Why would anyone who understands simple arithmetic believe what the Christian faith says about God?
Every major branch of the Christian church, whether Roman Catholic or Protestant or Eastern Orthodox, believes in the Trinity. Christians believe three Persons are God, yet there is only one God. As the Athanasian Creed puts it: “The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. Yet there are not three gods; there is but one God.“
Is that good theology, or just bad arithmetic? Already when you’re small, you learn that one plus one equals two, and that two plus one equals three. But it sounds like, in order to be a Christian and believe in the Trinity, you have to believe that one plus one plus one equals one. That doesn’t seem to make much sense. Why would anyone who believes in three divine Persons keep insisting that there is only one God?
The reason Christians believe in the Trinity is that this is how God has revealed himself in the Bible. Scripture teaches that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each God, and at the same time Scripture is very emphatic there is only one God.
The oneness of God is taught clearly throughout the Bible, beginning in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 6:4 says, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.“ In Isaiah 46:9 the Lord says, “I am God, and there is no other.“ The New Testament is just as insistent that there is only one God. 1 Corinthians 8:4 declares, “We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one.“
At the same time that the Bible reveals God’s oneness, it also reveals that three distinct Persons are God. Jesus commanded that his followers be baptized not simply in the name of God, but “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit“ (Matthew 28:19). The Bible gives a blessing which Christian churches still echo today: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all“ (2 Corinthians 13:14). Throughout the centuries, Christians have been baptized and blessed in this threefold name, believing that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are God, equal in majesty, power, and perfection.
Anybody who believes in one God would have no problem granting that the invisible, eternal Father is God. But some might question the deity of Jesus or the Holy Spirit. They might say that Jesus is less than God or that the Holy Spirit is only the power of God, not a divine Person, and that the Father is therefore the only one who can truly be called God. But the Bible plainly teaches that both Jesus and the Holy Spirit are divine and personal, along with God the Father.
Referring to Jesus as “the Word,“ John 1:1 says, “The Word was with God, and the Word was God.“ Jesus acted as God’s equal when he exercised authority to forgive sins, and when he commanded the forces of nature through various miracles. In talking to his Father in heaven, Jesus said, “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had before the world began“ (John 17:5). Jesus told some religious leaders, “Before Abraham was, I AM!“ (John 8:58). He had existed from all eternity as God the Son, before Abraham was ever born. Indeed, the reason the religious leaders gave for crucifying Jesus was that he claimed to be equal with God. And Jesus was proved himself to be the Son of God in power when he rose from the dead. After Jesus’ resurrection, Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!“ (John 20:28). So, then, the Bible clearly teaches that Jesus is God.
The Bible also shows that the Holy Spirit is God. The Bible’s formulas for baptism and blessing include the Holy Spirit along with the Father and the Son. How could that be so, unless the Holy Spirit is also God? The Bible often refers to the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of God.“ Some who deny the Trinity might argue that the Spirit is not a Person but is just a force, the impersonal power of God. But Jesus repeatedly spoke of the Holy Spirit as a Person, a Comforter or Advocate (John 14:16,26; 15:2; 16:7). The apostle Peter said that lying to the Holy Spirit was lying to God (Acts 5:3—4). Elsewhere the Bible warns, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God“ (Ephesians 4:30). You can’t lie to a force; you can only lie to a person. You can’t grieve a power; you can only grieve a person. The Holy Spirit is not just a force. He is a Person, and he is God.
There you have it: the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. There are three divine Persons, yet these three are somehow united as one God. This is what Christian people believe because this is how God has revealed himself. When Christians speak of the holy Trinity, it’s not that we don’t understand arithmetic. It’s just that the God who has existed from everlasting to everlasting is much greater than any notions about him that we might come up with on our own, and he has revealed himself to be one God in three Persons.
All Christians believe one God in three Persons. All agree that God is three in a certain sense, but in another sense he is one. But what does this mean? And why does it matter?
Trying to Understand
One of the easiest solutions is to say that there is really only one Person who is God, and that “Father,“ “Son,“ and “Holy Spirit“ are just three different titles for three different modes in which the one God operates.
For example, I am one person with several different roles and titles. I’m “Dave“ to my friends, “Daddy“ to my children, and “Pastor“ to many other people. It’s easy to see that although “Dave“ is David Feddes, “Daddy“ is David Feddes, and “Pastor“ is also David Feddes, there are not three David Feddeses, but one. Those three titles simply refer to one man, myself, who has the three roles of friend, father, and minister.
Is that what the Trinity is? Are Father, Son, and Holy Spirit simply three roles played by the same divine Person, who is called Father in his work of creating and caring for people; called the Son, or Jesus, when he is providing forgiveness of sin and victory over death; and called the Holy Spirit in his work of living within Christians and making them more holy? No, the Trinity is not just one Person with three different roles. God has far more than three roles and titles, but God is exactly three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Another variation on seeing God as one Person in three different modes deals with different phases in God’s career, so to speak. In this approach, talking about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit would be similar to talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger the body builder, Arnold Schwarzenegger the actor, and Arnold Schwarzenegger the governor. There have not been three Arnold Schwarzeneggers but just one, whose life includes these three different career phases.
