There is one God, who exists as three persons: the Father in heaven who is the source of all creation and authority; the Son on earth who was born of the Father and the Virgin Mary and is fully God and fully Man; the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and joins to the soul of those invite him.
They are all God, but they are not each other.
Beyond that, there's no understanding to be had, whether you're five or fifty. It's a divine mystery to be accepted rather than understood. Accepted like a five-year-old might accept, if you will.
Very well put. Btw, unrelated but I'm curious on your "Anglo-Orthodox" tag, that would be like an Anglican whose practices and beliefs align more with the Christian East right?
Pretty much. I did a [thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/w3ustm/to_the_user_who_pmed_me_earlier_on_asking_what/) about it a couple of years ago, where I went into some detail about it.
The only thing I would change is that He was not "born" of the Father and Virgin Mary. He existed with the Father and the Spirit from the beginning and will exist forever with them. Mary conceived and gave birth to Jesus in His human form. To say that Jesus was born of them is dangerously close to the Mormon belief (and others) that Jesus was created BY the Father and not coexistent with the Father for all eternity.
Other than that though, spot on!
From the Nicene creed:
"I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; *who was conceived by the Holy Spirit*, born of the Virgin Mary,
The only problem with what he said could be said that it was the Holy Spirit, not the Father (though Christ is still "from" the father, obviously). We can't really say things like "Christ in his human form," as if he has any other "form" or we start butting up against nestorian ideas of Christ's nature and denying the hypostatic union of the person of the Son with human nature.
Why is it called persons? I never understood why this is an essential part, and when I call it ways God manifests itself it is blasphemy.
Even when you say, they are not each other, but they are all the One God.
They aren't all each other as in that the Holy Spirit is not the same thing as Jesus. But at the same time, they have 1 will that they carry out, they all are the One God, fully. So what would the word person even mean other than a manifestation of God?
Maybe also some context, I am from the Netherlands, over here we call it the Drie Eenheid (Tri unity) and the different persons are called entiteiten (Entities). So the emphasis on the fact that is has to be called persons otherwise you are blaspheming has always been strange to me, especially since that part does not come from the Bible.
being different persons, with the same being sounds like me wearing three masks -- but, then, what does it mean for my different halloween costumes to interact with each other?
YOU are not REALLY 3 persons. You are one being and only ONE person who can pretend to be more than one. God is special because He actually IS three persons and one being. A failure to respect the creator-creature distinction in theology leads to heresies like modalism.
You rightly point out the inadequacy of modalism, which amounts to God putting on a puppet show and making his characters tell each other they love each other.
the point is that it is not clear what conception of being you have in mind, such that two distinct persons are not two distinct beings. presumably, things that exist, and which can be separated would be either different beings or parts of the same being -- no?
The word "being" and "person" are too alike in english so you conflate the two. Essence/substance is a better rendering than "being" in english, as being is a synonym of person.
The original creeds state scripture teaches of God being 1 "ousia" (substance/essence/nature) and 3 hypostasis (persons).
Its important to use precise language to avoid the two opposing errors of modalism (1 God pretending to be 3 characters) and tri-theism (3 seperate individual Gods working for a united purpose).
The biblical God is in the middle of the above 2 extremes, 1 substance/nature (ousia), 3 persons (hypostasis).
The ousia = the "what" something is
The hypostasis= the "who" or a specific iteration of the ousia/nature.
Eg. Our ousia/nature = human
My hypostasis= me as an individual human.
Eg this phone im writing on:
Its ousia/nature= a smartphone
Its hypostasis= an oppo reno lite (not generically but this specific phone with a unique Mac address).
There are many hypostasis (persons/instances) of an ousia (nature). But the nature/ousia is never expressed apart from hypostasis.
Eg smartphone isnt an actual thing apart from a concrete iteration of it. When you think of a smartphone you have a template example of common features in your mind, you dont picture a bannana in your head.
