Plurality In The Godhead: Trinity and
Perichoresis. Revelation 21:5-6
We are going to get into a
review of the doctrine of the Trinity and a doctrine that is known as
perichoresis. What we have seen so far in this chapter is that the time shifts
to a time in the future beyond the Millennial kingdom and after the great white
throne judgment. It is clear that a new earth and a new universe is created,
with some different dynamics—the geophysical laws that operated during the time
period between the Noahic flood and now are different from that which preceded
the Noahic flood and that which will come after the Millennial kingdom. We just
don’t live in a static universe, though God has created it in such a way that
He oversees it and we do have stability. As part of the new earth there will be
a new Jerusalem, but in these opening verses it is dealing more with the
spiritual life in the new heavens and new earth as well as the role of church
age believers—what happens to church age believers in the new heavens and new
earth. We rule and reign with Christ in the Millennial kingdom, but what about
beyond that?
As an introduction to that
we focus on the person of God, the person who is sitting on the throne in verse
5. Revelation 21:5 NASB “And He who sits on the throne said,
‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ And He said, ‘Write, for these words are
faithful and true.’”
The first thing we should
do as we approach the passage is define who it is who is sitting on the throne.
This can be confusing. Those who hold to an amillennial or post-millennial view
believe that when Jesus Ascended He sat on His throne and He sat on the throne
of David which is a spiritual throne in heaven and at that point He became the
King and begins to rule at that point. Amillennial = no literal 1000-year
earthly kingdom. Post-millennialism grew out of amillennialism, still
spiritualizing and allegorizing the various passages related to the kingdom;
but for them the church which (to them) has replaced
All of these things are
interrelated because we have to understand what the kingdom is, and that is not
always easy to do because there are two senses in which we have a kingdom.
There is kingdom in terms of the sovereign reign of God over His creation, and
in that broad sense God the Father is viewed as a King, as the sovereign ruling
over His creation. On the other hand we have the introduction and prophecy of a
kingdom—there was a literal theocratic
When we come to verse 5 we
read about this one who is sitting on the throne. Is that the Father? Is that
the Son? The way to address this is to go back to the beginning of the book of
revelation and see how the word “throne” is used. The first time we see this
phrase is in Revelation 1:4 NASB “John to the seven churches that
are in
“…and from the seven Spirits
who are before His throne.” The “His” there refers to the one who is and who
was and who is to come. We have two persons here, the one who is sitting on the
throne and the seven Spirits who are before His throne which is an allusion to
the fullness of the ministry of God the Holy Spirit—Isaiah 61:1.
The next time we have
mention of a throne in terms of heaven is in Revelation
Then Revelation 5:13. In
Revelation chapters four and five we have a heavenly introduction to the
Tribulation period. There is the throne room scene, and before the throne are
the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders who represent the risen,
rewarded, raptured, church age believers. Then there is this cry going forth
seeking someone who can open the seven-sealed scroll that is lying in the hand
of the Father who is sitting on the throne. There are two personages here, the
Father who is sitting on the throne with the scroll in His open hand and then
the Lamb who comes before the throne. They are distinct persons. NASB
“And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the
earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, ‘To Him who sits
on the throne, and to the Lamb, {be} blessing and honor and glory and dominion
forever and ever.’”
Revelation
In Revelation chapter
seven we have some key verses. Revelation 7:9 NASB “After these
things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from
every nation and {all} tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the
throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches {were} in
their hands; [10] and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation
to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’” theos [Qeoj] never refers to Jesus in
the book of Revelation, it always refers to the Father…. [15] “For this reason,
they [the living creatures and the 24 elders] are before the throne of God; and
they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will
spread His tabernacle over them [dwell among them].” The focus in Revelation
isn’t Jesus coming to dwell among men, but the Father coming to dwell among men—Revelation
21. [17] “…for the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and
will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear
from their eyes.” The one who sits on the throne is going to dwell among them,
the Lamb is going to shepherd them. Notice He is not on the throne; He is in
the midst of the throne. It is the Lamb who shepherds them and leads them to
living fountains of water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Cf.
