Can anyone effectively explain the Trinity?

Question

Some of the major forms of heretical teaching including Monarchism, Sabellianism, and Arianism seem to be used by Christians to explain the Trinity even today. (At least in a basic understanding their explainations they seem to point towards these beliefs.)

Answer 1

The Father was not made, nor created, nor generated by anyone. The Son is not made, nor created, but begotten by the Father alone. The Holy Spirit is not made, nor created, nor generated, but proceeds from the Father and the Son. There is, then, one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three sons; one Holy Spirit, not three holy spirits. In this Trinity, there is nothing before or after, nothing greater or less. The entire three Persons are coeternal and coequal with one another. So that in all things, as is has been said above, the Unity is to be worshiped in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity.



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Answer 2

In some world religions, not only Christian religions, one God (or Goddess) is broken down in to 3 archetypes. The three archetypes are different personas of the whole. Each has a function. They are called by different names, depending upon the religion. They roughly coincide with 3 major phases of human life: birth, parenthood, and death. The basic roles assigned are Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer. In the context of the Christian religions, the roles are assigned:
Creator : the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the animating principle, demonstrated in the Bible as doing things like visiting Mary, to make her pregnant, and visiting the Apostles to bestow the gift of tongues.
Preserver: This is the Christ. "I come not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it". When the Christ dies, the world is redeemed, and gets another chance.
Destroyer: This is the one that breaks bad and floods the whole world, or rains fire down on entire cities.
These are metaphorical roles assigned to one God to explain different functiions performed by the God.
Humans may also have these three roles, at different points in thier lives. But I am still one human, regardless of how many of the roles I play out. I can be a Creator: giving birth, Preserver: Motherhood, and Destroyer: a role most commonly played out in old age, when seeing Death approach, not so much an intent to destroy, as an awareness of Death, and one's own destruction becoming imminent.

Answer 3

Maths as a positive science teaches us one unit does not equal 1+1+1 in other words one cannot be equal to three because one is a third of three. In the same way one cannot equal three, three cannot equal one.

Many Christians say that all three gods are the same yet their not able to see that their God/s holds different ranks, 1st The Father 2nd Jesus 3rd Holy Ghost. Some would consider it heresy for me to say “in the name of the holy ghost, the son and the father.”

We are also told each person of the trinity has some particular attributes which are not proper for the other two, e.g. Father is Creator and Destroyer , Son is saviour and redeemer, the holy ghost is the life giver.

Answer 4

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.The most widely recognized Biblical foundations for the doctrine's formulation are in the Gospel of John.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity

Answer 5

At our Kingdom Hall we were doing some spring cleaning a couple of weeks ago, and we found a box full of older booklets, including some from 1962 entitled “The Word” Who is He? According to John. I took one home and read it and found some terrific examples to use in showing the absurdity of the trinity doctrine. Below is an excerpt from that publication, from Part 1, pages 6—8, paragraphs 7—16.

Excerpts from “The Word” Who is He? According to John (1962)

