Who can explain the holy trinity?

Question

Father, Son, Holy Ghost. Ok I know that but are all three the same person or different. I was not raised Catholic but I now go to a Catholic church. I was raised there is a God and Jesus was his son and the holy spirit was Jesus after he died. I really want to understand the trinity as a Catholic because my husband and I want to raise our son Catholic.

Answer 1

My understanding is that the trinity is of one soul.
It's like water/ice/steam are all H2O, Father/Son/Holy Spirit are all God just in 3 manifestations.

Answer 2

The Catholic church teaches that the workings of the Holy Trinity is a sublime mystery which is beyond human understanding.

Judging by all the various answers you've already received, the church is right.

You have things a bit mixed up, though.

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all co-equal and co-eternal, and together they constitute the one, true, God.

Jesus is the Son, the 2nd person of the Trinity, and was always that person. The only thing different now, since his time on earth, is that he has a human body, too.

The Father and the Holy Spirit remain pure spirits (as far as we know).

For more, go here:

http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc.htm

Also, email for a copy of my Catholic Resource CD. It's free, and it has the catechism, the Bible, plus all sorts of other great stuff on it, that you can use to teach your son.

Answer 3

The Bible teaches us there is only one God "Here O Israel the Lord your God is one". This means that he is one in nature or essence which is Spirit as the Bible says "God is Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and truth." The Bible teachs us that God is reveled to us in three distinct persons who are eternally distinct the Father, Son & Holy Spirit. The Bible also teaches us that the Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God. Some people try to say that they are all the same person but this is incorrect. Just take the example of Jesus baptism. We see Jesus being baptized the Father speaking from heaven "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" and the Holy Spirit desending in the form of a dove. Many other examples can also be found in the Scripture. If you would like more information, goto www.equip.org. As for the person who said that the story of the woman caught in adultry was not in the Bible before 400 AD is not true. Just because we don't have manuscripts before 400 AD for this portion of the text doesn't mean that this was not part of the original text. When we compare our text today with the manuscripts that have been found we find no differences in doctrine. There are differences in spelling and grammar but not in the meaning. Since the older manuscripts that have been found are not different from our current text, why would anyone assume that older manuscripts didn't have this portion of the text.

Answer 4

I will try. The Father is God. Jesus, his son is everything the Father knows about himself--his DNA kind of. The Holy Spirit is the entity that is the love between the Father and the Son that was so strong it took its own form. So they are all the same God but three different persons

Answer 5

‘Christ according to the faith, is the second person in the Trinity, the Father being the first and the holy Ghost the third. Each of these three persons is God. Christ is his own father and his own son. The Holy Ghost is neither father nor son, but both. The son was begotten by the father, but existed before he was begotten--just the same before as after. Christ is just as old as his father, and the father is just as young as his son. The Holy Ghost proceeded form the Father and Son, but was an equal to the Father and Son before he proceeded, that is to say before he existed, but he is of the same age as the other two. Nothing ever was, nothing ever can be more perfectly idiotic and absurd than the dogma of the Trinity.’

- Col. Robert G. Ingersoll

Answer 6

First of all I'm not a Catholic. I am a Christian though and I can answer your question. Yes - The Godhead is Father, Son, Holy Spirit - all three Spirit - One God - but with different purposes and tasks. Father - Creator, Son - Savior, God incarnate, Holy Spirit - God in us, Comfortor.

It's like - water, ice, steam - all same but different. I hope this helps.

Answer 7

It's really hard to understand. They are all they same entity, but different aspects. One explanation is the 'egg theory' (so to speak). There is a shell, a white, and a yolk, and they are all parts of the egg, but are different.

Also, the Trinity has always been together, from the beginning of time. Then God sent Jesus, his son, to Earth as a sacrifice for our sins. Finally, the Holy Spirit came after Jesus's ascension, but it's not like all of a sudden he was created--he was just sent to Earth.

Answer 8

Please note what the Catholic Church says:

The New Catholic Encyclopedia states: “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 formulation that has first claim to the title the Trinitarian dogma.

Among the Apostolic Fathers, there had been nothing even remotely approaching such a mentality or perspective.”—(1967), Vol. XIV, p. 299.

(Romans 15:4-6) . . .” 4 For all the things that were written aforetime were written for our instruction, that through our endurance and through the comfort from the Scriptures we might have hope. 5 Now may the God who supplies endurance and comfort grant YOU to have among yourselves the same mental attitude that Christ Jesus had, 6 that with one accord YOU may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Answer 9

Search this archive for more answers because variations of this question have been asked and answered before.

I don't know where you got the idea that the Holy Spirit was ever Jesus......

Having a mind allows you to think thoughts.
Having a spirit allows you to feel emotions.
They are not the same thing.

You have a mind, a spirit, and a body.
God has an YHVH, a Ruach, and a Yeshua.
Do web searches on those or talk to your priest or deacon to become informed on what those are.

Answer 10

If you want to get answers to this question from people who want to keep people in the faiths, you will learn a bunch of mumbo jumbo. If you really want to understand all this, read scholarly stuff on religion. You might start with "Misquoting Jesus." You'll learn here that Jesus' most famous story about not throwing stones at the woman unless you were without sin didn't even exist until after 400 A.D. That's right, it's a good story, but an utter fake. You might read the book "101 Myths of the Bible" and learn that much of Genesis is copied from Egyptian myth!!!! Or just go read genesis 34 and see what you think of such stories forming the basis of how people should act. Go on - I'll wait......

The history of religion is amazing, marvelous, and interesting, but it is not the history of God. It's the history of people's myths and how they evolved through time.

The origin of the trinity is that as constantine was trying to force his new religion on pagan europe, the people were reluctant to give up all their gods. He gave them three, three, three gods in one!

Please don't raise your son to believe that mythology is true. Why on earth would you do that? You will cripple his reason, fill him with guilt and self-doubt and puritanical hangups. Why would you do that to the precious precious mind of your son?