Does it matter? Jesus said that the Father is seeking worshipers who will worship in spirit and in truth.

God is not honored by the worship of false gods.

And we are hardly benefited by worshiping something or someone that does not exist.

True Christian worship is founded upon Christian truth. We have to have knowledge of our God to worship Him correctly.

If we have defective knowledge, or worse, if we have wrong information and have been deceived, our worship is either lessened (due to simple ignorance), or it is completely invalid, as the worship of idols and false gods.

That is not to say that we have to have perfect knowledge to worship God-none of us do. But our desire must be to grow in the grace and knowledge of God, and we must always remember that Jesus taught that eternal life was the possession of those who know the one true God.

Knowledge does not save (that is the error of Gnosticism); but true worship does not exist without knowledge. Almost every single imbalance in worship is due to a corresponding imbalance in our view of God. Some people become so enamored with the Spirit, for example, and their experience of Him that the Father and the Son are lost in the haze of emotions.

Others are so focused upon the Father that they lose sight of the love of the Son and the joy and empowerment of the Spirit. One thing the doctrine of the Trinity does is always call us back to the balanced center point. We are never allowed to elevate one person to the expense of the others, since the fullness of deity dwells in each one completely.

 Christian worship will be vital, consistent, and powerful when the proper attitude toward the triune God is maintained. When that truth is lost, Christian worship ends. The Gospel is the means by which the Father, in eternal love and mercy, saves men through the redeeming work of the Son, Jesus Christ, and draws them to himself by the power and regenerating work of the Spirit.

The Gospel, as it is proclaimed in Scripture, is Trinitarian. Remove the Father and you have no Gospel. Remove the Son, and the Gospel ceases to exist. Remove the Spirit, and the Gospel has no existence. There is no separating the work of the triune God in salvation from the truth of the Trinity itself. Look at the “gospel” message of every single group that denies the doctrine of the Trinity.

You will find error and perversion in every group. Why? Because the true Gospel must be based upon the work of the one true and triune God. Without that basis, the Gospel cannot stand. Look at Mormonism, which denies the pillar of monotheism: the Gospel becomes the means to becoming a god.

Look at the Witnesses: the Gospel is a mere appendage, a message of how we can live forever in a paradise earth. Such is what happens when the Redeemer becomes Michael the Archangel, and the Spirit becomes an impersonal active force. And in the Oneness groups the Gospel becomes legalism, replete with “necessary” things one must “experience” to be truly saved.

Just as the Trinity requires us to be balanced and thorough in our reliance upon the Scriptures, so the Gospel demands the same care. The two go hand in hand, and it seems that those who lack clarity on the one inevitably end up in error on the other.[1]

James White

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End notes:

[1] James R. White. Forgotten Trinity, The (p. 194- 196). Kindle Edition.

See also:

KEEPING YOU APPRISED OF: THE HOLY TRINITY

THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY—TRANSCRIPTION OF DR. WALTER MARTIN VIDEO

THE CARDINAL DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY