Questions about the Trinity

The Father is God and the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God, but there is only one God. Wait a minute some people say. "One plus one plus one equals one? That cant be true. It just doesn't add up."

That's right, it doesn't work - and it shouldn't either. God is not a "thing" to add up. There can only be One, All-Powerful, All-Wise, All-Present - hence there can only be One God. In the spirit world, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one, united in a way that material objects cannot be. Our mathematics is based on material things; it doesn't always work in the limitless spiritual dimension.

The Father is God and the Son is God, but there is only one God-being. This is not a family or committee of divine beings – a group cannot say, “There is no one like me” (Jes 43,10(44:6; 45:5). God is only one divine being—more than one person, but only one God. The early Christians did not derive this idea from paganism or philosophy—they were essentially compelled to it by Holy Scripture.

Just as Scripture teaches that Christ is divine, so does she teach that the Holy Spirit is divine and personal. Whatever the Holy Spirit does, God does. The Holy Spirit is God, as the Son and the Father are - three persons who are perfectly united in one God: the Trinity.

The question of Christ's prayers

The question is often asked: Since God is one, why did Jesus have to pray to the Father? Behind this question lies the assumption that the oneness of God did not permit Jesus (who was God) to pray to the Father. God is one. So to whom did Jesus pray? This picture overlooks four important points that we must clarify if we want to receive a satisfactory answer to the question. The first point is that the statement "the Word was God" does not confirm that God was exclusively the Logos [the Word]. The word "God" in the expression "and the Word was God" (Joh 1,1)The phrase "the Logos" is not used as a proper name. It means that the Logos was divine—that the Logos had the same nature as God—one essence, one nature. It is a mistake to assume that the expression "the Logos was God" means that the Logos alone was God. From this perspective, the expression does not preclude Christ from praying to the Father. In other words, there is a Christ and there is a Father, and there is no incompatibility in Christ praying to the Father.

The second point that needs to be clarified is that the logos were meat. (Joh 1,14)This statement implies that the Logos of God actually became a human being—a literal, limited human being, with all the characteristics and limitations that define humans. He had all the needs that come with human nature. He needed food to stay alive; he had spiritual and emotional needs, including the need to have fellowship with God through prayer. This need will become clearer later on.

The third point that needs clarification is his sinlessness. Prayer is not just for sinners; even a sinless person can and should praise God and seek His help. A human, limited being must pray to God, must have fellowship with God. Jesus Christ, a human being, had to pray to the unlimited God.

This raises the need to correct a fourth mistake made at the same point: the assumption that the need to pray is a proof that a person praying is no more than human. This assumption has crept in from a distorted view of prayer into the minds of many people - from the view that the imperfection of man is the only basis for prayer. This conception is not taken from the Bible or from anything else revealed by God. Adam should have prayed, even if he had not sinned. His sinlessness would not have made his prayers unnecessary. Christ prayed, even though he was perfect.

With the above clarifications in mind, the question can be answered. Christ was God, but he was not the Father (or the Holy Spirit); he could pray to the father. Christ was human too - a limited, literally limited human being; he had to pray to the father. Christ was also the new Adam - an example of the perfect man Adam should have been; he was in constant communion with God. Christ was more than human - and prayer does not change that status; he prayed as the Son of God made man. The notion that prayer is inappropriate or unnecessary for someone more than human does not derive from God's revelation.

by Michael Morrison