. Its a very common explanation within the church to try to explain how God, who clearly exhorts His followers to preserve His supreme oneness (Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4), could also be identified with Jesus (Titus chapter 2 verse 13), and the Holy Spirit (Acts chapter 5 verses 3-4). These hand embroidered emblems are made with metallic gold-plated thread with silver content, printed on canvas. I believe that the best way to talk about the Trinity is to simply say that God is one God, who eternally exists in three Persons. The Trinity is not real in my life because of superior knowledge or insight. 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. Here many of the creeds help us in clearly articulating the trinity. God is infinitely greater than we are; therefore, we should not expect to be able to fully understand Him. We can admit it is a mystery and accept that our incomplete knowledge cannot fully comprehend it. This is the error of Arianism (not to be confused with Aryanism, which is also bad). If all you had were an eggshell, you wouldnt have a very exciting breakfast. Analogies often fall short. I go to prepare a place for you. But thats not how they understood it. (Describing God as LOVE is my favorite way of understanding the Trinity. Modalism is a heresy because it denies the distinction of God. That helps explain the concept quite well- the oneness, unity of God with the distinct three persons of God- Father, Son, and Spirit. The God of the Bible is one God. 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. . The Egg- One egg has three parts: shell, whites, and yolk . The three parts create a unified whole. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength (1 Corinthians 1:25). 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. God is NOT like H2O in that He does not need the right pressure and temperature to exist as three persons. To the other major monotheistic faiths (Islam and Judaism), it is rank heresyTrinitarianism is therefore definitional to Christianity. One day, however, the image will be clear. This is one of the reasons we say that "God is LOVE". Despite its potential obscurity, Trinity Sunday is a great occasion for me to revisit an old article on the Trinity. The Father Matthew 27:45-46 (usually there is no argument that the Father is not God, since every place Jesus speaks to God, he is addressing the Father. The very definition of the heresy known as Modalism/Oneness is that there is one person existing in three different modes or manifestations. Tritheism denies that there is only one God. The Trinity is not 1 + 1 + 1 but more like 1 x 1 x 1. The Unseen Father and Father that is seen existed at the same time. These two analogies are the "water" analogy and the "egg" analogy. Each of the divine persons is GOD WHOLE AND ENTIRE, and there is one God. Similarly, in our aquatic analogy, water can appear in three different modes, depending on the environment, but the three are not co-existing. The problem here is it describes each part of the Trinity as 1/3 parts of the overall egg. Father, Son, and Spirit are each fully God (their own egg)- not fractions of one. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. It should bring us to realise that we truly are finite creatures standing before a sovereign, transcendent, divine mystery. For them, a person is someone who could relate to another. When we tend to make an analogy about the trinity we are forced to diminish one of the three trinitarian truths in order to make the analogy work. The Spirit white is connected to Jesus Person I will come to you (John 14:18) and the Fathers Person, We will come to him and make our abode with him (John 14:23). Every kid in Sunday school thinks he knows all about God. We recommend you adhere these emblems to your vestments by mounting on the material with fabric glue and then stitching them . The yolk represents Gods Person, His Being, and His Holiness which generates Light that no man can approach (I Timothy 6:16). Each person is fully God (Phil 2; Acts 5:3-4). The Gospel is theperson, work, and message of Jesus Christ that provides salvation to all repentant believers. My name is AnnMarie and I'm so glad you're here! When we look at the egg as an example of the Trinity, we must view it in its entirety. While each person is distinct, they are never separate from one another. The egg shell is the image of the yolk and the white. Some people falsely claim the Trinity is a form of . One of the more traditional analogies is to the states of water. They are equally eternal, powerful, sovereign, and worthy of worship. Heat it up, and it turns to vapor. Although the water changes forms it is still H2O. Light comes from God. In this analogy, God is compared to a man. I think the analogy of the Sun works well. It is not important merely for the sake of tradition, or because the word itself is taught in the Bible (the word is not). While an egg has a yolk, a white and a shell to make up the whole, each part is only ever . This analogy denies the unity of the God-head. The Trinity is pretty weird: the Father (or Mother), Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit are in some sense distinct from one another, but are all unified in another sense. It is a miraculous invention, the egg. Required fields are marked *. Matthew 3:16-17- As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. Through the brokenness of the Shell, His Son, the Spirit white pours out into our beings through our faith in what was done and believers are joined with the yolk, for it is by One Spirit we have access to God the Father (Ephesians 2:18). 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 . 2A) Dave is a father of four children: three boys and a . And then theres Jesus, Gods son. In Jesus dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9) That fire keeps devils away from the saved. In order to accomplish this union with God and man, He allowed His Shell to be broken with the weight of our sins to cleanse our souls so His holiness can approach, for God cannot look upon sin (Habakkuk 1:13). 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. In the first place, if we truly claim to love God, then surely we should endeavour to know Him. Among the most popular analogies for the Trinity, two in particular stand out; and most of the others resemble one of them. On a whim, I looked up the lyrics at a later time. Thanks, Ann! Some think of God as H 2 O, which is sometimes a solid (ice), sometimes a liquid (water), and sometimes a gas (steam). This is the Christmas paradox. 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. Each one is fully God. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you may be also (John14:2, 3). THE TRUTH IS: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three different parts or components of God, but the three are all equally one God. If youve been involved in ministries for children or young people, questions about the Trinity have most likely come up. 