Therefore, there is one God, who is eternally present in three persons. 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. If the sun exists, there is also day; if nothing of this be manifest, it is impossible that the sun should be there. 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). The trinity is an essential doctrine to the Christian faith. We worship one God who exists in three persons. , 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. That is heaven in a person. It taught there is one nature in God, and that there are two processions, three persons, and four relations that constitute the Blessed Trinity. The egg analogy fails because it denies that each person of the Trinity is of the same eternal essence. My name is AnnMarie and I'm so glad you're here! 3 - The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct persons. What Is the Trinity | Holy Trinity in the Bible | Explore God How can we explain what it means to have three persons in one being? This is a worse analogy than the egg because it is more analogous to the heretical doctrine of Modalism/Oneness than for the Trinity. 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. How can we ever explain our Most High, exalted, powerful, uncontainable, and most glorious God? Its downright hard to understand. God is not made up of 3 parts like the 3 parts of the egg. A person distinguishes himself from others by saying me, mine, you, yours, etc. A being is the whole nature or essence of something. Love your blogs! And the reason we know that is because the Persons of the Godhead have perfectly loved each other for all eternity. The Trinity is not 1 + 1 + 1 but more like 1 x 1 x 1. My prayer is to infuse God's character into your everyday lives with short ( 4-5") devotions and Bible Studies every Monday morning. The egg example, while not perfect or complete by any means, will still give us a basic understanding of the primary principle of Biblical Trinitarianism. We find it in all four Gospels. The Holy Spirit prays for us. The problem here is it describes each part of the Trinity as 1/3 parts of the overall egg. Father, Son, and Spirit are each fully God (their own egg)- not fractions of one. So, part of understanding the Trinity is realizing that God is personal and relational. The Holy Spirit and Son do not send the Father. When we see them as three individual spirits, (God is one Spirit John 4:24), then that is the blasphemy of polytheism which is the worship of more than one God. But we cannot do that (assuming we can) with God. Thanks, Ann! There are some analogies that come close. An egg has a shell, white, and yolk, but these three are part of an egg or Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao but the same Philippines. As a doctrine (belief), the trinity is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three separate and distinct persons united in one being- God. Jesus is the visual form of 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. God is NOT like H2O in that He does not need the right pressure and temperature to exist as three persons. This error denies something central to God that makes Him God. While an egg has a yolk, a white and a shell to make up the whole, each part is only ever . 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). . 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. 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. In scripture we see explicit trinitarian references, especially at Jesus' baptism where the Father speaks, the Spirit descends, and the Son is in the water. He has one essenceone substance. Every kid in Sunday school thinks he knows all about God. The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. We can think of it this way: the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:13). 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. He completed a doctorate in 1990, looking at the question of harmonic rhythm in the organ music of J.S. 5And there are varieties of ministries and the same Lord. A good follow up verse to help explain is the baptism of Jesus. Few topics of discussion in the Christian faith are more confusing than the idea of the Trinity. A Simple Way to Explain the Trinity - Keith Ferrin Ontological means the nature or essence of something. He is married to Shamsa Lea, is the father of Amira, and loves boxing and studying Theology. Theyve transformed. Yet, these persons are not separate from one another. RELATED: The Biblical Principle Of Baptism By Fire. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)One of my Sunday School students said, "How could Jesus (God) enter Mary's stomach (womb) and be born? Scripture however, doesnt depict God this way. Some think of God as H 2 O, which is sometimes a solid (ice), sometimes a liquid (water), and sometimes a gas (steam). One sits on the throne looking like Sardine and Jasper stone. Lost will be ashes under the feet of the righteous. There are three different cloves that represent the three different persons of the trinity. The Trinity is not 1 + 1 + 1 butmore like 1 x 1 x 1.You can throw away one part of an egg (e.g., shell) and still have essentially an egg. Required fields are marked *. Well, the egg analogy, when applied to God, suggests that only one being exists but this being exists in three different parts. History, lifestyle, family, music, theology, scripture, literature, the saints, church history, parenting, politics, prayer, the pope, and more. He has been a member of the Royal Australian Air Force since 2007, and is now training to be an Air Force Chaplain. Augustine of Hippo/On The Trinity - Wikiversity Therefore it behoves us to know what He has revealed (including the Trinity), and to lovingly worship Him accordingly. The white of an egg is the connection between the yolk and the shell. - well, sort of. As a result the water molecule must change forms. The problem with this analogy is that an egg yoke is of a very different substance than a shell. In order to accomplish this union with God and man, He allowed His Shell to be broken with the weight of our sins to cleanse our souls so His holiness can approach, for God cannot look upon sin (Habakkuk 1:13). God is kind of like a man who is a father, a son and an uncle God is kind of like a three-leaf clover, or a triangle; one object, but three different, identifiable leaves, or sides* At times God is Father, or Son, or Holy Spirit. When we speak of