The Holy Trinity: Part II

OBJECTIVE

  • To understand the concepts of God as Trinity.
  • To stress the one God and progress to the understanding of the uniqueness of God and unity amongst the Trinity, that God is one in Three Persons.

INTRODUCTION

We hear the term Triune God or Trinity, and hear the names of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Are they the same thing? Different? Are they one or separate?

Understanding the Trinity is imperative in my relationship with God, my understanding of who He is, of understanding my salvation and how God works with me.

NOTE TO SERVANTS: This lesson is broken up into two units/parts. The servant should review and have a good understanding of the terminology layed out in the Holy Trinity Reference document attached below.

At the end of Part 2, there are examples of Trinity analogies. A good exercise would be to see if the class can understand both the pros and cons of each analogy and potentially, even which heresy they can be linked to, if applicable. It is up to the servant to determine if both parts can be given as one lesson or split into two lessons. The activities at the end of the lesson can also be used as a lesson on their own.

HOLY SCRIPTURE

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Matthew 28:19

"Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit." Eph 2: 18--22

CONTENT (KEY POINTS)

Outline

  • The Revelation of God as Trinity
  • Early Heresies of the Trinity
  • Terminology
  • Patristic Explanations of the Holy Trinity
  • The One God and the Three Persons in the New Testament
  • The Two Hands of God
  • Examples

If you were asked what is God's Name how would you answer?

  • We are Baptized in the Name of the Father, and The Son, and The Holy Spirit.
  • No one can be called Christian unless they confess the faith in the Holy Trinity.
  • The Trinitarian Dogma is the most fundamental truth in the teaching of faith.
  • We are Baptized in the Name, and not the names of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

The Revelation of God as a Trinity

In the Gospels, there is clear evidence of faith in the Holy Trinity, even if Christ would have not said anything. The great commission to baptize in the Name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in the gospel of St. Matthew would be enough to indicate the early Christian faith in the Holy Trinity. Although the Church believed in a Triune God from the beginning, it would be the heretical teachings that would drive the Church to put her faith into a clear formula, the Creed.

The dogma of the Trinity follows Christology (the Study of Who Christ is). If Christ is God, then a series of questions would arise: The first Church understood that Jesus our Lord had the full human nature and the full divine nature united in himself in one person.

Is he the same God of the Old Testament; the One and the only Person? if this is the case, then who is he praying to? and if Christ is not the same person, would not that mean that we now believe in two Gods. The Church faced different ideas and teachings and had to respond to them.

From the beginning, the Church believed in a Trinity (refer to Trinity part 1). The most explicit revelations of the Trinity are:

  • The Theophany
  • The commission by Jesus to the Apostles to go and baptize in the Name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Matthew 28: 19
  • The Paraclete Gospels (John 14-17)

The problem was that the Church didn't know how to say it, how they relate to each other, how to put it into words

Many heresies were then developed to reconcile or try and explain God.

Heresy: from the Greek word to separate or to go off on one's own. So heresies are not mainstream teachings of the Church.

Early Heresies of the Trinity

Judaizers: denied Christ divinity and taught that Jesus was a mere human or a prophet. St Paul in his letters (especially Galatians) responded saying that if Christ was human, he would not have the power to redeem us.

Docetics/Docetism: denied Christ humanity and taught that Jesus is only divine but appeared as having flesh. Similar to them was the Gnostics.

Adoptionism: God is one because Jesus is not God. Jesus was born human then was adopted as God's Son because of his perfect obedience. This heresy goes back to the Judaizer movement in the times of St Paul that denied the divinity of Christ

Modalism: God is One because Jesus is the Father. There is one person in God who takes different modes. God is one with three names and three masks. Since the Father can not suffer, they countered this argument with a Docetic view of Christ (Jesus never had a real human nature).

Orthodoxy: compound from two words Ortho=correct and Doxa=praise. It is used loosely to mean the correct belief. The Orthodox are those who won the debate because their interpretations were more consistent with the accepted beliefs of previous generations of the church leaders and the whole witness of the church

Orthodoxy is the middle between the extreme alternatives

Terminology Used in Explaining the Trinitarian Dogma

To articulate the dogma of the Trinity, the Church had to develop its own terminology:

Tertullian:

  • Was a theologian at the beginning of the 3rd century who coined the term "Trinity"
  • To describe the unity of God He used the term: Substance
    • "Substance"= "essence"= "nature" to designate the divine being in His unity
  • To explain the distinction between God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, he used the word: Person
    • "Person" or "Hypostasis" to designate the Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Divinity: is the quality of being divine = Pantocrator, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent etc...The Trinity is a mystery that can never be known unless God reveals it to us. The oikonomia reveals the Theologia. And the Theologia illuminates the oikonomia

Figure 1.