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 trinity is like this man. Examples of these different roles would be: The Incarnation: Only the Son became incarnate, took on flesh. Each separate being is co-equal, co-powerful and co-eternal. There have been many attempts to explain the Trinity the relationship between God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. This may be my favorite verse of them all. Jesus, visually seen, judges all, not the Unseen Father. Lost will be ashes under the feet of the righteous. All of the above Bad Analogies would perhaps do more harm than good if used in explaining the Trinity. In one egg you have the white, the yoke, and the shell composing one full egg. The Trinity is Like an Egg How the analogy goes: The Trinity is like an egg. But based on what you know that Jesus is born so that He can save people from their wrongdoings, will you trust Him to forgive you. But if they give us a warped idea of what they are trying to explain, they arent helpful illustrations. The trinity is not a contradiction, but a paradox. 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. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind lived the doctrinal truth about the Trinity. This is why Jesus said, He who has seen Me, has seen the Father (John 14:9). 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. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit also exist eternally and concurrently. God is one. To help you out, here is a comical and silly video that teaches about these bad analogies. RELATED: What Did Jesus Really Look Like? So, the egg analogy doesnt work after all. This little child cannot look at one without experiencing a profound sense of wonderment and awe. 1. The Trinity are three distinct persons who exist apart from each other. He has the world and our individual lives within His supremely capable hands. Unfortunately, most of them actually give us the wrong idea about what the Trinity is. The problem with this analogy is that an egg yoke is of a very different substance than a shell. Water Analogy - God is like water, or H2O, which can exist in 3 forms. In contrast to the Ontological Trinity, there is the Economic Trinity. Now God can be in you by His Spirit! In Biblical Trinitarianism we can never have one without the other because they are one Spirit; each is the totality of the other which means we cannot have the Holy Spirit without the Father and the Son, We will come (into the believer through the Holy Spirit, John 14:23), and we cannot have the Son without The Father whose Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father (Matthew 10:20). I and My Father are One (John 10:30). In this episode, Fred Sanders discusses what it really means to say that God is a Trinitythree persons in one God. The Unseen Father is in Christs mind. Under Arianism Jesus is less than fully God. He is married to Shamsa Lea, is the father of Amira, and loves running, boxing and studying history and theology. When it comes to the Trinity, we tend to forget that an analogy is an "aptness of proportion" or a "resemblance of relations," not an identity of relations. The word Trinity comes from the Latin word trinitas which means tri-unity. Though I find the video to be hilarious and often . What happens when an egg hatches? Have you wondered what is God like? Lost will be burned up. The unseen Father is in Christs mind. The divine persons are really DISTINCT from one another, and not merely different roles of God at different times. But Jesus makes it clear in John 10:30- I and the Father are One. The Greek word for one means one thing, not one person. They are united in their essence (spirit, nature) but not identical persons. The egg analogy is very simple but it is OK to show something as simple as an egg can be one and yet three. This analogy seems to make a lot of sense, but it actually reinforces a fatal misconception about the Trinity called modalism. But we cannot do that (assuming we can) with God. Afterall, we can get rid of a few of its parts - for instance the shell - and still scramble an egg. So, part of understanding the Trinity is realizing that God is personal and relational. [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. Space consists of three things: height, width, and depth. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQLfgaUoQCw. The scientific analogy that will be provided in a few moments is truly inadequate to describe the Holy Trinity. These things are referred to as the Economic Trinity. Father, Son, Holy Sprit : 3 persons, 1 great relationship, Copyright 2023 Fervr | Terms of Service. 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. . Devils cannot grab ahold of them to cast them into Satans prison. I dont know how our majestic God feels about being compared to watermelons and eggs, but He is also a loving Father, and like any father, I believe God would seek to provide simple explanations so His little children can understand. in which all 3 persons may act or speak as one. The trinity is a like a Three-Leaf Clover. When we look at the egg as an example of the Trinity, we must view it in its entirety. None of the 3 are less divine than the others. And a voice from heaven said, This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. God the Father spoke from heaven and spoke of His Son, Jesus. Not just for explaining it to others, but to bolster our own faith and see how each One works in our lives. God does not play three roles.. Shively RELATED: Did Jesus Really Rise From The Dead? The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the primary tenants of the Christian faith. An explanation that is so common, and seemingly does elucidate how something can simultaneously be three and onecan it really be that bad? His being is somewhat of a mystery to us. If you only had an apple core, you wouldnt pack it in your lunch. Here are some common analogies that Christians have used about the Trinity: God is kind of like water which can be ice, liquid and steam. They that dont have the Holy Spirit in them will talk like the Adversary. Others compare God to an egg, which is part shell, part white, part yolk. H2O can exist in three forms: liquid, gas and solid. The Son is like the light rays that visibly reveal the sun, as Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). 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. Modalism teaches that the trinity is not three distinct persons, but just different modes that God reveals himself to human beings. Each one is fully 100% God. When we separate them we can fall into the error of tritheism, which is the worship of three individual deities as one. 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. When we separate them and view them as individual deities, that is the error of tritheism, which is the worship of three individual gods as one. Can you think of some Bible verses to back up your explanation? I and My Father are One (John 10:30). And for a mere mortal to have dared invent it and be able t. Again, this analogy doesnt work because God doesnt morph, change, or become different aspects of Himself. 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).
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