Ephesians 3:11-15 – Must We See Trinity in What Paul Wrote?

Ephesians 3:11 - according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in [instrumental EN (Strong's #1722), by means of] Christ Jesus, our Lord;
Ephesians 3:12 - in [by means of] whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him.
Ephesians 3:13 - Therefore I ask that you may not lose heart at my troubles for you, which are your glory.
Ephesians 3:14 - For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ,
Ephesians 3:15 - from whom [This is evidently referring to the God and Father of Jesus] every family in heaven and on earth is named [evidently not referring to appellations, but rather to positioning -- Genesis 28:4],
Ephesians 3:16 - that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man. -- World English.

John Ankerberg and John Weldon (The Facts on Jehovah’s Witnesses, 1988 edition, page 14) claim that the above verses are impossible to understand if one does not accept the triune God philosophy. Is there really anything in the verse that is impossible to understand without using human imagination so to assume the trinity dogma over the verse? Absolutely not! The scriptures are completely understandable without the necessity of adding what has to be imagined beyond what has been written.

First of all, in order to “see” the triune God in these verses, what does the trinitarian have to imagine, assume, add to, and read into these verses? In Ephesians 3:11 the phrase “he purposed”, the “he” refers back to “God” in Ephesians 3:10. The trinitarian has to conclude that the word “God” in verse 10 does not mean their alleged triune God, but rather only one person.  The trinitarian would, of course, imagine and assume that "God" is referring to what they claim to be "the first person" of their triune God. Thus, they would imagine and assume that Paul is saying:

Ephesians 3:11 according to the eternal purpose which the first of the trinity purposed in the second person of trinity, our Lord;
Ephesians 3:12 in whom [the second person of the trinity] we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him [the second person of the trinity].
Ephesians 3:13 Therefore I ask that you may not lose heart at my troubles for you, which are your glory.
Ephesians 3:14 For this cause, I bow my knees to the first person of the trinity who is the Father of our Lord, the second person of the trinity,
Ephesians 3:15 from whom [the trinitarian, however, would have to imagine and assume that it is referring a triune God]  every family in heaven and on earth is named ,
Ephesians 3:16 that he would grant you, according to the riches of the glory of the first person of the trinity, that you may be strengthened with power through the third person of the trinity of the first person of the trinity in the inward man. 

Is all of this necessary? Is there any reason that one would have to add all of the above assumptions to what Paul said in order for what Paul wrote to be understood? Absolutely not! What Paul wrote is completely understandable without adding all the trinitarian assumptions into the verses.

Indeed, throughout the letter to the Ephesians, Paul constantly refers to “God”, not as three persons, but as one person, and he constantly distinguishes “God” from Jesus. Nowhere in the Bible does Paul ever refer to Jesus as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Israel. In Ephesians 1:3, Paul identifies “God”, not as three persons, but as one person, saying, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in [by means of] Christ.”  Ephesians 4:30 identifies the Holy Spirit, not as “God”, or as a person of God, but as belonging to “God”.

Nowhere is “God” or the “Father” identified as being one of three alleged persons of God, nor is Jesus Christ ever identified as being one of three alleged persons of God, nor is the Holy Spirit of God ever identified as being one of the three alleged persons of God.

Actually, reading triune dogma into the above verses tends to make the verses appear to be confusing. The statement made by Ankerberg and Weldon “that assuming God is not three persons makes it impossible to understand” these verses actually makes no sense since we can certainly understand the verses without adding the trinitarian assumptions to what Paul wrote.

Isaiah 61:1 — The Spirit Of Jehovah On The Anointed One

The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is on Me, because Jehovah has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the meek. He has sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, and complete opening to the bound ones; – (Isaiah 61:1, Green’s Literal)

Isaiah 61:1 is often cited by trinitarians as an alleged reference to the trinity in the Old Testament. The claim is that all three alleged persons of the alleged triune God are mentioned in this verse, and thus it is claimed as a reference to the trinity. Actually, there is nothing in the verse at all about the trinity, nor is there any reference to three persons of the alleged trinity.

What we do find is that Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Exodus 3:15), is being presented as one person as He is throughout the Bible. The Messiah is presented, not as being Jehovah, but as the one whom Jehovah anointed and sent. Then the Messiah speaks of Jehovah as "our God" in Isaiah 61:2, thus including himself in the "our", showing that the Messiah has Jehovah as his God. This agrees with Micah 5:4. Jehovah is not presented as three persons, so what the trinitarian has to imagine and assume regarding the verse is that “Jehovah” is not speaking of the three persons of “Jehovah”, but only of the assumed “first person” of their assumed trinitarian dogma, and read their assumption into what is being said.

