Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. – Matthew 28:19
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. – John 1:1
Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does. – John 5:19-20
For us there is only one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. – 1 Corinthians 8:6
I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. – 1 Corinthians 11:3
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. – 2 Corinthians 13:14
According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. – 1 Peter 1:2
Early Church Quotes:
Apostolic Constitutions
The Father is the God over all. Christ is the Only-Begotten God—the beloved Son, the Lord of glory. The Holy Spirit is the Comforter, who is sent by Christ, taught by Him, and proclaimed by Him. – (AD 40)
“Now, God, who alone is Unbegotten, and the Maker of the whole world . . . grants to you eternal life with us, through the mediation of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our God and Savior. With whom glory be to You, the God over all and the Father, in the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. – (AD 40)
Clement of Rome
Do we not have one God and one Christ? Is there not one Spirit of grace poured out upon us? – The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians (AD 96)
Justin Martyr
The most true God, is the Father of righteousness. . . . We worship and adore Him, the Son (who came forth from Him and taught us these things, along with the host of the other good angels who follow and are made like Him), and the prophetic Spirit. – (AD 160)
Athenagoras
Who, then, would not be astonished to hear men called atheists who speak of God the Father, and of God the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and who declare both their power in union and their distinction in order? – (AD 175)
Christians know God and His Logos. They also know what type of oneness the Son has with the Father and what type of communion the Father has with the Son. Furthermore, they know what the Spirit is and what the unity is of these three: the Spirit, the Son, and the Father. They also know what their distinction is in unity. – (AD 175)
We acknowledge a God, and a Son (His Logos), and a Holy Spirit. These are united in essence—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Now, the Son is the Intelligence, Reason, and Wisdom of the Father. And the Spirit is an emanation, as light from fire. – (AD 175)
Theophilus
On the fourth day the luminaries were made; because God, who possesses foreknowledge, knew the follies of the vain philosophers, that they were going to say, that the things which grow on the earth are produced from the heavenly bodies, so as to exclude God. In order, therefore, that the truth might be obvious, the plants and seeds were produced prior to the heavenly bodies, for what is posterior cannot produce that which is prior. And these contain the pattern and type of a great mystery. For the sun is a type of God, and the moon of man. And as the sun far surpasses the moon in power and glory, so far does God surpass man. And as the sun remains ever full, never becoming less, so does God always abide perfect, being full of all power, and understanding, and wisdom, and immortality, and all good. But the moon wanes monthly, and in a manner dies, being a type of man; then it is born again, and is crescent, for a pattern of the future resurrection. In like manner also the three days which were before the luminaries, are types of the Trinity, of God, and His Word, and His wisdom. And the fourth is the type of man, who needs light, that so there may be God, the Word, wisdom, man. Wherefore also on the fourth day the lights were made. The disposition of the stars, too, contains a type of the arrangement and order of the righteous and pious, and of those who keep the law and commandments of God. For the brilliant and bright stars are an imitation of the prophets, and therefore they remain fixed, not declining, nor passing from place to place. And those which hold the second place in brightness, are types of the people of the righteous. And those, again, which change their position, and flee from place to place, which also are called planets, they too are a type of the men who have wandered from God, abandoning His law and commandments. – To Autolycus, Chapter 15 (AD 180)
Irenaeus
It is the Father who anoints, and it is the Son who is anointed by the Spirit. The Spirit is the unction. – (AD 180)
I have also largely demonstrated that the Word, namely the Son, was always with the Father. Now, that Wisdom also, who is the Spirit, was present with Him before all creation, He declares by Solomon: “God by Wisdom founded the earth, and by understanding He has established the heaven. By His knowledge, the depths burst forth, and the clouds dropped down the dew.” And again: “The Lord created me the beginning of His ways in His work. He set me up from everlasting, in the beginning, before He made the earth.” . . . There is therefore one God, who by His Word and Wisdom created and arranged all things. – (AD 180)
God is powerful in all things. At that time, He was seen prophetically through the Spirit and adoptively through the Son. However, he will be seen paternally in the kingdom of heaven. The Spirit truly prepares a man in the Son of God, and the Son leads him to the Father. Finally, the Father confers upon him incorruption for eternal life. – (AD 180)
It is after the image and likeness of the uncreated God: the Father planning everything well and giving His commands, the Son carrying these into execution and performing the work of creating, and the Spirit nourishing and increasing. – (AD 180)
One God the Father is declared, who is above all, through all, and in all. The Father is indeed above all, and He is the Head of Christ. But the Word is through all things and is Himself the Head of the church. While the Spirit is in us all, and He is the living water. – (AD 180)
