You Can Understand the Trinity

Theology Proper and the Transition to Christology

Well again, it's good to see everyone tonight. We continue in our study of systematic theology, specifically on the subject of theology proper. And for those of you who may not remember, theology proper is the study of God's nature, and more specifically about the nature of God the Father, as we will go on from this to a study of Christology, which is a study of God the Son specifically, and a study of pneumatology, which is a study of God the Holy Spirit.

So theology proper is simply an understanding of God and His nature. We have already looked at several things, and your worksheet outlines the things that we've looked at. We've looked at the revelation of God, we have looked at the names of God, we have looked at the attributes of God.

But tonight we are going to take a step further, and this will be, Lord willing, the last of this study before we move into Christology. Thank you, son. I got it. This will be the last of this study, and it's looking at the doctrine of the Trinity.

Why the Trinity Matters for Every Christian

Looking at the doctrine of the Trinity. I want to begin with a story. Years ago I was asked to be part of a pastoral ordination. Prior to the ordination there was a panel that met that was responsible for asking questions of the man who was under the review to be ordained.

And I have to tell you, his ordination was that afternoon. So it was sort of a, if anything, it was just a getting through a formality. It wasn't a real time of questions and answers. Had there been a real time of questions and answers, it would have been done weeks ahead of time, it would have been under much more severe conditions.

But when they already got the chicken cooking in the next room for the reception that's supposed to follow the ordination, you know this is little more than a bare formality. But I went anyway. I was an invited guest.

It was not at this church, it was at another church. And I went as the invited guest who was later realized they didn't really wish they hadn't have invited this guest. Because I went with real questions.

And I'm not saying that the other men that were present didn't ask real questions, but I was asking questions that I knew were not necessarily the easiest questions, but that a minister of the gospel should know.

And so I went and I sat in and the first question that went around, went around, went around, got to me. And I asked if I could go last. I said, OK. So they kept going and I went last. And I like that.

I like to have an opportunity to hear everyone else before I speak. It gives me an opportunity to kind of get the read of the room. And I was the outsider, so I felt like that was fair. So I said, I'll go last.

I said, OK, that's fine. And when it came my turn to ask the question, I asked this question. It was very simple. I said, imagine yourself as a minister of a church, a pastor of a church. And while you're there, a person comes to your church.

Maybe they're a family member of a church member or maybe they have visited from the community. They have come to your church and they have decided they want to become a part of your church, but they're coming out of the Jehovah Witness movement.

And so they had been taught through that movement that the Trinity. And I said, so how would you respond to that person? And I said, let me ask it this way. I said, if you had that person come to you, I said, what scriptures would you take them to to tell them that the doctrine of the Trinity is not only true, but it is so obviously true that if anybody were to deny it, that they would be denying the historic Christian faith?

Well, he didn't say anything. He just sort of looked at me. The man next to me, Deacon so-and-so, I don't know what his name was, but he was a deacon at the church that they were doing the ordination.

He lost his mind. He really did. He got angry with me. What are you doing asking a question that's so difficult? Nobody could answer that question. That's a mystery. And if I'm exaggerating, it's only a little.

It was a small room and his voice echoed off the walls. What are you doing? Why would you ask such a difficult question? To which I simply responded, it's a difficult job. It's a difficult job. We're not hiring him to be the dog catcher.

And even that's a hard job. But this is something of great importance. And I want to say this. When somebody tells you that it's impossible to understand the Trinity, that is not true. Because there's a difference, and I've talked about this in the weeks before, there's a difference between understanding something and comprehending something.

To understand something means that I can explain it, but to comprehend it means I fully grasp it. And I do believe that not only should every Christian be able to understand the doctrine of the Trinity, I believe it's the great danger of the church that most Christians don't understand the doctrine of the Trinity.

It's the great scandal of the modern church. I do Bible studies with certain men at certain times, and I'm going through a Bible study now with a man who I've just been going through a book of the Bible with him, and recently we had this conversation.

He's not a member of our church, he's from somewhere else. But I asked him, I said, do you understand the doctrine of the Trinity? I don't think anybody does. I said, no, that's not true. They've lied to you.

I promise it's a lie. Because let me ask you this, can you understand that God is eternal? There's no beginning and no end? You can understand it because I just explained it to you. That's it. Eternal means no beginning and no end.