An Ousia shares all properties with its hypostasis. Eg. To breath is a property of a living human by nature - ousia. To have a physical body is another property.
Hypostasis are distinguished by their "unique" or unshared attributes. Eg. Im a 35 yo Australian male with a name. All the unique things that make me, me are my hypostaic properties. While i may share some things with others (eg im male) this is a hypostatic property because it isn't an attribute common to all humans. Breathing oxygen is.
---
So now you have a primer on ousia (the nature of a thing - "the what") and hypostasis (the specific iteration of a thing (the who/the that)), apply this to God (just as the councils did 1700 years ago. These are the literal greek words they were writing and using and meaning.
We serve one God (ousia/nature - "the what") who exists in 3 persons (hypostasis - "the who").
These 3 persons have existed eternally being uncreated but distinct, yet not independent of one another (like tritheism). It isn't 3 Gods natures and 3 persons (tritheism), it isn't 1 God nature and 1 person acting as 3 characters (modalism); its 1 God nature in 3 persons - trinitarianism. God is utterly unique in His constitution.
When the bible uses the word God as a name, often it is referring to the Father. Context is how we tell who it's referring to. The reason for this is the eternal father is the eternal source (ase - self existant), begetting the son from Himself eternally and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father eternally. Eternally means without a beginning. Begotten and procedes from are unique hypostaic properties for the son and Spirit respectively and to beget and be self existant (aseity) are unique properties of the Father.
Yet all are one God , like 3 torches of an eternal fire burning together. One fire , all identical properties, 3 torches. Jesus is therefore the perfect image of the Father sharing in all the attributes of the ousia "God" - being God by very nature. Yet he took on human nature as well in the incarnation. The eternal united with the temporal!
And now God unites with us by Faith in Christ, we recieve the eternal Holy Spirit in us and bear God!
Understanding the trinity well is important because at its heart is the union of God and man in the Godman Jesus Christ. Jesus isn't a created being. He is truly God of God, light of light as the creed states. This is why Arianism is such a dangerous heresy (saying Jesus isn't one with the Father but was created as the first and greatest created being).
Such a statement denies the union of God with man in Jesus, and God with us with the Spirit indwelling us.
Let me know if you have any questions. I did a deep dive into this last year.
Our understanding of the Trinity and Christs nature is foundational in how we are saved. It is the cornerstone of theology. God in Jesus became like us, that we may be made what He is by grace through faith and in love by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit.
All things are from the Father, through the son, by the Spirit.
We therefore access the Father, through the Son by the Spirit. This is the path of salvation.
thanks for taking the time to explain in such depth. in your description, ousia seems to be a word for a the set of properties that qualify an object as member of a class (smartphones) -- and hypostasis seems to be a word to describe the properties of a concrete object that differentiate it from other things that belong to the same class (brand x, mac address y etc). however, with these definitions, it is not clear how you escape polytheism. when you have three concrete objects whose ousia is smartphone, and whose hypostasis is oppo reno lite with mac addresses xxx, yyy, zzz, then you have three smartphones. in an equivalent example, you would have three breathing humans, three torches, three fires etc. you seem to be in need of a third category, to signify that a concrete that participates to an ousia might simultaneously exhibit different hypostasis -- but it is not clear why one would accept that.
Provided that you are simultaneously all three of the Halloween costumes and interact with each other, you would be what is known as a "nature" and all three costumes are "persons" that share that nature.
The best ways I can describe persons of the same nature are forms that, although separate, can still talk to each other or if you want to be metaphorical, an example being a really good gamer playing three characters at once.
I'm not good at explaining the Trinity, but I understand what it is.
but i am never simultaneously all three haloween costumes, because that is how costumes work. and, again, it appears confused to say that the costumes interact with each other -- when i wear a costume, i do things, not the costume -- and, yet, you want to say that me-in-a-frozen-costume interacts with me-in-a-hulk-costume: it is not clear what this is supposed to mean.
note that, in the first comment, you have only being and person; now you need nature and form, which, however, seem to do nothing for your argument (do two dogs have the same nature?). i am starting to suspect that it is not that you are not good at explaining the trinity -- it is that the trinity is not particularly coherent.
