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In Christian doctrine, the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as
one God in three persons.
The word Trinity does not appear in the Bible. It is a doctrine formulated
in the early church to interpret the way God revealed himself, first to
Israel, then in Jesus as Saviour, and finally as Holy Spirit,
preserver of the church. The doctrine of the Trinity developed in the
early centuries of the church and was explicitly stated at the Council
of Nicaea in 325.
Christians claim to profess belief in one God. Historically, most Christian
churches have taught that the nature of God is something of a
mystery: while being a unity, God also manifests as three persons:
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit
(collectively called the Trinity), the classic Christian
"three becomes one" formula. Typically, Christian orthodoxy
holds that these three persons are not independent but are
homoousios (a Hellenistic Greek transliteration), meaning sharing
the same essence or substance of divinity. The true nature of the
Trinity is held to be an inexplicable mystery, deduced from New
Testament but developmentally is the result of theological
debate in the Council of Nicea in 325, codified in 381, and reached
its full development through the work of the Cappadocian Fathers.
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