(3) From the Trinity also started the Mission of the Church (Mt 28). The Holy Spirit appeared at once as the great propagating power. e re- peated the ‘Come’ and ‘Go’ of Jesus (Mt 1178 28”, Ac 18) and continued His work. Jesus declared that the work of foreign missions was the aim of His death (Jn 12” 23-86), It was furthered by the Father (v.8"), and carried out by the Spirit, who inspired the first missionaries, Peter (Ac 4°), Stephen (6°), Barnabas (11%), Philip (8%), and Paul (13%), to preach the gospel and cast out devils (Jn 12°; cf. Ac 8"). ‘Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them,’ said the Spirit (Ac 132) ; ‘ Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,’ said Jesus. ‘ Baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,’ — that is the Trinitarian foundation of missions. St. Paul is intelligible only as a man who regarded himself as an organ of the Holy Ghost, fighting the powers of darkness (Ro 8%, Eph 6) to save men by the Son of God (1 Co 2*1*"). He had more gifts of the Spirit than other Apostles, and was the greatest missionary of Christ (1 Co 1418), The Holy Spirit directed him to his field of labour (Ac 167), and the Son told him what to ex- pect in those fields (91°). The same is true of St. Peter (Ac 125 24 17-58) and the rest.
(4) The NT Church also regarded the Trinity as the doctrinal assurance that any man was preaching the gospel. Unless he preached the Son of God in personal witness of the Spirit, he was not true to Christ. St. Paul urged Timothy (2 Ti 1!*1*) to hold fast the Apostles’ form of sound words, which consisted in faith and love towards Christ, who is God our Saviour (1 Ti 23), and was committed unto Him by the Holy Ghost. False teachers left the Church because they denied the Father and the Son, and had no unction of the Holy Ghost (1 Jn 219. 20. 22), Only those preaching the Divine Son had the witness of the Spirit: to such there came the demonstration of the Spirit and of power (1 Co 24 1Th 15, Ro 9). Supernatural signs of the Holy Ghost encouraged such missionaries to preach, and roused the careless to hear of the Son of God as Saviour (He 2°, 1 P 1”, Eph 1%"), As Christ knew what was in man, in like manner did the Spirit in Apostolic preachers so reveal the hearts of heathen in Christian meetings that they fell down crying, ‘God is in you of a truth’ (1 Co 14”). The two heresies against which the Apostles warned were an incipient Gnosticism, which rejected Christ as Lord and Head (Col 2® 1, 1 Ti 1**8), and an allied Antinomianism, which set at naught the Holy Ghost (Ephr 5° ® 8, Rev 28-17 2, 1Co 317), The Holy Ghost warned (1 Ti 4") against ‘doctrines of devils’ which opposed the Son, and ‘seducing spirits’ which fought against the ne of God. By the laying on of hands the Holy Spirit was
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given to NT workers that they might preach the Son of God as Saviour (1 Ti 44:16 6), “Only such preaching of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost would actually reform and save men (Eph 12g O38: 38 Bl 25. 4-16 43-6, 13,14 51.2.9. 18-20) St. Panl’s test de- scription of the gospel against Judaizers is, ‘God sent forth His Son .. . toredeemthem . . . under the law,’ and make them ‘sons’; also, ‘God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son’ into men’s hearts, ‘crying, Abba, Father’ (Gal 446). All men sent of God would preach this sending of Son and Spirit as the true gospel of Christ (1 Co 12%), and not ‘another Jesus,’ and ‘another Spirit,’ consti- tuting ‘another gospel’ (2 Co 114).
(5) The NT Church meant two or three gathered together with the Son in their midst (Mt 187-9), The meetings for worship were of two kinds—first, that of the Lord’s Supper, in which Christ was central ; and, second, the public service of ofkodou%, in which the Holy Ghost was central; but each carried with it the Trinity. The general wor- ship was charismatic. Its aim and purpose was edification of the saints through the xapicuara granted the various participants by the Holy Ghost (1 Co 14%), The worshipping people were the body of Christ (1 Co 10'6 12?”, Eph 4°), in which each member edified the others as an organ of the Holy Spirit (Jn 6% 7%, 1 Co 315), Each brother who took part was moved by the Spirit of the glorified Head of the Church, the Lord Christ (Eph 1? 4%, Col 18), St. Paul traces all the elements of worship—tongues, prophecy, teaching, interpre- tation, prayer, singing—to the Holy Ghost (1 Co 144; ef. Jude ®); but not apart from the Father and the Son ; for in this worship were diversities of gifts by the same Spirit, differences of administra- tion by the same Lord Jesus, and diversities of operations by the same God and Father (1 Co 12**), The order of St. Paul’s thoughts in worship appears as he prays for the Ephesians (3!*1”) to the Father that He would strengthen them by the Spirit, so that Christ might dwell in them. He asks the Romans (15*°) to pray in like manner on his behalf. The doxology to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, spoken of God rather than to God, with which St. Paul opens and closes Epistles (Ro 17 167’, 1 Co 1% 168, 2 Co 17 18"), doubtless appeared also at the opening and close of Christian worship (2 Co 123-9 134). The synagogue worship began with ‘ Blessed be Jehovah’ (cf. Schiirer, GJV?* ii. 377); the Christian service began with such an invocation as ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . the God of all comfort’ (2 Co 1°). The Jewish worship closed with the threefold benediction: ‘The Lord bless thee. . . the Lord keep thee... the Lord give thee peace’; the Christian service ended also, probably, with a threefold benediction of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (cf. Ro 15' 18-16, 2 Co 134, Rev 146 112 147 16° 19’). St. Paul uses the word xvpios nearly 150 times, and always of the Son of God, uniting the Lord Jesus and the Lord God in his worship (ef. Seeberg, p. 3). Both Jewish and Gentile Chris- tians, filled with the Holy Ghost, worshipped equally the Father and the Son—a thing impossible to men whose Bible was the Old Testament, unless they accepted what we understand religiously by the Trinity (Eph 5", Ph 17°).