one or three ?

The Holy Bible tells that there is only one living God.

The God head consists of 3 persons; the Father, the Son & the Holy Spirit.

Think of it like water, steam and ice, all are the same yet all 3 unique. So it is with God.

Regarding other religions, there are many in this world. But there is only one living God and it is only through his son that you can find eternal life.

Acts 4:12
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved."

John 3:16-17
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

I suspect the OP is using "religions" for different varieties of Christianity, not separate religions.

Christians describe the Trinity differently. In the West we tend to start with God as one, but understand that there's some distinction within him. The East is more inclined to start with Father, Son and Holy Spirit and then explain that together they are one God. So there's some room for different approaches.

If you look at the New Testament, while it understands Jesus as a human being, when Christians started to think about him after the resurrection, they came to see this human as showing us God. In fact Christians found that they only really understand God when they look at Jesus.

But what Jesus shows us is an obedient servant. Early Christian thinkers thought that this implied that God isn't just our Father. He also has in his experience the obedience of a loving Son. Thus John 1, Hebrews 1, Col 1, etc, speak in terms like the Word made flesh, or the Son of God, whose throne is forever. What they mean by this is that Jesus showed us something in God that was always there. John refers to this as the Logos, God's Word.

So Christianity differs from Judaism and Islam, because we think that God is not just the almighty creator, but that he understands and has experienced being the obedient son. Not just after Jesus was born, but the human Jesus shows us something of God that was always there.

How about the Holy Spirit? Because we seem already to be committed to a God that exists in two ways, it seemed natural to extend that to three. After all, Jesus spoke of the Father as sending the Holy Spirit, so he thought of them as somehow distinct. But surely the Holy Spirit isn't something completely different from God. So the Holy Spirit was understood as a third aspect of God.

I'm sure you know that the official language speaks of them as three persons with one nature. Use that language if you find it helpful. There are disadvantages, since we think of persons are separate entities, and obviously Father, Son and Holy Spirit aren't completely separate things. The original Latin word "persona" was more like a theatrical role. But I encourage you not to get too tied up in defining precisely what Persons and Essence mean if you don't find it helpful. In my opinion Christians get *way* too involving in trying to understand precisely something that we're never going to understand precisely.

The Trinity really came from Bible passages such as John 1, Hebrews 1, and Colossians 1, all of which say that Jesus shows us something new of God that was always there in him.

The trinity is indeed hard to comprehend because there is nothing like it in our experience. Some try to explain it with an analogy, like a tree (trunk, branches, and leaves) or water (water, ice, and steam). They are not quite the same though, because the persons of God aren't "parts" or "forms". The best way we can understand it as one God that is the essence of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

While on Earth, Jesus withheld some of His divine attributes. He was not omnipresent (everywhere at once), and probably wasn't all-knowing as an infant. It would appear that His divine nature continued to re-emerge as Jesus "grew in wisdom and stature" (Luke 2:52), guided by the Holy Spirit who was always with Him.

There's no need to understand it completely though. Some mysteries of God are probably not for us to fully grasp in this lifetime.

I did a sermon on this at our church recently.

These are my notes if you fancy a peek through them. It's an adventist church so there's a few Ellen White quotes at the end, but anyways...

The trinity

My apologies in advance. Today’s sermon is probably going to sound more like a lecture and less like it should. But hopefully you should find it interesting, I certainly have.

Now it around that time again when we’ll be expecting knocks on the door, from certain tidy looking individuals trying to sell us doctrines and ideas. As we will discover; false ideas. What I hope to achieve here today, is to strengthen our belief in the Christian idea of God, the divinity of Christ and the person of the Holy Spirit.

I’d like to dispel any notions popular literately nonsense, such as the Di Vinci code and others, may have planted, and to expose any heresies. You may be surprised to find you hold at least one concerning the Christian idea of God.

I often hear quite alarming statements from Christians concerning their ideas of God but hopefully by the end of this sermon we’ll at least be a bit clearer about the whole thing.

Since the beginning of time humans have struggled to understand who God is?

How can we describe this all powerful creator? Especially in the Christian church many have struggled with the concept of God and how to understand this infinitely complex being.

A little later as I’ve said; I’m going to talk about the personhood of the Holy Spirit. So is it correct then to say God is a person? I don’t mean to say, is God human, but rather is he a personal being?

As human we instinctively understand the world around us using models we are familiar with. Our ideas, revelations and knowledge are built upon the basis of what we see and comprehend in nature, or in study.

