Explaining the Holy Trinity?

[lori96]

Please help me figure out how to explain this.

I brought a non-Christian friend with me to church, and we afterwards we started talking about what each of us believed. He said that he believed in God, but when I asked him if he thought that Jesus was the only path to God, he said no. The concept of the Holy Trinity came up, and he was was very surprised that I believed that Jesus and God were one and the same. He knew that Jesus was the Son of God, but he wasn't aware that Jesus WAS God. He was intrigued by this idea and wants to know more, but I'm confused about how I should explain it.

I'm fairly new at this myself, and I'm hoping that you'll all share your knowledge with me so I can give him an accurate picture. I was able to quote John 1:1-2,14 and John 10:30 (which I'm told is misinterpreted in the English version), but then I found that every other verse I could think of did refer to Jesus as the son or servant of God, not actually God himself.

Please help?

 

[Elijah2]

Oh boy, it's not easy to explain the trinity to an unbeliever.

Basically, all you can say, is that God, our Heavenly Father came to earth as a human, and He died on the cross for our sins.

Now the best way to get your friend to understand the trinity, firstly, you need to get your friend to understand who our Lord Jesus Christ is.

Until they understant who HE is, then you've got no hope, because an unbeliever who believes there is a God, but his god might be the little "g", and not the big "G".

 

[salida]

Newbie---

I can help and will explain it in a nutshell with scriptures. There is many more verses but it would fill up this page ha.

There are three platforms here.

First is that there is one God: Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me, Isaiah 43:10.

Second, in hundreds of scripture passages the Father, Son and Holy Spirit declare that they are all fully and completely God:
I Corinthians 8:6- one God the Father
Father speaking to the Son says- Your throne, O God will last forever and forever, Hebrews 1:8.
Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit, Acts 5:3-4.

Lastly, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are eternally distinct.
The Father and Son love one another, John 17:1-26.
Together they send the Holy Spirit, John 15:26
Jesus proclaims that He and the Father are two distinct witnesses and two distinct judges, John 8:14-18.

They are all eternally distinct and the same in essense, nature, power and authority. Its the one What and the Three Who's.

 

[malckiah]

Hello friend, i am at work and unable to look things up so please bear with me, but i can give you a few verses from memory that should help out.
By the way John 1:1-14 is not misrepresented in English, there are a few choices of wording that you could render it as, but if you look at the original greek, it is acurate and powerful!
also look at:These all show that indeed Jesus is God!
1 John 5:20
2 Peter 1:1
Titus 2:13
Isaiah 9:6
John 8:58

Hopefully these will help, trust me they are worth looking up! God Bless You! amen.

 

[Johnnz]

The Trinity took quite a while for the church fathers to get their head around, so you are in good company. Visit your local bookstore and see what is available. A good study will be helpful for you anyway.

John
NZ

 

[DIVA_for_Christ]

Please help me figure out how to explain this.

I brought a non-Christian friend with me to church, and we afterwards we started talking about what each of us believed. He said that he believed in God, but when I asked him if he thought that Jesus was the only path to God, he said no. The concept of the Holy Trinity came up, and he was was very surprised that I believed that Jesus and God were one and the same. He knew that Jesus was the Son of God, but he wasn't aware that Jesus WAS God. He was intrigued by this idea and wants to know more, but I'm confused about how I should explain it.

I'm fairly new at this myself, and I'm hoping that you'll all share your knowledge with me so I can give him an accurate picture. I was able to quote John 1:1-2,14 and John 10:30 (which I'm told is misinterpreted in the English version), but then I found that every other verse I could think of did refer to Jesus as the son or servant of God, not actually God himself.

Please help?

Others have helped with scriptures so I'll try to help from a different angle one that helped me. In my seeking God out for an understanding, He explained to me in a way that He know I would understand at that time.

We have God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. All one in the same yet manifested with different purposes. However, without God the Father, there would be no Son or Holy Spirit.

The analogy He gave me was water in it's three forms: Liquid, Ice and Steam, they are all one in the same yet manifested in different forms for different purposes. Yet without water, there would be no ice or steam.

The water analogy helped me see how all three were the same source, just in different forms having different functions. Yet if the source was taken away, the other forms could not exist.

Hope this helps at least a little bit.

 

[heymikey80]

I'm more on the philosophical side, and I see the Trinity emerging as theologians tried to tackle the philosophy of what had actually happened in First Century Judea. So maybe it'll help; if not, don't worry about it.

We talk about God as being Personal, but that's not precisely true. God's beyond Personal. God transcends human personhood just like He does anything else. He's God. And God also transcends creational boundaries.

But we can't get beyond things like personhood, and creation. We live in creational existence. We live with human beings. One person, one body.

What would a transcendent Being look like to us? Well, He would probably confuse some of our ideas about "one person, one body". There would be unseen (spiritual?) connections between ... what seem to be different Persons to us. Yet there would be unity in areas that are downright baffling.

And that's what we see in Scripture about this guy 2000 years ago. Jesus accepts worship from men as if He's God. Jesus forgives people as if He's God. (Think how crazy he would seem if some dusty preacher comes up, lists off your sins, and then says, "But I forgive you.") Jesus claimed to be God -- though in public these claims were often cryptic. And Jesus' closest followers claimed He was God (Jn 1:1).

 

[AvgJoe]

Please help me figure out how to explain this.

I brought a non-Christian friend with me to church, and we afterwards we started talking about what each of us believed. He said that he believed in God, but when I asked him if he thought that Jesus was the only path to God, he said no. The concept of the Holy Trinity came up, and he was was very surprised that I believed that Jesus and God were one and the same. He knew that Jesus was the Son of God, but he wasn't aware that Jesus WAS God. He was intrigued by this idea and wants to know more, but I'm confused about how I should explain it.

