“…The Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

                 Of all the religions in the world, three are clearly monotheistic:  Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  Historically they came in that order.  Christians claim a link between Jesus and Old Testament while Muslims say the Qur’an updates, corrects and fulfills the Bible.  Do all three faiths equally promote the same God?

Muslims say that their god, Allah, is an inseparable god with no parts or divisions.  He is a single, solitary creator of the universe.  But this is different than what the Bible teaches.  In the Old Testament the famous Jewish Shema, which means “hear,” states that God “is one.”  This word one does not mean single or individual, but “unity.”  In fact, of the words available to the writers of the Hebrew Scriptures, never does any word meaning individual oneness describe God.  Moreover, every time God is described as “one,” the word chosen means “unity.”  This at least creates the possibility for God being multi-personal.  This multi-personal God is clarified in the New Testament as (what theologians call) the Trinity.  Properly understood, the Shema essentially says, “Yahweh our Elohim (plural form of “El”, or God), Yahweh is unified.”  Notice the plural form of God using the singular verb “is.”  Either the grammar is incorrect, or God defies quantification.  Since all of Scripture is inspired, let’s consider the second option.

I have a friend who says that God is greater than time, space and number.  Greater than time means that God lives beyond or outside of time.  We call that eternal.  Greater than space means that God is not limited by space (see 2 Chronicles 6:18).  We call that infinite.  But greater than number?  Yes!  God cannot be numbered.  He is one God, yet revealed as three persons:  Father, Son and Spirit.  This should not shock us; it should amaze us!  While we think we understand the concepts of infinity and eternity, do we really?  Can we think beyond or outside of space?  Do we know what occurred before time?  No.  So the Trinity shouldn’t surprise us either.  It is not double-talk.  It is a demonstration that the immaterial God will not and cannot be quantified by understanding that is limited to a material, space/time universe.  It doesn’t contradict logic, it simply goes beyond logic.

Consider this also: time and space are 3-dimensional realities.  Time has past, present and future.  Take one of those away, and time ceases to be time.  Space has height, width and depth.  Take one of them away and space is reduced to a two-dimensional reality.  The “unities” or “one’s” of this world are time and space.  The particulars of both are 3-fold.  Even human beings, made in God’s image, are a single person comprised of “spirit, soul and body” (1 Thessalonians 5:23), another threesome.  Moreover, everything in the universe is either space, matter or energy, still another 3-in-1.  Matter also is divided into three kingdoms: animal, vegetable, mineral!

Are we seeing a pattern here?  Why is it that the very foundations of the universe are built on a 3-in-1 structure?  I believe the answer can be found in our own manner of creating things.  When we create robots, aren’t many of them fashioned after our own likeness?  Don’t they function like we do?  Of course.  God has done the same thing, creating a universe whose structure is like Himself, and creatures in His image for His purposes.  Paul had it correct when, quoting the Cretan poet Epimendes, he said to the philosophers in Athens, “For in [God] we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).  As painters typically sign their art, God has put His “signature” or fingerprint on the creation, including us!

The oneness or unity of God is displayed in the particulars.  And the plan of Jesus includes us.  He prayed that all Christians “may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you…that they may be one as we are one…” (John 17:21-22).  But what keeps the unity together?  Colossians 3:14 tells us that love binds “all these virtues…all together in perfect unity.”  For God to be love (1 John 4:8) He must have something or someone to love.  Before the creation there was nothing to love.  Thus love can only come from a unified, multi-personal God.  Before the creation the three divine persons loved each other.  Jesus says we will inhabit that perfect, loving sphere of oneness.  Incredible!  Are you eager to experience such oneness?  Are you enjoying God’s love?  Does your life reflect and demonstrate that kind of love to others?