Trinity

[aReformedPatriot]

Just want to make sure if this is right.

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit comprise one God, yet are 3 distinct persons. They never operate independantly of one another right?

Can someone explain the trinity in one paragraph for me

 

[DiscipleOfIAm]

My understanding is that they do operate independently of one another. They each have a distinct role and the three form the "Godhead". The Holy Spirit guides us and speaks to us, Jesus is our Saviour, God is our creator. I'm sure there is more to it than that, but that's my basic understanding.

The Trinity has always been a hard one for me. As a kid I didn't really think about it. I'm not even sure I knew about it. I treated all three as three separate beings, but treated them in an order of rank so to speak. God the highest, then the Son, then the Holy Spirit. As an adult, I've boggled my mind trying to grasp it. Nowhere in the Bible do you find the word "trinity", but you don't find the word "bible" either and we believe that!

 

[danclang]

Trinity is the humanization of God. It's not bad, just a way for us to conceptionalize, in human terms, who God is. As human, you can't be yourself and someone else at the same time. For God, who is believed to be omnipotent and omnisent (sp) it's nothing to fret over. Triune God is us dealing with the God-head being God, Jesus being God and the Holy Spirit being God all at the same time and interacted with us humans on different levels and having different characteristics.

 

[aReformedPatriot]

My understanding is that they do operate independently of one another. They each have a distinct role and the three form the "Godhead". The Holy Spirit guides us and speaks to us, Jesus is our Saviour, God is our creator. I'm sure there is more to it than that, but that's my basic understanding.

The Trinity has always been a hard one for me. As a kid I didn't really think about it. I'm not even sure I knew about it. I treated all three as three separate beings, but treated them in an order of rank so to speak. God the highest, then the Son, then the Holy Spirit. As an adult, I've boggled my mind trying to grasp it. Nowhere in the Bible do you find the word "trinity", but you don't find the word "bible" either and we believe that!

it is truley mysterious, and I should have said "they never contradict one another."

 

[eutychus]

It's something we'll never understand. They all work together, yet they all work apart. Scripture notes that the Spirit moves where it wishes, but that it hears everything from the Father (and nothing that's not from the Father). The Father distributes wrath, yet the Son is pleading the Father on our behalf not to bestow wrath.

It's amazing how God is so complex and we're so lacking, with grasping this issue alone.

 

[Gold Dragon]

Three are one and one are three.

Any simple explanations of the nature of this mystery that I can understand is probably heretical in one fashion or another. Letting mystery remain mystery is not one of the fortes of man.

 

[rural_preacher]

Can someone explain the trinity in one paragraph for me

No


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[ZiSunka]

The Trinity cannot be explained in one paragraph any more than astrophysics can be explained in one paragraph. God is too complex for the human mind to comprehend fully. He's not some cosmic human in the sky, he's a totally different kind of being.

 

[aReformedPatriot]

No


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Do it in under 45. I dont need every theological aspect I just need enough knowledge to make a basic statement about reality of the trinity.

 

[ZiSunka]

God is a being that is easiest for humans to understand as being three separate entities completely intertwined and fused into a single being. That doesn't mean that it is easy to understand God this way, but is the easiest way for God to explain his being to us.

 

[rural_preacher]

Do it in under 45. I dont need every theological aspect I just need enough knowledge to make a basic statement about reality of the trinity.

Here is the statement from the Articles of Faith for the Fellowship of Regular Baptist Churches:

II. The True God
We believe there is one and only one living and true God, an infinite Spirit, the Maker and supreme Ruler of Heaven and earth; inexpressibly glorious in holiness, and worthy of all possible honor, confidence and love; that in the unity of the Godhead there are three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, equal in every divine perfection and executing distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption. Exodus 20:2, 3; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Revelation 4:11.

An additional statement is made about the Holy Spirit to affirm that He is a divine person and not merely an energy or force emanating from God:

III. The Holy Spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, equal with God the Father and God the Son and of the same nature; that He was active in the creation; that in His relation to the unbelieving world He restrains the evil one until God's purpose is fulfilled; that He convicts of sin, of righteousness and of judgment; that He bears witness to the truth of the gospel in preaching and testimony; that He is the Agent in the new birth; that He seals, endues, guides, teaches, witnesses, sanctifies and helps the believer.John 14:16, 17; Matthew 28:19; Hebrews 9:14; John 14:26; Luke 1:35; Genesis 1:1-3; John 16:8-11; Acts 5:30-32; John 3:5, 6; Ephesians 1:13, 14; Mark 1:8; John 1:33; Acts 11:16; Luke 24:49; Romans 8:14, 16, 26, 27; 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, 28-30; 13:8-10; 14:1-40; 2 Corinthians 12:12; Hebrews 2:2-4.

Sometimes the statements made in confessions and articles of faith can be very helpful in articulating what one believes. Of course, the Word of God is the final standard, not the statements themselves. It is worth the time to look up and study the referenced Scripture passages.

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[GreenEyedLady]

1 Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

I just look at this verse and say, ok its a mystery. I accept what the scriptures reveal to us on who God is. I like this verse and quote it often.
GEL

 

[aReformedPatriot]

Here is the statement from the Articles of Faith for the Fellowship of Regular Baptist Churches:


An additional statement is made about the Holy Spirit to affirm that He is a divine person and not merely an energy or force emanating from God:


Sometimes the statements made in confessions and articles of faith can be very helpful in articulating what one believes. Of course, the Word of God is the final standard, not the statements themselves. It is worth the time to look up and study the referenced Scripture passages.

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Good Stuff, thanks Brother!

 

[S.T.A.R.S.]

If you look at the trinity as a mathmatical problem you get two views...

1+1+1= 3

or

1*1*1= 1

I believe in the latter part.

 

[ZiSunka]

I like the math model you just used STARS. It makes sense because sometimes 1+1+1=3, when each set contains exactly the same element.

So it would be something like this:

[Father]+[Son]+[Holy Spirit]=[God] Where the first set is all beings who are God, the second set is all beings who are God and the third set is all beings who are God. Since they are distinct but inseperable, they each are all beings who are God. So there are three sets in which there are beings who are God and the union of all sets in which there are beings who are God has a value of 1.