The Trinity and the Unified Community
What do Muslims, Jews and Jehovah's Witnesses have in common? They all claim that Christians believes in three Gods.
It is truly understandable how the misrepresentation came about and continues to proliferated. We have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. So clearly, there are three Gods, right? No.
Let me tackle this from a different angle. We are created in the image of God, no? Yes. If we are looking from the viewpoint of Christianity is true and the Bible is trustworthy, then Genesis speaks and tells us that God created us in His image, in the image of God we are created. So we resemble God's make-up. It should be utterly irrevocably clear that man is made with the innate need for communion with others. We are built for fellowship and community. In the words of a friend, without community a man becomes cooky. Now clearly we cannot look at our nature and say that is who God is exactly, for the Bible also says that we are also fallen and broken by sin, but God's imprint is still upon us. Therefore it is no stretch of the imagination that God is also built for relationship. Community. That is, in fact, the true message of the Bible. He wants a relationship with you.
Coming back to our subject though, the beautiful thing about the idea of the triune nature of God is not that there are three Gods, but that God is three in one. He has community within His very make-up. This is not some despotic schizophrenic depiction of God, it is a balanced, supernatural explanation of the unexplainable. Before time, God had community. How powerful is that picture? How important is community in that sense. Wow.
In Genesis, (part of the Torah and the Jehovah's Witnesses version of the Bible), the ancient text interpret's God's divine words at the point of man's creation as thus - "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." ~ Genesis 1:26
"Let us make mankind in our image." Interesting. "Our" He said. Our is plural, but it is also plain that the Bible teaches that there is only one God. It is highly stressed in fact. The Lord is one. There is no other God but one. This is no contradiction. No. There is true Unity with diversity in God's very essence.
Although analogies are multiplicitous to explain this paradox, none truly fit completely, but they do help give an idea of the reality.
- It is like the three modes of material: liquid, gas, solid. Water, Ice, and Vapor are all H2O but are quite distinct entities in themselves as well. It is still only one substance.
- Man has a mind, a body, and a soul. Three distinct things, only one being.
These two analogies are probably the better of the analogies I have heard.
Jesus called God his Father. Jesus also called himself God when he said "before Abraham was, I AM" (John 8:58, Exodus 3:14). Jesus told the disciples to wait for him to send "power from heaven" (Luke 24:49). What was this power? It has been called the Spirit of God (Micah 3:8). So either Jesus is insane, a liar, or He is who he said he is. God the Son.
It is hard to understand, how can three be one? Three in essence, one in entity. Anther way you may want to think about it... If Jesus was not God, he would not be able to raise himself from the dead. (John 20:17). There is diversity in unity. No where is it more wonderful and beautiful than in the Triune nature of God himself. Community and Unity.
Jared Williams
It is truly understandable how the misrepresentation came about and continues to proliferated. We have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. So clearly, there are three Gods, right? No.
Let me tackle this from a different angle. We are created in the image of God, no? Yes. If we are looking from the viewpoint of Christianity is true and the Bible is trustworthy, then Genesis speaks and tells us that God created us in His image, in the image of God we are created. So we resemble God's make-up. It should be utterly irrevocably clear that man is made with the innate need for communion with others. We are built for fellowship and community. In the words of a friend, without community a man becomes cooky. Now clearly we cannot look at our nature and say that is who God is exactly, for the Bible also says that we are also fallen and broken by sin, but God's imprint is still upon us. Therefore it is no stretch of the imagination that God is also built for relationship. Community. That is, in fact, the true message of the Bible. He wants a relationship with you.
Coming back to our subject though, the beautiful thing about the idea of the triune nature of God is not that there are three Gods, but that God is three in one. He has community within His very make-up. This is not some despotic schizophrenic depiction of God, it is a balanced, supernatural explanation of the unexplainable. Before time, God had community. How powerful is that picture? How important is community in that sense. Wow.
In Genesis, (part of the Torah and the Jehovah's Witnesses version of the Bible), the ancient text interpret's God's divine words at the point of man's creation as thus - "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." ~ Genesis 1:26
"Let us make mankind in our image." Interesting. "Our" He said. Our is plural, but it is also plain that the Bible teaches that there is only one God. It is highly stressed in fact. The Lord is one. There is no other God but one. This is no contradiction. No. There is true Unity with diversity in God's very essence.
Although analogies are multiplicitous to explain this paradox, none truly fit completely, but they do help give an idea of the reality.
- It is like the three modes of material: liquid, gas, solid. Water, Ice, and Vapor are all H2O but are quite distinct entities in themselves as well. It is still only one substance.
- Man has a mind, a body, and a soul. Three distinct things, only one being.
These two analogies are probably the better of the analogies I have heard.
Jesus called God his Father. Jesus also called himself God when he said "before Abraham was, I AM" (John 8:58, Exodus 3:14). Jesus told the disciples to wait for him to send "power from heaven" (Luke 24:49). What was this power? It has been called the Spirit of God (Micah 3:8). So either Jesus is insane, a liar, or He is who he said he is. God the Son.
It is hard to understand, how can three be one? Three in essence, one in entity. Anther way you may want to think about it... If Jesus was not God, he would not be able to raise himself from the dead. (John 20:17). There is diversity in unity. No where is it more wonderful and beautiful than in the Triune nature of God himself. Community and Unity.
Jared Williams
