The Creed 3

“..God The Father…”“IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND OF

THE SON, AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT”

..God The Father..

• We are Baptized in the Name of the Father, and The Son, and The Holy Spirit.

• No one can be called Christian unless confess the faith in the Trinity.

• The Trinitarian Dogma is the most fundamental truth in the teaching of faith.

• We are Baptized in the Name, and not the names of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

..God The Father..

1. The revelation of God as a Trinity•The Trinity is a mystery that can never be known unless God reveals it to us.

•The oikonomiareveals the Theologia. And the Theologiailluminates the oikonomia

..God The Father..

1. The revelation of God as a Trinity• God is called a “Father” by many religions =

“father of gods and of men”.• God is called a “Father” because He is the

creator of the world. Also because of the covenant with Israel (His first Born). He is the Father of the King. He is the Father of the poor and the orphan and the widow.

..God The Father..

• By calling God “Father”, the language of faith indicates two main things:

1. God is the origin of all things2. God’s goodness and loving care

• God’s parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of the mother

• He is neither man nor woman: he is God• He transcends human fatherhood and motherhood

..God The Father..

1. The revelation of God as a TrinityA. The Father revealed by the Son•Our Lord revealed that God is Father not only in being Creator, he is eternally Father by His relationship to his only Son who, reciprocally, is Son only in relation to His Father.“No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” Mt 11:2

..God The Father..1. The revelation of God as a Trinity

• For this reason the apostlesconfessed our Lord Jesus to be the Word

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” John 1:1,

“the image of the invisible God” Col 1:15;

“ The radiance of the glory of God and the very stamp of His Nature” Heb 1:3

..God The Father..1. The revelation of God as a Trinity

• Following the apostles tradition, the Church in the ecumenical council at Nicaea confessed that the Son is

HOMOOUSIOS=

Consubstantial=

Equal with the Father in the one essence

..God The Father..1. The revelation of God as a Trinity

B. The Father and the Son revealed by the Spirit•The First revelation of the Holy Trinity was in the Baptism of our Lord•Our Lord on Holy Thursday spoke of “another Paraclete” whom He would send from the Father in His name “will guide them to all Truth” Jn 14:17.•“filioque” the procession from the son was gradually admitted to the Latin Liturgy between the 8thand 11thcentury leading to the great schism

..God The Father..

2.The Holy Trinity in the Teaching of Faith•In Baptism•In the liturgical Salutation “The Love of God the Father and the grace of the only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” 2 Corinth 13:13, 1 Corinth 12:4-6, Eph 4:4-6

The Name of God

• Zoxapatri: Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit

• The sign of the Cross is our most fundamental piece of faith.

• The reverence that is due to the Name

..God The Father..The Holy Trinity in the Teaching of Faith

Terminology•To articulate the dogma of the Trinity, the church had to develop its own terminology:

i. “Substance”= “essence”= “nature” to designate the divine being in His unity

ii. “Person” or “Hypostasis” to designate the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the real distinction among them

iii. “Relation” to designate the fact that their distinction lies in the relationship of each to the others

..God The Father..The Holy Trinity in the Teaching of Faith

The Dogma of the Holy TrinityThe Trinity is One: we do not believe in three Gods

ButOne God in three Hypostasis (persons), the “consubstantial Trinity”

The divine persons DO NOT SHARE the one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole and entire

Explaining The Trinitarian Doctrine

St. Basil

• •..” for The Son is in The Father and the father is in The Son; since such as is the latter is the former, and such as is the former, such is the latter..”

St. Gregory of Nazianzen “The Theologian”

His teaching on the trinity

Who is St. Gregory of Nazianzen?

• The theologos• The writer of the Gregorian liturgy• May be the most celebrated theologian by all

apostolic churches.

St. Gregory of Nazianzen (The Theologian)

• Every title that belongs to The Father belongs to Him (The Son) except only unbegotten..)

• We should recognize that according to the teachings of the fathers, being or essence is notconfined only to The Father (Gregory of Nazianzen).

• It is dangerous to ascribe being only to the Father, mind only to the Son, and life only to the Holy Spirit. This will lead us to divide the divine essence into three essences

St Gregory and the allegory of the sun

St Gregory and the allegory of the sun

His Teaching on the Holy Trinity:I. God is incomprehensible in our Human Thought.II. Hypostatic properties of the three Distinct Prosopa of The Holy Trinity.III. The eternal being of The Son and The Holy Spirit.IV. The use of illustrations depicting The Holy Trinity

His Teaching on the Holy TrinityV. The Three Hypostasies have One and the same Essence (consubstantial).VI. The Equality of The Three Hypostaseis.VII. Sharing the same properties of Essence

VIII. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father aloneIX. The Monarchy of The Father in The Holy Trinity (Patriki-archy = patrikh arxh )X. The gifts of God are from The Father through The Son by The Holy Spirit)

..God The Father..3. the Divine works “Oikonomia”

• “He destined us in love to be His sons” and “to be conformed to the image of His Son” through “the spirit of sonship” this plan is “grace that was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began” Ephasian 1:4-5, 9; Rom 8:15,29

• The whole divine economy is the common work of the three divine persons.

The Trinity Is the Trinity of the Father