Does Genesis 1:26 Refer to the Trinity? by David K. Bernard Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript) Kind: teaching Scripture: Genesis 1:26, Genesis 11:7, Deuteronomy 6:4, Job 38, Genesis 1:27, Isaiah 44:24, Ephesians 1:11, Romans 5, 1 Peter 1 Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--does-genesis-1-26-refer-to-the-trinity Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page. Free to copy and share with attribution. ------------------------------------------------------------ well thank you for that question let me start off by saying yes oneness pentecostals believe that there is one personal god as deuteronomy 6 4 says hear o israel the lord our god is one lord we do believe that god has manifested himself as our father in creation we do believe that god came in flesh as jesus christ the son of god god manifests in the flesh and we do believe that god is the holy spirit god works in our lives by his spirit god in action god in personal presence so we do believe in the father son and holy spirit but we do not believe these are three personalities or three divine persons quote in the godhead because we don't believe the godhead is an abstract substance that multiple persons can be in we believe the godhead is god singular so having said that you bring up these plurals in genesis plural pronouns in relation to god i would first like to say that thousands of times the bible uses the singular pronoun or singular verb for god so the overwhelming evidence if you just want to go by grammar the overwhelming evidence is god is singular but you do have these few cases where plural pronouns are used of god it's interesting when you look at the old testament of course the jewish people have historically recognized the old testament as their bible and they believe in absolutely one god no multiplicity of persons so if you ask jewish rabbis which i have done does this indicate more than one person they say absolutely not their standard explanation in these two places that god is addressing the angels that god respects the angels angels were present at creation according to the book of job chapter 38. um the angels did not participate in creating god created alone but they were present and so they what the jewish rabbi says that god always includes his agents or his friends his associates in his plans uh even humans and so in this case he informed the angels that i'm going to create someone who's going to be like us and then the example the tower of babel i'm going down to judge and he i want you to go with me and execute my judgment so that's the traditional explanation and it fits the context very well however it's quite possible that something a little bit more is going on in genesis chapter 1 the creation account i do not think you can interpret this as more than one person participating in creation if you do you have several problems yes genesis 1 26 let us make man but then genesis 1 27 immediately reverts to the singular so god created man in his own image it's singular and then when you look at the image creature adam now you could describe adam in many ways he has body soul spirit mind will personality what what have you but at the end of the day adam is one person with one personality with one will and as such the bible says he's the image of his creator well if the image is one person with one will then that means the reflection he's the reflection of the reality god he would be one person one will so it actually proves the opposite and then you also have the explicit statement of scripture in isaiah 44 24. i'm going to use the new king james thus says the lord your redeemer and he who formed you from the womb i am the lord who makes all things who stretches out the heavens all alone who spreads abroad the earth by myself so god is very clear when i created the the world heaven and earth i did it alone and i did it by myself so he wasn't talking to a co-creator or to another person if you do say that well god is speaking according to genesis 1 if god is a trinity then the trinity is speaking to someone else so now you've got a fourth person so i don't think that's a credible explanation probably the simplest explanation that i would give it's the plural of deliberation so god is wanting to be intentional he's wanting to show i create everything by my word but when i came to humans they were so special so unique the apex of my creation i molded them and i breathe into them it was very intentional not an accident not just a side thought but and so as part of that let us make man just like i would say in planning my day let's see what am i going to do today literally let's see let us see am i talking to another person no am i a split personality no i am deliberating and in fact ephesians 1 11 says god works all things together after the counsel of his own will so god is counseling within himself showing us how important our creation was to him now there is even a thought too as well that in romans 5 it talks about adam created in the image of him who was to come that is christ jesus so think about it this way when god created adam and eve he wanted people to have fellowship with him to love him uh to have communion with him but they fell into sin that broke the fellowship at least that temporarily skewed god's plan so you then the question becomes if god knows all things why would even create humans that would fail that wouldn't fulfill his purpose and the answer is because he also had a plan of redemption to restore humans so that at least some of them could fulfill his original purpose so in other words in god's plan jesus christ comes first and the bible even says that revelation the lamb slain from the foundation of the world first peter 1 the the lamb was foreign from the foundation of the world so before god even created adam and eve he already had the plan of redemption through jesus christ so could it be that it's a more profound statement in genesis 1 26 god looking forward not to some other person sitting side by side but looking at that child to be born that true human being who was god manifest in the flesh but nevertheless a true human a baby a child a young man a man who was crucified who died rose again could it be that god was looking forward and saying let us create man not just speaking of the original creation but the re-creation that would come through the redemption so possibly it is a hint or an early sign of the future plan of redemption through jesus christ our lord so i've given you several possible explanations different people uh put different weights on the the probability but what is clear is that the language doesn't require another person and when you read the rest of the bible the language excludes the idea of another person i see it as a beautiful statement of god's creative plan for the human race