The Holy Trinity
Maybe the question ought to be, “who” is the Holy Trinity? And yes “who is” as opposed to “who are”. The Doctrine of the Trinity teaches us that God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, while being three distinct persons / personages, they are all three, both collectively and individually, wholly God. Again, the Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God; and yet The Father is the not Son or Holy Spirit, just as the Holy Spirit is neither the Son nor the Father and finally the Son of course is not the Father or Holy Spirit.
Next to the Deity of Christ, the Trinity (or Holy Trinity) is quite possibly one of the more difficult aspects of the Godhead of the Christian Faith to understand, let alone explain. This is in part do to the complete absence of the word “Trinity”, in much the same way as the phrase “I am God” was never uttered by Jesus, as recorded within the Biblical writings. Yet Jesus is, in fact, both wholly God [Isaiah 9:6 NIV] “…a child is born… called… Mighty God …” {Emphasis mine} and wholly man [Isaiah 7:14 NIV] “The virgin (young human woman, Mary) will conceive and give birth to a son (human child, Jesus)…” {Emphasis mine}. Without Him (Jesus) being God, the Trinity would not be possible, and without Him (Jesus) being a man redemption from sin would not be possible. So what is the Holy Trinity?
Perhaps one of the biggest challenges specific to the Trinity, is trying to get out finite human understanding neatly wrapped around this seemingly infinitely complicated and perplexing concept. Ah, maybe that’s part of the problem… trying to squeeze the infiniteness of God into the finite human mind.
Before I get into the scriptural basis for the Trinity, I’d like to share four (4) different analogies that are often used by us well meaning people, to try and explain in human finite terms, the incredibly infinite, omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent God.
First – Eggs (three part structure)
The typical Chicken’s eggs, ones not unlike what we might use for scrambled or fried eggs with breakfast, are favourites of many, when speaking about the Holy Trinity. The egg of course comes in three parts, an outer protective shell (a fatherly sort of thing, to protect, some would say), with a sort of two-part inner portion. The egg white which is what most of us see has been likened by some as the sort of “Jesus” of the egg. This leaves us of course with the yoke, at the core or centre of the egg. It is by far the portion of the egg with the most substance, sort of where the power of the egg comes from. Oft times misunderstood egg yokes, cholesterol and all are touted as being not very good for us by one nutritionist, whilst another will tell you we need more egg yokes.
Alas the EGG analogy is not a very good one, in my humble opinion. Apart from the obvious, that it seems almost blasphemous to compare the awesomeness of God to an egg, there are other inherent flaws with the egg analogy also. By way of one example unlike the Trinity wherein all three parts individually are wholly God (the Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God), an egg shell is not an egg, an egg white is not an egg, and egg yoke is not an egg.
Second – H2O, or more commonly known simply as water
This is by far my personal favourite! And yet one must still remember the limitations of attempting to define, in finite terms, the immensity of God Almighty. Water is described as “…the most abundant compound on Earth's surface, covering about 70%.” by Wikipedia. Not unlike many compounds water or H2O, a compound which is comprised of two (2) basic elements being two Hydrogen atoms and one Oxygen atom, can and does exist in one or more of three (3) states, sometimes simultaneously.
H2O can be in solid form, we know this as ice. H2O can also be in liquid form, we commonly refer to this as simply “water”. And finally H2O can be in a vapour form, oft times called steam, and while technically speaking water vapour is not by definition steam, for the purpose of this illustration we’ll call it steam. Here’s the really cool part to me. Similar to the Trinity wherein each individual part is very clearly not one of the other two:
i) ice is not water or steam;
ii) water is not ice or steam; and
iii) steam is neither water nor ice
And yet, all three remain (in terms of chemical make-up, or structure) H2O! In fact they remain H2O both individually and collectively. At its core H2O as a chemical compound remains unchanged, whether in its solid (ice), liquid (water) or vapour (steam) state(s). One additional feature of H2O that I am especially fond of is that it is one of the very few compounds in which we may observe all three (3) states of its existence at the same time, and in one place. Additionally H2O can exist in all three (3) of those states, at temperatures that are habitable by humans.
Melting ice not only transforms into liquid water as it melts, but the evaporation process also occurs right from the solid state. Therefore as illustrated in the picture left, it is possible to have liquid water, with ice floating in it while both the water and the ice give off steam.
Consider also that man (human beings) are made up of something close to 60% water, add it to the points noted above, and the H2O analogy does seem to create a good basis for the Trinity. Regrettably H2O is still a finite substance, and as with anything finite it falls short of adequately surmising an infinite, omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent God.
Third – Human / Family Relationship(s)
With the example of the human interpersonal relationship, one presents the example of how a man, let’s call him J. Smith, can be:
a) a father (to his own child / children),
b) a son (to his father); and
c) a counsellor (to his family)
Here again we can see that the father is J Smith, and the son too is J. Smith and finally the counsellor is also J. Smith. So far so good right? well, not so quick. You see, unlike the Trinity where The Father is the not Son or Holy Spirit, just as the Holy Spirit is neither the Son nor the Father and finally the Son of course is not the Father or Holy Spirit; with this Human / Family Relationship scenario, the son is the father and is also the counsellor. Nuff said about this one.
