The mystery is in the how this is accomplished; something we will finally understand in heaven. God is Great, I always try to figure out how to explain it to my Sunday school kids and they get confused which i get, how would you explain it to them? For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father., 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. The wonders and ways of God may not be apparent or fully known at present, but we can still marvel at His supremacy and worship Him in wonder- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! How can we ever explain our Most High, exalted, powerful, uncontainable, and most glorious God? Modernizations of this analogy include that of an apple (with the peel, the flesh, and the core) or an egg (with its shell, yoke, and white). Arianism is named after the heretic Arius. All Rights Reserved. Here are 8 Bible Characters Who Should Be More Famous. If one of the persons were not there, then we would not have God. - well, sort of. The problem with this analogy is that no one molecule of H2O can actually exist as solid, liquid, and gas at the same time. The Holy Spirit is the shell, Jesus is the egg white, and the Father is the egg yolk. I think the illustration that represents the Trinity most accurately is the egg example. I do not have the time or space to exhaustively demonstrate in scripture these truths, but the Biblical witness teaches these three truths consistently about God. 2:5-6; Col. 1:15-17, 2:9; Heb. The idea that the Trinity can be compared to a shamrock is largely attributed to St. Patrick. For example, an equilateral triangle (a triangle with three equal sides) has three sides. Therefore, there is one God, who is eternally present in three persons. I think the analogy of the Sun works well. How do we make sense of the Trinity? Before I even began writing this post, I had an unusual song stuck in my head Holy God, we praise thy name. Does that make sense? Every kid in Sunday school thinks he knows all about God. He taught that the son was at one point created by God the father. Unfortunately, most of them actually give us the wrong idea about what the Trinity is. Here's a look at six explanations for why so many people truly believe 3 Ways to Experience The Good Life in Jesus. Although God is transcendent, sovereign, unapproachable light, He has condescended to reveal something of Himself to His creation. The three-leaf clover analogy is OK. There are three different cloves that represent the three different persons of the trinity. This is not an exhaustive list: For further reading on the Trinity, I would recommend James Whites The Forgotten Trinity, Wayne Grudems Systematic Theology and online articles by CARM.org. When we use analogies, we need to indicate these things so as to not lead to heresies, A Catholic and Filipino writer interested in theology, philosophy, liturgy, politics, and law. THE TRUTH IS: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three different parts or components of God, but the . Holy Trinity, the downtown Greek Orthodox church that was partially destroyed by fire 11 years ago, was a special place for 57-year-old Georgiou. Required fields are marked *. 1. We can admit it is a mystery and accept that our incomplete knowledge cannot fully comprehend it. All of the above Bad Analogies would perhaps do more harm than good if used in explaining the Trinity. You are an egg! If then the sun were eternal, the day would never end; but now, for such is not really the state of the case, the day begins with the beginning of the sun, and ends with its ending. Thus the Father is in Jesus " I and My Father are One" (John 10:30), "The Father is in Me" (John 14:10) God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (II Corinthians 5:19). Unfortunately, there is a problem with this view of the Trinity. This analogy explains that the Father is like the sun. If you need to use an analogy, then use a good one. The divine persons are really DISTINCT from one another, and not merely different roles of God at different times. I believe that the best way to talk about the Trinity is to simply say that God is one God, who eternally exists in three Persons. The analogy explains that in the same way that one shamrock can have three leaves on it, the Trinity has three Persons that constitute one God. Father, Son, Holy Sprit : 3 persons, 1 great relationship, Copyright 2023 Fervr | Terms of Service. Yet we do not have three gods but ONE God. They suggest that only one God exists but this God transforms or morphs into each of the different persons. Water can exist in liquid at room temperature. Celebrating Easter Is About so Much More Than One Hour on Sunday. The military would end up destroying themselves. Jesus is the visual form of God. When we tend to make an analogy about the trinity we are forced to diminish one of the three trinitarian truths in order to make the analogy work. God is like H2Olike water. Similarly, in our aquatic analogy, water can appear in three different modes, depending on the environment, but the three are not co-existing. He is one God in three persons, all at the same time. Armstrong. No analogy is perfect, but we want to be careful of using wrong ones that may confuse people. Jesus was standing in the Jordan River, His Father speaks from heaven above, and the Holy Spirit descends upon Him as a dove. THE DISTINCTION AND UNITY of the Trinity is not for us to fully understand because it is a supernatural mystery. Although he is one man who is simultaneously a husband, a father, and a student, he would consider it Modalism to suggest that this is a good Trinitarian analogy. In the Scripture we see "the fullness of God was pleased to dwell" (Col 1:9). Love your blogs! In other words, this view denies Gods oneness. So, the egg analogy doesnt work after all. The three parts create a unified whole. 