They ascend through the Spirit to the Son, and through the Son to the Father. And in due time, the Son will yield up His work to the Father, even as it is said by the apostle. – (AD 180)
Clement of Alexandria
The universal Father is one. The universal Word is one. And the Holy Spirit is one. – (AD 195)
Thank the one only Father and Son, Son and Father. The Son is the Instructor and Teacher, along with the Holy Spirit. They are all in One, in whom is all, for whom all is One, for whom is eternity. – (AD 195)
It is protected by the power of God the Father, and the blood of God the Son, and the dew of the Holy Spirit. – (AD 195)
Tertullian
We pray at a minimum not less than three times in the day. For we are debtors to Three: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. – (AD 198)
For the very church itself is—properly and principally—the Spirit Himself, in whom is the Trinity of the One Divinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. – (AD 212)
“We . . . believe that there is only one God, but under the following dispensation or “economy” [Gr. oikonomia], as it is called. We believe that this one only God has also a Son, His Word, who proceeded from Himself, by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made. Him we believe to have been sent by the Father into the virgin, and to have been born of her—being both man and God, the Son of man and the Son of God. . . . And the Son also sent from heaven from the Father, according to His own promise, the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the sanctifier of the faith of those who believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. – (AD 213)
This heresy [Monarchianism] supposes itself to possess the pure truth, in thinking that one cannot believe in only one God in any other way than by saying that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the very selfsame Person. As if in this way also One were not All, in that All are of One, by unity of substance. In this manner, the mystery of the “economy” is still guarded, which distributes the Unity into a Trinity, placing in their order the three: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. However, this is not in condition, but in degree. It is not in substance; but in form. It is not in power, but in aspect. Yet, they are of one substance, one condition, and one power—for as He is one God from whom these degrees, forms, and aspects are reckoned under the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. How they are susceptible of number without division will be shown. . . . The simple, . . . who always constitute the majority of believers, are startled at the “economy,” on the ground that their very rule of faith withdraws them from the world’s plurality of gods to the only true God. They do not understand that, although He is the one only God, He must yet be believed in with His own “economy.” . . . How does it come to pass that God is thought to suffer division and severance in the Son and in the Holy Spirit, who have the second and the third places assigned to them, and who are so closely joined with the Father in His substance? . . . Do you really suppose that those, who are naturally members of the Father’s own substance, pledges of His love, instruments of His might, . . . are the overthrow and destruction thereof? You are not right in thinking so. – (AD 213)
As for me, I derive the Son from no other source than from the substance of the Father. And I believe He does nothing without the Father’s will and that He received all power from the Father. So how can I possibly be destroying the Monarchy from the faith, when I preserve it in the Son just as it was committed to Him by the Father? . . . Likewise with the Third Degree, for I believe the Spirit is from no other source than from the Father through the Son. – (AD 213)
For God sent forth the Word, as the Paraclete also declares. This is just as the root puts forth the tree, the fountain the river, and the sun the ray. For these are emanations of the substances from which they proceed. I should not hesitate, indeed, to call the tree the son or offspring of the root; or the river, that of the fountain; or the ray, that of the sun. . . . Now, the Spirit indeed is third from God and the Son. Just as the fruit of the tree is third from the root, or as the stream out of the river is third from the fountain, or as the apex of the ray is third from the sun. Nothing, however, is alien from that original source from which it derives its own properties. In like manner, the Trinity, flowing down from the Father through intertwined and connected steps, does not at all disturb the “Monarchy,” while it at the same time guards the state of the “Economy.” – (AD 213)
I testify that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are inseparable from each other. . . . My assertion is that the Father is one, the Son is one, and the Spirit is one—and that they are all distinct from each other. . . . The Father is not the same as the Son, for they differ one from the other in the mode of their being. For the Father is the entire substance, but the Son is a derivation and portion of the whole, as He Himself acknowledges: “My Father is greater than I.” – (AD 213)
However, that there are two Gods or two Lords, is a statement that at no time proceeds out of our mouths. Not as if it were untrue that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and each is God. . . . Now, if there were found in the Scriptures but one Personality of Him who is God and Lord, Christ would justly enough be inadmissible to the title of God and Lord. For there was declared to be none other than one God and one Lord. – (AD 213)
“In the “Economy” itself, the Father willed that the Son should be regarded as being on earth, and the Father Himself as being in heaven. Actually, however, He is everywhere present. – (AD 213)
Thus the connection of the Father in the Son, and of the Son in the Paraclete, produces three coherent Persons, distinct one from another. These Three are one in essence—not one in Person. For it is said, “I and my Father are One,” in respect of unity of substance, not singularity of number. – (AD 213)
