These things are referred to as the Economic Trinity. 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). Lord of all, we bow before thee. Yet God lovingly chose to create and eventually redeem us anyway (both thoroughly Trinitarian acts), at great cost to Himself. God has revealed some mysteries from the Old Testament in the New Testament (the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the coming of the Messiah, salvation by grace through faith, etc.) The egg white represents Gods Spirit. You can also catch up with me on Facebook, Pinterest, and TikTok Haydn Lea is an Ordained Minister, and is currently serving as an Air Force Chaplain in Adelaide. As a result the water molecule must change forms. Modalism, or Sabellianism, denies the three distinct Persons of the Trinity and claims that God is one Person who appears in different modes at different timesin the Old Testament He appeared as the Father, in the Gospels He appeared as the Son, and from Pentecost onwards He appears as the Holy Spirit. Dont you know Jesus? Do you know why I keep saying God is like an egg (or H2O) but God is not like an egg (or H2O)? Afterall, we can get rid of a few of its parts - for instance the shell - and still scramble an egg. Your email address will not be published. THE TRUTH IS: The Father, Son, and Spirit are three different persons who are all equally one God. In other words, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have a unique and unbreakable unity, and their existence together is the being that is God. There are some analogies that come close. [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. . Well, the egg analogy, when applied to God, suggests that only one being exists but this being exists in three different parts. I never thought about it in that way some of these examples Ive never heard of. In Jesus dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9) Notice the distinction between persons and being. 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. When we see them as three individual spirits, (God is one Spirit John 4:24), then that is the blasphemy of polytheism which is the worship of more than one God. We can touch the cord, but not the power it is insulating. TO AVOID HERESIES, LET US LIVE BY WHAT HAS BEEN REVEALED TO US: 1. He has been a member of the Royal Australian Air Force since 2007, and is now training to be an Air Force Chaplain. 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). In other words, this view denies Gods oneness. In humans, our spirits are designed to operate with and be united to the soul which is the person of anyone and so it is with our Egg. The past is not the present and the present is not the future, yet all three together is what we call time. The unity or oneness of God is also found in the Bible. Analogies that we present would always be insufficient as none of them would equate to the incomprehensible beauty of God. Haydn Lea is an Associate Pastor in Queensland, and is currently studying his Master of Arts (Theology). The Father sends the Son, and both the Father and Son send the Holy Spirit. We worship one God who exists in three persons. Also, the egg is made up of three distinct and unalike parts. The apple seed alone is not an apple. THE TRUTH IS: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not simply names designating modalities of the divine being, for they are really DISTINCT from one another: He is not the Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he who is the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit he who is the Father or the Son. (CCC 254), 3. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:13). If the Sun existed from eternity past then so were the light rays from the Sun. The meme above discourages the use of analogies in explaining the Trinity. Before I even began writing this post, I had an unusual song stuck in my head Holy God, we praise thy name. Paul leaves the Corinthians with this blessing in 2 Corinthians 13:14- May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.. If youve been involved in ministries for children or young people, questions about the Trinity have most likely come up. RELATED: What Does The Bible Say About Ghosts? 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. He has one essenceone substance. All of the above Bad Analogies would perhaps do more harm than good if used in explaining the Trinity. God does not just change forms but exists as three persons in unity. Each Person in the Trinity (or the Godhead) is fully God and fully a Person. Space Analogy God is like space. Scripture however, doesnt depict God this way. We can say that the first is egg the shell, the second is egg the albumen and the third is egg the yoke. Furthermore, this trinity is related to a shamrock, an apple, or an egg. But while this idea is central to the Christian faith, it is also incredibly mysterious to us. But its all water. 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. This analogy seems to make a lot of sense, but it actually reinforces a fatal misconception about the Trinity called modalism. Or have you ever tried to teach kids about the Trinity? These images fall short, because these components arent enough to be considered a whole on their own. In other words, one stuffness. However, He exists in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Water can be ice and steam, yet they are the same element. This view, also known as "modalism", was rejected by the early church. 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. In one of his sermons, he wrestled with the passage in Scripture recounting Jesus' Baptism. In part one, we looked at what the Bible has to say about the Trinity. I do not have the time or space to exhaustively demonstrate in scripture these truths, but the Biblical witness teaches these three truths consistently about God. Now if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is not His" (Romans 8:9). The doctrine of the Trinity tells us that there's ONE GOD who is THREE distinct PERSONS existing as a community of self-giving and loving relationships with each other. They that dont have the Holy Spirit in them will talk like the Adversary. We recommend you adhere these emblems to your vestments by mounting on the material with fabric glue and then stitching them . Instead, each person is co-equal, co-powerful and co-eternal. Despite its potential obscurity, Trinity Sunday is a great occasion for me to revisit an old article on the Trinity. In the first place, if we truly claim to love God, then surely we should endeavour to know Him. So God performs 3 different roles/relationships but 1 God. The Gospel is theperson, work, and