All right, wrapping up our discussion on the Trinity. Last time we were together, we had kind of talked about some of the false views, and then we talked about a proper view of what should be expected, that the Father is not begotten, the Son is eternally begotten. We had kind of talked about the issues that happen or that could happen when we look at that word begot or begotten. So our proper view this Augustinian triangle, which we looked at the last time For me this is the most helpful way to kind of understand the Trinity because it tells me what they are and what they're not So I think we spent time looking at that so we won't rehash that completely if we have time We'll look at a stupid YouTube video. That is absolutely entertaining but Old Testament references. So, let me ask you this. Is the idea of a Trinity only a New Testament issue? We talked about this last time. Where would you go to look at the Trinity in the New Testament? What is the Trinity and where would we go? Blake? Okay, we'll go to the baptism. Anywhere else you could think of? Okay, the birth of Jesus. Anywhere else you would go that you could think of to Okay, you can hear Transfiguration, you can probably make a case for that one. Anything else? Zedekiah? Maybe Pentecost. I would maybe go a little bit further or a little bit earlier with the Great Commission. Alright, any of you know what the Great Commission is? What's the Great Commission say? No, okay. Yeah, go into the world, make disciples, but what's the command? Baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So you have a couple different references. That one's more of a reference to there being at least three, not necessarily that there are three that coexist. The baptism is a pretty open and shut case, I feel, because there is Jesus standing in the water, God speaking, and the Holy Spirit descending. So they're three separate locations, three separate functions, yet one God. So let's look in the Old Testament and see, does it support the concept of a trinity? Our first reference is Genesis chapter one. All right. Genesis chapter one. Anyone know it? I just want to quote Genesis chapter one, verse one. Great. Well done. So in Genesis chapter 1 verse 1, you guys know that. So God created, verse 1, looking at verse 2, if you want to join me there. In verse 2, it says, the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And then we see what? The Spirit of God. So we have a distinction between God creating and the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters. Verse 3, you're back to the concept of God. Then we skip all the way down to verse 26. Who's being made in verse 26, or what's being made in verse 26? Okay, man, Claire, we're informal here. You can just blurt it out, all right? So, no, you're good. So, verse 26, God says, someone got that and want to read it nice and loud? Lettuce? Lettuce. All right. Yes. The creation mandate is there, but we're looking for what we're looking for right now. Because Abby, you're right. The creation mandate's there. But before you get to the creation mandate, you have this concept of plural usage. All right. So verse 26. And God said, let us make man in what's the next word? Our image after our likeness so you have us and then the usage the plural possessive pronoun of our oh you are two times all right so if god is only one being only one entity only one person then why is he using plural pronouns huh okay Yeah, so it's a reference to the concept of the Trinity. Now, what we run into is, well, is the fact of which of them is... If you were an Israelite, what's your perspective on God? Let's back up a little bit. What's the perspective of the person who's getting the book of Genesis for the very first time? How do they look at the world? What influences do they have? Yes, they have God. When did they get the book of Genesis? Yes, after Moses wrote it. So what else is going on there? You're right, Jen. It's after Moses wrote it. OK, so they're in the wilderness. What had they been doing, Cameron? No, before the wandering. Yeah, that's fine. I will take the correct answer from anyone. All right. They're slaves in Egypt. All right. What's going on in Egypt? What's the climate like there? Not literally climate. OK, but. They have idols. They have multiple gods. All right. How many of you sidebar? Slightly relevant, though. Any of you watch Moon Knight? OK, so Moon Knight to kind of give you an idea, which I have to say Moon Knight was one of the along the lines of like the creepiest, like darkest of the marvels, at least my perspective on it. Y'all know, even know, even know what Moon Knight is. All right, so Moon Knight is one of the Marvel superheroes, if you will. Yeah, but the whole premise is this, is why I brought up, because he basically works for an Egyptian god. And there are other Egyptian gods that have these humans that are their avatars that work for them. That's the gist of the series. But why I brought that up is because if you're an Egyptian, are you monotheistic? polytheistic, pantheistic, okay? You're polytheistic. What's polytheistic mean? Many gods. Okay, so keep in mind, because we talked about this back when we were discussing the names of God. The name God in Genesis chapter 1, capital G-O-D, that is the name Elohim. That word Elohim is used for capital G-O-D as well as