2:5-6; Col. 1:15-17, 2:9; Heb. One cannot remove the Holy Spirit and still have the God as taught in the Bible. Explaining the Holy Trinity. These three Persons are all equally God and all equally Persons. The 3 Most Common "Trinity Analogies" (and their limitations) The three most common go-to analogies for explaining the Trinity are water, an egg, and the sun. Modalism is a heresy because it denies the distinction of God. At the Cathedral, we recognize that there are responsibilities that come with . In this episode, Fred Sanders discusses what it really means to say that God is a Trinitythree persons in one God. 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. In humans, our spirits are designed to operate with and be united to the soul which is the person of anyone and so it is with our Egg. God controls that light. Often these analogies explicitly teach heresy. ), The Son Phil. God has revealed some mysteries from the Old Testament in the New Testament (the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the coming of the Messiah, salvation by grace through faith, etc.) 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. Each of the persons is that supreme reality, viz., the divine substance, essence or nature. (Lateran Council IV), 4. Only the Son became incarnate, took on flesh. Love was not given to Jesus. We find it in all four Gospels. Our words should dissipate and be replaced instead with an awestruck adoration and wonder, as we realise the only appropriate response is to fall to our knees and humbly worship the one truly perfect, unified divine essence, comprising three diverse, co-equal and co-eternal divine persons. John 17). 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. This would make Jesus something less than fully God. Your email address will not be published. On a whim, I looked up the lyrics at a later time. The Trinity are three distinct persons who exist apart from each other. Stars were made on the froth day. While an egg has a yolk, a white and a shell to make up the whole, each part is only ever . As a result, this analogy can easily lead to tritheism in which there are three different gods which might share some like substance. I can only shake my head when He does these things! If you need to use an analogy, then use a good one. However, many of our faithful, and even priests, attempted to simplify the Mystery of the Trinity and made it easier to understand by using MODELS AND ANALOGIES, giving birth to modern-day heresies/fallacies about the Trinity. Unfortunately, no analogy is perfect. This view, also known as "modalism", was rejected by the early church. The Egg- One egg has three parts: shell, whites, and yolk . 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? There was no relational deficiency that prompted God to create us. Its all one person, simply functioning in three different roles. So if all of these explanations are heretical, what is a good analogy? When we view the egg in its entirety we have the Biblical Trinity, One that is Three. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. He differs from the Father, but was and still is God. He has one essenceone substance. He is one God who expresses Himself in three modesFather, Son, and Spirit. Here are a few common illustrations: The Egg- One egg has three parts: shell, whites, and yolk. Should Women Really Keep Silent in Church? In using analogies, we need to acknowledge the demerits and limitations of the said analogy. As a result, this analogy actually teaches modalism. 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. Youre right, theyre all good but not perfect because only God IS perfect. This analogy denies the unity of the God-head. 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*. The divine persons are really DISTINCT from one another, and not merely different roles of God at different times. Some people have suggested using an egg to explain how God can be both one and three. 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. Though I find the video to be hilarious and often . We all want to experience the good life. When you encounter a person or group who denies the Trinity, it is merely a matter of walking through these 3 points, to see where they diverge from Biblical teaching. These attributes are: omnipotence (all-powerful), omniscience (all-knowing), and omnipresence (exists in all places). He is married to Shamsa Lea, is the father of Amira, and loves running, boxing and studying history and theology. Similarly, in our aquatic analogy, water can appear in three different modes, depending on the environment, but the three are not co-existing. You are an egg! . The idea of God as three-in-one is indeed a mysterious concept, one that is difficult to understand. There have been many attempts to explain the Trinity the relationship between God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Who is God? Therefore, there is one God, who is eternally present in three persons. What is the Trinity? Relationship Analogy (Husband/Son/Father) God is like a person with different relationships just as a man can be a Dad, but also someones Son, and also someones Husband. Modalism, or Sabellianism, denies the three distinct Persons of the Trinity and claims that God is one Person who appears in different modes at different timesin the Old Testament He appeared as the Father, in the Gospels He appeared as the Son, and from Pentecost onwards He appears as the Holy Spirit. The angel answered (Mary), The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High (referring to the Father, italics mine) will overshadow you. 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). He explains why the doctrine of the Trinity is essential to the gospel even if it seems abstract or confusing, highlights why all analogies and metaphors are of limited value when thinking about the Godhead, and responds to the . I remember asking my Life Group last year, How have you heard the Trinity explained? I braced myself for the inevitable reply. Haydn Lea is an Associate Pastor in Queensland, and is currently studying his Master of Arts (Theology). The Unseen Father keeps the Father that is seen, alive. He cares for his creation and his people. And whos the Holy Spirit? The above picture is a famous work of art by Andrei Rubilev, the great medieval Russian painter of Orthodox icons and frescos. 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. The idea that the Trinity can be compared to a shamrock is largely attributed to St. Patrick. FOR CENTURIES, the Church had fought against heresies on the Trinity. Since these bad analogies tend to lead to a heresy, we will examine the main three areas of heresy concerning the trinity. THE TRUTH IS: From the very beginning, the Blessed Trinity Father, Son, and Spirit was there. 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. But this view, too, wont do. The three-leaf clover analogy is OK. 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. Under Arianism Jesus is less than fully God. 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. The following verses attest to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). These images fall short, because these components arent enough to be considered a whole on their own. The Trinity is a tri-unity, a unity of Three, - God the Father, Jesus, the Son of God and the Holy Spirit. But we cannot do that (assuming we can) with God. He was with God in the beginning. There have been many attempts to explain the Trinity the relationship between God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. 