Unitarians often perpetuate confusion as to Personhood of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of the Trinity. Dr. Dale Tuggy, for example, writes: "In standard formulations of Trinitarian theology nowadays, one says that there is (only) one God 'in three Persons.' But what does this mean? We can ask about how these 'Persons' relate individually or collectively to the one God. How exactly are they 'in' Him?" How are Three Persons "in" the One "Him"? The question itself is confused. He turned the phrase "one God in three Persons" into "three Persons in Him" (God). God "in three Persons" is not tantamount to saying that there are three Persons "in" Him. Who is "Him"? We use male pronouns for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. If we speak of the Father we say "Him"; if we speak of the Son we say "Him"; and if we speak of the Holy Spirit we say "Him." So who is the referrent of "Him" that Dr. Tuggy asks "How exactly are they 'in' Him?" He confused the language.
Biblical Christians worship one God in Three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father is neither the Son nor the Spirit; the Son is neither the Father nor the Spirit; and the Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son. There is one God in Three distinct, co-equal, co-divine and co-eternal Persons. So when Dr. Tuggy asks "How exactly are [the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit] 'in' Him?" he is confusing the language regarding the Trinity. I hope the confusion is not deliberate. The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are not "in" Him--not "in" Anyone. There is one God in Three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If the preposition "in" is confusing him then we can say that God is manifest as three distinct, co-equal, co-divine and co-eternal Persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each one is a distinct Person, each one existing from eternity past, each One co-divine--a shared existence. One God, Three Persons, not One Person and not Three Gods.
Dr. Tuggy adds: "But more fundamentally, what is meant by 'Person' here? Some trinitarians will tell you that the answer is, basically: nothing." Nothing? Who is he reading that answers, basically, nothing? For evidence he quotes St Augustine: So the only reason why we
DR. TUGGY'S CONFUSION
He states above: "We can ask about how these 'Persons' relate individually or collectively to the one God. How exactly are they 'in' him?" (emphasis added). Three (III) Persons to the One (I) God: III→I. Is Tuggy suggesting that we believe Three Persons relate to the One God--which would really make Four: God + Father + Son + Holy Spirit? I wish he were not serious but this is how he is reasoning the topic.
Here he presents nonsense and utter confusion--as is his practice. The three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, do not "relate individually to the one God," but relate personally and individually to each other within the community of One God; nor are the three Persons "in" God, as he frames the matter and the confused use of the word "in," but each Person relates to the other, as one who possesses personhood relates to another who possesses personhood. The Father relates to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; and the Son relates to the Father and to the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit relates to the Father and to the Son. These Three Persons are One God. If he is confused by his own perception of the word "in" then he needs to study the doctrine more closely. To suggest that there is one God "in three Persons" is not tantamount to suggesting there are three Persons "in" God--as though three Persons relate to one God ("God" perhaps referring to the Father or to "God" conceived in some other manner in his mind). Trinitarians do not promote such nonsense. His arguments here are, simply, ludicrous.
This matter of three Persons relating the one to the other within the Godhead is elementary and I wonder how Dr. Tuggy devotes scholarship to this subject and not only misunderstands but also misrepresents the core of Trinitarian doctrine. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are God; not three gods, but one God, God in three Persons; not three Persons "in" God (the Father?), but one God in three Persons. Dr. Tuggy contorts Trinitarian language to his advantage, confusing readers, and perceives himself as winning his strawman arguments. But his most evident misunderstanding and confusion, again from my perspective, relates to the issue of personhood--what makes for an individual person.
PERSONHOOD
Dr. Tuggy pontificates: "In English nowadays, 'person' often means human being." Popular conception about personhood does not establish definition, philosophical parameter, or context. Personhood can be attributed to angels, demons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit within the Godhead, as well as to human beings. He rightly frames personhood as consciousness, but fails to mention self-consciousness, as he writes: "But even worms, probably, are conscious." Worms, however, are neither self-conscious nor are they endowed with certain qualities of a mental capacity--reason, will, purpose, motive--that attribute to an entity as being a person. We cannot attribute personhood to worms. He most likely knows this but he conveniently frames his arguments in his favor and passes this off as scholarship against Trinitarianism.
