Evidence for the trinity [moved from The Ancient Way - Eastern Orthodox]

well, I think that is the first time that the word Trinity was used to describe the Godhead. the concept has been there from the beginning. and we know this my those councils. the Fathers at those councils did not just go with terms that they thought were good sounding or whatever, but rather they looked to what had always been believed.

and remember as well that this is coming out of Judaism, which has only affirmed one God. so even of they do not say Trinity or use that word. if Jesus is God with His Father and the Spirit, then the Trinity is the only way to go.

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"Everyone capable of thanksgiving is capable of joy and eternal salvation." -Fr. Alexander Schmemann

"The time of the end, though it seems to be near, we do not know. Let us then struggle while it is still day, with the time and the weapons which our All-merciful God has given us!" -Fr. Seraphim Rose

All of Gods own are one friends.

Some of the Scriptural arguments for the belief that there is One God, the Father, whose Son (the Word) is true God of true God and whose Spirit is called Lord and worshiped as God...

On the Son:
-We are saved by Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Isaiah says we are saved by none other than God.
-Christ is identified as "Wisdom" by St. Paul (1 Cor 1). Proverbs says (in the voice of Wisdom): "Before the hills, He begets me." That is past tense followed by present: before all of creation, Wisdom is being begotten. Outside of time, the eternal begetting.
-The Son is worshiped alongside the Father and Spirit in Matthew's baptismal formula.
-The Son is called "Lord" in Paul's greetings, and placed alongside God the Father as equal in honor. "Lord" had a meaning in both the Jewish context (as a title of God) and in a Roman context (as the title of Caesar: the divine son of the gods).
-Jesus Christ does divine things: raise the dead, forgive sins, walk on water, cast out demons, teach in his own name ("I say to you" as opposed to "Thus saith the Lord").
-John's Gospel directly calls Him "ο θεος" ("My Lord and My God"), and declares quite plainly that He and the Father are one. We know the Father is unbegotten, and that the Son is begotten eternally from all ages. The Son must then be distinct (e.g. have unique attribute(s) different from the Father) that are particular to the Son, yet, to be "one" with the Father the Son must share in all the things that it means to be "God" (e.g. all the things that are universal to divinity - all the things divine).
-Christ, in John's Gospel, says that those who have seen Him have seen the Father. Christ is, in other words, the FULL revelation of God. Beyond Christ there can be no further revelation of God. For that to be true, Christ must PRESENT (make manifest) everything it means to be God; to do that, He must be God. This concept is also implied by the title "Word" of God.

The Spirit:
Inspired the prophets. Did some other God inspire the prophets, or the One God? Yet the Spirit proceeds from the Father - does the Father proceed from Himself? That makes no sense and is no where said in Scripture. So the Spirit is distinct from the Father, but co-equally God.

Incarnated the Son in Mary's womb. Did some other God Incarnate the Son? If not, then the Spirit is God.

Descended on the Apostles at Pentecost. Did some other God do this? The Spirit is called by Christ the "paraclete" - the comforter and advocate. Do we have some OTHER comforter and advocate than God?

Gregory the Theologian has a marvelous passage in his 31st Oration (his 5th theological oration) addressing this point. The whole oration is on the divinity of the Spirit, to which the refrain of his opponents was "the Bible doesn't call the Spirit God." After replying that the Bible doesn't say a lot of things which are, in fact, true; and also that the Bible says a lot of things which, being figures, are not factual; and also that one may take from the factual things the Bible does say clear inference that the Spirit is God (as I did above) and that such inference is as valid as assuming that if someone says "twice five" he means "ten" (even if the word "ten" was not uttered) - after these replies, Gregory agrees to go through the Scriptures with some rhetorical flourish on behalf of the Spirit's divinity:
"Christ is born, the Spirit is his forerunner; Christ is baptized, the Spirit bears him witness; Christ is tempted, the Spirit leads him up; Christ performs miracles, the Spirit accompanies him; Christ ascends, the Spirit fills his place. Is there any significant function belonging to God which cannot apply to him [the Spirit] except "ingenerate" and "begotten" [which belong to the Father and Son respectively]? ... He is called Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ, Mind of Christ, Spirit of the Lord, and "Lord" absolutely; Spirit of Adoption, "of Truth", "of Freedom,"; "Spirit of Wisdom," "Understanding," "Counsel," "Might," "Knowledge," "True Religion," and of "The Fear of God." The Spirit indeed effects all these things, filling the universe with His being, sustaining the universe. His being "fills the world", his power is beyond the the world's capacity to contain it. It is his nature, not his given function, to be "good," to be "righteous," and to be in "command." He is the subject, not the object, of hallowing, apportioning, participating, filling, sustaining; we share in him and he shares in nothing. He is our inheritance, he is glorified, counted together with the Father and the Son; he is a dire warning to us, the "finger of God,"; he is, like God, a "fire" which proves, I think, that he is consusbstantial. The Spirit it is who created, and creates anew through baptism and resurrection. The Spirit it is who knows all things, who teaches all things, who blows where and as strongly as he wills, who leads, speaks, sends out, separates... He reveals, illumines, gives life - or, rather, is absolutely Light and Life. He makes us his temple, he deifies, he makes us complete, and he initiates us in such a way that he both precedes baptism and is wanted after it. All that God actively performs, he performs. Divided in fiery tongues, he distributes graces, makes Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. He is intelligent, manifold, clear, distinct, irresistible, unpolluted - or in other words, he is utterly wise, his operations are multifarious, he clarifies all things distinctly, his authority is absolute and he is free from mutability. He is 'all powerful, overseeing all and penetrating through all spirits that are intelligent and pure and most subtle" - meaning, I think, angelic powers as well as prophets and Apostles. He penetrates them simultaneously, though they are distributed in various places, which shows that he is not tied down by spatial limitations..." (Orat 31.29)

