By: Adam Janke, Webmaster | Webmaster/CRE

Importance of this topic
In order to understand our faith better, it is important to understand who God is, as far as we are able to.

One Line Summary
There is only one God; he is three divine persons and one divine essance. God is the source and goal of our faith.

Important Scripture Passages

Exodus 3
Deuteronomy 32:6
John 17:1-26

Catechism of the Catholic Church

202 - God is three in one.
232,237 - The Trinity is the central mystery of the faith.
252 - Explaination of “hypostasis”.
260 - The presence of the Trinity in man.
236 - Theology and economy in the study of the Trinity

Early Fathers
“When the Seraphim glorify God, saying thrice, “holy, holy, holy Lord Saboath” (Is 6:3), they are glorifying Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And likewise, just as we are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son, so also in the name of the Holy Spirit; and we are made sons of God, not of gods. For it is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who is Lord of hosts. For the Godhead is one, and there is one God in three Persons.”
- St. Athanasius | On the Incarnation of the Word of God and Against the Pagans [365 AD]

Discussion Points
This discussion is heavily influenced by the thought of a great mystic and teacher, Dr. Regis Martin.No one can encompass the details that constitute the reality about God. Christians, even pious Christians, remain unable to comprehend the inner life of God. If St. Paul himself were to teach a class on the Trinity, he would fail utterly.

While there is a doctrine about God, if Christianity is true, then the Trinity is not finally a doctrine at all, but the Trinity IS God. There are three divine persons eternally united in a life of complete and perfect beatitude. The three divine persons are distinguished only by the relations that unite them. This is in a way a description of a family.

The Trinity is not a problem in arithmetic, but an expression of faith, a mystery that we will live and endure, we don’t try to figure out the problem.

One of the first most important revelations of who God is was recorded in Exodus 3. Moses asked God who he is and what he wants. Here God both reveals and conceals Himself before Moses. God both shows and hides himself. “I AM WHO AM” – These four single syllable words are probably the four most horizon shattering words ever spoken. They have their origin in eternity. Their being, validity, stands entirely outside the human historical matrix. This is the eternal name of God. He is eternally God.

The biblical name of God is identified with the philosophical concept of God. Why would God reveal a name if it is God’s name, to a people who cannot even begin to plum the depths of what it means. In a world swarming with all kinds of false God’s, YHWH, appearing to Moses has to establish his name in such a way that it is absolutely distinguished from all the competing pagans gods.

When God reveals His name in the Exodus event, it becomes the defining experience of Israel. The choice of which Israel makes is in favor of the one living God. She doesn’t chose the myriad of false gods.

The act of generation in Trinity [Nicene Creed: Jesus is eternally begotten from God the Father, the Holy Spirit is eternally begotten from the Father and the Son] is not an act of origin, but of their relationship with each other. The act of being begotten in the Trinity is eternal.

Common Misunderstandings
The Simplicity of God - God is utterly simple and admits of no composition whatever. The simplicity of God is often misunderstood because in our common language today, to be “simple” means to “lack intelligence.” This is not the correct understanding though. St. Clement of Alexandria clarifies: “Nor is it possible to predicate any parts of God. For what is one indivisible, and thereby infinite - not in regard to its being clearly inconceivable, but in regard to its being without dimensions and not having limits, for which reason it is without form and name. And if we somehow name Him, we do not sdo so properly, when we suppoly such names as the One, or the Good, or Mind, or That Which Is, or Father, or God, or Creator, or Lord. We so speak not as supplying His name; but in our need we use beautiful names so that the mind may have these as a support against erring in other respects. For each one by itself does not express God, but all together they are indicative of the power of the Omnipotent. Predicates are expressed either from what belongs to things themselves, or from their relationship to each other; but nothing of this is applicable in reference to God. Neither is he apprehended by the science of demonstration; for it depends upon primary and better known principles, while there is nothing antecedent to the Unbegotten.” - Stromateis, 424. [202 AD]

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