You can understand that. Now if I say, can you comprehend it? Can you really wrap your mind around it? Can you carry the Atlantic Ocean in a thimble? No, you can't. But when I say, can you understand what it is and what it ain't?

The answer is yes. If I say, do you understand what eternity is? It's no beginning and no ending. So what would the opposite be? Something that has a beginning or something that has an ending. So you know what it is and you know what it ain't.

You understand it, even if you cannot fully comprehend it. Same is true with the Trinity. Not only do I believe every Christian can, I believe every Christian of average intelligence can understand it, I believe every Christian of average intelligence should understand it.

In fact, I believe for far too long we have used the difficulty of it as a cop-out for not even trying. Instead we replace it with bad examples, bad illustrations. God is like H2O. Sometimes he's ice and sometimes he's steam and sometimes he's water.

That's not the Trinity. That is a historical false teaching called modalism and it was condemned by the church in the 4th century. It's not the Trinity. And here's the thing. You have children and some of you grandchildren.

Some of you are children. Not yet, you're 18. But you guys with children, you send your kids to school or you homeschool. You expect them to do algebra. You expect them to do sometimes advanced placement classes, right?

But yeah, you send them to Sunday school and they give them a coloring book with Noah's Ark pictures. Why is it at the church we have to dumb everything down? We don't. But we feel like we must and that has damaged the integrity of the church.

It has damaged the integrity of the movement of Christianity in America because it has become a place where people check their brains at the door and everything becomes about feeling. And it's like Thomas Sowell said.

Thomas Sowell is not a Christian, but Thomas Sowell is an economist. And he said, you know, the problem now is not that little Johnny can't think. The problem is little Johnny doesn't know what thinking is.

He replaces thinking with feeling and he thinks that's thinking and it's not. We must be forced to think. And when it comes to the doctrine of the Trinity, we do have to think a little. So let me get us to thinking.

Defining the Trinity as One Essence and Three Persons

Now, I want to say I have another quick precursor to this. Not long ago, I did a very long series on the doctrine of the Trinity. It was last year, actually. I did like two or three months where we looked at the history of it.

I've actually written a book called God in Three Persons and we went through the book that I wrote. And so this is a subject very near and dear to my heart, but it's also something that we've gone through at length.

If you want to go through this at length, I encourage you to go back and listen to that series because I'm not going to do that again. This is a part of a broader series. If I stop now and did three months on the Trinity, that wouldn't be fair to the broader series.

This is a series on systematic theology of which the Trinity is only one part. So I am going to try to get through it all in one night, as crazy as that may seem. I believe every Christian should know three things about the Trinity, and this is on your handout.

I think I don't even think I gave you blanks. Did I give you blanks? Well, here they are. I don't have them. Let me have the handout. I want to look at it. All right. OK, I wrote them in there. Every Christian should know three things about the Trinity.

Number one, every Christian should know how to define the Trinity. There's no excuse why we don't. Every Christian should know how to define the Trinity. And if you came tonight not knowing, you'll leave knowing.

At least you'll have a handout that tells you. Keep in your back pocket. Number two, every Christian should know the relevant scriptures regarding the Trinity. Now, there are myriad of relevant scriptures, but you should at least know a few.

And so we're going to look at those tonight as well. Third and finally, every Christian should know how to identify false views of the Trinity. Why? Because almost every cult group that exists in some way or fashion violates the doctrine of the Trinity.

In fact, I would say the only group that I would that I would identify as being a group that doesn't possess the gospel, but has a right view of the Trinity, would be the Roman Catholic Church. Because from a historical perspective, the Roman Catholic Church still maintains a fairly orthodox view of the Trinity.

And yet they do not hold an orthodox view of salvation. And so there is there is unorthodoxy there, but it's not on that. In fact, some people believe that's the that's the one thing keeping them in the in the loop is they're holding to a right view of the Trinity.

But there's an attempt even to kind of destroy that with the idea of trying to make Mary divine and that that would come in and totally that would totally lopside the entire process and be a problem there.

But the point is, those guys who come to your door and the nice ties and the name tags that say Elder Johnson or Elder Steve or whatever, those little guys that are coming with those ties, they have a false view of the Trinity.

