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{{trinity}}The Christian '''Trinity''' consists of [[God the Father]], [[Jesus Christ|God the Son]], and God the [[Holy Spirit]], as established by the [[Nicene Creed]] of A.D. 325. The Trinity refers to the three Persons in a single unity who are the one God, all co-equalcoequal, and all with one undivided divine nature forming one God.

Although it is never made not explicit in the [[Bible]], <ref>Many Christians teach that the [[Johannine Comma]] in I John 5:7 supports the view of the Trinity; however, others believe that the Comma was added by later scribes.</ref> the concept of the Trinity is embraced by the [[Roman Catholic Church]], the [[Orthodox Church]], and nearly all [[Protestantism|Protestant]] denominations, and but denied by all [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]]sand "Oneness [[Pentecostal]]s" (such as the United Pentecostal Church). The name "Trinity" was coined by the Church Father [[Tertullian]] (A.D. 145-220). It is based on inferences from texts emphasizing the closeness of God-the-Father and Jesus (such as Rom. [[Romans, Chapter 8|Romans 8:31-34), the role of the [[Holy Ghost]], and especially the baptismal formula in Matt. [[Matthew, Chapter 28|Matthew 28:19]]:"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."<ref>The word "name" in this passage is singular. The plural word "names" is not said. Semitic peoples understood that the name of something or someone was not merely a label, a sound, but an expression of the very nature of the subject as the referent. God is Trinity, but God's nature is unity, having one name, one nature. Christians who accept the Trinity -- which is the vast majority -- are called Trinitarians, believing in Trinitarianism.</ref>Christians who [[St. Augustine]] declared: "O Lord God, we firmly believe that You are a Trinity. For Truth (Jesus) would never have said, Be Baptized in the Christian doctrine Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, unless You were a Trinity are called Trinitarians.Nor would He have commanded us to be baptized into One Who was not Lord God." Augustine mentions the Trinity 24 times in his ''[[City of God]]''.<ref>E.g., Augustine wrote: "And this Trinity is one God; and none the less simple because a Trinity. For we do not say that the nature of the good is simple, because the Father alone possesses it, or the Son alone, or the Holy Ghost alone; nor do we say, with the Sabellian heretics, that it is only nominally a Trinity, and has no real distinction of persons; but we say it is simple, because it is what it has, with the exception of the relation of the persons to one another."</ref> The [[Book of Genesis]] also contains a wonderful Theophany of the Three Divine Persons appearing to men in visible forms, that of the Three Persons in Genesis 18. It is said the Lord God appeared to Abraham, then that he perceived The Three Persons of the Holy Trinity as Three Men. Finally, that he adored Them And yet spoke to Three Persons as to One Lord God, and thus the Holy Bible here clearly demonstrates that the Holy Trinity is One Lord God.  [[Genesis, Chapter 18|Genesis 18:1]] states, "And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; 2 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,3 And said, My LORD, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant:" In the Eastern Liturgies, it is commonly taken for granted that this was a Theophany (a visible manifestation of the invisible God). For, e.g., "God in Three Persons appeared to Abraham at the oak of Mambre, and through mercy he was given as reward for his hospitality Isaac. That God we now glorify him as God of our Fathers."<ref>Octoechos, Sunday, Tone 3, Midnight Office, Ode 7.</ref><ref>https://www.academia.edu/13190369/The_Early_Christian_Reception_of_Genesis_18_From_Theophany_to_Trinitarian_Symbolism</ref> St. Augustine comments: "But since three men appeared, and no one of them is said to be greater than the rest either in form, or age, or power, why should we not here understand, as visibly intimated by the visible creature, the equality of the Trinity, and one and the same substance in three persons?"<ref>http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/130102.htm</ref>

Water can also take three forms: solid ice, liquid water, and floating clouds, steam, formless fog and invisible vapor, all of which are considered water. However, this [[analogy]] was historically taken too far as applied to God. The denial of the doctrine of the Trinity, as being in essence one Person only, not three divine Persons of One Being, was condemned as [[Monarchianism]] and as [[Modalism]] and as the [[heresy]] of Sabellianism<ref>[https://orthodoxwiki.org/Sabellianism '''Sabellianism''' (orthodoxwiki.org)]</ref>Water is not simultaneously and always solid ice, liquid water, and vapor in every part and particle.

An excellent [[Mathematics|mathematical]] illustration of the unity of the Trinity is the [[Geometry|geometrical]] form of the [[Triangle|triangular]] three-sided ''[[tetrahedron]]'', a [[Pyramid (geometry)|pyramidal]] construct of a single, indivisible point extending into three [[equilateral]] triangular faces simultaneously united to a single triangular base.<ref>[https://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/tetrahedron.html tetrahedron (mathsisfun.com)]</ref>. This is especially evident when an equilateral tetrahedron is made of flawless transparent [[crystal]]. Through any one face of the crystal form each of the other sides is clearly visible. Each of the faces is a distinctly different face (they cannot be the same face) but all of them have exactly the same shape, the same size, and the same substance. What is predicated of any one of them is predicated of each of them. A tetrahedral crystal displayed standing on the flat surface of the jeweler's counter or the shelf of a display case cannot exist without three faces inseparably existing as extending from the single, undivided point of one apex to the same undivided triangular base at its surface or foundation on which it stands: a single crystal, not three, with three faces, not one. No matter how it is turned or rotated, it always looks the same and remains the same.

A good three-fold [[Human being|human]] analogy is <br>—someone who is inwardly a healthy and intelligent individual, good, honest and truthful, and is personally aware of it with conscious self-knowledge <br>—someone who is outwardly modest and decent in dress, speech and actions, always kindly, generous, willing to help, and skillful in defending truth and right with wisdom, expressing good [[Moral|character]]<br>—someone who with good reason is spiritually delighted and humbly pleased with both the reasonable self-knowledge of true personal goodness and the personally reassuring, consistent, successfully genuine self-expression of goodness in being an actual benefit to everyone else in the whole community. <br>—We have the inner being, the outer expression, and a richly personal self-delight in both, as one well-balanced healthy individual.

[[File:Dove blue background.jpg|thumbnail|350px|right|In the Bible, a [[dove]] is often a symbol of the [[Holy Spirit]].<ref>[https://www.christianity.com/wiki/holy-spirit/why-is-the-dove-often-a-symbol-for-the-holy-spirit.html Why Is the Dove Often a Symbol for the Holy Spirit?], Christianity.com</ref>]] One of the causes of the [[Great Schism|Great East-West Schism of 1054]] between the [[Catholic Church|Catholic orthodox Church]] and the [[Orthodox Church|Orthodox catholic Church]] was the addition of the ''[[filioque]]'' clause "and the Son" to the [[Nicene Creed]]. This clause asserts that the [[Holy Spirit ]] proceeds "from the Father ''and the Son''".

[[File:Vicente Castello Coronación de la Virgen por la Trinidad.jpg|thumb|left|340px|''Coronación de la Virgen por la Trinidad'' (Coronation of the Virgin by the Trinity) by [[Vicente Castello]] (c. 1586-1640).]]