Explaining the Trinity

[RockoftheAges]

Is this a legitimate (if very elementary) way of explaining the Holy Trinity:

Question: how is the same God at the same time Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and why do we call Him a Spouse?

Answer: My father is at one and the same time Father, Son, and Spouse…how much more so can a perfect and all powerful God be all three…

Thanks

ROTA

 

[Verbum_Caro]

ROTA,

I’ think there could be problems. The terms father, son and spouse describe different modes of operation or functions of a single person. Whereas Father, Son, and Holy Spirit denote three distinct persons.

Your analogy could seem to flirt close to the modalist heresy, a trinitarian error, that attempts to describe the Trinity by our perception of God’s activity, and ascribes the distinction in the Trinity to modes of operation and not to Persons.

What do you think?
VC

 

[Archus]

A nice analogy I’ve come across is that God is a candle.

God the Father is the actual flame of the candle.
God the Son is the light of the candle
God the Holy Spirit is the warmth from the candle.

Hope that helps.