How does the Trinity clearly explain the nature of God to Christians?
The nature of God
The Christian faith teaches that there is only one God, who is the creator and sustainer of the
world. It teaches that God is three Persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – known as
the Trinity.
The Trinity
The Trinity refers to the idea that God is one, but exists in three different Persons. The word
‘trinity’ comes from the word ‘tri’ meaning ‘three’ and ‘unity’ meaning ‘one’.
Many Christians believe that there are three distinct Persons to this one God and that these
three Persons form a unity. This belief is called the doctrine of the Trinity:
God the Father - the creator and sustainer of all things
God the Son - the incarnation of God as a human being, Jesus Christ, on Earth
God theHoly Spirit - the power of God which is active in the world, drawing people
towards God
A useful way of understanding the Trinity is by thinking of how H2O comes in three forms:
liquid, ice and steam. These different forms are still all H2O, just like the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit are different but still God.
Trinity, in Christian doctrine, the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one
Godhead. The doctrine of the Trinity is considered to be one of the central Christian affirmations
about God. It is rooted in the fact that God came to meet Christians in a threefold figure: (1) as
Creator, Lord of the history of salvation, Father, and Judge, as revealed in the Old Testament; (2)
as the Lord who, in the incarnated figure of Jesus Christ, lived among human beings and was
present in their midst as the “Resurrected One”; and (3) as the Holy Spirit, whom they
experienced as the helper or intercessor in the power of the new life.
Neither the word “Trinity” nor the explicit doctrine appears in the New Testament, nor did Jesus
and his followers intend to contradict the Shema in the Hebrew Scriptures: “Hear, O Israel: The
Lord our God is one Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:4). The earliest Christians, however, had to cope
with the implications of the coming of Jesus Christ and of the presumed presence and power of
God among them—i.e., the Holy Spirit, whose coming was connected with the celebration of
Pentecost. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were associated in such New Testament passages as
the Great Commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19); and in the apostolic
benediction: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the
Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:13). Thus, the New Testament established the
basis for the doctrine of the Trinity.
The doctrine developed gradually over several centuries and through many controversies.
Initially, both the requirements of monotheism inherited from the Hebrew Scriptures and the
implications of the need to interpret the biblical teaching to Greco-Roman religions seemed to
demand that the divine in Christ as the Word, or Logos, be interpreted as subordinate to the
Supreme Being. An alternative solution was to interpret Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three
modes of the self-disclosure of the one God but not as distinct within the being of God itself. The
first tendency recognized the distinctness among the three, but at the cost of their equality and
hence of their unity (subordinationism). The second came to terms with their unity, but at the
cost of their distinctness as “persons” (modalism). The high point of these conflicts was the so-
called Arian controversy in the early 4th century. In his interpretation of the idea of God, Arius
sought to maintain a formal understanding of the oneness of God. In defense of that oneness, he
was obliged to dispute the sameness of essence of the Son and the Holy Spirit with God the
Father. It was not until later in the 4th century that the distinctness of the three and their unity
were brought together in a single orthodox doctrine of one essence and three persons.
The Council of Nicaea in 325 stated the crucial formula for that doctrine in its confession that the
Son is “of the same substance [homoousios] as the Father,” even though it said very little about
the Holy Spirit. Over the next half century, St. Athanasius defended and refined the Nicene
formula, and, by the end of the 4th century, under the leadership of St. Basil of Caesarea, St.
Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Gregory of Nazianzus (the Cappadocian Fathers), the doctrine of the
Trinity took substantially the form it has maintained ever since. It is accepted in all of the historic
confessions of Christianity, even though the impact of the Enlightenment decreased its
importance in some traditions.
God the Father
Christians refer to God as the Father. God the Father is the creator of all things. This means that
he was the creator of the world and everything in it. He is the father of the universe.
God is also viewed as a loving father. This means that he cares and loves humanity, as a father
loves his son. This is shown in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. (Luke 15:11-32)
In the parable, despite the son having squandered his early inheritance, the father still welcomes
him home with open arms and a celebration. In the same way, God welcomes back those who
have sinned and now seek to be reconciled with him.
The prodigal son returns to his forgiving father
God is also known as the father of Jesus Christ, as Jesus claimed to have a special relationship
with God.
