If Trinitarian theology exists in Scripture then what would we expect to find to support the notion? In other words, if the One God exists in Three co-eternal, co-equal Persons--because many passages appear to indicate as much--then what kind of language would we expect the authors to employ? We agree that the word "Trinity" or "Triunity" (the Three-Personed Union of the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is absent from our English Bible translations; but so is the word "Bible," and so are concepts related to the exact age of the earth, or theories on the manner in which the Church is to be governed (Episcopal, Presbyterian, Congregational), etc. Hence we need not see exact words or concepts printed on the pages in order to adopt a teaching. A word need not be present in order for the idea to be biblical and true.
HERMENEUTICS
This is not to admit Trinitarians merely find what we expect or want to find in the Bible--as though we prophesy our way into a theology regarding the Trinity by seeing in the Text what is actually not present. On the contrary, if the teaching of the Trinity is present in the scriptures, then certain characteristics and ideology must be present in the pages of the Bible; they must be particular, exact, and restrictive in such a manner that, if those particularities are absent from the Text, then any notion of Trinitarianism would be found false. We must be careful to form our theology not by what we want to believe presuppositionally but by what we find plainly written on the pages exegetically--mining the depths of what we find therein. The truth in Scripture matters infinitely more than presuppositional affirmation.
FINDING THE GODHEAD
Dr. Robert Morey aptly states that theology is the language of the Church; it is progressively formed in time; and at times did only develop more fully due to the rise of controversy or tension or (implicit or explicit) heresy. Thus the doctrine of the Trinity was "not under attack while the New Testament was being written"1 in the first century, and so one need not look therein for an explicit and exhaustive defense of the teaching--there was no defense of the Trinity in the first and second centuries, only a well-accepted dogma shared by all orthodox believers. Allan Coppedge notes, "The Church fathers did not see their work as the invention of new doctrine but as a synthesis of apostolic teaching from the New Testament, which had been proclaimed within the Church from the beginning"2 (emphasis added). What we expect to find in Scripture on the Godhead Trinity is but the bud of the flower which bloomed at the Council of Nicea in 325 CE: We expect to find
THE HOLY SPIRIT
One of the most explicit statements regarding the Divinity / Deity of the Holy Spirit being called God is found twice at Acts 5. When Ananias and Sapphira lie to the church about how much money they have made on land they sell, having pledged to give a portion of that price as a love gift, Peter asks, "Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land" (Acts 5:3 NRSV, emphasis added)? He then qualifies the statement: "You did not lie to us but to God" (Acts 5:4, emphases added)! Here, Peter not only equates lying to the Holy Spirit as lying to God, but also names the Holy Spirit as being God. Lying to the Holy Spirit is an offense to the omniscient God because lying is an attempt to deceive--as though the Spirit of God does not know what price they receive for the land and does not know they are being deceptive. How foolish! The Spirit knew their deception because He has the mind of God (1 Cor. 2:11).
Three hours after Peter confronts Ananias, he then approaches the wife, Sapphira, who is unaware of what happened to her husband. She, too, lies about the price, and Peter asks, "How is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test" (Acts 5:9)? At this she immediately dies. "Testing" or "tempting" God is explicitly forbidden in the scriptures (cf. Deut. 6:16; Matt. 4:7; Luke 4:12). But for Peter to insist that Ananias and Sapphira are "testing" or "tempting" the Holy Spirit, acknowledging the act as being sinful, is also to insist that the Holy Spirit is a Person, at least, and God at most. To "test" the Holy Spirit is to "test" God. The Holy Spirit, then, is God.
But the Holy Spirit is both His own Person and also God--since both are revealed as such in the scriptures: the Holy Spirit maintains Personhood (cf. John 14:15, 16, 26; 15:26, 27; 16:7-14; Acts 6:9; 7:51; 13:2; Rom. 8:26, 27; 15:30; 1 Cor. 2:10, 11, 12, 13; 12:11; Eph. 4:30; Col. 1:8; 1 Thess. 5:19; 1 Tim. 4:1; Heb. 10:29; Rev. 2:7); attributes of God (cf. Gen. 1:1, 2; Job 26:13; 33:14; Ps. 104:30; 139:7, 8, 9, 10; Luke 1:35; John 3:3, 5; 14:26; 16:13; Rom. 1:4; 8:2, 11; 15:30; 1 Cor. 2:10; 3:16; 12:4-6; Eph. 4:30; 2 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 9:14; 2 Pet. 1:21); and is mentioned in unity with the Father and the Son (cf. Isa. 48:12, 16; Matt. 3:16, 17; 28:19; Luke 3:21, 22; John 1:33; Acts 2:33; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 2:18; 1 John 5:7, 8).5 Since this is true, then, we would expect to find no less evidence regarding Jesus, the Second Member of the Trinity, God incarnate, and we find attributes to His Personhood, Godhood (divinity / deity), as He is found in compound unity with God the Father and God the Spirit.
