Gregory states about the Persons of God: There was never a time when there was not a Father, A Son and a Holy Spirit. The Father has always been unbegotten, the Son always begotten and the Spirit always proceeding from the Father together with the Son. Gregory describes this unique relationship of love using the special technical theological vocabulary of unbegotten, begotten, and proceeding and states that these processes are beyond the sphere of time and above the grasp of reason.

If this relationship is above time, how are Father, Son and Spirit “not alike unoriginates”? Further, that is, the very language of begetting and proceeding seems to demand some kind of beginning for the Son and the Holy Spirit. Here Gregory turns to the well-known patristic illustration of the sun and its rays.

Yes, the Son and Spirit find their origin in the Father, who is “unoriginate.” Yet the “origin” of the Son and Spirit is eternal and timeless without beginning and without end. Neither comes into existence after the Father. The analogy of the sun and its rays illustrates this point. Can one image the sun as existing apart from the light rays it constantly emits? The rays find their source, their origin, in the sun. Still, the rays and the sun came into existence at the same time. The rays are not “after” the sun. They are part and parcel of what it means to be the sun. Granted the analogy does break down when referring to Trinitarian relationships, for the Trinity has always existed outside of time. Still, the analogy serves well in illustrating what the church means when it teaches that the Son and Spirit find their origin in the Father. The Father must beget the Son and spirate the Spirit, just as the sun must shed light.

All this exhorts us to decide how we see God. Have you ever thought about how you see God? Who is He? What is He alike?

The doctrine of God as Trinity is truly a major advance I mankind’s understanding of God – of the Supreme Being Who is the Creator of all creation. Prior to Jesus Christ, mankind saw this Supreme Being as Creator but not connected to His creation in any significant manner. The one God of Judaism and Islam is a God Who is completely separate from His creation. The God of Christianity is intimately connected with His creation. The life-force of God, according to Christian thought, vivifies all of creation, calling and sustaining it in existence. We are joined to our Creator.