Then, regarding the one being anointed by Jehovah, they have to imagine and assume that this is really the second person of Jehovah being anointed by the assumed first person of Jehovah, and then they have to add that assumption to and read that assumption into, what is actually said.

Then the trinitarian has to imagine and assume that the spirit which is placed upon the one anointed is one of the imagined and assumed persons of Jehovah. Accepting what they have imagined and assume to be fact, they thus read into Isaiah 61:1 their imagined and assumed trinity concept. 

So what the trinitarian actually presents as evidence of the trinity, is not what is actually said in the scripture, but what has to be presumed upon what is actually stated.

In reality, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Jehovah/Yahweh) is presented here as He is presented throughout both the Old and New Testaments, that is, as one person, and the one anointed by that one person is distinguished from being Jehovah who anointed him. Indeed, in Isaiah 61:2, the Messiah is depicted as referring the Jehovah as "our God". That designates Jehovah of Isaiah 61:1 as only one person, in harmony with Micah 5:4 and Ephesians 1:3.

The spirit of Jehovah is put on the one anointed. The Messiah is anointed by God's Holy Spirit. The expression itself indicates that this is not a person; it is, however, the personal power of the one to whom the spirit belongs. (See Isaiah 11:1-3) There is no indication, here or anywhere else in the Bible, that the personal spirit of Jehovah is a separate and distinct person of Jehovah.

* Isaiah 48:16,17 - The Lord Jehovah Has Sent Me

{Isaiah 48:16} “Come near to me and hear this: From the beginning, I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it was, there am I.” Now, the Lord Jehovah has sent me, with his Spirit.

{Isaiah 48:17} Thus says Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am Jehovah your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go." — RLIV

The claim is made that this verse shows three persons in one Godhead. One even claims that this verse contains one of the clearest statements of the trinity doctrine in the Old Testament. In fact, however, we find nothing at all about the trinity doctrine in Isaiah 48:16. What the trinitarian actually presents as the trinity is the imaginative assumptions that the trinitarian places over the scripture.

As usual with the trinitarian proof-texts, there is nothing in this verse about three persons in Jehovah. The trinitarian has to imagine the trinitarian dogma applies, formulate assumptions based on that imagination, and then read those assumptions into what is stated, so that, in effect, what they actually present as proof is what has to be imagined and assumed concerning the scripture, not what is actually said in the scripture. Evidently what they are assuming here is that Jesus is one of the persons of Jehovah, and the Jesus is sent by another person of Jehovah, and the spirit is another person of Jehovah,  and either that Jehovah’s spirit as a  person of Jehovah was sent by Jehovah, or that Jehovah’s spirit as a person of Jehovah sends another person of Jehovah, that is, Jesus. In reality, all through the Bible, Jehovah is presented as a unipersonal God; He is never presented as being more than one person.

Actually, Isaiah is the prophet who is writing the above, and is evidently the one referred to as being sent (Isaiah 6:9,10) by Jehovah. Benson's Commentary states concerning the latter part of Isaiah 48:16:

And now — This is opposed to the foregoing words, from the beginning; the Lord God and his Spirit — God, by his Spirit, or God, even the Spirit, namely, the Holy Ghost, to whom the sending and inspiring of God’s prophets is ascribed, 2 Peter 1:21; hath sent me — Namely, the prophet, who yet was a type of Christ, and so this may have a respect to him also.

Albert Barnes notes concerning the one sent:

And now the Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me - There is evidently a change in the speaker here. In the former part of the verse, it is God who is the speaker. But here it is he who is sent to bear the message. Or, if this should be regarded, as Lowth and many others suppose, as the Messiah who is speaking to the exiled Jews, then it is an assertion that he had been sent by the Lord God and his Spirit. There is an ambiguity in the original, which is not retained in our common translation. The Hebrew is, 'And now the Lord Yahweh hath sent me, and his Spirit;' and the meaning may be either, as in our version, that Yahweh and his Spirit were united in sending the person referred to; or that Yahweh had sent him, and at the same time had also sent his Spirit to accompany what he said.... The scope of the passage demands, as it seems to me, that it should be referred to the prophet himself. His object is, to state that he had not come at his own instance, or without being commissioned. He had been sent by God, and was attended by the Spirit of inspiration. He foretold events which the Spirit of God alone could make known to mankind. It is, therefore, a strong asseveration that his words demanded their attention, and that they had every ground of consolation, and every possible evidence that they would be rescued from their bondage. It is a full claim to divine inspiration, and is one of the many assertions which are found in the Scriptures where the sacred writers claim to have been sent by God, and taught by his Spirit.

