RSB1Christian Beliefs: the Trinity, Creation and the Life of Jesus

• Christianity is the main religious tradition of Great Britain. In the 2021 Census, 46.2% of people in England and Wales described themselves as Christian.
• Britain is also home to many other religions and world views: Islam (6.5% in England and Wales), Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism, and non-religious views such as Humanism and atheism (37.2% said they had no religion).
• Christians belong to three main traditions:
• Catholic: led by the Pope; seven sacraments; authority from the Bible, Tradition and the Church’s teaching office (the Magisterium).
• Orthodox: the Eastern churches (for example Greek and Russian Orthodox); the Divine Liturgy; icons.
• Protestant: churches that come from the 16th-century Reformation, stressing the authority of the Bible. They include Anglican, Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal and Evangelical churches, the Salvation Army and Quakers.
• The Church of England is the established (state) church in England. It holds both Catholic and Protestant features; its teaching includes the 39 Articles of Religion and the Book of Common Prayer.

Denomination

A branch or group within Christianity, such as Catholic, Anglican or Methodist.

Established church

A church officially linked to the state; in England this is the Church of England.

• Christianity is monotheistic: Christians believe there is only one God.
• Christians share this belief with Judaism. The Shema, a Jewish prayer that Jesus quoted, says: “Hear, Israel: The LORD is our God. The LORD is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4, World English Bible, British Edition).
• God is believed to be omnipotent (all-powerful), benevolent (all-loving), eternal and the creator of everything.
• Because God is one, Christians believe God alone should be worshipped, and nothing else (money, power, success) should take God’s place.
• Belief in the Trinity does not mean three gods. Christians believe the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one God.

Monotheism

Belief in one God.

Omnipotent

All-powerful.

Benevolent

All-loving; wanting good for creation.

• The Trinity is the belief that there is one God in three Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
• Each Person is fully God, but the Persons are distinct: the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit. There are not three gods.
• The Nicene Creed is a statement of belief agreed at the Council of Nicaea (325) and expanded at the Council of Constantinople (381). Many churches say it during the Eucharist (Holy Communion).
• The Creed is in three parts: belief in one God, the Father, maker of heaven and earth; in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son, of one being with the Father; and in the Holy Spirit, the giver of life, who is worshipped and glorified with the Father and the Son.
• ‘Of one being’ means the Son shares exactly the same divine nature as the Father. The Council of Nicaea agreed this against people who taught that the Son was created.
• The Creed never uses the word ‘Trinity’, and Christians say the Trinity is a mystery: something humans can’t fully understand.
• Western churches say the Spirit proceeds from the Father ‘and the Son’ (Latin filioque); Orthodox churches leave these words out. This is one reason the churches split in 1054.

A diagram of the Trinity: one God in three Persons

Trinity

One God in three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Nicene Creed

A statement of Christian belief from the Councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381).

Creed

A summary of belief (from the Latin credo, ‘I believe’).

• In Matthew 3:13–17, Jesus is baptised by John the Baptist in the River Jordan. Christians see all three Persons at once:
• The Son is in the water: Jesus himself.
• The Spirit: Jesus “saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him” (Matthew 3:16, World English Bible, British Edition).
• The Father: “a voice out of the heavens said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:17, World English Bible, British Edition).
• This is why the baptism is often used to show that the Trinity is found in the Bible, even though the word isn’t.

Pentecost

The festival remembering the Holy Spirit coming to the disciples after Jesus’ ascension.

• Baptism: Christians are baptised “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19, World English Bible, British Edition), the words Jesus gave his disciples.
• Creeds: many churches say the Nicene Creed or the Apostles’ Creed in services, declaring belief in all three Persons.
• Prayer: Christians often pray to the Father, through the Son, in the power of the Spirit; many prayers end ‘through Jesus Christ our Lord’.
• Praise and blessing: the ‘Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit’ is said or sung in many churches. Services often end with a blessing based on 2 Corinthians 13:14 (the grace of Jesus, God’s love and the fellowship of the Spirit).
• The sign of the cross: Catholic and Orthodox Christians often make it while naming the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
• Belief and life: Christians believe God is a relationship of love, so they value community and love for others; they believe the Spirit is with them every day.

• Genesis 1: God creates the universe in six days, by speaking (“God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light”, Genesis 1:3, World English Bible, British Edition), and rests on the seventh. Humans are made last, “in God’s image” (Genesis 1:27).
• Genesis 2: God forms the first man from the dust and breathes life into him (Genesis 2:7), plants the Garden of Eden and makes the first woman.
• Genesis 3: Adam and Eve disobey God and are sent out of Eden (the Fall).
• Literal reading: some Christians, often Evangelical Protestants (creationists), believe Genesis is a factual account: six 24-hour days and a young earth. They believe the Bible is God’s word and should be taken at face value.
• Metaphorical reading: most Christians, including the Catholic Church and the Church of England, read Genesis as a story that teaches true things about God, but not science. It shows that God created and why; science, such as the Big Bang and evolution, explains how.
• Reasons for a metaphorical reading: Genesis 1 and 2 give events in a different order; the ‘days’ come before the sun is made; the writers had no scientific purpose; science gives strong evidence for an ancient universe.
• Both readings agree that God is the creator, that creation is good, and that humans have a special place in it.