lowercase g-o-d-s. They're the exact same in Hebrew. Context tells you whether or not we're talking about gods or God. So if you're a Hebrew, if you're a Jew, you're getting Genesis for the first time. I want you to consider what's going on when you hear, and Elohim, and in the beginning Elohim created, and then you get down to verse 26, and then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And so you kind of wonder, is this a transition for the Jew to leave their polytheistic beliefs and to hear that there's only one God? And so we kind of have to deal with that. It's not necessarily something that we can just ignore. But at the same time, Moses will go on to tell the people of Israel, he says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. OK, so we understand he will clarify that for them. But I want you to kind of have that in the back your mind when we look at a reference like what's in Genesis, because these are the people who are hearing this for the very first time. They don't know who God is. They're learning who God is. That's why he's giving them a creation account because they don't know that they were created and they need to know that. So Old Testament references to the Trinity first in the sense that there is a plural usage, like a cohesive three oneness happening at the same time in those pronouns. Now let's go to Psalm 110. Hopefully you know what's in Psalm 110. If you don't, it's okay, I'll forgive you. Psalm 110. Verse one, Psalm 110, verse one. Someone with their Bible ready to go, anyone want to read that? Go ahead, Claire. All right. So Psalm 110 is a messianic psalm. It's quoted in the book of Hebrews. But David says in verse one, the Lord, capital L-O-R-D, all uppercase, which is what name of God? You should know what actually. OK, what's the other version of it? Yahweh is the exact same as Jehovah. So Yahweh says to my L capital lowercase O.R.D. What does. L.O.R.D. What is the Hebrew word behind that one? We looked at as well. So all caps L.O.R.D. is Yahweh. What is lowercase L.O.R.D.? Anyone remember? Yes, I knew it was Lord. I did have that much down. Anyone remember? So, the New Testament, it'll get to Kurios. Old Testament, not so much. Old Testament, it's Adon, or Adonai. So, Yahweh says to Adonai, Yahweh says to my Adonai well if there's only one God now see this is and this is kind of the conflict is are we arguing from the perspective of There is, you believe in many gods and I need you to believe that there's one God. Or am I arguing from the perspective of you believe in one God and I need you to believe that there are actually this trinity of a Godhead? Do y'all understand that like how you argue this, how you discuss this, depends on what it is you're trying to convince them of. An Egyptian needs convincing that there is one God, his name is Yahweh. Okay, someone who is struggling with the concept of there being a Trinity to know God just exists in three different forms at different times, and that's how he reveals himself. Well, then they need the convincing of, okay, well, if you think there's only one member of the Godhead, well, then we need to rationalize some of these other things. That's the perspective we're looking at here. is if you say there's only one God and one person of the Godhead, because orthodox belief is that there is one God who exists eternally in three persons. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Why is he having conversations with himself in our first point of let us make man in our image or in his different titles? which we see in Psalm 110. The Lord, Yahweh, said to my Adonai, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. I will take care of this. And then if you even go down a little further, look at verse four in case you're wondering. Maybe he's just confused. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. All right, well then we automatically know Melchizedek, well we only get him twice, well three times, twice outside of this passage. Genesis 15 and then Hebrews where the author of Hebrews makes the case that Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. So if this is Jesus who is the lowercase l-o-r-d, and we can insert that up in verse 1. And we know who Yahweh is because he tells Moses who he is. So we have in verse 1, the Lord saying to Jesus, Yahweh saying to Jesus, I'm going to make your enemies your footstool. So another reference and their titles. So we have the plural usage titles and then their roles. Let's flip over a little bit to Isaiah 61. All right. Now we're looking at several different roles as far as what's going on within the Godhead. The Spirit, verse one, the Spirit of the Lord God. So there's a spirit. And there is this. There has to be a Lord God if there is a spirit of the Lord God, you'll track him. OK, is upon me. Why? Because the Lord. has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has set me up to bind the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and opening the prison to those who are bound." So you have the Spirit of the Lord God being on you, and then you also have the God who is the Lord that is doing the anointing. So let me ask you this. If you lived in the Old Testament, how difficult would it be for you to grab a hold of the concept of the Trinity? If you knew all that only the Old Testament saints knew, would