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. 1B) This son of Graham and Lois Armstrong is Dave. Here are some common analogies that Christians have used about the Trinity: God is kind of like water which can be ice, liquid and steam. 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 an attempt to explain the Trinity, there are some bad examples people use, and some better ones. It's impossible to be an Orthodox Christian without professing belief in the Triune nature of God. The Holy Spirit and Son do not send the Father. What portion is erroneous? Answer (1 of 25): Cynics assert that the idea of the Holy Trinity is a logical impossibility. The Bible reveals that each person of the Trinity has unique roles, relationships, and functions which are distinct from one another. Despite its potential obscurity, Trinity Sunday is a great occasion for me to revisit an old article on the Trinity. When discussing God, especially in regards to his nature, being and persons, a simple statement to articulate the Trinity is: God is 1 what and 3 whos*. It is so important that to deny the trinity is to deny Christianity. RELATED: Did Jesus Really Rise From The Dead? As a doctrine (belief), the trinity is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three separate and distinct persons united in one being- God. Analogies of the Trinity. And we know that because the Persons of the Godhead have perfectly blessed and exalted each other for all eternity. How so? Instead, each person is co-equal, co-powerful and co-eternal. is not). THE TRUTH IS: From the very beginning, the Blessed Trinity Father, Son, and Spirit was there. Under Arianism Jesus is less than fully God. I write to see memory and language wrestle with reality. We believe in only one true God in all existence, in all places, at all times. Unfortunately, Arianism is still around and can found within the Jehovah's Witnesses teachings. For example, triangles are not the kinds of things that are personal. Thought of Tim Its amazing to think that everything will be so clear when we het to Heaven! 3 - The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct persons. The watermelon has a skin, pulp and seeds; the egg is shell, yolk and egg white. Water can be ice and steam, yet they are the same element. As a result the water molecule must change forms. The Father is fully God; Jesus is fully God and the Holy Spirit is fully God. But you cannot be broken when your faith is in Jesus, for the Spirit of the Son that lives in us and gives us the voice through which we cry Abba, Father, (Galatians 4:6,) this Spirit of the Father that dwells within you is there to strengthen, protect and guard your person. The trinity is a like a Three-Leaf Clover. The Bible teaches three truths: 1 - there is one God. They are unified in one divine being. Also, the egg is made up of three distinct and unalike parts. Augustine's typical dialectic is to move from the exterior realities of creation to the interior reality of the human soul where he hoped to encounter God in the image of God, damaged as it is by the fall. Or what? When we look at the egg as an example of the Trinity, we must view it in its entirety. We recommend you adhere these emblems to your vestments by mounting on the material with fabric glue and then stitching them . But while this idea is central to the Christian faith, it is also incredibly mysterious to us. Jesus would have remained in the tomb, or hell, had Jesus sinned. The egg has a shell, the whites and a yoke. TO AVOID HERESIES, LET US LIVE BY WHAT HAS BEEN REVEALED TO US: 1. Here many of the creeds help us in clearly articulating the trinity. This was first used by Patrick of Ireland (yes there really was a Patrick of Ireland and he was a great guy), around 400 A.D. 2. Share your thoughts with us in the comments! But Jesus makes it clear in John 10:30- I and the Father are One. The Greek word for one means one thing, not one person. They are united in their essence (spirit, nature) but not identical persons. That is heaven in a person. According to the first, just as water takes three forms (liquid, vapor, and ice), so too God takes the form of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To help you out, here is a comical and silly video that teaches about these bad analogies. 