"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One [echad]" (Deut. 6:4 ESV; cf. "the LORD alone," NRSV, NLT--the verb "is" cannot be found in the Hebrew text). The great Shema (lit. "to hear") of Israel is an affirmation of her One and Only God, the LORD [the Tetragrammaton, or four-lettered Name of God, YHWH (Yahweh), cf. Exodus 3:14, 15; see John 17:6, 11, 12; Phil. 2:10, 11]. The Hebrew echad refers to one, one or two, one and the same, as one man together (not only one man together), united, or one as an ordinal first; in other words: one in compound unity. Unitarians and Modalists interpret this to suggest that God is not merely one Being but also one Person / Individual / Self. This is, however, a blatant lexicographical error--and, according to the Church fathers, overt heresy; for Jesus said, plainly and bluntly, that if you refuse to believe that He is the Great I Am (Ex. 3:14, 15, YHWH, Phil 2:11) then you cannot and will not be saved (John 8:24, 28, 58).
MONOTHEISM
The Jewish people of the Hebrew scriptures, as well as all orthodox followers of Jesus in the Christian scriptures, worship One God. There is only One God, as God Himself declares, "I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides me there is no god" (Isa. 45:5 NRSV). There is no other God, gods or goddesses, other than the One [echad] God of Israel. If other people claim to worship a God (or gods) who is not the God of both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures then they worship a false god because there is only One God. But can this One God exist in Three Persons without converting this triune image into overt Tritheism--the theory of three co-existing Judeo-Christian gods, who can even differ from each other in desire and motive and will and purpose and intent? Can the Father be God but Jesus be a god and the Holy Spirit a god?
ECHAD: COMPOUND UNITY
By way of evidence we need to examine carefully the Hebrew word echad. At Genesis 1:5 we find in the first (echad) day, a single (echad) day, two aspects to this one (echad) day: evening and morning--a compound unity. At Genesis 2:24 we find that Adam and Eve become one (echad) flesh--a compound unity. At Genesis 3:22 the man and woman "have become like One [echad] of Us," confesses God. Dr. Robert Morey comments: "But they did not lose their personhood when they became 'one' with God."1 At Genesis 11:6 all of the people are one (echad), united, yet remain many--a compound unity. At Genesis 34:16, 22, the Shechemites desire to become one (echad) people with the Jews. At 2 Chronicles 30:12 the LORD grants the people one (echad) heart in a compound sense (cf. Jer. 32:39). At Ezra 2:64 the Israelites (numbering 42,360) are described as one (echad)--a compound unity of persons with one intent and one purpose. More than one person can be considered to exist metaphorically and spiritually as a compound unity. So, too, can God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
The conclusion is obvious: "The passages above are just a small sampling of the many times [echad] is used of compound oneness. But it is enough to demonstrate beyond all doubt that the Old Testament, from the Law to the Prophets, used [echad] to express a unified or compound oneness."2 This is how Three Persons can eternally exist as One God: one God manifested in Three Persons. We are monotheists! Dr. Robert Morey asks: Who would use echad? A Unitarian would never apply the Hebrew word [echad] to God because it means
GOD AND PLURAL PRONOUNS
God refers to the Godhead Trinity using plural pronouns (Gen. 1:26, 27; 3:22; 11:7, 8, 9; 19:24; Isa. 6:8). The anti-Trinitarian interpretation of these verses is the principle known as pluralis majestaticus, the use of "we" when referring to one person, itself a late British motif entirely irrelevant to the Hebrew culture of its time. In other words, the Hebrew man does not speak using plural pronouns to refer to himself in his culture as do Englishmen in Elizabethan-Shakespearean culture, or even throughout some in England today. For Unitarians to suggest that plural pronouns referring to God are supposed to explain a "plurality of majesty" is merely a diversion predicated not upon lexicographic or exegetical integrity but only due to the presupposition that God cannot exist in Three equally-divine Persons. This is hardly credible.
THE LORD AND THE LORD
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah poses a devastating blow to Unitarianism since we have in the text two YHWHs (two LORDs) doling out judgment: "Then the LORD [YHWH] rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD [YHWH] out of heaven" (Gen. 19:24 NRSV, emphases added). One Person of YHWH is raining sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah in the earthly sphere and this judgment is also noted as deriving from one Person of YHWH in (or out of) the heaven(s) or (above) the sky. But we know there are not two separate Gods (gods) here. Polytheism is rejected outright and monotheism alone defended. Two or more YHWHs do not exist (and such is impossible).