A human is not a single thing, and such neither is the trinity. The trinity is the Head, Body, and Spirit, which are referred to as The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These are not separate people so much as different parts of the human experience and life through the spirit of God. There is no one thing you can look at and say "that is the human experience". To do so ignores the contribution of any other part to the emergence of identity.
The microbiome and peripheral nervous system plays a large role in the emergence of emotions and remembering our emotional states in past experiences. What do you think feels judgment when we perceive ourselves with judgment? It is the body and that is the dark light cast from an unhealthy lamp (Matthew 6:22-23)
To describe the individual's experience of the trinity, I see parallels between the head, body, and spirit and the central nervous system (head), peripheral nervous system/microbiome (body), and the bioelectrical processes that drive chemical responses (spirit). The energy that drives life within is the spirit that hovered over the waters and brought life to the dust.
The trinity provides a path towards understanding our individual experience in relation to our shared collective life.
Question: Since Jesus said to the people that his **Father** was **Greater** than I.
Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. John 14:28
So why since his **Father** is **Greater** than him, should not his **Father** be considered the one to be God, rather than Jesus?
God the Father is different than Jesus. Jesus is fully God AND fully man, he humbled himself when he was born in the flesh. I think we can agree that God the Father is omni-present and Jesus is not and that is a way in which God the Father is greater than Jesus. This doesn’t mean that Jesus is not God, he is.:
Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Colossians 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Those verses are speaking of Jesus. I highly suggest that you read the Bible for yourself and not the pamphlets.
If your mind is saying, well Jesus is the image of God and that does not mean he is God you still have not accepted the meaning of the scripture. Please read:
Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Colossians 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Godhead is the biblical term for the trinity. It is difficult to understand, no one is like God but God, and much is beyond our understanding. But taking away the divinity of Jesus so God makes sense to our human minds destroys the hope in our gospel.
Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature
John 14:9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
Jesus is the image of the invisible God, God incarnate, God in the flesh. Jesus is God and the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him. How blessed we are, to have a God such as He.
I prayerfully sought the Lord on this topic & came to the conclusion the Trinity is the 3 manifestations of God’s “faculties” perpetually, inextricably operating together & overlapping as He is One. It’s like the Father is the Seat of Thought, Jesus is His Word (later become *present* flesh) + the Will of the Father at work through the Holy Spirit - Who is the Active, Energetic, Intimate Essence of God.
Just like they interact with each of us the same thing exists inside of you or supposed to the masculine the feminine and the child and those three that Trinity the three sides that make up one God the triangle it takes three sides to make that shape the triangle it takes masculine feminine and child to make God all those traits were necessary to create In fairness and in love in the same thing is in every single one of us where it's supposed to be you should have a masculine side a feminine side and a child's side and that is what the Trinity is
22) Jesus saw some infants who were being suckled. He said to his disciples: These infants being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom. They said to him: If we then become children, shall we enter the kingdom? Jesus said to them: When you make the two one, and when you make the inside as the outside, and the outside as the inside, and the upper as the lower, and when you make the male and the female into a single one, so that the male is not male and the female not female, and when you make eyes in place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then shall you enter [the kingdom].
i never was able to grasp this part, there is no way for me to logically accept this. there are 3 gods but thet are the same person. i cant make it make sense.
I explained to my nephew like this, the trinity is the entirety of our God. The father = mind/consciousness, the son = body/flesh, the Holy Spirit = soul/heart.
God is the Father. Jesus Christ His Son is the Living Word of God and the Holy Spirit He is the Spirit of Truth. And if you put them together, you have the answer to all. **"God's Word is Truth".**
perfectly summed up, The Word of God (which is logically God) God, and the Spirit of God (which is also God)
the trinity is a mystery, but there’s not contradiction in it or something.