someone as being a "person", we often mean an individual who is separate from other people, or we simply mean a human being. Vestment Emblems. In the same way, water is all the same molecular structure, expressing itself in three different modes. This analogy is an invalid comparison to the Trinity and is a heresy called PARTIALISM. If the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three separate beings, then its not really clear how someone can say that God is one or that only one God exists. In one egg you have the white, the yoke, and the shell composing one full egg. Our God is three in one. PDF UNDERSTANDING THE TRINITY - Andrew M. Bailey The trinity is like water. A, distinguishes himself from others by saying me, mine, you, yours, etc. A. is the whole nature or essence of something. The unseen Father is in Christs mind. His being is somewhat of a mystery to us. The problem with this analogy is that it teaches that God has three components: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is like H2O in that the Bible may refer to a specific person of the Trinity but that person is still God. The very definition of the heresy known as Modalism/Oneness is that there is one person existing in three different modes or manifestations. Finally, I would suggest that the mere fact that we cannot understand the full depth of the Trinity (even with our myriad of analogies) has implications. But while this idea is central to the Christian faith, it is also incredibly mysterious to us. The Trinity is pretty weird: the Father (or Mother), Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit are in some sense distinct from one another, but are all unified in another sense. The Father hears their intercessory prayers. Since these bad analogies tend to lead to a heresy, we will examine the main three areas of heresy concerning the trinity. Though I find the video to be hilarious and often . 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). There are many mysteries to our faith. copyright 2009 by H.D. All Scripture is taken from the NIV version unless otherwise specified, Author Ignace Franz, translated by Clarence A. Walworth. TO AVOID HERESIES, LET US LIVE BY WHAT HAS BEEN REVEALED TO US: 1. Below is a compilation of the verses that reference all 3 persons of the one God. The egg white represents Gods Spirit. 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. This is a place to find encouragement and hope from God's Word as you move through your busy life. Analogies of the Trinity. God does not morph from one person to another, nor does God exist as three separate beings. (Describing God as LOVE is my favorite way of understanding the Trinity. 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.). What is wrong with what I said? He is one God in three persons, all at the same time. At the Cathedral, we recognize that there are responsibilities that come with . In Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9). . Water Analogy God is like water, or H2O, which can exist in 3 forms. Yet, the trinity is mysterious. The mystery is in the "how" this is accomplished; something we will finally understand in heaven. An egg is made up of shell, white and yolk. Revelation 4:3And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. That would not be had God be three persons. In trying to describe what they saw in the pages of the Bible, the early church decided to use the word person to describe the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. A man might be a father to his children, a husband to his wife, and son to his parents. So when God created us and revealed Himself to us, what He did was to invite us into the perfect goodness He has always known within Himself. The Sun was created on the forth day. Analogies for the Trinity exist to explain the unexplainable. 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. In contrast to the Ontological Trinity, there is the Economic Trinity. 4 Bad Ways to Explain the Trinity (and 1 Good One) You know, that bearded guy on the throne who looks something like Zeus, right? We can touch the cord, but not the power it is insulating. It is still H20, but just different forms. Im giving God the credit for stirring this memory, and am extremely grateful. A good example would be an electrical cord. Light comes from God. 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). I bet I havent sung or heard this song in years! We believe in only one true God in all existence, in all places, at all times. To the other major monotheistic faiths (Islam and Judaism), it is rank heresyTrinitarianism is therefore definitional to Christianity. The shell, while important, is no longer needed. The Holy Spirit is like the heat that the sun produces, unseen yet powerful and effective in making the sun felt. One day, however, the image will be clear. But remember, it is much better to let Scripture teach the 3 points above which establish the doctrine of the Trinity than to rely on analogies. Each separate being is co-equal, co-powerful and co-eternal. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you may be also (John14:2, 3). See the depths of Catholicism for yourself! 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. Each PERSON is distinct from one another. 4 Bad Analogies for the Trinity Justin Deeter The egg analogy is very simple but it is OK to show something as simple as an egg can be one and yet three. The Cathedral - The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Quebec, Canada Haydn describes himself as a five-point Calvinist, but he recognises that many faithful Christians disagree. Shively We can touch the cord, but not the power it is insulating. Rather, He created us in order to bless us. We can always rebut these claims with another equation: 1 x 1 x 1=1. H2O is a combination of two particles (atoms) of hydrogen and one particle of oxygen and this compound can exist as water (liquid), ice (solid) and vapour (gas). Each one is fully God. 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. In using analogies, we need to acknowledge the demerits and limitations of the said analogy. Sending of another: The Father sends the Son, and both the Father and Son send the Holy Spirit. Lastly, below is a helpful graphical chart explaining the doctrine of the Trinity I found from the Christian blog by Tim Challies found at Challies.com.
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