why is the concept of holy trinity confusing

To use theological terms when answering, Why is the Trinity so confusing?, God is both immanent and transcendent. Well this one falls short, too. Jesus declared, "I and my Father are one," in John 10:30. It's not that complicated. Type in your email address and a copy will be sent right to your inbox. Of course we are speaking by analogy here, for we cannot understand this in a physical way about God. For if we deny this, we have denied Gods unity and affirmed that there is more than one being of God (i.e., that there is more than one God). This explains how God can be both one and three. The problem with this is that it reflects a heresy called modalism. For the majority of Christian denominations, the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, is believed to be the third person of the Trinity, [1] a Triune God manifested as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, each person itself being God. It is something very important to Christian beliefs, but it can be hard to understandbecause it seems like a total paradox. Do you want to love and know God better and better every day? Obviously we cannot, for Scripture is clear that there is only one God: There is no other God besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. Phew. Partnering with urban churches to meet physical and spiritual needs. To most people today, the Trinity is a distinctly Christian concept, referring to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. According to this Christian doctrine, God is a triune being composed of the Holy Trinity as three coequal, eternal persons. And the Trinity is probably the most confusing doctrine as well. It is right for every Christian to pursue knowledge of God, fully expecting to attain it. Cults deny the deity of Christ because they cant comprehend how Jesus could be a man and God at the same time. The Trinity is not comprised of parts . A perfect illustration, no? The earliest Christians, however, had to cope with the implications of the coming of Jesus Christ and of the presumed presence and power of God among themi.e., the Holy Spirit, whose coming was connected with the celebration of Pentecost. There are so many things to learn about God and His desires for us, that getting caught up on the Holy Trinity and explaining it as something scientific can take us away from the glory of His creation. While I believe that this is a helpful definition, it should be recognized that Grudem himself is offering this as more of an explanation than definition of Person. And likewise with the Holy Spirit. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Meanwhile, Jesus is the Son of God, but also God. This law states that A cannot be both A (what it is) and non-A (what it is not) at the same time and in the same relationship. Satan Tempts Jesus in the Wilderness Bible Study Guide. Well, not so much, as the above analogies suggest. The general pattern of prayer in the Bible is to pray to the Father through the Son and in the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:18). What is the Concept of the Holy Trinity? The three Persons are distinct, yet only constitute one name. Rather, everything that one Person is involved in, the other two are also involved in, one way or another. In Christ we can know God, be fully united with him, and actually communicate with him, but full comprehension of his essence is not a part of the promise. It's all free! Why is the Holy Trinity important to Catholic faith? I remember my teacher desperately trying to explain the concept of one God but three persons using an alarming range of elaborate analogies that left an already largely apathetic class more bemused than ever. Thus, Jesus prayed to God the Father without praying to Himself. The defrocking ceremony was meant to humiliate a disgraced member of the clergy while discouraging laypeople from viewing him as a martyr. He is human-like, kind and he is loved by many. In the baptism of Jesus, we see the Father speaking from heaven and the Spirit descending from heaven in the form of a dove as Jesus comes out of the water (Mark 1:10-11). It sounds like a really hard math problem. To enjoy our website, you'll need to enable JavaScript in your web browser. Join our new membership program on Patreon today. In Neoplatonic philosophy both the nous and the idea of the world are designated the hypostases of the transcendent God. That's one reason why at times the Spirit may appear to be a person. If there is one passage which most clearly brings all of this together, it is Matthew 28:19: Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. First, notice that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinguished as distinct Persons. God is God in this way: God's way of being God is to be Father, Son, and Holy Spirit simultaneously from all eternity, perfectly complete in a triune fellowship of love. Explanations are indicated in the bible but, it requires deep understanding as some are embedded in scriptures. For example, since the Father sent the Son into the world (John 3:16), He cannot be the same person as the Son. Therefore, if the doctrine of the Trinity describes God in the most detail, it would also seem fitting that the doctrine of the Trinity would be most confusing to humans. It sounds confusing at first, but when we understand the jobs of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, breaking it up makes it easier for us to understand God. In actuality, the Holy Spirit doesn't have a separate center of consciousness from the Father and the Son, but these two members of the Godhead act through the Holy Spirit and are present through the universe through the Holy Spirit. Each person of the Trinity is fully and wholly God. This question was answered through the Neoplatonic metaphysics of being. So don't put away those eggs you were saving for your next sermon illustration just yet. The Council of Nicaea in 325 stated the crucial formula for that doctrine in its confession that the Son is of the same substance [homoousios] as the Father, even though it said very little about the Holy Spirit. The Trinity isn't for anything beyond itself, because the Trinity is God. JSTOR, the JSTOR logo, and ITHAKA are registered trademarks of ITHAKA. (2023, April 5). None of us can see God, not in a physical way. He has given us a written record of his truths and sent his Son to earth for this very purpose. A Trinity