God the Holy Spirit, Mentor's Guide, MG14

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G O D T H E H O L Y S P I R I T

3. Trinitarian theology affirms that the members of the Trinity, are in fact one, diverse, and equal, together comprising the one true and undivided God, who eternally exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit or as the Athanasian Creed says: The Father is almighty, the Son is almighty, the Holy Spirit is almighty. Yet there are not three almighty beings; there is but one Almighty Being .

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C. This Trinitarian God is the one we encounter in Scripture through:

1. Threefold Address

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a. Isa. 6.3 - And one called to another and said: “ Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” [Note also v. 8 where God says, “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?”]

b. Rev. 4.8 - And the four living creatures, each of themwith six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “ Holy, holy, holy , is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

When the Lord appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre, he appeared in the guise of “three men standing in front of him” (Gen. 18.2), yet it is clearly the one Lord who is revealed. In Sarah, they spoke as one. Abraham “saw three and worshipped One,” commented Ambrose. ~ Thomas C. Oden. The Living God. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1987. p. 191 announcing the coming birth of a child to the aged

2. Threefold Appearances

a. Gen. 18.2-3,10 - He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them , he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said, “ O Lord , if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. . . . The Lord said , ”I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him.