No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those
to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.Matthew 11:27
God the Son
God the Son refers to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. For Christians, this is Jesus as God in human
form, who was sent to save humanity. He was sacrificed for the sins of humankind, which allows
them to be reunited with God after death. Jesus Christ is the incarnation of God on Earth - The
Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (John 1:14).
Christianity teaches that the Son was present at the creation of the universe, but wasn’t in his
human form at this stage. God chose to reveal himself as a human being in order to spread his
teaching, to show how life should be lived, and to represent humanity for their salvation.
Jesus Christ was both fully divine and fully human. This means he was fully God, as well as
fully human.
God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the power of God at work on the Earth. In the scriptures it is often depicted as
wind, fire or in the form of a dove. It is through the power and workings of the Holy Spirit that
God is known today, and how Christians can know what God wants them to do.
All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to
you.John 14:25-26
It is also through the Holy Spirit that Christians receive grace and gifts from God, such as
faithfulness and self-control:
...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23
The Holy Spirit is connected with life and the soul. When Adam was created, God breathed life
into him. Many Christians also believe that it was through the Holy Spirit that Mary became
pregnant with Jesus.
Other ways of referring to the Trinity are the Triune God and the Three-in-One.
The Trinity is a controversial doctrine; many Christians admit they don't understand it, while
many more Christians don't understand it but think they do.
In fact, although they'd be horrified to hear it, many Christians sometimes behave as if they
believe in three Gods and at other times as if they believe in one.
Trinity Sunday, which falls on the first Sunday after Pentecost, is one of the few feasts in the
Christian calendar that celebrate a doctrine rather than an event.
Find the date for Trinity Sunday 2014 in the multifaith calendar
A fundamental doctrine
The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the most difficult ideas in Christianity, but it's fundamental
to Christians because it:
states what Christians believe God is like and who he is
plays a central part in Christians' worship of an "unobjectifiable and incomprehensible
God"
emphasises that God is very different from human beings
reflects the ways Christians believe God encounters them
is a central element of Christian identity
teaches Christians vital truths about relationship and community
reveals that God can be seen only as a spiritual experience whose mystery inspires awe
and cannot be understood logically
Unpacking the doctrine
The idea that there is One God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit means:
There is exactly one God
The Father is God
The Son is God
The Holy Spirit is God
The Father is not the Son
The Son is not the Holy Spirit
The Father is not the Holy Spirit
An alternate way of explaining it is:
There is exactly one God
There are three really distinct Persons - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
Each of the Persons is God
Common mistakes
The Trinity is not
Three individuals who together make one God
Three Gods joined together
Three properties of God
Bible and why Christians believe in the Trinity
The Bible and why Christians believe in the Trinity
Christianity adopted this complicated idea of God because it was the only way they could make
sense of One God in the context of the events and teaching of the Bible.
Encounters with God
Humanity met God in three different forms:
God the Father: revealed by the Old Testament to be Creator, Lord, Father and Judge.
God the Son: who had lived on earth amongst human beings
God the Holy Spirit: who filled them with new life and power
What the Bible taught
The Bible taught that Christians were to worship Father and Son and Holy Spirit. It also taught
that Christians should only worship God. Finally, it taught that there was only one God:
We must worship only God
We must worship God the Father
We must worship God the Son
We must worship God the Holy Spirit
There is only one God
This seemed to put Christians in an impossible position from which they were rescued by the
doctrine of the Trinity, which solved the puzzle by stating that God must be simultaneously both
Three and One.
Scripture and the Trinity
For obvious reasons the Trinity is not referred to in the Old Testament, although many writers
think that the Old Testament does drop heavy hints about it - for example when it uses a plural
Hebrew noun to refer to God.
The New Testament of the Bible never explicitly refers to the Trinity as such, but it does contain
a number of references to the Economic Trinity:
The mystery of the Trinity: (1+1+1=1)
This idea that three persons add up to one individual seems like nonsense. And logically, it is.
So Christians don't try to understand the doctrine of the Trinity logically or as a problem of
arithmetic.
Unfortunately most other attempts to explain the Trinity don't really capture the concept either,
or are very difficult to understand.
God is not like us
One way out of the problem is to say that God is not like human beings and human beings get in
a mess when they try to describe God using the same sort of language and understanding that
they use to describe other human beings.
But human beings don't have any other language available, so they have to do the best that they
can with it. That's fine, as long as they remember that the whole truth of the nature of God is
simply beyond them.
