How Do You Explain The Trinity?

[cocoa]

I was trying to explain the Trinity to my son (9) and I was trying to keep it simple. I understand it's beautifully complex and not something that we can fully intellectuallize from a human stand point.

I just dont know how to make it make sense to a child or someone who is unfamiliar with the Trinity.

I'd a appreciate any advice. Thank you

 

[LearningToLetGo]

That is a challenge. I suppose I'd start by showing how when you and he are together, he's your son, but when he's with his siblings he's a brother, and when he's at school he's a student. He's always the same person but he also has many roles.

God is kind of the same thing. He's always God but he's also Father and Son and Holy Spirit.

But unlike a human being who simply adopts different roles at different times, God is literally three people at the same time.

You can start with that and see how it goes.

 

[Major]

I was trying to explain the Trinity to my son (9) and I was trying to keep it simple. I understand it's beautifully complex and not something that we can fully intellectuallize from a human stand point.

I just dont know how to make it make sense to a child or someone who is unfamiliar with the Trinity.

I'd a appreciate any advice. Thank you

Two of the most difficult topics for the believer to comprehend is the Trinity and Predestination.

I have used the example of Oranges, (Tree-Blossums-Fruit) eggs, (Shell-yoke-White) and the three phases of water, (Liquid, frozen and Vapor).

Just like an Egg, the yoke, the shell and the white are all one Egg. One egg = one Chicken.

Water is a Liquid, and can be a solid and a Vapor but all three are the same thing =Water.

As such, God the Father is God - God is the Son, Jesus, and God is the Holy Spirit is God. But he is only one God, not three different gods. This is called the Trinity. Three different persons are all one God together. God is three in one! Hold up three fingers and say, “God is three persons in one God!”

 

[cocoa]

Yes thank for your replies.

 

[Siloam]

Trinity.

Three in one.

The Father is not the Son nor is He the Spirit. The Father is fully God.
The Son is not the Spirit, nor is He the Father. The Son is fully God.
The Spirit is not the Son, nor is He the Father. The Spirit is fully God.

The Whole consists of each, both singularly but speciually in eternal unity.
Seemingly self contradictory but true.

This is more accepted by faith as a beginning than arived at by result of human reasoning.

 

[Big Moose]

Here is another one. Electricity.
The Father is the generators and the electricity. The Power. He also happens to show up in our everyday like how electricity shows up in thunderstorms, dragging your feet on carpet and getting a zap, stored in batteries (this would be like your Bible), and your car runs because of it (among a number of other things).
The Holy Spirit is the wires, power lines and telephone poles. Our access to the Power.
Jesus the Son is the people of the Power company. We go through them to have permanent access to the Power.
The Trinity is the entire company and all that goes with it.

 

[Major]

Yes thank for your replies.

Cocoa......I do not know if this is helpful, but a serious error people have made is to think that the Father became the Son, who then became the Holy Spirit. Contrary to this, the Scriptures imply that God always was and always will be three Persons. There was never a time when one of the Persons of the Godhead did not exist. They are all eternal.

Colossians 2:9 clearly says of Christ, “in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.”

The divine essence is not something that is divided between the three persons, but is fully in all three persons without being divided into “parts.”

 

[LearningToLetGo]

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” - Genesis 1:26

Bible Gateway passage: Genesis 1:26 - English Standard Version

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

www.biblegateway.com

 

[Origen]

Perhaps another way to conceptualize the trinity is to understand what the trinity is not.

The trinity is NOT:

Tritheism - The belief that the three persons of the trinity are three separate gods.

Modalism - The view that God is only one person instead of three persons, and that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are simply different modes or forms of the same divine person.

Arianism - The belief that the Son of God was God's first creation, and that the Son is exalted above all other creation. The Son is God but not the God.

It is my contention that all trinitarian analogies are flawed and ought to be abandoned. If any analogy even hints at one of the above three views, then that analogy must be rejected.

Siloam, for my money, provides the best and only legitimate answer.

Trinity.

Three in one.

The Father is not the Son nor is He the Spirit. The Father is fully God.
The Son is not the Spirit, nor is He the Father. The Son is fully God.
The Spirit is not the Son, nor is He the Father. The Spirit is fully God.

The Whole consists of each, both singularly but speciually in eternal unity.
Seemingly self contradictory but true.

This is more accepted by faith as a beginning than arrived at by result of human reasoning.

 

[cocoa]

Cocoa......I do not know if this is helpful, but a serious error people have made is to think that the Father became the Son, who then became the Holy Spirit. Contrary to this, the Scriptures imply that God always was and always will be three Persons. There was never a time when one of the Persons of the

Yes, I have picked up in this. In an attempt to keep things simple, I have mistakenly even though it's not what I really mean. That's what trips me, when trying to explain it to others.

Cocoa......I do not know if this is helpful, but a serious error people have made is to think that the Father became the Son, who then became the Holy Spirit. Contrary to this, the Scriptures imply that God always was and always will be three Persons. There was never a time when one of the Persons of the Godhead did not exist. They are all eternal.

Colossians 2:9 clearly says of Christ, “in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.”

The divine essence is not something that is divided between the three persons, but is fully in all three persons without being divided into “parts.”

Yes. I've noticed because I have done this too. And an effort to keep things simple, I've erroneously described the trinity this way even though, it wasn't what I really meant.

 

[Siloam]

Not to discount my prior post (#5), but many need a more accessible anology.

Man was created in the image of God, so it is natural to look at ourselves for that analog:

We each have a mind. That which plans and decides.

We each have spirit: That which animates us.

We have a component separate from spirit and mind that communes (or declines to commune) with God. That is our soul.


Much of our nature is determined by which component has sway over the rest.

Do we rely on our own thought?
Do we live to satisfy our bodily wants?
Do we place our thoughts and wants under the control of comunning with God?

 

[crossnote]

I use the Athanasian Creed.

 

[Major]

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” - Genesis 1:26

Bible Gateway passage: Genesis 1:26 - English Standard Version

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

www.biblegateway.com

Agreed. The original Hebrew word for “God” in Genesis 1 is the plural masculine noun "Elohim". God, our Creator, chose to introduce Himself to us with a plural title from the very beginning.

In Genesis 1:26—the first time in the Bible that God speaks about Himself—He uses the plural pronouns Us and Our.