39. CHAPTER I. A DIVINE TRINITY EXISTS, NAMELY, FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT

1. The Unity of God has been acknowledged and admitted everywhere in the world where there has been religion and sound reason.

2. It was not possible, therefore, for God's Trinity to be known. For if it had been known, indeed if it had only been mentioned, a man would have thought of God's Trinity as a plurality of Gods; and this both religion and sound reason abhor.

3. Knowledge of God's Trinity, therefore, could only be acquired from revelation, thus only from the Word, and it could not be admitted unless the Trinity was also the Unity of God, for otherwise there would be a contradiction, and this brings forth nothing real.

4. God's Trinity did not come forth into actual existence until the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, was born, nor, before then, did there exist a Unity in Trinity and a Trinity in Unity.

5. The salvation of the human race depends upon God's Trinity which is at the same time a Unity.

6. By God's Trinity which is at the same time a Unity is meant a Divine Trinity in One Person.

7. The Lord, the Saviour of the world, taught that there is a Divine Trinity, namely, Father, Son, and Spirit: for He commanded the disciples to baptize "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit". [Matt. 28:19.]

He said also that He would, from the Father, ¹ send the Holy Spirit. [John 15:26.]

Moreover, He frequently spoke of the Father, and of Himself as His Son, and He "breathed upon His disciples, saying, Receive ye the Holy Spirit". [John 20:22.]

Again, when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, there came a voice from the Father saying, "This is My beloved Son", and the Spirit appeared above Him in the form of a dove. [Matt. 3:16-17; Mark 1:10-11; Luke 3:22; John 1:32-33.]

The angel Gabriel, too, told Mary, "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee and the Power of the of Highest shall overshadow thee, and the Thing that is born of thee shall be called the Son of God"; the "Highest" is God the Father. [Luke 1:35.]

Many times, too, the apostles in their epistles mention the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and John in his first epistle wrote, "There are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit" [1 John 5:7]; etc.

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