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. These hand embroidered emblems are made with metallic gold-plated thread with silver content, printed on canvas. Modalism teaches that the trinity is not three distinct persons, but just different modes that God reveals himself to human beings. Our God is three in one. And we know that because Hes been experiencing perfect love within Himself forever. Should Women Really Keep Silent in Church? A certain YouTube page created a famous video titled "St. Patrick's Bad Analogies" (which can be found here), in which the historic St. Patrick meets charming villagers who deride him based on the analogies which he uses in the process of explaining the Holy Trinity. 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). RELATED: What Does The Bible Say About Ghosts? This analogy is still not perfect because each of the aspect cannot stand as egg like each of the persons in the trinity can stand as God. Water can be frozen and is called ice. Jesus Person is joined to the Father by the Fathers Holy Spirit, because Gods Spirit is also Jesus Spirit - "But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in you. This little child cannot look at one without experiencing a profound sense of wonderment and awe. It should bring us to realise that we truly are finite creatures standing before a sovereign, transcendent, divine mystery. The Holy Spirit is like the heat that the sun produces, unseen yet powerful and effective in making the sun felt. When we separate them we can fall into the error of tritheism, which is the worship of three individual deities as one. Your email address will not be published. RELATED: The Biblical Principle Of Baptism By Fire. Its all one person, simply functioning in three different roles. Lord of all, we bow before thee. The shortfall of this illustration, and others like it, is that God cannot be divided into "parts." Take a moment and give it a try. The Council's definitions concerning the Trinity are really as easy as one, two, three four. He has not yet revealed some mysteries (what did Jesus do in His childhood, when will He return, what does the word Selah mean in the Old Testament- and so many more.). The scientific analogy that will be provided in a few moments is truly inadequate to describe the Holy Trinity. , 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you., For further reading on the Trinity, I would recommend James Whites, Lastly, below is a helpful graphical chart explaining the doctrine of the Trinity I found from the Christian blog by Tim Challies. In the same way, water is all the same molecular structure, expressing itself in three different modes. They suggest that only one God exists but this God transforms or morphs into each of the different persons Let's begin with the second view. 1 Corinthians 8:6: Yet for us there is but one God.. The Trinity is like an egg. Vestment Emblems. We believe that it is a revelation that comes from Christ Himself. He was with God in the beginning. One cannot remove the Holy Spirit and still have the God as taught in the Bible. They all exist as fully God, with none of them lacking in any attribute or aspect that defines God. He got married there in 1965, and his four . Further, his dialectic is guided by the particular consideration of what true love is: a trinity of lover, beloved and the love that binds . And then theres Jesus, Gods son. So God performs 3 different roles/relationships but 1 God. So much of what we know about what God does is wrapped up in who He is. The Gospel is theperson, work, and message of Jesus Christ that provides salvation to all repentant believers. Yet God lovingly chose to create and eventually redeem us anyway (both thoroughly Trinitarian acts), at great cost to Himself. Yet, the trinity is mysterious. The Unseen Father would have been put into Satans prison. His ways are not my ways! Is He Jesus side-kick? That helps explain the concept quite well- the oneness, unity of God with the distinct three persons of God- Father, Son, and Spirit. 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). We define a person as one having a will and who is distinguishable from another person. But the Father is not the Son or the Spirit. We worship one God who exists in three persons. So while its tough to make sense of the Trinity, the Trinity actually helps us make sense of so many things we believe. Dr. Bruce Ware does an excellent job in his book Big Truths for Young Hearts. The Trinity is not 1 + 1 + 1 but more like 1 x 1 x 1. But the Trinity is our belief as Christians that God is one being who exists in three Persons- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.. Yet we do not have three gods but ONE God. The Biblical Principle Of Baptism By Fire, The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything, 3 Reasons Why Jesus Humanity Really Matters Her & Hymn, 3 Reasons Why Jesus' Humanity Really Matters, How Jesus Teaches Us To Be Human Her & Hymn. If all you had were an eggshell, you wouldnt have a very exciting breakfast. I remember asking my Life Group last year, How have you heard the Trinity explained? I braced myself for the inevitable reply. In one egg you have the white, the yoke, and the shell composing one full egg. Ontological means the nature or essence of something. . This analogy seems to make a lot of sense, but it actually reinforces a fatal misconception about the Trinity called modalism. When we separate them we can fall into the error of tritheism, which is the worship of three individual deities as one. It is not important merely for the sake of