The Divine Trinity

God revealed himself as ONE–IN–THREE “Aspects”: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Human expressions are feeble in defining the Trinitarian aspect of the Creator.

In the Books of the Old Testament, God speaks of Himself in the plural:

“Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves…” (Genesis 1,26)

After Adam’s sin, God ironically exclaimed:

“See, the man has become like one of Us, with his knowledge of good and evil…” (Genesis 3,22)

Having seen man’s pride in Babel, God said:

“Come, let Us go down and confuse their language on the spot…” (Genesis 11,7)

God appeared to Abraham:

“He looked up, and there he saw Three Men standing near him.” (Genesis 18)

Perplexed before the Trinitarian God’s apparition, Abraham addresses himself to “Him”, sometimes in the singular, and sometimes in the plural.

The Bible reveals to us that God is Father, Son (or “Word”), and Holy Spirit.

1. The Father is God

This Truth revealed from the Old Testament:

Deuteronomy 32,6: “Is not this your Father, who gave you being?”

Jeremiah 31,9: “I am a Father to Israel.”

Malachi 2,10: “Have we not all one Father?”

Jesus confirms this paternity: God is Father of Christ, and our Father:

Matthew 7,21: “The person who does the will of my Father”.

Matthew 26,53: “Do you think I cannot appeal to my Father?”

Luke 2,49: “Did you not know that I must be busy with my Father’s affairs?”

Matthew 6,4: “Your Father who sees all that is done in secret.”

Matthew 23,9: “You have only one Father, and he is in heaven.”

John 20,17: “I am ascending to my Father and your Father.”

2. The Son is God

He becomes incarnate in the Messiah:

Psalm 2,7: “Let me proclaim YHWH decree; He has told me: ‘You are my Son, today I have fathered You.’”

2 Samuel 7,14: “I will be for him a Father and He will be for me a son.”

John 1,1-14: “The Word (Son) was in God… and became flesh.”

John 8,57: Jesus said “Before Abraham was, I am”.

Hebrews 1,1-9: “God… in our own time, the last days, he has spoken to us through his Son… He is the radiant light of God’s glory and the perfect copy of his nature, sustaining the universe by his powerful command… God as never said to any angel: You are my Son, today I have become your father…”

John 5,18: Jesus presents himself as equal to the Father.

John 10,30-33 / John 14,8-10: Again, Jesus reveals his equality to the Father.

Philippians 2,5-11: Paul declares Jesus’ divine condition that renders him equal to God.

Matthew 11,27: “No one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.”

3. The Holy Spirit is God

Isaiah 48,16: “… the Lord with His Spirit, sends me.”

Isaiah 63,10: “They rebelled, they grieved his Holy Spirit.”

Joel 3,1: “I will pour out my Spirit on all mankind”, God said.

Psalm 51 (50),11: “… do not deprive me of your Holy Spirit.”

1 Corinthians 2,10-12: “God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit reaches the depths of everything… the depths of God can only be known by the Spirit of God. Now instead of the spirit of the world, we have received the Spirit which comes from God.”

Acts 5,3-4: To lie to the Holy Spirit, is to lie to God.

Acts 13,2-4: “The Holy Spirit says…”

1 Corinthians 6,19: The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 3,16 / 2 Corinthians 6,16: The body is God’s temple.

Acts 28,25-27: “The Holy Spirit spoke when he told your ancestors through the prophet Isaiah”.

Isaiah 6,8-10: “I heard the voice of the Lord…”

2 Peter 1,21: “When men spoke for God it was the Holy Spirit that moved them.”

2 Timothy 3,16: “All Scriptures is inspired by God.”

4. Manifestation of the Holy Trinity in the Gospels

The Holy Spirit is the Father’s Spirit:

Matthew 10,20: “The Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you” (John 15,26 / 1 Corinthians 2,11). But He is also the Son’s Spirit “because everything that the Father has is the Son’s” (John 16,15).

Galatians 4,6: “God sent in your hearts His Son’s Spirit” (see Acts 16,7 / Romans 8,9 / Philippians 1,19).

Therefore, the Holy Spirit emanates from the Father and the Son (Catholic belief), and not solely from the Father (Orthodox belief).

The Holy Spirit is not sent by the Father only, but by the Son too:

“I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Consoler to be with you for ever…” (John 14,16-26)

“When the Consoler comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who issues from the Father…” (John 15,26).

“It is for your own good that I am going, because unless I go, the Consoler will not come to you; but if I do go, I will send Him to you” (John 16,7).

“I am sending to you what the Father has promised.” (Luke 24,49)

“He breathed on them and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’.” (John 20,22)

Matthew 3,16-17: At Jesus baptism, John the Baptist saw “the heavens opened and the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him. And a voice spoke from Heaven, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved’” (John 1,32). The dove, the voice, and Jesus represent the Trinity.

John 14,16-26: To the apostles who were saddened by his departure, Jesus promises to ask the Father to give them another Consoler, the Spirit of truth, and adds: “I will not leave you orphans; I will come back to you”. It is therefore Jesus who returns in the form of the Holy Spirit. The unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is revealed here.

Matthew 28,19: Jesus asks his apostles to baptize “in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy spirit.” “Name” is in the singular.

Other texts which reveal the Trinity:
1 Corinthians 12,4-6 / 2 Corinthians 13,13 / 1 Peter 1,1-2.

5. Reflection

The sun can reflect an image of the Holy Trinity: The sun (the Father), its luminous rays (the Son), and the heat that emanates from it (the Spirit). So, the Son is “the splendor of the Father’s glory and the perfect copy of his nature” (Hebrews 1,3). And the Holy Spirit, with such life-giving warmth, emanates from the Father. Jesus said to his Apostles: “When the Consoler comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who issues (emanates) from the Father, he will be my witness” (John 15,26). This “splendor” and this “issuance” are alive and transmit to us, from the part of the Father, the Love and sentiments of Eternal Life, which are denied to the unbelievers who refuse it. Whoever closes his shutters to the sunlight, deprives himself of life. The Son and the Holy Spirit are an “emanation of self”, a “duality” of the Father.

It is difficult to understand the depths of man, even more so, that of Gods'.

The Father, such a life-giving sun, radiates the Son and gives Life through the Holy Spirit. Happy are the pure hearts because they will see, understand, and live God (Matthew 5,8 / John 17,3).

(See the text: “A Look of faith at the Qur’an”, chapter 4.3 “The Divinity of the Messiah”.)