The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1909, Page 41

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Che Lutheran Pioneer.

A MISSIONARY MONTHLY.

Pusuisiiep BY THE EvancenicaL Lutueran SynoprcaL ConrErencr or Nortn AMERICA.

hk. A. BISCHOFF, Enpiror.

Entered at the Post Oflice at St. Louis, Mo., as second-class matter.

Vol. XXXI.

ST. LOUIS, MO., JUNE, 1909.

No. 6.

Holy Trinity.

We give immortal praise

To God the Father's love,

For all our comforts here,

And all our hopes above;

He sent IHis*own eternal Son

To die for sins that man had done.

To God the Son belongs

Immortal glory, too,

Who saved us by His blood

From everlasting woe.

And now He lives, and now He reigns,
And sees the fruit of all His pains.

To God the Spirit praise

And endless worship give, |

Whose new-creating power

Makes the dead sinner live.

His work completes the great design,
And fills the soul with joy divine.

Almighty God, to Thee

Be endless honors done;

The sacred Persons Three,

The Godhead only One.

Where reason fails with all her powers,

There faith prevails, and love adores.
Selected.

+--+ —__—_—_-

The Doctrine of the Holy Trinity.

Trinity means ‘Three-Oneness. The doctrine of
the Holy. Trinity teaches us that there are three
persons in one God. It is a doctrine of which
human reason and nature know nothing and can
know nothing. The Bible alone teaches it, and
faith alone accepts it. Daniel Webster, the great

that I cannot comprehend how one can be three or
three one.”

The Bible clearly teaches that there is but one
God. In the Old Testament we read: “Hear, O Is-
rael, the Lord, our God, is one Lord,” Deut. 6, 4.
In the New Testament we read: “There is but one
God,” 1 Cor. 8,6. And again: “There is one God,”
1 Tim. 2, 5. :

. The Bible also clearly teaches in many places
that this one God subsists in three persons, God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. At
the baptism of Christ the one God plainly revealed
Himself as three distinct persons. The Son stood
in the river Jordan and was baptized, the Holy
Spirit came down upon Him like a dove, and the
Father’s voice was heard from heaven: “This is
my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,” Matt.
3, 16. 17. Here we read of three distinct persons.
But these three are one God. “There are three that
bear record in heaven, the. Father, the Word, and
the Holy Ghost; and these three are one,” 1 John

5, % Therefore the command is given to baptize

orator and statesman, well said: “I believe that _

God exists in three persons. This I learn from reve-

lation alone. Nor is it any objection to this belief

“in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost,” Matt. 28, 19. Therefore also the
benediction reads: “The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and the love of God, and the communion
of the Holy Ghost, be with you all,” 2 Cor. 13, 14.
The blessing flows from the three persons, and bap-
tism must be administered in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,
because these three persons are one God.

This Triune God is the only true God, and he
who has not this God has not the true God. What-
ever other god he has is a false god. He is outside
the Christian Church and cannot be saved as long
as he continues in his unbelief: He who holds not