The nice couple that comes to your door, usually a man and woman who have an awake magazine or a copy of The Watchtower, which they don't do a lot that anymore. It's awake. You don't get The Watchtower as much anymore.

When they come to your door, they are coming to you with a false view of the Trinity that was condemned in the fourth century. It's called Arianism. This is the foundation stone upon what many cults are built.

So we need to know these three things. So let's look at number one. Every Christian should know how to define the Trinity. The Trinity is often defined as God is one in three and three and one. Yes, but that's too ambiguous.

If you just say God is one in three and three and one, that doesn't say anything because you're not saying one what or three what? If you say God is one in three and three and one, you're robbing yourself of what the church has painstakingly historically done to help you identify one what and three what.

Because on your sheet, I'll give you God is one in essence. God is one in essence. I also like the word substance, but I also like another word. And this one kind of, I don't think it'll get me in trouble, but this one's a little different.

God is one in stuff. So what do you mean? All the stuff that's God is one. Substance, essence, stuff. God is one. Sometimes they say God is one being. Okay. Now you've got, now you're starting to get a little, a little further down the line.

Because when we talk about God's oneness, we're talking about that which is God, which is infinite, which is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, all of that, which is God, which is divine is one. Number two, God is three also, but God is not three in essence.

And this is key because if you say God is one in essence and three in essence, you have something called a contradiction. If you say God is one in essence and three in essence, you have contradicted yourself because what is the law of non-contradiction?

The law of non-contradiction states simply that something cannot be and not be at the same time and in the same relationship. Something cannot be and not be at the same time and in the same relationship.

And if something be one, it cannot at the same time be three at the same time and in the same relationship. Right. So when we talk about the threeness, we're talking of a different category. God is one in essence.

He is three in person. Or another word is subsistence. This is a word that was very popularly used by the ancient Greek teachers. They would talk about the substance of God and the subsistence of God or the essence of God and the person of God.

See, a contradiction only happens when something is or is not in the same way and in the same relationship. If I said God is one person and God is three persons, then I would be engaging in a contradiction.

But if I say that God is one essence or one substance and I say that God is three persons or three subsistences, I have immediately not made a contradiction because I am not violating the rule of non-contradiction.

I am maintaining the perspective of two categories. Let me explain it like this. Most of us are familiar with a one to one ratio. You familiar with how ratios work? Right. You know what a ratio is? So on a ratio of one to one, we have man.

Man is one essence and one person. There's only one person per essence. If you got more than one person in there, you got a problem. Right. That's important because man is a one to one ratio. God is a one in three ratio.

Did I make it easy? You see what I said? You can understand it's not that hard. You say, well, I don't comprehend it. No, you won't. But but you can understand it. You can understand what we're saying, what we ain't saying.

And that's the key, because it's one essence, three persons. I give you another example. How about a rock? A rock. And I don't mean anything. A rock you pick up off the ground. It has one essence and zero person.

How about a cow? It has one essence and zero person. I could go on. But you understand how the ratio works now. Cows and rocks have essence, but no person. Man has one essence and one person. God has one essence and three persons.

That's how I can prove that essence and person are not the same. And thus I can make the distinction between God being one in this category and three in that category. And the category of person leads us to the third rule.

And the third rule is God is one in essence. He is three in person. And these three persons, the Bible teaches us, are co-equal and co-eternal. Co-equal and co-eternal. This is where the real rubber hits the road here, because we talk about equality.

People say, but when Jesus was on the earth, he said things like, the Father is greater than I. That doesn't sound like someone who is expressing equality. And yet, in Philippians chapter 2, the Apostle Paul says this, have this mind in yourselves that was yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped or held on to, but made himself nothing, taking the form of man and coming and dying on the cross, even death on a cross.

You see, in his humility, he condescended and he came as a man and in his humanity took on a role of servant, but in his divinity maintained equality. But he didn't grab hold of it while he was here. That's what the whole idea behind Philippians 2 is this.

You should be humble as Christ is humble. How are you to be humble? Look at how Christ was humble. He was in every way God, but he didn't consider that a thing to be grasping. He humbled himself. If Christ wasn't God, it wouldn't be humble for him not to grab a hold of it.

