§ 24. The teaching of the Church of St. The Trinity and the Composition of This Teaching

The dogma of the Holy Scriptures. The Trinity is set forth by the Church in all three symbols now used in it, but with the greatest fullness and separateness, in the so-called Symbol of St. Athanasius, and precisely as follows:

"This catholic faith is: that we may worship the one God in the Trinity, and the Trinity in unity, merging hypostases below, dividing essence below. For there is another hypostasis of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Spirit. But the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one divinity, equal to glory, co-majesty with majesty. James the Father, such is the Son, such is the Holy Spirit... Thus: God the Father, God the Son, God and the Holy Spirit: there are not three gods, but one God... The Father is not created from anyone, nor created, or inferiorly begotten. The Son is from the Father Himself, neither created nor created, but begotten. The Holy Spirit is not created from the Father, not created, inferiorly begotten, but proceeding. And in this Trinity there is nothing first or last, nothing more or less, but the three hypostases are whole, co-existent in essence and equal."

The entire teaching of the Holy Scriptures. The Trinity, set forth in this symbol, obviously boils down to the following three propositions:

I. God is threefold, and this trinity consists in the fact that in God there are three persons or hypostases: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

II. Each person of the Trinity is God, but they are not three gods, but one divine being.

III. All persons of the Trinity differ from each other in personal characteristics.

In the order of these propositions, let us expound the teaching to the Most Holy Trinity.

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I. The Trinity of Persons in God

When the Church teaches us to believe in the trinity of the Godhead, it points first of all to the need to have a living confidence in the existence of three persons in the Godhead. This means that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The spirit must be recognized not as three properties, or powers, or manifestations and actions of one and the same divine person, but as three really different persons of the Godhead, each having its own special independence and its own special features, by which it is not confused with another person.

§ 25. Old Testament Indications of the Trinity of Persons in God

The truth that there are indeed three persons in God is revealed to us in the clearest possible light in the New Testament. However, this truth was also proclaimed in the Old Testament, although indications of it are hidden under the veil of mysterious and enigmatic figures and expressions of speech. All the Old Testament references to this mystery can be divided into three classes.