Dr. Morey notes that the Council of Sirmium decrees: "the Son of God brought down the rain from God the Father"--a notion accepted by the early Church. He then quotes Luther: "We may note also the fact that Moses here says that the LORD [YHWH] rained fire and brimstone from the LORD [YHWH]. This mode of speaking greatly irks the [unbelieving] Jews and they try in vain to explain it. But Moses mentions Jehovah [YHWH] twice to show that there is but One God but that in this One God there are Three distinct Persons."5 The verse is complicated. But to suggest that the second YHWH merely refers to the first YHWH poses exegetical, lexicographical, and interpretive problems: First, Moses is contrasting Heaven and Earth.Can anyone deny that they are juxtaposed? The fire comes down from the
Yes, there is but One (echad) God, and we worship but One (echad) God. Yet this One God exists in Three equally-divine Persons--Persons we traditionally refer to as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the creation account we have God [elohim, plural] at work (assuming the reference is to God the Father); we learn elsewhere that the Holy Spirit is also creatively at work (Gen. 1:2) and is also Creator proper (Job 33:4); and that Jesus is also creatively at work (Col. 1:16) and is also Creator proper (John 1:3). We do not have and we do not worship Three Creator-Gods but One Creator-God, a compound unity, in Three equally-divine, equally-sovereign, Persons with One Mind, Motive, and Will.
This One (echad) God works in compound unity in Heaven and on the earth. God the Father and God the Holy Spirit send Isaiah the prophet into ministry (Isa. 48:16). Referring to Jesus, the confession is made that God the Holy Spirit, in conjunction with God the Father, moves mightily upon Him (Jesus), He having been anointed for the work of Messiah (Isa. 61:1; Luke 4:18). God the Father says to King David's "Lord" (Adonai), whom we refer to as God the Son, "Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool" (Ps. 110:1). Scripture explicitly refers to God the Father (cf. Isa. 63:16; Mal. 2:10), God the Son (Ps. 2:6, 7, 12; 45:6, 7; Prov. 30:4; Isa. 7:14; 9:6), and God the Holy Spirit (Gen. 1:2; 6:3; Isa. 11:1, 2, 3; 48:16; 61:1; 63:10) as being God:7 One God in Three Persons of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
CONCLUSION
We are left with only two options: 1) we reinterpret and / or conflate the Three Persons mentioned in the Bible as God, namely, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a concept that renders us Modalists at best; or 2) we understand and receive by faith that there is only One (echad) God, a compound unity of Three equally-divine Persons, namely, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What we cannot deny is that the Bible refers to three equally-divine Persons, forcing us to reconcile One God in Three Persons. The Father is neither the Son nor the Holy Spirit; the Son is neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son. All Three divine Persons are united and operate at all times, from everlasting to everlasting, with One Heart and One Mind in what One God sovereignly purposes. "But how can three equal one?"
The question is a confusion of language as well as mathematics. No one is suggesting that Three Persons are One Person--nor that One God is Three Gods. Are Three Persons not equally divine? Yes. Then are there not Three Gods? No. How? Mathematically we compute this dynamic relationship not as 1 + 1 + 1 = 1, which is incorrect, but properly as 1 x 1 x 1 = 1: three separate and distinct "ones" (1 x 1 x 1) that, multiplied, total one (= 1). The notion of three Gods suggests that each individual God, each individual Person, would maintain His own purposes, His own desires, His own motives and will. But our Trinity, our Compound Unity of Three Persons, shares one will, one mode of desiring, one shared motive. What One thinks, desires and wills, so do the other Two Persons--all Persons act and will in compound unity as One and only One God. This Trinity of Persons sets God apart from all other beings; for no three angels or devils or mortals could possess the exact same shared will, desire, motive and action (and this from all eternity). The Three Persons of the Godhead live and move and have Their being in Their shared unity. The Three equally-divine Persons are eternally united as One God. We worship One God in Three Persons.