It would only be right if he wasn't God. But he was, and he is. So the equality and eternality. Eternality is a very important concept. Jesus is co-eternal with the Father and the Spirit. All three persons of the Trinity.

There was never a time where God the Father gave birth to the Son. There was never a time when God the Father and the Son gave birth to the Spirit. They all three exist in one essence, but three persons eternally.

This is why we can talk about the eternal relationship within the Trinity. Is God eternally love? The Bible says God is love. Is that an eternal attribute? Huh? But it's an eternal attribute. And yet how does love reside in God?

Within the relationship of the Father and the Son and the Spirit. There's an eternal relationship that's always been. All right. So many creeds have attempted to explain this. My favorite is the Athanasian Creed.

I am not going to try to read to you the Athanasian Creed tonight because it'd be long and we don't have enough time. But I would encourage you to look up the Athanasian Creed. Was not written by Athanasius, but it does codify the teachings of Athanasius.

You say, well, who is Athanasius? Athanasius was one of the men who was responsible for fighting against the Aryans in the fourth century. Well, who were the Aryans? Now we're getting into history a little bit.

I don't want to spend too much time with this. The Aryans were the ones who were fighting the battle to say that Jesus was not fully divine, but that he was the first and greatest creation of God and that he was created by God and through Christ, God created everything else.

This is the position that the Jehovah Witnesses still take, by the way. If you read the New World Translation, which is the Jehovah Witnesses translation, it says in it that Jesus Christ made all other things.

They add the word other because the Bible says Jesus cried through him, all things were made. Then the Jehovah Witness translation that says through him, all other things were made. They add the word other to identify the fact that Jesus himself was created, but everything else was created through him.

So it's an addition to the text. The Athanasian Creed, though, does identify some very important things that help us with the doctrine of the Trinity, that Jesus Christ, the Father and the Son, I'm sorry, the Father, the Son, Jesus Christ and the Spirit are in a relationship with one another that is uncreated, uncaused and eternal and obviously equal, as we just said.

If you have your sheet, you'll notice I give you a little picture. Now, again, I already said I'm not big on illustrations because illustrations are bad sometimes, but I kind of like this one because I do think it sort of gives a fair shot at attempting to draw a picture of what we're saying.

And so just allow me to very rudimentarily copy what you have on your sheet. There is one God and we have the Father, we have the Son and we have the Holy Spirit. And we can say the Father is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God, but the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit and the Spirit is not the Father.

So we have God is the Father, God is the Son, God is the Spirit, but the Spirit is not the Son, the Son is not. And this is why on your sheet I gave you things as what is the Trinity. May I hold this just for a second, brother?

No. Well, here, I'll take you and give you back. You'll notice I gave you this. This is I actually did a seminar on this subject at another church a few about a year ago, I guess, and I used this handout.

I don't have time to go through everything tonight, but this is helpful because it kind of explains some of the things that we need to understand. When you talk about the Trinity, we have to make distinctions.

Here's a distinction that people often mess up. The Father did not die on the cross. People talk about God died on the cross. Well, yes, God, the Son died on the cross, but they'll say the Father was on.

No, the Father was not on the cross. This is where a distinction must be made. The Father did not become incarnate. Here's one that often upsets people. When you get saved, who lives in you? Yeah, a lot of times people talk about asking Jesus into your heart, right?

Now, there is a verse that talks about the Spirit of Christ. Unless the Spirit of Christ be in you, Romans 8, you're not His. So He is called the Spirit of Christ. But where is the Son right now? In the right hand of the Father, right?

And He said, I must go away because if I don't go away, the Comforter will not come. But I go away and I send to you alas percolatos, another Comforter, one like me. Right? Another being another like me.

Yeah, absolutely. But the Spirit resides within us, right? So we have this distinction, what we call the economic trinity. This is the ontological trinity, meaning how we understand being. Ontology simply means understanding of being, right?

This is the ontological trinity. The economic trinity is how we understand the working of the trinity. The Father elects, the Son redeems, the Spirit regenerates. Those three works are different. And yet in the eternal covenant that God made within Himself, that was the decision that was made.

The Father would choose, the Son would die for those chosen, and the Spirit would go and save those chosen through the working of regeneration in their heart. Regenerate them, rather, birth them, give them rebirth.