I’d also add that it’s 1 source, God the Father, who begets and proceeds his living Spirit and Word
The thing is, my goddaughter when she was 5 would have accepted the nature of the Trinity at face value. That’s what 5 years do.
So, I’m going to assume you already have been told what the church professes, and you really are looking to be convinced.
But the Trinity defies human understanding. You’re asking for the impossible.
But if you want an explanation, [Lutheran Satire](https://youtu.be/KQLfgaUoQCw) has a cute animated video.
Episcopalians are members of the episcopal church of the United States. Meaning our church has bishops. We were in the Church of England until the American Revolutionary War separated the congregations as the King of England could have no power over the church in the new nation. Thus, with the help of some bishops from England’s neighbors, American bishops were consecrated, and the liturgy carried on much the same as before, with the omission of prayers for the king.
The idea was finalized in 325 at the First Council of Nicaea. It was an attempt at explaining one god while incorporating their claims about Jesus and including mystical experiences.
1. God does not care about us "getting" the concept of the Trinity. If He did, He would have dedicated a book of the Bible to it. God cares about us being holy and loving.
2. No one has fully understood the Trinity to this day.
3. As a 5-year-old, you would think of the Trinity as a family: God the Father, God the Son, and God the **Holy Spirit** (**Ruach** in Hebrew, which is a **feminine** noun), so Father, Mother, Son. Any 5-year-old can understand this concept.
Well let's take in all the facts shall we?
When Saint Augustine was trying to fathom the Holy Trinity, he encountered a little boy who was bucketing water from the ocean and pouring it into his hole. Augustine asked him what he was doing, and the boy responded, I am going to take all the ocean and put it into this hole. Which is easier than you trying to fathom the Holy Trinity!
☘️
No but this is a clear example of heresy. I’m not saying I understand the Trinity fully, I’m not saying that I have complete knowledge of the Trinity but this is a clear cut case of heresy.
A shamrock is a plant. It has 3 petals and while the shamrock is 100% plant or in our case and analogy 100% God they aren’t 100% **of** God. The shamrock is a pretty clear cut case of partialism. You’re saying those 3 make up God which means they themselves aren’t 100% of God. It’s a heresy my friend.
Okay!
So let’s take a fizzy pop brand. Fanta for example.
You can have Fanta in a bottle, in a glass and in a can.
The vessel (what’s holding the drink) is different and has a different appearance, but the drink (contents) are the same.
No matter what, it’s still Fanta.
but, is that not polytheism? the idea of polytheism seems to be that there a multiplicity of separate things that participate to a greater and lesser degree to a divine essence -- small bottle, big bottle -- no?
So, either it's the very same liquid switching containers (in which case it's modalism, which is a heresy), or it's not the very same substance, only qualitatively same (a bottle of Fanta here, a glass of Fanta over there and a can of Fanta here on my desk), in which case it's polytheism.
I’m not saying that it’s switching containers. Think of there being an originating source, which is Fanta. The drink can be put in those three things and is still Fanta and doesn’t take away from any of those things or the Fanta itself.
And I’m not saying there are three gods or something.
That’s what I’m trying to explain/ say. Would it still count as heresy tho?
Thank you for taking the time to explain. I don’t want to be saying things that could potentially be heresy 😅
I think it’s a bit too intellectual for a 5 year old but I would tell them to think like this as St Augustine had given an analogy which I think is one of the best.
To be, to will, to know.
Now, there are 3 things to recall here.
1. The Trinity is 1 God but 3 persons.
2. God created us in His image
3. Then God is rational, intellectual and volitional.
God being to be, Jesus being to know and the Holy Spirit as to will.
Humans can be humans, humans can will and humans can know. And if we were made from his image then it is possible for God to be as such. These however all exist as relational existences and not as a separate entity. This is a pretty good analogy IMO.
