👉🏾👉🏾👉🏾 The Five #Pillar Mysteries
1. Mystery of Trinity (Cont'd)
(Part 2 )
Trinity: - One in three, three in one.
We believe in one God. God is one in essence/nature, divinity, power, action, and will. We also believe in three Persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God is three in Person (Hypostasis), Name, and Deed.
- The Trinity of names: Father, Son, Holy Spirit (Psalm 32:1, 1 John 5:7, Matthew 28, 19) The Father is described as the Heart . The Son is also called the Son of God, His ‘Word’, and 'God with us'. The Holy Spirit is called the ‘life’, or ‘breath’ of God, and God within us. But the three are one. As the Apostle Paul stated it clearly “There is no other God but one” (1 Corinthians 8:4).
- The trinity of Deed-: God the Father's deed is to give birth, parent (Ps 8:2), God the Son's deed is to be born; (from God the Father); Galatians 4:4; God the Holy Spirit's deed is to move out/proceed (from God the Father) John 16:14 The Father begets the Son; and gives forth the Holy Spirit. He is the unbegotten and never proceeds/comes out. The Son's deed is to be born; begotten from God the father. He never begets, never gives forth the Holy Spirit, and never proceeds/comes out from the Father. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. He never begets; is unbegotten, The three persons are co-equal, co-eternal and co-substantial.
- The trinity of the person: the Father has a perfect person, a perfect appearance, a perfect form; The Son has a perfect person, a perfect appearance, a perfect form; The Holy Spirit has a perfect person and a perfect appearance. They are three real, concrete and absolutely distinct persons. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are three entirely distinct modes of existence. The three are not parts of the same person, nor three ways of manifestation to the world. They are undivided, inseparable, and Perfectly united, and God is their name of unity. "Let us make man according to our likeness" Gen 1:26 "Adam became like one of us" Gen 3:22 is the expression of the physical God in addition to the mystery of the flesh. God is not a physical entity, but an abstract and spiritual entity.
So, trinity is Three in one and One in Three. This doesn't mean three persons who together make one God. Trinity is not three Gods joined together. Trinity is not three properties of God. Our forefathers have stated this as “The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. They are called one God but not three Gods.” (Apostolic Athanasius Faith of the Fathers Ch. 24 Part 4 Verse 4).
Because, although we say the Trinity are three in name, in deed and in person; the three are one in essence, in divinity, in existence and in will; we do not mean three Gods but one God. While the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit exist in their own perfect person, they are one in existence ” (Abulidis, Faith of the Fathers, Ch. 40 Verse 4:6). St Gregory stated it as “When I say God, I mean Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” There is no confusion of names and deed in the Trinity. The Holy Trinity thinks with the heart of the Father and speaks with the words of the Son, and by the breath of the Holy Spirit they live.
In the time of the apostles, the Lord said " baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." They were baptizing in the name of Jesus but it doesn't mean they baptized them without calling the Father and the Holy Spirit. In the first Christian era, they did not even accept the teachings of Jesus Christ himself, let alone the preaching of the apostles. "He came to his own people, and his own people did not receive him. But to those who believed and accepted, he gave authority to become children of God. As John 1:9 says, "If they had known the Lord of glory, they would not have crucified him." As it is said, they crucified our Lord, but He rose again after conquering death.1. Mystery of Trinity
(Continued 👇)