The Trinity and TBN: What Matthew 28:18-20 Teaches
Short answer: Matthew 28:18-20 does not mention Trinity Broadcasting Network, and no Bible passage does. What the Great Commission does give us is the standard by which every ministry, network, and broadcast must be measured. Jesus says, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth,” and then sends his disciples to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that he commanded (Matthew 28:18-20). Any network that claims to speak for Christ is accountable to that commission: its content must faithfully teach what Jesus commanded, and its aim must be disciples, not merely audiences. TBN is a human institution, judged by Scripture, not a subject of prophecy.
What Matthew 28:18-20 actually says
The setting matters. These are the closing words of Matthew's Gospel, spoken on a mountain in Galilee to eleven disciples after the resurrection. Jesus begins with a claim, not a command: all authority has been given to him, in heaven and on earth. The Greek behind authority means the right and the power to command. Nothing in the cosmos falls outside his jurisdiction. Only after establishing that authority does he issue the commission. The order is theologically important. Mission is not the church's idea, carried out with Jesus as a helpful assistant. It is the risen Lord's command, carried out under his rule and in his strength.
The commission itself has one main verb, make disciples, and three participles that explain how: going, baptizing, teaching. Many translations render it as three commands, but the structure puts the weight on disciple-making. Going is not a separate program; it is the ordinary movement of disciples into the world. Baptizing and teaching are the two visible means by which disciples are made. Baptism marks entry into the community of faith, and teaching forms the life of that community. A ministry can gather a crowd without making disciples, and Jesus' wording does not allow us to confuse the two.
Notice the scope: all nations. The Greek word behind nations is ethne, the peoples, not the political states. This is a command that pushes the church past every ethnic and cultural boundary. The eleven men hearing it were Galilean Jews, and within a generation the gospel had crossed into Samaria, into Syria, into Asia Minor, into Rome. The command is not finished. It remains the standing order of the church until Christ returns. That is why missions, translation, church planting, and teaching ministries still matter. The commission is not a suggestion for the especially zealous; it defines what the church is for.
Finally, the promise: Jesus says he is with them always, to the end of the age. The one who has all authority promises his presence. That combination of authority and presence is the ground of Christian confidence in every generation. We do not go because we are impressive. We go because the Lord of all has sent us and has not abandoned us. Any assessment of a ministry, whether a local church, a missionary society, or a television network, starts with this: does it operate under the authority of Jesus, in dependence on his presence, for the making of disciples?
Why the triune name is not a footnote
The baptismal formula in Matthew 28:19 is one of the clearest trinitarian statements in the New Testament. Disciples are baptized into the name, singular, of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The grammar is careful. It does not say names, as though these were three separate gods or three unrelated titles. It says name, one shared name, with three persons named. This is the earliest Christian confession embedded in the church's most basic rite. Every baptism performed in obedience to this command is a public declaration that God is one and that he is Father, Son, and Spirit.
This is why the doctrine of the Trinity is not a later philosophical addition to the gospel. It is written into the church's founding commission. Deuteronomy 6:4 says, “Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one.” The New Testament does not retreat from that confession; it deepens it. The one God is eternally Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The church did not invent the Trinity in the fourth century; the church clarified, in the creeds, what the apostolic writings already assumed. Matthew 28:19 is one of the texts that made that clarification necessary and possible.
John's Gospel opens with the same reality from another angle. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Word is distinct from God and is God. Then John 1:14 tells us the Word became flesh and lived among us. The triune God is not an abstraction; he entered history in the person of Jesus. And the apostolic blessing in 2 Corinthians 13:14 names all three: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's love, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.” This is not a liturgical accident. It is how the first Christians learned to speak to and about God.
Jesus himself promised the Spirit in trinitarian terms. John 14:16-17 records him saying, “I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever.” The Son prays; the Father gives; the Spirit comes. Three persons, one God, one work of salvation. Any ministry that is confused or careless about the Trinity is not confused about a minor point. It is confused about the God it claims to serve. That is why discernment matters when we evaluate any teacher, broadcast, or network.
