Trinity

[Jehoshua]

Theosis is correct on the nature of the persons of the trinity. The difficulty i find in explaining it is that it seems to come across to others that christians worship three gods. Now however long you try and explain the oneness of God in that all three persons are one God, and the one God is three persons. It still seems to just confuse people.

I found it best to explain the possibility of the trinity in an analogy as ive previously given, and then explain the uniqueness of god in that each person is God each unto himself while still being one God with the other persons of the trinity.

I take no offense at the comment since all human attempts at defining and explaining God are by definition imperfect. We must simply accept that the one God is triune in nature.

 

[Seeker]

Peace to all,

I need some insight as to what the doctrine of the Trinity is? I get real confused with this. Thank you very much.

Tony

Tony,

First I have to say, you are not alone in being confused about the Trinity, no believing Christian or any person on this earth would ever fully comprehend it. That is why the Church calls it a “mystery”, not because it’s confusing, but rather because it cannot be fully and completely comprehendible. You have to keep in mind that we are talking about GOD here.
To answer your question, we must first remember that very few have a good idea of what the Trinity is in the first place - hence, accuracy in definition is very important. The doctrine of the Trinity is simply that there is one eternal being of God - indivisible, infinite. This one being of God there exists three co-equal, co-eternal, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
It is necessary here to distinguish between the terms “being” and “person.” A being is what something is, for example the “being” of man is a human being, the “being” of a rock is a rock being, the “being” of an animal is a animal being…
A person is “who” someone is, that is the ability to have emotion, will and to express oneself. The Bible tells us there are three classifications of personal beings—God, man, and angels.
Please Note:
It would be a contradiction, obviously, to say that there are three beings within one being, or three persons within one person.

So now I am going to elaborate a little more on the definition of being and person when talking about God.

So WHAT is GOD?
As Christians we firmly believe an affirm GOD is ONE in being and nature, and we firmly attest to the Shema of the Old Testament "Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is One (Deut 6:4).
I always think of it this way, when Christianity became the dominant religion in the world, not soon after Jesus died, the Christian Church could have easily distorted and changed the texts of the Old Testament to reflect 3 or 4 gods in place of the ONE true GOD, especially since the Jews were a minority. The Christians did no such thing, not only did we except the Old Testament Books, but we hold them as being GOD’s Words. The reason we do that is because we firmly believe in the same ONE true Living GOD as the Jews did. This is why so many Christians died horrible deaths during Roman rule for not believing in other Roman or Greek gods

Now WHO is GOD?
We as Christians believe GOD is Father, Son and Spirit. What do I mean by that?
As a Christian, we know GOD as the creator of the world, the source of everything that is seen and unseen, around us, above us and beneath us. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1).
To the Christians and Jews, HE is called “Father”. The name Father signifies that He is the origin of what is subject to Him, a supreme and powerful authority, a patriarch, and protector.
As Christians we know GOD is without having a body, HE is not male or female, he is without gender, HE is a Spirit. The Catechism of the Catholic Church #239 specifically states that “God is neither man nor woman: he is God”.
To the Christians and Jews, HE is referred to as the Spirit of GOD.
Here are some Biblical references
“Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” (Genesis 1:2)
“The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” (Job 33:4)
“But Moses replied, ‘Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them.’” (Numbers 11:29)
As Christians we know GOD as being a loving, personal and intellectual Being, HE has a mind and will and most importantly a speech/Word. It is with his speech/Word that created everything, God said “let there be light”, “let us make man in our image, in our likeness”(see Gen 1:3-27).
To the Christians and Jews, we both say that’s GOD’s Word.
Here is where the tricky part comes into play, we have established that GOD is Father and Spirit distinct yet One. Now where does the term “Son” come in or fit in? Well as I explained in my last paragraph that the being of GOD is a loving and personal being; HE has a mind and will, and most importantly a speech/Word. As Christians (and this is unique to the Christians), we believe that speech/Word became incarnate in the flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ.
Biblical references:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it” (John 1:1-5).
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14)
Therefore the term “Son” was applied to Jesus, to explain the eternal relationship between the Infinite being and his Word. GOD’s Word is distinct, but not separate from GOD. There was never a time where his WORD never existed or was separate from the Infinite being . As an example, It’s like when I speak, the words that come out of mouth are distinct from my being, yet it is MY words, as they are the self expression of my mind/thoughts.

 

[Seeker]

continuation…

So there you have it Tony, my understanding of the Trinity. One thing to think about, that is if in the natural world we see and so many expressions that give us a sense that there is plurality within oneness, then if in the effect there exists this, then it must exist in the first cause. Okay I will try and explain what I mean here.
If you take the word university, what does it mean, it means unity in diversity.
One the back of every American coin, you see the words “E pluribus unum”, Out of many one.
When you get married, two become one.
TIME is past, present and future.
WATER and other matter is solid, liquid and gas.
SPACE is height, width and depth.
A Human Being has a body, mind and soul, distinct parts, yet one
These are all finite expressions, and in no way do I want to attribute them to GOD, but we need to recognize them and then ask ourselves, how we explain them, how can these exist if they don’t already exist in the first cause, which is GOD
People from other faith like Muslims like to play mathematical games by saying how can 1+1+1 = 1, should it not equal to 3. But they never think applying it a different way 1x1x1 = 1, when it comes to the nature of the divine persons
Another point to keep in mind is, when you hear or speak to people that say, how can Jesus be God?, that statement itself should be a show stopper, because they are essentiality assuming that a “man” called Jesus became a god, and this is absolutely not true and does not in any way or from represent the true teaching of Christianity. Jesus the man did not become God, it was the second person in the Trinity, Word of God who took on human flesh for a period of time. Why you may ask, well it has to with Salvation, and that’s an entirely different subject.

Thanks

Seeker

 

[DavidMark]

**Consider the rays of the sun whose light hath encompassed the world. The rays emanate from the sun and reveal its nature, but are not the sun itself. * Whatsoever can be discerned on earth amply demonstrateth the power of God, His knowledge and the outpourings of His bounty, while He Himself is immeasurably exalted above all creatures. **(Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, 61)

• Astronomers, unable to go to the hidden core of the star, where the furious process of fusion takes place, use Spectroscopy, which enables them to fix the magnitude, composition, mass, distance etc. In the same way, the Holy Spirit enables the manifest attributes of God to be reflected in the mirrors of pure hearts. This analogy best explains how each of the three aspects of the triune relationship are eternal, but not equal.]

6:4 Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one. 6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6:6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be upon thy heart; 6:7 and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. ~From the Torah (Law), Devarim (Deuteronomy)