JESUS CHRIST
The Son of God, incarnated Jesus Christ, has always existed with the Father and the Spirit as the Son of God. By Son, we do not mean that He was created by God the Father, or given birth to at any time in eternity past by two cosmic or semi-cosmic parents; nor that He was eternally subordinated--the latter being a truth which must be treated carefully lest we admit the heresies of either Tritheism or Unitarianism. Rather, we should, as Dr. Kevin N. Giles correctly notes, emphasize "divine unity, simplicity, and equality"6 in the Godhead Trinity.
When we emphasize proper differentiation among the Persons of the Godhead, we fall prey to Tritheism; when we confound the nature of each Person, we fall prey to the heresies of Modalism or Unitarianism. What we expect to find in Scripture, with regard to Jesus as the Second Person of the Trinity, is that His will and purpose is the same as that of both the Father and the Holy Spirit. What we find is a confession of Jesus to being of one mind in the purpose of the Father: "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want" (Matt. 26:39). Does Jesus want / wish / will / intend / purpose that which is contrary to the Father? No, for His own confession states, "yet not what I want but what you want." His Purpose is the Purpose of the Father, as He confesses on two other occasions, "My food is to do the Will of Him who sent Me and to complete His work" (John 4:34); "for I have come down from heaven, not to do My own Will [for His will is not separate], but the Will of Him who sent Me" (John 6:38). The will of Jesus is to fulfill the will of His Father.
What we have here is a confession, not that Jesus actually has His own Will apart from the Father, but to the exact contrary: He came to carry out the Will of the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This corresponds with the author of Hebrews regarding Jesus' perfect sacrifice: "Consequently, when Christ came into the world, He said, 'Sacrifices and offerings You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for Me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings You have taken no pleasure. Then I said, "See, God, I have come to do Your will, O God" (in the scroll of the book it is written of Me)'" (Heb. 10:5, 6, 7). The Will of the Father is the Will of the Son (John 6:38); just as the Will of the Son is the Will of the Holy Spirit (John 16:14, 15); just as the Will of the Holy Spirit is the Will of the Father (Rom. 8:27). All Three divine Persons in the Godhead maintain, always and from eternity past to eternity future, the same will / desire / wish / purpose / intent / motive / inclination. This is how Three divine Persons can be referred to as One God, not three gods, and not One Person as God--both of which are refuted by numerous passages of Scripture (cf. Isa. 43:11; 45:5; Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14). One God exists in Three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We also find explicitly Divine Names applied to Jesus, just as to the Father and the Holy Spirit (cf. Ex. 3:14, 15 with John 8:56, 58; Ps. 110:1; Isa. 9:6; Jer. 23:5, 6; Joel 2:32; Matt. 1:21; 22:43, 44, 45; Luke 2:11; Acts 2:21, 34, 35, 36, 37; 9:17; 16:31; Rom. 10:9, 13; 1 Cor. 12:3; Phil. 2:11; Heb. 1:1, 2; 1 Pet. 1:7, 8; 5:15; Rev. 1:7, 8, 11; 22:13, 16, 17, 18; 19:13); as are Divine Works attributed to Jesus (cf. Matt. 19:28; John 1:1, 2, 3; 5:28, 29, 36; 10:28, 37; 11:25; 14:11; 17:2; Acts 5:31; Phil. 3:21; Col. 1:16, 17; 3:13; Heb. 1:3, 10; Rev. 21:5); as is Divine Worship given to Jesus as being God and, thus, worthy of such divine adoration (cf. Isa. 6:1-5; Matt. 8:2; 15:25, 26, 27, 28; 28:17; Luke 24:51, 52; John 5:23; 9:38; Acts 1:24; 7:59, 60; 1 Cor. 1:2; Phil. 2:9, 10, 11; 1 Thess. 3:11; Heb. 1:6; Rev. 5:12, 13, 14), to which Divinity and Deity Jesus Himself admits (cf. Matt. 10:37, 38; 12:48; Luke 14:26; John 5:23, 25; 8:56, 57, 58; 10:30, 38; 11:4; 14:10; 18:1-5), which otherwise--meaning, if He is not Deity, not God the Son, not God incarnate--He would be found guilty of blasphemy, deserving of stoning, rejection, and crucifixion on charges of fraud--claiming to be equal with God. This is why the Pharisees charged Him with blasphemy and sought to kill Him (John 10:31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42).
