R.C. Sproul

And we notice that in the literature of the Old Testament, that the Old Testament does not follow the pattern of ancient mythology.

and that there are stark and clear differences between the religion that is expressed in Israel and those in surrounding nations.

And if there's anything that is repugnant to Old Testament religion, it is the idea of animism or of polytheism.

from the very beginning, from the very first verse of the Old Testament, there is a clear declaration of one God who is not simply the God of Israel, but He is the God who makes heaven and earth and everything that is in them.

But we're still left with the question, why does the Old Testament use this strange plural name for God?

Well, if we go back to the Old Testament and we find this name Elohim, which is the plural form of the name for God, we find some very strange and interesting aspects to it.

One of them is that frequently when the name Elohim is used in the Bible, though the name itself has the plural form, it will take a singular verb.

That you have a plural noun, plural subject with a singular verb.

Because the Jews understood that even though grammatically they used a plural form for the name of God, they used a singular verb with it.

Because the Jews were totally committed to monotheism.

And they said, there is only one God.

But the idea was that in this God who is one, the God who is one and the God who alone has created all things is not himself one-dimensional.

That there is a richness within the very nature of God.

Some look at this plural form and they say, ah, well, the first page of Genesis, we're getting an announcement of the Trinity.

because the Christian church has believed for centuries that God is one and many, that God does have unity and diversity within himself, because our creed says that we believe God is one in essence, but he is three in person.

That's the idea of the Trinity, where you have unity and diversity.

there is a distinction within God himself.

And the distinction we make is the distinction among the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Now, those distinctions, we say, are real distinctions, but they're not essential distinctions.

That is, there's only one being.