The Trinity is ONE IN ESSENCE (of the same substance, nature) which is the one divine essence. The nature of the one God.

One God in three Hypostases (Persons), The "Consubstantial (same substance/nature/essence) Trinity"

  • How much gold (essence) is in Angle A? Angle B? Angle C?
  • The same that is in Angle B, Angle C, Angle A. They all contain 100% of the essence.
  • When they share it, they each have 100% = One essence = One God

The Divine persons do not share the one divinity as if they each get 33.333% of that essence. They are 100% God. Each of the Persons of the Trinity has the one and whole essence.

Note for servant: "Each Person (Hypostasis) in the Holy Trinity fills the other two and is contained in them, but is still somehow distinguishable from the Others. Just as we can differentiate the human mind from the human soul although it is not an addition to it nor can it be separated from it." Fr. Tadros Malaty, HOW CAN THREE BE ONE?

St. Basil

"for The Son is in The Father and the Father is in The Son; since such as is the latter is the former, and such as is the former, such is the latter.."

When Jesus says "All things that the Father has are Mine" (Jn 16:15, Jn 17: 10), He really means it. All that the Son has is the Fathers, He really means it.

He is not speaking about material goods. He is speaking about the essence and the three characteristics of God:

  • Omnipresent: being everywhere
  • Pantocrator/Omnipotent
  • Omniscient: all knowledgeable

The Father/Son/Holy Spirit give all what they are to each other without losing themselves in the process.

St. Gregory of Nazianzus "The Theologian" teachings on the Trinity

  • Every title that belongs to The Father belongs to Him (The Son) except 'Unbegotten'
  • We should recognize that according to the teachings of the Fathers, 'being' or 'essence' is not confined only to The Father.

So, the Father is not Son and Son is not Father. Yet the Father is Unbegotten, the only Origin, Begetter, and Emitter. The Son is Only-Begotten (Jn 1:18) and the Holy Spirit proceeds. In another way, St. Athanasius explains:

The Father and the Son were not generated from some pre-existing origin that we may consider Them brothers. But the Father is the Origin of the Son and begot Him; and Father is Father, and is not born as the son of any other; and the Son is Son, and not brother. St. Athanasius, Against the Arians, Discourse 4.14.

The only characteristic that the Son has that the Father doesn't: begotten

A Summary of St Gregory's Teaching on the Holy Trinity

  • God is incomprehensible in our Human Thought.
  • Hypostatic properties of the three Distinct Prosopa of The Holy Trinity.
  • The eternal being of The Son and The Holy Spirit.
  • The use of illustrations depicting The Holy Trinity
  • The Three Hypostasies have One and the same Essence (consubstantial).
  • The Equality of The Three Hypostaseis.
  • Sharing the same properties of Essence
  • The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone
  • The Monarchy of The Father in The Holy Trinity (Patriki-archy = patrikh arxh )
  • The gifts of God are from The Father through The Son by The Holy Spirit

It is dangerous to ascribe "being" only to the Father, "mind" only to the Son, and "life" only to the Holy Spirit. This will lead us to divide the divine essence into three unique essences.

A simple but not perfect way to try and comprehend the notion of a Triune God:

God highlighted and stressed 'One God' throughout the Old Testament with hints of the Trinity. In the New Testament we see a further revelation of God as a Triune God.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God." (Jn 1:1-2)

The Word (God the Son, Jesus Christ) was God

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." (Jn 1:14)

The Word was incarnate; the Word is the only begotten of the Father- The Son, being begotten of the Father, must be the same nature/essence/substance as the Father, which is Divine = God.

The same notion stands for the Holy Spirit having proceeded from the Father. Therefore, combine this with the revelation that there is one God, then God is a Triune God: One God and three Persons (hypostasis).

God starts simple with humanity in revealing Himself and reveals Himself more and more, especially with the greatest revelation of God: Jesus Christ.

References of the Holy Trinity in the New Testament

  • Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. Jn 14:23
  • But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Jn 14:26
  • Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Mt 28:19-20

The Two Hands of God:

"The Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit" (Eph 2: 18--22)

Let us try to illustrate the doctrine of the Trinity by looking at the Triadic patterns in salvation history and in our own life of prayer.