__________
1 Robert Morey, The Trinity: Evidence and Issues (Iowa Falls: World Bible Publishers, Inc., 1996), 88. The references used in this paragraph are taken from the same.
2 Ibid., 89.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid. When asked why modern Jewish persons reject the notion of the compound unity of God in two or more Persons, Dr. Morey quotes Hebrew scholar David Cooper, "Prior to the days of Moses Maimonides [1135-1204], the unity of God was expressed by אֶחָֽד [echad] which, as has been proved beyond a doubt, has as its primary meaning that of a compound unity. Maimonides, who drafted the thirteen articles of faith, in the second one sets forth the unity of God, using the word יָחִיד֙ [yachid] which in the [Tanakh] is never used to express God's unity. From these facts it is evident that a new idea was injected into this confession by substituting יָחִיד֙ [yachid] which in every passage carries the primary idea of oneness in the absolute sense for אֶחָֽד [echad] which primarily means a compound unity. Hence from the days of Maimonides on, an interpretation different from the ancient one was placed upon this most important passage" (90, emphasis added).
5 Ibid., 97. I capitalized LORD where Luther writes Lord.
6 Ibid.
7 Kevin J. Conner, The Foundations of Christian Doctrine: A Practical Guide to Christian Belief (Portland: City Christian Publishing, 1980), 57-58.
MONOTHEISM
The Jewish people of the Hebrew scriptures, as well as all orthodox followers of Jesus in the Christian scriptures, worship One God. There is only One God, as God Himself declares, "I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides me there is no god" (Isa. 45:5 NRSV). There is no other God, gods or goddesses, other than the One [echad] God of Israel. If other people claim to worship a God (or gods) who is not the God of both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures then they worship a false god because there is only One God. But can this One God exist in Three Persons without converting this triune image into overt Tritheism--the theory of three co-existing Judeo-Christian gods, who can even differ from each other in desire and motive and will and purpose and intent? Can the Father be God but Jesus be a god and the Holy Spirit a god?
ECHAD: COMPOUND UNITY
By way of evidence we need to examine carefully the Hebrew word echad. At Genesis 1:5 we find in the first (echad) day, a single (echad) day, two aspects to this one (echad) day: evening and morning--a compound unity. At Genesis 2:24 we find that Adam and Eve become one (echad) flesh--a compound unity. At Genesis 3:22 the man and woman "have become like One [echad] of Us," confesses God. Dr. Robert Morey comments: "But they did not lose their personhood when they became 'one' with God."1 At Genesis 11:6 all of the people are one (echad), united, yet remain many--a compound unity. At Genesis 34:16, 22, the Shechemites desire to become one (echad) people with the Jews. At 2 Chronicles 30:12 the LORD grants the people one (echad) heart in a compound sense (cf. Jer. 32:39). At Ezra 2:64 the Israelites (numbering 42,360) are described as one (echad)--a compound unity of persons with one intent and one purpose. More than one person can be considered to exist metaphorically and spiritually as a compound unity. So, too, can God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
The conclusion is obvious: "The passages above are just a small sampling of the many times [echad] is used of compound oneness. But it is enough to demonstrate beyond all doubt that the Old Testament, from the Law to the Prophets, used [echad] to express a unified or compound oneness."2 This is how Three Persons can eternally exist as One God: one God manifested in Three Persons. We are monotheists! Dr. Robert Morey asks: Who would use echad? A Unitarian would never apply the Hebrew word [echad] to God because it means
a compound or unified oneness [where more than One Person can be named God]. If the authors of the Bible were Unitarians [then] we would not expect to find [echad] applied to God. On the other hand, if the writers of Scripture believed that God was multi-personal, then we would expect to find that they would apply [echad] to God because this would mean that God is "one" in a composite or compound sense. As a matter of fact, [echad] is the only available Hebrew word they could use to express this idea. When we open the Bible, what do we find? We find that [echad] is applied to God. He is "one" in the sense of compound oneness. This is so central to the Old Testament concept of God that it is found in Israel's Great Confession [the Great Shema, at Deuteronomy 6:4, the LORD our One God].3Dr. Morey continues his argument, noting that the Hebrew authors have available to them no other way "to indicate to the reader that God is a composite unity of several Persons and not just a solitary person" / individual / self, repeating the fact that there are "no other words in the Hebrew language by which such an idea could be expressed."4 If the authors of the Hebrew scriptures intend to refer to God as One Being / Essence and One in Person, they must use the Hebrew word yachid, which refers to one absolute, one Person / one Self, not in a compound sense. This word is not even once used to refer to God throughout the entirety of the Old Testament--not even once. This is because God is a compound unity of Three Persons / Three Selves, equally divine, cooperative in their entirety, with one shared eternal intent, one effectual purpose, of one and the same mind. They each exist, they each think, they each will and they each purpose as One compound unity.
