How can God be simultaneously a Trinity of Persons, and yet one?

The Times said:

You are one being, yet you can exhibit multiple personalities within your being. This would be called multiple personality disorder.

However God is one of his kind, the first and the last of his kind, the Alpha and Omega. An infinite being, responsible for all things. Within the one God being, exists coeternally, and coequally three distinct personas/personalities. How that is, is not revealed.

But, if you were one being, who exhibited multiple personalities, then you are still one in being, but your personas are distinct. Within humanity this would be a psychological sickness, however within God it is completion. That is why in the Old Testament their prayers always repeated Holy three times. Every person within the one God is God because they are the same one substance, that is being, meaning I Am that I Am.

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Homoousion (/ˌhɒmoʊˈuːsiən/ HOM-oh-OO-see-ən; Greek: ὁμοούσιος, translit. homooúsios, lit. 'one in being', from ὁμός, homós, "same" and οὐσία, ousía, "being") is a Christian theological doctrine pertaining to the Trinitarian understanding of God. The Nicene Creed describes Jesus (God the Son) as being ὁμοούσιος, "one in being" or "of single essence", with God the Father. It is one of the cornerstones of theology in Nicene Christianity.

jwilliams190800 said:

This is something that's bugged me for quite a while and I can't seem to get my head around it.
I constantly see things which, to my mind, seem to contradict, sometimes God is referred to as part or the whole of the Holy Trinity, but then in the Creeds, we profess that we believe in one God.
In short, I struggle with the idea of 3-in-1 and 1-in-3 aspect of God

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Keep these 5 points in mind about the Trinity:
(1) The word "Trinity" does not appear in the Bible.

(2) The earliest Christian reference to the "Trinity" does not identify it as "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit," but rather as "God, God's Word [= Christ] and God's Wisdom " (see Theophilus, bishop of Antioch--180 AD).

(3) Where did this orthodox bishop get this Trinity? Well, in the OT, Lady Wisdom is personified (see e.g. Proverbs 8), not the Holy Spirit.

(4) The word "person" is never applied to God in Scripture. The earliest application of this word ("persona") to the Trinity is found in the Latin Fathers, initially in Tertullian c. 208 AD). But "persona" literally means "mask;" so Tertullian is referring to the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit as the 3 masks of God. Such language is alien to biblical theology.

(5) The Bible is not a book of systematic theology. Thus, "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" are 3 ways of speaking about God, but are not clearly defined. As the "Word" [Greek: "Logos"), Christ is the rational Self-expression of God as opposed to God in His unknowability. Christ is our heavenly mediator and intercessor; and so, He commands us to pray to the Father in Jesus' name, not to Jesus or the Holy Spirit. "The Holy Spirit" is the expression applied to God's saving power in action. So we are saved by the regeneration work of the Holy Spirit; and Paul speaks of the gifts of the Spirit and the 9 fruit of the Spirit, not the gifts (charisms) of Christ and the 9 fruits of "Christ.

jwilliams190800 said:

to find other views and some clarification from scripture

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This is the key.
Shalom in JESUS, simply.
ASK JESUS, simply. (to grant understanding from Scripture,
while ignoring whatever is wrong and in error from men.)

One God being has three personas, who are distinct from one another. The Father, the Son and the Spirit are the one being, but are personalities, that would qualify them as separate personas, but inseparable as being, that being is the ONE I Am.

Being means living consciousness, which defines the essence.

For example, you are one in essence and in being, but can attribute multiple personalities.

God is the only entity where there are three Persons in total unity with each other. It is difficult to conceive that there are three persons, each having no opinion of their own, but share the same principles without any conflict or difference of opinion. The Father is a great Architect, and the Son follows exactly the will of the Father without even a hint of dissention. The Holy Spirit follows the will of the Son in the same way.

The reason we can't comprehend it is that we cannot conceive of three people being in such total unity when the Son and the Holy Spirit do not follow their own will, but the will of the Father. Each Person has their own role and function, but in total harmony with the plans and purpose of the Father.