How to evaluate a ministry biblically
Scripture gives us categories for testing any ministry, and these categories apply to Trinity Broadcasting Network as much as to any local church. The first test is doctrinal: does it teach what Jesus commanded? The Great Commission says disciples are made by teaching obedience to all that Christ commanded, not by entertainment, prosperity promises, or personality. A network can broadcast excellent music and still fail this test if its teaching drifts from the gospel. The second test is directional: does it aim at disciples or at audiences? Numbers matter to God, but the goal in Matthew 28 is not a crowd; it is baptized, taught, obedient followers of Jesus.
The third test is visible in 1 Corinthians 8:4-6, where Paul writes, “Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one.” Paul is not writing about television, but the principle is durable: there is one God, and every loyalty must be measured against him. If a ministry functions as an idol, a source of identity, security, or ultimate hope, it has displaced the God it claims to proclaim. The question is never whether a ministry is impressive but whether it leads people to the one God and his Son.
The fourth test is the character of the leaders and the fruit of the ministry. Jesus said you will know a tree by its fruit. That does not mean every failure disqualifies a ministry; it means we should look at patterns over time. Does the teaching produce humility, holiness, generosity, and love for the church? Does it handle money with integrity and transparency? Does it submit to correction? These are ordinary, unglamorous questions, and they are the ones Scripture actually asks. Controversy and criticism are not automatically proof of either guilt or innocence; they are a reason to look carefully at the evidence.
It is important to be honest about what we can and cannot know. Neither the Bible nor this article provides an inside audit of TBN's finances, doctrine at every point, or the state of anyone's soul. Faithful Christians differ in their assessments of various televangelists and networks, and we should say so rather than pretending to certainty we do not have. What we can do is apply the same biblical tests to every ministry, including the ones we like. That is not cynicism. It is obedience to the Lord who has all authority and who will judge the living and the dead.
Christian broadcasting and the limits of a screen
Television is a tool, and tools are not holy or unholy in themselves. Paul rejoiced that the gospel was preached even by people whose motives were mixed, provided Christ was proclaimed. A broadcast can carry faithful preaching into hospitals, prisons, and homes that no missionary could enter. It can teach a shut-in believer, encourage a lonely parent, and expose millions to Scripture who would never otherwise hear it. The Great Commission does not forbid the use of media. It commands the church to make disciples, and media can serve that command when it is used with integrity and humility.
But a screen has limits, and honesty requires us to name them. A sermon on television cannot baptize anyone, cannot share a meal with a grieving widow, cannot restore a wandering brother, and cannot sit with a family through a crisis. The New Testament assumes that disciples are made in churches: earthen vessels, ordinary pastors, the Lord's Supper, the gathered assembly, the slow work of sanctification. Broadcasting can supplement that work; it cannot replace it. When any ministry encourages viewers to treat the screen as a substitute for the local church, it has exceeded its mandate, however well-intentioned it may be.
There is also a media dynamic worth naming. Television rewards personalities, spectacle, and confident claims. It is poorly suited to nuance, patient exposition, and the long obedience of ordinary discipleship. This is not a moral failing of the technology; it is a pressure that shapes the content. A ministry that wants to be faithful on television must resist the pull to make the teacher the hero and the audience the customer. The hero of the gospel is Jesus, and the audience is not a market; it is a mission field of sinners who need a Savior, not a product.
So what should a Christian do with a network like TBN? Watch it the way you would read any book: with the Bereans' habit of examining the Scriptures to see whether these things are so. Support what is faithful and turn away from what is not. Do not let a screen disciple you in place of a church. Do not measure a ministry by its production values. And pray for those who teach on the airwaves, because they bear a stricter judgment and carry a heavy responsibility before the Lord who gave them the platform.
The mission continues under the same authority
Matthew 28:18-20 was not a one-time instruction for the eleven. It is the standing charter of the church until the end of the age. That means the mission of making disciples continues in every generation, in every place, through every legitimate means, including media. The risen Lord still holds all authority. He still sends his people to the nations. He still joins them as they go. Every generation has to ask how to be faithful in its own moment. For the apostles, it meant synagogues and marketplaces. For us, it also means screens and streams and networks, alongside the ordinary life of local churches.
