My humble take on the trinity has been purely mathematical, for the most part. It is based on the premise that God has an infinite nature. Being that infinity is unlike any of the finite numbers, I would argue that finite beings like us would get a false view of the Trinity any time we use finite analogies to describe him/them. If we compare God to the leaves of a clover, or the layers of an egg, or whatnot, we use imagery that is easier to grasp, but further from the truth.
The mathematical understanding of infinity is not so much to work with it directly, but to approach it. We say that as x approaches infinity, then certain things become true about it. For example, as x approaches infinity, 3x equals 1x. That is to say that if such a number as infinity could exist, then three infinities is synonymous with one infinity. You can't say this about any other number, except maybe zero. Multiples of four do not equal four. They might equal eight, or twelve, or sixteen, but more than one multiple of four never equals four. With infinity, any multiple of infinity is the same as one infinity. In other words, if it were possible to make another god, complete with the infinite nature of God, then that god could not exist without also being God. If God had been four or five or six, and if each of those units had been infinite in nature, then all of them would necessarily have been God, singular. If we say that God is infinite, and if we say that God is three, then it means the very same thing as saying that God is one. Being one does not rule out being also three, so long as we are discussing an infinite being.
The statement goes as follows:
(Limit as x approaches infinity)
3x = 1x
The question was whether that 1x on the right can be brought over to the 3x on the left to make a total of 4x. That would violate the rules of logic. Let's take a more traditional equation:
2 apples + 2 apples = 4 apples
If we took the 4 apples on the right and brought them over to the left side, then what we would be doing is subtracting 4 from the right and adding 4 to the left, which is incorrect. It would give us this:
2 apples + 2 apples + 4 apples = 0 apples
Working with infinity is more abstract, but that rule still holds true. If we take the statement, "I am Fred," we could express it mathematically:
I = Fred
No, we can't say that because I am Fred that it means that there are two of us (I, and Fred). The same logic works when we say that three of God is the same as one of God. It doesn't logically follow that it totals four of God. No one ever said there was four of God. All we said was that if God is three, then that is the same as saying that God is one (three God equals one God).
Well, that was probably as confusing as a snowball's most inhospitable environment, but that's the way I see it, in case it means anything to you.
