[Another never digitally published article by Trott on the subject of the Trinity - ed]
That God in ONE appears to manifest from every page of God's revelation, but I shall hear content myself with quoting some of those texts in which he has more positively taught that he is to be acknowledged and worshipped as one and only as one God. The first command in the decalog is in point, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” Exodus 20.3. Thus Moses on another occasion; “here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” Deuteronomy 6.4. Here God also by the prophet saying, “Is there a God besides me? Yeah, there is no God, I know not any,” Isaiah 44.8. Again, “for I am God and there is none else”. Isaiah 46.9, he says: “For I am God and there is none else; I am god and there is none like me.”
When we pass through the New Testament, we find Jesus teaching the same thing as taught by Moses, with his declaration prefixed that it is the first of all the commandments, “and Jesus answered him, the first of all the commandments is, here, O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord.” Mark 12.29. Paul's testimony is, 1st Corinthians 8.6: “But to us, there is but one God.”
Here in conclusion of my proofs on the point of God's unity, I would remark that although the doctrine of God's existence as three is, as I shall show, fully revealed in the scriptures, there is nothing like the positive declarations which we find on this point, found on the other. Surely asked a master says, the first of all the commandments is this; so it is carried out through, the law, the prophets, and the New Testament. And certainly, it cannot be without special design. What then are we to learn from it but this, that the point of the first importance in the doctrine of God is his unity? Hence the system that implies directly or indirectly God's existence as three beings or gods, or parts of god, is a greater departure from the scriptural doctrine of God than is that which obscures or denies his essential existence as three in one.
That God exists in a plurality, and that this plurality is limited to three, I will now show from several texts of scripture.
1st. That he has revealed himself in plurality. The first name by which God declared himself (as in Genesis 1.1, “in the beginning God created,” as in the original plural, Elohim, But in this, as in most instances, it is connected with a verb singular, though there are exceptions to this, thus showing the display orality exists in unity. In verse 26 of this same chapter, God says, “Let us make man in our image after our likeness;” in verse 27, it is said, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.” Thus we have God again presented to view both in plurality and in unity. In Genesis 3.22, “the Lord God said, behold man has become as one of us.” In Genesis 11.7, God says: “Go to let us go down and there confound their language.” Isaiah says in chapter 6.8, “Also I heard the voice of the Lord God saying whom shall I send and who shall go for us.” Unity and plurality again united. In Daniel 4.17, we read, that this matter is the decree of the watchers and the demand by the word of the holy ones. These watchers cannot be angels, for it is not for them to decree concerning the affairs of kings and men. Christ in the figure of wisdom says, “By me Kings reign,” Proverbs 8.15. Here Daniel also further in the same verse, “to the intent that the living may know that the most high rules in the Kingdom of men.”
2nd. I will now show this plainly to be declared in the scriptures to be three. In Isaiah 4.8, we hear him who is in verses 12 and 13 say, “I am he, I am the first, I am also the last. My hand also laid the foundations of the earth,” in verse 16, saying, “Come you near to me, hear you this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I; and now the Lord God and his Spirit has sent me.” Who can this be that declares all these things of himself, but he whom he declares himself to be, in verse 17, the Lord your Redeemer, the holy one of Israel, the lord your god? And yet this glorious One says, “Now the Lord God and his Spirit has sent me.” Here then are the three clearly brought to view acting as distinct pairs and accomplishing the work of redemption. The Lord God, the Father, and his Spirit, the Holy Ghost, as uniting in sending the Redeemer; and the Lord your Redeemer, as being sent, and who in equality with the Father declares, I am the Lord your God, which teaches. Passing on to the New Testament, at the baptism of Jesus, the savior, we have the same Three present it to view as sustaining their respective stations in a great plan of redemption.
We see him, who was made of a woman, and made under the law, to redeem, and who therefore was THE LORD THY REDEEMER, being baptized; and the Spirit, whose office it is to testify of Christ (John 15.26) so designating, a visible appearance, Jesus, as the Messiah, that John could unhesitatingly bear witness of him as being the Son of God, (see John 1.33-34.) “And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him,” and also the Father was manifest as approving of the work the Son was engaging in, “and, lo, a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved it Son in whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3.16-17.
Again the Three are declared as equal in authority, and equally objects of the believer’s trust, in the instituted form of baptism. Baptizing them in the name, not names, of the Father, etcetera, Matthew 28.19. They are also revealed as being equal objects of worship, and the source of blessing; in the form of blessing, 2nd Corinthians 13.14. Again the three are declared as sustaining their several stations in the plan of salvation, in Ephesians 2.18; In effect, in 2nd Thessalonians 1.13; and fully in First Peter 1.2. “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.”
