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God's Tri-Unity, often called the Trinity The idea here is that while there is only one God, God exists eternally in three persons. This is confusing to many people. If you are one of them, don't feel too badly, perhaps no one understands fully what that means. Don't worry though, just because we do not understand something, that does not mean that it is not true, or that we need to understand it before we can believe it. When I was a child, I believed that when I threw a light switch, the light would come on. That did not require me understanding how or why it worked. It also did not require me to experience it before I believed it worked. Had one of my parents told me that if I threw the switch that the light would come on, I would have believed simply because I trusted the source of the information. It is often said "The word trinity is not in the Bible"! That is true, and we are not claiming that the Bible uses the word. We ARE claiming that the Bible teaches the concept, even though at times it is not obvious that it is attempting to do so. Here is how we come to the conclusion. The Bible tells us, that there is only one God. The Bible tells us of a person it calls "the Father", and that He is God. The Bible tells us of another person called the Son, or Jesus, or the Word, and that this person is God. The Bible tells of of yet another person (the Holt Spirit) who the Bible also refers to as God. Therefore the math is 1 + 1 + 1 = 1 : Three divine persons are the one God. Don't get hung up on the language. We tend to think of a person as another person like us, fellow humans. What we mean here, is that these persons, have traits of persons, such as they have wills, thoughts, emotions, the communicate, they take actions, etc., in other words they are personalities. God is God. For lack of a better theological term, He is divine, and only He is divine, made of "God stuff", so to speak. Three persons of one divine substance, distinct in personhood, yet sharing a will in unity. People try to come up with analogies, such as an egg is made of a white, a yolk, and a shell, yet they are all one egg. Another common one, is water, it can exist as a gas (steam or water vapor), liquid, or solid (ice). I am not fond of these analogies (though I will use other lame analogies in a moment anyway). I don't like them, because they always fall short. That is to be expected, because we are using analogies made from the creation, which is an entirely different classification from that of creator, so of course it falls short. There is also the limitation, that we have limited information from words in the Bible, and the limitations of our own minds, with which we are attempting to comprehend a being infinitely more complex than out minds are capable of understanding. The Father is called God 2 Thess 1:2 To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ The Son is called God John 1:1-5, John 10:30-33, John 20:27-28, Heb 1:8, Phil 2:5-11 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 30 I and the Father are one.” 31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 8 But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. The Holy Spirit is called God Acts 5:3-4, 2 Cor 3:15-18 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” 15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Then there are passages, the mention the three persons in the same breath so to speak. We know from Johns gospel. that the Son (as the pre-incarnate Word of God) was there in the beginning of creation, and in fact, created everything. Looking back in Genesis, we see a glimpse of that - God there is called in the Hebrew, Elohim (a plural word). We pretty much assume that God, later called the Father in the New Testament. Of the beginning, Genesis says: 1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. There you have God, and the Spirit of God in one sentence, and in verse 26 it says "Then God said, “Let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness." That is the 1st example. if you like, you can look up Matt 3:16-17, Matt 28:19, 2 Cor 13:14 for a few more. Not to belabor the point, but there are over 60 such instances in the Bible. Then there are people who have difficulty just because the believe there is a conflict between something being singular and plural at the same time. They think it is logically impossible. How can something(s) (or someone(s)) be both singular and plural? I can be one or the other, but not both, they say! Again, I point out, that our experience in the physical world we know and experience, need not limit our thinking about the spiritual realm where things might be different in ways we do not (and perhaps cannot) imagine. People also fail to recognize how common it is in our language, to have both singularity and plurality represented, and we do not give it a second thought. What is a team, or a pair, or a committee? What about words like consensus, or union, agreement. Ever hear of a congress of one? Ironically in my country we have a congress, which is made two bodies, the House of Representatives, and the Senate, and each of those also has many members. Again, these are flawed analogies because they are physical things, but they do demonstrate that something can be plural and single at the same time. Supposedly, my country is ONE nation, under God (330,000,000 people are ONE nation.) U.S. coinage has printed on it "E pluribus unum" - our of many, one! The concept is all around us.