The Trinity

Though Christianity is thoroughly a monotheistic religion, it believes that one God exists as a unity of three distinct persons – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - known as the Holy Trinity. The word Trinity comes from a Latin origin trinitas, meaning “three are one”. The doctrine of the Christian Trinity is as follows:

Each of the three persons are separate from each other, yet each are absolute and identical in essence or Godness. Deuteronomy 6:4 says “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!”

To better understand the concept of Trinity, Dr. Harold Willmington shares this analogy: a book has length, width, and depth. The length is not the book’s width, the width is not the book’s depth. These three dimensions can be described separately, yet they are connected together. If you remove one dimension, you are no longer describing a book (or in our case, God).

God is presented to humanity as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit because each persons have different functions, where:

• God the Father is the Creator

• God the Son is the Savior (Jesus) who is both human and divine

• God the Holy Spirit (aka: the Spirit of Truth) is one who continues to guide, comfort, and encourage Christians

The Triquetra symbol represents the Trinity.

The word “Trinity” is absent from the bible; however, there are many references to God’s three distinct natures. This absence has resulted in some Christian denominations rejecting the concept of Trinity stating that it does not make philosophical sense. Other denominations consider it as Christianity’s central concept stating the Trinity helps Christians understand the God they meet in the Bible, therefore, enhancing their ability to worship him.

For further explanation behind the concept of the Holy Trinity, watch this short video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQkFlzFJ3kA