THREE-IN-ONE, OLD SCHOOL

The doctrine of the Trinity seems to be a New Testament-based ideology. "Baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit..." (Matthew 28:19) and other such passages reinforce the idea of God eternally existing in three persons.

On the other hand, the Word of God states, "There is nothing new under the sun" (Ecc. 1:9). If God was Trinity during Old Testament times, then the OT should have at least some hints to this fact. Not only does it have hints, it has a few clear references to someone who is like God to such a degree, he should be considered God as well!

1. Plural Creator
I spoke with a Messianic Jewish brother recently, who said, "All my life, I had read the story of creation in Genesis. And all my life, when I got to the part where he created man, I would read, 'let me make man in my image...' Imagine my shock the day I first read this passage and realized it actually said, 'Let us make man in our image!' I thought someone had tampered with my copy of the Scriptures!" The Lord opened his eyes not only to a God who refers to himself in plural when he makes his most treasured creation, but who also goes by Elohym, the plural form of the Hebrew word for God!

2. The Shema
The Shema, or Watchword of Israel is Deuteronomy 6:4. Hear O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Even in Jewish writings which deny Messiah, variations of this passage include, YHWH* our God is a unique YHWH, or, YHWH is our God, YHWH is unique in his extraordinariness.† The Hebrew word for "one," comes from a word that means, "to unify." It is used in Genesis 2:24, "...and they shall become one flesh." It's eye-opening to say, YHWH our God(plural), YHWH is in unity!

3. The Lord's Angel, or Son?
The Angel of the Lord has always been an interesting phenomenon to me. Follow him through the Old Testament, and see what you think. "The angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land that I swore to give to your forefathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you..." (Judges 2:1) The angel of the LORD sounds a lot like the LORD to me!

4. The Son of Man
In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. --Daniel 7:13-14
This one speaks for itself, don't you think?!?

These are just four considerations to whet your appetite. I found an interesting site that goes into much greater detail. Trinity in the Old Testament has more information on this topic.

Have a great weekend!

* YHWH is the Tetragrammaton, the Hebrew word made up of four consonants and no vowels, that we read as LORD (small caps) in the Bible.

† Footnote from The Torah a Modern Commentary with notes
Edited by Gunther Plaut
Union of American Hebrew Congregations
New York © 1981

[Image by "willgame' on flickr]