I certainly accept your thinking and I in no way am forcing what I believe the Bible teaches onto you. Please understand that I am not a scholar. I am just am old fashioned country boy from U.A.
In fact I have been very clear in saying that the word Trinity is not found in the Bible. And YES, there are many Scriptures which say that there IS ONLY ONE GOD.
When we as Christians speak of God, we are talking about the Supreme Being. God is ultimate and eternal. God is, as a Christian thinker named Anselm of Canterbury put it, "that than which no greater can be conceived." There cannot be two Supreme Beings for the obvious reason that neither of them would be supreme. There cannot be several ultimate realities because none of them would be ultimate. It is impossible for there to be multiple "greatest conceivable beings," both because "greatest" must mean greater than all others, but also because I can conceive of a being that is great beyond any possible rivals. If there are many of something, I can easily conceive of something greater than that.
The real question then must be.....How is the one true God manifested in the Bible????
The historical evidence for
Jesus's bodily resurrection from the dead and for His miracles also offer a compelling case that the God of the Bible is, indeed, the one true God. The God of the Bible is not just one culture's version of every other god. The great I AM of Holy Scripture is the unique Creator, Governor, Provider, and Redeemer to whom all men of every nation must come, and on His terms, not on our own. While this might be "narrow" and "exclusive," it is true and is, in fact, quite good news! God has made Himself known to His creation and provided a way for us to come into true fellowship with Him! Not only is there one true and living God to believe in, but you can also know and commune with that God!
(
https://carm.org/why-should-i-only-believe-in-one-god).
IF, you do not accept that the God of Creation is actually a God of 3 person, co-equal, co-eternal and co-existance....you are free to do so as I do not and will not and have not ever forced my understandings onto anyone.
Now you asked, "where in the scripture does it talk about a Trinity"?
In post #47 I stated from the Scriptures...........
Then we would need to reevaluate John 1:1-2........
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ****The same was in the beginning with God****. 3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. "
According to that Scripture there was never a time when The Son was not with the Father, co - equal and co - eternal!
That is why Jesus could say.....'"If You have seen Me, you have seen the Father".
Now consider Matthew 28:19 where God speaks to His eleven with the Great Commission......
" Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost".
Isn't the implication there that God exists in 3 person? That is called "IMPLIED TRUTH'" as it is taught in Christian Seminaries.
Consider now 1 Peter 1:2...........
" Elect according to the foreknowledge of
God the Father, (1) through
sanctification of the Spirit, (2) unto obedience and sprinkling of the
blood of Jesus Christ: (3) Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. "
Again we see the 3 Persons of the God head.
Genesis 1:26............
"And God said,
Let us make man in
our image, after
our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. "
What is the implication there???/ US....OUR image, OUR likeness.
One of the most popular ways of viewing this verse is that we have communication within the members of the Trinity. Though not explicitly stated in this verse, the implicit nature of the Trinity is evident.
Elohim Plural
The Hebrew noun
Elohim, used throughout chapter one, is plural in form, but it takes a singular verb. This speaks of plurality of persons within the nature of the one God. The pronoun Us also suggests in itself a plurality of persons.
Then you asked this..............
"St John 1 it says 'in the beginning ' so let me ask you when does 'eternal' have a beginning. Could it then be that God manifested Himself in another form 'namely creation' as the Word. If that is so then we are off the Word to call that another person."
In other words you are asking the "Philosophic" question of......."Does eternity have a beginning"????
Instead of a Philphosic answer, lets use the Bible which tells us in Genesis 1:1..........
"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."
So who did that" WHo Created the universe.
Colossians 1:16-17..........
"For by Him (Christ) were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. "
Again, John 1:1-2 answers your question if God manifested Himself in another form, "namely Creation". Then you added....
"IF THAT IS SO".
However, that is NOT THE CASE AT ALL. Your premise is based on an opinion. Actually what you just did was to add to the Word of God what YOU wanted it to say but it in fact actually and literally says.......
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."
In those Scriptures Jesus is said to be identical to God. Here, Scripture makes the interesting point that nothing created was created apart from Jesus. This is important for several reasons.
#1. It proves that Jesus is not an angel, a man, or some other formed being.
#2. It implies a difference between things which begin to exist, and the One who always existed. In other words, there is one thing that did not "begin to exist," which did not "come into being." This one—and only—thing is God. The fancier term for this idea is the "Cosmological Argument," or the argument from a "first cause." This is an important purpose of the first 18 verses of John: countering all other concepts of what God is, or is not.
Then Philosophically, It should be understood that every effect must resemble its cause. This is because, simply put, you cannot give what you do not have, so it is impossible for an effect to possess something its originating cause did not have. That being the case, how can one believe that an impersonal, amoral, purposeless, and meaningless universe accidentally created beings that are full of personality, morals, meaning, and purpose? Only mind can create mind. In the end it is either matter before mind or mind before matter, and all scientific, philosophical, and reasonable evidence points to the latter.
So what do we know from the Scriptures and the Philosophic mind.........we find that all scientific evidence points to the fact that the universe had a beginning, just as the Bible states, and that a Cause must exist that resembles all we know today.
(
https://www.gotquestions.org/universe-eternal.html)
As Lord Kelvin, a British scientist once said, "If you study science deep enough and long enough, it will force you to believe in God."
Very nice to talk with you my friend.