So the doctrine of the Trinity only attempts to provide a rudimentary sketch of the mystery of
God's nature, rather than a full description of what God is like. God is a mystery, before which
humanity should stand in awe.
Why the Trinity is important
Before trying to understand the doctrine of the Trinity, it's vital to realise why it's important.
Its purpose is not to provide factual knowledge of God's hidden nature of the sort that describes a
dog as "having 4 legs, fur, barks, bites, domesticated by humankind etc".
The doctrine of the Trinity has other functions:
it brings humanity face to face with the mystery of God
it helps humanity recognise the God they meet in the Bible, in history and in their own
lives
it helps humanity understand God's complexity, otherness and mystery
it helps humanity worship God
it steers humanity away from wrong ideas of God, such as:
oa patriarchal/hierarchical God
oa God who can be logically understood
it is the foundation of much Christian worship and liturgy
it helps humanity understand its own nature as made in the image of God
it provides a model for human relationships, both as individuals and in community
So, for example, one might be inspired by the doctrine of the Trinity to come up with an
understanding of human relationships that was something like this...
Human beings are made in the image of God
God is a community of persons in a mutual loving relationship
Therefore the essence of humanity is to be found in human relationships with others, with
God, and with God's creation
These relationships are filled with transforming power
For human beings to live truly in the image of God, these relationships must be mutual,
generous and just
These relationships must acknowledge and value difference as well as sameness
These relationships must accept as well as give
That's one way in which contemplating the Trinity might provide useful information for a
Christian as to how they should try to live their life.
Making use of the Trinity
Is the Trinity a useful idea?
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity is not just an abstract belief, but something that has real
practical use for those who believe it.
Until quite recently, many theologians thought that the doctrine of the Trinity was pretty
pointless.
And the churches themselves disagree about the content of the doctrine; the most common
Western statement of the Trinity is not accepted by the Eastern churches.
And yet somehow it remains at the heart of the Christian faith:
It is impossible to overemphasise the importance of the Christian doctrine that God is one in
three persons. This has correctly been called the teaching distinctive of the Christian faith, that
which sets the approach of Christians to the "fearful mystery" of the deity apart from all other
approaches.
Gerald S. Sloyan, The Three Persons in One God, 1964
The Trinity and worship
Christian worship is inherently Trinitarian. Christians worship God in the presence of Christ and
with the Holy Spirit within them.
So for example:
Worship and praise are offered "to God through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit"
Blessings are given "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit", the
sign of the Cross is a Trinitarian gesture.
The creed, the fundamental statement of Christian belief, sets out the Trinitarian nature of
God.
Baptism is carried out "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit".
Eucharistic prayers are firmly Trinitarian in concept. The traditional doxology is Trinitarian:
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
World without end. Amen
Trinitarian doxology
The Trinity as a lesson to Christians
The Trinity expresses the way Christians should relate to God:
worship God the Father
follow the example set by God the Son
God the Holy Spirit lives in them
The Trinity as a recipe for life
The doctrine of the Trinity teaches human beings how they should shape their lives.
Many Christians see the relationship between the persons of the Trinity as providing a recipe for
the best sort of human relationships. These are relationships in which individuality is balanced
with relationship; relationships whose basis is mutual love and perfect communication.
Social implications
The Trinity as a power structure
The relationships within God as a Trinity discredit any hierarchical power structure in which
those lower down are dominated and oppressed by those above them.
Instead, using the example of the Trinity leads to an ideal structure of mutual interdependence
and support in pursuit of a common aim.
Thus the Trinity shows the way God wants the world to be run and the power structures that he
recommends to human society.
This seems to contradict the traditional idea of God as one Supreme Being, Lord of all, but
should be seen as demonstrating the non-hierarchical nature of God in himself, without
diminishing God's status in relationship to others.
This idea can be developed in Church life:
in the hierarchical model power and authority in the church flow in one direction from
God, through senior and junior clergy, down to the lay people
in the Trinitarian model there is a church of mutual self-giving and equality that emulates
the community of the Trinity.
In this the members communicate with each other in a spirit of love that accepts
responsibility for the well-being of each individual and that of the whole community.
In this way the Church, and each church and community become a unity in which
diversity flourishes and in which differences are seen as valuable and essential elements
in the substance of these institutions.
The Trinity and Liberation Theology
The liberation theologians thought it was essential to start thinking about the Trinity by focusing
on its three-ness first, then its oneness.