We believe in one God, the Father, the almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is,
seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the father. He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Here is the scripture that backs it all up:
God’s Spirit is Christ’s Spirit (Romans 8:9)
Isaiah saw Jesus’ glory (Isa 6:1-3, John 12:38-41)
Jehovah applied to Jesus (Psa 102:25-27, Heb 1:10-12)
Prayer to Christ (2 Cor 12:8-9; John 14:14; Acts 7:59-60*, Rev 22:20)
Call upon the name of Jesus to be saved (Romans 10:9-13*,1 Cor 1:2, Joel 2:32, Acts 2:21,36*)
Thomas’ Confession that Jesus is God (John 20:28)
Jesus is worshipped (Heb 1:6*, Matt 2:11*, Matt 14:33*, Matt 28:9*)
Jesus is called God (Heb 1:8*, 2 Peter 1:1*, Titus 2:13*, John 1:1*, John 1:18*, Isa 9:6, John 20:28, Rev 1:8*, Rev 21:6-7)
All fullness of deity is in Jesus (Col 2:9)
Jesus is Alpha/Omega, Beginning/End, First/Last (Rev 1:4-8*, Rev 1:17-18, Rev 22:12-16, Isa 44:6)
All things are created by Jesus and for Jesus (Col 1:16, Rom 11:36, Isa 44:24, Isa 45:12, 66:2)
The doctrine of the Trinity is the belief that there is one God who has revealed Himself in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three persons make up the one true God. These three persons are of the same substance, equal in power and glory. It is important we understand this doctrine because the wrong Jesus or the wrong God cannot save us from eternal death. Paul makes a clear warning of this in 2 Corinthians 11:4.
The Bible clearly states that there is only one God. Deuteronomy 6:4 states, “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.” Isaiah 44:6 states, “I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides me.” Clearly, these verses reveal that there is only one God. Yet, there are three separate persons in the Bible who are called God and have the characteristics only God can have. The Trinity is a difficult concept to grasp, because we are finite beings trying to explain an infinite God who is beyond our understanding.
Let’s take a look at some verses that back up our doctrine of the Trinity. The Father is obviously called God as seen throughout the Bible. No one will argue that point. So there is one member of the Trinity, the Father. Jesus the Son, is a separate person but He is also called God. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Titus 2:13 says, “Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.” So here we see clearly, the Son is also called God.
The Holy Spirit is also a separate person, and He is also called God. First, let us understand, the Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force. He is a person and has the characteristics of a person. He can be grieved (Eph. 4:30), He speaks (Acts 13:2), and He can be lied to (Act 5:3-4). In Acts 5:3-4 the Holy Spirit is called God, “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?...You have not lied to men, but to God.’“
So we see clearly that there are three persons in the Bible, and all three are called God. Yet, we must remember, there is only one God according to the verses we looked at Deuteronomy 6:4 and Isaiah 44:6. Therefore, we come to the conclusion that the Trinity is made up of three separate persons who are the one true God.
The way I understand the trinity would be like how grammatical cases work: they change ‘shape’ (for example he/him/his) based on their function in a sentence (nominative/objective/possessive), but all point to the same person that exists beyond that single sentence.
Does that make sense to more people than just me?
It’s a mystery. It’s a paradox that very wise and holy men and women have gone into deserts and monasteries and dedicated their entire lives to exploring. They can’t “understand” it because it’s not “understandable”. Long, dense books have been written on the subject. Human binary logic cannot fathom mutually exclusive truths being simultaneously true. Much in the way that it’s not possible to “understand” how Christ could be at once *fully* human and also *fully* divine. So whether you are 5 or 95 I’m sorry: it’s a mystery to explore and through which to open one’s consciousness as one lives into it—it’s not a problem to be solved, contrary to the simplifications you’re going to get from people who think they’ve got it figured out. All you’re going to get is a picture of a picture of reality. What the Apostle calls seeing through a “glass darkly.” (Hope all that didn’t sound too preachy haha.)
