The Creed 2 In one God. The first affirmation and the most important The whole creed speaks of God,...

The Creed 2

In one God

• The first affirmation and the most important

• The whole creed speaks of God, when speaks of man and the world, speaks of them in relation to God

Truly we believe in God,

• Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: Deuteronomy 6:4

• And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: Mark 12:29

• Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith. Romans 3:30

• Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Galatians 3:20

Truly we believe in one God,

• For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 1 Timothy 2:5

• you believe that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. James 2:19

• There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judge another? James 4:12

• For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. 1 John 5:7


• Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength. Isaiah 45:22-24


• To believe in one God is equally important to the belief in God.

• To believe in one God means to believe in God’s uniqueness, rather than singularity. “ Thou shall have none other gods before me”. Deuteronomy 5:7 &..

• ”Thou shall not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth”: Deuteronomy 5:8



• Our Lord Jesus Christ gives us to understand that He is “the Lord”

• We Call the Holy Spirit “the Lord, and giver of life”

• Both expressions are not contrary to the belief in one God

• The three persons of the trinity share one and the essence and nature

• The belief in one God is common to many religions and philosophies.

• The dogma of the trinity is unique to the Christian faith.


The One God and three persons in the Old Testament.

• The trinity was revealed in the Baptism of Our Lord in the Jordan

• Before the Theophany the trinity was presented in an obscure way in the old testament.


• Although Moses the prophet had conveyed to the Israelites the One God, they reverted to polytheism and idol worship.

”And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more

than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased

not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way.” Judges 2:19

• The old testament then is a preparatory stage for the full divine revelation in the new testament.


Examples of Old Testament hints to the Trinity1. The Angel of the Lord

The Angel of the Lord spoke as he is God not as speaking on God’s behalf. Many of the Church

writers believed Him to be the person of the Son

• And the angel of God spoke unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob: And I said, Here am I.

• I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointed the pillar, and where thou vowed a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred. Genesis 31:11, 13


Examples of Old Testament hints to the Trinity

2. God speaks in the plural This was explained as the dialogue among the

trinity:

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” Genesis 1:26

• St Athanasius, St Cyril of Jerusalem, and St Gregory of Nys.



2. God speaks in the plural • Same could be understood from:

“And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us” Genesis 3:22

“ let us go down, and there confound their language” Genesis 11:7


3. Hints to the Trinity

“And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; and he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground”, Genesis 18:1, 2



3. Hints to the Trinity• And one cried unto another, and said,

Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. Isaiah 6:3.

• St. Athanasius pointed that the three Holy (trisagion) points to the Three persons of the Holy Trinity.


• The hints/ pointers of trinity were obscured to Jewish readers of the old testament, even to the writers of the Holy scriptures. That is why St. Augustine wrote:

“The old testament is understood in the Light of the new”


The Creed 2 In one God. The first affirmation and the most important The whole creed speaks of God,...

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