This how Jesus can say that who has seen Him has seen the Father, and that He and the Father are one. The oneness is in will and purpose, as well as nature and character. What Jesus is saying is that once a person has seen and experienced Him, there is no point looking for anything different in the Father, because Jesus shares totally the will, plan, purpose, character, and nature of the Father, so much so, that Jesus is the physical representation of the Father, who, is a Spirit and no one has ever seen Him.

This is why the manifestations of God in the Old Testament are often the Son of God. The glory that Moses saw on Mt Sinai, I believe, was the glory of the Son, and that the presence in the Temple was the Son. The Old Testament folks had no idea that God was three Persons. This is why they saw Him as one Person, because that was all that was revealed to them at the time. It was only when Jesus appeared on earth that people started to realise that God made up more than just one Person. The Holy Spirit was not seen as a Person in His own right until the Day of Pentecost.

The reason why God has not bothered to explain His three Person nature, is that He doesn't have to. Why should He? Does the Potter has to justify Himself to the clay?

The Old Testament writers recital of prayers allways said Holy three times, as to point to three Holy personas of the one God.

jwilliams190800 said:

Quite a thorough explanation, and I think it is useful to understand scripturally where the basis of the Trinity is, especially the part about translating Hebrew to English, so thank you

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You're welcome.

jwilliams190800 said:

I struggle with the idea of 3-in-1 and 1-in-3 aspect of God

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Maybe something down to earth will be simpler?

Try sub-atomic particles - like a photon. It is a particle, a wave and a field at the same time. Each has special characteristics that distinguish it from the others, but they are all "one."

Since I can't grasp this and yet it can (is) demonstrated by scientists, I don't bother trying to figure out God's "structure." And I don't have to. Jesus was sent to show us the Father - and the Spirit leads us into all truth about the Son. Since it is the relationship of Son-Father that is relevant to us as social beings with whom God wants a relationship, that is all I need to focus on. Focus on the Son, and you will find the Father - and the Spirit will confirm with your spirit that it has happened.

Jesus never actually said that he was part of the Trinity, or even the Jewish Messiah. There was much, very much that our Lord, whom we trust, could not tell us and for divinely wise reasons.

We can learn a lot about Jesus from what he did NOT say compared to the speculation, conjecture and evolved assumptions.

jwilliams190800 said:

So why do we often talk about God as one Person, for example Exodus 3:14, we are given that God is called 'I AM WHO I AM', so why is it possible to ignore that and assume that God is three Persons in 1? If God wasn't a singular being, Exodus 3:14 would surely read 'WE ARE WHO WE ARE', no?

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I think part of the problem here is conflating terms.

The Athanasian Creed has this statement, "We worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the Persons nor dividing the Substance."

The Oneness of God is God's Being, His Substance, Essence, or in Greek Ousia.
The Threeness of God is the Three Persons or in Greek Hypostases.

The word ousia refers to the fundamental what or "is-ness" of a thing. A tree has tree-ness, a rock has rock-ness. My ousia is human-ness, humanity, I am a human being. Think of "being" as "is-ness", what a thing is. That's what ousia refers to.

The word hypostasis is an interesting one, but you can think of it as referring to "this-ness", the underlying, fundamental reality of something as a concrete, real, distinct this.

As such we refer to Three Hypostases. That is to say, when we speak of the Father, we speak of the Hypostasis of the Father, that this One is indeed the Father, He is the Father of the Son. We do not mean merely that there is an external perceived distinction between the Father and the Son, we mean there is a real distinction--the Father is actually Father, the Father of the Son. The Son is actually Son, the Son of the Father. The Spirit is actually the Spirit, the Spirit of the Father and the Son. There is an actual, real distinction; because there is a real relationship between the Three.

And yet, we do not have three Beings, we have one Being. Because the Ousia of the Father, what the Father is, is the same what which the Son is and what the Spirit is. The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God--one God. Because the Being is one, undivided, absolute.

The Three are One. The One is Three.

And we do not mean here merely Being as "kind" as though the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are three examples of Divinity; in the same way that you, me, and that guy over there are three human beings. There are not three Divine Beings, there is one Divine Being.

We say this by speaking of the Son's eternal generation from the Father, and the Spirit's eternal procession from the Father [and the Son]. The Son does not have being apart from the Father, but in and of the Father, eternally--the Son therefore is what the Father is. The Spirit, likewise, proceeding, is what the Father and the Son. The Son is the one and only God, indivisible and supreme, because He is what the Father is; and the Spirit likewise on account of what the Father is. And this from all eternity.

