God | cruxchfaithformation

Apologetics Minute: God

“Why do Christians believe in the Holy Trinity?”

Christians believe in the Holy Trinity, one God in three Persons, because these three Persons are mentioned throughout the Bible as having the same nature of God. Just one of the many verses that attest to this is the command Jesus gives His Apostles in Mat. 28:19 when He tells them to “baptize” in the “name” of all three. This is because the “name” denotes all three mentioned have the same authority. There are also the writings of early Christians who describe the “Son” and “Spirit” as having the same substance and authority as the “Father”. This means that if the Father is God, then must also be the Son and the Spirit.

“What do Christians mean when they talk about God, who God is?”

Often, the biggest misunderstanding between those who do and don’t believe in God is the fundamental question of who God is. To those who don’t believe in God, often times their picture is a distant authoritarian or puppet master, pulling the strings of our life as we struggle under his will, but this view is unsubstantial and opposed to the view of God in Christianity. God gives a view of Himself in talking with Moses. Moses asks God His name and God says, “I am who am” (Exodus 3:14). There is nothing to which God can compare Himself, because He is outside of Creation. God is not “a thing” but God Is. God is “being” itself. St. Thomas Aquinas called this idea ipsum esse (Ipp-soom Ess-ay), which is Latin for “existence itself”.

What is the difference between saying "God loves" and "God is love"?

The distinction between the phrases "God loves" and "God is love," a phrase that comes from 1 Jn. 4:8, is literally the difference between Christianity and everything else. The first, "God loves," is a statement about what God does, whereas the second, "God is love," is a statement about who God is. The belief that God's character is love is wholly unique to Christianity, and 1 Jn. 4:8 is the primary text from which the early Christians realized the doctrine of the Trinity (God is one in three Persons). This is because if God is in all ways perfect, there is perfect love present. In order for this, there must be a perfect reflection of that love, which the Bible tells us is Jesus (Heb. 1:3). Because both the Subject (God the Father) and the Object (God the Son, Jesus) are loving perfectly in eternity, the Love itself is perfected and personified. This "Love" between the Father and the Son we identify as the Holy Spirit.