message of Jesus Christ that provides salvation to all repentant believers. My prayer is to infuse God's character into your everyday lives with short ( 4-5") devotions and Bible Studies every Monday morning. Jesus is the Holy Spirit that saves us. Therefore, in this context, God is the what and the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the who. We define a person as one having a will and who is distinguishable from another person. Every kid in Sunday school thinks he knows all about God. The problem with this analogy is that it denies the distinction of persons in the God-head. How so? While an egg has a yolk, a white and a shell to make up the whole, each part is only ever . The watermelon has a skin, pulp and seeds; the egg is shell, yolk and egg white. Here are a few of the many verses giving evidence of the Trinity in the Bible: Genesis 1:1&2- In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. The Holy Spirit was an active participant in the creative process. Finally, I would suggest that the mere fact that we cannot understand the full depth of the Trinity (even with our myriad of analogies) has implications. Yet we do not have three gods but ONE God. Some think of God as H 2 O, which is sometimes a solid (ice), sometimes a liquid (water), and sometimes a gas (steam). The Unseen Father keeps the Father that is seen, alive. Well the issue is, the water analogy is akin to the heresy of Modalism. Each part of the egg make up only one portion of the wholethe yolk is not the fullness of the egg. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)One of my Sunday School students said, "How could Jesus (God) enter Mary's stomach (womb) and be born? There is only one egg with three different parts. Yet there is still only one God we serve. They are three in one egg. This is why Jesus said, He who has seen Me, has seen the Father (John 14:9). 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). Here many of the creeds help us in clearly articulating the trinity. ORDER from Barnes and NobleAmazon.com or wherever fine books are soldISBN-13: 978-1978167643Return to Cafe Logos Homepage | Bite-Sized Bible Bites. The Holy Spirit prays for us. is not). But understanding the Trinity is important. Love was not given to Jesus. Modalism is a heresy because it denies the distinction of God. For those, like myself, who are not from a highly-liturgical denomination, it may come as a surprise that June 11 was Trinity Sunday. What makes it hard is that all of our analogies and metaphors fall short of capturing what the Trinity actually is. History, lifestyle, family, music, theology, scripture, literature, the saints, church history, parenting, politics, prayer, the pope, and more. The Egg and I - Part Two When we think about influential New Testament leaders, most names are male. The Egg Analogy - This claims to be a good representation of the Trinity because Eggs have three distinct parts: the shell, the yolk, and the whites. God is like H2Olike water. In using analogies, we need to acknowledge the demerits and limitations of the said analogy. Examples of these different roles would be: The Incarnation: Only the Son became incarnate, took on flesh. However, keep in mind that the one being who is God is a personal being. God created us for community, since God is communal and we were created in His image. 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). Indeed, how can an infinite God be contained in a finite human womb! Or what? St. Augustine, one of the most important Fathers of the Church, wrote a great deal on the doctrine of the Trinity. The term Economic refers to the roles, functions, and relationships that exist within the Trinity. Understanding 1 Corinthians 14:34-35. I think the illustration that represents the Trinity most accurately is the egg example. The egg has a shell, the whites and a yoke. All Scripture is taken from the NIV version unless otherwise specified, Author Ignace Franz, translated by Clarence A. Walworth. To return to my Life Group anecdote, after our discussion I asked why does it even matter?. In Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9). I dont believe that God wishes us to be confused about the Three that are so apparent throughout the Old and New Testaments. When we separate them we can fall into the error of tritheism, which is the worship of three individual deities as one. Modalism teaches that one God just changes forms or modes over the course of scripture. (Describing God as LOVE is my favorite way of understanding the Trinity. Some people have suggested using an egg to explain how God can be both one and three. Water Analogy - God is like water, or H2O, which can exist in 3 forms. There is one GOD in three persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), 2. And the reason we know that is because the Persons of the Godhead have perfectly loved each other for all eternity. Yet, the trinity is mysterious. When discussing God, especially in regards to his nature, being and persons, a simple statement to articulate the Trinity is: God is 1, *. This error denies something central to God that makes Him God. Modalism teaches that the trinity is not three distinct persons, but just different modes that God reveals himself to human beings. They say that three separate beings exist, 2. There was no relational deficiency that prompted God to create us. So whats one good way to explain what the Trinity is? copyright 2009 by H.D. Thankfully he isnt a cage-stage Calvinist about it all. FOR CENTURIES, the Church had fought against heresies on the Trinity. There's a simple reason they don't work: The Trinity, as such, isn't like anything in creation. 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. Lost will be burned up. Sure enough, one member answered Well Ive heard that the Trinity is like water: water can be liquid, gas (steam), or solid (ice), but its still the same water. A good follow up verse to help explain is the baptism of Jesus. These three persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - exist together in complete unity, with no separation, as one divine being. Many of us would use analogies to explain the Trinity. Trinity Egg Analogy . One thing that Ive found helpful is using the Trinity to illustrate truths we know about God. An explanation that is so common, and seemingly does elucidate how something can simultaneously be three and onecan it really be that bad? Now, as youve probably guessed, this analogy also breaks down. One cannot remove the Holy Spirit and still have the God as taught in the Bible. He completed a doctorate in 1990, looking at the question of harmonic rhythm in the organ music of J.S. The egg