THE SELF--NOT THE PERSON
Dr. Tuggy prefers the word "self" to "person." He argues: "Because in Trinitarian theology theorists are wont [in the habit] to insist on some special meaning for 'Person,' I have labeled this universal concept as the concept of a 'self'" (emphasis added). Is this true? Are we really accustomed to insisting on "some special meaning" for the concept of Person? He makes Trinitarians appear guilty of special pleading. Is our concept of "person" different than the perceived normal rendering of the word in general English lexicons? Let the following answer:
UNITARIANISM AND TRINITARIANISM
The authors of Scripture structure the Personhood of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, attributing Godhood to each while distinguishing the Personhood of each individual Member in relation to the other Members. The Personhood and divinity of the Father is assumed throughout the Bible. Unitarians allege that the Father is God, He is the only Person (or Self or Individual) that we name God, and no other Person is thusly named, given that there is no Godhead Trinity, i.e., no other members or persons or selves attributing to the divinity we call God. There is, for such Unitarian advocates, only one God and only one Person we name God and this one God is God the Father.
The Son Jesus, then, cannot be God in the Unitarian and Modalist heresy (and, for Modalists, God the Father merely poses as the Son). The Holy Spirit cannot be God (and, for Modalists, God the Father merely poses as the Holy Spirit; or God simply is the Holy Spirit--the Holy Spirit is simply another name for God the Father, cf. John 4:24). To God the Father we all instinctively attribute deity and divinity (except for heretics like the late John Shelby Spong). Why, then, is Jesus distinctively referred to as God (John 1:1)? Why, also, is the Holy Spirit distinctively referred to as God (Acts 5:3, 4, 9)? If there is only one God (Deut. 6:4; Mark 12:29; Rom. 3:30; 1 Cor. 8:4, 6; 12:13; Gal. 3:20; 1 Tim. 2:5; James 2:19) then all three Persons are one God--yet one God manifested in three equally-divine Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
ONENESS PENTECOSTALISM AND TRINITARIANISM
Jesus-Only Pentecostals maintain that Jesus is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Trinitarians hold the traditional view of the Church, the traditional biblical view, that the Being we name God is the Father, is Jesus the Son, and is the Holy Spirit--three separate, co-equal, co-eternal divine Persons that simply are One God: One God in Three Persons. The Father is neither the Son nor the Spirit; the Son is neither the Father nor the Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son. God is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit and each Individual / Self / Person is equally divine to the other Persons in the Godhead. (See "Conclusion: How are Three One?" below.)
THE PERSONHOOD OF THE GODHEAD: JESUS
We find divine names of Deity applied to God the Son, Son of God, Christ the King, or the Messiah, who is His own distinct Person, just as we do to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit (cf. Ex. 3:14, 15 with John 8:56, 58; Ps. 110:1; Isa. 9:6; Jer. 23:5, 6; Joel 2:32; Matt. 1:21; 22:43, 44, 45; Luke 2:11; Acts 2:21, 34, 35, 36, 37; 9:17; 16:31; Rom. 10:9, 13; 1 Cor. 12:3; Phil. 2:11; Heb. 1:1, 2; 1 Pet. 1:7, 8; 5:15; Rev. 1:7, 8, 11; 22:13, 16, 17, 18; 19:13); divine works are attributed to Jesus (cf. Matt. 19:28; John 1:1, 2, 3; 5:28, 29, 36; 10:28, 37; 11:25; 14:11; 17:2; Acts 5:31; Phil. 3:21; Col. 1:16, 17; 3:13; Heb. 1:3, 10; Rev. 21:5). He never refutes or denies the deific attributes or titles. He proclaims Himself to being the I Am (John 8:24, 28, 58), "I Am" being the Name of God (Ex. 3:14)--Yahweh, the tetragrammaton or four-lettered Name of God, YHWH--insisting that God His Father gave Him that Name (John 17:6, 11, 12) for the glory of God (Phil. 2:10, 11), and that any who deny Him the Name will not be saved (John 8:24). Trinitarianism is the truth of God's nature that we must believe in order to be saved (John 8:24, 28, 58).
