How is the Trinity meant to be formed?

This teaching clarifies the Trinity as God's original ideal for Adam and Eve to form a perfect family unit with Him on Earth. After the Fall, a spiritual Trinity of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit began restoring humanity. Complete restoration awaits the Second Coming, where the returning Messiah and his Bride (True Parents) will establish a substantial, physical Trinity, fulfilling God's original purpose for physical and spiritual salvation.

The concept of the Trinity, often seen as a complex and divisive doctrine within Christianity, finds profound clarity through the Divine Principle. While traditional Christianity identifies the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as the Trinity, the Divine Principle reveals that God’s original purpose was to form a substantial, perfected Trinity on Earth through Adam and Eve, united with Him. This understanding clarifies the roles of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit in the spiritual providence, and foreshadows the ultimate, physical Trinity to be established by the True Parents.

The Original Ideal of the Trinity

God's original purpose for creation was to establish a Trinity on Earth. This was to be realized through Adam and Eve. God created Adam and Eve to be interdependent partners in a reciprocal relationship, centered on God. As an integrated body in the Four Position Foundation centered on God, they were meant to become a Trinity with God. This original Trinity would consist of God, God’s Son (Adam), and God’s Daughter (Eve), who are co-equal expressions of God's Logos, embodying one love in three persons. Adam and Eve were created to become the True Parents of humankind, manifesting God's nature in the physical world. However, due to the Fall, Adam and Eve formed a distorted "Trinity" and Four Position Foundation centered on Satan, thus failing to fulfill God's original purpose.

The Spiritual Trinity of Restoration

Following the Fall, God's providence began the long journey of restoration to re-establish the original ideal. As a temporary measure to begin this restoration, a spiritual Trinity was formed: God the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. This spiritual Trinity works to forgive humanity and restore individuals spiritually. Jesus came as the Messiah, the Son of God (John 3:16), to accomplish spiritual salvation, and the Holy Spirit works alongside him. The mission of Jesus and the Holy Spirit is to restore humanity by providing spiritual rebirth and guidance. As the "Comforter" or "Spirit of truth" (John 14:16-17, 26; 16:7-8), the Holy Spirit guides believers, teaches them all things, and brings to remembrance what Jesus taught, convicting of sin, righteousness, and judgment. This spiritual Trinity prepared the way for humanity to eventually achieve full restoration. As John 14:26 states, "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."

The Substantial Trinity of Complete Restoration

While the spiritual Trinity brought spiritual salvation, the Fall of Adam and Eve was both spiritual and physical. Therefore, complete restoration requires not only spiritual but also physical salvation. Jesus' original mission was to establish a physical family and become True Parent in both spirit and flesh. However, due to his crucifixion, this physical aspect of the mission was not fully completed at the First Coming. The full, substantial, physical Trinity centered on God is to be realized at the Second Coming. This means that Jesus will come again with his bride, as the True Parents, to form a substantial physical Trinity for physical salvation, becoming True Parents in both spirit and flesh to restore humanity. Their mission is to bestow the Holy Marriage Blessing, through which individuals and couples can be engrafted into the lineage of the Messiah, overcoming original sin and being reborn both spiritually and physically. This establishes the ultimate, completed Trinity of God, the returning Messiah, and his Bride, forming the ideal of "one love in three persons, three persons one in love," and fulfilling the original purpose of creation. As John 10:16 (KJV) teaches, "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd."

Why It Must Be This Way

The reasoning behind Trinity formation follows from the purpose of creation itself. God's nature contains both masculine and feminine characteristics, so an image of God complete enough to receive his full love could never be one person alone; it required a man and a woman united in his love, standing with him as the centre. That is precisely why God created a pair and blessed them to become one, and why the account of creation says, "in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" (Genesis 1:27). Had Adam and Eve matured and married centred on God, that first family would already have been the original trinity — God, a true father, and a true mother — and every family descending from them would have been built on the same pattern.

Because the Fall took place before that union was achieved, the pattern was never established, and this explains the shape of salvation history. God had to send a second Adam, and Jesus came to stand in the position of the true father with a bride in the position of the true mother, so that the original trinity could finally be formed and humanity could be reborn into it. His rejection and death made a complete substantial trinity impossible at that time, and so the work continued spiritually: Jesus in the position of the father and the Holy Spirit working as the feminine, comforting, cleansing counterpart, together giving spiritual rebirth to believers. This is why rebirth through Christ has always been described as new birth rather than mere pardon — "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5) — and why that rebirth remained spiritual rather than complete.

What Follows From It

Two consequences follow, and they explain a great deal that otherwise looks arbitrary. First, the Trinity is not a puzzle about arithmetic within God but the pattern of a family through which God's love reaches people; that is why Jesus taught his followers to address God as Father and spoke of himself as sent by him rather than as identical with him (John 14:28). Second, since the substantial trinity was left unfinished, it must be completed on earth, which is the reason a second coming is necessary at all: not to repeat the cross, but to establish in the flesh the true parentage that was prepared and refused. Every marriage centred on God since then participates in that same design, which is why Paul could call marriage a great mystery concerning Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:32).

Living the Principle

1. Understand God's Original Ideal: Recognize that God's ultimate desire was to establish a perfect, substantial family on Earth through perfected human beings. 2. Embrace Spiritual Rebirth: Consciously seek spiritual guidance from God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, allowing for inner transformation and growth. 3. Prepare for the True Parents: Understand that complete restoration involves receiving the returning Messiah and his bride, the True Parents, and participating in the Holy Marriage Blessing for physical and spiritual rebirth. 4. Strive for the Four Position Foundation: Work to establish families centered on God, embodying love and harmony, as a foundational step toward the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

These answers explain the Bible in the light of the Divine Principle, the teachings of Reverend Sun Myung Moon. .

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