you have problems believing that there is a God? Hopefully not. What about the Spirit of God? Do you think the Old Testament individuals really understood the Spirit of God completely? Blake says no. Why do you say no? Okay, so the spirit is there and he's not there. So the fact that the spirit is temporary Could cause you to question it. Okay anything else? Okay, the Holy Spirit anoints people for a specific task, can you give me an example? Okay Kings good, can you give me another example? Okay, David will be a king So I want I'm wondering from an Old Testament perspective, if all you knew was what they knew in the Old Testament. You didn't have the New Testament to go back and clarify. You only had the Old Testament. Would you have problems believing that there is a God? Probably not. OK, and then we went to the spirit of God. Blake says, yeah, kind of, because, well, he's kind of here and kind of not here. He shows up and anoints a king and then he leaves that king. So maybe it was just kind of a, maybe he's not really the spirit of God, maybe it was just a short time period of something. Okay? Anything else other than anointing kings? Okay, so you have a pillar. You have a pillar of fire by day, or filler of fire. Okay, you have fire by night, cloud by day. I'll just eliminate the word pillar altogether. All right, you have those. Can you think of any other times in which the Spirit of God Because this is kind of, at least this is how I kind of track things. Anytime you have God showing up in physical human form, for example, Joshua, before he goes in to fight the battle of Jericho, he meets the angel of the Lord of Hosts. He bows and worships him. That's Christ. It has to be Christ. It can't be an angel. Angels don't accept worship. It's not God. God's not bound by form. So anytime it shows up in human form, it's Christ. There are examples, some people would categorize like the burning bush that Moses saw, or the cloud, or the fire, that those would be theophanies. I don't necessarily think that they have to be. I'm very comfortable with it being the Spirit of God, especially considering, why are we, I'll get right, I'll come to you, Elise. Especially with the fire, the Shekinah glory that's over the temple, which is I think where one of you was suggesting with the fire thing, with the Shekinah glory that comes down over the temple to show that's God's presence. Why are we OK with that being the Holy Spirit? Fire over the temple in the Old Testament. We're OK with that being the Holy Spirit. Well, one, it's not a physical being, but why are we OK with saying it is the Spirit of God? because presence of God and fire. Any other times in which you can think of? Good. The flaming tongues. Where, Cameron? What flaming tongues? Good. Acts chapter two in the Sermon and Pentecost. OK, that you're intended You watched all those Bible project videos. You should have known that. You're intended with the the tongue of fire over the individual in Acts chapter two, you're intended to think, oh, this is the temple. So what was over the temple there, the spirit of God is now here resting on us. That's the coming of the Holy Spirit. OK, what about God having a son? Is that easy to understand in the Old Testament? No. Now, God having a Messiah, we're OK with. But did they expect that the Messiah would be God's son? Do you ever stop to think about that? That he sends only that his it makes sense for us because we're looking back on it. I don't know, Cameron, you tell me, did any prophets predict that God would send his son? Come on, Cameron. We're going to need you to hand back that diploma. All right. I heard someone say Isaiah, but OK. But what about Isaiah? 41? You're just throwing out chapters? Isaiah 56? Are you thinking 53? Alright, even looking at Isaiah 53, which is the Which speaks about Jesus being cut off out of the land of the living it talks about the chastisement of our peace being Upon him with his stripes. We are healed like yes, there's atonement But is there the concept that it is the Son of God? making the atonement See, that's what I want you guys to rack your brains around. Okay, let's talk about virgin birth. I Isaiah 9 6 and Isaiah 7 14 behold a virgin shall conceive and you shall call his name Emmanuel okay, which is God with us All right. Did you find Isaiah 9 6 and 7 14? All right, so we've got a child who's going to be God. Okay, the son given. And then in 714. Therefore, the Lord will give him a sign a virgin shall conceive and you shall call his name Immanuel. She shall bear a son and call his name Immanuel, which we understand is God with us. So you have some references to that concept, but it still would have been difficult. Because even thinking about the disciples as they're walking around with the Messiah, they're not expecting him to die. So distinctive roles. Looking at New Testament references. Well, what do we mean by that? If I can get a couple volunteers to help out with some of these verses. Why would you take Luke 3? The first one I need is 1 Corinthians 8. I'm wondering why I can't see any of my screens, and then I'm like, because I've moved them. All right, I need someone to find 1 Corinthians 8. Are you raising your hand, Abby? That'd be great. Thank you. Great. Abby, 1 Corinthians 8. Jenna, Hebrews 1. Cameron, you know where the book of Acts is. You can