Divine worship is also given to Jesus as Deity, as God, and the authors of the scriptures note that He is worthy of such divine adoration (cf. Isa. 6:1-5; Matt. 8:2; 15:25, 26, 27, 28; 28:17; Luke 24:51, 52; John 5:23; 9:38; Acts 1:24; 7:59, 60; 1 Cor. 1:2; Phil. 2:9, 10, 11; 1 Thess. 3:11; Heb. 1:6; Rev. 5:12, 13, 14); to which divinity and deity Jesus Himself admits (cf. Matt. 10:37, 38; 12:48; Luke 14:26; John 5:23, 25; 8:56, 57, 58; 10:30, 38; 11:4; 14:10; 18:1-5); which otherwise, meaning, if He were not deity, not God the Son, would have been overt blasphemy, and deserving of stoning, rejection, and crucifixion. He did not deny the worship. The Jewish Leaders knew this all too well (John 10:30, 31, 33). Jesus equates Himself with the eternally divine God of Israel, YHWH, as Jesus is also the Rock of Israel in the Wilderness Wanderings (1 Cor. 10:1, 2, 3, 4).
THE PERSONHOOD OF THE GODHEAD: THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Holy Spirit is both a divine Person (an Individual and a Self) and holy Deity, God, since both attributes are revealed thusly in Scripture: maintaining Personhood (cf. John 14:15, 16, 26; 15:26, 27; 16:7-14; Acts 6:9; 7:51; 13:2; Rom. 8:26, 27; 15:30; 1 Cor. 2:10, 11, 12, 13; 12:11; Eph. 4:30; Col. 1:8; 1 Thess. 5:19; 1 Tim. 4:1; Heb. 10:29; Rev. 2:7), attributes of God (cf. Gen. 1:1, 2; Job 26:13; 33:14; Ps. 104:30; 139:7, 8, 9, 10; Luke 1:35; John 3:3, 5; 14:26; 16:13; Rom. 1:4; 8:2, 11; 15:30; 1 Cor. 2:10; 3:16; 12:4-6; Eph. 4:30; 2 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 9:14; 2 Pet. 1:21), and mentioned in unity with the Father and the Son (cf. Isa. 48:12, 16; Matt. 3:16, 17; 28:19; Luke 3:21, 22; John 1:33; Acts 2:33; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 2:18; 1 John 5:7, 8). We are convinced of the church-historical view that non-Trinitarian philosophy is damnably heretical (John 8:24, 28, 58), its advocates are in damnable error (they will enter an eternal Hell), and the errors are to be exposed, challenged, and utterly rejected by biblical Christians.
CONCLUSION: HOW ARE THREE ONE?
The Unitarian asks how the three Persons of the Godhead can be one God. I think the answer is quite simple. One does not add three members of the Godhead, 1 + 1 + 1 = 1, and insist that there is only One God. One properly multiplies the three members of the Godhead, 1 x 1 x 1 = 1, and concludes that the three equally-divine Persons / Individuals / Selves are one compound unity. But allow me to support my answer with uncontested biblical evidence by asking a question. "For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh" (Gen. 2:24 NASB). How do two separate individuals, persons, selves become "one"?
Do they become one person, one individual, one self? No. The two individuals remain individuals, selves, persons. But the two become a compound unity in spirit (cf. 1 Cor. 6:15, 16, 17). The same is true for the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All three equally divine Persons are unified with one mind / intent / motive / will / purpose--always, from eternity past, now and to eternity future. The three Persons are one compound unity: what one Person thinks so do the other two Persons. They live and move and have their being as one. They are truly three divine Persons, Selves, Individuals but they are One God--One in mind, intent, will. No other group of beings in existence maintains this unique compound unity. There are not Three Persons who relate to the One God. The Three are One in compound unity.
Biblical Christians worship one God in Three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father is neither the Son nor the Spirit; the Son is neither the Father nor the Spirit; and the Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son. There is one God in Three distinct, co-equal, co-divine and co-eternal Persons. So when Dr. Tuggy asks "How exactly are [the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit] 'in' Him?" he is confusing the language regarding the Trinity. I hope the confusion is not deliberate. The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are not "in" Him--not "in" Anyone. There is one God in Three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. If the preposition "in" is confusing him then we can say that God is manifest as three distinct, co-equal, co-divine and co-eternal Persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each one is a distinct Person, each one existing from eternity past, each One co-divine--a shared existence. One God, Three Persons, not One Person and not Three Gods.
