This was actually not my question but I really liked the topic and went ahead and wrote a speech on it as well
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For those of us who have grown up in a christian home we have heard about the Trinity since a very small age. We have head it compared to water, a three leaf clover and even an egg. In our world, with our limited human experiences, it can become very difficult to understand the Trinity. Our mind is bound by certain laws of this world. They are what we have been taught and believe in. So how can God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Sprit all be one, yet three. They can be in the same place at the same time in one second and then three entirely different places in the next. They can talk to each other and yet they are each other. It seems to stretch our brain beyond its comprehension.
First lets starts with the origin of the Trinity.
If you read the bible you will notice that it never mentions the Trinity. So where did we get the concept of “God in three persons.” Well there was a man by the name of Tertullian. He systematized or formulated the doctrine of trinity by summarizing all of the biblical references to God in the bible. It is a mystery and we cannot fully comprehend it with our human minds but we can certainly describe it as the bible describes it. There is no one example that fully illustrates the concept though many have tried to come up with different pictures to illustrate this mystery. Such as the three forms of water the three components of an egg and the three leaves of a clover. But one way to think of the trinity is to picture a triangle on the top is God the Father on the other point is the Son of God and on the last point is the Holy Spirit. The triangle itself represents God. The father is God, Jesus is GOd and the Holy Spirit is God Yet at the same time The father is not the Son of God, The Son of God is not the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is not The Father. For example my family and I recently when to India for three weeks. In India the only gold worn there is pure 24 karat gold. They showed us different items of gold such as ring a necklace and a bracelet. The necklace, ring, and bracelet are all made of the same substance, 24 karat gold,. Yet the necklace is not the ring the ring is no the bracelet and the bracelet is not the necklace.
But what does the bible say about this? The bible never directly states the doctrine of the trinity so how can we say that it is biblical? Well in order to try to get a better grasp on the complexities and the nature of the trinity we must break it down.
First we have the concept that God is only one God, not three separate Gods working together but one God. In Deuteronomy 6:4 it says “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!” and also 1 Corinthians 8:4 “There is no God but one.”
Second is the concept that God is three persons. Each person is not the other person. They have the same substance and are equal, but they willingly subjected themselves to each other. In Matthew 28:19 it says "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." In John 17:24 Jesus is praying to God the Father, implying that they are separate. And in John 16:7 Jesus says “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” Here the “helper” it refers to is the holy sprit. This verse is saying that Christ will send the Holy sprit once again implying that they are separate.
And the third and final concept that completes the doctrine of the Trinity is that all three persons are completely God.There are several references that God the Father is God but what about the Son of God? Wy can’t he be just a good person? Where does scripture say that he is God? Well in John 20:28 Thomas cries out “My Lord my God” and in John 10:30 Jesus clearly says “I and the father are one." Some people say that Jesus never really called himself God. This may be true that he never directly says I am God but he referred to himself as the “I AM” which was the title for God. The bible also says that the Jewish people who head him ripped their clothing and put ashes on there head. Why would they do this if he hadn’t claimed to be God? Jesus says directly that “you have seen me have seen the Father.”
And for the holy spirit it says in Acts 5:3-4 “But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” This basically is saying that If you lie to the Holy Spirit you have lied to God. You can think of the trinity as a plant, God the Father is a deep root, the Son is the shoot that breaks forth into the world, and the Spirit is that which spreads beauty and fragrance.
Now after all of this you may feel that there is no way that you will ever be able to fully understand the doctrine of the Trinity. Thankfully the Bible doesn’t require us t understand it anyways. It simply asks us to believe it. Although this may seem like a blind faith it is not that different from what we take for granted every day. we can never fully comprehend thing like gravity, electricity, or even the engine of your car, yet we use them and “believe” in them so to speak even though we don’t understand them. As Saint Augustine put it “ If you try to understand the Trinity you
may lose your mind; But if you try to deny it, you
will lose your soul.