So why is it then, this question of the trinity, or the divinity of Christ, or the personal being of the Holy Spirit fails to be understood by so many of the Lord’s children? What is it about these particular doctrines; that cause the Christian so much distress?

When I was thinking about how we might solve this problem, the idea of how humanity has solved difficult questions in the past sprang to mind.

It is said Sir. Isaac Newton discovered gravity.

Now gravity was always there, and we always felt its effects and were subject to its law. But Newton uncovered and described this idea for us.

Gravity is an incredibly important parameter or rule; which God designed for the universe, to be governed by. It needs to be for life to exist and the precision of the strength, at which it is set, is evidence of the creator at work.

One of the most famous Christian scientists of recent times, Newton it must be said; was a much better scientist than theologian.

However what’s important here is how Newton recognized how his own understandings of God’s creation, had been built upon the ideas and revelations of other great men and women, who had come before him, not least of all in the pages of the scripture. And secondly Newton’s main study of course, was the book of nature.

So to summarize. Newton uncovered an idea that was always there. To do this he used a combination of the written Word and the study of the creation. This allowed Newton to build a ladder and reach the understanding of the concepts he shared with humanity and we now call gravity.

What I’d like to do is then is copy this method in attempt to grasp this idea of the trinity, but first let’s understand why the doctrine itself causes so much of a problem.

Before we begin let’s just make sure our method of investigation is a biblical concept. .

Consider Paul’s warning in Romans 1:20, to the atheists of both his time and ours, when he said:
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: KJV

Paul here points out to us that the attributes of God can be clearly seen, from the creation, and seems to be encouraging us to adopt the approach we described earlier.

You’ll remember I asked you; is God a person? Well the answer is no, rather God is three persons. When you think about yourself, you are aware of your own existence, you could say I exist. What you would be describing is your own consciousness, your own being. But God exists as three separate beings, three separate consciousnesses.

And we struggle with this concept naturally. It provokes in us a logical problem called: - the law of non contradiction. Sounds complicated but it’s fairly simple in this context. I cannot be me, and yet not me at the same time.

One Lord, One God, Three persons. Sounds like a contraction, right?

And maybe we don’t have a good analogy to base this concept upon… Perhaps. It’s certainly a difficult concept to wrap your mind around, but I’m not sure it’s without example in the book of nature, or in the promptings of scripture.
Let’s take an example from nature itself then. Consider Newton’s humble apple.
The apple is comprised of; seed, flesh and skin, yet they are all very much part of this apple.

Or what about the creation itself, it’s time, space and matter, these three entities make up the creation. And yet they are all part of the creation itself.

Or as the author Robert Faid poetically describes:-
As you stand by the shore of the sea, as far as your eyes can see and beyond is the mighty ocean. It is an entity of enormous power, sometimes as still and calm as a tropical pool, sometimes rising in fury to smash those who dare to intrude upon it.
As you observe, a swell of water rises offshore. The wave gathers momentum as it approaches the beach. Although it remains a part of the sea it has a life of its own. Then, after crashing high upon the shore, it returns to the sea from which it came. As a wave it had its own identity, but never was it separate from the sea.
Just as Jesus came from the Father and returned to the Father, He had - and still has - an identity of His own. The wave was never separate from the sea, just as Jesus was never separate from the Father. Just as the wave exemplifies the personality of the sea, Jesus is the personality of God the Father. If you have seen a wave, then you must have seen the sea. If you have seen Jesus, you have also seen the Father.
And as you stand beside the shore, you become aware of another part of the sea. The salt air which invigorates you is also an integral part of the sea. It, too, has a separate existence from the sea, but is very much one with it. It penetrates everywhere and everything within miles of the coastline. As you approach the beach it is the signal that the sea is not far away. In fact, it is the sea - reaching out to you through the air.
This is exactly what the Holy Spirit does. Just as the salt air draws men to the sea, the Holy Spirit draws men to the Father through Jesus Christ. The Spirit, although having a separate existence, is not separate from the Godhead.

This is Beautiful and a decent analogy for the characteristics of the members of the trinity, however ultimately all these analogies fail and can tempt us down certain heretical paths that have been explored and dismissed in the history of the Christian church.

I think we should explore these some of these heresies so we can avoid falling into their traps –

The 1st and everyone’s favorite heresy is something called Modalism:-
You might even be surprised to find that you are actually a Modalist.

This is where we get the word Mode from. This idea imagines that God has three, kind of hats, which he can put on and take off where necessary. The father might appear in the person The Son, then change to become The Holy Spirit. One person who plays different roles. For example I am a Father, a husband and a brother, but I’m still just one person.

