BITS and PIECES
274th Edition – December 21, 2025
A random collection of news and views compiled by Frank McClelland for the Toronto Free Presbyterian Church.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS
It is a joy to meet with each of our readers weekly and although I may not know who you are, I am deeply thankful to you for reading our Bits and Pieces. I hope they have been a help to you.
Now is an opportune time to thank you all and wish you a wonderful and blessed Christmas. The Scriptures we have read and the carols we have sung are real and there is a day of reality ahead – the coming of the Lord! What a day of rejoicing that will be.
THE TRINITY
The self-revelation of God in Scripture that His indivisible, personal essence exists eternally and necessarily as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These three are not merely nominal distinctions but personal subsistences in the divine essence,
“If you try to comprehend the doctrine of the Trinity, you may lose your mind, and if you deny it you will lose your soul” [Dr. South].
To understand how God can exist in three distinct persons and yet be one God is beyond human mental ability. The finite mind of man cannot possibly comprehend the infinite God, but He has revealed Himself in His Word. While our knowledge may be incomplete yet it is real knowledge.
One of the arguments used by deniers of the Trinity is that the word itself does not appear in the Bible. This is true, but this does not mean that the Trinity itself is not there. Here are some examples from both Old and New Testaments. There are others.
Have you ever considered why the prophet used the words, “holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts?” [Isaiah 6:3]. Isaiah believed in the Trinity as is seen in this verse, “I (Jesus the Word) have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord God (the Father) and his Spirit, hath sent me” [Isaiah 48:16]. The three Persons of the Trinity are in this verse.
The apostle John was also a trinitarian. “Hereby know we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us His Spirit. And we have and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world” [I John 4:13,14].
From the beginning of the Bible [Genesis 1:26] where God says, “let us make man in our image” the Lord speaks of the plurality of the Godhead. Think also of the baptismal formula, “baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” [Matthew 28:19].
“Since there is one God, and since the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and since these three are clearly distinguished in Scripture, we are left with the glorious truth of the Trinity – one God eternally existing as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each indwelling the other and each possessing, not in part, but entirely, the infinite essence of the one divine Being.
“Contemplating such a majestic mystery of revealed truth, we are constrained to cry out with heaven’s seraphim, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts.” [Dr. Alan Cairns].
A BLESSED PROSPECT
“They shall beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation,, neither shall learn war anymore” [Isaiah 2:4]
Oh, that these happy times were come! At present the nations are heavily armed, and are inventing weapons more and more terrible, as if the chief end of man could only be answered by destroying myriads of his fellows. Yet peace will prevail one day, yes, and so prevail that the instruments of destruction shall be beaten into other shapes and used for better purposes.
How will this come about? By trade? By civilization? By arbitration? We do not believe it. Past experience forbids our trusting to means so feeble. Peace will be established only by the reign of the Prince of Peace. He must teach the people by his Spirit, renew their hearts by his grace, and reign over them by his supreme power, and then will they cease to wound and kill.
Man is a monster when once his blood is up, and only the Lord Jesus can turn this lion into a lamb. By changing man’s heart, his blood-thirsty passions are removed. Let every reader offer special prayer today to the Lord and Giver of Peace, that he would speedily put an end to war, and establish concord over the whole world. [C.H. Spurgeon].
Merry Christmas to all!