CONCLUSION
With regard to the Three equally-divine Persons in the Trinity we cannot admit--as does Arius and others who deny the orthodoxy of the Trinity--that the "essences of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are separate in nature and estranged and disconnected, and alien, and without participation of each other"7 (emphasis added). God is compound unity. Oddly enough and ironic, Arius and others who cede his Unitarian view, must, by a necessary consistency, conclude not merely with Monism, Modalism or Unitarianism, but apparent and explicit Polytheism or Tritheism, as professor Jaroslav Pelikan insists,8 since both Jesus and the Holy Spirit maintain the exact same attributes as those of God the Father. Hence, if Trinitarianism is in error, then either Tritheism or manifest Polytheism is the orthodox view of God. This, then, would spell doom not merely for Trinitarianism, but also for Monism, Modalism, and Unitarianism--the latter of which would maintain less problems, given the Unitarian-Universalist approach to choosing whatever version of God one desires, as is noted by Unitarian-Universalist teachers.9 Trinitarianism alone is Christian orthodoxy. All else is heresy. This was settled seventeen hundred years ago.
__________
1 Robert Morey, The Trinity: Evidence and Issues (Iowa Falls: World Bible Publishers, Inc., 1996), 437.
2 Allan Coppedge, The God Who Is Triune: Revisioning the Christian Doctrine of God (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2010), 86.
3 Morey, 437.
4 Ibid., 438.
5 All references are found in Kevin J. Conner, The Foundations of Christian Doctrine: A Practical Guide to Christian Belief (Portland: City Christian Publishing, 1980), 74-76.
6 Kevin N. Giles, Jesus and the Father: Modern Evangelicals Reinvent the Doctrine of the Trinity (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006), 211.
7 Ibid., 215-16.
8 Ibid., 216.
9 Peter Morales and Melissa Harris-Perry, The Unitarian Universalist Pocket Guide, fifth edition (Boston: Skinner House Books, 2012), Kindle edition.
HERMENEUTICS
This is not to admit Trinitarians merely find what we expect or want to find in the Bible--as though we prophesy our way into a theology regarding the Trinity by seeing in the Text what is actually not present. On the contrary, if the teaching of the Trinity is present in the scriptures, then certain characteristics and ideology must be present in the pages of the Bible; they must be particular, exact, and restrictive in such a manner that, if those particularities are absent from the Text, then any notion of Trinitarianism would be found false. We must be careful to form our theology not by what we want to believe presuppositionally but by what we find plainly written on the pages exegetically--mining the depths of what we find therein. The truth in Scripture matters infinitely more than presuppositional affirmation.
FINDING THE GODHEAD
Dr. Robert Morey aptly states that theology is the language of the Church; it is progressively formed in time; and at times did only develop more fully due to the rise of controversy or tension or (implicit or explicit) heresy. Thus the doctrine of the Trinity was "not under attack while the New Testament was being written"1 in the first century, and so one need not look therein for an explicit and exhaustive defense of the teaching--there was no defense of the Trinity in the first and second centuries, only a well-accepted dogma shared by all orthodox believers. Allan Coppedge notes, "The Church fathers did not see their work as the invention of new doctrine but as a synthesis of apostolic teaching from the New Testament, which had been proclaimed within the Church from the beginning"2 (emphasis added). What we expect to find in Scripture on the Godhead Trinity is but the bud of the flower which bloomed at the Council of Nicea in 325 CE: We expect to find
the authors indicating that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God. We expect to find the multi-personal nature of God in which the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are viewed as constituting one God. And this is exactly what we found in the New Testament. We also expect to find them describing the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in ways which reveal that they [the authors of Scripture] assumed that the Three were One in nature [and all sharing one essence]. And lastly, we expect to find the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit described as working together as One to accomplish different [role-oriented] goals.3So, if we find the Person of Jesus Christ or the Person of the Holy Spirit not referenced as God, not connected to God in an eternal and ontological sense, or not worthy of worship as God, then Trinitarianism is deemed false. He adds: "Unitarians cannot expect to find any of the above in the New Testament." Of course, since they have already presuppositionally decided that the Trinity does not exist, then Unitarians are obligated to concoct an explanation when any passage appears prima facie to teach Trinitarianism. He continues: "If the authors of the New Testament believed that only the Father was God, as the Unitarians claim, then we should not expect to find the Son or the Spirit called 'God.' The Three should not be described as 'One' in nature or in work [as we explicitly find at John 10:35 from the words of Jesus]."4 Is the Son or the Holy Spirit ever explicitly referred to as Divine, as Deity, as worthy of worship as God? Yes, at several uncontested places.
