The Trinity
"All (the Persons) are one nature, one essence, one will, and are called the Holy Trinity; and these also are haines subsistent, one nature in three persons, and one genus. - St. Gregory Thaumaturgus ("On The Trinity" 3rd century A.D.)
"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." - Genesis 1:26
"And the Lord appeared unto him (Abraham) in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said." - Genesis 18:1-5
"For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one." - 1 John 5:7
"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." - Matthew 28:19
"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. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." - John 1:1-3
"I and my Father are one." - John 10:30
"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail. But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" - Hebrews 1:1-14
What the Catechism of the Catholic Church says on "The Trinity:"
232. "Christians are
baptized 'in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit' [Mt
28:19.] Before receiving the sacrament, they respond to a three-part question
when asked to confess the Father, the Son and the Spirit: 'I do.' 'The faith of
all Christians rests on the Trinity.' [St. Caesarius of Arles, Sermo 9, Exp.
symb.: CCL 103, 47.]"
233. "Christians are
baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: not
in their names, [Cf. Profession of faith of Pope Vigilius I (552): DS 415.] for
there is only one God, the almighty Father, his only Son and the Holy Spirit:
the Most Holy Trinity."
234. "The mystery of
the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is
the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other
mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental
and essential teaching in the 'hierarchy of the truths of faith'. [GCD 43.] The
whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the
means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself
to men 'and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin'.
[GCD 47.]"
235. "This paragraph
expounds briefly (I) how the mystery of the Blessed Trinity was revealed, (II)
how the Church has articulated the doctrine of the faith regarding this
mystery, and (III) how, by the divine missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit,
God the Father fulfils the 'plan of his loving goodness' of creation,
redemption and sanctification."
236. "The Fathers of
the Church distinguish between theology (theologia) and economy (oikonomia).
'Theology' refers to the mystery of God's inmost life within the Blessed
Trinity and 'economy' to all the works by which God reveals himself and
communicates his life. Through the oikonomia the theologia is revealed to us;
but conversely, the theologia illuminates the whole oikonomia. God's works
reveal who he is in himself; the mystery of his inmost being enlightens our
understanding of all his works. So it is, analogously, among human persons. A
person discloses himself in his actions, and the better we know a person, the
better we understand his actions."
237. "The Trinity is
a mystery of faith in the strict sense, one of the 'mysteries that are hidden
in God, which can never be known unless they are revealed by God'. [Dei Filius
4: DS 3015.] To be sure, God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in his
work of creation and in his Revelation throughout the Old Testament. But his
inmost Being as Holy Trinity is a mystery that is inaccessible to reason alone
or even to Israel's faith before the Incarnation of God's Son and the sending
of the Holy Spirit."
238. "Many religions
invoke God as 'Father'. The deity is often considered the 'father of gods and
of men'. In Israel Israel 4:22 .] God is also called the Father of
the king of Israel
239. "By calling God
'Father', the language of faith indicates two main things: that God is the
first origin of everything and transcendent authority; and that he is at the
same time goodness and loving care for all his children. God's parental
tenderness can also be expressed by the image of motherhood, [Cf. Is 66:13; Ps
131:2.] which emphasizes God's immanence, the intimacy between Creator and
creature. The language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents,
who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience
also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of
fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the
human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He
also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin
and standard: [Cf. Ps 27:10; Eph 3:14 ; Is 49:15.] no one is father as
God is Father."
240. "Jesus revealed
that God is Father in an unheard-of sense: he is Father not only in being
Creator; he is eternally Father by his relationship to his only Son who,
reciprocally, is Son only in relation to his Father: 'No one knows the Son
except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to
whom the Son chooses to reveal him.' [Mt 11-27.]"
241. "For this
reason the apostles confess Jesus to be the Word: 'In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God'; as 'the image of the
invisible God'; as the 'radiance of the glory of God and the very stamp of his
nature'. [Jn 1:1; Col
242. "Following this
apostolic tradition, the Church confessed at the first ecumenical council at Nicaea
243. "Before his
Passover, Jesus announced the sending of 'another Paraclete' (Advocate), the
Holy Spirit. At work since creation, having previously 'spoken through the
prophets', the Spirit will now be with and in the disciples, to teach them and
guide them 'into all the truth'. [Cf. Gen 1:2; Nicene Creed (DS 150); Jn 14:17 , 26; Jn 16:13 .] The Holy Spirit is thus revealed
as another divine person with Jesus and the Father."