find Acts 5. James has Luke 3. Nathaniel's got Matthew 28, and then Zedekiah's got Romans chapter 8. The very first one, 1 Corinthians chapter 8. So in 1 Corinthians chapter 8, So these first couple references, we're looking at how each of these members of the Godhead are called God. They are given the title of God. So 1 Corinthians 8, 6, Abby. All right, so yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things and for whom we exist. There's one God and one Lord. And who's the Lord? Jesus Christ, through whom we all, whom are all things and through whom we exist. So what is he doing? He's trying to get you to understand using the words exist and saying there's one God, there's one Lord, that they are one. All right, Hebrews chapter 1, verses 8, 9, and 10. Alright, so in verse 8, "...of the Son, He says, your throne, O God." Verse 9, two more references to Him being God. And in verse 10, "...you, Lord, have laid the foundations of the earth." Acts chapter 5, Cameron. All right, so Peter calling out Ananias and Sapphira for their lie. He says, you lied to the spirit. And then he says later, you lied to God. So which one is it? Well, it's both because the Holy Spirit's God. And then we get the baptism of Christ. We looked, we talked about this already, but in Luke chapter three, twenty one and twenty two. Now, when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were open. All right, so at the baptism we see all three, we've discussed that. In our Great Commission, Matthew 28, 19. All right, in our Great Commission, we have a reference to a trinity. And all three indwell us, Romans 8. Romans chapter 8, verses 9, 10, 11. Alright, so reference to the spirit dwelling within us of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Alright, so let's wrestle through some of these difficulties. So how is Christ eternal, meaning He exists forever, yet begotten? Well, He's begotten only in His humanity. Those of you that know geometry, what's the difference between a line and a ray? Great, so a line extends forever in both directions. A ray has a definitive starting point and goes on continually in only one direction. Okay, not the boy band, not that one direction. All right, so here's how I've always kind of wrapped my brain around it is Christ in his deity is the equivalent of a line. It extends forever in both directions. Christ in his humanity had a definite beginning point. The moment at which the Holy Spirit caused Mary's egg to be fertilized, his humanity began the moment before. Then it didn't exist. You can't make it exist before it existed. So his humanity has a beginning point, but he stayed. He stayed in human form. Christ is seated. At the right hand of the father today in human form. So. Christ sonship. Christ's sonship is verified as a result of the resurrection and it is not the cause of it. So please understand that he's not the son because he resurrected from the grave. He was the son. Therefore, he rose from the grave. Does that make sense? It's not that, oh, you did this good job. You get to be my son now. OK, that's one of the incorrect views on the Trinity, is that God found some man who was doing a really good job and said, you're going to be my son now. Alright, what about the firstborn? Well, what about that word firstborn? Well, the concept of firstborn simply places emphasis on the status of the eldest and the double portion receiver Christ deserves the preferential treatment supremacy and respect from all it's not that he's literally the firstborn Cameron's the firstborn Okay, he's the oldest Derek, you're the firstborn too, right? James, you're the firstborn. Nathaniel, you're the firstborn, right? There are older ones? Oh, Naomi's the firstborn. I always forget who's older. Zach, you're the firstborn. Malachi, you're not the firstborn. Sammy's the firstborn, right? So, Sienna, does that mean she gets preferential treatment? Sometimes. Yeah, because, I mean, how often does that come up in your house? Cameron, how often do you get things because you're the oldest? Really? I don't know about that. Who got a car first? Okay, who got a cell phone first? Yeah, all right. Alex, you're an only child. Zedekai, you're the oldest. How much do you get in contrast to the others? Yeah, there are perks to being the oldest. OK, so when we say first born, like that's something you have to you have to get a hold of is it's not that he's literally like born born. It's. That he gets the privilege of the firstborn. All right, something that some people have issue with. I don't think any of you guys carry a King James Version, but the King James Version in John 3, 16 refers to Christ as God's only begotten son. Y'all know that? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Trans other translations will say like one and only son or his only son Okay, the word that's in there is monogamous. It basically means one of a kind his unique child It's the only of its kind And so that's one of the things when people are like, well, what about God saying that Jesus is his only begotten son? If he's begotten, then he's begotten. That means he was born. Well, no, he's not born. We're taking human words that we understand and we're putting them onto Christ so that we understand the reverence and the position that he gets. All right. That will be all of our time today on the Trinity.