The Holy Trinity
An account of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity
The Bible teaches that God is a Divine Being who is revealed in three Holy Persons: the Father, the Word (Logos), and the Holy Spirit. Alternatively, the Holy Trinity is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
But does not the biblical teaching of the Holy Trinity imply that we have three gods, and not one? Isn't the doctrine simply a logical contradiction? The usual objection against the concept of the Holy Trinity goes like this one: How can the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit not be three gods, if each of them are entitled to be called as God?
A Christian would not have trouble to answer such objection. He might ask in turn: Why should we assume that one being (entity) is identified with one personality? God's Being is not limited only to one personality. The contradiction arises in the conception of the Holy Trinity only if we assume this kind of identity which is used in the objection. I will now explain what is significant in conceiving God as a Perfect Divine Being who manifests own glory in three uncreated persons.
The Holy Trinity consists of the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit. (Notice that my formulation of the Trinity does not mention "the Son"; I am of the opinion that the title "the Son" is due only to the historical moment when the Word was born as a human being; before He was born, His title was "the Word" or "Logos". 'Logos' in Greek refers to words, thoughts).
The Father was never seen by any man. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him (John 1:18)"; He is the most mysterious of these three persons, "dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting (1 Tim. 6:16)" if we have seen Him, then what was seen of Him was only a fragment of His Glory.
God's thoughts/words have a tremendous creative vitality, and we know that God has power to create the worlds by His words. Yes, God's thoughts/words are so truly filled with tremendous and vital Life that they can even sustain themselves independently, to form their own Personality through personification into the personhood of the Word (John 1:1). Since God's words/thoughts are eternal, so is the Word eternal and it is the integral (unseparated) Person of God's Being. Thoughts are the identity of the existence. I think therefore I am. God's thoughts are eternal in the virtue of His eternal beingness. Therefore, the Word is eternal too, "the same was in the beginning with God (John 1:2)."
In the same manner, the Holy Spirit is a personification of God's powers and forces, because God's forces have a tremendous creative vitality to sustain themselves independently, and consequently can form their own Personality filled with intelligence, which is namely the personhood of the Holy Spirit. Since divine forces are eternal, so is the Holy Spirit an eternal and integral Person of God's Being.
Thus, they are not created entities but integral (unseparated) personified forces and thoughts in the Divine Eternal Being.
Let it be noted that the above account neither implies that Christ is totally identified with God's thoughts/words nor that He lacks divine power. Neither is it implied that the Holy Spirit is totally identified with God's power nor that the Spirit lacks thoughts/words. A person is a unity of a being possessing a mind by manifesting intentionality, e.g. qualities as intentions, thoughts, attitudes, etc. Divine personification is a divine embodiment of a certain kind of divine qualities. It is an atemporal formation of an independent person . In another words, personification involves a divine atemporal formation of an independent person in the virtue of the creative vitality of the divine quality in question. Therefore, each Person of the Holy Trinity has an independent will, power and thoughts, but they are not three independent beings because each of these independent persons are one inseperabe unity of a Being.
In the biblical conception of God there is not assumed that one Being is identified with being one person. Thus, we do not have a polytheism of three gods, since all these three persons are integral unities of the Divine Being, sharing the same divine nature. According to the credo, they were never separated, except possibly when the incarnated Word in the flesh suffered on the cross, because all the sin of human kind were on Him.
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