244. "The eternal
origin of the Holy Spirit is revealed in his mission in time. The Spirit is
sent to the apostles and to the Church both by the Father in the name of the
Son, and by the Son in person, once he had returned to the Father. [Cf. Jn
14:26; Jn 15:26; Jn 16:14.] The sending of the person of the Spirit after
Jesus' glorification [Cf. Jn 7:39.] reveals in its fullness the mystery of the
Holy Trinity."
245. "The apostolic
faith concerning the Spirit was confessed by the second ecumenical council at Constantinople (381): 'We believe in the Holy
Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father.' [Nicene
Creed; cf. DS 150.] By this confession, the Church recognizes the Father as
'the source and origin of the whole divinity'. [Council of Toledo Toledo Constantinople confesses: 'With the Father and
the Son, he is worshipped and glorified.' [Nicene Creed; cf. DS 150.]"
246. "The Latin
tradition of the Creed confesses that the Spirit 'proceeds from the Father and
the Son (filioque)'. The Council of Florence Florence
247. "The
affirmation of the filioque does not appear in the Creed confessed in 381 at Constantinople . But Pope St. Leo I, following an
ancient Latin and Alexandrian tradition, had already confessed it dogmatically
in 447, [Cf. Leo I, Quam laudabiliter (447): DS 284.] even before Rome Chalcedon
248. "At the outset
the Eastern tradition expresses the Father's character as first origin of the
Spirit. By confessing the Spirit as he 'who proceeds from the Father', it
affirms that he comes from the Father through the Son. [Jn 15:26; cf. AG 2.]
The Western tradition expresses first the consubstantial communion between
Father and Son, by saying that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son
(filioque). It says this, 'legitimately and with good reason', [Council of
Florence (1439): DS 1302.] for the eternal order of the divine persons in their
consubstantial communion implies that the Father, as 'the principle without
principle', [Council of Florence (1442): DS 1331.] is the first origin of the
Spirit, but also that as Father of the only Son, he is, with the Son, the
single principle from which the Holy Spirit proceeds. [Cf. Council of Lyons
249. "From the
beginning, the revealed truth of the Holy Trinity has been at the very root of
the Church's living faith, principally by means of Baptism. It finds its
expression in the rule of baptismal faith, formulated in the preaching,
catechesis and prayer of the Church. Such formulations are already found in the
apostolic writings, such as this salutation taken up in the Eucharistic
liturgy: 'The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.' [2 Cor 13:14 ; cf. 1 Cor 12:4-6; Eph
4:4-6.]"
250. "During the
first centuries the Church sought to clarify her Trinitarian faith, both to
deepen her own understanding of the faith and to defend it against the errors that
were deforming it. This clarification was the work of the early councils, aided
by the theological work of the Church Fathers and sustained by the Christian
people's sense of the faith."
251. "In order to
articulate the dogma of the Trinity, the Church had to develop her own
terminology with the help of certain notions of philosophical origin:
'substance', 'person' or 'hypostasis', 'relation' and so on. In doing this, she
did not submit the faith to human wisdom, but gave a new and unprecedented meaning
to these terms, which from then on would be used to signify an ineffable
mystery, 'infinitely beyond all that we can humanly understand'. [Paul VI, CPC
# 2.]"
252. "The Church
uses (I) the term 'substance' (rendered also at times by 'essence' or 'nature')
to designate the divine being in its unity, (II) the term 'person' or
'hypostasis' to designate the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the real
distinction among them, and (III) the term 'relation' to designate the fact
that their distinction lies in the relationship of each to the others."
253. "The Trinity is
One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in three persons, the
'consubstantial Trinity'. [Council of Constantinople II (553): DS 421.] The divine persons do not share the one
divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire: 'The Father
is that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the Father and the
Son that which the Holy Spirit is, i.e. by nature one God.' [Council of Toledo
254. "The divine
persons are really distinct from one another. 'God is one but not solitary.'
[Fides Damasi: DS 71.] 'Father', 'Son', 'Holy Spirit' are not simply names
designating modalities of the divine being, for they are really distinct from
one another: 'He is not the Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he who is the
Father, nor is the Holy Spirit he who is the Father or the Son.' [Council
of Toledo
255. "The divine
persons are relative to one another. Because it does not divide the divine
unity, the real distinction of the persons from one another resides solely in
the relationships which relate them to one another: 'In the relational names of
the persons the Father is related to the Son, the Son to the Father, and the
Holy Spirit to both. While they are called three persons in view of their
relations, we believe in one nature or substance.' [Council of Toledo Florence Florence
256. "St. Gregory of
Nazianzus, also called 'the Theologian', entrusts this summary of Trinitarian
faith to the catechumens of Constantinople: Above all guard for me this great
deposit of faith for which I live and fight, which I want to take with me as a
companion, and which makes me bear all evils and despise all pleasures: I mean
the profession of faith in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I
entrust it to you today. By it I am soon going to plunge you into water and
raise you up from it. I give it to you as the companion and patron of your
whole life. I give you but one divinity and power, existing one in three, and
containing the three in a distinct way. Divinity without disparity of substance
or nature, without superior degree that raises up or inferior degree that casts
down. . . the infinite co-naturality of three infinites. Each person considered
in himself is entirely God. . . the three considered together. . . I have not
even begun to think of unity when the Trinity bathes me in its splendour. I
have not even begun to think of the Trinity when unity grasps me. . [St.
Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio 40, 41: PG 36, 417.]"
257. "'O blessed
light, O Trinity and first Unity!' [LH, Hymn for Evening Prayer.] God is
eternal blessedness, undying life, unfading light. God is love: Father, Son and
Holy Spirit. God freely wills to communicate the glory of his blessed life.
Such is the 'plan of his loving kindness', conceived by the Father before the
foundation of the world, in his beloved Son: 'He destined us in love to be his
sons' and 'to be conformed to the image of his Son', through 'the spirit of
sonship'. [Eph 1:4-5, 9; Rom 8:15 , 29.] This plan is a 'grace
(which) was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began', stemming
immediately from Trinitarian love.[2 Tim 1:9-10.] It unfolds in the work of
creation, the whole history of salvation after the fall, and the missions of
the Son and the Spirit, which are continued in the mission of the Church. [Cf.
AG 2-9.]"
258. "The whole
divine economy is the common work of the three divine persons. For as the
Trinity has only one and the same natures so too does it have only one and the
same operation: 'The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three
principles of creation but one principle.' [Council of Florence Constantinople II (553): DS 421.] However, each
divine person performs the common work according to his unique personal
property. Thus the Church confesses, following the New Testament, 'one God and
Father from whom all things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all
things are, and one Holy Spirit in whom all things are'. [Council of Constantinople II: DS 421.] It is above all the
divine missions of the Son's Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit that
show forth the properties of the divine persons."
259. "Being a work
at once common and personal, the whole divine economy makes known both what is
proper to the divine persons, and their one divine nature. Hence the whole
Christian life is a communion with each of the divine persons, without in any
way separating them. Everyone who glorifies the Father does so through the Son
in the Holy Spirit; everyone who follows Christ does so because the Father
draws him and the Spirit moves him. [Cf. Jn 6:44 ; Rom 8:14 .]"
260. "The ultimate
end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God's creatures into the
perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity. [Cf. Jn 17:21-23.] But even now we are
called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity: 'If a man loves me', says
the Lord, 'he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come
to him, and make our home with him': [Jn 14:23 .] O my God, Trinity whom I adore,
help me forget myself entirely so to establish myself in you, unmovable and
peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be able to trouble
my peace or make me leave you, O my unchanging God, but may each minute bring
me more deeply into your mystery! Grant my soul peace. Make it your heaven,
your beloved dwelling and the place of your rest. May I never abandon you
there, but may I be there, whole and entire, completely vigilant in my faith,
entirely adoring, and wholly given over to your creative action. [Prayer of
Blessed Elizabeth
"All those Catholic expounders of
the divine Scriptures, both Old and New, whom I have been able to read, who
have written before me concerning the Trinity, Who is God, have purposed to
teach, according to the Scriptures, this doctrine, that the Father, and the
Son, and the Holy Spirit intimate a divine unity of one and the same substance
in an indivisible equality; and therefore that they are not three Gods, but one
God: although the Father hath begotten the Son, and so He who is the Father is
not the Son; and the Son is begotten by the Father, and so He who is the Son is
not the Father; and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, but only
the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, Himself also co-equal with the Father
and the Son, and pertaining to the unity of the Trinity." - St. Augustine
"AGAINST
THE SABELLIANS" by Pope St. Dionysius (3rd century A.D.)
1. Now truly it would be just to dispute against
those who, by dividing and rending the monarchy, which is the most august
announcement of the Church of God, into, as it were, three powers, and distinct
substances (hypostases), and three deities, destroy it. For I have heard that
some who preach and teach the word of God among you are teachers of this
opinion, who indeed diametrically, so to speak, are opposed to the opinion of
Sabellius. For he blasphemes in saying that the Son Himself is the Father, and
vice versa; but these in a certain manner announce three gods, in that they
divide the holy unity into three different substances, absolutely separated
from one another. For it is essential that the Divine Word should be united to
the God of all, and that the Holy Spirit should abide and dwell in God; and
thus that the Divine Trinity should be reduced and gathered into one, as if
into a certain head--that is, into the omnipotent God of all. For the doctrine
of the foolish Marcion, which Gilts and divides the monarchy into three
elements, is assuredly of the devil, and is not of Christ's true disciples, or
of those to whom the Saviour's teaching is agreeable. For these indeed rightly
know that the Trinity is declared in the divine Scripture, but that the
doctrine that there are three gods is, neither taught in the Old nor in the New
Testament.