Matthew Poole states;

Hath sent me, to wit, the prophet Isaiah; who yet was a type of Christ, and so this may have a respect to him also.

In the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, we read:

and now the Lord God &c.] Render: and now the Lord Jehovah hath sent me and (i.e. with) His spirit; “His spirit” being not a second subject along with Jehovah, but a second object. For the idea cf. ch. Isaiah 61:1 and Zechariah 7:12. The Spirit is never spoken of in the O.T. as the sender of the prophets, or as an independent agent distinct from Jehovah.

Thus it appears that Isaiah speaks of himself as sent to Israel by Jehovah, and he possibly also speaks of Jehovah’s spirit being sent, or it may be that the prophet spoke of himself as being sent by or with the power of God's spirit.

Consequently, we believe while in much of the book, that Isaiah is quoting what Jehovah has said, that in this verse he suddenly stops quoting Jehovah and speaks of himself as being sent by Jehovah. This is not all that unusual in Isaiah’s writings, that is, that he stops quoting Jehovah, and starts speaking of himself, or someone else, without giving any indication of such a change.

A similar case is Isaiah 8:1-3. One could read verse three as a continuation of the quotation of Jehovah’s words in verse one, thus making Jehovah as the one who went to the prophetess, but common sense tells us that Isaiah stopped quoting Jehovah and began referring to himself.

We find the same principle in Isaiah 48:16,17. There we can see that the latter part of verse 16 goes with the beginning of verse 17, and is not part of the quotation of Jehovah, but rather Isaiah’s own remarks: “And now the Lord Jehovah, and his spirit, has sent me — this what Jehovah says, your redeemer, the holy one of Israel,…” after which Isaiah returns to quoting the words of Jehovah.

Below are some translations that have punctuation similar to ours.

“Draw near to me, hear this: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret, from the time it came to be I have been there.” And now the Lord GOD has sent me and his Spirit. — Revised Standard Version.

“Now come close to me and hear what I say. From the beginning I have spoken openly and have always made my words come true.” (Now the Sovereign Lord has given me his power and sent me.) — Today’s English Version

“Come to me and listen to this. From the beginning I have spoken openly. From the time it began, I was there.” Now, the Lord God has sent me with his Spirit. — New Century Version

“Come near to me, YOU people. Hear this. From the start I have spoken in no place of concealment at all. From the time of its occurring I have been there.” And now the Sovereign Lord Jehovah himself has sent me, even his spirit. — New World Translation, 1971 edition.

A slightly different punctuation appears in this translation:

Come to me and hear this! Not from the beginning did I speak it in secret; At the time it comes to pass, I am present; “Now the Lord GOD has sent me, and his spirit.” — The New American Bible

Even if this verse were referring to Jesus as the one sent, it still does not say anything about three persons in one Jehovah. The one who sent Jesus is still the only true God, and the one sent by the only true God is still not the only true God who sent him. — John 17:1,3.

Thus it should be apparent to all that the doctrine that Jesus is Jehovah is not found in Isaiah 48:16 (as it is not found anywhere else in the Bible). There is definitely nothing here to indicate that God’s spirit is a separate sentiency yet the Supreme Omniscient Being. And even more definitely we do not find anything in the verse about Jehovah as three persons, or of three persons in one “Godhead.”

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. — 1 Peter 1:3.

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Addendum

The claim is being made that the “true being of God as a class or kind of being has no less and no more than three eternally distinct Persons of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.”  Support for this is being claimed in Isaiah 48:6; Matthew 28:19-20; Hebrews 9:14. Nevertheless, in not one of these scriptures do we find any reference to God as being three persons. Isaiah 48:6 was evidently meant to have been Isaiah 48:16, which is discussed above.

We have discussed Matthew 28:19 elsewhere.

Hebrews 9:14 presents God as one person, and his son is not presented as being a person of God, nor is the spirit spoken of as a person of God.

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