He commands them to baptize into the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—not into a unipersonal God. – (AD 213)
Hippolytus
The earth is moved by three things: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. – (AD 205)
Who will not say that there is one God? Yet, he will not on that account deny the Economy. – (AD 205)
Therefore, a man . . . is compelled to acknowledge God the Father Almighty, and Christ Jesus the Son of God—who, being God, became man, to whom also the Father made all things subject (Himself excepted)—and the Holy Spirit; and that these are three [Persons]. However, if he desires to know how it is shown that there is still one God, let him know that His power is one. As far as regards the power, therefore, God is one. But as far as regards the Economy, there is a threefold manifestation. – (AD 205)
We accordingly see the incarnate Word. And we know the Father through Him. We also believe in the Son, and we worship the Holy Spirit. – (AD 205)
If, then, the Word was with God and was also God, what follows? Would one say that I speak of two Gods? I will not indeed speak of two Gods, but of one. I speak of two Persons, however, and of a third Economy—the grace of the Holy Spirit. For the Father indeed is one, but there are two Persons, because there is also the Son. And then there is the third, the Holy Spirit. The Father decrees, the Word executes, and the Son is manifested, through whom the Father is believed on. The Economy of harmony is led back to one God. For God is one. It is the Father who commands, and the Son who obeys, and the Holy Spirit who gives understanding. The Father is above all, the Son is through all, and the Holy Spirit is in all. – (AD 205)
“Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” By this, He showed that whoever omits any one of these three, fails in glorifying God perfectly. For it is through this Trinity that the Father is glorified. For the Father willed, the Son did, and the Spirit manifested. – (AD 205)
Origen
However, many of those who profess to believe in Christ differ from each other not only on small and trifling matters but also on subjects of the highest importance. I mean, for example, the things concerning God, or the Lord Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit. . . . For that reason, therefore, it seems necessary first of all to fix a definite limit and to lay down an unmistakable rule regarding each one of these [Persons]. . . . The particular points that are clearly delivered in the teaching of the apostles are as follows: First, that there is one God, who created and arranged all things, and who, when nothing existed, called all things into being. . . . Secondly, that Jesus Christ Himself, who came, was born of the Father before all creatures and that—after He had been the minister of the Father in the creation of all things (“for by Him all things were made”), He in the last times divested Himself and became a man. He was incarnate although still God. . . . And thirdly, the apostles related that the Holy Spirit was associated in honor and dignity with the Father and the Son. But in His case it is not clearly distinguished whether He is to be regarded as born or unborn—or also as a Son of God nor not. – (AD 225)
The Savior Himself rightly says in the Gospel: “There is no one good but only one, God the Father.” By such an expression, it should be understood that the Son is not of a different goodness, but of that one goodness that exists in the Father, of whom He is rightly called the Image. For He proceeds from no other source than from that primal goodness. Otherwise, there might appear to be in the Son a different goodness than that which is in the Father. . . . Therefore it is not to be imagined that there is a kind of blasphemy, as it were, in the words, “There is no one good except one only, God the Father.” For it is not as if thereby it might be supposed to be denying that either Christ or the Holy Spirit are good. Rather, as we have already said, the primal goodness is to be understood as residing in God the Father, from whom both the Son is born and the Holy Spirit proceeds. – (AD 225)
Saving baptism was not complete except by the authority of the most excellent Trinity of them all. That is, it is made complete by naming the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In this, we join the name of the Holy Spirit to the Unbegotten God (the Father) and to His OnlyBegotten Son. – (AD 225)
Having made these declarations regarding the Unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, let us return to the order in which we began the discussion. God the Father bestows existence upon all. Participation in Christ, in respect of His being the Word of reason, renders them rational beings. . . . To begin with, they derive their existence from God the Father. Secondly, they derive their rational nature from the Word. Thirdly, they derive their holiness from the Holy Spirit. – (AD 225)
There is no nature, then, that may not admit of good or evil—except the nature of God, the Fountain of all good things, and of Christ. . . . In like manner also, the nature of the Holy Spirit—being holy—does not allow pollution. For it is holy by nature, or essential being. – (AD 225)
The Father generates an uncreated Son and brings forth a Holy Spirit—not as if He had no previous existence, but because the Father is the origin and source of the Son or Holy Spirit. – (AD 225)
As to what movements of their will leads God so to arrange all these things, this is known to God alone, and to His Only-Begotten Son (through whom all things were created and restored), and to the Holy Spirit (through whom all things are sanctified). He proceeds from the Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. – (AD 225)
