Gospel Testimonies

The Riddle of the Trinity Revealed

By Jingmo, Malaysia

I was fortunate in 1997 to accept the gospel of the Lord Jesus and, when I was baptized, the pastor prayed and baptized me in the name of the Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. From then on, whenever I prayed, I offered up my prayer in the name of the Trinity, the loving heavenly Father, the Savior Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. But there was always some uncertainty within my heart: How could three become one? I could never fully articulate or understand what the Trinity was all about.

Two years later, I became a deacon in my church, and when I would accompany prospective believers in their religious studies, there would often be someone asking me what the Trinity meant. People would often ask about the Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit during confession as well. As I didn't understand this mystery either, I was never able to answer them, and this distressed me a great deal. I very much wanted to gain clarity on this issue, and so I asked the pastor and preachers to explain it to me, in the hope of getting a definitive answer. Their response, however, basically consisted of: "God is a Trinity, comprising the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father lays the plans for our salvation, the Son concludes it, while it is the Holy Spirit who carries out the plan. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, too—three persons, which together form the one, true God." This explanation only left me even more puzzled, and I asked, "But if He is three persons, how can He be one God?" They then said to me, "The Trinity is a mystery. Don't think too deeply on it. Just rely on your faith and believe in it, and that's all you need to do." Although I still felt very perplexed by this, I forced myself to accept it, thinking: "Don't think about it anymore. Just believe in it!" When I prayed, I still prayed to the Trinity: the loving heavenly Father, the Savior Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. I felt as though only by praying in that way would God hear my prayers, and I was afraid that, if I only prayed to one of God's persons, then He wouldn't hear me. And so, I carried on in such confusion for years, believing in the Trinity of my own imagination. After that whenever brothers and sisters in the church would ask me what was meant by the Trinity, I still didn't know how to respond. All I could do was answer them according to what the pastor had told me, though I could tell from their faces that they didn't really understand. This gave me a feeling of helplessness, and all I could do was come before the Lord in prayer: "I give thanks to You, dear heavenly Father! When the brothers and sisters and the prospective believers ask me questions about the Trinity, I don't know how to answer them. I ask You to help me. May the Holy Spirit guide me so that I may come to understand what is meant by the Trinity, so that I am no longer confused by this issue, and may more people come to know You."

In May of 2017, I met a sister on Facebook. She was very loving and patient, and after we had shared and discussed a few passages of Scripture, I found that there was light in her fellowships. I derived a great deal from them, and I was keen to exchange ideas with her. She later took me and a few other brothers and sisters to some gatherings. Through the fellowships shared at these meetings, I came to understand some truths I had never understood before, such as what the incarnation was and the way in which the Lord will come, and so on. I benefited a great deal from them and gained a much clearer understanding of some passages of Scripture. When I asked the sister how come she was able to understand so much from reading the Bible, whereas I couldn't, she told me, "Everything I understand has come from reading God's words. Our Lord Jesus has already returned. He has incarnated as the Son of man to express His words and perform new work in the last days...." I was astonished and thrilled at this news, and I asked the sister a flurry of questions: "Is it true? Has the Lord truly returned?" She replied with certainty, "Yes, it's true!" She went on to say that the Lord had returned in incarnate form in the last days, but that God's name had changed. God was now called Almighty God, being "the Almighty" who was prophesied in the Book of Revelation. The moment I heard the name "Almighty God," my heart skipped a beat, and I thought to myself: "Almighty God? Isn't that Eastern Lightning? Our pastor asked us to be on our guard against Eastern Lightning and told us not to have anything to do with them. What's more, we believe in the Lord Jesus, but this sister is saying that the Lord Jesus has returned and has taken the name of Almighty God, so how come His name is different? Will I end up going astray?" But then I thought: "Since I've known this sister, I've found that not only do her fellowships accord with the Bible, but that they are also very illuminating, and they clearly contain the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. If this way is wrong, how could it have the work of the Holy Spirit? Should I keep listening to her, or not?"