This passage shows the process of baptism and entering God’s family involves the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is not a description of the nature of God. Notice Acts 2:38: “Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” After repentance and being baptized, the example from Scripture is that a minister lays his hands on the repentant person and they then receive the Holy Spirit from God (See Acts 8:14-17 and 19:1-6).
The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are mentioned in Matthew 28:19 because the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, makes that covenant relationship with God, our Father, possible, through our repentance and baptism. God then gives us His Holy Spirit, through the laying on of hands by God’s minister and we become God’s begotten children (Romans 8:16). The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all acknowledged as being involved in this process, but that does not mean all three are divine persons in a Trinity. To claim that Matthew 28:19 establishes one God in three persons goes far beyond the actual words of the verse, and other verses show the doctrine of the Trinity is false.