This is why the question of a network like TBN is finally a question about faithfulness, not about technology. The same Lord who commissioned the apostles commissions every teacher, producer, and broadcaster who claims his name. The standard is not audience size or production quality or longevity. It is whether the teaching is true, whether the aim is disciples, whether the Lord is honored, and whether the fruit is love for God and neighbor. Where that is happening, we should thank God. Where it is not, we should pray for correction and be careful what we commend.
And we should examine ourselves by the same standard. It is easy to critique a television network and miss the beam in our own eye. Have we submitted to the authority of Jesus in our own lives? Are we being baptized and taught, or merely watching? Are we making disciples of anyone, or only consuming content? The Great Commission applies to every follower of Christ, not only to the famous ones. The question of faithfulness to Christ's authority is not asked of TBN alone; it is asked of each of us.
The promise at the end of the commission is the last word: Jesus is with his people always, to the end of the age. That promise sustains missionaries in hostile places, pastors in small towns, and ordinary believers who teach their children the faith. It also sustains anyone who uses media to make the gospel known. The Lord who has all authority has not abdicated. He is ruling, he is present, and he will finish what he began. The best thing any network, church, or believer can do is be found faithful to the commission until he comes.
Biblical fidelity check
Let us be precise about what the text does and does not establish. Matthew 28:18-20 establishes that Jesus possesses all authority, that disciples are made by going, baptizing, and teaching, that the scope is all nations, and that the one name into which disciples are baptized is the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It establishes the church's mission and grounds it in the triune God. It does not name Trinity Broadcasting Network, television, media, or any modern institution. It does not tell us how to structure a broadcast, or whether a particular ministry should exist. It gives us the standard, not the audit.
The common misreading is to treat the Great Commission as a mandate for spectacle, or to treat any large religious enterprise as automatically approved by God because it is large. The text nowhere equates size with faithfulness. Jesus sent eleven men, and he promised his presence to them, not to an audience. Another misreading is the opposite: to conclude that because the text does not mention media, media ministry is inherently wrong. That goes beyond what is written. The faithful reading is simpler and harder: measure every ministry, including this one, by whether it teaches what Christ commanded, aims at disciples, and honors the triune God in whose name we are baptized.
Other passages that speak to Matthew 28:18-20
The commission of the risen Lord stands in a larger biblical context. Paul appeals to the same authority when he pleads for unity, as in What Does 1 Corinthians 1:10 Mean? Context, Theology, and Application, and grounds that appeal in the calling of God, as in What Does 1 Corinthians 1:9 Mean? Context, Theology, and Application. The themes of calling and unity at Corinth are explored in 1 Corinthians 1: Called, United, and Boasting in the Lord. The warnings and freedoms that shape a disciple's life are surveyed in 1 Corinthians 10: Warnings and Freedom.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Bible mention Trinity Broadcasting Network or televangelism?
No. The Bible does not mention TBN, television, radio, or any modern media ministry. Matthew 28:18-20 gives the church its mission and its standard: disciples are made by going, baptizing, and teaching obedience to everything Jesus commanded. Scripture provides principles for judging any ministry, including doctrinal faithfulness, the aim of making disciples, honest handling of money, and the fruit of the Spirit, but it leaves the specific evaluation of a particular network to careful, prayerful discernment by the church.
What does it mean to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
It means that Christian baptism is administered under the authority of the one God who is eternally Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The singular word name shows that these three are not separate gods but one God, and the three persons are named distinctly. Baptism publicly identifies a person with the triune God and with the community of disciples. This is why the doctrine of the Trinity has always been tied to the church's most basic practice, not treated as an optional or secondary teaching.
How should I decide whether to support a Christian television ministry?
Test it by Scripture. Does it teach what Jesus commanded, or does it distort the gospel? Does it aim at making disciples or at gathering a crowd? Does it handle money openly? Does it encourage you toward a local church, or away from it? Does its fruit look like the Spirit's work? Support what is faithful, and do not feel obligated to support what is not. Faithful Christians may reach different conclusions about particular ministries, so act with conviction, charity, and a conscience informed by God's word.