And in the text which has been so often referred to in this controversy, first John 5.7. Three 3 are declared by distinct names, and as bearing separate testimony in heaven, not that they bear one testimony; But there are three that bear record, it is, therefore, a threefold testimony, though the three are declared to be one. There are many other texts in which each of the three is declared by one or other of his peculiar names, and as sustaining his peculiar relation and performing his peculiar part in the plan of salvation; and there are other texts also in which the three are presented to view at once, each at the same time sustaining a distinct relation as in John 14.26, “but the comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the father will send in my name, etcetera,” says Christ to his disciples. So that the three must be something more than merely three names or three manifestations which he has made of himself. God must be so 3 that he can be distinctly manifested as, Father, Son, and Spirit, in the peculiar relations and stations of each, in the plan of salvation, at the same time. See also, John 15.26, where the order is somewhat reversed.
I now passed a show from the scriptures, that while, as has been shown, god has so revealed himself as three, as that he is manifested as sustaining three distinct relations, at the same time, that on the other hand, he is so revealed to be one, that when spoken of as God, even in reference to the distinct relations he sustained as three, he speaks and is spoken of as absolutely god, as the one lord god, as he whose name alone is Jehovah. I here declare, and who will make me a liar, on this point that God is nowhere spoken of in scriptures in a way to justify expressions like this, God in the first person, God in the second person, or God in the person of the father, God in the person of the son, or that which such expressions imply. Got in the 1st order of revelation and God in the 2nd order of relation etcetera. Expressions calculated to present God to view thus in different grades are evidently the offerings of an overheated zeal to support a system.
And as God said to Job, the soul may be said to such zealots: “Who is this that darkens counsel with words without knowledge?” I shall on this head confine myself in proofs to show that the father, son, and Holy Ghost, each in his distinct relation is declared absolutely and equally as God, the one God. Referring to the text before quoted, 1st Corinthians 8.6, Paul says: “But that's to us there is but one God, the father.” (See the whole text) but Thomas addressed Christ as his Lord and his God, and no doubt Thomas had then true faith in exercise, John 20.28. And Paul says of Christ: “Who is overall God blessed forever, amen.” If Christ is overall God blessed, then he must be the most high God. And therefore the only God.
When we look into the Old Testament, we find many instances in which God is declared by one or another of his names, as, God almighty, Lord, or Jehovah, in which it might be presuming in us to undertake to decide whether it is the father, as the son, or as the Holy Spirit, he is therein declared. It is evidently enough for us in such cases, to know it is God, our God, the God of the scriptures who is revealed as Darren speaking or acting. In other instances by a reference to the clearer light of the New Testament, we may clearly discover, whether as Father, or as Son, or as Holy Ghost, it is God that speaks or is declared. Thus we know from the New Testament that Christ is the Lord that has shown us light, for he came a light unto the world, and this is the true light. We are told, Psalm 118.27, that, “god is the lord with which has shown us light.” God then is Christ. And so John bears testimony, John 1.1-4. We know from the New Testament that Christ Jesus is the only savior, “neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven, given among men whereby we must be saved,” Acts 4.12. We know also that we have redemption through his blood, (Ephesians 1.7; Colossians 1.14) and therefore that he is the Redeemer of Israel. And the disciples were not deceived when they trusted that Jesus of Nazareth had been he which should have redeemed Israel, Luke 24.19-23.
But on turning to Isaiah 47.4, we read: “As for our Redeemer the Lord of hosts (Jehovah Sabbath in the original” is his name, the holy one of Israel” hence the name Jehovah Sabbath, or Lord of hosts is here clearly given to the Redeemer as such. “He whose name is Jehovah is the most high over all the earth.” Psalm 83.18. Is not then Christ in his distinct relation as Redeemer, the most high and he whose name alone is Jehovah, and therefore distinctly the one Lord God? As to the name holy one of Israel, it as peculiarly belongs to Christ as the Messiah, as does the name Redeemer, and so I understand it was ever found. All the holiness of national Israel, and up there multiplied rites, was centered in Christ, as he was shadowed forth in them.
All the holiness of spiritual Israel is found in him, as made unto them sanctification our holiness, 1st Corinthians 1.30. That the Father also in his distinct relation, as calling Christ, upholding him, giving him for a covenant of the people, is he whose name alone is Jehovah, I will now show from one text. After declaring himself as he that created the heavens, and then saying to him whose office is to be a light to the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners, I the Lord (Jehovah) have called you. He then goes on to say, "I am the Lord (Jehovah) that is my name, and my glory I will not give to another nor my praise to graven images,” Isaiah 42.5-8.
