Do Christians worship three gods?
Over
the centuries, certain Christian concepts have been misunderstood. One false
idea is that Christians believe in three gods. Another is that the Trinity is
made up of God, Mary and Jesus.
First
of all it must be stated that Christians do not believe in three gods! The
Trinity has nothing to do with a number of gods, but with the nature
of the One True God.
Secondly,
Mary is not God, nor is she part of God. At the time of the rise of Islam, some
so-called Christians mistakenly believed Mary to be part of the Trinity. But
the true followers of Jesus did not share their belief, because the Holy Word
of God does not teach it. It teaches that although Mary was a good woman, she
was a sinful human being, like all of us.
God
wants us to know who He is. He longs for us to understand Him rightly,
according to what He has revealed in His Holy Word. We need to learn how the
teaching about the Trinity was understood by early Christians as they looked at
God’s Word. In this chapter, we will briefly discuss how early Christians came
to understand God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit; three Persons, yet one God.
How did early Christians arrive at this understanding? Why do Christians today
still insist on this teaching?
1. Did early Christians believe in
three gods?
No!
Most early Christians were from a Jewish background. Judaism, as you know, is a
monotheistic religion; that is, Jews believe that there is only one God, and
that this God, Yahweh, is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The early
Christians continued to affirm their belief in this one God. They knew that the
God of the Old Testament (Tawrat, Zabur, and the writings of the other
prophets) is the God that Christians worship.
The early Christians lived among the polytheistic peoples of the Roman world.
Most people in first century Greek and Roman society believed in many gods.
Since polytheism was all around them, Christians could have been tempted to
start believing in three gods in order to try to fit in with society. But this
did not happen! Christians never entertained such an idea. They continued to
believe that there is only one God. Why did they do this? They did it simply
because they believed the Bible. Let’s briefly look at some evidence which
makes it clear that both the Old Testament and the New Testament affirm that
there is only one God.
Old Testament support for
monotheism
The
Old Testament declares this truth very clearly. In fact, the opening verse of
the Holy Bible reads, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth” (Genesis 1:1). God created all that exists. There is not one god of the
sun, one god of the moon and yet another of the stars. No, there is one God who
made the stars, the moon, the sun… and everything else.
Consider
some other Old Testament verses: Moses said, “To you it was shown that you
might know that the Lord Himself is God; there is none other besides Him”
(Deuteronomy
Solomon
spoke these words, “May these words of mine, with which I have made
supplication before the Lord, be near the Lord our God day and night, that He
may maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel, as
each day may require, that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord
is God; there is no other” (1 Kings 8:59-60). What a statement!
In
another passage, God spoke through the prophet Isaiah and said, “I am the Lord,
and there is no other; there is no God besides Me” (Isaiah 45:5). Again, God
said in Isaiah 46:9, “Remember the former things of old, For
I am God, and there is no other; I am God and there is none like me.”
The
early Christians, then, saw clearly from the Old Testament Scriptures that
there is only one God. But does the New Testament (Injil) also state this?
Let’s have a look at some important verses from the New Testament.
New Testament support for
monotheism
The
New Testament also states clearly that there is only one God. For example, John
(one of Jesus’ disciples) asserts, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God” (John 17:3). Only God gives
eternal life, and the God who does this is one.
The
apostle Paul says plainly, “Yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom
are all things, and we for Him” (1 Corinthians 8:6). Writing to Christians in
When
the apostle Paul wrote his first letter to his fellow worker Timothy, he said,
“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and Man, the Man Christ
Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).
James, a brother of Jesus, wrote one of the books in the New Testament.
It says, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons
believe - and tremble!” (James 2:19). How sad it would be if Christians were to
deny what even the demons get right!
So
the early Christians, like Christians today, believed what the Old and New
Testaments teach about God; That there is only one
God.
2. Since
there is only one God, why do Christians talk about the Trinity?
The
Bible does teach that there is only one God, but that is not all that it
teaches. It also reveals truths about Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Let us see
what the Old and New Testaments say about the Trinity.
New
Testament support for the Trinity
John
wrote, “In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God... All things were made through Him and without Him nothing
was made that was made” (John 1:1,3). These opening
verses of John’s Gospel are very profound. However, we are even more amazed
when we go on to read that the Word, who is God, “became flesh and dwelt among
us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth” (John
We must also consider the claims that Jesus made for Himself. One of the most
famous is found in John 8:58. He said to the Jewish religious people, “Most
assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” This was an incredible
thing to say! Jesus stated that He existed before Abraham lived. That was not
all that Jesus meant. The people picked up stones and threw them at Jesus
because they thought He was blaspheming. Why? Because when God revealed Himself
to Moses He said, “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus
The
Bible is full of clear indications that Jesus is both man and God. His
holiness, His sinless life, His ability to forgive sin, His infinite power and
knowledge… these are all signs of His deity.