Dr. Tuggy adds: "But more fundamentally, what is meant by 'Person' here? Some trinitarians will tell you that the answer is, basically: nothing." Nothing? Who is he reading that answers, basically, nothing? For evidence he quotes St Augustine: So the only reason why we
do not call these three [these three Persons of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit] together "one Person," as we call them "one Being" [or "one Essence"] and "one God," but say "three Persons" while we never [and we cannot] say "three Gods" or "three Beings," is that we want to keep at least one word for signifying what we mean by "Trinity," so that we are not simply reduced to silence when we are asked three what, after we have confessed that there are three [meaning that there are Three Persons but, at the same time, only one God: one God manifested as Three distinct Persons] (The Trinity [De Trinitate], VII.11, pp. 228-9, trans. Edmund Hill, modified).St Augustine's answer is not "nothing," as Dr. Tuggy wants his readers to believe. As a matter of fact, Augustine is granting us an answer, a name, a category when referring to the three individuals of the Godhead: "Persons." These three Persons are not three gods--we are not Tritheists. There is not one Person sometimes posing as Father, sometimes as Son and sometimes as Holy Spirit, as Oneness Pentecostals et al. erroneously argue. There is one eternal God in three equally-divine Persons: the Person of God the Father, the Person of God the Son, and the Person of God the Holy Spirit: one God in Three Persons. The Father is neither the Son nor the Holy Spirit; the Son is neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son. One God in Three divine Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
DR. TUGGY'S CONFUSION
He states above: "We can ask about how these 'Persons' relate individually or collectively to the one God. How exactly are they 'in' him?" (emphasis added). Three (III) Persons to the One (I) God: III→I. Is Tuggy suggesting that we believe Three Persons relate to the One God--which would really make Four: God + Father + Son + Holy Spirit? I wish he were not serious but this is how he is reasoning the topic.
Here he presents nonsense and utter confusion--as is his practice. The three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, do not "relate individually to the one God," but relate personally and individually to each other within the community of One God; nor are the three Persons "in" God, as he frames the matter and the confused use of the word "in," but each Person relates to the other, as one who possesses personhood relates to another who possesses personhood. The Father relates to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; and the Son relates to the Father and to the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit relates to the Father and to the Son. These Three Persons are One God. If he is confused by his own perception of the word "in" then he needs to study the doctrine more closely. To suggest that there is one God "in three Persons" is not tantamount to suggesting there are three Persons "in" God--as though three Persons relate to one God ("God" perhaps referring to the Father or to "God" conceived in some other manner in his mind). Trinitarians do not promote such nonsense. His arguments here are, simply, ludicrous.
This matter of three Persons relating the one to the other within the Godhead is elementary and I wonder how Dr. Tuggy devotes scholarship to this subject and not only misunderstands but also misrepresents the core of Trinitarian doctrine. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are God; not three gods, but one God, God in three Persons; not three Persons "in" God (the Father?), but one God in three Persons. Dr. Tuggy contorts Trinitarian language to his advantage, confusing readers, and perceives himself as winning his strawman arguments. But his most evident misunderstanding and confusion, again from my perspective, relates to the issue of personhood--what makes for an individual person.
PERSONHOOD
Dr. Tuggy pontificates: "In English nowadays, 'person' often means human being." Popular conception about personhood does not establish definition, philosophical parameter, or context. Personhood can be attributed to angels, demons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit within the Godhead, as well as to human beings. He rightly frames personhood as consciousness, but fails to mention self-consciousness, as he writes: "But even worms, probably, are conscious." Worms, however, are neither self-conscious nor are they endowed with certain qualities of a mental capacity--reason, will, purpose, motive--that attribute to an entity as being a person. We cannot attribute personhood to worms. He most likely knows this but he conveniently frames his arguments in his favor and passes this off as scholarship against Trinitarianism.
