THE
DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY AND 3.4 Three Persons but Same Essence or Nature (al-Dzat) 3.5 Relationship Between God The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit 3.6 The Essence (al-Dzat) of God the Father is in the Son and the Holy Spirit 3.7 God Is Not Splitting Into Three Parts 3.8 The Three Divine Persons Do Not Exist Side By Side In The Divine World 3.9 In the Trinity No One is Greater, Less, Separate Nor Subordinate One to the Other 3.10 Jesus Could Not Be Separated From the Father and the Holy Spirit 3.12 Jesus: God That Became Man (al-Hulul wa al-Ittihad) 3.14 As A Perfect Sin Offering For Mankind: God Became Man |
3.5 Relationship between God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
Christians believe that since the Almighty God must be living and knowing, he must thus possess the quality of life and knowledge. His life being called the Holy Spirit and His knowledge, Speech or Word being the Son or Jesus Christ. The substance or essence (al-Dzat) of God alone without any reference to the attributes (al-Sifat) of knowledge and Life is called the Father. Paul of Antioch, the Melkite Bishop of Saida (d.1180C.E) in his “Risalah ila Ahad al-Muslimin” (Letter to a Muslim) states that: “We hold the essence (al-Dzat) to be the Father, who is the origin of the other two. The Word is the Son…and the Life is the Holy Spirit.”[1] According to the well-known philosopher and theologian of the Catholic Church, St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-74 C.E), the meaning of the Father is not such a time has passed in which there was the Father and not the Son, but that this is a Divine terminology – whose purpose is simply that the Father is the principle of the Son just as the substance (al-Dzat) is the principle of the attribute (al-Sifat).[2]
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