Jesus loves us so much that he did not obliterate people who died, with power that set stars in the universe. This is a bad analogy because it fails at the truth that all three persons comprise the fullness of God. There was no relational deficiency that prompted God to create us. The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. We believe in only one true God in all existence, in all places, at all times. Unfortunately, most of them actually give us the wrong idea about what the Trinity is. That is why Moses said. My name is AnnMarie and I'm so glad you're here! If youve been involved in ministries for children or young people, questions about the Trinity have most likely come up. Here many of the creeds help us in clearly articulating the trinity. The analogy explains that in the same way that one shamrock can have three leaves on it, the Trinity has three Persons that constitute one God. Jesus then becomes a created being and thus less than fully God. Among the most popular analogies for the Trinity, two in particular stand out; and most of the others resemble one of them. Yeah its definitely a hard thing to understand, let alone explain to little ones ! Sure enough, one member answered Well Ive heard that the Trinity is like water: water can be liquid, gas (steam), or solid (ice), but its still the same water. If all you had were an eggshell, you wouldnt have a very exciting breakfast. Each one is fully 100% God. Similarly, light and heat are simply creations of the sun, yet it is the heresy of Arianism to claim that the Son or Spirit are mere creations of the Father. These are likewise erroneous or even heretical. The Holy Trinity: Egg Analogy The Holy Trinity is GOD in three divine persons GOD the FATHER GOD the HOLY SPIRIT GOD the SON But together they makeup and are still ONE GOD Like how an egg is made up of three things but is still ONE EGG. This analogy seems to make a lot of sense, but it actually reinforces a fatal misconception about the Trinity called modalism. It is not existing as 3 different parts (persons) at the same time. RELATED: What Does The Bible Say About Ghosts? The trinity is like this man. But, when it's heated, it turns into a gas (steam) and, when it's frozen, it turns into a solid (ice). 3 - The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct persons. But theres one problem: the water analogy is not the biblical picture of God. Each one is fully 100% God. Its downright hard to understand. Jesus Person is the image of Gods Person (Hebrews 1:3), and the Invisible Spirit of the Father that is in Him - God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (II Corinthians 5:19). A good follow up verse to help explain is the baptism of Jesus. Starting with the three biblical affirmations, ask your kids to show you how these examples support or deny what the bible teaches about the Trinity. Some have taken on the task of explaining how Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist as one. Each Person in the Trinity (or the Godhead) is fully God and fully a Person. If you need to use an analogy, then use a good one. The analogy explains that in the same way that one shamrock can have three leaves on it, the Trinity has three Persons that constitute one God. God is like an egg in that He is 3-in-1 God the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength (1 Corinthians 1:25). For sure, our everyday experience does not include using our finite minds to understand the infinite! In other words, this view denies Gods oneness. The word God in this sense is defined as a single being, having all divine attributes. Did I leave out any analogies? 6And there are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons., , The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all., There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. If you're looking to dive deeper into God's word, here are 6 kinds of bible study tools and resources 9 Influential Female Leaders in the New Testament. One sits on the throne looking like Sardine and Jasper stone. A, distinguishes himself from others by saying me, mine, you, yours, etc. A. is the whole nature or essence of something. Why is it wrong? The Trinity is not 1 + 1 + 1 but more like 1 x 1 x 1. Dont become discouraged if you cant answer the question to your liking. Modernizations of this analogy include that of an apple (with the peel, the flesh, and the core) or an egg (with its shell, yoke, and white). Yet, the trinity is mysterious. The Trinity is Like an Egg How the analogy goes: The Trinity is like an egg. Or, we can quote Daniel Webster; a strong Christian- I do not pretend fully to understand the arithmetic of heaven now. . What is the Trinity? Although the water changes forms it is still H2O. So God performs 3 different roles/relationships but 1 God. Lastly, below is a helpful graphical chart explaining the doctrine of the Trinity I found from the Christian blog by Tim Challies found at Challies.com. The white of an egg is the connection between the yolk and the shell. This view, also known as "modalism", was rejected by the early church. The analogy breaks down because I can simultaneously be a father, husband, and son to any one