The Trinity
The biblical doctrine of the Trinity is the most important and also one of the least appreciated of all the doctrines of the Bible. Though most believers understand that this doctrine separates Christianity from all heathen religions and from the sects, they do not see its value. It seems to them to have little connection with their life or their assurance.
We wish especially to show in this and the following articles that the doctrine of the Trinity is of the greatest possible value to believers. To know the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is to know God. To know God is life eternal (John 17:3)!
Before we talk about the ways in which this doctrine is valuable, however, let us make sure we understand the doctrine. Let us understand first that believing in the Trinity is not “tritheism,” i.e., belief in three gods. Sects like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and false religions like Islam say that we believe in three Gods. They are wrong. We believe that the Lord our God is one Lord (Deut. 6:4). The word “Trinity” emphasizes this. The word means “tri-Unity.”
Following the teaching of Scripture, we also believe that in God there are three persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Moreover, they are real persons—distinct and individual personalities with different names. Their very names—Father, Son and Spirit—reflect their personal characteristics.
Many who claim to believe in the Trinity actually deny that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are persons. Some, for example, speak of the Holy Spirit, not as a person, but merely as a power that can be manipulated and used by men. Others teach a “oneness” doctrine that sounds very biblical but is really a denial of the Trinity. “Oneness” doctrine teaches that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are only different offices or names, or ways in which the one God reveals Himself. They do not refer to three persons. This teaching was also found and condemned in the earliest history of the church. Then it was called “Monarchianism” or “Sabellianism.”
In contrast, the Bible ascribes to the Son, to the Holy Spirit and to the Father all the characteristics of real persons, while emphasizing that they are all one God. They are not mere names or powers or works of God.
If they are not real persons, then all that we believe about Jesus Christ is worthless and we have no person in the Trinity to make redemption for us and to represent us before the Father. Nor then do we have the person of the Holy Spirit to live in our hearts and to bring us into a real, personal relationship with God. Our confession of the Trinity, therefore, is the confession of Psalm 48:14: “This God is our God … he will be our guide, even unto death.” Rev. Hanko
The Lord Creates Evil (2)
“Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?” (Amos 3:6).
“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things” (Isa. 45:7).
In the last article of the News we began our discussion of these verses. We pointed out that they are strong statements against all forms of dualism which teach that there are two independent powers in the world, one power of good who is God, and another power of evil. Scripture teaches that God alone is God, who is the sovereign and all-powerful God.
We saw that the passage in Amos, and also the passage in Isaiah, teaches that the evil happenings in this world—war and destruction, pain and suffering, drought and floods—are all sent by God and are under His sovereign control. Historically, these passages refer to the calamities that came upon the nations of Israel and Judah. God does these things.
We cannot refrain from quoting one additional passage in Scripture which settles this matter. When Job was robbed of all his possessions and children by the Sabeans, Chaldeans and the whirlwind, what did Job say? Did he curse these terrible marauding bands of thieves? No! He said, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).
It is interesting to note in this connection that Satan, who was behind all this, could do nothing without God’s will (Job 1:6-12, 2:1-6).
While this is indeed the teaching of these passages (and many others in Scripture) the passage in Isaiah means more than what we have said. It refers not only to the evils of suffering in the world; it refers also to moral evil—to sin. It teaches that God is also sovereign over sin!
It is true that not all commentators are agreed on the question. John Calvin, e.g., says that the passage in Isaiah refers only to “adverse events.” He writes: “He [Isaiah] contrasts ‘peace’, not only with war, but with adverse events of every sort … He contrasts ‘peace’ with ‘evil,’ that is, with afflictions, wars, and other adverse occurrences. If he contrasted ‘righteousness’ with ‘evil,’ there would be some plausibility in [these] reasonings, but this is a manifest contrast of things that are opposite to each other. Consequently, we ought not to reject the ordinary distinction …”
But the late Edward J. Young, noted Old Testament scholar, does not agree. He writes: “There is no reason why the word is not to be taken in an all-inclusive sense … In the very context, then, we are compelled to admit that the word includes all evil, moral as well as calamities.” We agree with Dr. Young.