This is Modalism but as we will see from scripture this is definitely not the case, Jesus and The Father clearly identify themselves as separate being, in what theologians call an I – thou relationship.

Modalism was kind of laughed off the scene, when one of the early Christian thinkers named Tertullian joked:- The father never said; I am my son today I have begotten myself. However at least the Modalists very early Christian thinkers believed in the divinity of Christ.

Now conspiracy theories like the Divinci code and people like the Mormons or Jehavoah’s witnesses would like you to buy the lie that the idea of the trinity or the divinity of Christ, was a creation of the early Catholic Church enforced upon Christianity at the council of Nicaea around 325ad.

Not so rather it was an early Christian named Tertullian writing around 190ad who actually first coined the phrase trinitias.
Also at this time the concept of the person has not been invented yet. The idea of person actually arose from Christian apologists trying to explain the nature of God and again it was Tertullian who coined the phrase “persona,” to try to explain the concept of God.

However these things are just names. Now as many of us will know the word trinity never appears in the bible. But the name is unimportant. What we want to know – are these biblical doctrines? Or was this a later creation, slipped in while no one was looking?

Before we investigate this, another common mistake in the Christian church was to forget and at times even deny the personhood of the Holy Spirit. Often called the forgotten person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit is nonetheless a person and co equal with the Father and Christ.

So let’s have a look at a few texts from scripture and see if we can follow the early Christians and find this idea of the trinity and the person of the Holy Spirit.

John 15:26 - But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.

John here is actually violating Greek grammar, the Greek word for Spirit is neutered, what I mean is that the word spirit, in Greek holds the form of It. However John refuses to call The Holy Spirit, IT, and instead violates the Greek grammar to call the Holy Spirit HE.

John 14:26 - But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said


Romans 8:26-27 - Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

2 Corinthians 13:14 - May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

1 Peter 1 1-2 To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ:

Or in Acts 13:2 - While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

And at last the great commission

Mat 28-19 - Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

But still the doubters will ask is the Holy spirit God?

One of my favorite passages to answer this question is found in

Acts 5 verse 3 and 4 we read:
3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”

Peter here in verse 3 asks Ananias why he has lied to the person of the Holy Spirit and then in verse 4 refers to the Holy Spirit as God.

Perhaps we could continue in this fashion for some time but I think it is fair to say that The Holy Spirit is not; the impersonal power of God the father, nor the Ghost of Jesus, but rather a personal being. Pre-existing and co-equal with God.

So where does the confusion come then?

I think it in passages such as; Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one; that we may seem to find confusion. This phrase – “The Lord is one” can tempt us to see God as a single solitary figure.
But we must understand and Jesus tells us in . John 10:30 “I and the Father are one.”
However Christ also said in John 14:28. The father is greater than I.

So is Jesus divine?
Let’s investigate the scriptures futher and see if we can find an answr.
If we turn to Philippians 2:6-8 we read
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God
something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

Whao!
So what we should expect to find is evidence that Christ is both God but who lowered himself to become human.

One of my favorite passages regarding the attiributes of Christ is found in the Old Testament and I think it describes Christ’s nature very beautifully. It’s worth noting the Isaiah was writing some 800 years before Christ but he gives us this beautiful prophecy concerning the person of Jesus.

For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. John 17:1-5

Now let’s not be mistaken here, let’s give the second person of the trinity now returned to the father his rightful position.

Col 2:8 –Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

Paul awaited the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour ...Jesus Christ.

John tells us in the beginning was the word and word was with God and the word was God. And the word was made flesh and dwelled among us.

Thomas confessed upon placing his hand in the wounds of Christ My Lord and My God.

Luke tells us in Colossians He is the image of the invisible God.

Christ tells us; and this is a very sobering though for the world out there.
Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.

So how does this happen how is it that God can become human. Obviously God can choose to do as he pleases. However more specifically.

The spirit or being of the second person literally became the person of Jesus of Nazareth. He who has been raised in body and in spirit has returned back to the throne from which he came, before creation, to the right hand of the Father.

This second person of the trinity is the lamb slain before the foundation of the earth. For one of the characters of God is his eternal nature.

Ellen White states in The Desire of Ages says; "In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived," and the Holy Spirit is the "Third Person of the Godhead."
And in her statements of 1901 and 1905 affirms, that; “the three "eternal heavenly dignitaries," the "three highest powers in heaven," the "three living persons of the heavenly trio," are one in nature, character, and purpose, but not in person.”