person. They say that three separate beings exist, 2. In an attempt to explain the Trinity, there are some bad examples people use, and some better ones. Jesus is the Holy Spirit that saves us. H2O can exist in three forms: liquid, gas and solid. Now God can be in you by His Spirit! in that while water can change into vapour or ice, Jesus cannot change into the Father or the Holy Spirit. Yet there is still only one God we serve. God is infinitely greater than we are; therefore, we should not expect to be able to fully understand Him. Because Gods Person is unapproachable, the Spirit White acts as insulation, for we know that it is through the Holy Spirit that God can communicate, speak through and interact with mankind. There are two basic ways that people misunderstand the Trinity: 1. But thats not how they understood it. The egg shell is the image of the yolk and the white. Many of us would use analogies to explain the Trinity. Despite its potential obscurity, Trinity Sunday is a great occasion for me to revisit an old article on the Trinity. His motto was that "There was a time when the son did not exist". I know in the past Ive used analogies that werent the best (more on those later.) ORDER from Barnes and NobleAmazon.com or wherever fine books are soldISBN-13: 978-1978167643Return to Cafe Logos Homepage | Bite-Sized Bible Bites. God is Great, I always try to figure out how to explain it to my Sunday school kids and they get confused which i get, how would you explain it to them? The 3 Most Common "Trinity Analogies" (and their limitations) The three most common go-to analogies for explaining the Trinity are water, an egg, and the sun. For example, we know that God didnt create humanity because He bored or lonely. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Corinthians 13:14). We find it in all four Gospels. The white of an egg is the connection between the yolk and the shell. The Trinity is established by 3 Biblical truths, . You are an egg! - well, sort of. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you may be also (John14:2, 3). They have a common purpose in making harmonious music, but each note is its own separate entity. If you say, "water" then you are incorrect. But its all the same person, operating in three roles or functions. It is not important merely for the sake of tradition, or because the word itself is taught in the Bible (. Before moving on I should note that providing a full theological explanation of Trinitarian doctrine is well beyond the scope of what I can do here. It is a miraculous invention, the egg. Rather, He created us in order to bless us. And a voice from heaven said, This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. God the Father spoke from heaven and spoke of His Son, Jesus. Tritheism denies that there is only one God. Deuteronomy 6:4- Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. This verse is also the beginning of the Jewish Shema prayer; their confession of faith. The Trinity is one of the most foundational doctrines of Christianity. Thankfully he isnt a cage-stage Calvinist about it all. The word Trinity comes from the Latin word trinitas which means tri-unity. But in the Godhead, each Person is fully and completely God unto Himself (even as they are all one God). He began to play the organ as a chorister in England, before continuing his studies in Qubec and France. The early church labeled this view "tritheism". But common sense is intuition based on day-to-day experience. In Biblical Trinitarianism we can never have one without the other because they are one Spirit; each is the totality of the other which means we cannot have the Holy Spirit without the Father and the Son, We will come (into the believer through the Holy Spirit, John 14:23), and we cannot have the Son without The Father whose Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father (Matthew 10:20). 3:15; John 17:1-4, The Holy Spirit Acts 5:3-4; John 14:16-17, 26; John 16:7-13. That is heaven in a person. Another analogy that Tim remembers, being Irish Catholic, is the analogy of the shamrock with its three parts. In the same way, water is all the same molecular structure, expressing itself in three different modes. Im giving God the credit for stirring this memory, and am extremely grateful. The visual form of God seperated from Jesus on the cross. Perhaps youve heard the analogy that the Trinity is like H2O (the molecular symbol for water). The wonders and ways of God may not be apparent or fully known at present, but we can still marvel at His supremacy and worship Him in wonder- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! One day, however, the image will be clear. The Trinity is a concept that is impossible for any human being to fully understand, let alone explain. Learn how your comment data is processed. The Son "proceeds" from the Father, and the Holy Spirit "proceeds from the Father and the Son.". Each part of the egg make up only one portion of the wholethe yolk is not the fullness of the egg. In other words, God may manifest Himself as the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, there is a problem with this view of the Trinity. Analogies of the Trinity. This is a