Do We Believe in Three Gods? 

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • March 18, In the year of our Lord, 2015

Prelude: 

  1. The Jehovah’s Witnesses and Muslims think that we believe in three Gods. 
    1. Perhaps you have wondered about it yourself.
    2. This is one of the charges that Muslims are making against Christians, and
      1. using as an excuse to persecute us.
      2. Muslims think God is not God,
        1. if He has a Son,
        2. making God nothing more than a man in their minds.
  2. Why would someone think that we believe in three Gods? 
    1. We believe Father is God.
    2. We believe the Son is God.
    3. We believe the Holy Spirit is God.
      1. However, we believe they all make up the one God.
      2. The groups who oppose us cannot understand that point.
  3. What do you think? 
    1. Do you think we believe in three Gods?
    2. If not, how do you explain this doctrine?

Persuasion: 

  1. Are the Three of Them Divine? 
    1. The Father
      1. No one questions the deity of the Father.
      2. If someone does, then that person probably denies the existence of God.
    2. The Son
      1. John 1 speaks or Jesus in such a way that He can only be divine.
      2. If John 1.1–18 does not speak of Jesus as God, what point did John make?
    3. The Holy Spirit
      1. What or who is the Holy Spirit?
      2. What makes God, God?
        1. Whatever makes God, God,
        2. also makes the Spirit God.
  2. The Bible Affirms One God 
    1. Deuteronomy 6 affirmed this truth for Israel long ago,

      4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deu 6.4–5).
    2. Jesus affirmed that same truth for us,

      29 Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 So the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He” (Mark 12.29–32).
    3. Just so you know that applies to the church,

      4 Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one. 5 For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live (1Co 8.4–6).
  3. The Conclusion 
    1. If the Bible affirms that
      1. the Father,
      2. the Son, and
      3. the Spirit
        1. are divine, and
        2. if the Bible affirms that
          1. there is one God,
          2. what shall we conclude?
    2. We conclude
      1. that the three are not three separate Gods, but
      2. they comprise the one God.
    3. If we do not understand something fully,
      1. does that mean it does not exist?
      2. If we could have God all figured out, and
        1. if we could understand entirely the relationship
        2. between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
          1. would they still be God?
          2. How complicated are human relationships?
    4. Are there other things that are one, but comprised of parts?
      1. What does the Bible say of a man and a woman in marriage as flesh?
        1. The two are no longer two, but one flesh.
        2. How is that possible?
        3. What does that mean?
      2. Notice the use of the pronouns when God made man,

        26 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.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them (Gen 1.26–27).

        22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life (Gen 3.22–24).