So let’s finish up; what then is God? God is the trinity. Three persons in One substance. And what is this substance? Well the bible tells us God is Love.

The Christian alone can truly claim God is Love. In the Christian faith, God’s love is not dependent upon created being like ourselves to become, himself - a being that can show love or experience love. Rather the persons of the Father Son and Holy Spirit have existed in eternity in love and harmony, sharing the one will and in a perfect love relationship, in which He, that is to say God, offers to us, as a invitation to accept and experience.

And it’s really all about choices for that is in fact what separates the persons of the trinity. In character they are One; but who have individually showed God’s Love through the roles they have made on our behalf. God doesn’t need us to love him, he is love. Yet in accepting Christ’s sacrifice into our lives we can experience a part of this loving relationship that is God.

polkaman said in post 1:

one or three ?

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Both (John 10:30, Mark 1:9-11).

polkaman said in post 1:

Jesus many times refers to God as his
Father ?

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Yes, and Jesus even prays to God the Father (e.g. John 11:41-42), because even though Jesus is God (John 1:1,14), at the same time he's also human just like we're human (Hebrews 2:17). And so, as a human, he has a God and Father just like we do (John 20:17). Before Jesus became our eternally-human mediator/high priest (1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 2:17, Hebrews 7:24-26), and the only-begotten (only-born) Son of God (John 3:16), the only human ever born without any human father (Luke 1:34-35), he preexisted (John 17:5, John 8:58) from all eternity as God the Word (John 1:1,14; 1 Timothy 3:16). He has always been, and still is, even now in human flesh (Luke 24:39; 2 John 1:7), one God with the Father (John 10:30, John 20:28, Titus 2:13), equal in divinity with the Father (Philippians 2:6, Revelation 2:8b, Isaiah 44:6).

polkaman said in post 1:

(in my fathers house Jesus mentions)

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That's right (John 14:2). But note that this doesn't contradict the fact that Jesus also is God (John 1:1,14, John 10:30, John 20:28, Titus 2:13, Philippians 2:6, Matthew 1:23). And he's uncreated God, just as God the Father is uncreated God. For everything that has been created has been created by Jesus (John 1:3, Colossians 1:16-17). Because Jesus is uncreated, there was never a time when he was not. He has always existed. He is YHWH the Holy One, from everlasting (Habakkuk 1:12a, Acts 3:14, Micah 5:2c). Jesus is YHWH the only Savior (Isaiah 43:11, Titus 2:13), YHWH the good shepherd (Psalms 23:1, John 10:11, Mark 10:18), YHWH who will set his feet on the Mount of Olives at his return (Zechariah 14:3-4, Acts 1:11-12), YHWH who is the first and the last (Isaiah 44:6, Revelation 2:8), YHWH the great I AM (Exodus 3:14, John 8:58), the great God (Titus 2:13), the mighty God (Isaiah 9:6), one God with God the Father (John 10:30, John 20:28), equal in divinity with God the Father (Philippians 2:6).

Just as the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19) is the 3 distinct, coexisting Persons (Mark 1:9-11) of God the Father (Galatians 1:3), God the Son (Hebrews 1:8), and God the Holy Spirit (cf. Mark 13:11 and Matthew 10:19-20; Acts 5:3-4), so the Trinity is YHWH the Father, YHWH the Son, and YHWH the Holy Spirit. For YHWH is the only God (Isaiah 45:5-6). He has always been and forever will be the only God (Isaiah 43:10b).

~

There are so many different ways to illustrate the Trinity that it shouldn't be difficult for every Christian to get at least some realization of it. While there's no sufficient analogy to completely explain God (Isaiah 40:18), how he can be one God and yet 3 Persons at the same time, the Bible does refer to God speaking things into existence (Genesis 1:24; Hebrews 11:3). What God spoke was his Word, who is that Person of the Trinity who has become flesh in Jesus Christ (John 1:1,14; 1 Timothy 3:16, Luke 24:39). But God the Word existed even before God the Father spoke anything into existence, for all things created were created by God the Word (John 1:1-3, Colossians 1:16-17). And the original Greek word in John 1:1,14 for "Word" is "Logos", which refers not only to spoken words, but also to any ordered thoughts. Clearly, God has always had ordered thoughts, so God the Word has always existed.

