TRINITY

CAMPBELL DID BELIEVE THAT GOD IS A TRINITY. R.D.Ice

Alexander Campbell thought the word "trinity" was misused and political, and objected to some things being said. Yet he showed his belief in the God who revealed Himself to us as Father/Son/Holy Spirit. Note that allowance must be made for Campbell's response to the challenges of the day. Both he and Stone said things that can be misunderstood and misused. And some deliberately did so. But we take note of things that they wrote and compare them to understand. Matthew's Great Comission from Campbell's Living Oracles Version of the New Testament. "All authority is given to me in heaven and upon th earth; go, convert all the nations, immersing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all the things which I have commanded you: and behold! I am with you always, even to the conclusion of this state." He emphasized baptism into The Name (singular) of Father/Son/Holy Spirit.


I wrote in 2002: "The Devil attacks God. First he attacks the Holy Spirit (Matt. 12:24). Next he attacks Jesus (1 John 2:22-23). The Devil has always tried to replace God with idols. Even though "trinity" is not a Bible word, our fathers in the faith strongly believed in God Who Is A Trinity. Campbell said: "Jehovah the Father, Jehovah the Son, Jehovah the Holy Spirit." This should not be thought of as a conundrum, since each one of us is: body-soul-spirit (1 Thess. 5:23).


Rather than trying to solve the mystery of GOD, we need to refocus. The Triune and Living God helps us understand and deal with crucial practical issues facing all who seek to live in The Spirit of Christ in both church and world today. In the encounter with GOD we are invited to share in divine life and grace through Jesus Christ by the power of The Holy Spirit. At the same time we are called to live in a new relationship with one-another, as we are gathered by The Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ (note Eph. 2:19-22). The doctrine of The Trinity, then, explores the mysteries of love, relationship, person-hood and communion (sharing - note 1 Cor. 10:16-17) within the framework of God’s self-revelation in the person of Christ Jesus and the activity of The Holy Spirit."


This from Campbell's "Christian System." Chapter V.

II. The Spirit is said to do, and to have done, all that God does and all that God has done. It [He] has ascribed to it [Him] all divine perfections and works; and in the New Testament it is designated as the immediate author and agent of the new creation, and of the holiness of Christians. It is therefore called the Holy Spirit. In the sublime and ineffable relation of the deity, or godhead, it stands next to the Incarnate Word. Anciently, or before time, it was God, the Word of God, and the Spirit of God. But now, in the development of the Christian scheme, it is "the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit" - one God, one Lord, one Spirit. To us Christians there is, then, but one God, even the Father; and one Lord Jesus Christ, even the Saviour; and one Spirit, even the Advocate, the Sanctifier, and the Comforter of Christ's body - the church. Jesus is the head, and the Spirit is the life and animating principle of that body.


III. The whole systems of creation, providence, and redemption are founded upon these relations in the Deity. Destroy these, blend and confound these, and nature, providence, and grace are blended, confounded, and destroyed. The peerless and supreme excellency of the Christian system is, that it fully opens to the vision of mortals the divinity - the whole godhead - employed in the work of man's regeneration and ultimate glorification. God is manifest in human flesh, and is justified and glorified by the Spirit, in accomplishing man's deliverance from ruin. Each name of the sacred three has its own peculiar work and glory in the three great works of Creation, Government, and Redemption. Hence we are, by divine authority, immersed into the name of the FATHER, the SON, and the HOLY SPIRIT, in coming into the kingdom of grace; and while in that kingdom the supreme benediction is, "The grace of the LORD JESUS CHRIST, and the love of GOD, and the communion of the HOLY SPIRIT, be with you!" Indeed, in the old church that was in the wilderness, while matters were comparatively in the shadows of a moonlight age, the High-Priest of 'Israel was commanded to put the name of God upon the children of Israel, in the same relation of the sacred three - "The LORD [NOTE: In the Hebrew Bible it is Jehovah each time.] bless thee and keep thee - The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee - The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." [NOTE: Numbers vi. 24-28.] "Jehovah bless thee" is equal to "the love of God." "Jehovah be gracious unto thee" answers to "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." And "Jehovah lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace," corresponds to "the communion of the Spirit." [2 Corinthians 13:14.]


IV. The divine doctrine of these holy and incomprehensible relations in the Divinity is so inwrought and incorporated with all the parts of the sacred book - so identified with all the dispensations of religion - and so essential to the mediatorship of Christ, that it is impossible to make any real and divine proficiency in the true knowledge of God, of man, of reconciliation, or remission of sins, of eternal life, or in the piety and divine life of Christ's religion, without a clear, and distinct perception of it, as well as a firm and unshaken faith and confidence in it, as we trust still to make more evident in the sequel.

Look at http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/acampbell/cs/ac4c5.html