In some ways, it resembles the tritheism view (Misunderstanding 2). Paul explains our finite understanding of beliefs like the Trinity as looking into a poor-quality mirror- a distorted image; dim and unclear. The Trinity is foundational and at the heart of our Christian faith. The visual form of God seperated from Jesus on the cross. God controls that light. Haydn describes himself as a five-point Calvinist, but he recognises that many faithful Christians disagree. So, I shot down a lot of images that seems to be pretty helpful. He also knows how to perfectly love us. Thus, the Father Himself is not God, nor is the Son, nor is the Holy Spirit, but combining the three, there is one God. They suggest that only one God exists but this God transforms or morphs into each of the different persons. As a doctrine (belief), the trinity is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three separate and distinct persons united in one being- God. Love was not given to Jesus. Intercession: The Son intercedes as our High Priest before the Father. Some have taken on the task of explaining how Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist as one. In reality, I change my role depending on who I am interacting with. How can God be Three in One? This is the Christmas paradox. For the Trinity, instead of using the formula 1+1+1, we use 1x1x1. We can think of it this way: the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. Now God can be in you by His Spirit! THE TRUTH IS: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not simply names designating modalities of the divine being, for they are really DISTINCT from one another: He is not the Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he who is the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit he who is the Father or the Son. (CCC 254), 3. The shortfall of this illustration, and others like it, is that God cannot be divided into "parts." And when the time comes when death is allowed to crack your shell in its final hour and your believing soul is released; the Spirit of God that holds you will carry you in His arms to your heavenly home because In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. Do you know why I keep saying God is like an egg (or H2O) but God is not like an egg (or H2O)? The Trinity is Like an Egg How the analogy goes: The Trinity is like an egg. In other words, this view denies Gods oneness. Further, we can label each of the sides. 3:15; John 17:1-4, The Holy Spirit Acts 5:3-4; John 14:16-17, 26; John 16:7-13. If the Sun existed from eternity past then so were the light rays from the Sun. If the sun exists, there is also day; if nothing of this be manifest, it is impossible that the sun should be there. The Bible reveals that each person of the Trinity has unique roles, relationships, and functions which are distinct from one another. I go to prepare a place for you. We define a person as one having a will and who is distinguishable from another person. Required fields are marked *. The Spirit white is connected to Jesus Person I will come to you (John 14:18) and the Fathers Person, We will come to him and make our abode with him (John 14:23). A man might be a father to his children, a husband to his wife, and son to his parents. This is perhaps the most common analogy for the Trinity. The Son "proceeds" from the Father, and the Holy Spirit "proceeds from the Father and the Son.". This is because the H20 is changing forms in representing each person. It is a miraculous invention, the egg. Therefore, in this context, God is the what and the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the who. The idea of God as three-in-one is indeed a mysterious concept, one that is difficult to understand. The trinity is an essential doctrine to the Christian faith. The divine persons are really DISTINCT from one another, and not merely different roles of God at different times. The Gospel is theperson, work, and message of Jesus Christ that provides salvation to all repentant believers. Light comes from God. He differs from the Father, but was and still is God. TO AVOID HERESIES, LET US LIVE BY WHAT HAS BEEN REVEALED TO US: 1. ANALOGY OF CHARACTERS. In other words, one stuffness. However, He exists in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each side is co-equal with the others, yet, each side is necessary. You can throw away one part of an egg (e.g., shell) and still have essentially an egg. Believing in the above 3 points leads all Christians to acceptance of the doctrine of the Trinity. John introduces us to the Trinity in John 1:1- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and Word was God. Jesus, the Word, was present in Genesis 1. He has one essenceone substance. Few topics of discussion in the Christian faith are more confusing than the idea of the Trinity. Despite its potential obscurity, Trinity Sunday is a great occasion for me to revisit an old article on the Trinity. This would make Jesus something less than fully God. Light comes from God. I and My Father are One (John 10:30). The beautiful depth of Gods eternal Triune nature is a sublime reality which should bring an end to our attempts to cognitively master