I'm fairly new at this myself, and I'm hoping that you'll all share your knowledge with me so I can give him an accurate picture. I was able to quote John 1:1-2,14 and John 10:30 (which I'm told is misinterpreted in the English version), but then I found that every other verse I could think of did refer to Jesus as the son or servant of God, not actually God himself.

Please help?

Following is a short article I wrote on 1 John 4:2-3:

Jesus in the flesh = God in the flesh​

1 John 4:2-3
2) Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3) And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

Does these passages simply mean that Jesus came to this world as a man, in the flesh, and only as a man? Or is there more to it than that?

John 1:14
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…

Who is this Word?

John 1:15
John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.

John 1:29-30
29) The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world. 30) This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me.

John bore witness of the Word. John said Jesus is the on of which he bore witness. Jesus is the Word.

John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Jesus is the Word. The Word is God. Jesus is God.

1 John 4:2-3
2) Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ (God) is come in the flesh is of God: 3) And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ (God) is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.



Also, the following website will be a tremendous help with the Trinity.

http://www.carm.org/doctrine.htm

Scroll about 1/2 way down the page and you'll find 3 sections on the Trinity. Very informative.

 

[mooduck1]

Ok, I've been a Christian for almost 20 yrs and i can say withgout flinching that you will NEVER be able to saticfactorally explain this to ANYONE. Not because it isn't true, but because God's nature is really a mystery. Philosphers an theologians can give you models but ultimately these models are likely only moon cast shadows of the truth. As Paul says "now we see through a Dirty mirror. You Either accept it or you don't but you can;t really explain God's nature.

 

[eoj]

God in the Old Testament:

But Moses said to God, "I am nobody. How can I go to the king and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" God answered, "I will be with you, and when you bring the people out of Egypt, you will worship me on this mountain. That will be the proof that I have sent you." But Moses replied, "When I go to the Israelites and say to them, "The God of your ancestors sent me to you,' they will ask me, "What is his name?' So what can I tell them?" God said, "I am who I am. You must tell them: "The one who is called 'I AM' has sent me to you.' Tell the Israelites that I, the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, have sent you to them. This is my name forever; this is what all future generations are to call me.


God as Jesus Christ in the New Testament:

The Word (God) became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father's only Son. John 1:14

"I am telling you the truth!" Jesus replied. "Before Abraham was born, "I AM." John 8:58

Have a Merry Christmas and Peace, joy and love be in you and with you friend.

EOJ

 

[InnocentOdion]

I personally think that a person without the Holy Spirit cannot understand the Trinity - the reason being they try to limit God to something that THEY are comfortable with, that THEY can understand, and THEY can explain, instead of understanding that God is a mystery and nobody can ever comprehend him... but that's my belief. It just seems like a waste of breath to me.

I try to explain it like this:

God is outside the laws of time, space and the universe, which means he can be everywhere, or not, at once.

• God the Father is the Creator, of everything seen and unseen, creator of [all of] the universe.

• Jesus is God in the flesh - nobody can see the Father's face, it is written. It's my personal opinion that when people spoke to God in the Old Testament whilst on Earth, they were talking to Christ. The NT has a lot of things which show his divine attributes as God, for example, he says to worship only God, yet he accepted worship.

• The Holy Spirit is the invisible spirit of God, on Earth, but he is invisible and can't be seen, he is the one who works in mysterious ways, and gives the power of prophecy, speaking in tongues, exercising evil spirits, etc.

They all make God; the only difference is what they do. I can be a student, an employee and a father, but I'm still me - I'm just doing different things, and if I were outside the laws of time and space, I could do them all at once, I can't do them all at once if I'm inside the laws of time and space, unless I'm a student employee's father! Yet, God can do all this and more.

Just my perosnal view.

In God's love, from which we may all grow strong.
IO

 

[LovesToRead]

Ok, I've been a Christian for almost 20 yrs and i can say withgout flinching that you will NEVER be able to saticfactorally explain this to ANYONE. Not because it isn't true, but because God's nature is really a mystery. Philosphers an theologians can give you models but ultimately these models are likely only moon cast shadows of the truth. As Paul says "now we see through a Dirty mirror. You Either accept it or you don't but you can;t really explain God's nature.

I agree.

We do tend to want God to be completely understandable by us, who are His creation.

We have a lot of conversations around my house about this type of thing; my husband and I were both saved in the early 70's and we have a teen son. So, this is NOT something easy, as others have shared.

I will share two books titles for you, both of which are extremely readable.

The Forgotten Trinity by James R. White

AND

Dr. Doctrine's Christian Comix On the Trinity
48 pages -- Fred Sanders

This is a really interesting and short book done in comic book form. We just gave it to our son for Christmas and I read the whole thing on Christmas Day.

It's not at all childish, rather, the drawings are used to show how Christians attempted to portray the Trinity down through the ages. It discusses in a good bit of detail how we try to come to a conclusion and explain the Trinity.

It's available from the Stand To Reason website, which is an excellent source for resources on many thought-provoking topics about Christianity.

Hope this helps, along with everything everyone else has been sharing. God bless.

 

[sellingsell]

Well, my mom always explained the Trinity like this:

A woman can be a mother, a daughter, and a sister. Three different roles in one person.

But yeah.

 

[JTLauder]

Another good analogy I've heard it explained is if you look at a clover leaf. It's got 3 petals--each separate and distinct petals, yet together they form the single clover leaf.