For in him [God] we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. — Acts 17:28-29
It is only because of God that we have breath and strength, for He is the Fountain of Life. It is only because of God that we have peace, salvation, and hope of eternal life. As the offspring of God—living and intelligent beings—we must not relegate the Godhead to an inanimate object created by man but recognize that the Godhead is more excellent than the creation and worthy of worship.
This quarter, I address the subject of the Godhead and examine the scriptures that prove the doctrine of the Trinity. I have been richly blessed as the nature of God has been more clearly revealed though the study of His Word. While the Trinity can be complicated to understand and many illustrations given to explain the Trinity are inadequate, the truth of it is very important to comprehend God’s plan and design for mankind. As one author stated: “If you try to explain the Trinity, you will lose your mind. But if you deny it, you will lose your soul.”
Consider the writing of F. G. Smith on this subject from What the Bible Teaches:
To many, this doctrine of the Trinity appears like an unimportant matter, but in reality it is not. If Christ, with His marvelous perfections, be not truly God, then instead of bringing man to God, He has only succeeded in revealing to us the impassable gulf that exists between us and the divine One. If He truly is “God manifest in the flesh” for the purpose of transforming sinful man into His own image, then we are assured of our moral and spiritual correspondence and communion with the Father in heaven.
Since the exact manner of existence in the Godhead manifestly lies above and beyond the range of mortal mind, the basis of our theology respecting God should be laid solely in what is revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures. And if we appeal directly to them, we find it is impossible to avoid the doctrine of the Trinity taught therein without doing great violence to scores of plain texts bearing on the subject. (p. 45)
My prayer is that the reader accepts the simplicity of God’s Word which itself defines the nature of God. It is a blessing to experience one God in three persons working and functioning in our daily life.
Michael W. Smith
October 2017
