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'And God created man in His own image, in the image of God
created He him.' In another passage it is written that, when Adam had eaten of
the forbidden fruit and gained knowledge of good and evil, the LORD God said:
'Behold,1 the man is become as one of us, to know good and
evil.' Again in the account of the building of the Tower of Babel it is written
that God said: 'Let 2 us go down, and there confound their
language.' This is exactly parallel with the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in
the Gospel, where he says: ' If 3 a man love me, he will keep my
word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make
our abode with him.'
Among the other passages in which reference seems to be made in the Old
Testament to the great mystery of the Most Holy Trinity in unity in the divine
nature are the following:
(1) The verses in the Taurat in which God commands Moses to teach Aaron and
his sons in what words to pray for a blessing upon the people of Israel. 'And
4 the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, speak unto Aaron and unto his
sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel; ye shall say
unto them,
The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:
The LORD make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
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DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY TRINITY
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The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.'
Here it may seem to some people that the threefold repetition of the
incommunicable name of God
(יהוה) is intended merely for emphasis. But in the light
of the Gospel we may see in this a reference to the same great doctrine, though
not a proof of it.
(2) A very remarkable passage occurs in the Book of the prophet Isaiah, which
cannot be explained at all satisfactorily except by remembering what the New
Testament teaches us about the three divine Hypostases. There God says: '
Hearken1 unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the
first, I also am the last. Yea, mine hand hath laid the foundation of the earth,2
and my right hand hath spread out the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand
up together . . . . Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; from the beginning I
have not spoken in secret; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the
Lord GOD hath sent me, and his Spirit.' Here He who is the first and the last;
the Creator of heaven and earth, says that He and God's Spirit have been sent by
the Lord God 3 to execute a divinely-appointed commission. The three
Hypostases here most clearly appear, and the whole passage is in complete accord
with the teaching of the New Testament,
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