Fourth – Human Make-Up (three part being)
This analogy has always runs a close second for me, in terms of expressing the limitlessness of God in limited terms or expressions of man. Picture, if you will, for a moment the Star of David. It is a six-pointed Star which can be described as two (2) equilateral triangles, pointing in opposing directions with an overlap.
The Holy Trinity can be described as an equilateral triangle, as the picture of the Trinity above suggests. Man may also be considered a three-part being, Body, Soul and Spirit thus giving us the second triangle. If we place one triangle over the other, as stated above with one pointing up, and the other pointing down, with an approximate 30% overlap voila we have a classic Star of David.
Thus it makes sense that man, being created in God’s image as a three part being, was created by a “three-part” Triune Godhead. Once again, as with all things inadequate in terms our human abilities of both understanding and expressing the immeasurable awe that is God, this analogy falls short as well.
Scriptural basis for the Holy Trinity
Alright, enough of all this waxing eloquently with superficial and inadequate analogies about the omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent Creator of all, God, it’s time to move on. Let’s get to the good stuff, the Bible. What does the Bible have to say about the Trinity?
Let’s begin our exploration of the Scriptures with a visit to [Deuteronomy 6:4 NIV]:
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
The word LORD in Hebrew is YAHWEH, the great “I AM”.
The word “Your GOD” in Hebrew is ELOHIYM, “God in the plural”
The word “ONE” in Hebrew is ACHAD, “a singular unit made of several”
Ergo, the literal translation of Deuteronomy 6:4:
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD – (YAHWEH) – your God – (ELOHIYM) – {he who represents himself in the PLURAL or in many many ways} – the I AM – is – one – (ACHAD).”
“Hear, O Israel: YAHWEH ELOHIYM, the I AM is ACHAD.”
After all, There is but ONE God!
Torah (Old Testament) evidence of the Trinity
God as Father
Let’s consider the Father, does the Bible call God “Father”? According to [Isaiah 63:16 NIV] God is referred to as our Father, “…you, LORD, are our Father …” and [Deuteronomy 32:6 NIV] “Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you??” or as [Isaiah 64:8 NIV] says “Yet you, LORD, are our Father.”
God in the plural
Next let’s review a few passages where God refers Himself using plural personal pronouns (our and us). Think about [Genesis 1:126 NIV] “…Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness …” {Emphasis mine} also [Genesis 3:22 NIV] “…The man has now become like one of us …” {Emphasis mine} as well as [Isaiah 6:8 NIV] ‘…the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” …” {Emphasis mine}
God the (Holy) Spirit
And next let’s ponder the Spirit of God as referred to in [Genesis 1:2 NIV] “…the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Also seen here in [Psalm 104:30 NIV] “When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.” And finally as written in [Isaiah 61:1 NIV] “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me…”
New Testament evidence of the Trinity
In the interests of brevity, I will only post a couple New Testament verses in support of the Trinity. Thus I will leave you with these few samplings:
[2 Corinthians 4:4 NIV] “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” {Emphasis mine}
[1 John 5:7 AMP] “So there are three witnesses in heaven: the Father, the Word (Son, Jesus) and the Holy Spirit, and these three are One.” {Emphasis mine}
As can be clearly seen, there is plenty of scriptural evidence to support the Holy Trinity. As always, I challenge you to read not only the verses quoted, but at the very least one, preferably two verse(s) before and after. Consider then context, and please above all else, do not let your own pre-determined biases or your peers scepticism, keep you from researching this information with an open and willing to learn mind.
“Know Jesus, know peace whereas no Jesus, no peace”
How does one get to “know” Jesus? Simple, invite Him into your heart, as Jesus says: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” [Revelations 3:20 NIV] How can we be assured that this Jesus stuff means anything, well because the Bible tells us so, as the Apostle Paul wrote:
“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” [Romans 10:9-10 NIV]
And for those of you who say to me, I can’t be bothered reading the Bible, “it’s confusing” or “it’s a waste of my time”, may I draw your attention to what the Bible says about wisdom: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” [Proverbs 9:10 NIV]
If nothing else, PLEASE read two chapters from the Bible – (don’t own one, sorry NO excuse, if you’re reading this, you can access this: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%203:16&version=NIV) John 3 and John 14!
John 3:16 says: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
And John 14:6 says: “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Well that’s it, that’s Da Bauz’s take on, The Holy Trinity – this 10th day of January 2012 © 2012, All Rights Reserved. wr (Da Bauz, Christian Zionist)
Greetings Da Bauz
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of the Trinity,
I recommend this video:
The Human Jesus
Take a couple of hours to watch it; and prayerfully it will aid you to reconsider "The Trinity"
Yours In Messiah
Adam Pastor
Respectfully Adam Pastor, the single simplest definition of a "CULT" is: "Denial of the Deity of Christ"
DeleteWhat, after all, is a CULT?
A CULT is a group persons gathered about *somebody’s* interpretation of the Bible. It ALWAYS claims, in some way or another, to be in sympathy with Christianity, but it ends up by having one (1) common trait: “Every non-Christian cultic system denies that Jesus Christ / Yeshua Ha Mashiach is God in human form.” Walter Martin, “Kingdom of the Cults”
John 8:24 (AMP) “That is why I told you that you will die in (under the curse of) your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He [Whom I claim to be--if you do not adhere to, trust in, and rely on Me], you will die in your sins.”