THE HOLY SPIRIT
One of the most explicit statements regarding the Divinity / Deity of the Holy Spirit being called God is found twice at Acts 5. When Ananias and Sapphira lie to the church about how much money they have made on land they sell, having pledged to give a portion of that price as a love gift, Peter asks, "Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land" (Acts 5:3 NRSV, emphasis added)? He then qualifies the statement: "You did not lie to us but to God" (Acts 5:4, emphases added)! Here, Peter not only equates lying to the Holy Spirit as lying to God, but also names the Holy Spirit as being God. Lying to the Holy Spirit is an offense to the omniscient God because lying is an attempt to deceive--as though the Spirit of God does not know what price they receive for the land and does not know they are being deceptive. How foolish! The Spirit knew their deception because He has the mind of God (1 Cor. 2:11).
Three hours after Peter confronts Ananias, he then approaches the wife, Sapphira, who is unaware of what happened to her husband. She, too, lies about the price, and Peter asks, "How is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test" (Acts 5:9)? At this she immediately dies. "Testing" or "tempting" God is explicitly forbidden in the scriptures (cf. Deut. 6:16; Matt. 4:7; Luke 4:12). But for Peter to insist that Ananias and Sapphira are "testing" or "tempting" the Holy Spirit, acknowledging the act as being sinful, is also to insist that the Holy Spirit is a Person, at least, and God at most. To "test" the Holy Spirit is to "test" God. The Holy Spirit, then, is God.
But the Holy Spirit is both His own Person and also God--since both are revealed as such in the scriptures: the Holy Spirit maintains Personhood (cf. John 14:15, 16, 26; 15:26, 27; 16:7-14; Acts 6:9; 7:51; 13:2; Rom. 8:26, 27; 15:30; 1 Cor. 2:10, 11, 12, 13; 12:11; Eph. 4:30; Col. 1:8; 1 Thess. 5:19; 1 Tim. 4:1; Heb. 10:29; Rev. 2:7); attributes of God (cf. Gen. 1:1, 2; Job 26:13; 33:14; Ps. 104:30; 139:7, 8, 9, 10; Luke 1:35; John 3:3, 5; 14:26; 16:13; Rom. 1:4; 8:2, 11; 15:30; 1 Cor. 2:10; 3:16; 12:4-6; Eph. 4:30; 2 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 9:14; 2 Pet. 1:21); and is mentioned in unity with the Father and the Son (cf. Isa. 48:12, 16; Matt. 3:16, 17; 28:19; Luke 3:21, 22; John 1:33; Acts 2:33; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 2:18; 1 John 5:7, 8).5 Since this is true, then, we would expect to find no less evidence regarding Jesus, the Second Member of the Trinity, God incarnate, and we find attributes to His Personhood, Godhood (divinity / deity), as He is found in compound unity with God the Father and God the Spirit.
JESUS CHRIST
The Son of God, incarnated Jesus Christ, has always existed with the Father and the Spirit as the Son of God. By Son, we do not mean that He was created by God the Father, or given birth to at any time in eternity past by two cosmic or semi-cosmic parents; nor that He was eternally subordinated--the latter being a truth which must be treated carefully lest we admit the heresies of either Tritheism or Unitarianism. Rather, we should, as Dr. Kevin N. Giles correctly notes, emphasize "divine unity, simplicity, and equality"6 in the Godhead Trinity.
When we emphasize proper differentiation among the Persons of the Godhead, we fall prey to Tritheism; when we confound the nature of each Person, we fall prey to the heresies of Modalism or Unitarianism. What we expect to find in Scripture, with regard to Jesus as the Second Person of the Trinity, is that His will and purpose is the same as that of both the Father and the Holy Spirit. What we find is a confession of Jesus to being of one mind in the purpose of the Father: "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want" (Matt. 26:39). Does Jesus want / wish / will / intend / purpose that which is contrary to the Father? No, for His own confession states, "yet not what I want but what you want." His Purpose is the Purpose of the Father, as He confesses on two other occasions, "My food is to do the Will of Him who sent Me and to complete His work" (John 4:34); "for I have come down from heaven, not to do My own Will [for His will is not separate], but the Will of Him who sent Me" (John 6:38). The will of Jesus is to fulfill the will of His Father.