Now looking to Isaiah chapter 43, we shall see that he who addresses Israel and says you are mine, I have redeemed you, I have called you, by the name, and repeatedly in the same connection declares himself their savior, their holy one, their king, (see verses 3-15) As confidently and absolutely declares, as did the father in the preceding chapter, that he is the Jehovah. He says in verse 3: “I am the Lord your God,” and in verse 11: “I am the Lord and besides me there is no savior.” In both of these instances, instead of Lord, it is in the original, Jehovah. And in verse 12, he says to his Israel, “Therefore you are my witnesses said the Lord that I am God.” And will not his people with Thomas bear witness, that he is the Lord their God? And can any doubt from these scriptures, as dust compared, that the father and the son while distinct, as manifested in their separate relations in the economy of salvation, are each absolutely the one Jehovah, the one self-existent independent God in all his divine attributes? It will be discovered by those who examine the scriptures, that I have selected but few among the many proofs in point.
As to the holy ghosts being in his distinct relation absolutely God, we have also proof in point. Thus by comparing the second Peter 1.21; with the second Timothy 316; and Acts chapter 5 verse 3 with verse 4, we shall find that he who in one instance in each couple is said to be the Holy Ghost is in the parallel text declared absolutely to be God. Christ informs us, John 6.63, that it is the Spirit that quickens, yet Paul tells the Ephesian brethren, that, “God who is rich in mercy, has quickened us together with Christ.” Ephesians 2.4-5. Hence in the Spirit, is God who is rich in mercy. In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established, we are told. Hence the above establishes the fact that the Holy Ghost is God, the one God. I would suggest for the consideration of brethren, whether from the declaration of Peter, “for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of men, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost,” (second Peter 1.21) we are not authorized to understand, when the prophets speak of God's speaking to them, that the Holy Ghost, in his distinct office, is intended?
Thus when Isaiah says, “the Lord spoke to me with a strong hand and instructed me,” are we not to understand that the Holy Ghost was he who thus spoke to him with a strong hand, or in him, as he speaks to the saints in these days and instructs them? For I presume God spoke not audibly to the prophets. And whether, among many other texts, we are to understand, in the text Amos 6.8, which is rather a remarkable one, the Lord, the God of hosts, which said, the Lord God has sworn by himself, is the Holy Ghost in his distinct office.
What, then, is the sum of this scripture testimony, concerning God as being one and three? It is, as I receive it, this:
1st. That the Lord our God is one Lord, one Jehovah, and that besides him we are to have no other as the object of our worship and trust.
2nd. That this one Jehovah, exists as three, and so exists as three, that in all his divine majesty and perfection he as the father remains the invisible God seated on his throne, rolling on the eternal purpose, maintaining the honor of his throne, demanding and accepting satisfaction for his transgressed law. At the same time as the Son, be appointed heir of all things, be made a high priest, offer himself in sacrifice, and having purged away the sins of his people, enter into glory as their intercessor and forerunner. And, also at the same time, the Holy Ghost is that distinct witness, through the apostles and in the hearts of God's children, of the completion and perfection of the work of Christ, and of the acceptance of his offering and intercession for his people, by the father.
And 3rd. That while he is thus three, these three are so absolutely one, that each is the one Jehovah, acting in his distinct relation, in all the fullness of the Godhead; so that whether it is the father, predestinating, and loving; the Son, redeeming, interceding and governing, or the Holy Ghost, quickening, comforting and guiding, whatever part or point of the believer salvation we contemplate, we are constrained to say it is God's act, and God's perfection is in it.
Should I be asked what I mean by God's existence as three, I answer, that my meaning is that he is absolutely eternally, and essentially exists as three, as he exists as God. I feel authorized so to understand it, first; from this consideration, God has manifested himself in the scriptures as I three and I cannot conceive That in making a revelation of himself, he would declare himself as existing as three and one; so I must believe he eternally existed, as essentially three as one. Secondly, I am confirming this, by his declaring himself to be, I AM THAT I AM, not I am. What I Am what I eternally was not. Exists as one, or how he exists as three, he has not told me. I can no more comprehend how he eternally exists of himself, than I can how he exists as three or as three and one. It is enough for me to know that he so exists, and therefore that every part of salvation is his work, and bears his mark of perfection. But I will add, that I can no more believe that God is in order to exist as three, under the necessity of begetting and breathing himself into existence as such, than I can, that he begat or breathed his essence into being.
Again, should I be asked, are the three, three persons? I answer not in any proper sense and I think using the word in an indefinite and improper sense, tends to confuse and darken counsel. An undefined term can be of no use, it may hurt.
