We often hear this question from our Muslim friends: “You Christians say that God is one, and then you talk about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Isn’t this polytheism? How can the one and the three be brought together?”
Good and honest question. Let us try to explain this mystery in simple words, far from theological complications.
First: We believe in ONE God
Christianity, like Islam, is a purely monotheistic religion. Thousands of times the Bible repeats that God is one. The Bible says: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). Christ himself affirms: “The Lord our God is one Lord” (Mark 12:29).
So, the starting point is common: God is one and the same. There are not three gods, but one God with one entity.
Second: The difference between “essence” and “hypostases”
Let’s take a simple example from our lives: You are one human being. But you have a mind, you have feelings, and you have a will. Is this three people? No, they are three sides of one person.
Or another example: The sun is one in the sky. But it has a disk (with which we see it), it has light (with which it illuminates), and it has heat (with which it warms). These are three different things, but they are all in the same nature as the sun. You cannot separate light from heat, nor can you separate them from the disk of the sun, yet it is not three suns.
When we say “Father,” “Son,” and “Holy Spirit,” we are talking about three ways that one God exists, or three “persons” as theologians call them. They are not three gods, but three expressions of God’s love and work with us.
Third: Love requires two people
Let us consider together: If God were one, isolated in His oneness before He created creation, who would love Him? Love needs another in order to love it.
Christians believe that the secret of God’s existence is love. God, from all eternity (before anything was created), was a mutual love between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the link of this love. This is what it means that God is love (1 John 4:8).
Fourth: Does this mean that God has three parts?
No, God is not made up of parts. Each of the three hypostases is fully God. The Father is not a third of God, nor is the Son a third of God, but each one is God in His perfection.
Perhaps the closest examples are “existence,” “word,” and “life.” In Genesis, we see God creating “by His word” (God said, “Let there be light”) and “by His Spirit” (God’s Spirit moving over the face of the waters). These are not separate gods, but rather one God working in different ways.
Conclusion for thought
Perhaps the limited human mind cannot comprehend how the infinite God exists. We do not claim to fully understand the Trinity, but rather believe in it as God revealed himself in the Bible.
What we simply believe is:
- dad: God in heaven, who created us and loves us.
- son: God who came to us in the person of Christ so that we may see and touch him.
- Holy Spirit: God who lives within us and gives us life and strength.
Three Persons, One God. It is not polytheism, but rather it is the secret of divine love that we live and experience in our relationship with God.