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The problem here is it describes each part of the Trinity as 1/3 parts of the overall egg. Father, Son, and Spirit are each fully God (their own egg)- not fractions of one. The shortfall of this illustration, and others like it, is that God cannot be divided into "parts." I think the analogy of the Sun works well. As we examine the scriptural witness we see three truths that make up the doctrine of the trinity. But this idea is central to the Christian faith. In other words, God may manifest Himself as the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit. Tritheism denies that there is only one God. There was no relational deficiency that prompted God to create us. Water Analogy God is like water, or H2O, which can exist in 3 forms. Here's a look at six explanations for why so many people truly believe 3 Ways to Experience The Good Life in Jesus. He taught that the son was at one point created by God the father. That is why Moses said. Some think of God as H 2 O, which is sometimes a solid (ice), sometimes a liquid (water), and sometimes a gas (steam). 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. In one egg you have the white, the yoke, and the shell composing one full egg. We define a person as one having a will and who is distinguishable from another person. But understanding the Trinity is important. The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the primary tenants of the Christian faith. Each PERSON is distinct from one another. Unfortunately, no analogy is perfect. Therefore, in this context, God is the what and the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the who. Did I leave out any analogies? Over the course of church history there have been several heresies that have cropped up that deny one of these three truths. All of the above Bad Analogies would perhaps do more harm than good if used in explaining the Trinity. It became real to me because I have experienced His love, grace, guidance, redemption, conviction of sin, and fellowship that comes from Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And let us once more come to illustrations. 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. Jesus is the Holy Spirit that saves us. She would explode!" These hand embroidered emblems are made with metallic gold-plated thread with silver content, printed on canvas. THE TRUTH IS: The Father, Son, and Spirit are three different persons who are all equally one God. Arius was condemned by the council of Nicea in 325 AD. And whos the Holy Spirit? Genesis 1:26- Let us make man in our image, in our likeness The plural us and our show more than one person was involved. The problem with this analogy is that it also leads to the heresy of MODALISM. Each of the persons is that supreme reality, viz., the divine substance, essence or nature. (Lateran Council IV), 4. What is the Trinity? 7But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christs gift., , according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure., , But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith; praying in the Holy Spirit; 21keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.. The problem with this analogy is that an egg yoke is of a very different substance than a shell. Here are a few common illustrations: The Egg- One egg has three parts: shell, whites, and yolk. And then theres Jesus, Gods son. 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. Modalism, or Sabellianism, denies the three distinct Persons of the Trinity and claims that God is one Person who appears in different modes at different timesin the Old Testament He appeared as the Father, in the Gospels He appeared as the Son, and from Pentecost onwards He appears as the Holy Spirit. 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). (Describing God as LOVE is my favorite way of understanding the Trinity. Is He Jesus side-kick? The egg analogy fails because it denies that each person of the Trinity is of the same eternal essence. Each of the divine persons is GOD WHOLE AND ENTIRE, and there is one God. Understanding 1 Corinthians 14:34-35. We can always rebut these claims with another equation: 1 x 1 x 1=1. What portion is erroneous? An egg is made up of shell, white and yolk. Some people think that H2O cannot exist in all three states simultaneously but that is not true. 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). 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. Analogies often fall short. One day, however, the image will be clear. The shell, while important, is no longer needed. This is one of the reasons we say that "God is LOVE". But you cannot be broken when your faith is in Jesus, for the Spirit of the Son that lives in us and gives us the voice through which we cry Abba, Father, (Galatians 4:6,) this Spirit of the Father that dwells within you is there to strengthen, protect and guard your person. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind lived the doctrinal truth about the Trinity. One cannot remove the Holy Spirit and still have the God as taught in the Bible. 