The Trinity

As a doctrine and a liturgical formula, the Trinity is not developed in the Bible, nor are the distinctions between the three "persons" always clearly articulated. Nevertheless, the concept of God as Father, Son, and Spirit is present. The stress in Scripture is always on the unity of God. The Father and the Son are one (John 10:30; 17:21); they glorify one another (John 17:1). The Father and the Spirit are one, for the Spirit "searches all things, even the deep things of God, " and knows his inward being (1 Cor. 2:10). The Son and the Spirit are one, since the Father sends the Spirit in the Son's "name" (John 14:26). The Word and the Spirit are one. When the psalmist declares, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth" (Ps. 33:6), the principle of poetic parallelism suggests that the word of God and the Spirit (ru, "breath") of God are the same. Similarly in the New Testament, a comparison of the parallel passages, Ephesians 5:18-20…