2. But neither are they less to be blamed who think that the Son was a
creation, and decided that the Lord was made just as one of those things which
really were made; whereas the divine declarations testify that He was begotten,
as is fitting and proper, but not that He was created or made. It is therefore
not a trifling, but a very great impiety, to say that the Lord was in any wise
made with hands. For if the Son was made, there was a time when He was not; but
He always was, if, as He Himself declares, He is undoubtedly in the Father. And
if Christ is the Word, the Wisdom, and the Power,--for the divine writings tell
us that Christ is these, as ye yourselves know,--assuredly these are powers of
God. Wherefore, if the Son was made, there was a time when these were not in
existence; and thus there was a time when God was without these things, which
is utterly absurd. But why should I discourse at greater length to you about
these matters, since ye are men filled with the Spirit, and especially
understanding what absurd results follow from the opinion which asserts that
the Son was made? The leaders of this view seem to me to have given very little
heed to these things, and for that reason to have strayed absolutely, by
explaining the passage otherwise than as the divine and prophetic Scripture
demands. "The Lord created me the beginning of His ways." For, as ye
know, there is more than one signification of the word "created;" and
in this place "created" is the same as "set over" the works
made by Himself--made, I say, by the Son Himself. But this "created"
is not to be understood in the same manner as "made." For to make and
to create are different from one another. "Is not He Himself thy Father,
that hath possessed thee and created thee?" says Moses in the great song
of Deuteronomy. And thus might any one reasonably convict these men. Oh
reckless and rash men! was then "the first-born of every creature"
something made?--"He who was begotten from the womb before the morning
star?"--He who in the person of Wisdom says, "Before all the hills He
begot me?" Finally, any one may read in many parts of the divine
utterances that the Son is said to have been begotten, but never that He was
made. From which considerations, they who dare to say that His divine and
inexplicable generation was a creation, are openly convicted of thinking that
which is false concerning the generation of the Lord.
3. That admirable and divine unity, therefore, must neither be separated into
three divinities, nor must the dignity and eminent greatness of the Lord be
diminished by having applied to it the name of creation, but we must believe on
God the Father Omnipotent, and on Christ Jesus His Son, and on the Holy Spirit.
Moreover, that the Word is united to the God of all, because He says, "I
and the Father are one;" and, "I am in the Father, and the Father is
in Me." Thus doubtless will be maintained in its integrity the doctrine of
the divine Trinity, and the sacred announcement of the monarchy.
COMMENTS
I never thought I would have to defend this doctrine. However, I have corresponded with a couple of "Bible" Christians who do not believe in this doctrine for the word "trinity" is not mentioned in the Bible. The New Testament is very plain about the Trinity even if the word itself is not mentioned. And as quoted above, the Trinity is even alluded to in the Book of Genesis.
Genesis 1:26 above uses the plural "us" and "our" when
referring to God. Why is that word used, if God is NOT trinitarian?
In Genesis 18:2, three men appear to Abraham yet he addresses all three as "My Lord" (in the singular). And when "they" reply, "they" do so as one in Genesis 18:5.
Basically, 1 John 5:7 states it all: "the three are one" (triune). The word "trinity" itself comes from "tri-" meaning "three" and "-nity" from the word "unity" meaning "one." This is exactly what is stated in 1 John 5:7.
John 1:1 states that the Word (Jesus Christ) was with God yet it also states the Word was God. If God is one person (instead of three), then how can God be "with" Himself and also "be" Himself at the same time?
One of the objections from "unitarians"
is that the phrase "God the Son" does not appear in Scripture.
However, in the newer, more accurate translations of the Bible such as the New
American Bible, John 1:18
states: "It is God the only Son , ever at the Father's side,
who has revealed him." In addition, God the Father uses the title of
"God" in Hebrews 1:8 when speaking to the Son.
--- Chris
PRAYER TO
THE BLESSED TRINITY
The Father is my hope. The Son is my refuge. The
Holy Spirit is my protector. Glory to the holy and undivided Trinity, now and for
ever. Let us praise the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; let us bless and
exalt God above all for ever! Almighty and everlasting God, to whom we owe the
grace of professing the true faith, grant that while acknowledging the glory of
the eternal Trinity and adoring its unity, we may through Your majestic power
be confirmed in this faith and defended against all adversities; through Jesus
Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
CHURCH
BELIEFS & ISSUES
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WHAT THE EARLY
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