It is equally nonsensical to claim that the grouping of three persons or three things together in Scripture constitutes a “plural unity.”
Turning from Scripture to nature, is it true, as orthodoxy claims, that the “frequent” occurrence of groupings of 3 (leaflets, phases of matter, etc.) in nature demonstrates and proves the Trinity? I recently came across a curious YouTube video called “Trinities of Nature” that slyly aims to prove the Trinity through pointing out all the “threes” in the created world. The music, the pictures, and the wording are cleverly designed to convince the unquestioning viewer that the Creator left His triune footprint throughout His creation. The deception is easy to debunk, however, with minimal research.
TRINITIES of particle physics: quarks, leptons, bosons.
FAIL: A quick Internet search reveals a list of 7 elementary particles.
TRINITIES of light: 3 primary colors combine to form white light.
FAIL: The 3 primary colors combine to form black. White light consists of all 7 colors of the rainbow. (Uh- oh, there’s that pesky number 7 popping up again.)
TRINITY of phases of matter: gas, liquid, solid.
FAIL: What about plasma, critical fluids and some degenerate gases?
TRINITY of balance of ecology: minerals, plants, animals.
FAIL: Did you forget humans?
TRINITY of humanity: 3 subgroups of humans are Negroid, Mongoloid, and Caucasian.
FAIL: First of all, these are arbitrary man-made divisions not based in scripture. Yahuwah created one race, the human race. All genetic configurations were included in the DNA of the first two humans Yahuwah created. Second, the Horniman Museum in London contains a display about Homo Sapiens Sapiens featuring 4 divisions: the 3 mentioned above with the addition of Austroloids.
TRINITY of the human family: father, mother, child.
FAIL: What if they have more than one child? What if, as in many cultures, the father has multiple wives? What if a single woman adopts? What about grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins? There are far more possibilities than this father-mother-child triad.
TRINITY of the universe #2: space, matter, time.
FAIL: Science lists at least four by including energy.
TRINITY of the universe #3: width, height, depth.
FAIL: Scientists include time as a 4th dimension.
(Seeing a lot of 4s now. Hmmm....)
TRINITY of time: past, present, future.
FAIL: That still proves nothing about who Yahuwah is.
There are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, 52 weeks in a year, 365.2425 days in a year, 24 time zones. No 3s in any of that. Unfortunately, the naïve, unsuspecting, trusting viewer of such a video or hearer of a lecture will be gob-smacked by these amazing revelations of 3s in nature.
I add, in closing, that many other numbers can be found just as abundantly in nature as can the number 3. The 3-leaved shamrock is popularly held up as pointing to the Trinity, however, thousands of other plants have 5, 7, or more petals. Use of the shamrock is like proof- texting.
Fives are also plentiful in nature. Humans have five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot. Stars are typically drawn with 5 points and starfish have 5 arms. We have 5 senses and there are 5 phases of mitosis (cell division).
Moving up the number chart, there are 7 colors in the rainbow, 7 days in which Yahuwah created, and 7 notes on the musical scale. In the Bible, the dreams of Pharaoh, interpreted by Joseph, are full of sevens; seven priests with 7 trumpets marched around Jericho 7 times; and wisdom has 7 pillars. The book of Revelation is replete with sevens, including 7 candlesticks, 7 spirits, and 7 churches. The ritual Menorah candlestick, still used in Judaism, has 7 branches. The number seven in the Bible is said to be the number of completeness and perfection. If any number could be used to represent Yahuwah, it should be the number 7 not 3.
Therefore, the number 3 cannot claim any more significance in nature than any other number, and doesn’t prove anything about Yahuwah being a Trinity. Alternatively, Yahuwah is not 4 or 5 or 7 either. Let us return to the clear language of Scripture: Yahuwah is one. One means one.
This is a non-WLC article by Alane Rozelle.
We have taken out from the original article all pagan names and titles of the Father and Son, and have replaced them with the original given names. Furthermore, we have restored in the Scriptures quoted the names of the Father and Son, as they were originally written by the inspired authors of the Bible. -WLC Team