Revelation 21:4. Notice it is God in
Revelation 12:5 NASB
“And she gave birth to a son, a male {child,} who is to rule all the nations
with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.” This
is the scene where John sees the woman who represents
Revelation 19:4 NASB
“And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and
worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, ‘Amen. Hallelujah!’”
Revelation 22:1, 3 NASB
“Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from
the throne of God and of the Lamb… There will no longer be any curse; and the
throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve
Him.” This is the first time that we see the Lamb upon the throne. Up until
Revelation chapter 22 which is new heavens and new earth the Lamb doesn’t sit on
the throne. He sits on the Father’s throne, and then we know from Old Testament
passages He sits on David’s throne and rule over
In chapter 21 He who sat
on the throne is clearly a reference to the Father. So the next thing we have
to discern is that God the Father is speaking to John. Revelation 21:5 NASB “And
He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ And He said,
‘Write, for these words are faithful and true.’” The word “new” is the Greek
word kainos [kainoj] which indicates that it is an integral newness, not
simply a revision; it is something completely new. “These words are true and
faithful” alludes to and brings out a connection between words, the title logos for the Lord Jesus Christ, as well
as the fact that true and faithful are adjectives used to describe the Lord
Jesus Christ. Revelation 19:11 NASB “And I saw heaven opened, and
behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it {is} called Faithful and True, and
in righteousness He judges and wages war.
Revelation 21:6 NASB
“Then He said to me, ‘It is done. [The plan is complete] I am the Alpha and the
Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the
spring of the water of life without cost.” Earlier we saw that the Lamb is
going to lead to that water, but it is the Father here who says he will give
the water freely to him who thirsts. There are two titles that relate to deity
here: Alpha and Omega. They apply to the Father. The reason it doesn’t apply to
the Son (except in one passage): In Revelation 1:8 NASB “I am the
Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to
come, the Almighty.” The words “the beginning and the end” is not found in the Critical
Text or the Majority text; it is only in the Textus Receptus. This is not the
Son speaking here it is the Father. It says “Says the Lord” in the KJV and NKJV but the
Majority Text says “the Lord God,” as does the Critical Text, and that is
substantiated by early versions as well. When it is “Lord God” it is talking
about God the Father. Revelation 1:6 NASB “and He has made us {to
be} a kingdom, priests to His God and
Father—to Him {be} the glory and the dominion forever and ever.” The construction
there identifies God the Father, and that is the first time we find God related
in this way in Revelation. Revelation
The Father is also the one
who is described as the Almighty, Revelation 4:8. This is in the scene before
the throne of God, the 24 elders and the four living creatures. NASB
“And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of
eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY {is} THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO
WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME.” In another
scene of heavenly praise: Revelation 11:17 NASB “saying, ‘We
give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You
have taken Your great power and have begun to reign.’” Notice the last part of
that says, “because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign.”
And it is not the Son! There is no place in the Scriptures that talks about the
kingdom being a present reality; it is a future reality but not a present
reality, and Jesus is never referred to as the King and His authority as the
King is never the basis for challenges, exhortations, or commands to church age
believers. He commands us because He is the head of the body, not because He is
the King. Not once do we ever find the apostle Paul saying we need to obey
Jesus as our King. He says He is the head of the body, the church, and we need
to obey Him for that reason. There is no present kingdom, He is not the King,
and the only reference to kings and reigning at this stage, pre-second coming,
is the Father. This is emphasized again in Revelation 15:3 NASB “And
they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb,
saying, “Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the
Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations!”
Revelation 16:14 NASB
“for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of
the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God,
the Almighty.” This is talking about the Father, not the Son even though He is
going to come back and destroy the enemies of God. Revelation 19:6 NASB “Then I heard
{something} like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many
waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, ‘Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.’” That is the Father. Then when
Jesus returns we read, [15] “From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with
it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron;
and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.
Revelation 21:5 NASB “And
He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ And He
said, ‘Write, for these words are faithful and true.’ [6] Then He said to me, ‘It
is done…” That is the plan of God, the angelic conflict; it is all over with,
evil has been defeated. “… I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the
end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life
without cost.” That is a great passage related to salvation, the freeness of
the offer of salvation. In fact, this same imagery is found in Isaiah 12:3 NASB
“Therefore you will joyously draw water From the springs of salvation.” It is
also used in Isaiah 55:1 NASB “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to
the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and
milk Without money and without cost.”
