This paper is a response to the Jehovah’s Witnesses on the
subject of the Trinity, focusing on Matthew 28:19, which
literally says, “baptizing them into the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” No one verse of the Bible
tells us everything about the Trinity (or even uses the word
Trinity), but Matthew 28:19 does reveal some
important truths that relate to the doctrine.
The paper begins by explaining that to be baptized “into the
name of” someone means to get baptized as a sign of one’s
religious commitment to that person. That means that baptism
is a declaration of faith in the Father, in the Son, and in
the Holy Spirit. This makes it clear that to be baptized
into the name of the Holy Spirit assumes that the Holy
Spirit is a person, not an impersonal force, as the
Jehovah’s Witnesses claim. This conclusion is confirmed by
other elements of the statement in Matthew 28:19: the series
of three names, “the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit,” in which of course the first two are persons; the
fact that “spirit” in biblical language often refers to
nonphysical persons or beings (God, angels, demons, etc.);
and the use of the term “name” in reference to the term
“Holy Spirit,” especially in the expression “into the name
of,” which always refers to an act done with regard to a
person.
Jehovah’s Witnesses try to answer part of this argument by
pointing out that “the Spirit and the water and the blood”
in 1 John 5:8 refers to two things that clearly are not
persons (water and blood). They also point out that the word
“name” might refer to something other than a person, and
that Paul once wrote about being baptized into Christ’s
death. These answers (which have some weaknesses even taken
one at a time) don’t take into consideration how all of the
things that work together in Matthew 28:19 combine to refer
to the Holy Spirit as a person. To be baptized into the name
of (fill in the blank) is, in the way the Bible uses this
expression, to make a religious commitment to follow the
person who has that name. To be baptized into the name of
the Father and the Son obviously has this meaning, and so it
must also have this meaning for being baptized into the name
of the Holy Spirit.
The paper concludes by explaining that although Matthew
28:19 does not by itself prove everything about the doctrine
of the Trinity, it does show us that the Holy Spirit is a
person and in context implies a basically Trinitarian way of
thinking about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It shows us
that the Holy Spirit is a divine person distinct from the
Father and the Son. It also shows us that in baptism
Christians make a religious commitment to all three persons,
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Since Jesus in the Gospel
of Matthew also affirms that there is only one God to whom
we owe religious commitment (Matthew 22:37), his statement
in Matthew 28:19 strongly supports a basic form of belief in
the Trinity.
For the full paper,
please
click here.
Witnesses In Transition
 |
Languages | |
| Search |