What we have here is a confession, not that Jesus actually has His own Will apart from the Father, but to the exact contrary: He came to carry out the Will of the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This corresponds with the author of Hebrews regarding Jesus' perfect sacrifice: "Consequently, when Christ came into the world, He said, 'Sacrifices and offerings You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for Me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings You have taken no pleasure. Then I said, "See, God, I have come to do Your will, O God" (in the scroll of the book it is written of Me)'" (Heb. 10:5, 6, 7). The Will of the Father is the Will of the Son (John 6:38); just as the Will of the Son is the Will of the Holy Spirit (John 16:14, 15); just as the Will of the Holy Spirit is the Will of the Father (Rom. 8:27). All Three divine Persons in the Godhead maintain, always and from eternity past to eternity future, the same will / desire / wish / purpose / intent / motive / inclination. This is how Three divine Persons can be referred to as One God, not three gods, and not One Person as God--both of which are refuted by numerous passages of Scripture (cf. Isa. 43:11; 45:5; Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14). One God exists in Three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We also find explicitly Divine Names applied to Jesus, just as to the Father and the Holy Spirit (cf. Ex. 3:14, 15 with John 8:56, 58; Ps. 110:1; Isa. 9:6; Jer. 23:5, 6; Joel 2:32; Matt. 1:21; 22:43, 44, 45; Luke 2:11; Acts 2:21, 34, 35, 36, 37; 9:17; 16:31; Rom. 10:9, 13; 1 Cor. 12:3; Phil. 2:11; Heb. 1:1, 2; 1 Pet. 1:7, 8; 5:15; Rev. 1:7, 8, 11; 22:13, 16, 17, 18; 19:13); as are Divine Works attributed to Jesus (cf. Matt. 19:28; John 1:1, 2, 3; 5:28, 29, 36; 10:28, 37; 11:25; 14:11; 17:2; Acts 5:31; Phil. 3:21; Col. 1:16, 17; 3:13; Heb. 1:3, 10; Rev. 21:5); as is Divine Worship given to Jesus as being God and, thus, worthy of such divine adoration (cf. Isa. 6:1-5; Matt. 8:2; 15:25, 26, 27, 28; 28:17; Luke 24:51, 52; John 5:23; 9:38; Acts 1:24; 7:59, 60; 1 Cor. 1:2; Phil. 2:9, 10, 11; 1 Thess. 3:11; Heb. 1:6; Rev. 5:12, 13, 14), to which Divinity and Deity Jesus Himself admits (cf. Matt. 10:37, 38; 12:48; Luke 14:26; John 5:23, 25; 8:56, 57, 58; 10:30, 38; 11:4; 14:10; 18:1-5), which otherwise--meaning, if He is not Deity, not God the Son, not God incarnate--He would be found guilty of blasphemy, deserving of stoning, rejection, and crucifixion on charges of fraud--claiming to be equal with God. This is why the Pharisees charged Him with blasphemy and sought to kill Him (John 10:31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42).
CONCLUSION
With regard to the Three equally-divine Persons in the Trinity we cannot admit--as does Arius and others who deny the orthodoxy of the Trinity--that the "essences of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are separate in nature and estranged and disconnected, and alien, and without participation of each other"7 (emphasis added). God is compound unity. Oddly enough and ironic, Arius and others who cede his Unitarian view, must, by a necessary consistency, conclude not merely with Monism, Modalism or Unitarianism, but apparent and explicit Polytheism or Tritheism, as professor Jaroslav Pelikan insists,8 since both Jesus and the Holy Spirit maintain the exact same attributes as those of God the Father. Hence, if Trinitarianism is in error, then either Tritheism or manifest Polytheism is the orthodox view of God. This, then, would spell doom not merely for Trinitarianism, but also for Monism, Modalism, and Unitarianism--the latter of which would maintain less problems, given the Unitarian-Universalist approach to choosing whatever version of God one desires, as is noted by Unitarian-Universalist teachers.9 Trinitarianism alone is Christian orthodoxy. All else is heresy. This was settled seventeen hundred years ago.
__________
1 Robert Morey, The Trinity: Evidence and Issues (Iowa Falls: World Bible Publishers, Inc., 1996), 437.
2 Allan Coppedge, The God Who Is Triune: Revisioning the Christian Doctrine of God (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2010), 86.
3 Morey, 437.
4 Ibid., 438.
5 All references are found in Kevin J. Conner, The Foundations of Christian Doctrine: A Practical Guide to Christian Belief (Portland: City Christian Publishing, 1980), 74-76.
6 Kevin N. Giles, Jesus and the Father: Modern Evangelicals Reinvent the Doctrine of the Trinity (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006), 211.
7 Ibid., 215-16.
8 Ibid., 216.
9 Peter Morales and Melissa Harris-Perry, The Unitarian Universalist Pocket Guide, fifth edition (Boston: Skinner House Books, 2012), Kindle edition.
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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