doctrine is commonly expressed as the statement that the one God exists as or in three equally divine "Persons", the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Help others in their faith journey through discipleship and mentoring. Veda COLUMN B A.) They are all eternal. Updates? At the same time, the divine persons are really distinct from one another. How can anyone, or anything, be three things and one thing all at the same time? Holy trinity is confusing for some christians and non-christians alike because they have different kind of beliefs depending on their religions and some elders are very strict when it comes to beliefs (God). During the Old Testament, most of the prophets and characters in the Bible interact with God, being described as a Supreme Being, with older form. He is interpreted as younger than the Father. Help us keep publishing stories that provide scholarly context to the news. Beliefs and Practices of UPCI United Pentecostal Church International, Compare Major Beliefs of 7 Christian Denominations, Biography of Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria. A part of Maat was the complementary male and female principles, both in the universe and in human society. It is crucial for properly understanding what God is like, how He relates to us, and how we should relate to Him. Their trinity god is 3 males. For I am God, and there is no other (Isaiah 45:21-22; see also 44:6-8; Exodus 15:11; Deuteronomy 4:35; 6:4-5; 32:39; 1 Samuel 2:2; 1 Kings 8:60). So a closer look at the fact that God is one in essence but three in person has helped to show why the Trinity is not a contradiction. The easiest flaw to identify with cults who claim to be Christian even though they deny the doctrine of the Trinity (almost always in relation to the deity of Christ) is that what they believe about God is fully comprehensible to the human mind. These statements help us understand the facts about the Trinity. What Is the Most Widely Practiced Religion in the World? So, think of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as the three pieces of God's personality. God is not one person who plays three different roles, as this illustration suggests. The doctrine of the Trinity is foundational to the Christian faith. Like many Egyptian gods, these divine beings started out as humans. The doctrine developed gradually over several centuries and through many controversies. The doctrine of the Trinity is considered to be one of the central Christian affirmations about God. They are three real persons, not three roles God plays. 3. Other statements may at first seem contradictory but are really not. Since God is one in a different way than He is three, the Trinity is not a contradiction. introduction in the play It's like the three stages of water: ice, liquid and vapour. Among churches that reject the doctrine of the . Confused? The guiding principle has been the creedal declaration that the . It should be a comfort embraced, not Scripture to be altered (as the cults do), when we run into truths of God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that rise above human logic. If God was to give us true information about himself, it would be fitting that some of it would be very confusing. Duty K.) Nirvana, ACTIVITY 1: WORD HUNT Directions: Find ten (10) words hidden in the puzzle box which is associated to Hinduism belief. The divine essence is thus not something that exists above or separate from the three Persons, but the divine essence is the being of the three Persons. While the core aspects of the Trinity are clearly presented in God's Word, some of the side issues are not as explicitly clear. Reaching students and faculty in middle and high school. Journal of Black Studies, Vol. However, the Holy Spirit isn't a person. Your Identity in Christ: How God Sees You. But he is also the King, reigning over us. Our fellowship with God should be enhanced by consciously knowing that we are relating to a tri-personal God! In a first act of becoming self-conscious the Logos recognizes itself as the divine mind (Greek: nous), or divine world reason, which was characterized by the Neoplatonic philosopher Plotinus as the Son who goes forth from the Father. God has revealed himself to us. This is very important: God is one and three at the same time, but not in the same way. The Church has not been good about this across the millennia. Get your fix of JSTOR Dailys best stories in your inbox each Thursday. The fact that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct Persons means, in other words, that the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father. What Is The Trinity In The Bible? At the risk of sounding too physical, essence can be understood as the stuff that you consist of.. . Point to Jesus speaking to the Father about sending the Holy Spirit," he says. Second, notice that each Person must be deity because they are all placed on the same level. If God is three Persons, does this mean that each Person is one-third of God? Feel free to email me with any questions or comments at markballenger@applygodsword.com. Do you need to devote yourself to unselfish religious deeds? If we can understand more precisely what is meant by essence and person, how these two terms differ, and how they relate, we will then have a more complete understanding of the Trinity. Jesus is God, but He is not the Father or the Holy Spirit. It consisted of the fact that God came to meet Christians in a threefold figure: (1) as Creator, Lord of the history of salvation, Father, and Judge, as revealed in the Old Testament; (2) as the Lord who, in the figure of Jesus Christ, lived among human beings and was present in their midst as the Resurrected One; and (3) as the Holy Spirit, whom they experienced as the power of the new life, the miraculous potency of the kingdom of God. Memory, Understanding, and Will. Use the links below to jump to a specific section: The doctrine of the Trinity means that there is one God who eternally exists as three distinct Persons the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The diversity in interpretation of the Trinity was conditioned especially through the understanding of the figure of Jesus Christ. What Was Gods Purpose for Israel in the Old Testament? And while men typically occupied the formal positions of political authority, royal women also had a powerful role in decision making.

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