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). In one egg you have the white, the yoke, and the shell composing one full egg. Likewise we cannot have the Father or His Spirit without the Son I am the Way the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except by Me- John 14:6. We believe that it is a revelation that comes from Christ Himself. John 17). However, Christians through the ages believe in the Trinity because the truths it represents are taught in the Bible. In some ways, it resembles the tritheism view (Misunderstanding 2). A good example would be an electrical cord. Few if any have every tried to teach the heresy of Tritheism, but it needs to be mentioned anyway. The Trinity is not real in my life because of superior knowledge or insight. One popular and simple illustration of the Trinity is the egg. For those, like myself, who are not from a highly-liturgical denomination, it may come as a surprise that June 11 was Trinity Sunday. The egg example, while not perfect or complete by any means, will still give us a basic understanding of the primary principle of Biblical Trinitarianism. Dont become discouraged if you cant answer the question to your liking. So when God created us and revealed Himself to us, what He did was to invite us into the perfect goodness He has always known within Himself. RELATED: Did Jesus Really Rise From The Dead? God created us for community, since God is communal and we were created in His image. The egg shell is the image of the yolk and the white. Analogies that we present would always be insufficient as none of them would equate to the incomprehensible beauty of God. Each one is fully 100% God. 1:8-12; 1 Pet. Before we look at a few bad analogies that many often use to try to illustrate the trinity, we need to first understand the doctrine itself. Therefore, we would rightly say, within the Ontological Trinity, there is no variation or distinction made. God is much bigger than what we can understand yet He is close enough to us so that we can know some things about Him, though not completely and not everything. But while this idea is central to the Christian faith, it is also incredibly mysterious to us. My prayer is to infuse God's character into your everyday lives with short ( 4-5") devotions and Bible Studies every Monday morning. The Latin word for trinity (trinitas) combines two words- unitas (unity) and trias (three). But common sense is intuition based on day-to-day experience. The Unseen Father is in Christs mind. There are many mysteries to our faith. They suggest that only one God exists but this God transforms or morphs into each of the different persons. The egg analogy is very simple but it is OK to show something as simple as an egg can be one and yet three. 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. As a result the water molecule must change forms. However, keep in mind that the one being who is God is a personal being. The Trinity is not 1 + 1 + 1 but more like 1 x 1 x 1. Well the issue is, the water analogy is akin to the heresy of Modalism. A chicken egg consists of a shell, a yolk, and an egg white, yet it is altogether one egg. 3. As a result, this analogy can easily lead to tritheism in which there are three different gods which might share some like substance. We define a person as one having a will and who is distinguishable from another person. To help you out, here is a comical and silly video that teaches about these bad analogies. It is still important that we have some understanding of the concept, however. There are, however, some that work better than others. In other words, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have a unique and unbreakable unity, and their existence together is the being that is God. The unity or oneness of God is also found in the Bible. 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. When we see them as three individual spirits, (God is one Spirit John 4:24), then that is the blasphemy of polytheism which is the worship of more than one God. 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. But the Father is not the Son or the Spirit. These attributes are: omnipotence (all-powerful), omniscience (all-knowing), and omnipresence (exists in all places). The problem with this analogy is it denies the unity of the God-head. God does not morph from one person to another, nor does God exist as three separate beings. And the reason we know that is because the Persons of the Godhead have perfectly loved each other for all eternity. Ontological means the nature or essence of something. They say that three separate beings exist 2. show me your glory. Unfortunately, there is a problem with this view of the Trinity. Here are some common analogies that Christians have used about the Trinity: God is kind of like water which can be ice, liquid and steam. Love was not given to Jesus. This is a bad analogy because it fails at the truth that all three persons comprise the fullness of God. Take a moment and give it a try. Others compare God to an egg, which is part shell, part white, part yolk. I dont know how our majestic God feels about being compared to watermelons and eggs, but He is also a loving Father, and like any father, I believe God would seek to provide simple explanations so His little children can understand. The Cathedral - The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Quebec, Canada This would make Jesus something less than fully God. 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. The word trinity is not in the Scriptures, but is a word used to describe the three in one God revealed in the Bible. Each character of the trinity has in one another (cf. The water analogy of the Trinity follows this line of reasoning: water can be a solid (ice/frozen water), liquid, and gas (water vapor), and yet all three forms are still water (H 2 O), and likewise, God manifests Himself in 3 different ways in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. "The Egg and i - A Simple Explanation of The Trinity" - cafe Logos Paul explains our finite understanding of beliefs like the Trinity as looking into a poor-quality mirror- a distorted image; dim and unclear. The three distinct notes come together to make one beautiful sound. For example, an equilateral triangle (a triangle with three equal sides) has three sides. Good and Bad Analogies of the Trinity - Answers . Admittedly, the idea of three distinct persons/expressions that are each fully God is part of the mystery. