The Triune God

Books:

Four LSM publications from the 1970s clearly define the scriptural revelation of the Triune God and point out the errors of modalism and tritheism: The following books open up more of the depths of the biblical revelation concerning the Triune God related to the accomplishment of God’s plan and the believers’ experience:
  • The first half of Lesson Book 2: The Triune God—The Triune God and the Person of Christ presents an overview of key truths concerning the Triune God and a survey of verses in the New Testament that unveil the Divine Trinity.
  • The first three chapters of The Revelation and Vision of God examine the theological expressions used historically to define the Divine Trinity, set forth the crucial points of biblical truth concerning the Triune God, and evaluate the creeds in light of the biblical revelation of the Divine Trinity.

Affirmation & Critique (A&C):

The inaugural issue of Affirmation & Critique was dedicated to the subject of “Knowing the Triune God.” Two particular articles are noted here:
  • A Biblical Overview of the Triune God,” by Ed Marks, covers key points concerning the Trinity: being three and one, coexisting and coinhering eternally, and having essential and economical aspects. This article cautions against heretical extremes and affirms the mystery of the Triune God and the need for revelation and experience.
  • The Straight Cut: Some Biblical Trinitarian Conundrums,” by Kerry S. Robichaux, examines three verses that give particular difficulty to those who try to systematize the biblical revelation of the Divine Trinity—Isaiah 9:6; 1 Corinthians 15:45; and 2 Corinthians 3:17.
Taking as its starting point John 17:3 and 1 John 5:20, which speak of knowing the true God subjectively, “The Economy of God: The Triune God in His Operation,” by Ron Kangas (XIII:3, April 2008), provides an overview of vital truths concerning God, emphasizing the distinction between God in His essence and God in His economy.

Radio Broadcasts:

  • In “Final Exhortations, Greetings, and Blessings” (2 Corinthians, program 55) Witness Lee shows, using 2 Corinthians 13:14, how the Bible’s revelation of the Triune God is not for doctrine but for the believers’ experience.
  • “The Triune God Dispensed Into Us and Wrought Into Us” (Ephesians, program 17) reviews seven crucial items in Ephesians 1:3-14, a section of the Bible structured around the Divine Trinity in His operation to carry out His dispensing of Himself in His economy.
  • “The Operation of the Triune God Upon the Elect for Their Participation in His Full Salvation” (1 & 2 Peter & Jude, program 2) looks at the operation of the Triune God—the foreknowledge of God the Father, the sanctification of the Spirit, and the sprinkling of the blood of Christ—in 1 Peter 1:2 and how it relates to the believers’ participation in God’s complete salvation.

NEW: EPS/ETS Paper: “The Divine Trinity in the Teaching of Witness Lee”

This paper shows that Witness Lee’s teaching fully respected the eternal distinctions among the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit while recognizing that the Three are one in essence. Describing the Trinity as “a divine incorporation,” Witness Lee understood that the three Persons mutually indwell one another and work together as one, as this paper demonstrates. He therefore affirmed the scriptural identifications of the Son with the Father (Isa. 9:6) and the Lord with the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17), as numerous respected theologians and Bible teachers have done. (This paper was prepared by the Defense & Confirmation Project and was presented at the 2016 joint conference of the Evangelical Theological Society and the Evangelical Philosophical Society in San Antonio, Texas.)

Polemic Writings:

In recent years a number of responses have been written directly addressing concerns raised by critics of Witness Lee’s teachings on the subject of the Triune God. These include:

Elliot Miller, Editor-in-Chief of the Christian Research Journal, addressed the same issue in depth on page 14 of the journal in the “Addressing the Open Letter’s Concerns: On the Nature of God section of his multi-part article for that publication.

The Defense & Confirmation Project posted a series of articles on the subject of the Divine Trinity, including:

DCP Press published these articles with several others on the same line in Brothers, Hear Our Defense (2): Concerning the Divine Trinity.

Videos:

Elliot Miller says the teaching of Witness Lee and the local churches “actually are bringing a correction to a problem within Western evangelicalism.”

Ministry Excerpts

  • The Person of God: God is uniquely one from eternity past to eternity future. Matthew 28 indicates that the name of God is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Three of the Divine Trinity are one and coexist and coinhere eternally.
  • The Three of the Divine Trinity Being Different but Not Separate: The Three of the Godhead are distinct but not separate. The Father and the Son coinhere, the Father and the Son are in the Spirit, and the Spirit is in the Father and the Son. Thus, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit coinhere and are inseparable.