Some people have mistakenly think of the Trinity in a similar way, viewing God as one divine Person who has existed in three major phases. Originally, he was the Almighty, invisible Father. Then, about two thousand years ago, he moved out of that phase to become a human being in the Person of Jesus until his resurrection and ascension. Then, on Pentecost, God entered a new phase when he came upon the church as the Holy Spirit. But is this all that the Bible means when it teaches that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one God? No, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three divine Persons, not just one Person in different phases.
All three Persons have existed together from all eternity.
The Son of God entered Mary’s womb and was born in a stable, but that is not when he began to exist or when he became the Son of the Father for the first time. That’s when God took on a human nature, but before coming into the world as a baby, God the Son existed with God the Father from all eternity. Likewise, the Spirit of God did not begin to exist on the day of Pentecost. That is when he came upon Jesus’ followers with great power and filled them with the life of God, but the Holy Spirit has forever proceeded from the union of Father and Son and that the Spirit is from eternity the third Person in the being of God.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not all the same Person. After Jesus was baptized, says the Bible, “he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ’This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’“ (v. 16—17). The voice from heaven was God the Father speaking to his Son; it wasn’t Jesus acting as a ventriloquist and causing a voice from heaven to talk about himself. Also, the Spirit that descended on Jesus is not the same Person as Jesus. The Bible clearly teaches that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons, and that each of these Persons is fully divine.
One God, Not Many
Well, then, if we agree that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—three distinct Persons—are God, why don’t we just state the obvious and say there are three Gods? When the Greeks said that Zeus, Apollo, and Hermes were all gods, they didn’t pretend that these three were somehow one God. So how are Father, Son, and Spirit one God, any more than the gods of ancient myth?
For starters, the Bible teaches equality of the three Persons within the oneness of God. In the legends, one god was the chief deity in the pecking order. For the Greeks, it was Zeus who had the most power; for the Romans, it was Jupiter; for the Vikings, it was Odin. In contrast to all this, no Person in the Trinity lacks any of the divine attributes of the others or is inferior. Within the being of the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all equally infinite in power, splendor, wisdom, love, and holiness. All are equally eternal, uncreated, without beginning or end. This is true because all three Persons share the same divine essence.
Another obvious difference between the one triune God and the false gods is that in the Trinity there is a complete oneness of will, a total unity of purpose, a perfect harmony. Father, Son, and Spirit never disagree or squabble. That’s a far cry from the mythical gods who were constantly bickering and doing things behind each other’s backs. In the oneness of will that exists in the Trinity, the Son never contradicts the Father’s will. Never does the Father want one thing, the Son want another, and the Spirit something else. Jesus the Son came to do the will of his Father. Likewise, the Holy Spirit always does his work in perfect cooperation with the purposes of the Father and the Son. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one in will and purpose.
The oneness of God also means that there is no division of authority, where each divine Person controls a different aspect of life. In the ancient superstitions, one god would be the god of war, another the god of sex and fertility, another the god of wisdom, and so forth. So, depending on what you needed at the time, you would try to get on the good side of the particular god who controlled that part of life. The great truth that God is one means that he is Lord over every part of life, not just some specialty. He is Creator and Master of all things.
Since God is one, you can’t get out of his territory and into the territory of a god who will perhaps be different. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit don’t each rule different parts of the universe. The Trinity rules as one God with no division of territory. The Bible tells about a time when the Lord helped his people to win a battle over superior forces. The people opposing them weren’t about to give up, however. They figured that they had lost the first battle only because it had been fought in the hills. The enemy king’s officials advised him, “Their gods are gods of the hills. That is why they were too strong for us. But if we fight them on the plains, surely we will be stronger than they“ (1 Kings 20:23). They figured a god who controlled what happened in the hills might not be so strong on the plains, so they fought the next battle on the plains——and suffered an even worse defeat than before. They learned the hard way that there is just one God who is equally in charge on both hills and plains.
God’s Word simply won’t permit us to talk about three gods, even though there are three divine Persons. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are united in full and equal deity; they are united in will and purpose; they are united in joint reign over all things. And the oneness of the Trinity transcends even these aspects of unity. There is a unity within the Trinity which underlies these things, and which is deeper, stronger, and also more mysterious.
The Bible compels us to believe that the three divine Persons share in the same divine being or essence. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not the same Person, but they are united in the same being. They are distinct from one another, but never divided or separated or independent from each other. All three share the same divine essence and are united as one divine being, from eternity past, right now, and into the eternal future.
We’re used to thinking of Persons as separate individuals, so we can hardly imagine three Persons as one being. But why suppose God can be reduced to our level and understood in our terms? Not only is God personal, he’s more than. God is not just one Person but a superpersonal union of three divine Persons.
