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Religion

2011-07-01 08:19:00

Origins of the holy Trinity

Question: Although difficult, I am trying to understand the concept of the Trinity, where there are three persons in one God. I have come to understand that God the Father always was and always will be. That’s kind of tough to imagine, but it does lead me to my question. If there are three persons in one God, was there only one of these persons who ‘always was’? Did then both Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit have a beginning insofar as being a God? If so, I know when Jesus was born, but how about the Holy Spirit?

Answer: The Trinity is the first and fundamental doctrine of the Christian religion, which is a mystery of faith. No one can understand, much less comprehend, this mystery. If you could understand it, it would not be a matter of faith, but simply a matter of fact. It does NOT require faith to understand that 2 plus 2 = 4; we know that as a matter of fact. It does require some measure of faith to believe that Abraham, King David, Jesus Christ, Mohammed and George Washington really lived; that requires natural faith in the testimony of historical documents and other material proofs. But the fact, of accepting that there is only one God, and that somehow in this one God there are three equal persons, requires supernatural faith. This fact cannot be demonstrated or proved scientifically. We accept it as true, on the authority of Jesus Christ, who taught it to his Apostles and to his Church, which teaches it to us. This mystery about the inner life of God was discussed and argued and studied during the early centuries of the Church. It was determined once and for all time by all the bishops of the world, who assembled at the first ecumenical council, held at Nicea in the year 325, and at the second council held at Constantinople in the year 369-370. There the bishops witnessed to the faith they had received from their Christian parents and teachers, going back to the Apostles of Jesus. Many learned scholars, theologians and saints have written lengthy volumes about this mystery, attempting to explain it for human understanding. But, when all has been said, the Trinity still remains a mystery, which cannot be understood. At those councils, the bishops, as successors of the Apostles, expanded the basic Apostles’ Creed, and included therein their decisions about the Trinity and about the person and natures of Jesus. Ever since then the expanded Creed has been recited or sung every Sunday during the liturgies of most Churches of East and West: Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Protestant and most other Christian denominations. It is known as the Nicean-Constantinopolitan Creed. From that same time, the 4th century, we have another summary of the Christian faith, which includes the truths of faith expressed in the Nicean-Constantinopolitan Creed. This summary of belief is attributed to St. Athanasius of Alexandria, who was a staunch defender of the apostolic Tradition about the Trinity. I think it best expresses everything we know about the Holy Trinity. This creed might provide some answers to your questions: “Whoever wishes to be saved must preserve this faith whole and untarnished; otherwise he will most certainly perish forever. Now this is the Catholic faith: that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity. The person of the Father is distinct; the person of the Son is distinct; the person of the Holy Spirit is distinct. Yet the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit possess one Godhead, equal glory and co-eternal majesty. The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, the Holy Spirit is uncreated. The Father is infinite, the Son is infinite, the Holy Spirit is infinite. The Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, the Holy Spirit is eternal. Nevertheless, they are not three eternals, but one Eternal, even as there are not three uncreateds, or three infinites, but one Uncreated and one Infinite. So likewise, the Father is almighty, the Son is almighty, the Holy Spirit is almighty. And yet there are not three almighties, but one Almighty. So also the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. And yet they are not three Gods, but only one God. So too the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord. And still there are not three Lords, but only one Lord. “For just as we are obliged by Christian truth to profess that each Person is individually God and Lord, so also we are forbidden by the Christian religion to hold that there are three Gods or Lords. The Father was made by no one, being neither created nor begotten. The Son is from the Father alone, though not created or made, but begotten. The Holy Spirit is from the Father and the Son, though neither made nor created nor begotten, but proceeding. Consequently, there is one Father, not three Fathers; there is one Son, not three Sons; there is one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits. Furthermore, in this Trinity there is no ‘before’ or ‘after,’ no ‘greater’ or ‘less,’ for all three Persons are co-eternal and co-equal. In every respect therefore, as has already been stated, unity must be worshiped in Trinity and Trinity in unity. This is what everyone who wishes to be saved must hold regarding the Blessed Trinity. “Now the true faith requires us to believe and acknowledge that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is both God and Man. He is God, begotten of the substance of the Father before the world began; he is Man, born in this world of the substance of his Mother: perfect God, perfect Man, a substance composed of a rational soul and a human body: equal to the Father in divinity, less than the Father with respect to his humanity. And, although he is God and Man, still He is only one Christ, not two. He is One: not by any turning of the divinity into flesh, but by the taking up of humanity into God. He is One only, not by any confusion of substance, but by the unity of his Person. For, just as the rational soul and the body form one human being, so God and Man form one Christ. He suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose from the dead on the third day, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father all-mighty, whence he shall come to judge the living and the dead.” Even after this Creed was published, through subsequent centuries some persons have misunderstood these principles of faith. In the 7th century, the Arabian prophet Mohammed misunderstood the Trinity as belief in three gods. Being a strict monotheist (a believer in only one God), Mohammed rejected Christianity because of this misunderstanding. In religious matters, a mystery is defined as: something we cannot fully understand, but which we accept on the authority of God revealing it.