What is the difference between Godhead and Trinity
What is the difference between Godhead and Trinity?
So what does the word Godhead mean and can it be used in place of the word Trinity? The fact is there is no relationship with the Trinity and the word Godhead at all as you are about to find out. Godhead refers to God the Father.
And making this issue a little more confusing, Godhead is often a word used by those with the non-Trinitarian truth for lack of a better word to use in opposition to the word Trinity.
More and more Trinitarians are using the word Godhead in place of Trinity thinking that changes what it is. But calling the Trinity by another name will never change what it is. You can call a cat a dog but it will still be a cat. And you can call the Trinity the Godhead but it will still be the Trinity!
The word Godhead is found in 3 verses in the King James Bible which are translated from three different Greek words that have slightly different meanings but all basically mean the same thing.
In Acts 17:29 the Greek word translated Godhead is “theios” (G2304) and means to be godlike and hence divine.
Acts 17:29 KJV “Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.”
The same Greek word is used in the verse below but has been translated to the word “divine.”
2 Peter 1:3 KJV “According as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue:”
In Romans 1:20 the Greek word translated Godhead is “theiotēs” (G2305) and refers to the divine nature.
Romans 1:20 KJV “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”
And in Colossians 2:9 the Greek word translated Godhead is “theotēs” (G2320) and means deity as in the state of being God.
Colossians 2:9 KJV “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”
So the word Godhead speaks of the “Divine nature” of the Father which has been given to the Son and hence is in the Son as we find in Colossians 2:9 above. Thus Jesus being the firstborn over all creation (Colossians 1:15), and being brought forth from the Father, He has the same “Divine nature” as His Father. Thus Paul states that the fullness of the “divine nature” of God dwells in His Son.
Colossians 1:19 KJV “For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;”
John 5:26 also tells us that the Father gave life to His Son. “For as the Father has life in himself; so has he given to the Son to have life in himself.” John 5:26. If Jesus had always existed alongside the Father as the Trinity doctrine claims, then God could not have given life to His Son as He would have always had life. But Scripture reveals this is impossible.
And so neither does the word Godhead explain the non-Trinitarian position in opposition to the word Trinity. It has been the only real option in lack of a better word to use for the non-Trinitarian view.
The Trinity doctrine states that there are three co-equal (equal in every respect), co-eternal (the same age), omniscient (all knowing), omnipotent (all powerful) gods, who are not three gods, but one god.
By the words of the Athanasian Creed it is, “the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three gods but one God.”
In other words. 1+1+1=1 !
So a 3 in 1 and 1 in 3 god which means the Father cannot really be a Father and the Son cannot really be a Son, which denies the Father and Son which the apostle John called antichrist. And hence the Holy Spirit is supposedly a third god that makes up the one god rather than being the actual Spirit of the Father and Son just as we have a spirit.
So the Divine nature of the Father referring to the ONE true God does not and cannot equal 3 gods yet alone a 3 in 1 god.
Thus Godhead does NOT equal Trinity in any way whatsoever! Godhead refers to God the Father and His Divine nature which dwells in His Son because Jesus Christ is His Son.
See “Does Godhead mean Trinity? - Prove All Things” below for more information.