To exclude moral evil from the passage in Isaiah is still to fall into the error of dualism. If God is not sovereign over moral evil, i.e., sin, sin still exists as an independent power alongside of God and over which He has no control. Then, too, God is no longer the absolutely sovereign one.
That this is the clear teaching of Scripture in other places is evident.
Because the question is such an important one, we shall take the time to point to some of these other Scriptures to see what they have to say on the question.
The Old Testament Scriptures are especially strong on the question. When David was fleeing from Absalom his son who attempted to seize the throne, David was cursed by Shimei. Abishai, David’s general, wanted to go and cut off Shimei’s head. But David refused to give permission. He said: “What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? so let him curse, because the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David. Who shall then say, Wherefore hast thou done so?” (II Sam. 16:5-10).
David recognized that all these terrible events were God’s chastisement. God had told him that “the sword shall never depart from thine house” because of David’s sin of adultery and murder (II Sam. 12:10). David recognized that this was God’s sword in his house, and David humbled himself beneath the hand of his God.
Did this mean that Shimei was not responsible for his sin in cursing David? It most emphatically did not! David himself held Shimei accountable when he returned to the throne after the defeat of Absalom, and instructed Solomon to punish Shimei (I Kings 2:8-9).
But the text clearly teaches that David recognized God’s sovereignty over Shimei’s sin. Prof. Hanko
What Happens to the Unevangelized?
One of our readers submitted the question in the title. It is an important question that must be answered both in light of what Scripture says about the sovereignty of God in salvation and about the preaching of the gospel.
In answering this question, we must be careful to understand it. The question is not really whether God can save men without their hearing the preaching of the gospel. We would not dare to limit God and say He cannot save anyone without preaching. But that is really not the question. The question is: “What does He do? How does He ordinarily save men?” Then the answer of Scripture is plain. He saves them through the preaching of the gospel. From what Scripture reveals, therefore, we must answer this question by saying that the unevangelized perish.
If there is any exception to this it concerns the elect children of believing parents who die in infancy, and perhaps a few others among God’s covenant people who are “incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the word.” There is no example in Scripture of anyone outside God’s covenant people being saved in any other way than through the preaching of the word.
That is the rule by which we must live. Not the exception, but the ordinary work of God must govern our lives.
It is the same in our everyday life. Though it is possible for God to sustain life without food and water, and though there are special instances in Scripture where He does, these are not the rule for us, and a person would be a fool to say, “God can keep me and my family alive without food and drink. We’re not going to eat any more.” The rule by which we live is that a person who does not eat starves.
The preaching of the word is the food of our souls (I Pet. 2:2), and those who do not eat starve spiritually. We would, therefore, be spiritual fools to take ourselves or our families away from it. What is more, we would be tempting God who has appointed it the means of grace and salvation.
For the same reason we cannot say, “If God wants to save the heathen, He can and will save them,” and neglect the work of missions. If gospel preaching is the means of salvation, we must fulfil our calling to preach it to the utmost of our power.
This answer is especially important today when so many misunderstand the nature of gospel preaching. Most today have the idea that the preaching is merely a matter of God “offering salvation” to men and “giving them the opportunity” to be saved. Scripture has a wholly different view of the preaching of the gospel. It is Christ Himself speaking to His people (John 10:2-5, 16, 27-28; Rom. 10:13-17). And because it is Christ speaking, it is also the “power of God unto salvation,” (Rom. 1:16; I Cor. 1:18, 24). Thus, we sometimes call preaching “the means of grace.” It is that which God uses to give grace to His people and to save them.
The sovereignty of God also bears on this matter. To believe that many die without hearing the preaching of the gospel and therefore perish, one must believe that it is God who determines whether someone will be saved. Salvation is not according to the will of man but according to the will and good pleasure of God in predestination. Believing this, we understand why God does not even send the means of salvation to some (Acts 16:6-7), and bow before His sovereign will. Rev. Hanko