The three Persons, as we saw, work always together, and possess but a single will and energy. St. Irenaeus speaks of the Son and the Spirit as the 'two hands' of God the Father; and in every creative and sanctifying act the Father is using both these hands at once:

1. Creation. By the Word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth (Ps. 33:6). God the Father creates through His Word or Logos (the second person) and through His Breath or Spirit (the third person). The 'two hands' of the Father work together in the shaping of the universe. Of the Logos it is said, all things were made through Him (John 1:3); of the Spirit it is said at the creation He brooded or moved upon the face of the deep (Gen. 1:2). All created things are marked by the seal of the Trinity.

2. Incarnation. At the annunciation the Father sends the Holy Spirit upon the Blessed Virgin Mary, and she conceives of the eternal Son of God (Luke 1:35). So God's taking of our humanity is a Trinitarian work.

3. The Baptism of Christ. In the Orthodox tradition this is seen as a revelation of the Trinity. The Father's voice from heaven bears witness to the Son, saying, This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; and at the same moment the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, descends from the Father and rests upon the Son (Matt. 3:16-17).

4. The Transfiguration of Christ. This also is a Trinitarian happening. The same relationship prevails between the three persons as at the Baptism. The Father testifies from heaven, This is my beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; hear Him (Matt. 17:5), while as before the Spirit descends upon the Son, this time in the form of a cloud of light (Luke 9:34).

5. The Eucharistic Epiclesis. The same Triadic pattern as is evident at the Annunciation, the Baptism and the Transfiguration, is apparent likewise at the culminating moment of the Eucharist, the epiclesis or invocation of the Holy Spirit. In words addressed to the Father, the priest says in the Liturgy of St. Basil:

"And we ask You, O Lord, our God, we, Your sinful and unworthy servants. We worship You by the pleasure of Your goodness, that Your Holy Spirit descend upon us and upon these gifts set forth, and purify them, change them, and manifest them as a sanctification of Your saints.

Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, given for the remission of sins and eternal life to those who shall partake of Him."

The Father sends down the Holy Spirit, to effect the Son's presence in the consecrated gifts. Here, as always, the three persons of the Trinity are working together.

We can see this synergy in other actions of God. Unfortunately, people break up the actions of God to the Persons of God (e.g. the Holy Spirit is the only One that sanctifies, God the Son is the only One that saves, God the Father is the only One that is Pantocrator) however as mentioned previously, this breaks up/disunifies the Trinity.

  • Sanctification (to make holy, to set apart): God the Father chose us, The Son's presence and teachings sanctify us (cleansed by the Word Jn 15:3), God the Holy Spirit's presence purifies and sanctifies.
  • Salvation: God the Father saw our brokenness and chose to save us by sending God the Son (Jn 17:8), God the Son was incarnate to teach us the correct way and be the perfect human and fulfill the Law, God the Holy Spirit dwells in us making us a temple of God and new creation

Both Sanctification and Salvation can be seen in the mysteries of the Church:

  • The Father sends down the Holy Spirit, to effect the Son's presence in the consecrated gifts. Here, as always, the three persons of the Trinity are working together.
  • Knowledge and Relationship with God: God the Father sends the words through the Word (Jn 17:8), the Son spoke the words (Jn 15:15) and taught us who God is, restored the image of the Father and God the Holy Spirit teaches us and reminds us of the words (Jn 14:26)

But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. Jn 14:26

The Trinity works together in unity in every aspect of our salvation and relationship with God. Even in the gifts provided to us by God. The Gifts of God are from the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit

St. Cyril of Alexandria explains most clearly how God bestows His gifts on humanity from the Father, through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit.

"The nature of the divinity is, and so is believed to be, one. Even though it is expanded into the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, it does not have an absolute and complete gap, I mean between each of the Persons indicated. We will be certain, if we think rightly, that the Son is naturally both from the Father and in the Father, and the Father's and Son's own Spirit is both from the Father and in Him. Since the divine nature is and is understood to be one, the blessings from them will be supplied to the worthy through the Son, from the Father, in the Spirit, while our offerings will be carried to God through the mediation of the Son, "For no one comes to the Father except through" Him, as He Himself has of course confessed (Jn 14:6)...We will still believe no less that all things are from the Father, through the Son and in the Spirit. Now you should understand and quite rightly so, that the Father nourishes us for godliness through the Son in the Spirit. He cultivates, that is, He watches over and cares for us and deems us worthy of His correcting attention through the Son in the Spirit. In this way we will think rightly." St Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John (15:1).

APPLICATION (Action)

During all our prayers and praise, we should have an understanding Who we are speaking to; Who our prayer is directed to. Just like when speaking to any person, I am able to go to a much deeper level and conversation the more I know about them.

DISCUSSION/ACTIVITY

Activity 1

Examples are imperfect in depicting the Holy Trinity but will help us grasp attributes of the Trinity. Try to find the pros and cons of each example.

