Explain the Trinity?

Question

If there is one God eternally existing in 3 persons was Jesus prior to his incarnation the eternal Son of God? And if God is a spirit and he is omnipresent was the second person of the Godhead still in heaven at the same time he was walking on the earth as a man?

Answer 1

I heard this illustration... compare the Trinity to water, it takes on 3 forms - solid, ice - liquid, drinking water - and gas, steam - all 3 forms are the same H2O - one isn't more H2O than the other. Hope that helps.

Answer 2

ok, thats a pretty good question, and this is the way i make sense of it. dont take it as an absoloute answer of course.

youve got the father, the son and the holy ghost right...

the father is the all powerfull creator, i think everybody gets that part. we tend to call him god.
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he son, who would be jesus, was sent here by god as an expression of love, and a way out of the eternal damnation of perpetual fire and all that nasty stuff. good look god.

now the holy ghost is where the hang up comes in...not really a hang up per say, but the place where i got lost. the holy ghost, i'll say HG cause im tired of typing holy ghost, is the leaison between us and the father. would i call it a "person"?...no, but thats just me. its more of a manefestation of god, kinda like his cell number, hes pretty far away, but hes just a call away, and he never turns his moble off, like i do. (im sure he dosent use as many comas either, then again, who dosent love a coma here and there?)

as for the second person of the godhead being in heaven at the same time he was walking on earth as a man, the second godhead WAS the one who walked the earth, and if you were wondering about the third, it stays down here with us to keep us company.
im sure someone will ream me for that, but oh well.
tell it better and i promise i'll listen.
did anyone actually read that whole thing anyway?

Answer 3

Simply put, the idea of a trinity has its origins in pre-Christan times. Do a search for ancient trinity on the Internet or in an encyclopedia and you will see that the concept of 3 in 1 dates back to ancient Egypt. This concept first came into the so called Christian church in the 3rd century CE when it became Rome's official religion (before that time all the Romans were Pagans) among the many other appeasements to Pagans to make converting to Christianity more palatable. The Trinity has no basis in the Bible. The Bible clearly identifies Jesus as the Son of God. And so often when the Son and Father are mentioned together, no mention is made of the Holy Spirit as an entity. God is almighty, he created Jesus as the first born of all creation (COL 1:15). The Holy Spirit is God's active force used to accomplish his will and is not a unique person. The Bible warned that men would plant seeds of untruth in the church such as this, along with Hellfire, Immortality of the Human soul, etc.

Answer 4

God the Father was, is, and will be in heaven until there is a new heaven and a new earth. Then He will dwell on earth with man.

God the Son was in heaven with the Father at the time of the creation and it was through His Son that God created all things. When God the Son was in the flesh on planet earth, he was not in heaven. That is why in John 17 Jesus prays to the Father and asks Him to restore the glory that He had with the Father from the beginning of the worlds.

God the Holy Spirit hovered over the waters before there was an earth, and has been in this earth working on the hearts of men. He is still here and he now works in, not on, the hearts of those who believe in Jesus as the Christ. He still works on the hearts of those who do not believe to bring them to belief.

Yes, there is a Trinity River in Texas. It obviously has nothing to do with God.

grace2u

Answer 5

What I was taught was that Jesus always existed - and so always had the same role since the begining. His role did not change.

I would say that no, Jesus did not coexist in heaven while being on earth. He was on earth - as God - in the Christian point of view. For Christians this doesn't mean that during this time Jesus became seperate from God - merely that he was fulfilling a purpose of God's.

Another thing to keep in mind is how Christians view the plural of God in the story of creation. Christians see God speaking to himself as 'our image' etc. They believe that this is showing that the Trinity existed already at that time. Whether this is what the story was written to mean in the Jewish persepective is another thing altogether.

Answer 6

yes.
God is Spirit.
How that works (being in two places at once) I don't fully understand. But God can slip out of eternity (though He keeps His eternal nature), so likely Jesus wasn't in Heaven and on Earth at the same time, as God the father also had to look away.

and btw, only the Holy Spirit is Spirit. Jesus is a glorified soul and the Father....I guess He's an amaterial body. All possess the same mind, will, and emotions.

Answer 7

St. Patrick converted the pagan king of Ireland who had the same question you have. Using a shamrock, Patrick told the king, that just as this one shamrock has three distinct parts to it, so also in the one God there are three distinct persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
St. John begins his Gospel by saying that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word is God.
Jesus is this Word of God who has always existed as the Word.
All of this is a mystery and will always be a mystery to be accepted on faith. Trying to figure it out in this life is not possible.

Answer 8

‘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 9

According to the Bible there IS NO TRINITY. God exists in the same manner that he created us since we are in his image. I am a husband to my wife, a son to my father, and a father to my children...........

Does this make me a trinity (which is NEVER mentioned in the bible) or does it mean that I carry 3 roles as one person. Hence the bible states that great is the mystery of Godliness.

There are NOT 3 Gods sitting on a love seat (since the bible says there is but ONE throne). People need to start reading the Bible in the context of the era. Bible uses both literal and SYMBOLIC passages.....some people need to just learn the difference!!!

Answer 10

In Christianity, the doctrine of the Trinity states that God is one being who exists, simultaneously and eternally, as a mutual indwelling of three persons: the Father, the Son (incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth), and the Holy Spirit. Since the 4th century, in both Eastern and Western Christianity, this doctrine has been stated as "one God in three persons," all three of whom, as distinct and co-eternal persons, are of one indivisible Divine essence, a simple being. Supporting the doctrine of the Trinity is known as Trinitarianism. The majority of Christians are Trinitarian, and regard belief in the Trinity as a test of orthodoxy. Opposing, nontrinitarian positions that are held by some groups include Binitarianism (two deities/persons/aspects), Unitarianism (one deity/person/aspect), the Godhead (Latter Day Saints) (three separate beings) and Modalism (Oneness).

In addition to God comprising three persons, the Son Himself has two distinct natures, one fully divine and the other fully human.

The doctrine of the Trinity is the result of continuous exploration by the church of the biblical data, thrashed out in debate and treatises, eventually formulated at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD in a way they believe is consistent with the biblical witness, and further refined in later councils and writings.[1] The most widely recognized Biblical foundations for the doctrine's formulation are in the Gospel of John.

Answer 11

The Trinity is the Father (God) the Son (Jesus) and the Holy Ghost (Spirit) - - yes, God is one in three. The easiest way to explain it is to compare it to us. We are one person, yet we are comprised of mind, body and soul. One can't exist without the other - - we, too are one in three.