Unitarians are fond of quoting the well-known affirmation of the Oneness of God, " Hear O Israel; the LORD our God is one LORD " (Deut. 6:44Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: (Deuteronomy 6:4)). But do the Unitarians take care to give the real meaning of this Scripture? Do they inform us of a most remarkable feature in the Hebrew language? It possesses no less than Three numbers:- Singular, one only; Dual, two only; Plural, three or more.
This is a most arresting feature of Hebrew grammar God, who gave speech to our first parents, must have designed this special plural for a very definite purpose. We can trace this most plainly in the verse we have just quoted. Bearing this in mind the verse reads thus: " Hear O Israel: The LORD [ Jehovah, singular] our God [Elohim, plural] is one LORD [ Jehovah, singular]." Here is an arresting statement of the Oneness of God, yet along with it care is equally taken to give a very clear and unmistakable intimation of the truth of the Holy Trinity,—Father, Son and Holy Spirit, One in Three, and Three in One, ONE GOD.
Indeed in the very first verse in the Bible the name for God is in the plural. We read, " In the beginning God [Elohim, plural] created [Sara, singular] the heaven and the earth." (Gen. 1:11In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)). Does the Unitarian explain why the plural noun is followed by a singular verb, if it is not to convey the thought of plural unity—One in Three, and Three in One, ONE GOD?
There are two words in the Hebrew language which render the name of God in the plural: -
EL, singular; ELOHIM, plural, meaning Supremacy. ADON, singular; ADONAI, plural, meaning Lordship.
These two names for God in the plural are employed many hundreds of times throughout the Old Testament, and many more times than their corresponding words in the singular. Why are the eyes of Jews and Unitarians closed to the meaning of God's name being found so plentifully on the sacred page in the plural, sometimes followed by a singular verb, giving so unmistakably the thought of plural unity? Is it that " they willingly are ignorant " (2 Peter 3:55For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: (2 Peter 3:5))?
The Prophet Isaiah employs Adonai, the second name for God in the plural, in a very striking way. It presents the fullest testimony found in the Old Testament to the truth of the Trinity of Divine Persons, yet ONE GOD. We read, " Come ye near unto Me, hear ye this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there AM I; and now the LORD [ Jehovah, singular] God [Adonai, plural], and His Spirit, hath sent Me." (Isa. 48:1616Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me. (Isaiah 48:16)). Here we have One presented to us as " from the beginning," a clear assertion of Deity, seeing that God alone has neither beginning nor end. Again, this One introduces Himself as the " I AM," the self-existent One, the Jehovah of the Old Testament, the One, who was, and is, and ever will be, THE ETERNAL. The plural here embraces Three Persons, yet one God—(1) The LORD God; (2) His Spirit; (3) The Sent One. It surely cannot be a chance coincidence that our Lord when here on earth spoke of Himself repeatedly as THE SENT ONE OF THE FATHER.
No less than twenty-seven times as recorded in the Gospel of John, thrice within the compass of three verses (John 6:38-4038For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 39And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. 40And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:38‑40)), does the Lord refer to Himself as the Sent One of the Father. How intensely precious must this thought have been to Him, when the announcement of it was so often on His lips. What a testimony! Could prophecy and fulfillment more strikingly meet?
When John the Baptist, forerunner of our Lord (Isa. 40: 3-5) was baptizing our Lord in the waters of the Jordan, he heard the voice of the Father from heaven, saying, " This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matt. 3:1717And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:17)); and saw the Holy Spirit of God descending like a dove upon Him, the Sent One of the Father. Here we have a most beautiful presentation of the truth of the blessed Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit, ONE GOD.
And why should the formula used in Christian baptism be in the Threefold name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost (Matt. 28:1919Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: (Matthew 28:19))? If God the Father were alone God, would you expect Him to share His ineffable glory with any of His creatures? How understandable and harmonious, however, it is when there is presented to us the name of the Threefold God—Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Three in One, and One in Three, ONE GOD.
And why should the Apostle Peter link up the same three names when we read, " Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ " (1 Peter 1:22Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. (1 Peter 1:2))? Is there not set before us the truth of the Holy Trinity? Blind must be the person, who fails to see this.