On the Oneness of God

Struggle with understanding the unity aspect of the Trinity?  Many do and have. For instance, one heretical group in the Middle East was known to Mohammed, and as such, the Qur'an says that Christians believe in three, not one God. 

What does Scripture say? Calvin explains:
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Moreover, because God more clearly disclosed himself in the coming of Christ, thus he also became known more familiarly in three persons. But of the many testimonies this one will suffice for us. For Paul so connects these three—God, faith, and baptism [Eph. 4:5]—as to reason from one to the other: namely, because faith is one, that he may thereby show God to be one; because baptism is one, that he may thence show faith also to be one. Therefore, if through baptism we are initiated into the faith and religion of one God, we must consider him into whose name we are baptized to be the true God. Indeed, there is no doubt that Christ willed by this solemn pronouncement to testify that the perfect light of faith was manifested when he said, “Baptize them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” [Matt. 28:19 p.]. For this means precisely to be baptized into the name of the one God who has shown himself with complete clarity in the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Hence it is quite clear that in God’s essence reside three persons in whom one God is known.

Indeed, faith ought not to gaze hither and thither, nor to discourse of various matters, but to look upon the one God, to unite with him, to cleave to him. From this, then, it is easily established that if there are various kinds of faith, there must also be many gods. Now because Baptism is the sacrament of faith, it confirms for us the unity of God from the fact that it is one. Hence it also follows that we are not permitted to be baptized except into the one God, because we embrace the faith of him into whose name we are baptized. What, then, did Christ mean when he commanded that Baptism should be in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, except that we ought with one faith to believe in the Father, the Son, and the Spirit? What else is this than to testify clearly that Father, Son, and Spirit are one God? Therefore, since that there is one God, not more, is regarded as a settled principle, we conclude that Word and Spirit are nothing else than the very essence of God. The Arians used to prate most foolishly when, in confessing the divinity of the Son, they took away the substance of God from him. A like madness tormented the Macedonians, who by “Spirit” wanted to understand only those gifts of grace poured out upon men. For, as wisdom, understanding, prudence, fortitude, and fear of the Lord proceed from him, so is he the one Spirit of wisdom, prudence, fortitude, and godliness [cf. Isa. 11:2]. And he is not divided according to the distribution of gifts, but however diversely they may be divided; yet, says the apostle, he remains “one and the same” [1 Cor. 12:11].

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Volumes One & Two, edited by John T. McNeill, translated and indexed by Ford Lewis Battles, electronic edition (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960, 2011), 140-141.

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