All right? So that is the doctrine of the trinity. Easily explained, I think. Maybe it's a little harder than I think it is, but I think that at least is enough to say that it's understandable. Now move on to the next question.

Key Scriptures for the Oneness of God and the Divinity of Christ

Every Christian should know the relevant scriptures. Boy, how am I going to do this? Well, I'm going to tell you to write them down. But I'll make a few notes as we go. Why write this down? God is one in essence.

What's a passage for that? Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God, the Lord is one Lord. Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 6. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Deuteronomy 6, 4 through 6.

That's called the Shema. That is the prayer of ancient Israel. Still pray today, by the way. And it identifies the oneness of God. Also Isaiah 43, 10. Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, whom I have chosen.

And you may know and believe in me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be any after me. Deuteronomy 6, 4 to 6. And Isaiah was Isaiah 43, 10. Now the Isaiah passage is important because if you have those two nicely dressed 10-speed riders come to your door, I'm not making fun.

That's what they are. Every time I see them, they come to your door. You say, brother, or I don't, I wouldn't say brother. I would say, sir, or sometimes, you know, young man, because they're usually a lot younger than me.

I'll say, young man, do you believe that you will be a God one day? This is not normally how I start. But in a conversation, I might ask, do you believe the Mormon teaching that you will be a God one day?

Because Mormons believe that God was once a man on another planet, that because of his adherence to Mormon teaching, he became a God. And now if they are faithful to Mormon teachings, they too can engage in celestial marriage and put forth their own race on their own planet where they are their gods of their own planet.

And it's very clear Mormon teaching. It's not something they make a big deal about, but it's not something that really is a question either. And some of them will say, yes, I will be a God one day. Then how do you understand Isaiah 4310?

Before me, there was no God formed and there will be no God after me. It's actually the same thing I ask a Jehovah Witness, because Jehovah Witness say Jesus is a God, but he's a God that was created.

That's why they say John 1 .1 in the beginning was the word, the word was with God and the word was a God, right? They'll say a God. They'll say Jesus was created as a God. God created another God like him.

But there's only one eternal God. That's Jehovah. But Jesus is a God. I say, but what about Isaiah 4310? Before me, there was no God formed and after me, there will be no God formed. What do you do with that?

These passages clearly teach the oneness of God. So this takes us what is the first God is one in essence. And yet there are three persons who are called God. So this is why I'm a Trinitarian, right? I'm not a Trinitarian because Augustine was.

I'm not a Trinitarian because Calvin was. I'm not a Trinitarian because Athanasius was or because any of the men at the 320 some odd men who were at the council of Nicaea were Trinitarian. I'm Trinitarian because the Bible doesn't let me go anywhere else.

The Bible only allows me to believe one thing. There's one God. I can't believe in multiple gods. The Bible doesn't allow it. But the Bible calls the Father God. It calls the Son God. It calls the Spirit God.

And it makes distinctions between those three persons. So either the Bible is contradicting itself or I have to understand it as the church has for two thousand years, that there is one God and He exists in three persons.

The Bible wouldn't allow it any other way. So here are some other verses for you to write down in regard to Jesus being fully divine. I've already mentioned John 1, 1 to 3. John 1, 1 to 3. And I really like to break this down in the Greek to show, but I, again, don't have time.

But it simply says, In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God and all things were made by him. And without him was not anything made that was made.

Very clear. Jesus is not only God and with the Father, but he's Creator. Colossians 2, 9. For in him, that is Jesus, dwells the fullness of deity bodily. In him dwells the fullness, the King James says, the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in Christ.

The word translated Godhead, deity, however you want to translate it. Colossians 1, 15 and 16. Jesus, he is the image of the invisible God. Firstborn of all creation, for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.

All things were created through him and for him. For him. That's another key aspect of his divine nature is the world was created for him. And people say, wait a minute, it says he's the firstborn of creation.

The word firstborn in the Greek there does not identify something that came into being as we think of the firstborn child, but rather first in the order of priority. He is the king of creation because he created it.

Revelation 22, 15, 22, 13. I'm sure you're familiar with this one. I am the alpha and the omega. Who said that? Jesus. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. A man can't say that. A created being can't say that.

And one of my favorites, when Thomas, and Thomas gets a bad rap. I really do. How would you like to be called doubting Steve or something or whatever your name is? You know, he gets, he gets called doubting Thomas forever.

