Jehovah’s Witnesses Answered Verse by Verse | Genesis 18:1–2
Yahweh appeared to him.… He looked up, and there he saw three men.… (jb)
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that it is impossible for the one true God to exist as three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yet, the Bible, in Genesis 18 and 19, shows God appearing to Abraham as three men. This account can be used to help JWs see that even the impossible (from a human viewpoint) is possible with God. Discuss it with them, as suggested here:
In the Watchtower Society’s own New World Translation, at Genesis 18:1–2, God appears to Abraham as three men (or angels). Abraham addresses the three as “Jehovah” (v. 3). When the three men respond, the episode is described interchangeably as “they” speaking (v. 9) and “Jehovah” speaking (v. 13). When two of the three men depart to visit Lot in Sodom, Abraham continues to call the remaining one “Jehovah,” but Lot addresses the other two as “Jehovah” (Gen. 18:22, 30 and 19:1, 18).
By itself, this account does not prove the Trinity doctrine. But, at the very least, it demonstrates that it is possible for God to manifest himself as three-in-one. The fact that this concept is beyond the full grasp of human intellect should not cause Jehovah’s Witnesses to rule it out. As the apostle Paul wrote: “ … we can see and understand only a little about God now, as if we were peering at his reflection in a poor mirror; but someday we are going to see him in his completeness, face to face. Now all that I know is hazy and blurred, but then I will see everything clearly, just as clearly as God sees into my heart right now” (1 Cor. 13:12, lb).
The discussion above may help a Jehovah’s Witness to reconsider the concept of one God in three persons. For further help, see also Isaiah 9:6; John 1:1; John 16:13; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Colossians 2:9; and Revelation 1:7–8.