LP: God often refers to Himself as ‘Us’, for example Genesis 1:26: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…’” and Genesis 3:22: “Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil…’” The word for God which is used in the original Hebrew Bible is elohim, which is a plural word. Surely this reflects the plurality of the Godhead—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—the Trinity?
Ed: God does often refer to Himself in the plural. In the two verses quoted above, it seems He is speaking to the angels. We look like them (Hebrews 13:2). We know they were there at the creation of the world (Job 38:7). They are God’s servants who do His work (Psalm 103:20), and so their words and actions are those of God Himself. Sometimes angels are referred to as God, for example in
Genesis 18.
It may be that when the Bible uses the word ‘Elohim’ it is always referring to God and the angels. Another possibility is that it is simply an example of a figure of speech known as ‘plural intensive’, in which single things are referred to in the plural to emphasise their importance. This occurs in English, for example when the British Queen refers to herself as ‘we’. In the Bible, the ‘cruel lord’ in Isaiah 19:4, the animal ‘behemoth’ in Job 40:15 and ‘wisdom’ in Proverbs 1:20 are all actually plural Hebrew nouns, but they’re speaking of single things.
The Trinity is the idea that God consists of three co-equal and co-eternal persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is a fundamental teaching of most Christian churches, and it is held very dear—even though few people claim to understand it. Christadelphians do not believe that it is right. What we see in the Bible is the Almighty God, and His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit which is the power of God in action in different ways.
When you set aside the idea of the Trinity, the Bible becomes simpler to understand. You are able to see the God of the Bible the way He really is. You can appreciate the full force of the Gospel message: God gave His Son the Lord Jesus Christ to die to save us from our sins, and Jesus willingly co-operated.
This is of the utmost importance: “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).