GOD AND PLURAL PRONOUNS
God refers to the Godhead Trinity using plural pronouns (Gen. 1:26, 27; 3:22; 11:7, 8, 9; 19:24; Isa. 6:8). The anti-Trinitarian interpretation of these verses is the principle known as pluralis majestaticus, the use of "we" when referring to one person, itself a late British motif entirely irrelevant to the Hebrew culture of its time. In other words, the Hebrew man does not speak using plural pronouns to refer to himself in his culture as do Englishmen in Elizabethan-Shakespearean culture, or even throughout some in England today. For Unitarians to suggest that plural pronouns referring to God are supposed to explain a "plurality of majesty" is merely a diversion predicated not upon lexicographic or exegetical integrity but only due to the presupposition that God cannot exist in Three equally-divine Persons. This is hardly credible.
THE LORD AND THE LORD
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah poses a devastating blow to Unitarianism since we have in the text two YHWHs (two LORDs) doling out judgment: "Then the LORD [YHWH] rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD [YHWH] out of heaven" (Gen. 19:24 NRSV, emphases added). One Person of YHWH is raining sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah in the earthly sphere and this judgment is also noted as deriving from one Person of YHWH in (or out of) the heaven(s) or (above) the sky. But we know there are not two separate Gods (gods) here. Polytheism is rejected outright and monotheism alone defended. Two or more YHWHs do not exist (and such is impossible).
Dr. Morey notes that the Council of Sirmium decrees: "the Son of God brought down the rain from God the Father"--a notion accepted by the early Church. He then quotes Luther: "We may note also the fact that Moses here says that the LORD [YHWH] rained fire and brimstone from the LORD [YHWH]. This mode of speaking greatly irks the [unbelieving] Jews and they try in vain to explain it. But Moses mentions Jehovah [YHWH] twice to show that there is but One God but that in this One God there are Three distinct Persons."5 The verse is complicated. But to suggest that the second YHWH merely refers to the first YHWH poses exegetical, lexicographical, and interpretive problems: First, Moses is contrasting Heaven and Earth.Can anyone deny that they are juxtaposed? The fire comes down from the
heavens [from one YHWH] to the earth below [from another YHWH]. Is it not also clear that the two Yahwehs are part of this contrast? Yes. Are not the two Yahwehs clearly juxtaposed in the text? Yes. Just as the heavens cannot be interpreted as a repetition of the earth, neither can the first Yahweh be interpreted as a repetition of the second Yahweh. The second problem with [a non-Trinitarian] interpretation [of this particular passage] is that there are no other passages in the Pentateuch where a name is repeated once at the beginning and again at the end for emphasis sake. Thus there is no evidence that Moses ever used such a literary device.6ONE GOD: THREE PERSONS
Yes, there is but One (echad) God, and we worship but One (echad) God. Yet this One God exists in Three equally-divine Persons--Persons we traditionally refer to as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the creation account we have God [elohim, plural] at work (assuming the reference is to God the Father); we learn elsewhere that the Holy Spirit is also creatively at work (Gen. 1:2) and is also Creator proper (Job 33:4); and that Jesus is also creatively at work (Col. 1:16) and is also Creator proper (John 1:3). We do not have and we do not worship Three Creator-Gods but One Creator-God, a compound unity, in Three equally-divine, equally-sovereign, Persons with One Mind, Motive, and Will.