quick way to describe the doctrine of the Trinity namely, God is 1 being (the, is Gods nature, essence, being) and 3 whos (the, being Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). How can we explain what it means to have three persons in one being? Examples of these different roles would be: The Incarnation: Only the Son became incarnate, took on flesh. Modalism denies the distinction of person in the trinity. Though I find the video to be hilarious and often . The problem with this analogy is that no one molecule of H2O can actually exist as solid, liquid, and gas at the same time. And the reason we know that is because the Persons of the Godhead have perfectly loved each other for all eternity. To the other major monotheistic faiths (Islam and Judaism), it is rank heresyTrinitarianism is therefore definitional to Christianity. The Son is not the Father or the Spirit. God is kind of like a man who is a father, a son and an uncle God is kind of like a three-leaf clover, or a triangle; one object, but three different, identifiable leaves, or sides* The egg has a shell, the whites and a yoke. Water at room temperature is liquid. So "son" = "Dave". When it comes to the Trinity, we tend to forget that an analogy is an "aptness of proportion" or a "resemblance of relations," not an identity of relations. In order to accomplish this union with God and man, He allowed His Shell to be broken with the weight of our sins to cleanse our souls so His holiness can approach, for God cannot look upon sin (Habakkuk 1:13). My prayer is to infuse God's character into your everyday lives with short ( 4-5") devotions and Bible Studies every Monday morning. Paul leaves the Corinthians with this blessing in 2 Corinthians 13:14- May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.. I dont believe that God wishes us to be confused about the Three that are so apparent throughout the Old and New Testaments. Our God is three in one. ), The Son Phil. Through the brokenness of the Shell, His Son, the Spirit white pours out into our beings through our faith in what was done and believers are joined with the yolk, for it is by One Spirit we have access to God the Father (Ephesians 2:18). For instance at the baptism of Christ, the Father, Son and Spirit are all distinctly present and interacting (Matthew chapter 3 verses 16-17). This is a quick way to describe the doctrine of the Trinity namely, God is 1 being (the what is Gods nature, essence, being) and 3 whos (the whos being Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). What happens when an egg hatches? The Trinity is like an egg. Through the brokenness of the Shell, His Son, the Spirit white pours out into our beings through our faith in what was done and believers are joined with the yolk, for it is by One Spirit we have access to God the Father (Ephesians 2:18). The meme above discourages the use of analogies in explaining the Trinity. In one egg you have the white, the yoke, and the shell composing one full egg. Indeed, how can an infinite God be contained in a finite human womb! In this analogy, God is compared to a man. He was with God in the beginning. In the same way is God being the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.. Not just for explaining it to others, but to bolster our own faith and see how each One works in our lives. The shortfall of this illustration, and others like it, is that God cannot be divided into "parts." These attributes are: omnipotence (all-powerful), omniscience (all-knowing), and omnipresence (exists in all places). The Trinity is not real in my life because of superior knowledge or insight. The military would end up destroying themselves. I never thought about it in that way some of these examples Ive never heard of. A single molecule cannot simultaneously exist in three different states. The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the primary tenants of the Christian faith. We came up with several practical implications of this doctrine. Vestment Emblems. In one egg you have the white, the yoke, and the shell composing one full egg. Let's use an egg to explain the Holy Trinity! The egg (or apple) fails in that the shell, white, and yolk are parts of the egg, not the egg in themselves, just as the skin, flesh, and seeds of the apple are parts of it, not the apple itself. If we separate them we still may have God the Egg yolk, God the Holy Spirit Egg white and God the Son, the Egg shell/image, three individual parts of an Egg, but they cannot be a Trinity, or tri-unity unless they are unified and are seen as one Egg, so to speak. Jonathon serves as a lay pastor at Gospel Life Church in New Braunfels, TX and currently works as the IT Manager for a non-profit ministry. Often these analogies explicitly teach heresy. The Holy Spirit descended upon Him to equip Him for His ministry. Dr. Bruce Ware does an excellent job in his book Big Truths for Young Hearts. The Father is fully God; Jesus is fully God and the Holy Spirit is fully God. We define a person as one having a will and who is distinguishable from another person. No analogy is perfect, but we want to be careful of using wrong ones that may confuse people. God Himself explains why