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. This is the error of Arianism (not to be confused with Aryanism, which is also bad). God created us for community, since God is communal and we were created in His image. Born in England in 1961, Benjamin Waterhouse Benjamin Waterhouse has been the organist of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity since 2000. 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* Its downright hard to understand. Jesus is the Holy Spirit that saves us. Does that make sense? So under modalism, God acts as the Father in the Old Testament, the son in the Gospels, and the Spirit in Acts and the Epistles. show me your glory. So, the egg analogy doesnt work after all. But the Trinity is our belief as Christians that God is one being who exists in three Persons- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.. Genesis 1:26- Let us make man in our image, in our likeness The plural us and our show more than one person was involved. The more I reflect on Easter, the more Ive realized how much its become a consumeristic holidayeven Did Jesus really rise from the dead? While it captures the idea that God is one, it doesnt do such a good job of showing how God is three and one at the same time. I dont believe that God wishes us to be confused about the Three that are so apparent throughout the Old and New Testaments. in that while water can change into vapour or ice, Jesus cannot change into the Father or the Holy Spirit. Dont grieve the Holy Spirit out of you. There's a simple reason they don't work: The Trinity, as such, isn't like anything in creation. 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. In part one, we looked at what the Bible has to say about the Trinity. Below is a compilation of the verses that reference all 3 persons of the one God. None of the 3 are less divine than the others. If the Sun existed from eternity past then so were the light rays from the Sun. The Trinity is a tri-unity, a unity of Three, - God the Father, Jesus, the Son of God and the Holy Spirit. We can touch the cord, but not the power it is insulating. That is why Moses said. 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. RELATED: The Biblical Principle Of Baptism By Fire. The Trinity is foundational and at the heart of our Christian faith. Common, yes. But if modalism is true, and the Trinity really is like water, then the story of Jesus (the Son) praying to the Father as recorded in the Bible seems like an awfully strange masquerade. Yet there is only one God. The word Trinity comes from the Latin word trinitas which means tri-unity. 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). 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. Analogies often fall short. Martyn Iles Removed as Managing Director of Australian Christian Lobby by Board, Seven Types of Rest to Restore Your Body, Mind and Spirit, 8 witnesses testified against Hillsong founder Brian Houston in court case, wife Bobbie reveals, Why you feel guilty for not going to church, Samaritan's Purse sends 52-bed field hospital to Turkey. It may not appear to agree with common sense. Water can exist in liquid at room temperature. If youve been involved in ministries for children or young people, questions about the Trinity have most likely come up. 2. Or, we can quote Daniel Webster; a strong Christian- I do not pretend fully to understand the arithmetic of heaven now. . THE DISTINCTION AND UNITY of the Trinity is not for us to fully understand because it is a supernatural mystery. Thanks, Ann! [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. This analogy denies the unity of the God-head. Over the course of church history there have been several heresies that have cropped up that deny one of these three truths. 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. He also knows how to perfectly love us. Furthermore, this trinity is related to a shamrock, an apple, or an egg. At times God is Father, or Son, or Holy Spirit. 2A) Dave is a father of four children: three boys and a . Although God is transcendent, sovereign, unapproachable light, He has condescended to reveal something of Himself to His creation. copyright 2009 by H.D. What happens when an egg hatches? Check out verse four: Holy Author, Holy Word, Holy Spirit, three we name thee; Still, one holy voice is heard; undivided God, we claim thee, and adoring bend the knee, while we own the mystery. . The Trinity is one of the most foundational doctrines of Christianity. But in the Godhead, each Person is fully and completely God unto Himself (even as they are all one God). In Jesus dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9) While each person is distinct, they are never separate from one another. It is a miraculous invention, the egg. But its all the same person, operating in three roles or functions. To return to my Life Group anecdote, after our discussion I asked why does it even matter?. The problem with this analogy is that an egg yoke is of a very different substance than a shell. The meme above discourages the use of analogies in explaining the Trinity. This is why Jesus said, He who has seen Me, has seen the Father (John 14:9). God is like an egg in that He is 3-in-1 God the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit. Shively, This book is now available in a published format for easy sharing and classroom use. You are an egg! 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. 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. Another wrong illustration is using ourselves: I am one person, but also a wife, mother, and writer. In this analogy, God is compared to a man. 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. Jesus is the Holy Spirit that saves us. Yet it appears to be almost entirely misunderstood within contemporary evangelical circles. Shively Deuteronomy 6:4- Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. This verse is also the beginning of the Jewish Shema prayer; their confession of faith. For example, triangles are not the kinds of things that are personal. It is not existing as 3 different parts (persons) at the same time. And let us once more come to illustrations. According to modalism, God does not actually exist in three persons. And for a mere mortal to have dared invent it and be able t. An egg is made up of shell, white and yolk. Why is it wrong? They are equally eternal, powerful, sovereign, and worthy of worship. It taught there is one nature in God, and that there are two processions, three persons, and four relations that constitute the Blessed Trinity. God controls that light. (It is also why the Jews had an issue with Jesus calling Himself God.). God is much bigger and much greater than we can understand, and to be honest, I'm ok with that. Each person is fully the one God, but is also distinct. That is a holding pen for final judgment. Part 2. This is a worse analogy than the egg because it is more analogous to the heretical doctrine of Modalism/Oneness than for the Trinity. Jesus isn't a demigod or partially god. Modalism teaches that one God just changes forms or modes over the course of scripture. 7But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christs gift., , according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure., , But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith; praying in the Holy Spirit; 21keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.. Learn how your comment data is processed. In some ways, it resembles the tritheism view (Misunderstanding 2). In the same way, there is a God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.. Here are some of them: The problem with this is that it leads to the view that God is a Trinity simply because He relates differently to us at different times.