Right? And he's stuck with it, right? Ain't going away. Huh? He was being honest. I won't believe until I see the nails, scars in his hand. And Jesus sees him. He said, see my hands, feel my side, that it is I.

And what did he say? My Lord and my God. Now, if you ever listened to a Jehovah witness, explain that one. And I have, I've talked to them. They'll say, well, that was him giving an expression of excitement.

Like you might say, my God, if you got really excited, there's a Greek word for that. It is bologna. Cause that's, that's exactly what that is. That's a bologna interpretation right there is no good. The phrase.

Oh, no, it's hot. They asked me. My Lord and my God, my, my God, and my Lord. And Jesus didn't say, get up. You're wrong. Don't say that. And you know, angels do that. If you fall down before an angel, what do they say?

Don't worship me. But when Thomas fell down to worship Christ, Christ accepted his worship because he deserved it because he's God to worship anything other than God is a violation of the first and second commandment.

I have no other gods before the Lord. I do not make for yourself any idol and Jesus accepted worship the Holy spirit, several passages, but I'll just give you a couple. One. I've already mentioned John 16, seven to 11.

This is where Jesus talks about him going away. So the spirit could come that tells us one, that the spirit is personal and also that the spirit is divine because he's coming as Christ in the world, being in the place of Christ in the world.

In fact, this is where I take great issue with the Pope because the Pope calls himself vicar of Christ. Vicar means vicarious or being in the place of something. The Holy spirit is the vicar of Christ, not the Pope.

The Holy spirit is the one who comes in the place of Christ, not the Pope. Acts five, remember the story of Ananias and Sapphira, Richard and I talked about this one a bit. What did, what is it about that story, Richard, that makes, we know the Holy spirit is a person.

Remember Ananias and Sapphira? What did he say? You've lied. You lied to the Holy spirit. You've lied to God, right? We've talked about this a bit because he said, he said, you've lied to the Holy spirit.

You've lied to God. And that's the point is that it's God. He is God. And by the way, don't do what I just did because I just made a mistake. I said, it, the Holy spirit's not it. The Holy spirit is he, him, not it.

And that's it. That's it. That's a mistake. Easy to make. Like I said, it's sometimes in the just raw because we think of spirit as a thing, not a person. I do like the term Holy ghost. Sorry, talking about the Holy ghost.

So people think I'm Pentecostal, but use the word Holy ghost. And it puts more personality than Holy spirit, because we think of spirit is sort of an immaterial thing, but goes to something, someone, right?

And so King James says, Holy ghost. I can say Holy ghost if I want to. I like this one, second Peter one and 21, second Peter one and 21. No prophecy was ever given by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy spirit.

How did the scriptures come to us? The scriptures came to us through the administration of the spirit of God. That's how we got this book. This is God's word because the spirit administered its writing.

The spirit oversaw and superintended its writing. And the three persons are co-equal and co-eternal. How do we know that? Because they're all God. But I would also say this, Matthew 28, 19, Matthew 28, 19.

What is that? Does anyone remember? Yep. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy spirit. It's interesting if you looked at that in the, in the Greek and I don't, I don't press the Greek too hard on that one because it's a Greek translation of Aramaic because Jesus is speaking Aramaic, even though the Matthew was not written in Aramaic.

It's, it's translating what Jesus said, but either way, it's interesting because the singular name of the father and of the son, the Anima is the Greek and it's singular. There's the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy spirit.

I believe, and I have, uh, how many of you are familiar with, uh, B .B. Warfield, Princeton theologian, uh, very influential figure from the, uh, from the past. B .B. Warfield said this, and I tend to agree with him.

He said, when Jesus gave the great commission and said, you're going out to baptize in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy spirit, he was at that moment replacing the name that everyone was used to associating with God.

And that was Yahweh, because now we, we don't say Yahweh, we say the father, the son, and the spirit that he's, he's given us a new name to proclaim. And it's the name of the triune God. It's still Yahweh.

Don't take for a second that I'm saying he's no longer Yahweh, but Warfield's argument was, uh, that the, by, by proclaiming baptism, we don't baptize in the name of Yahweh. We baptize in the name of the father and the son and the spirit, one God, Yahweh, but three persons.