tradition, or because the word itself is taught in the Bible (the word is not). The meme above discourages the use of analogies in explaining the Trinity. THE TRUTH IS: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three different parts or components of God, but the three are all equally one God. Humans as we are, we cannot fully understand how the three divine Persons, though really distinct from one another, are one and the same God. There have been many attempts to explain the Trinity the relationship between God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. . While an egg has a yolk, a white and a shell to make up the whole, each part is only ever . Only the Son became incarnate, took on flesh. We find it in all four Gospels. A man might be a father to his children, a husband to his wife, and son to his parents. An egg is made up of shell, white and yolk. The shell, while important, is no longer needed. That is why Moses said. ANALOGY OF CHARACTERS. in that He is not made up of three parts one part () the Father, another part () Jesus Christ and a third part () the Holy Spirit. God controls that light. True, we humans are image bearers but nothing in creation serves as an analogy for the Trinity because the Trinity is a doctrine of special (biblical) revelation not nature or reason. The Bible teaches that the Father is God, that Jesus is God, and that the Holy Spirit is God. Now if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is not His" (Romans 8:9). There is what is called the 'triple point' the combination of pressure and temperature at which H2O can exist simultaneously in all three states: solid, liquid and gas. Have you wondered what is God like? Explaining the Holy Trinity. Jesus is the Holy Spirit that saves us. They've always led to error and have been rejected by the church. The egg shell is the image of the yolk and the white. This would make Jesus something less than fully God. Stars were made on the forth day. The white of an egg is the connection between the yolk and the shell. But based on what you know that Jesus is born so that He can save people from their wrongdoings, will you trust Him to forgive you. It leads to the heresy of MODALISM which teaches that God switches to different modes. What does that really mean? The egg white represents Gods Spirit. Therefore it behoves us to know what He has revealed (including the Trinity), and to lovingly worship Him accordingly. The Trinity is not 1 + 1 + 1 but more like 1 x 1 x 1. But if they give us a warped idea of what they are trying to explain, they arent helpful illustrations. The analogy breaks down because I can simultaneously be a father, husband, and son to any one person. The past is not the present and the present is not the future, yet all three together is what we call time. But understanding the Trinity is important. This analogy actually falls prey to the same error of modalism. Arius was condemned by the council of Nicea in 325 AD. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:13). Understanding 1 Corinthians 14:34-35. The Sun was created on the forth day. Cool it down, and itll eventually freeze into a solid. In reality, I change my role depending on who I am interacting with. His ways are higher than ours, but isnt that a comfort?! Each one is fully 100% God. Haydn Lea is an Associate Pastor in Queensland, and is currently studying his Master of Arts (Theology). Therefore, in this context, God is the what and the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the who. God controls that light. Our limited intellects are unable to comprehend its reality, yet, our Scriptures and scholarly Tradition makes it known to us. My prayer is to infuse God's character into your everyday lives with short ( 4-5") devotions and Bible Studies every Monday morning. There is only one egg with three different parts. The Holy Spirit prays for us. Intercession: The Son intercedes as our High Priest before the Father. From time to time, Doctors of the Church used analogies, but with care. The watermelon has a skin, pulp and seeds; the egg is shell, yolk and egg white. Others compare God to an egg, which is part shell, part white, part yolk. For instance at the baptism of Christ, the Father, Son and Spirit are all distinctly present and interacting (Matthew chapter 3 verses 16-17). There are some analogies that come close. I and My Father are One (John 10:30). Copyright 2023 Christian Today. The egg analogy fails because it denies that each person of the Trinity is of the same eternal essence. 2 - The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are each God. There's a simple reason they don't work: The Trinity, as such, isn't like anything in creation. If we separate them we still may have God the Egg yolk, God the Holy Spirit Egg white and God the Son, the Egg shell/image, three individual parts of an Egg, but they cannot be a Trinity, or tri-unity unless they are unified and are seen as one Egg, so to speak. What portion of the analogy holds true with Church Teaching? Yet, as we view the pages of the Bible, we see that God is a personal and relational God. (Describing God as LOVE is my favorite way of understanding the Trinity. (Which I just found out is in error). Water at room temperature is liquid.