The nature of God

Accurate and appropriate terminology is that there is one God (Deuteronomy 6:4). This God has revealed himself as three persons (Matthew 28:19). Using “parts” to refer to God can easily lead to the mistaken idea that the Godhead is divided.

In Article I of The Augsburg Confession, we say on the basis of Scripture that, “There is one Divine Essence which is called and which is God: eternal, without body, without parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, the Maker and Preserver of all things, visible and invisible; and yet there are three Persons, of the same essence and power, who also are coeternal, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And the term ‘person’ they [our churches] use as the Fathers have used it, to signify, not a part or quality in another, but that which subsists of itself.”