31. Brief Analysis

First I will say something about the origins of the idea that there is a trinity of persons in the Divine, and therefore there are three gods. There are three creeds that specifically mention a trinity; they are known as the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. The Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed mention the Trinity; the Athanasian Creed specifies a trinity of persons.

These three creeds are found in many psalm books. The Apostles’ Creed is set to music in a hymn that is sung; the Nicene Creed appears after the Ten Commandments; and the Athanasian Creed appears by itself.

The Apostles’ Creed was actually written after the time of the apostles. The Nicene Creed was written as part of the council that was held in the Bithynian city of Nicaea. In the year 325 the emperor Constantine summoned all the bishops of the Near East, Africa, and Europe to attend this council. After the council, some person or people composed the Athanasian Creed for the purpose of overthrowing the Arians; later on it was received by many churches as an ecumenical creed.

The first two creeds led to the confession of the Trinity. The third, the Athanasian Creed, promoted the claim that there was a trinity of persons; as we will see in the following sections [§§33– 34], this led to the idea that there are three gods.

34. Consider the fact that the Apostles’ Creed says “I believe in God, the Father,” “in Jesus Christ,” and “in the Holy Spirit”; and the Nicene Creed says “I believe in one God, the Father,” “in one Lord, Jesus Christ,” “and in the Holy Spirit.” These are statements of belief in one God. The Athanasian Creed, however, speaks of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; therefore this is a statement of belief in three gods.

Because the authors of and adherents to the Athanasian Creed saw very clearly that the statements it makes would lead inevitably to the idea of three gods, they aimed to remedy this problem by saying that the three share the same substance and essence. All that this accomplished, however, was to make people think that the three gods agree and share the same point of view. Attributing one undivided substance and essence to three things does not eliminate the idea that there are three things. It merely introduces confusion, because “substance” and “essence” are metaphysical terms, and for all the power that metaphysics possesses, it cannot make one entity out of three persons, each of whom is God. It can lead people to speak of three as one, but it can never make them think of three as one.