Chapter 85 of 116

Three Dangers to Avoid

The Athanasian Creed (c. AD 500) attempts to make sense of the biblical data that affirm God's threeness and oneness:

Now the catholic faith is that we worship One God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, is One, the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal.…And yet not three eternals but one eternal, as also not three infinites, nor three uncreated, but one uncreated, and one infinite. So, likewise, the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty; and yet not three almighties but one almighty. So the Father is God, the Son God, and the Holy Spirit God; and yet not three Gods but one God.…For like as we are compelled by Christian truth to acknowledge every Person by Himself to be both God and Lord; so are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say, there be three Gods or three Lords.…So there is one Father not three Fathers, one Son not three Sons, and one Holy Spirit not three Holy Spirits.

In the history of Christianity, the Western church (Catholic and Protestant) has stressed God's unbreakable oneness of God's being whereas the Eastern Orthodox church has emphasized the distinctiveness of the three persons. That said, orthodox Christian formulations of the Trinity should attempt to avoid overemphasizing/denying one of three Trinitarian fundamentals; doing so could lead to doctrinal significant error:³

Overemphasizing threeness leads to tritheism—a version of polytheism (many gods). This error, which is found in one version of Mormonism, denies God's oneness (monotheism).

Overemphasizing oneness leads to modalism—that God is just one person who appears in different modes or manifestations (e.g., as Father in the Old Testament, Son in the New Testament, and Spirit during the New Testament church age). This unitarian (as opposed to trinitarian) view of God is characteristic of much liberal theology which, for example, rejects Jesus' divinely authoritative status; it denies God's threeness.

Rejecting equality leads to subordinationism. In this case the three persons do not possess alike the divine nature but are a kind of hierarchy. According to Jehovah's Witnesses, the Father alone is God; Jesus is “a god” and the first creature God made; and the Holy Spirit is not personal but merely a force. This subordinationist error undermines the equality of the divine persons.

By contrast, the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity emphasizes that only one God exists (oneness). This God exists eternally in three distinct persons—Father, Son, and Spirit (threeness). Also, these persons are fully equal in their essential divine attributes and perfections (equality).

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