Him. The three distinct notes come together to make one beautiful sound. Surely this is a better understanding of the water analogy! Tritheism denies that there is only one God. Notice the distinction between persons and being. Take a moment and give it a try. 5And there are varieties of ministries and the same Lord. It is the Fathers desire to join His Spirit with all of us as well for He has said They shall be My sons and daughters (II Corinthians 6:18). If you looked at a single cloverleaf, you wouldnt call it a shamrock. Water can be ice and steam, yet they are the same element. The Holy Spirit is like the heat that the sun produces, unseen yet powerful and effective in making the sun felt. All of the above Bad Analogies would perhaps do more harm than good if used in explaining the Trinity. CafeLogos.orgThe Egg and i -A Simple Explanation of The Trinity Over the course of church history there have been several heresies that have cropped up that deny one of these three truths. The trinity is not a contradiction, but a paradox. There are two basic ways that people misunderstand the Trinity: 1. What portion is erroneous? One thing that Ive found helpful is using the Trinity to illustrate truths we know about God. In Biblical Trinitarianism we can never have one without the other because they are one Spirit; each is the totality of the other which means we cannot have the Holy Spirit without the Father and the Son, We will come (into the believer through the Holy Spirit, John 14:23), and we cannot have the Son without The Father whose Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father (Matthew 10:20). In Jesus dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9) Sadly, theres something "rotten" about this egg analogy. The Holy Trinity, one of the five Dogmas of the Church, is an extraordinary and unfathomable mystery. Yet, these persons are not separate from one another. Now if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is not His" (Romans 8:9). When the Bible talks about God, it may be referring to Jesus Christ in a specific instance, the Holy Spirit in another and God the Father in a third occasion. Jesus Person is the image of Gods Person (Hebrews 1:3), and the Invisible Spirit of the Father that is in Him - God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (II Corinthians 5:19). The problem with this analogy is that it would imply that there is only one Divine Person, who eventually multiplied Himself. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each called Jehovah (or Spirit of Jehovah), given divine attributes, and, (usually there is no argument that the Father is not God, since every place Jesus speaks to God, he is addressing the Father.). . Here are four. The teaching of the trinity is clearly taught in Scripture and must be preserved as such. This is the error of Arianism (not to be confused with Aryanism, which is also bad). The water analogy of the Trinity follows this line of reasoning: water can be a solid (ice/frozen water), liquid, and gas (water vapor), and yet all three forms are still water (H 2 O), and likewise, God manifests Himself in 3 different ways in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Because Gods Person is unapproachable, the Spirit White acts as insulation, for we know that it is through the Holy Spirit that God can communicate, speak through and interact with mankind. We can say that the first is egg the shell, the second is egg the albumen and the third is egg the yoke. God is much bigger than what we can understand yet He is close enough to us so that we can know some things about Him, though not completely and not everything. If youve been involved in ministries for children or young people, questions about the Trinity have most likely come up. In other words, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have a unique and unbreakable unity, and their existence together is the being that is God. Yet there is still only one God we serve. The Unseen Father would have been put into Satans prison. This little child cannot look at one without experiencing a profound sense of wonderment and awe. The problem with this analogy is that it teaches that God has three components: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Church should not forget that these heresies still exist in the present day and is even being taught by some priests and catechists. . There is only one egg with three different parts. But God is the eternal Light, which has neither had a beginning, nor shall ever fail. Explaining the Holy Trinity. Therefore, there is one God, who is eternally present in three persons. And a voice from heaven said, This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. God the Father spoke from heaven and spoke of His Son, Jesus. This is a bad analogy because it fails at the truth that all three persons comprise the fullness of God. The word trinity is not in the Scriptures, but is a word used to describe the three in one God revealed in the Bible. For since light is always in existence, it is manifest that its brightness also exists, because light is perceived to exist from the fact that it shines, and it is impossible that light should not shine. Admittedly, the idea of three distinct persons/expressions that are each fully God is part of the mystery. Jesus then becomes a created being and thus less than fully God. Jesus is in the form of the Holy Spirit. Does that make sense? If you're looking to dive deeper into God's word, here are 6 kinds of bible study tools and resources 9 Influential Female Leaders in the New Testament. It only has 1 person acting in three different roles. It falls into the heresy of tri-theism. Rather, He created us in order to bless us. The term Economic refers to the roles, functions, and relationships that exist within the Trinity. In Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9). Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:13). If youre interested into diving deeper into the topic of the Trinity, here are some valuable resources that could help. I have the good one. Its all one person, simply functioning in three different roles. An analogy illustrates that in a similar way, one shamrock can have three leaves on it, and the trinity has three persons that comprise one God. Another analogy that Tim remembers, being Irish Catholic, is the analogy of the shamrock with its three parts. The three parts create a unified whole. The word Trinity comes from the Latin word trinitas which means tri-unity. Likewise we cannot have the Father or His Spirit without the Son I am the Way the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except by Me- John 14:6. Because God is utterly unique, all comparisons will fail at some point. For example, triangles are not the kinds of things that are personal. Yet we do not have three gods but ONE God. [4] The goal of an analogy is to draw out similarities between it and its referent in illuminating ways, not to define the referent itself. A chicken egg consists of a shell, a yolk, and an egg white, yet it is altogether one egg. See the depths of Catholicism for yourself! These are likewise erroneous or even heretical. When discussing God, especially in regards to his nature, being and persons, a simple statement to articulate the Trinity is: God is 1, *. Some have used examples such as water, watermelons and eggs; the principle behind those illustrations is that even though each thing is one, it is also three. Among the most popular analogies for the Trinity, two in particular stand out; and most of the others resemble one of them. I dont know how our majestic God feels about being compared to watermelons and eggs, but He is also a loving Father, and like any father, I believe God would seek to provide simple explanations so His little children can understand. In one of his sermons, he wrestled with the passage in Scripture recounting Jesus' Baptism. 2A) Dave is a father of four children: three boys and a . This is just as bad as the Water analogy and leads to the same error. God is one. So, in God, there are three distinct persons. The problem with this analogy is it denies the unity of the God-head. Your email address will not be published. This is a worse analogy than the egg because it is more analogous to the heretical doctrine of Modalism/Oneness than for the Trinity. Unfortunately, there is a problem with this view of the Trinity. This book is now available in a published format for easy sharing and classroom use. Being the brightness of the eternal Light, He Himself also is absolutely eternal. It is so important that to deny the trinity is to deny Christianity. Shively For example, an equilateral triangle (a triangle with three equal sides) has three sides. Similarly, light and heat are simply creations of the sun, yet it is the heresy of Arianism to claim that the Son or Spirit are mere creations of the Father. But Hes God too, right? 2:5-6; Col. 1:15-17, 2:9; Heb. Modalism denies the distinction of person in the trinity. Jesus would have remained in the tomb, or hell, had Jesus sinned. The idea that the Trinity can be compared to a shamrock is largely attributed to St. Patrick. In the first place, if we truly claim to love God, then surely we should endeavour to know Him. Here are a few of the many verses giving evidence of the Trinity in the Bible: Genesis 1:1&2- In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. The Holy Spirit was an active participant in the creative process. Every kid in Sunday school thinks he knows all about God. This error denies something central to God that makes Him God. All these make up one egg just as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit make up one God. Proof texting is when we cite a bunch of bible verses to support a theological stance. Its impossible to be an Orthodox Christian without professing belief in the Triune nature of God. This may be my favorite verse of them all. Time Analogy God is like time. God is infinitely greater than we are; therefore, we should not expect to be able to fully understand Him. God is like an egg in that He is 3-in-1 God the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit. Ontological means the nature or essence of something. Each person is fully God (Phil 2; Acts 5:3-4). Who is God? In the second instance, the truth of Gods Trinity reveals a further aspect of Gods love for His people.