If you see anything on that lengthy list that you'd feel uncomfortable ascribing to anyone apart from God, then you see Gregory's point: the Spirit is the SUBJECT (that is, the do-er) of sanctification, not the OBJECT (the one receiving sanctification). He is not bound by space, knows all things, sanctifies the world, creates, etc - these are things we say of God and God alone. And this is how SCRIPTURE describes the Spirit: Gregory, in the above passage, quoted and alluded to the following scriptures:
Luke 1:31, 33
Mt 3:13-17
Luke 3:21-22
Mt 4:1
Lk 4:2
Mt 12:22, 28
Acts 1:9, 2:3-4
1 Cor 2:11
Rom 8:9
1 Cor 2:14-16
2 Cor 3:17
Rom 8:15
Jn 14:17
Is 11:2-3
Wis 1:7
Ps 143(142):10
Ps 51(50):10(12)
Ps 50:14 (LXX only)
1 Cor 6:11
Jn 3:34
Phil 2:1
Eph 1:13-14
1 Cor 6:19-20
1 Jn 5:7-8
Mt 28:19
Mk 3:29
Lk 11:20
Deut 4:24
Ps 104(103):30
Jn 3:5, 1 Cor 12:13
Ezek 37:5-14
1 Cor 2:10
Jn 14:26
Jn 3:8
Ps 143(142):10
Acts 13:2-4
Job 4:9
Acts 5:9
1 Cor 2:10
Jn 16:13
1 Cor 12:11
Wis 7:23
Wis 8:1

I'm taking these references from those identified by Dr. Lionel Wickham in his translation for SVS Press. If there's repetition, I apologize.

St. Gregory does this same sort of long rhetorical-scriptural feast for the Son in Oration 29. The point there also being that the Scriptures say things of the Son that one would only say of God.

So God is the Father of the Son (as the name Son implies the Father), and the Spirit proceeds from the Father (and so is distinct from Him), but all three are spoken of by Scripture as God and were worshiped from the beginning of the Church (c.f. virtually every early baptismal formula: in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit). The term "trinity" developed later. The thrust of the teaching was understood from the beginning, and practiced as such.

In Christ,
Macarius

Macarius lists some excellent points, and has reminded me of one of the key passages from the Gospel about this: John 8:58-9:

(Douay-Rheims).

There are two things to note in this passage: one is that Jesus claims to be eternal, and invokes the language used by God in his revelation to Moses. The other is that it was clearly considered a claim to be God by his audience, since they immediately tried to stone him.

Of course, St John's gospel already contains a claim to Jesus being co-eternal with the Father ("He was with God in the beginning"), and to being an agent in the Creation ("All things were made by him, and without him nothing was made that was made" and also "He was in the world and he made the world and the world knew him not"). I really don't think these passages can be read in such a way as to mean anything except that Jesus is God.

in the Book of Revelation, God calls Himself the Alpha and the Omega, as does Christ. we also see God worshipped on the Throne, with the Lamb, and the River of Life (the Spirit) proceeding from the Throne of God.

St Paul calls the Spirit eternal, which is only a Divine quality.

just some more things from Scripture

__________________
"Everyone capable of thanksgiving is capable of joy and eternal salvation." -Fr. Alexander Schmemann

"The time of the end, though it seems to be near, we do not know. Let us then struggle while it is still day, with the time and the weapons which our All-merciful God has given us!" -Fr. Seraphim Rose

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Ancient, Messianic & glad Yeshua is the Messiah!
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"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." ( Fredrick Douglass )

Proverbs 18:15
"The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge; the ears of the wise seek it out."

Proverbs 24:3-6
5 A wise man has great power,

and a man of knowledge increases strength.

I have heard the Shema (Deut. 6: 4-9?) has a reference to the trinity. 6:4 says specifically "Hear, O Israel. The Lord, our God. The Lord is One."

The word for one is echad. In other places, this oneness means a unity, such as when Genesis describes the bringing of Adam and Eve together into one flesh. So the two become one.

It is used this way in some many other verses in the OT to show unification. So, for Scripture to say that God is Echad, it points to this idea of God being unified. Well that implies a plurality, (Trinity).

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interesting. that fits in nicely with God being called Elohim, which is plural (not single or dual, so at least three). very cool.

__________________
"Everyone capable of thanksgiving is capable of joy and eternal salvation." -Fr. Alexander Schmemann

"The time of the end, though it seems to be near, we do not know. Let us then struggle while it is still day, with the time and the weapons which our All-merciful God has given us!" -Fr. Seraphim Rose

Plus, if I recall, St Augustine points out in De Genesi ad Litteram that in Genesis, God speaks in the plural. Also, he highlights God's speech, ("Let there be...", etc.) as being the Word, who was with God in the beginning (Jn 1:2), and not the physical act of speaking (which would be difficult in a void ).

(I know St Augustine isn't popular in Orthodoxy, but he is still a Church Father, so I thought it was worth pointing out. )

yeah, the plural nouns for God, the use of the word we, and theophanies like Abraham at the oaks of Mamre really show how Trinitarian God has always been in Genesis.

and even though we have some issues with some of St Augustine's theology, some of his theology is solid as is his piety. I think most folks appreciate him as a saint and Father here.

__________________
"Everyone capable of thanksgiving is capable of joy and eternal salvation." -Fr. Alexander Schmemann

"The time of the end, though it seems to be near, we do not know. Let us then struggle while it is still day, with the time and the weapons which our All-merciful God has given us!" -Fr. Seraphim Rose