The Holy Trinity - God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit

The Trinity is the foundational doctrine of God in the Christian faith. Although the word itself was not used in Scripture, it can be shown that the Scripture teaches the essential truths which lead to the doctrine. In essence, the doctrine of the Trinity explains how the following apparently incompatible statements can be true:

1. There is only one God ( Rom 3:30, etc.)
2. The Father is God ( 1 Cor 8:6, etc.)
3. Jesus is God ( John 1:1, etc.)
4. The Holy Spirit is God ( 1 Cor 6:19, etc.)
5. Jesus is not the Father ( John 1:1, Luke 3:21-22, etc.)
6. Jesus is not the Spirit ( Luke 3:21-22, etc.)
7. The Father is not the Spirit ( Luke 3:21-22) )

The Trinity tells us that there are three Persons in one Divine Nature. The names Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are names of persons. God can serve as either a name for the Father or a name for the Divine Nature. Before delving into the relative meaning of Persons and Natures it will be useful to make it clear that these terms refer to distinctly different things.

I will attempt to clarify this with an analogy. My hand has five fingers, but all five fingers are parts of one hand (and the words finger and hand do not refer to the same kind of thing). It is appropriate, therefore, that I will arrive at a different number if I count fingers than hands. Likewise, Person and Nature are different things, and when I apply these words to God I find that there are three of the former and one of the later.

As useful as analogies can be to explain a concept, in all cases we find that analogies can only provide an accurate picture to a certain extent. Therefore it is useful to point out the places where they fail, and to provide a variety of them. We will then be able to proceed to an understanding by comparison and contrast. The analogy of fingers and hands breaks down in the following ways:

1. God is not composed of matter. Instead his Nature refers to the eternal perfections that he possesses: Love, Goodness, Power, etc.
2. God is not composed of parts. If God were composed of parts, then it would be necessary to have a cause for the arrangement of the parts, and something else would be fundamental.
3. There is only one Divine Nature. While there can be many hands, there can only be one Divine Nature.

One can now construct another analogy to consider the Persons and Nature of God. We can say that the persons are like dimensions, and the Nature is like three-dimensional space. The dimensions are indeed distinct realities, which we may term height, width, and depth, but we cannot call them parts, nor can we remove one dimension from the space in which we live. Three-dimensional space is composed of three inseparable dimensions. This analogy fails at a certain point to describe God as well, because there is really no way to distinguish one spatial dimension as special or different from the others.

As yet, however, we have only discussed how something can be different and yet inseparable. We cannot yet comprehend what the meanings of the words Person and Nature are. Persons are objects and sources both of communication, and of love. St. Augustine explains the passage "God is love" (1 John 4:8) by noting that if God is to be "love" for all eternity, then there must always exist Divine Persons in God to love one another. Ludwig Ott suggests that we may think of Persons as somewhat analogous to personalities, John Henry Newman suggests that we might think of them as personifications of Divine attributes (i.e. the Son is the Wisdom of the God).

The Divine Nature is that through which the Divine Persons are and through which they act. The Divine Nature is to the Divine Persons what the body is to a human person. However, as I noted before, the Divine Nature is not something material, rather it refers to the Divine Perfections as noted above.

These next few points are somewhat detached from the above discussion, but it is useful to bring them up as they are common misinterpretations.

Although the idea that the Divine Nature is Goodness, Love, etc. rules the interpretation of Divine Nature as a term meaning Divine species, the interpretation is voiced on occasion. This idea leads to the suggestion that the Divine Persons are just instances of this species. Divine Nature is not meant to be taken as a term for species in the doctrine of the Trinity, and if we do allow the term Divine species the doctrine of the Trinity only allows us to have one instance of it.

One possible misinterpretation that one could make at this point would be to think of God as something like a man with a split personality. If you can imagine a split personality as a good thing, then this may have some merit, but it does not do justice to the unity of God. Believers in the Trinity recognize that there is but one Divine Will. This does not mean that the three Persons merely agree, but that there is numerically one Divine Will (there is a wrinkle on this, however, as the Son of God, since his Incarnation, also has a human will and thus we say that there are two wills in Christ).

It might be useful to discuss John 1:1 at this point.

Once you have grasped this, it is worthwhile to note that there is an important related doctrine to the Trinity called the Incarnation. In fact, it is inseparable from the Trinity in discussions about the God. The doctrine of the Incarnation unites the apparently contradictory statements: Jesus is God, Jesus is man.

10 Great Quotes from Jesus of Nazareth

Here you will find 10 sayings of Jesus that I have collected together. Finding quotable passages from Jesus was not that easy, as most of what is recorded of what he said (in the gospel books: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) are either metaphorical stories, or Jesus responding to particular questions that had been put to him. Neither work very well when taken out of context.

Of the more direct teachings of Jesus, most of them are contained in what is known as the sermon on the mount, which is a veritable goldmine of counter-cultural wisdom.

1. Love Your Enemies!

OK, you have to admit this is a pretty radical concept...

“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? (Matthew 5:43-47 )

2. Don't Worry About The Future

Sometimes insightful sayings seem obvious once you hear them - I think that is the case here. Live in the moment you're in!

“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today. (Matthew 6:34)

3. How To Treat Others

“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets. (Matthew 7:12)

4. The Most Important Commandment

“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:36-40)

5. Spiritual Greatness

In the topsy-turvy world of the Kingdom of God it seems the usual understanding of things is reversed. Here is yet another example:

“You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of everyone else. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45)

6. Gaining The World, Losing Your Soul

Here Jesus highlights that the eternal and spiritual dimension is more important than the temporal physical one. Those who choose to follow His teaching will make physical sacrifices for spiritual rewards.

Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:34-38)

7. The Kingdom Of God Is Not Physical

Christian faith should not be militant, things like the crusades were not in line with what Jesus taught, or even the concept of christendom. He also taught that the Kingdom of God was in the hearts of men.

The statement below was said in response to questioning in his trial before the roman govenor.

“My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:36)

8. God Loves Everyone

This very well known passage is actually a quote from Jesus.

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16-17)

9. Ask, Seek, Knock

“And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. (Luke 11:9-10)

10. His Claim To Be God

While it seems Jesus didn't make a point of telling everyone that he was God, he did make it clear on a few recorded occasions. This quote is taken from Jesus' court trial, from which the resulting conviction of 'blasphemy' led to his crucifixion.

I include this quote, not because it's a great teaching, but because it affects how one perceives his teaching. It's hard to think of Jesus as [just] a good moral teacher when you know that he thought himself to be God. Either he is a weirdo, or he is God!

Then the high priest said to him, “I demand in the name of the living God—tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”
Jesus replied, “You have said it. And in the future you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Matthew 26:63-64)

Submitted by Ross Kendall on Mon, 21/05/2007 - 11:36pm.

• Faith and Philosophy