Who is God?
God the Trinity
Introduction to the Trinity
One of the more complicated aspects of God to understand is the Trinity; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Word shows one God, but in three forms.
God is one: in Mark 12:29 (KJV) “Jesus answered, ‘The foremost is, Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord’“.
One, yet plural: In Genesis 1:26 (KJV) it says, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ “.
The concept of the Trinity is confusing and difficult for a lot of people, even many Christians. The term “Trinity” is defined by the Encyclopedia Britannica as
“The unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead. The doctrine of the Trinity is considered to be one of the central Christian affirmations about God.”
Christians believe there is only one God, and this one God exists as one essence in three Persons.
Early Christians used this diagram to explain the Trinity. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all God, but they are not three names for the same Person.
The Persons are distinct:
- The Father is not the Son.
- The Son is not the Holy Spirit.
- The Holy Spirit is not the Father.
The term “persons” is often difficult for us to relate to, as we tend to think of separate “people”. We here at LearningGod.org focus on a Biblical interpretation of what this means. As such we prefer to think of the Trinity as 3 different ways in which God interacts with the world, or His creation.
As a way to relate, you can think of water as we do when we have a glass of it. It is liquid when we drink it. It can also be frozen as Ice and also heated up and turned into steam. It is 3 forms of the same substance. In this example, the change in state is dictated by the temperature at which we encounter it. This is a simple way to relate to what God is doing to interact with us and the Universe. See Why Did God Create the Universe for more information on this. Next, we will dive into the details of what the Trinity really is.