Water: there are three modes of water (solid, liquid, vapor) but they are all water.

  • Pro: They highlight the same nature/essence of the Trinity.
  • Con: Water cannot be all three modes at once This is a form of Modalism -- Three modes of one existence.

The Sun: This is probably the best analogy but like the others, limited. It is a star made up of gas and emits both light and heat. --Hint: Is there anything different between the gas, the light and the heat?

  • Pro: Together the star (gas), the light and the heat make up the one sun. The unity of the sun is indivisible operation of the three elements. In other words, all three are unified in their activity and it's virtually impossible to tell where one starts and the other ends.
  • Con: They (sun, light, gas) do not have the same essence. They have a different nature.

A person can be three things: A mother, a daughter and a sister but you're one person

  • Pro: They highlight the same nature/essence of the Trinity. Again, this is an example of Modalism: One person playing different roles. Also, time: The person becomes those things over time.

The human psyche: The id, the ego, superego (conscious, subconscious and the superego) but one psyche

  • Pro: they highlight the oneness of the psyche
  • Con: They are separate things and trying to stress the oneness too much. Stressing the oneness too much separates/dissolves the Trinity

Activity 2 - Identifying Heresies of the Trinity

Scenario 1

Michelle: So you go to church all the time so I guess you believe in God, right?

Michael: Yes, I do. I believe in the God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit

Michelle: Oh, I thought you were Christian. Don't you believe in one God?

Michael: ...

  • How should Michael respond?

Scenario 2

James: I went downtown yesterday and there was a guy on the corner yelling stuff about God and being saved. He was right next to my bus stop and he was talking about how Jesus was born a human and because He was so great and so obedient, God adopted Him and made Him into God the Son, is that true?

  • What heresy is this man "preaching"?
    • a) Adoptionism
    • b) Docetism
    • c) The same belief as Judaizers
    • d) Modelism

Answer: Adoptionism

  • What modern day religion believes in adoptionism?

Answer: Jehova's Witnesses

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but cmade Himself of no reputation emptied Himself of His privileges, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men."

Jesus had to be God (fully) in order to empty Himself. "God" in verse 6 is God the Father. God the Son had the same form as God the Father (equality in nature -- same substance, essence, hypostasis)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made...And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth....The only begotten hSon, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. Jn 1:1-3, 14, 18

The Annunciation by Archangel Gabriel and the response of St. Mary clearly show the one who St. Mary will give birth to is God. The response of St. John in the womb to the visitation of St. Mary (and Jesus in the womb) to Elizabeth. The prophecy of Isaiah "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel."

Scenario 3

John: In the Old Testament, it says that God is one "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is One Lord (Deuteronomy 6:4). Does that mean that God the Father took flesh died on the cross, resurrected and now lives in me? Is it the same Person just different names (God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit) and forms?

  • What heresy is John speaking about?
    • a) Adoptionism
    • b) Docetism
    • c) The same belief as Judaizers
    • d) Modelism

Answer: Modelism. refer to the Holy Trinity figure 1

Scenario 4

If God is three Persons, then who am I praying to when I pray?

  • 1 Liturgy of St Basil, Our Father, Thanksgiving Prayer
  • 2 Liturgy of St. Gregory
  • 3 Agpeya litany prayers of the Third hour

Answers:

  • 1 God the Father
  • 2 God the Son
  • 3 God the Holy Spirit

SERVANT RESOURCES

  • Attachment - The Holy Trinity Terminology (see below)
  • Trinity 101, Papandreas
  • Dogma of the Holy Trinity: Dogmatic Theology by Mourice Tawadros
  • Theology by Metropolitan Bishoy
  • What are the Biblical proofs for the Holy Trinity?, Fr. Anthony Mourad
  • An Introduction to the Orthodox Conception of the Holy Trinity, Fr. Kyrillos Ibrahim
  • HOW CAN THREE BE ONE?, Fr. Tadros Malaty
  • St. Athanasius, Against the Arians, Discourse 4.14.
  • St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation
  • St. Cyril of Alexandria, On John.
  • St. Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John (14:16-17; 15:1).
  • St. Severus of Antioch, Homily 109 (PO 25:239), See Aloys Grillmeier, Christ in Christian Tradition, v. 2, p. 2, The Church of Constantinople in the Sixth Century (Louisville, KY: John Knox, 1995), p. 146.
  • St. Gregory the Theologian, Second Theological Oration, 10, 17
  • St. Gregory the Theologian, Third Theological Oration, 2
  • St. Gregory the Theologian, Fourth Theological Oration, 20.

LESSON ATTACHMENTS

The Holy Trinity Terminology - Dogmatics.pdf