Trinity metaphors - fire

[Treacy17]

I’ve heard that all metaphors fall short when trying to describe the Trinity. But one I’ve heard, that it is like three different torches with the same fire, seems to be pretty accurate to me. What are the flaws in this?

 

[Cruciferi]

 

[porthos11]

I’ve heard that all metaphors fall short when trying to describe the Trinity. But one I’ve heard, that it is like three different torches with the same fire, seems to be pretty accurate to me. What are the flaws in this?

It is not the same fire. They are three different fires, even if they were lit from a common flame.

The resulting heresy can be, depending on interpretation, polytheism, Arianism, or that heresy popularly called “partialism” (i.e. the Voltron heresy).

The orthodox dogma is that God is indivisible or simple (i.e. God has no parts) and so the torch analogy fails there.

 

[ShowersofRoses]

All metaphors are going to fall short in some way because we can never fully explain the Trinity using human words. The metaphors can be helpful, but they always fall short in describing the mystery of God.