This One (echad) God works in compound unity in Heaven and on the earth. God the Father and God the Holy Spirit send Isaiah the prophet into ministry (Isa. 48:16). Referring to Jesus, the confession is made that God the Holy Spirit, in conjunction with God the Father, moves mightily upon Him (Jesus), He having been anointed for the work of Messiah (Isa. 61:1; Luke 4:18). God the Father says to King David's "Lord" (Adonai), whom we refer to as God the Son, "Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool" (Ps. 110:1). Scripture explicitly refers to God the Father (cf. Isa. 63:16; Mal. 2:10), God the Son (Ps. 2:6, 7, 12; 45:6, 7; Prov. 30:4; Isa. 7:14; 9:6), and God the Holy Spirit (Gen. 1:2; 6:3; Isa. 11:1, 2, 3; 48:16; 61:1; 63:10) as being God:7 One God in Three Persons of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
CONCLUSION
We are left with only two options: 1) we reinterpret and / or conflate the Three Persons mentioned in the Bible as God, namely, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a concept that renders us Modalists at best; or 2) we understand and receive by faith that there is only One (echad) God, a compound unity of Three equally-divine Persons, namely, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What we cannot deny is that the Bible refers to three equally-divine Persons, forcing us to reconcile One God in Three Persons. The Father is neither the Son nor the Holy Spirit; the Son is neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son. All Three divine Persons are united and operate at all times, from everlasting to everlasting, with One Heart and One Mind in what One God sovereignly purposes. "But how can three equal one?"
The question is a confusion of language as well as mathematics. No one is suggesting that Three Persons are One Person--nor that One God is Three Gods. Are Three Persons not equally divine? Yes. Then are there not Three Gods? No. How? Mathematically we compute this dynamic relationship not as 1 + 1 + 1 = 1, which is incorrect, but properly as 1 x 1 x 1 = 1: three separate and distinct "ones" (1 x 1 x 1) that, multiplied, total one (= 1). The notion of three Gods suggests that each individual God, each individual Person, would maintain His own purposes, His own desires, His own motives and will. But our Trinity, our Compound Unity of Three Persons, shares one will, one mode of desiring, one shared motive. What One thinks, desires and wills, so do the other Two Persons--all Persons act and will in compound unity as One and only One God. This Trinity of Persons sets God apart from all other beings; for no three angels or devils or mortals could possess the exact same shared will, desire, motive and action (and this from all eternity). The Three Persons of the Godhead live and move and have Their being in Their shared unity. The Three equally-divine Persons are eternally united as One God. We worship One God in Three Persons.
__________
1 Robert Morey, The Trinity: Evidence and Issues (Iowa Falls: World Bible Publishers, Inc., 1996), 88. The references used in this paragraph are taken from the same.
2 Ibid., 89.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid. When asked why modern Jewish persons reject the notion of the compound unity of God in two or more Persons, Dr. Morey quotes Hebrew scholar David Cooper, "Prior to the days of Moses Maimonides [1135-1204], the unity of God was expressed by אֶחָֽד [echad] which, as has been proved beyond a doubt, has as its primary meaning that of a compound unity. Maimonides, who drafted the thirteen articles of faith, in the second one sets forth the unity of God, using the word יָחִיד֙ [yachid] which in the [Tanakh] is never used to express God's unity. From these facts it is evident that a new idea was injected into this confession by substituting יָחִיד֙ [yachid] which in every passage carries the primary idea of oneness in the absolute sense for אֶחָֽד [echad] which primarily means a compound unity. Hence from the days of Maimonides on, an interpretation different from the ancient one was placed upon this most important passage" (90, emphasis added).
5 Ibid., 97. I capitalized LORD where Luther writes Lord.
6 Ibid.
7 Kevin J. Conner, The Foundations of Christian Doctrine: A Practical Guide to Christian Belief (Portland: City Christian Publishing, 1980), 57-58.
BOOKS ON THE TRINITY:
- Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith by Michael Reeves
- The Essential Trinity by Brandon Crowe and Carl Trueman
- The Forgotten Trinity: Recovering the Heart of Christian Belief by James R. White
- The God Who is Triune: Revisioning the Christian Doctrine of God by Allan Coppedge
- The Holy Trinity: In Scripture, History, Theology, and Worship by Robert Letham
- The Trinity and the Bible: On Theological Interpretation by Scott R. Swain
- The Trinity: Evidence and Issues by Robert Morey
- The Tripersonal God: Understanding and Interpreting the Trinity by Gerald O'Collins, SJ
- The Triune God by Fred Sanders, eds. Michael Allen and Scott R. Swain
POSTS ON THE TRINITY:
- Something To Be Grasped defends the full divinity of Christ in His full humanity.