Giving the water is free.
But what we get into in the next verses has to do with inheritance, and this is
something that is earned. It is very important to observe the contrast that is
being set up here by John.
The doctrine of the
Trinity is often thought to be something unique to Christianity and to the New
Testament, but as we will see, it is not unique to the New Testament. It is
more clear in the New Testament. It becomes defined by Tertullian and then
later those at the Council of Nicea and the Council of Chalcedon in 451. That
is when the vocabulary and the concepts related to the Trinity are clarified
and articulated.
The Trinity
Definition:
God exists in three equal persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit: terms related to
their roles, sometimes referred to as the economic Trinity because economy has
to do with administration. The unity of the persons within the Trinity is so
intimate that what can be said of one can be said of the other. In other words,
if you have seen one you have seen the other. Each one is equally and fully God
but, on the other hand, they are distinct—the Father is not the Holy
Spirit, the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, etc.—they are
equally distinct persons. So often we emphasize
the distinction of their persons that we forget how intimate the unity is, and
that is where the doctrine of perichoresis comes in.
Perichoresis
The
definition of perichoresis is that it is the mutual indwelling—the Father
indwells the Son, the Son indwells the Father, the Father indwells the Holy
Spirit, etc—of each person of the Godhead in the other. It is said that the
three are together a dynamic, interconnecting and intermingling unity. They
each have full and total fellowship with the other. This is the only way that
one or two unusual references that Jesus uses can be explained. John
When we get into passages
like John 12 when Jesus said that Isaiah saw His glory, and then when we go
back to Isaiah 6 where Isaiah saw somebody sitting on the throne, then we say
wait a minute: typically what we have been taught is that based on John 12 that
had to be Jesus sitting on the throne. Now this is how this connects together.
Was Jesus sitting on the throne in Isaiah 6? Who is sitting on the throne in
Isaiah 6? It can only be the Father, and yet Jesus says in John 12 that Isaiah
saw His glory. He was not saying that Isaiah saw His person, He is saying
Isaiah saw His glory—because the glory of the Son is the same as the glory of
the Father and the glory of the Holy Spirit. In a number of passages in the Old
Testament we read something about God appearing to Moses. Was that the Father,
the Son or the Holy Spirit? It was God, the Trinity, the fullness of the
Trinity—perichoresis. Does that mean that they saw God the Father? Not in the
sense that they saw a face to face physical representation of the Father, they
are seeing a manifestation of deity and it is the fullness of the Trinity, not
just one member or another. That, all of a sudden, means that we don’t lose the
Father in the Old Testament as just somehow being the puppeteer behind the
curtain and we never see Him, we just see the Son. There are places where there
is a manifestation of the entire Godhead as the Godhead, and it is just
referred to as God. That is what we see in Isaiah chapter six.
In the Old Testament there
are passages that indicate the Trinity. For example, Deuteronomy 6:4 NASB
“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!” The Hebrew word for “one” is echad which doesn’t always mean one in
terms of a singularity, it can mean one in terms of a uniqueness, of being
alone, or it can be one in terms of a unity. A comparative verse is 1
Chronicles 29:1 where David says, “My son Solomon, whom alone God has chosen …”
It is not emphasizing singularity like in a singular monotheism or Unitarian monotheism,
which would not be consistent with the primary usage of echad in the Old Testament. Genesis
Isaiah 48:16 NASB
“Is 48:16 “Come near to Me, listen to this:…” Who is speaking? It is the suffering
servant of God. “…From the first I have not spoken in secret, From the time it
took place, I was there. And now the Lord GOD [the Father] has sent Me [the suffering servant], and
His Spirit.” Here we have the Trinity, right here in the Old Testament.
It is very clear that the Bible teaches the doctrine of the Trinity. It is not three persons who are so distinct that there are three Gods; it is not one God. But the unity is so tight and so intimate that at times we lose sight of the distinction, so that when we see one we have seen all of them.