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If you look inside your English-language Bible, the word “Trinity” is never present. Yet the concept of the Trinity within Christianity is paramount.
The three primary church creeds still used today by most Protestants and Catholics acknowledge the Trinity:
The Apostles’ Creed (2nd century)
The Nicene Creed (A.D. 325)
The Athanasian Creed (5th–6th century)
The word Trinity derives from the Latin word Trinitas, meaning “triad” or “three.”
Scholars point to Tertullian as the first theologian to describe the existence of one God existing as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as the actual Trinity. While the term “Trinity” is not in the Scripture, the teaching itself is found throughout it.
A key verse to teach the Trinity is the order of baptism, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).
Likewise, when Jesus was baptized:
“And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:16-17).
Within Jesus’ baptism, the Trinity is evident, as the passage contains the presence of the Father, Son (Himself), and the Holy Spirit.
Throughout His ministry, Jesus continually speaks of His unique relationship with the Father: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).
“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38).
“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father,” (John 14:9).
Going deeper into scripture analysis, one must walk with Christ through His earthly ministry to see the fuller revelation of the Holy Spirit. In John 14, Jesus speaks of the anticipated Helper:
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16–17),
Later in the same chapter, He adds:
“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 that I have said to you” (John 14:26).
The purpose of the original creeds and councils was to debate and confront heresy, many of which centered on the deity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity.
It was not only the New Testament that taught Trinitarian Christianity, but the Old Testament too, as early as Genesis 1:26: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.’”
Likewise, Isaiah referenced the Trinity in Isaiah 48:16: “Draw near to me, hear this: from the beginning I have not spoken in secret, from the time it came to be I have been there. And now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit.”
In short, the early apostolic and church fathers did not invent something new in Trinitarian terminology. They examined the Scriptures carefully and settled debates by affirming that the Trinitarian understanding of Christianity was not only biblical but a genuine and absolute teaching of the Christian faith.
Understanding the uniqueness of the Trinity and its significance to historical Christianity continues to help protect the Church, its members, and its teachings from heretical views.
The doctrine of the Trinity is the living reality of how God has revealed Himself to mankind, and how He continues to work in His creation today.
Perhaps best summed by Augustine: “The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; and yet they are not three Gods, but one God.”[i]
[i] Augustine, On the Trinity, 1.7.14, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 3, ed. Philip Schaff (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1887).
