Love Truth Blog

Today I listened into a conversation on the Trinity. In that conversation, one person suggested a great analogy for the Trinity would be similar to a person, who is a male, can be be a father, a husband, and a son. Another person listening into the same conversation said that water would be a better example, since it comes in three modes: liquid, ice, and steam. Unfortunately, both of these examples were simply incorrect. They accounted for the oneness of God, which is certainly taught in the Bible, but they failed to recognize the threeness of God, which is also taught in the Bible. The Bible teaches there is one God who is revealed in three coeternal coequal persons, namely God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee; Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty! God in three persons, blessed Trinity!

As I touched on the subject of the Trinity in the last blog, I thought it important to note that in misunderstanding the nature of God results in misguided worship. Error begets error. I often hear fellow Christians say, “I got this great analogy for the Trinity, it’s like water, ice, and steam; they are all the same stuff (H2O) but different forms.” The sameness of the molecular structure of water/steam/ice may account for the unity of God, but it misses the clear biblical passages on the interactions between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For example, “The Father loves the Son” (cf. John 3:35; 5:20) but neither water, nor ice, nor steam express acts of love to one another. The same can be said about the egg analogy, there is not interpersonal love between the shell, yoke, and egg whites. The modes or manifestations expressed in the H2O and egg analogies are actually more akin to the ancient theological heresy of modalistic monarchianism (also called Sabellianism). The modalist...

The Trinity is an essential doctrine of Christianity; however, it is also a grand mystery, which we can apprehend but not comprehend. Attempts to form analogies of the Trinity from nature and human experience ultimately miss the mark. So how are we to understand this doctrine? James White offers this helpful definition: “Within the one Being that is God, there exists eternally three coequal and coeternal persons, namely, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” 1 Hank Hanegraaff succinctly puts it: “One What and three Who’s. ” 2 When speaking of the Trinity, we are communicating three things about God. First, it affirms that there is one God. Moses declares, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one” (Deut. 6:4)! Isaiah, likewise, prophesied, “I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides Me there is no God” (Isa. 45:5). Second, the doctrine of the Trinity affirms that the one God exists as three coequal and coeternal persons. There is God the Father. He is the one w...