What does it mean that the Trinity is God in three persons?
One God in three persons
In Trinitarian doctrine, God exists as three persons but is one being, having a single divine nature. The members of the Trinity are co-equal and co-eternal, one in essence, nature, power, action, and will.
Trinity, in Christian doctrine, the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead.
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons. The Bible speaks of the Father as God (Philippians 1:2), Jesus as God (Titus 2:13), and the Holy Spirit as God (Acts 5:3–4).
The Father did not become the Son and then the Holy Spirit. Instead, there have always been and always will be three distinct persons in the Godhead. The Trinity is not a contradiction because God is not three in the same way that He is one. God is one in essence, three in Person.
In proper context, God's oneness is an expression not of number, but of allegiance: He, and He alone, is the God of Israel. For Christians today it retains that same power; we are to be people who worship one God and Him alone.
Biblical Paths. In the New Testament, the manifestation of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is directly connected to the gift of new life by grace: when the New Testament speaks of the Trinity, it speaks of the salvation of human beings; and when it speaks of salvation, it speaks of the Trinity.
The word “Trinity” can be found nowhere in the Bible. It is completely incongruous with scriptural understanding of God. God is not three persons. There is only one God and it is the Father.
In both creation and redemption the Father, the Son, and the Spirit all had distinct roles. It was the Father who directed and sent both the Son and the Spirit. And it was the Son who, along with the Father, sent the Spirit. The Son was obedient to the Father, and the Spirit was obedient to both the Father and the Son.
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.
After the denominations in the Oneness Pentecostal movement, the largest nontrinitarian Christian denominations are The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jehovah's Witnesses, La Luz del Mundo, and Iglesia ni Cristo.
Is God the Father and God the Son the same?
God the Father is a title given to God in various religions, most prominently in Christianity. In mainstream trinitarian Christianity, God the Father is regarded as the first person of the Trinity, followed by the second person, God the Son Jesus Christ, and the third person, God the Holy Spirit.
The Trinity helps shape the way we think about salvation. Our salvation is not merely a commodity that we receive as a reward for faith in Christ; rather, the essence of salvation is being granted access for all of eternity into the mutual exhilaration each Person of the Trinity has in one Another (cf. John 17).
The triquetra (Trinity Symbol) is a three-part symbol consisting of three interlocked vesica pieces used to represent concepts or people in a group of three. For Christians, it represents the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
polytheism, the belief in many gods. Polytheism characterizes virtually all religions other than Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, which share a common tradition of monotheism, the belief in one God.
Even though the Three Persons are One God, yet they are distinct: for the Father has no origin, He came from no one. But the Son is begotten, He comes from the Father alone. The Holy Spirit comes or proceeds from both the Father and the Son.
- 1st person – the God within.
- 2nd person – God as “thou”, the Holy Other, speaking “to” God.
- 3rd person – speaking “about” God, separate and apart, reflection about the Divine.
What is monotheism? Monotheism is the belief or doctrine that there is one—and only one—god or deity. The term is often used as a general label for specific religions (such as Judaism) that fall into this category. However, it can also be used outside the context of specific religions.
Monotheism is the belief that there is only one deity, an all-supreme being that is universally referred to as God.
The three religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam readily fit the definition of monotheism, which is to worship one god while denying the existence of other gods.
For the majority of Christian denominations, the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Holy Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and is Almighty God. As such he is personal and also fully God, co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father and Son of God.
What is Jesus in the Trinity?
The doctrine of the Trinity identifies Jesus as the incarnation of God, united in essence (consubstantial) but distinct in person with regard to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit (the first and third persons of the Trinity).
The New Testament contains no explicit trinitarian doctrine. However, many Christian theologians, apologists, and philosophers hold that the doctrine can be inferred from what the New Testament does teach about God.
The dogma of the Holy Trinity
The Trinity is One. Each person of the Trinity is fully and wholly God. The Catechism explains, “The Father is that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the Father and the Son that which the Holy Spirit is, i.e. by nature one God.”
In the New Testament, the divine Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, becomes more personal. He now comes to be sealed within the believer.
View of the Trinity
Oneness Pentecostals believe that the Trinitarian doctrine is a "tradition of men" and is neither scriptural nor a teaching of God, citing the absence of the word "Trinity" from the Bible as one evidence of this.