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. HO may act as water, steam, or ice, but it is still HO. The God of the Bible is one God. A man might be a father to his children, a husband to his wife, and son to his parents. A good follow up verse to help explain is the baptism of Jesus. This is why Jesus said, He who has seen Me, has seen the Father (John 14:9). If youre interested into diving deeper into the topic of the Trinity, here are some valuable resources that could help. Indeed, how can an infinite God be contained in a finite human womb! God is infinitely greater than we are; therefore, we should not expect to be able to fully understand Him. St. Augustine, one of the most important Fathers of the Church, wrote a great deal on the doctrine of the Trinity. The Trinity is a tri-unity, a unity of Three, - God the Father, Jesus, the Son of God and the Holy Spirit. You can throw away one part of an egg (e.g., shell) and still have essentially an egg. If you say, "Jesus Christ" then you MAY BE incorrect. They are three in one egg. Therefore, in this context, God is the what and the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the who. 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). The Trinity is like waterand other bad analogies John introduces us to the Trinity in John 1:1- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and Word was God. Jesus, the Word, was present in Genesis 1. The yolk represents Gods Person, His Being, and His Holiness which generates Light that no man can approach (I Timothy 6:16). 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. I believe that the best way to talk about the Trinity is to simply say that God is one God, who eternally exists in three Persons. What is wrong with what I said? Although God is transcendent, sovereign, unapproachable light, He has condescended to reveal something of Himself to His creation. The Bible teaches three truths: 1 - there is one God. Some who deny the Trinity claim 1+1+1=3, and therefore claim we worship three Gods. in that He is not made up of three parts one part () the Father, another part () Jesus Christ and a third part () the Holy Spirit. His motto was that "There was a time when the son did not exist". The Trinity is established by 3 Biblical truths, . Being the brightness of the eternal Light, He Himself also is absolutely eternal. A good example would be an electrical cord. Modalism teaches that one God just changes forms or modes over the course of scripture. In this analogy, God is compared to a man. Likewise we cannot have the Father or His Spirit without the Son I am the Way the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except by Me- John 14:6. 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 white of an egg is the connection between the yolk and the shell. It taught there is one nature in God, and that there are two processions, three persons, and four relations that constitute the Blessed Trinity. So whats one good way to explain what the Trinity is? Our limited intellects are unable to comprehend its reality, yet, our Scriptures and scholarly Tradition makes it known to us. We wont find the word Trinity in the Bible, but the concept is shown in many verses. What Is A Good Analogy For The Trinity? - Therefore, God Exists Located in the heart of Quebec's historic district, it is a source of inspiration for visitors from around the world. The Egg Analogy - This claims to be a good representation of the Trinity because Eggs have three distinct parts: the shell, the yolk, and the whites. I go to prepare a place for you. Further, we can label each of the sides. The above picture is a famous work of art by Andrei Rubilev, the great medieval Russian painter of Orthodox icons and frescos. God Is Like An Egg - vtaide.com If you say, "water" then you are incorrect. To become the people we were always created to be. Jesus Person is joined to the Father by the Fathers Holy Spirit, because Gods Spirit is also Jesus Spirit - "But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in you. The best analogy for the Trinity (hold your stones) - The Project on The white of an egg is the connection between the yolk and the shell. But if modalism is true, and the Trinity really is like water, then the story of Jesus (the Son) praying to the Father as recorded in the Bible seems like an awfully strange masquerade. He cares for his creation and his people. The problem with this analogy is that it denies the distinction of persons in the God-head. I think the illustration that represents the Trinity most accurately is the egg example. Yet there is still only one God we serve. Time exists as 3 things: past, present, and future. Part 2. In the same way, at one moment God is the Father, but at different times God morphs or transforms into the Son or Holy Spirit. All Rights Reserved. This is a place to find encouragement and hope from God's Word as you move through your busy life. Yet we do not have three gods but ONE God. Or have you ever tried to teach kids about the Trinity? God is like an egg - VTAide Christians believe, then, that only one God exists but this God exists as a unity of three persons: a Trinity. The Trinity is foundational and at the heart of our Christian faith. RELATED: What Did Jesus Really Look Like? How Helpful Are Analogies of the Trinity? - Kuyperian Commentary Therefore it behoves us to know what He has revealed (including the Trinity), and to lovingly worship Him accordingly. However, in some instances, the use of carefully chosen analogies may be of help for some of our brethren in learning the teachings of the Church. As a doctrine (belief), the trinity is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three separate and distinct persons united in one being- God. You can also catch up with me on Facebook, Pinterest, and TikTok Im giving God the credit for stirring this memory, and am extremely grateful. The Unseen Father keeps the Father that is seen, alive. Genisis 1:17, KJV. 2A) Dave is a father of four children: three boys and a . His being is somewhat of a mystery to us. Answer (1 of 25): Cynics assert that the idea of the Holy Trinity is a logical impossibility. . Analogies for the Trinity exist to explain the unexplainable. Similarly, people have used the example of the apple in the same way- skin, flesh, and seeds. 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).