Christendom believes that the fundamental doctrine of her teachings is the Trinity. By Trinity she means a triune or three-in-one God. That means a God in three Persons, namely, "God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost." Since this is said to be, not three Gods, but merely "one God in three Persons," then the term God must mean the Trinity; and the Trinity and God must be interchangeable terms. On this basis let us quote John 1:1, 2 and use the equivalent term for God, and let us see how it reads:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the Trinity, and the Word was the Trinity. The same was in the beginning with the Trinity." But how could such a thing be? If the Word was himself a Person and he was with the Trinity, then there would be four Persons. But the Word is said by the trinitarians to be the Second Person of the Trinity, namely, "God the Son." But even then, how could John say that the Word, as God the Son, was the Trinity made up of three Persons? How could one Person be three?
However, let the trinitarians say that in John 1:1 God means just the First Person of the Trinity, namely "God the Father," and so the Word was with God the Father in the beginning. On the basis of this definition of God, how could it be said that the Word, who they say is "God the Son," is "God the Father"? And where does their "God the Holy Ghost" enter into the picture? If God is a Trinity, was not the Word with "God the Holy Ghost" as well as with "God the Father" in the beginning?
Suppose, now, they say that, in John 1:1, 2, God means the other two Persons of the Trinity, so that in the beginning the Word was with God the Father and God the Holy Ghost. In this case we come to this difficulty, namely, that, by being God, the Word was God the Father and God the Holy Ghost, the other two Persons of the Trinity. Thus the Word, or "God the Son," the Second Person of the Trinity, is said to be also the First Person and the Third Person of the Trinity. It does not solve the difficulty to say that the Word was the same as God the Father and was equal to God the Father but still was not God the Father. If this were so, it must follow that the Word was the same as God the Holy Ghost and was equal to God the Holy Ghost but still was not God the Holy Ghost.
And yet the trinitarians teach that the God of John 1:1, 2 is only one God, not three Gods! So is the Word only one-third of God?
Since we cannot scientifically calculate that 1 God (the Father) + 1 God (the Son) + 1 God (the Holy Ghost) = 1 God, then we must calculate that 1/3 God (the Father) + 1/3 God (the Son) + 1/3 God (the Holy Ghost) = 3/3 God, or 1 God. Furthermore, we would have to conclude that the term "God" in John 1:1, 2 changes its personality, or that "God" changes his personality in one sentence. Does he?
Are readers of this booklet now confused? Doubtlessly so! Any trying to reason out the Trinity teaching leads to confusion of mind. So the Trinity teaching confuses the meaning of John 1:1, 2; it does not simplify it or make it clear or easily understandable.
Certainly the matter was not confused in the mind of the apostle John when he wrote those words in the common Greek of nineteen centuries ago for international Christian readers. As John opened up his life account of Jesus Christ he was in no confusion of mind as to who the Word or Logos was and as to who God was.
We must therefore let the apostle John himself identify to us who the Word was and explain who God was. This is what John does in the rest of his life account of Jesus Christ and also in his other inspired writings. Besides the so-called Gospel of John, he wrote three letters or epistles and also Revelation or Apocalypse. By many John is understood to have written first the book Revelation, then his three letters and finally his Gospel. Says Biblical Archaeology, by G. Ernest Wright (1957), page 238: "John is usually connected with Ephesus in Asia Minor and is dated about A.D. 90 by most scholars." For the Gospel of John this booklet accepts the date A.D. 98. So for an explanatory enlargement of things written in the Gospel of John we can draw upon his earlier writings, Revelation or Apocalypse and his three letters or epistles.
This we shall now do. We do so with a desire to reach the same conclusion about who the Word or Logos was that the apostle John does. For us to do so means our gaining a happy everlasting life in God's righteous new world how so near at hand. John, with all the firsthand knowledge and associations that he had, had a reason or basis for reaching an absolutely right conclusion. He wanted us as his readers to reach a right conclusion. So he honestly and faithfully presented the facts in his five different writings, that he might help us to come to the same conclusion as he did. Thus, as we accept John's witness as true, we start out with a right aim, one that will lead to an endless blessing for us.

The conclusion that John came to was NOT that Jesus is "God the Son." Rather, in his own words from the KJV, John wrote in 20:30, 31 - "And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name." Funny thing, this passage comes immediately after Thomas stated the famous words "my Lord and My God." (verse 28) Apparently John did not see it the same way as the churches in general do. But then again John was writing under the inspiration of the holy spirit, wasn't he?

The entire booklet can be read at this link:

Answer 6

God the Father.God the Son and God the Holy Spirit I have talked with all of them and they have talked with me God the Father is the Boss Jesus is the bridge that humans have to get to God the Father The Holy Spirit does the transitional work of helping people come to Jesus etc.

Answer 7

Authentic Trinitarianism may be viewed as a delicate balancing act between modalism and tritheism.

Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints/Mormons (11.5 million)
* Christ is the product of a sexual relationship between the Father and a goddess. Satan is his brother.

Jehovah’s Witnesses (14.8 million)
* Jesus (also known as Michael the archangel) is a creation and the Holy Spirit is a force.

Muslims (1.3 billion)
* Christ was a great prophet.

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Orthodox Christian Definition of the Trinity:
** One God who eternally exists in three different persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all of whom are fully God, all of whom are equal.
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Answer 8

It was written by some crazy *** on drugs and people somehow believe it to be true. This isn't historically true, just my opinion. Trinity dates back to egyptian times with Isis, Horus, and Seth. That was way before Jesus' time.

Answer 9

To try to simplify this, Think of our Universe. Earth, the Milky way, the Solar System, all three separate entities but still one thing also. Think of it as multiplication 1X1X1=1 not addition 1+1+1=1.

Answer 10

The Jew believes in but one God YHWH--Yahweh or in English (I AM).
In the Holy Koran it clearly says that God has NO partners.
Jesus Christ NEVER said he was a god.
You must go to the source of life and get all the TRUTH--REALITY-- Jah
Love Matt