Isaiah, too, knowing that the beginnings of things could not be discovered by a mortal nature—not even by those natures which are more divine than human, yet were nevertheless created or formed themselves. . . . For my Hebrew teacher also used to teach in this same manner. [He said] that the beginning or end of all things could be comprehended by no one, except only our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. – (AD 225)
Let everyone, then, who cares for truth not be concerned about words and language. For in every nation there prevails a different usage of speech. Rather, let him direct his attention to the meaning conveyed by the words (rather than to the nature of the words that convey the meaning), especially in matters of such importance and difficulty. . . . The “substance” of the Trinity that is the beginning and cause of all things . . . is altogether incorporeal. – (AD 225)
All things that exist were made by God and there was nothing that was not made—except for the nature of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. . . . For the Father alone knows the Son. And the Son alone knows the Father. And the Holy Spirit alone searches even the deep things of God. – (AD 225)
The Savior and the Holy Spirit were sent by the Father for the salvation of men. – (AD 245)
Cyprian
We are not ignorant that there is one God; and one Christ, the Lord (whom we have confessed); and one Holy Spirit. – (AD 250)
“Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” He suggests the Trinity, in whose sacrament the nations were to be baptized. – (AD 250)
If a person baptized by heretics were sanctified, he would also be made the temple of God. I ask, “of what God?” If of the Creator, he could not be. For he has not believed in Him. If of Christ, he could not become His temple, since he denies that Christ is God. If of the Holy Spirit, how can the Holy Spirit be at peace with him who is the enemy either of the Son or of the Father? For the three are one. – (AD 250)
The Lord says, “I and the Father are one.” And, again, it is written of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: “And these three are one.” – (AD 250)
The three children, along with Daniel, . . . observed the third, sixth, and ninth hours (as it were) for a sacrament of the Trinity, which was to be manifested in the last times. For the first hour in its progress to the third declares the completed number of the Trinity. – (AD 250)
Treatise against Novatian
. . . baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The very same Trinity who operated figuratively through the dove in Noah’s days, now operates spiritually in the church through the disciples. – (AD 255)
Seventh Council of Carthage
The false and wicked baptism of heretics . . . is a blasphemy of the Trinity. – (AD 256)
Firmilian
. . . the invocation of the Trinity—of the names of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. – (AD 256)
Dionysius of Alexandria, as quoted by Athanasius
The individual names uttered by me can neither be separated from one another, nor parted. . . . They are ignorant that the Father, in that He is a father, cannot be separated from the Son. For that name is the obvious grounds of bonding. . . . Nor can the Son be separated from the Father, for the word “father” indicates an association between them. Furthermore, there is obviously a Spirit who can not be disjoined from the One who sends. . . . Thus, indeed, we expand the indivisible Unity into a Trinity. – (AD 262)
If there are three Persons [Gr. hypostases], this does not mean that they are divided. There are three whether they like it or not. Otherwise, let them get rid of the divine Trinity altogether. – (AD 262)
Dionysius of Rome
It would be just to dispute against those who destroy the Monarchy by dividing and rending it . . . into three powers and distinct substances [Gr. hypostases] and deities. . . . In a certain manner, these men declare three Gods, in that they divide the Holy Unity into three different substances, absolutely separated from one another. For it is essential that the Divine Word should be united to the God of all, and that the Holy Spirit should abide and dwell in God. Therefore, the Divine Trinity should be reduced and gathered into one, into a certain Head—that is, into the Omnipotent God of all. For the doctrine of the foolish Marcion, which cuts and divides the Monarchy into three elements, is certainly of the devil. It is not of Christ’s true disciples, . . . for these indeed correctly know that the Trinity is declared in the divine Scripture. However, the doctrine that there are three Gods I find neither taught in the Old nor in the New Testament. – (AD 265)
That admirable and divine unity, therefore, must not be separated into three divinities. Nor must the dignity and eminent greatness of the Lord be diminished by the name of creation. Rather, we must believe on God the Father omnipotent, and on Christ Jesus His Son, and on the Holy Spirit. – (AD 265)
Methodius
The thousand two hundred and sixty days [Rev. 12:6] . . . is the accurate and complete understanding concerning the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. . . . A thousand embraces a full and perfect number and is a symbol of the Father Himself. He made the universe by Himself and rules all things for Himself. Two hundred embraces two perfect numbers united together, and it is the symbol of the Holy Spirit. For He is the Author of our knowledge of the Son and the Father. Sixty is composed of the number six multiplied by ten, and it is a symbol of Christ. . . . He came from the fullness of Godhood into a human life. For having emptied Himself and taken upon Him the form of a slave, He was restored again to his former perfection and dignity. – (AD 290)
Reference to Methodius from a post-Nicene writer.
Methodius thinks that the following are types of the holy and consubstantial Trinity: the innocent and unbegotten Adam is a type and resemblance of God the Father Almighty, who is uncaused and is the cause of all. Adam’s begotten son [Abel or Seth] pictures the image of the begotten Son and Word of God. And Eve, who proceeded forth from Adam, signifies the person and procession of the Holy Spirit. – (AD 290)