- Jesus with Two Natures: Human and Divine defends Jesus as fully Human and fully God.
- The Word Became Flesh and Dwelt Among Us defends Jesus as eternally existing.
- God Hides His Majesty explains Luther's view of God hiding His majesty for our sake.
- Trinitarianism in New Testament Perspective answers the question of the Godhead.
- On the Unity of the Trinity explains how God exists in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- The Personhood of the Godhead explains how we ascribe Personhood to the Godhead.
ATHANASIAN CREED
Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that one hold the catholic Faith, which Faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled without doubt they shall perish everlastingly; and the catholic Faith is this: that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity. Neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all One, the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal.
Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit; the Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated; the Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible; the Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal; and yet they are not three Eternals but one Eternal. As also there are not three Uncreated, nor three Incomprehensibles, but one Uncreated and one Incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Spirit Almighty; and yet they are not three Almighties but one Almighty.
So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; and yet they are not three Gods but one God. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord; and yet not three Lords but one Lord. For, like as we are compelled by the Christian truth to acknowledge every Person by Himself to be God and Lord, so are we forbidden by the catholic Faith to say that there are three Gods or three Lords. The Father is made of no one, neither created, nor begotten; the Son is of the Father alone; not made, nor created, but begotten; the Holy Spirit is of the Father, and of the Son neither made, nor created, nor begotten but proceeding. So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit and not three Holy Spirits; and in this Trinity none is before or after the Other; none is greater nor less than Another; but the whole three Persons are co-eternal together and co-equal. So that in all things, as is beforesaid, the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity, is to be worshiped. Whosoever therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.
Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation that one also believe rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the right Faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man. God [the Son], of the [same] substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and Man, of the substance of His mother, born into the world: perfect God and perfect Man of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting; equal to the Father as concerning His Godhead and inferior to the Father as concerning His Manhood; who, although He be God and Man, yet He is not two but One Christ: one, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of the Manhood into God: one altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of Person.
For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one Man so God and Man is one Christ; who suffered for our salvation, descended into Hell, rose again the third day from the dead. He ascended into Heaven, He sits on the right hand of the Father, God Almighty, whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead; at whose coming all shall rise again with their bodies and shall give account for their own works; and they that have done good shall go into life everlasting and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.
This is the catholic Faith, which except one believes faithfully and firmly, they cannot be saved.
Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit; the Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated; the Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible; the Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal; and yet they are not three Eternals but one Eternal. As also there are not three Uncreated, nor three Incomprehensibles, but one Uncreated and one Incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Spirit Almighty; and yet they are not three Almighties but one Almighty.
So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; and yet they are not three Gods but one God. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord; and yet not three Lords but one Lord. For, like as we are compelled by the Christian truth to acknowledge every Person by Himself to be God and Lord, so are we forbidden by the catholic Faith to say that there are three Gods or three Lords. The Father is made of no one, neither created, nor begotten; the Son is of the Father alone; not made, nor created, but begotten; the Holy Spirit is of the Father, and of the Son neither made, nor created, nor begotten but proceeding. So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit and not three Holy Spirits; and in this Trinity none is before or after the Other; none is greater nor less than Another; but the whole three Persons are co-eternal together and co-equal. So that in all things, as is beforesaid, the Unity in Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity, is to be worshiped. Whosoever therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.
Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation that one also believe rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the right Faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man. God [the Son], of the [same] substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and Man, of the substance of His mother, born into the world: perfect God and perfect Man of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting; equal to the Father as concerning His Godhead and inferior to the Father as concerning His Manhood; who, although He be God and Man, yet He is not two but One Christ: one, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of the Manhood into God: one altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of Person.
For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one Man so God and Man is one Christ; who suffered for our salvation, descended into Hell, rose again the third day from the dead. He ascended into Heaven, He sits on the right hand of the Father, God Almighty, whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead; at whose coming all shall rise again with their bodies and shall give account for their own works; and they that have done good shall go into life everlasting and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.
This is the catholic Faith, which except one believes faithfully and firmly, they cannot be saved.
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