The Bible tells us that God is three persons, but all three persons are one God. This is not easy to understand because as created people we only know people as one person, in one body, and not like anyone else.
But God is not restricted to the world and time as we know it. God ALWAYS existed and He has no beginning and He has no end. God created for us days and hours and weeks, months and years for us to live in. But He is not limited by time. He is eternal.
God created each one of us as just one, unique person. But God is three persons and all three persons are the same God. We know there is God the Father, Jesus the Son who lived about two thousand years ago, and the Holy Spirit who came to earth after Jesus ascended back into heaven.
In the beginning, when the world was created, the three persons of God were there together. There was God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All three persons of God created everything. They created the earth that we live on, the air that we breathe, the sun, moon and stars, all the animals, and even the first two humans.
In the very beginning of the Bible, Moses, a leader of God’s people, wrote something very interesting about God. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Did you hear that? The very first verse of the Bible tells us that God created the heavens and the earth!
The second verse of the Bible says something very interesting, too. “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Genesis 1:2). This tells us that the Spirit of God was there too, moving over the surface of the earth.
The first two verses of the Bible show God and the Holy Spirit of God as two distinct persons, and both were there during the creation of the world. Many thousands of years later, God told the apostle John to write this: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God” (John 1:1 NET). All Bible teachers and experts agree that when John talks about the Word in these verses, he means Jesus, the only Son of God.
This part of John’s Gospel reminds us that Jesus was also part of creation. John 1:1 says that Jesus already existed at the beginning of time as we know it. It also says that He was with God in the beginning. Then it says that He WAS fully God.
The apostle John goes on to write in the same New Testament book: “All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created” (John 1:3 NET) John clearly says that Jesus was part of creating Earth and the heavens. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit were all present and were part of creation. When we see a globe of the world or look at the heavens, we can be reminded that all three persons of God were involved in creating not only this world, but everything in the universe as well.
Does this mean that there are three Gods? Absolutely not! Deuteronomy 6:4 states, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the LORD is one!” He is one God existing in three persons who worked together to create the universe, to save us by dying on the cross and rising again in three days, and by living in the hearts of His people to help us please God and fulfill His plan here on earth.
You may hear the term “the Trinity” used with this teaching. Trinity simply means three things together. God is three persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. Yet God is one God.
Discussion Starters
(Early Childhood)
- Who created the heavens and the earth?
- What name do we give our heavenly Father?
- What name do we call God’s Son who walked on the earth?
- What name do we call the person of God who can live in our heart?
(Early Elementary)
- How many persons of God are there?
- Explain the best that you can what it means that God is three and yet He is one.
- In the Bible we read what God is like. How can we see what God is like from the things around us?
- How did Jesus use examples of nature to teach people about God the Father?
(Upper Elementary)
- How do we know that God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit were all involved in creating the world? (Genesis 1:26-27; John 1:1-3, 14)
- How many Gods are there? (Deuteronomy 6:4)
- Can you think of things that have 3 distinct parts but are all one thing? (Note: all examples fall short, but examples could include and egg [shell, yolk, and the whites], and the three phases of water [solid, liquid, gas], etc.)
- What does the fact that God created the world mean to people who claim to be Christians?
- Many different people groups have their own stories about the creation of the world. Why would you choose to believe the Bible instead of a story you have heard?
- God exists in the three persons. What does each person of God do for us?
Scriptures for Teaching about the Trinity:
Genesis 1:1-2, 26-27;
John 1:1-3, 14;
Deuteronomy 6:4
