Most people find “The Trinity” (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) is very difficult to explain. Do you have a good way to explain it? How do you explain the Trinity?
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Most people find “The Trinity” (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) is very difficult to explain. Do you have a good way to explain it? How do you explain the Trinity?
I explain the Holy Trinity, using the analogy of water. Water comes in three forms: liquid, solid (ice), and vapor (steam, fog). The Holy Trinity can be looked at, in the same way. God is liquid… He can flow anywhere; Jesus is solid… He came to earth in human form, to dwell with us; the Holy Spirit is vapor… you can’t see Him, but He can enter into your body, God’s temple, you can pass through Him, as you do steam or fog. After I explain this analogy, I have found that people’s faces light up with understanding, because they can then relate with a physical reality that they deal with, everyday.
Rhonda, That view is Modalism (Belief that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all different expressions, roles, or manifestations of the one true God), denounced by Christendom (Tertullian and Hippolytus, primarily) late 2nd-early 3rd century. Time and the universe itself are better word pictures since all three aspects (past/present/future and time/space/matter) have to coexist with one another for any to exist, yet all three are distinct in function. However, like all temporal examples, they fall apart because we are trying to describe God, who is not temporal but is wholly “other”.
Anonymous — I had the same thought, but wondered if I should say it. You not only summed up modalism, but provided a more useful metaphor to help things along — Bravo to you for your theology but also for your thoroughness. So far I appreciate the exchanges on this site, and this one is a good example of how to discuss things. Thanks! Rhonda — please do not take this as harsh. I like a lot of what you are saying, but when it comes to theological language, certain words trigger certain warning bells — so when you say, three “forms”, it does imply modalism. Nonetheless, your post does also make me ask questions — if Jesus is the “exact representation of his being” (Hebrews) , then how did he ascend to the Father? As a spirit? It does not say how, but I assume his glorified body is one that can in fact exist in heaven — and is a sign of what we will one day have as well. Thoughts?
Why can’t the water analogy work to at least explain the “one substance/three persons” portion of the doctrine? It seems that all the analogies that I have heard can really only help with one portion of the doctrine at a time. You might also be able to push this one if you understand water as distributive, so water could exist in all three forms at once. Though, of course, not all water can exist in all three forms at once, but I still think it helps.
Before anyone defines what the trinity is, one should ask why we need it. I believe the answer will take you to Jesus immediately. If he is not God, then he cannot properly save us from our sins; if he is not of one being with the father, then we cannot trust him when he claims to have existed before Abraham; and further, we cannot believe him when he says that his father will send us the holy spirit after going to the father. There is nothing in scripture that explicitly says, “we will now tell you how God is one and yet three;” however, it is ultimately impossible to go anywhere in one’s understanding of the bible without the trinity. When anyone tries to remove it, then certain passages have to be explained away in convoluted ways. For instance, when Peter rebukes Ananias and Sapphira, he tells them that by lying to the holy spirit, they are lying to God. When Paul describes Jesus as “before all things..and holds all things together,” one must come to the conclusion that this is a divine claim, as is John’s assertion that Jesus made the world. While the trinity is a difficult doctrine, it is necessary for us to struggle through.
I look at the trinity in simple ways. First I am “one” person yet I am a son, a father, and a husband yet there are not three of me but there are three expressions of me in different roles yet I remain one. Not a perfect example but it increased my comprehension of how fhe trinity could function in seperate roles yet remain one. My other quick answer when asked the question is I liken the Godhead to a light with three seperate elements. Think of God as the light bulb, Jesus as the filiment that creates the light and the Holy Spirit as the electricity which is the source of the power to create the light; unseen but very real and very powerful and does not speak of Himself but only of the Son. Matthew 12:32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.” Strange that speaking against the creator of the universe, Jesus, is forgiviable but speaking against the Holy Spirit is not. Something to ponder. Have a great forever.
I think the best way to explain the Trinity is to be honest with the person who’s asking that it’s something that we’ll not really fully understand until we’re in eternity with Him. The Bible clearly teaches that Father, Son and Spirit are clearly three personages but are one God. I tell them that I don’t know exactly how that works and that the best minds still get puzzled by it but I know it’s true and I believe it. There’s somethings you just have to take on faith and leave it up to God because I know that whatever answer I give someone will never sum up the infinite creator of the universe in a neat logical answer because if I could I’d be God.
It was Jonathan Edwards who wrote that when God considers Himself and is conscious of who He is, that that understanding is a distinct person, a living one begotten from God, namely the Son. And the beauty and love that flows between them in their fellowship with each other is a distinct person, a living one begotten from the Father and the Son, namely the Spirit. This is my much simplified take away from Edward’s essay on the trinity, which you can find on the internet and is surprisingly fresh for being written in the 1700’s. What I have always appreciated from the concept of the trinity is that there is love in God, eternally so between Father and Son, and that this love exists and would exist even if he had never created us. Of all the great religions in the world, and how each conceives God to be, it is only in Christianity that you can find such love.
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