some things are still a mystery: For as heaven is higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9) Our human minds can never understand all of who God is and how He thinks and acts. According to modalism, God does not actually exist in three persons. Under Arianism Jesus is less than fully God. The unseen Father is in Christs mind. God does not just change forms but exists as three persons in unity. Some people falsely claim the Trinity is a form of . It is still important that we have some understanding of the concept, however. Because Gods Person is unapproachable, the Spirit White acts as insulation, for we know that it is through the Holy Spirit that God can communicate, speak through and interact with mankind. But they are one God. There would be three thrones. Matthew 3:16-17- As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. Another wrong illustration is using ourselves: I am one person, but also a wife, mother, and writer. An essential factor lacking from those concepts is the relational quality of God. Devils see that Spirit as a tempestuious fire. Time exists as 3 things: past, present, and future. Trinity Egg Analogy . Arianism denies the deity of each person in the trinity. And whos the Holy Spirit? Good and Bad Analogies of the Trinity - Answers . Light comes from God. A good example would be an electrical cord. God is NOT like H2O in that He does not need the right pressure and temperature to exist as three persons. From time to time, Doctors of the Church used analogies, but with care. It does not imply Jesus was created if you emphasize that the Sun existed from eternity past. There are three different cloves that represent the three different persons of the trinity. For the Trinity, instead of using the formula 1+1+1, we use 1x1x1. I think the illustration that represents the Trinity most accurately is the egg example. There have been many attempts to explain the Trinity the relationship between God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Each character of the trinity has in one another (cf. They suggest that only one God exists but this God transforms or morphs into each of the different persons Let's begin with the second view. You can throw away one part of an egg (e.g., shell) and still have essentially an egg. This may be my favorite verse of them all. . Others compare God to an egg, which is part shell, part white, part yolk. But understanding the Trinity is important. Misunderstanding 1: The transforming trinity Here are a few common illustrations: The Egg- One egg has three parts: shell, whites, and yolk. John 17). Have you wondered what is God like? The Trinity is pretty weird: the Father (or Mother), Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit are in some sense distinct from one another, but are all unified in another sense. These things are referred to as the Economic Trinity. Although he is one he has different roles to different people. Since these bad analogies tend to lead to a heresy, we will examine the main three areas of heresy concerning the trinity. H2O can exist as a solid, a liquid and a gas but they are all still H2O. Its all one person, simply functioning in three different roles. Proof texting is when we cite a bunch of bible verses to support a theological stance. Eggs are one, yet comprise yolk, shell and albumen. In this episode, Fred Sanders discusses what it really means to say that God is a Trinitythree persons in one God. Therefore the eternal brightness shines forth before Him, and co-exists with Him, in that, existing without a beginning, and always begotten, He always shines before Him; and He is that Wisdom which says, I was that wherein He delighted, and I was daily His delight before His face at all times.. This is one of the reasons we say that "God is LOVE". A certain YouTube page created a famous video titled "St. Patrick's Bad Analogies" (which can be found here), in which the historic St. Patrick meets charming villagers who deride him based on the analogies which he uses in the process of explaining the Holy Trinity. Its a very common explanation within the church to try to explain how God, who clearly exhorts His followers to preserve His supreme oneness (Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4), could also be identified with Jesus (Titus chapter 2 verse 13), and the Holy Spirit (Acts chapter 5 verses 3-4). The above picture is a famous work of art by Andrei Rubilev, the great medieval Russian painter of Orthodox icons and frescos. But it cant be that way with God. Humans as we are, we cannot fully understand how the three divine Persons, though really distinct from one another, are one and the same God. This little child cannot look at one without experiencing a profound sense of wonderment and awe. I go to prepare a place for you. Few if any have every tried to teach the heresy of Tritheism, but it needs to be mentioned anyway. Over the course of church history there have been several heresies that have cropped up that deny one of these three truths. Pingback: 3 Reasons Why Jesus Humanity Really Matters Her & Hymn, Pingback: 3 Reasons Why Jesus' Humanity Really Matters, Pingback: How Jesus Teaches Us To Be Human Her & Hymn.