“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)
There are a number of teachings that separate Christianity from every other belief system in the world. One distinct doctrine is that of the Trinity—One God in Three Persons. The great confessions and creeds throughout Church history have affirmed this.
Here is the 2000 statement from the Baptist Faith and Message—which the Southern Baptist Convention, of which I am a part—declared concerning God:
“There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.”
A God who is three in person, and yet not three gods, but One in Being is not a contradiction to Deuteronomy 6:4-5. The word for “one,” in the Hebrew is used to describe a plural unity, such as one cluster of grapes. The word is “echad,” and is used in Genesis 2:24 where it says Adam and Eve became “one flesh.” Again, this does not illustrate the Trinity as Adam and Eve were not only one in union, and two in person, but two different beings, as well. I am just showing that the Hebrew term for “one,” can have a plural connotation. So, does the word “Elohim,” as one of God’s names. We will examine this crucial doctrine in the next few days, God willing.
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