analogy fails because it denies that each person of the Trinity is of the same eternal essence. Because Gods Person is unapproachable, the Spirit White acts as insulation, for we know that it is through the Holy Spirit that God can communicate, speak through and interact with mankind. For the Trinity, instead of using the formula 1+1+1, we use 1x1x1. The Trinity is not real in my life because of superior knowledge or insight. HO may act as water, steam, or ice, but it is still HO. Yet there is only one God. This would make Jesus something less than fully God. Each person is fully God (Phil 2; Acts 5:3-4). The Father hears their intercessory prayers. They all exist as fully God, with none of them lacking in any attribute or aspect that defines God. The Trinity is one of the most foundational doctrines of Christianity. These three Persons are all equally God and all equally Persons. In Jesus dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9) But, when it's heated, it turns into a gas (steam) and, when it's frozen, it turns into a solid (ice). Shively, This book is now available in a published format for easy sharing and classroom use. According to modalism, God does not actually exist in three persons. 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. The Holy Spirit prays for us. The Son was begotten by the Father IN ETERNITY, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Likewise we cannot have the Father or His Spirit without the Son I am the Way the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except by Me- John 14:6. And whos the Holy Spirit? To help you out, here is a comical and silly video that teaches about these bad analogies. THE TRUTH IS: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three different parts or components of God, but the . The problem with this analogy is that it would imply that there is only one Divine Person, who eventually multiplied Himself. Jesus is the visual form of God. Augustine's typical dialectic is to move from the exterior realities of creation to the interior reality of the human soul where he hoped to encounter God in the image of God, damaged as it is by the fall. Haydn describes himself as a five-point Calvinist, but he recognises that many faithful Christians disagree. But in the Godhead, each Person is fully and completely God unto Himself (even as they are all one God). 1:8-12; 1 Pet. Heat it up, and it turns to vapor. Likewise we cannot have the Father or His Spirit without the Son I am the Way the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except by Me- John 14:6. In scripture we see explicit trinitarian references, especially at Jesus' baptism where the Father speaks, the Spirit descends, and the Son is in the water. 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. So cool that God imparted that song in your mind and heart before you even wrote this blog post! 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. The scientific analogy that will be provided in a few moments is truly inadequate to describe the Holy Trinity. The Father is fully God; Jesus is fully God and the Holy Spirit is fully God. Stars were made on the forth day. 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. Now God can be in you by His Spirit! 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). That helps explain the concept quite well- the oneness, unity of God with the distinct three persons of God- Father, Son, and Spirit. 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. Jesus is the Holy Spirit. Memory, Understanding, and Will. But we cannot do that (assuming we can) with God. This is the one I used long ago when trying to explain the Trinity to a group of 1st-5th graders. If the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three separate beings, then its not really clear how someone can say that God is one or that only one God exists. The trinity is a like a Three-Leaf Clover. The analogy breaks down because I can simultaneously be a father, husband, and son to any one person. 2 - The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are each God. What portion is erroneous? Arianism clearly denies the deity of the three persons. Starting with the three biblical affirmations, ask your kids to show you how these examples support or deny what the bible teaches about the Trinity. There would be three thrones. Each side is co-equal with the others, yet, each side is necessary. But this idea is central to the Christian faith. God is infinitely greater than we are; therefore, we should not expect to be able to fully understand Him. But if they give us a warped idea of what they are trying to explain, they arent helpful illustrations. 3 - The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct persons. The following verses attest to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). 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. Each person is fully the one God, but is also distinct. The Biblical Principle Of Baptism By Fire, The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything, 3 Reasons Why Jesus Humanity Really Matters Her & Hymn, 3 Reasons Why Jesus' Humanity Really Matters, How Jesus Teaches Us To Be Human Her & Hymn. We can think of it this way: the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. We might call one side A, another side B, and the other C. So, there is a distinction between each of the sides, yet, all three are the same. You are an egg! Jesus is fully God. Tritheism denies the unity of the God-head by saying there is just three different gods. That is why Moses said. This description that all persons are fully God is called the Ontological Trinity. This is why Jesus said, He who has seen Me, has seen the Father (John 14:9). Analogies for the Trinity exist to explain the unexplainable. Explaining the Holy Trinity. Studying the Trinity poses difficulty to us Catholics. 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. . One of the more traditional analogies is to the states of water. One sits on the throne looking like Sardine and Jasper stone. The white of an egg is the connection between the yolk and the shell. I remember asking my Life Group last year, How have you heard the Trinity explained? I braced myself for the inevitable reply. Thus, the Father Himself is not God, nor is the Son, nor is the Holy Spirit, but combining the three, there is one God. H2O is a combination of two particles (atoms) of hydrogen and one particle of oxygen and this compound can exist as water (liquid), ice (solid) and vapour (gas).
Nice Restaurants In Stroudsburg, Pa,
Porsche Breakers Northern Ireland,
Lee Shapiro Hugging Judge,
Articles H
Share article:
abdulrahman al jasmi bahrain net worth