THE SELF--NOT THE PERSON
Dr. Tuggy prefers the word "self" to "person." He argues: "Because in Trinitarian theology theorists are wont [in the habit] to insist on some special meaning for 'Person,' I have labeled this universal concept as the concept of a 'self'" (emphasis added). Is this true? Are we really accustomed to insisting on "some special meaning" for the concept of Person? He makes Trinitarians appear guilty of special pleading. Is our concept of "person" different than the perceived normal rendering of the word in general English lexicons? Let the following answer:
- a human being regarded as an individual (Oxford);
- the personality of a human being (Merriam-Webster);
- the state or fact of being an individual (Dictionary.com);
- the composite of characteristics that make up an individual personality; the self; in Christianity: any of the three separate individualities of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as distinguished from the essence of the Godhead that unites them (Free Dictionary);
- a man, woman, or child; describes one's character, personality (Cambridge);
- the most common answer is that to be a person at a time is to have certain special mental properties then (Stanford);
- the Latin word persona was originally used to denote the mask worn by an actor. From this it was applied to the role he assumed, and, finally, to any character on the stage of life, to any individual (Catholic Encyclopedia).
UNITARIANISM AND TRINITARIANISM
The authors of Scripture structure the Personhood of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, attributing Godhood to each while distinguishing the Personhood of each individual Member in relation to the other Members. The Personhood and divinity of the Father is assumed throughout the Bible. Unitarians allege that the Father is God, He is the only Person (or Self or Individual) that we name God, and no other Person is thusly named, given that there is no Godhead Trinity, i.e., no other members or persons or selves attributing to the divinity we call God. There is, for such Unitarian advocates, only one God and only one Person we name God and this one God is God the Father.
The Son Jesus, then, cannot be God in the Unitarian and Modalist heresy (and, for Modalists, God the Father merely poses as the Son). The Holy Spirit cannot be God (and, for Modalists, God the Father merely poses as the Holy Spirit; or God simply is the Holy Spirit--the Holy Spirit is simply another name for God the Father, cf. John 4:24). To God the Father we all instinctively attribute deity and divinity (except for heretics like the late John Shelby Spong). Why, then, is Jesus distinctively referred to as God (John 1:1)? Why, also, is the Holy Spirit distinctively referred to as God (Acts 5:3, 4, 9)? If there is only one God (Deut. 6:4; Mark 12:29; Rom. 3:30; 1 Cor. 8:4, 6; 12:13; Gal. 3:20; 1 Tim. 2:5; James 2:19) then all three Persons are one God--yet one God manifested in three equally-divine Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
ONENESS PENTECOSTALISM AND TRINITARIANISM
Jesus-Only Pentecostals maintain that Jesus is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Trinitarians hold the traditional view of the Church, the traditional biblical view, that the Being we name God is the Father, is Jesus the Son, and is the Holy Spirit--three separate, co-equal, co-eternal divine Persons that simply are One God: One God in Three Persons. The Father is neither the Son nor the Spirit; the Son is neither the Father nor the Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son. God is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit and each Individual / Self / Person is equally divine to the other Persons in the Godhead. (See "Conclusion: How are Three One?" below.)
THE PERSONHOOD OF THE GODHEAD: JESUS
We find divine names of Deity applied to God the Son, Son of God, Christ the King, or the Messiah, who is His own distinct Person, just as we do to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit (cf. Ex. 3:14, 15 with John 8:56, 58; Ps. 110:1; Isa. 9:6; Jer. 23:5, 6; Joel 2:32; Matt. 1:21; 22:43, 44, 45; Luke 2:11; Acts 2:21, 34, 35, 36, 37; 9:17; 16:31; Rom. 10:9, 13; 1 Cor. 12:3; Phil. 2:11; Heb. 1:1, 2; 1 Pet. 1:7, 8; 5:15; Rev. 1:7, 8, 11; 22:13, 16, 17, 18; 19:13); divine works are attributed to Jesus (cf. Matt. 19:28; John 1:1, 2, 3; 5:28, 29, 36; 10:28, 37; 11:25; 14:11; 17:2; Acts 5:31; Phil. 3:21; Col. 1:16, 17; 3:13; Heb. 1:3, 10; Rev. 21:5). He never refutes or denies the deific attributes or titles. He proclaims Himself to being the I Am (John 8:24, 28, 58), "I Am" being the Name of God (Ex. 3:14)--Yahweh, the tetragrammaton or four-lettered Name of God, YHWH--insisting that God His Father gave Him that Name (John 17:6, 11, 12) for the glory of God (Phil. 2:10, 11), and that any who deny Him the Name will not be saved (John 8:24). Trinitarianism is the truth of God's nature that we must believe in order to be saved (John 8:24, 28, 58).