They saw the Trinity as first and foremost a community of divine persons whose essence was in
their shared existence, their shared relationship and their surrender to each other.
They objected to the hierarchical model of One God, because they thought that it justified
political power structures that oppressed the poor and allowed the Church to continue with a
patriarchal model that was out of date and unhelpful to the poor.
So the liberation theologians took the Trinitarian theology of relationships to a grand scale. They
used it to promote the ideal human society as a closely related and unified group of equal people
living so as to promote the good of society as a whole.
The leading liberation theologian Leonardo Boff said the Trinity was a "model for any, just,
egalitarian (while respecting differences), social organisation." It provided a "prototype of human
community dreamed of by those who wish to improve society".
Essential and Economic Trinity
Some of the problems of the Trinity arise from confusion between the internal life and nature of
the Trinity itself and the external life or "self-revelation" of God. The only thing humankind can
directly know of God is his external life.
There are two ways of looking at God in Trinitarian terms:
The Essential (also called Immanent or Ontological) Trinity looks at the essence or
substance of God; at what God is actually like in himself as he stands outside the created
universe. It's how God appears to God.
oWarning: This is an unusual use of the word immanent, which Christians often
use to refer to God's actions in the world.
The Economic Trinity is concerned with humanity's experience of God; in human lives,
in creation, in salvation; and derives the nature of God from that experience. This is how
God appears to humanity.
oSome theologians point out that only the Son and the Spirit are directly met in the
Economic Trinity.
The Economic and Essential Trinities are not two separate entities - just two ways of looking at
God.
Are these two the same? Victor Shepherd (Professor of Systematic Theology at Tyndale
University College, Toronto) put the question like this:
Is God's revelation merely the "face" God wears as he turns to us, or is it who God is in himself?
Is his face something he merely displays, or does his face unambiguously disclose his heart?
Victor Shepherd
The Western Churches believe that they are pretty much the same and that human beings meet
God fully and completely as he is through his actions.
The 'economic' Trinity is the 'immanent' Trinity and the 'immanent' Trinity is the 'economic'
Trinity.
Karl Rahner, The Trinity, 1970
To put it another way: God's actions reveal who God is. And since God acts as a threefold God,
God himself must be threefold.
Some Western writers hint at the idea that there is no more to God than his actions in the world.
The Eastern Churches disagree, and teach there is much more to God than human experience can
reveal.
Trinitarian heresies
Some theories of the Trinity are so wrong that they have been declared heretical.
Modalism
The proponents of Modalism were Noetus and Praxeas (late 2nd century CE) and Sabellius (3rd
century CE).
Modalism teaches that Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not distinct personalities, but
different modes of God's self-revelation.
The idea is that there is only one God, but that this one God reveals himself in different ways and
different forms - sometimes as Father, sometimes as Son, sometimes as Holy Spirit.
Father: The creator and the law giver
Son: The revealer, the Messiah and the redeemer
Holy Spirit: The sanctifier and giver of eternal life
One of the standard analogies for the Trinity is a good example of modalism: The Trinity is like
water because water comes in three forms - ice, water, steam. This is Modalism because these
are three states or modes of the substance water.
Some modalists believe that God revealed himself differently at different times in history, others
believe that during any particular period of history God can reveal himself in different ways; so
when God is acting as redeemer, that's God the Son, and so on.
Warning: Some modern writers refer to the different persons of the Trinity as different "modes of
being", but they aren't guilty of Modalism because they are not referring to different modes in
which God appears to humanity, but different internal ways in which God is to him/herself.
Tritheism
Tritheism portrays Father, Son and Holy Spirit as three independent divine beings; three separate
gods who are linked together in some special way - most commonly by sharing the "same
substance" or being the same sort of thing.
People often make this mistake because they misunderstand the use of the word "persons" in
defining the Trinity; it does not mean that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three separate
personalities.
Partialism
This is the idea that Father, Son and Holy Spirit together make up God. This would suggest that
each of the persons of the Trinity is only part God, only becoming fully God when they are
together.
Monarchianism
Monarchianism stresses God as One and downgrades the idea of the Trinity; it comes in various
versions:
Adoptionism
Christ was born human and adopted by God at his resurrection (or baptism).
Arianism
This isn't a strictly Trinitarian heresy but it's relevant because it's the idea that the Son is in some
way less fully God than the Father.
