The Doctrine of God - The Trinity

I have just finished reading this in depth book I borrowed, after my meeting with the Jehovah's Witnesses last week. It is excellent, though I did skim read some of it!

It starts with discussing the difference between the Jewish and Christian idea of God and how Jesus allows us to know God from within, on the inside, whereas the Jews had only ever known him on the outside. 'All partitions are (now) torn down, no more divisions.' Jesus' death has helped us to be risen up to God 'in the heavenly realms', able to stand in the presence of God the Father, through union with Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

What the Jehovah's Witnesses believe in is called Economic Trinitarianism which means that the Son and the Holy Spirit came out of the Father, in time, not in eternity. This separates the Bible into sections - Old Testament is the time of the Father; the Gospels are the time of the Son and after Pentecost is the time of the Holy Spirit (although the Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the time of the Holy Spirit has now ended).
The book argues that the Trinity, though not mentioned as a concept in the New Testament, has its roots in the Bible. Jesus instructs his disciples to baptise 'In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit' (Matthew 28:19). This is mirrored in his own baptism when all three are present (Father-voice; Son and Holy Spirit-dove). His disciples would have been baptising while Jesus was alive and after, before the manuscript was written, implying that it is the norm. In Acts 8 someone was only baptised in the name of the Son and this was considered inadequate, the Holy Spirit was needed too. We can fall into the trap of singling out one member of the Trinity so forgetting that they cannot be separated.

Paul refers to the Trinity (or the three persons) with varying order - another way of showing that no one particular person of the Trinity takes precidence over the other. All three have particular purposes and roles, though God cannot be divided and to say that the Holy Spirit possesses one quality that the Father or the Son do not have would be wrong. Co-inherence is the theology that all three persons occupy the same divine 'space', so to see God is to see all three at once. All three are therefore involved in the crucifixion but God is not dead - though they all suffered, it is in Christ's humanity that he dies. It was the son who offered himself as a sacrifice to the Father and it is the Holy Spirit who now makes that sacrifice effective in the life of the Christian. Jesus enables us to have a relationship with the Father so points to himself and the Father. We are therefore in the 'image of Christ' as sons and daughters of God.

In Revelation 1 the parallel between God the Father and God the Son are shown quite clearly. In verse 8, it appears God  the Father is speaking: "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." Jesus then appears to say in verse 17-18: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death." In the passages it is very unclear who is speaking, showing that Father and Son are interchangeable and reflect each other in what they say and do; they share the absolute power of God without losing their identities. The Holy Spirit makes the vision possible (verse 10) and each letter to the different churches ends with: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

This book has highlighted where I was going wrong before - in separating the persons of the Trinity to discuss who is the most important and who has final authority. It doesn't matter - the three persons can't be separated: to see one is to see them all.