The role of the Trinity in creation
According to St Johnâs Gospel, the Three persons in one God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. was present at creation. God the Father is the creator but the The third person of the Trinity. Active as God's presence and power in the world. also had a role:
The Spirit of God was hovering over the water. And God said, âLet there be light.â And there was light.
St Johnâs Gospel also describes the role of the Jesus Christ; the second person of the Trinity., referring to him as âthe Wordâ:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made.
Many Christians interpret this as evidence from the Bible that although God is three distinct An action of God or supernatural power. persons, God is one:
Interpretations
There are various A specific understanding of what a text is saying; a view of the text. There is usually more than one possible interpretation. of the creation story, and Christian beliefs differ depending not only on A group within a religion. Christian denominations include, for example, Roman Catholic and Anglican denominations. but also on personal belief.
- Representing the exact words of the original text. - Some Christians interpret the creation stories in Genesis literally, and believe the events documented in the Bible happened exactly as written. For these Christians, the Bible is the literal word of God and therefore they believe it is completely true.
- Inspirational - Other Christians believe that the Bible was inspired by God, which means that there could be inconsistencies in the stories because they were written by humans, who, whilst inspired, are not completely perfect. This means the Bibleâs stories can be interpreted in many ways. Christians who hold these beliefs could, for example, question the duration of a âdayâ in Genesis - in this context, could the word âdayâ actually mean an era?
- Metaphorical - Some Christians believe that the stories are A comparison made without using 'like' or 'as', eg 'sea of troubles' and 'drowning in debt'. or symbolic descriptions. These Christians will accept scientific theories about the origins of the universe, such as the The scientific theory that describes the early development of the Universe. theory. What is important for these Christians, is the message of the Genesis account of creation, which is that God created the world and gave humans a special role, status and purpose in it.