As I suggested in the last issue of this article, perhaps the greatest belief of our faith and Church is with regard to Who God IS. The word Trinity describes our belief that the one God of the universe is comprised of three persons: God the Father, God the Son Who is Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit. It has been the conviction of Christians throughout the centuries that this is what the Bible teaches. The word trinity comes from the Latin word trinitas, meaning three. It doesn’t appear in the Bible. It is a theological label meant to summarize the passages of the Bible, which teach that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each fully God. This labeling is similar to other doctrines such as communion, incarnation, and free will where the word doesn’t appear in the Bible. The early church father Tertullian (c. 155-230), who wrote in Latin, is believed to have first used the term trinity to describe the God of the Bible.

The doctrine of the trinity distinguishes Christianity from other religions including, Judaism, Islam, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Unitarian Universalism. These groups reject the doctrine, in part, because the word trinity isn’t used in the Bible, it doesn’t make philosophical sense to them. They don’t believe that it is compatible with monotheism.

The doctrine of the trinity was first thoroughly and formally articulated in the fourth century in response to perceived distortions of biblical teaching on the subject, but the fundamental beliefs of the doctrine can be seen from the first century. while no systematic presentation of the doctrine can be found in the New Testament, Christians argue that it can be shown that the Bible teaches that the Father is God, the Son, Jesus Christ, is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, all the while affirming that there is but one God.

Hints of Trinitarian beliefs can also be seen in the teachings of extra-biblical writers as early as the end of the first century. The fullest early expression of the concept came, however, with Tertullian, a theologian who wrote in the early third century. Tertullian coined the words Trinity and person and explained that the Bible taught that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one in essence – not one in Person. There is no possibility to prove this since it is a mystery and a matter of belief. More to come.