So a human analogy for God would have God the Father as the mind, and God the Word as the ordered thoughts, speech, and writings (incarnate words) of that mind. God the Holy Spirit would then be analogous to the breath (spirit) which is inextricable from human speech, and is also inextricable from ordered thought, in that a non-breathing person is dead and his brain has no thoughts. God the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3-4) is one God with God the Father and God the Word because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father (Matthew 10:19-20 and Mark 13:11) and the Spirit of the Word (John 14:16-18, Romans 8:9). While an individual human isn't 3 persons, the truth about God can still be grasped by looking at man's design, for man was made in God's image (Genesis 1:26). Just as an individual man has his word (Revelation 12:11) and his spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23), so the one God has his Word (John 1:1) and his Spirit (Romans 8:9). But the one God is so infinitely greater than man (Isaiah 40:17) that the Word of God and the Spirit of God are distinct Persons within his being.

Besides the analogy of a single human's mind, thoughts/speech/writings, and breath, the Trinity can also be compared to the single sun's sphere, light, and heat. The Father would be analogous to the sun's sphere, which is invisible to humans except for its visible light, which is analogous to the incarnate, visible Word (Colossians 1:15, John 14:9). And the sun is felt by humans via its invisible, infrared rays, which would be analogous to the Spirit. The Trinity can also be compared to water, which even though it's only one substance, it can exist in 3 distinct states of solid, liquid, and gas at the same time (such as in a water pitcher 2/3 full with water and ice cubes, and with water vapor filling the top third of the pitcher). The Trinity can also be compared to space, which even though it's only one area, it consists of 3 distinct dimensions at the same time. The Trinity can also be compared to 1 x 1 x 1 =1, or to 1a x 1b x 1c = 1abc.

polkaman-

The Trinity is best understood when we focus on what Scripture itself says about the interrelationship between Jesus and God:

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he "has put everything under his feet." Now when it says that "everything" has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all. (I Corinthians 15:20-28,NIV)

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippiands 2:5-11,NIV)

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Colossians 1:15-20,NIV)

First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them" (although the law required them to be made). Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. (Hebrews 10:8-14,NIV)

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held acountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished - he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:19-26,NIV)

An inanimate object, a rock for instance, has a single physical nature and is not a person.
One nature, no persons.

A plant, or one of the lower animals, has two natures: one is physical, the other a kind of spiritual nature that has to do with the principle that animates a living being. However, like a rock, a plant or lower animal is not a person.
Two natures, no persons.

An angel has a single spiritual nature, and is a single person.
One nature, one person.

Human beings have two natures, physical and spiritual, and are also single persons.
Two natures, one person.

You can see that a being can have more than one nature, and the number of natures it has isn't necessarily the same as the number of persons it is.

God is a single being who is three persons: Father, Son and Spirit. These three persons are of the same substance and the same divine nature; in addition, one of these persons (the Son) assumed Human nature.

The following is from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

and also:

polkaman said:

Hello.
I am on my journey to understanding, and
Have come upon a slight problem.
Many religions say that God, Jesus and
The holy sprit are one.

But what about the Christmas story, saying
Jesus was gods only son ?

Jesus many times refers to God as his
Father ?

(in my fathers house Jesus mentions)


As an interesting side note. I took an
Online quiz that told you what faith
You are...it said either Mormon or
Jewish (no disrespect to either).
I thought I was more twards the methodist or
Catholic since those are the ones I know locally.

Thank you

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Ask God to give you a revelation of the Trinity. When trying to understand God, remember this scripture:

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
Proverbs 3:6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
Proverbs 3:7 Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.

We only understand God through personal revelation, so continue to pray and ask God for that revelation of who He is. Read His word every day and ask God to help you understand it. God bless.

polkaman said:

Hello.
I am on my journey to understanding, and
Have come upon a slight problem.
Many religions say that God, Jesus and
The holy sprit are one.

But what about the Christmas story, saying
Jesus was gods only son ?

Jesus many times refers to God as his
Father ?

(in my fathers house Jesus mentions)


As an interesting side note. I took an
Online quiz that told you what faith
You are...it said either Mormon or
Jewish (no disrespect to either).
I thought I was more twards the methodist or
Catholic since those are the ones I know locally.

Thank you

Click to expand...

first, about that online test. I encourage you to stay away from that. many of them are not accurate and they can mislead and cause confusion.

As for the trinity and our Lord. I had a very similar question. Philippians 2:5-8 helped me indefinitely. It reveals to us along with scripture in the gospels that it's not about the physical of things. but the ROLES that they are in. This helps explain the term "Son" of God. for in the greek it doesn't actually mean He was a created child of God. But that He was simply one who is OF God (a simple way of putting it, yet with so much more meaning). I encourage you to read and meditate on that verse i referenced. May the Lord bless you and guide you.