Literal

Taking a text as factually true, word for word.

Metaphorical

Reading a text as symbolic: it teaches truths through images and story, not as a factual record.

Creationist

Someone who believes the Genesis creation accounts are literally true.

• The Word: John’s Gospel begins “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… All things were made through him” (John 1:1–3, World English Bible, British Edition).
• John adds that “The Word became flesh and lived amongst us” (John 1:14), so Christians believe the Word is Jesus, the Son. The Son was involved in creation long before he was born.
• In Genesis, God creates by speaking (“God said…”): Christians link this with the Word.
• The Spirit: at the start, “God’s Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters” (Genesis 1:2, World English Bible, British Edition), bringing order and life out of chaos. God also breathes life into the first human (Genesis 2:7).
• So Christians believe the whole Trinity created: the Father wills it, the Word speaks it, the Spirit gives it life.
• Why creation matters to Christians today: they worship God as creator with awe and thanks; they see the world as good and as a gift to be cared for (stewardship); they believe every human is made in God’s image, so all life has value (the sanctity of life); and they believe the Spirit who gave life at creation still gives life to believers.

Christians believe all three Persons of the Trinity were at work in creation

The Word (Logos)

A title for the Son in John 1: through him all things were made, and he became flesh as Jesus.

Stewardship

The duty to look after the world responsibly for God.

• The Incarnation means God ‘becoming flesh’: Christians believe God the Son became a human being in Jesus.
• Jesus is believed to be fully God and fully human at the same time: not half and half, and not God pretending to be human.
• John 1:14: “The Word became flesh and lived amongst us” (World English Bible, British Edition).
• 1 Timothy 3:16: “God was revealed in the flesh” (World English Bible, British Edition), part of an early Christian statement of faith.
• The Gospels say Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary (Luke 1:35; Matthew 1:23, which calls him “Immanuel”, “God with us”).
• Fully human: Jesus was born, grew up, was hungry, tired and sad, was tempted, suffered and died.
• Fully God: he forgave sins, performed miracles and rose from the dead; Thomas called him “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28, World English Bible, British Edition).
• Why it matters today: Christians believe God shows himself most clearly in Jesus (John 1:18); God understands human suffering from the inside (Hebrews 4:15); Jesus is the perfect example to follow; and his death can bring salvation because he is both God and human. Christmas celebrates the Incarnation.

Incarnation

God becoming human in Jesus: fully God and fully human.

Son of God

A title for Jesus, showing his unique relationship with the Father as the second Person of the Trinity.

• The Last Supper (Luke 22:14–20): at a Passover meal Jesus shared bread and wine, saying of the bread “This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of me” (Luke 22:19, World English Bible, British Edition). The Eucharist remembers this.
• The Mount of Olives: Jesus prayed in anguish, “not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42, World English Bible, British Edition).
• Betrayal and arrest: Judas, one of the twelve disciples, led a crowd to Jesus and identified him with a kiss (Luke 22:47–48). Jesus was arrested; he healed the ear of a servant whom a disciple had struck.
• Peter’s denial: Peter said three times that he didn’t know Jesus, then wept (Luke 22:54–62).
• Trials: before the Jewish council (the Sanhedrin), who asked if he was the Son of God; then before Pilate, the Roman governor, and Herod. Pilate found no charge against him but gave in to the crowd and released Barabbas instead.
• Crucifixion: Simon of Cyrene carried the cross. Jesus was crucified between two criminals. He prayed “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34), promised a criminal “today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43), and died saying “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46, all World English Bible, British Edition). There was darkness, the temple curtain tore, and a centurion said he was a righteous man.
• Burial: Jesus’ body was placed in a new tomb cut in rock.

The last days of Jesus’ life in Luke 22–24

Last Supper

Jesus’ final meal with his disciples, when he shared bread and wine; remembered in the Eucharist.

Crucifixion

Execution by being nailed or tied to a cross; Jesus’ death on the cross.

• Resurrection: on the first day of the week women found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. They were told: “He isn’t here, but is risen” (Luke 24:6, World English Bible, British Edition).
• Appearances: on the road to Emmaus, two followers recognised Jesus when he broke bread (Luke 24:30–31). He appeared to the disciples, showed his hands and feet and ate with them, so he was not a ghost (Luke 24:39).
• Ascension: at Bethany Jesus blessed the disciples and “was carried up into heaven” (Luke 24:51, World English Bible, British Edition). Christians believe he returned to the Father and will come again.
• What the events show about who Jesus is:
• He is obedient to the Father, even to death (the Mount of Olives).
• He is innocent: Pilate and the centurion both say so; Christians see him as the suffering servant who died for others.
• He is loving and forgiving: he forgives those who crucify him and welcomes a dying criminal.
• He is God the Son: the resurrection shows he has power over death, and the ascension shows he is with the Father in glory.
• His death and resurrection bring salvation (see the next topic on salvation and atonement).

Resurrection

Jesus rising from the dead on the third day.

Ascension

Jesus being taken up into heaven, 40 days after the resurrection (Acts 1).