The Father is God. The one and only God.
The Son is God. The one and only God.
The Spirit is God. The one and only God.

Because the Three are the one and only God.

The Son is God because He is eternally homoousios with the Father.
The Spirit is God because He is eternally homoousios with the Father and the Son.

Homoousios is Greek meaning "same Being", homo ("same") + ousia ("being").

Thus there is one God, the Father, the Almighty Maker of heaven and earth, of all things seen and unseen. And in Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son our Lord, eternally begotten of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten not made, of one Being with the Father. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father [and the Son] who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified.

One God. Worshiped in Trinity, Trinity in Unity, neither confusing the Persons nor dividing the Substance.

-CryptoLutheran

Colter said:

or even the Jewish Messiah.

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Wrong.

"The woman said, 'I know that Messiah is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.' Then Jesus declared, 'I, the one speaking to you, am He.'" - John 4:25-26

-CryptoLutheran

no where in ot can you find god or any prophet saying father son holy spirit or that god is 3 persons but 1 god.

jovanovic said:

no where in ot can you find god or any prophet saying father son holy spirit or that god is 3 persons but 1 god.

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The New Catholic Encyclopedia: "The formulation ‘one God in three persons’ was not solidly established, certainly not fully assimilated into Christian life and its profession of faith, prior to the end of the 4th century. But it is precisely this formula that has first claim to the title of the Trinitarian dogma. Among the Apostolic Fathers, there had been nothing even remotely approaching such a mentality or perspective." – (1967), Vol. XIV, p. 299.

Holy Trinity is not a description of God, but a description of a human experience of God. The Holy Trinity is a doctrine, adopted by the Christian Church in the 4th century as a way of processing and understanding their experience with God. It is a product of dualistic Greek thinking which separated God from humanity; the holy from the profane; the flesh from the spirit, and the body from the soul. That was a cultural mindset and no one in that era of history knew how to step outside that frame of reference. However, that frame of reference died in that period of history we call the Enlightenment, leaving modern Christians with the impossible task of fitting a 4th century doctrine into a 21st century world view out of which it does not come and to which it cannot speak. Does that mean that the Trinitarian experience is wrong? No, I don’t think it means that, but it does mean that the Trinitarian language, which we use as we to seek to relate the Trinitarian experience is simply irrelevant.
~~~ John Spong

jwilliams190800 said:

This is something that's bugged me for quite a while and I can't seem to get my head around it.
I constantly see things which, to my mind, seem to contradict, sometimes God is referred to as part or the whole of the Holy Trinity, but then in the Creeds, we profess that we believe in one God.
In short, I struggle with the idea of 3-in-1 and 1-in-3 aspect of God

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You are one being, but in three distinct parts. You are a core self (simple/personal awareness), you are your thoughts (cognitive powers), and you are your feelings (affective powers). There would be no you without these three distinct aspects of your being. Likewise, God has cognitive powers (the Logos/Word) and affective power (the Holy Spirit). The key difference with God is that God's distinct parts are also distinct eternal persons, but together they are the One God, just as your three distinct parts "together" are the one and only YOU.

jovanovic said:

no where in ot can you find god or any prophet saying father son holy spirit or that god is 3 persons but 1 god.

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The Old Testament prophets hadn't receive the perfect revelation of God that we have received in Christ. So, why would they have ever said it?

tampasteve said:

Jesus did afirm that he was the Messiah:
John 4:25-26
The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.

Mark 8:29-30
And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ.
30 And he charged them that they should tell no man of him.

Matthew 16:15-17
He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

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Jesus knew he could never fit the expectations of a Jewish Messiah, however he allowed the Father to untangle the mess between the expectations of the Jews and the reality of who Jesus really was and still is. He allowed his followers to see him as the expected deliverer even though he was in fact very different. Judaism has NO concept, belief, theology or doctrine of God having a divine Son in heaven. Jesus, the Son of God, do not fulfill the expectations of the Messiah, he left! And in leaving he left his followers in that age with the speculation that he would soon return. He didn't.