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Whether there are several persons in God?
There is only One God (One Essence) who is Three Persons (by relation). We know this because God revealed Himself to all mankind through His Patriarchs, Kings, Prophets, His Only Begotten Son, His Apostles, through His Saints, and those whom He chose to reveal Himself to, even little children! Now, He revealed Himself as The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. We recognize these persons by their real relations; by Paternity (Fatherhood), Filiation (Sonship), Spiration (Proceeding from the Source of Paternity and Filiation), and Procession (The Word (Jesus Christ), Holy Spirit (movement of the will through Love)). Furthermore, these relations are signified through the realities within the subsistence of the divine nature, not human nature (us). Now, the heretics and the blasphemers use language arguments to confuse and mislead, so as to trick others into professing a plurality of essences or different persons. Some go so far as to say the person of the Son is a creature and not divine (Muslims and Mormons etc.). Neo-Pagans of the Moderni Age view the Holy Trinity as one God among many along with their own backgrounds, history, and abilities. Theistic and non-theistic satanists go so far as to proclaim the chief fallen angel satan as the good god who received an ill portion from an unloving Father. But in truth, there is only One Living God who revealed Himself to the world and we know Him as The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit; The Name to which all the Christian faithful are baptized into! Whether there are more than three persons in God? It may seem since there are four relations in God - Paternity (Father), Filiation (Son), Procession (There are only two possessions - The Word Made Flesh (Son) and Love (The Holy Spirit)), and Spiration (Impulse of the Will and Spirit of Truth which comes forth from both the Father and the Son), it may also seem good for someone to believe that there are four persons in God. However, this is false because SPIRATION cannot be separated from the person of the Father or the Son, but belongs to both. Furthermore, although SPIRATION is a real relation in God, it so happens not to be a personal relation in God which belongs solely to one or the other (Father or Son); rather, IT BELONGS TO BOTH. Thus, those who receive the Holy Spirit must acknowledge both the Father and the Son because The Spirit of Truth belongs to both of them. Think of it this way; can someone win the gift (in this sense, ACCIDENT) of the lottery without filling out the required numbers on the ticket? Absolutely not, for the chances and probability of one winning the lottery without filling out all of the assigned spaces to enter numbers is zero, for this lotto ticket would not be valid. It is important to understand that I am referring to ordinary circumstances in individuals; those who choose to remain in mortal sin (UNBELIEF is the highest mortal sin one can commit) and defile the temples of their bodies which create an unsuitable place for the Holy Spirit to dwell; just as antibodies reject organ donation and attack it, so does a defiled temple of the body and unconfessed mortal sin reject the Holy Spirit and attack it as well. So, some may say, “Well I don’t have to be baptized, I already have the Holy Spirit,” or “Us Jews just need the Father, for we do not need to acknowledge His Son because we are chosen,” and “Us Muslims believe Christ was just a prophet,” the failure to fully acknowledge who God truly is and how He revealed Himself to the world through His Church (the one with authority), places the soul in a type of spiritual poverty which deprives itself of the truth and ultimately salvation and the gift of the Spirit of the Living God to which all mankind is capable of receiving. To conclude, SPIRATION (the relation pertaining to God the Holy Spirit) is not a person as the Holy Spirit (Procession) is. It is simply a relation as in a property belonging to two other persons (as if both names were on the title of a vehicle, thus proving ownership). To clarify further; the three relations; which are Paternity, Filiation, and Procession signifies the persons of the Holy Trinity which are identified as the personal properties that declare personhood. As Christ Jesus, the Apostles, the Church Fathers, the Saints, and the visible Church (Roman Catholicism) that was left on earth which is the foundation and pillar of the truth who has proclaimed the gospel and message of salvation to the entire world since the 1st century since it was created by the Divine Will says; The Lord is One who we know as Three Persons, God The Father (Paternity), God The Son (Filiation), and God The Holy Spirit (Procession which is the person of the Holy Spirit Proceeding). Whether the numeral terms denote anything real in God? The term “One” consists of what is indivisible and multitude. “One” is the idea and principle of a thing that is numbered or realized. It is also being, for there is only one of you and not many. Furthermore, one of you as a species is many and therefore are multitude, as there are many humans among the earth’s surface and in this way that too is also “One.” Multitude is the measure of what things are measured by which consists of incremental units. For example, when we refer to the term “One,” and we say The Lord Is One, we mean there is ONE GOD, BUT THREE PERSONS. Secondly, when we refer to the term “Multitude,” we say THE HOLY TRINITY, God The Father, God The Son, and God the Holy Spirit who are Three Persons within the multitude of The Holy Trinity under The Godhead WHO IS ONE. Now, when referring to multitude, this cannot be applied to God such as species and quantity as if we were referring to types of reptiles or primates within a genus and species because the terms ONE and MULTITUDE when referring to God transcends our understanding of substance and relation, so all we have left to ponder are examples within the material principle (matter, the universe, earth, and creatures) which fall short in explaining The Godhead fully because what is finite (the human mind) cannot ponder what is infinite (the Divine Mind) fully and with complete accuracy. Nonetheless, we try to understand God so as to draw closer to Him in closer union. As for numeral terms when referring to God, they are not real relations in God but just relations in as much as we as humans can understand and describe them (as when we refer to the Three Person of God in One Essence). Everything which follows from that is simply negation and only has negative meanings (so as to take away from what God isn’t so you can identify him better for Who He Is, for example - you wish to find a seashell underneath a pile of stones, so you remove the stones until the seashell becomes visible). Numeral terms denote something real in creatures such as identifying classes, species and taxonomy, but this does not apply to God. Whether this term “person” can be common to the three persons? What a “person” is, is common to them. So, if we can call a human creature a PERSON, an angelic being a PERSON, all the more it is proper and right to refer to the PERSONS (The Holy Trinity) who created them both as PERSON. So, when somebody asks in reference to God, “Three what?” The Church says, “Three Persons.” This word person signifies the name of a reality that the name of “person” is common to the idea of the Three Divine Persons which subsist distinctively from one another in the divine nature.
I am blessed to be a Third Order Lay Dominican. However, the ideas expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the endorsement of or position of the Order of Preachers as a whole.
Commentary regarding Saint Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae derived from: ST part (I), Q. 27-49 from newadvent.org with permission. Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
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mr. scott lowry, op
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