But what about the Holy Spirit? Does the Bible teach the deity of the Holy Spirit? Yes. Consider one of
the many verses that show this.
The
Bible tells us that, in the early church, a couple called Ananias
and Saphira sold property and gave the apostles a
portion of the money they received. However, they claimed to have brought all
the money. The apostle Peter was enabled by the Holy Spirit to know that they
had lied. He said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled
your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of
the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was
sold, was is not in your own control? Why have you
conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God”
(Acts 5:3-4). So, to lie to the Holy Spirit is to lie to God. The Holy Spirit
is truly God. There are many other verses which show this.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Each is fully God, yet there is only one God.
But does the Old Testament (the Tawrat, Zabur, and the writings of the other
prophets) also speak of this truth? Yes it does….
Old Testament support for the
Trinity
Old Testament believers knew that there was a plurality in the Godhead. This
can be seen from the very beginning of the Bible. Genesis 1:26-27 (part of the
Tawrat) reads, “Then God said let Us make man
in our image, according to Our likeness…so God created man in His own
image.” The words written in bold text show that God, who is
one, speaks as more than one. The verse emphasises both the unity and
the plurality of God. A few pages later, we read, “Then the Lord God said:
‘behold the man has become like one of Us’ ” (Genesis
There are also many references to the Angel of the Lord in the Old
Testament, and on each occasion it is plain that God’s messenger is God.
Genesis 16:7-13 records how Hagar, who had run away from Abraham and Sarah, was
commanded by “the Angel of the Lord” to return. It is then made clear that it
was the Lord Himself who was speaking to her. She called Him, “You are the God
who sees.” The One who was sent by God was God Himself!
Abraham
himself had a visit from the Angel of the Lord some time later. He appeared as
a man, but the text clearly states that the visitor was the Lord Himself
(Genesis
Also the Old Testament tells us that God speaks to God. King David wrote
in Psalm 110:1, “The Lord said to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, till I make
your enemies your footstool.’” There are two names for God in Hebrew: Yahweh
and Adonay. Here God (Yahweh is the word used)
addresses someone whom David calls his “Lord” (Adonay).
The two are one. The one referred to here as Adonay
is none other than Jesus Christ. Again and again we are confronted by the
mysterious truth that God is more than one.
So the idea of the Trinity (plurality within the unity of the Godhead) is
clearly present in the Old Testament.
What can we conclude? Both the Old and the New Testaments clearly teach that
there is only one God, but they also teach that the Father is God, Jesus is
God, and the Holy Spirit is God. God is three, yet one. How could Christians
summarize this teaching? They selected the word Trinity (Tri-unity)
which means ‘three one-ness.’ This word has been used since the second century.
3. In which sense is God both one
and three?
There
is one God, expressed in three Persons. God is one in nature, but God is
three in person. This is not a contradiction, even though we cannot
fully understand it. There is unity and diversity.
The
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit each possess the divine nature equally,
eternally, simultaneously and fully. They are not each one third of God. Each
is fully God. They are not three gods, but three Persons of the one Godhead. What distinguishes them is
their role and their relationships to each other. In unique and remarkable
ways, each member of the Trinity relates to the other members, contributing to
the fulfilment of the common purposes of God. It is God the Father who made a
wonderful plan of salvation for mankind. It is God the Son who came to earth to
fulfil the Father’s plan. It is God the Holy Spirit who works in our hearts to
save us. Yet the three are one.
Conclusion
We
must seek to understand who God is, but which of us can understand Him fully?
It is futile to try to understand the Trinity through human reason. An infinite
God cannot be fully understood by finite people. He is beyond human reason. One
great leader of the early church said, ‘It is easier to pour the entire ocean
in a little cup than to grasp the greatness of God in the human mind.’ Do you
agree? Then please, though the Trinity is a mystery, let us accept by faith that
God, who is one, is also ‘three in one.’
Friend,
it is impossible to know the truth about God without studying His Word. I
cannot help you to believe this mystery unless you are willing either to hear
the Bible explained, or to open it for yourself. You will find helpful verses
like Matthew 28:19 where Jesus commands us to go and make disciples, “baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
Notice that He did not say, “names,” but “name.”
John, one of Jesus’ disciples, wrote, “there are three that bear witness in
heaven: The Father, the Word (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit; and these three are
one” (1 John 5:7).
Since
the first century, followers of Jesus have therefore come to know God as a
loving heavenly Father who cares for mankind; as a redeeming Saviour who shows
the way to God; and as an ever-present Spirit who gives comfort, guidance and
strength. Will you trust God and come to Him now?