The deep and mysterious oneness of God’s being is related to a marvelous oneness of love, a love that has forever united the Persons of the Trinity with each other. There is no way we can fully describe or understand this union of Father, Son, and Spirit, since God transcends any earthly comparison we might use. But maybe we can get a hint of this unifying love if we think of a husband and wife who have enjoyed a long, loving marriage. Sometimes both have the same thought at the same time, or one knows how the other is feeling without being told. They’ve been together so long, loving each other so much, knowing each other so well, that sometimes they almost think, feel, and act as one.
Now take that and multiply it infinitely. The love among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is immeasurably greater than the love of a husband and wife. Not only that, but Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have existed together in perfect harmony, not just for several decades, but for all eternity. When the Bible says “God is love,“ it’s not just because God is loving toward us but also because God’s inner being is characterized by the eternal love that unites Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The three divine Persons have forever been united by their mutual love and also in the very substance of their being.
God of Arcadia?
It is impossible to have a right relationship with God while being part of a religion which denies the Trinity and doesn’t accept Christ as divine. I’ve heard it said, “Even if some people don’t believe in Jesus, at least we all believe in the same God.“ Is that so? How can you reject Jesus and be right with God the Father? If you don’t love Jesus, you can’t love the Father. Jesus declared, “He who hates me hates my Father as well“ (John 16:23). We don’t all believe in the same God. Any religion that rejects the Trinity rejects God, because the Trinity is God. There is no God apart from the union of Father, Son, and Spirit.
The TV show Joan of Arcadia features a girl who meets God in various human forms. Some people, including many church people, find this show a welcome relief from the vulgar filth of many other programs, and they like the spiritual angle. But in some ways, the show is worse than shows which wallow in sex and violence. It’s bad to exploit human sexuality and glorify the destruction of human life, but it’s worse to trivialize the awesome God and deny who he really is.
In one episode of Joan of Arcadia, the “God“ character says he’s the God of the Bible and the God of the Koran—“same God,“ he says. But do the Bible and the Koran reveal the same God? The Bible says that Jesus is divine and shows that God is Trinity, but the Koran (5:72—75) threatens painful punishment and hell for those who say Christ is God and who believe in the Trinity. Islam’s Allah is not the same as the God of the Bible.
Joan of Arcadia has a rule that God not be identified with any particular religion. Apparently the producers are more afraid of offending potential viewers than of offending God. The God of this TV show is a dramatic device to explore human problems and choices. This approach may attract a larger audience and more advertising dollars, but it denies the one true God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Bible warns against making images of God, but Joan of Arcadia comes up with several different images of God every week. The Bible says that God the Son took a human nature only once, in the Person of Jesus, but in Joan of Arcadia God shows up as many different humans. It’s interesting drama. It’s also heresy and blasphemy. The fact that many church people love the show is a symptom of how far our society and churches have strayed from the Bible. We love almost any version of God except the God who is really there. We’re too lazy to study Scripture or think about the Trinity. We’d rather get our theology from Hollywood.
Relating to God
In order to have a healthy relationship with God, we must know who God is and how to come to him. Jesus says, “No one comes to the Father except through me“ (John 14:6), and he also says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him“ (John 6:44). Salvation is a work involving the Father and the Son. And the Father and Son do nothing apart from the Holy Spirit. “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ“ (Romans 8:9).
Each Person of the Trinity is essential in the work of salvation and in establishing God’s Kingdom of love. Ultimately, God’s purpose is that his people become one in love in a way that somehow reflects the loving oneness of within the Trinity (John 17:11). God is love, both in the eternal love that the Persons of the Trinity have for each other, and also in the way he relates to his people. There is nothing more wonderful or more necessary than to be drawn into living faith in this marvelous God. I pray that as I have shared with you what God says about himself, the Lord has been drawing you into a saving knowledge of him.
If you’re already a Christian, if you confess one God in three Persons, if you’ve been baptized into the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I hope that even now you are filled with awe and deep joy at that wonder of God and long to know him better and better. In our minds we can’t fully understand the deep truths which the Triune God reveals about himself, but in our hearts we can bow down in worship before the majesty and mystery of these three infinite, magnificent, eternal Persons united in a perfect oneness that surpasses all human imagination or description. And we can look forward to the day when we will not longer see dimly but see clearly and directly, and have all of eternity to enjoy the life and love of the blessed Trinity.
David Feddes
Dr. David Feddes is pastor of Family of Faith Church and provost of Christian Leaders Institute, which supports mentor-based ministry training through online courses. David is also adjunct missiologist for Crossroad Bible Institute, which provides biblical distance education to more than 40,000 people in prison. Previously he served as broadcast minister for the Back to God radio program, reaching people in more than fifty countries. David earned his Ph.D. in intercultural studies from Trinity International University, Deerfield, IL and is a graduate of Calvin Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Wendy, have nine children (one in heaven).
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