Divine worship is also given to Jesus as Deity, as God, and the authors of the scriptures note that He is worthy of such divine adoration (cf. Isa. 6:1-5; Matt. 8:2; 15:25, 26, 27, 28; 28:17; Luke 24:51, 52; John 5:23; 9:38; Acts 1:24; 7:59, 60; 1 Cor. 1:2; Phil. 2:9, 10, 11; 1 Thess. 3:11; Heb. 1:6; Rev. 5:12, 13, 14); to which divinity and deity Jesus Himself admits (cf. Matt. 10:37, 38; 12:48; Luke 14:26; John 5:23, 25; 8:56, 57, 58; 10:30, 38; 11:4; 14:10; 18:1-5); which otherwise, meaning, if He were not deity, not God the Son, would have been overt blasphemy, and deserving of stoning, rejection, and crucifixion. He did not deny the worship. The Jewish Leaders knew this all too well (John 10:30, 31, 33). Jesus equates Himself with the eternally divine God of Israel, YHWH, as Jesus is also the Rock of Israel in the Wilderness Wanderings (1 Cor. 10:1, 2, 3, 4).
THE PERSONHOOD OF THE GODHEAD: THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Holy Spirit is both a divine Person (an Individual and a Self) and holy Deity, God, since both attributes are revealed thusly in Scripture: maintaining Personhood (cf. John 14:15, 16, 26; 15:26, 27; 16:7-14; Acts 6:9; 7:51; 13:2; Rom. 8:26, 27; 15:30; 1 Cor. 2:10, 11, 12, 13; 12:11; Eph. 4:30; Col. 1:8; 1 Thess. 5:19; 1 Tim. 4:1; Heb. 10:29; Rev. 2:7), attributes of God (cf. Gen. 1:1, 2; Job 26:13; 33:14; Ps. 104:30; 139:7, 8, 9, 10; Luke 1:35; John 3:3, 5; 14:26; 16:13; Rom. 1:4; 8:2, 11; 15:30; 1 Cor. 2:10; 3:16; 12:4-6; Eph. 4:30; 2 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 9:14; 2 Pet. 1:21), and mentioned in unity with the Father and the Son (cf. Isa. 48:12, 16; Matt. 3:16, 17; 28:19; Luke 3:21, 22; John 1:33; Acts 2:33; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 2:18; 1 John 5:7, 8). We are convinced of the church-historical view that non-Trinitarian philosophy is damnably heretical (John 8:24, 28, 58), its advocates are in damnable error (they will enter an eternal Hell), and the errors are to be exposed, challenged, and utterly rejected by biblical Christians.
CONCLUSION: HOW ARE THREE ONE?
The Unitarian asks how the three Persons of the Godhead can be one God. I think the answer is quite simple. One does not add three members of the Godhead, 1 + 1 + 1 = 1, and insist that there is only One God. One properly multiplies the three members of the Godhead, 1 x 1 x 1 = 1, and concludes that the three equally-divine Persons / Individuals / Selves are one compound unity. But allow me to support my answer with uncontested biblical evidence by asking a question. "For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh" (Gen. 2:24 NASB). How do two separate individuals, persons, selves become "one"?
Do they become one person, one individual, one self? No. The two individuals remain individuals, selves, persons. But the two become a compound unity in spirit (cf. 1 Cor. 6:15, 16, 17). The same is true for the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All three equally divine Persons are unified with one mind / intent / motive / will / purpose--always, from eternity past, now and to eternity future. The three Persons are one compound unity: what one Person thinks so do the other two Persons. They live and move and have their being as one. They are truly three divine Persons, Selves, Individuals but they are One God--One in mind, intent, will. No other group of beings in existence maintains this unique compound unity. There are not Three Persons who relate to the One God. The Three are One in compound unity.
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