I am authorized to speak of the Father as a person, not only because he is God, but also because as God, the scriptures speak of his person, in Hebrews 1.3, the sun is said to be the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person. But I understand the term person here, not to have reference to the father in his distinct revelation, as such in the godhead, as the attachment to a system has led some to represent it; but to him as the invisible God, it being evidently a parallel passage with Colossians 1.15, where Christ is said to be the image of the invisible God. I am also authorized to speak of the sun as a person because he is God, and also because he stands in personal relation to his church as her husband, head, and king. And in Speaking of him as a person, I am led to contemplate him as having some things peculiar embraced in his person, which do not belong to the Father or Holy Spirit as such. For he is revealed as God and man, and having in him that life which is the light of men, all in one person.
In like manner the Holy Ghost is declared to be God and as exercising the attributes of a person as in First Corinthians 12.11, “but all these work that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.” That is, I am authorized to speak of each, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, individually as manifested, and as acting, as God and therefore as a person. But I am thereby no more warranted to say that they are three persons, than I am, to say that they are three gods. That I may not however appear to make a greater difference, than what really exists, between what I understand to be the scriptural view of this subject, and the system of men, I will add further, that what many mean by the terms three persons, that the relations and distinctions, which the father, the word, and the Holy Ghost sustain each toward the other, are of a personal nature, I believe to be a scriptural idea, revealed by that use of the personal pronouns distinctly applied to each, and in other scriptural declarations. For this, I contend in opposition to the notion that there are only three offices or manifestations of God. And when persons in using these terms, are careful to explain that they do not use them in the full import of the terms I do not feel so much opposition to their using them, though for reasons before a sign, I do not use them. But when without any reserve or explanation persons say absolutely that there are three persons in the Godhead, or like elder Osbourn or others assumed to prescribe to us that we must conform to them in the use of these terms, or be denounced as heretics, I certainly shall resist it, as being, so far as it goes, the very spirit of popery; the terms not being sanctioned by scripture authority.
I now appeal to my brethren, does not the revelation which infinite wisdom and love has given us of God in the scriptures, possess in and of itself a God-like glory, beauty, simplicity, and adaptation to our cases, which the explanations and sophistry of the schools with their undefined, but consecrated forms of expression only tend to mar and confuse? Such as they're explaining God's existence as three, by their first, second, and third persons, one beginning, another begotten, and the other breathed forth, and the godhead of the sun as begotten thus, that he is very God a very God, begotten not created, begotten unbegotten. Whoever may undertake to study the systems of men on this subject, with the idea of comprehending the being of god within a human system, will find such study producing a very different feeling from a suitable reverence of the greatness of God, they will find it to be learning to their own understandings and producing disappointed feelings, at the incapacity of their reasoning powers to grasp and arrange the subject without confusion, any consequent bitterness of feeling, toward those who discover the weakness of their system and reject it.
On the other hand, when we go as little children, to the scriptures to receive the revelation that God has been pleased to give of himself and to receive it just as he has given it, we are filled with reverence and awe at the greatness, the glorious majesty, and incomprehensibility of him whom the sun has declared; and our humble before him under a sense of how little we know or can know of God. Should reason under these circumstances attempt to approach the subject, she is confounded at once, driven back abashed, and gives place to faith whose province alone is to apprehend the revelation of God. And she as she takes hold of this subject, is still knowing that it is the being of God, she is embracing in her arms, the great I AM THAT I AM. Yet faith apprehends all in the revelation, that we need to know, to inspire us with fear, reverence, and love of god; with unreserved and childlike trust and confidence in him, and with boldness of approach to him, and pleading with him in all our straits.
This revelation corresponds with our experience. Our experience taught us nothing of first, second, and third persons in God, of the eternal generation of a begotten breathed forth God; not of the pre-existent soul of Christ. But when our hearts were open to understanding the law, we felt that it was the law of God our creator which we had transgressed that against him and him only we had sinned. When the plan of salvation was revealed to our souls, it appeared all of God; God in the riches of his love, and in his wisdom and power to save, was manifested to us; And with confidence, we trusted in his salvation. In our after-the experience, when a promise has been peculiarly applied to our case or scripture has been opened by the Holy Ghost to our understanding, we have been ready to say with Isaiah, “The Lord spoke to me with a strong hand and instructed me,” Isaiah 8.11.
There remains one point more to be shown, that I understand to be the scriptural doctrine concerning the sonship of Christ, that brethren may know the whole amount of error, which it has been insinuated that myself, and perhaps, brother Beebe and others hold.
S. Trott
Centerville, Fairfax County Virginia, July 28, 1840
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