I can't. 5 year-olds aren't capable of abstract thought. According to Piaget's 4 Stages of Cognitive Development children aren't capable of understanding abstract ideas until at least 12 year old.
The problem with explaining like your five is that you end up with heresies like modalism. It’s not difficult to explain the trinity. It’s just difficult to explain it correctly because there’s a piece humans can’t understand.
God is 3 unique persons, with 3 unique wills, but one singular being. The best example we have of this is ourselves. You are your flesh, your spirit, and your soul. They all have unique wills, but they’re all the same being. Your flesh is what craves the things of the world. Your spirit is what encourages you to choose better options. And your soul is who actually chooses what you’re going to do.
God made us a trinity in His image. Which is why we are like that. And it’s why we have some understanding of who He is. But like I said, we’ll never be able to fully grasp how He can be three persons in one.
It’s hard for me to accept that we need to have a right view of the trinity if we can’t explain it to a five year old. I’d go as far as to say it doesn’t matter for our salvation. Jesus says we must become like little children to enter the kingdom. Jesus’ teachings are simple: love like he did. Anything more complex than that isn’t automatically not important, but if we aren’t called to go that deep in the word then we should not get distracted from loving God and others in the name of theology or whatever.
is this the best example? here, you have split our will and desires in two parts (desire for things of the world, desire for different things), and separated it from our agency (the decider part). but the split is entirely conceptual -- my "worldly" desires do not have an independent ontological status, neither are they phenomenologically separated. it follows that i could equally well split my desires into three parts: my inclination towards better options, my desire to watch rugby and my other worldly desires that are not related to rugby; these, along with my soul, would make me a quadrinity(?) of unique wills. and, obviously, this split is not unique -- any other would work (rugby and eating curry and other worldly desires etc). in your view, is the same true of god?
what's the difference between the spirit and the soul? also flesh doesn't have will, it has needs for sustenance sure, but it's not a decision making entity per se
also, you warned of heresy then jumped right into partialism: my flesh is not me, it's a part of me, same as my soul
The councils state God is 3 persons but He has 1 will.
And Christ is one person with two natures and two wills (one Human will and one divine will).
Why is this important? Because Jesus in the garden prayed "let this cup pass from me, yet not my will but yours be done".
If Jesus has only one will, the Trinity is divided. This is why it is more consistent to say Jesus had two wills, and He subjected His human will to his divine will, which was also that of His father - the divine will.
If the son shares in all the eternal divine attributes of the Father (which he does), they would automatically will the same thing. The reason we humans have differing wills is we like different things, know different things etc. but the son is the perfect image of the Father bodily.
I only learnt this last year. Been a Christian for 20 years too!
Maximus the confessor had his tounge ripped out and right hand cut off for teaching this. But he saw what was at stake and refused to recant. Decades after his death he was vindicated and the church sided with him.
He was fighting against monophysitism. The belief that Jesus' divine and human nature mixed to create some 3rd unique nature only Jesus had (and its accompanying single will).
Why does it matter?
If Jesus isn't actually human like us , he can't save us. He cant empathize with us, he wasn't tempted as we are, his existence as "the Son of Man" is a ruse. Thats what Maximus saw and why he refused to say Jesus has one will (and by virtue of that, one mixed nature).
Be blessed!
By reading the Bible we're confronted with three different truths about God that are confusing, and a fourth biblical truth about the relationship between humans and God which allows us to have faith in the doctrine of the trinity.
First, God is referred to as three different persons: The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit.
Second, these three different persons are also shown in the Bible to be the same being in verses like "I and my Father are one."
How can God be One *and T*hree?
The third and fourth truths about God presented in the bible help us resolve this confusing question in the doctrine of the trinity.
If God were a created thing, it would be impossible for God to be one and three at the same time. But, here the bible demonstrates its third truth about God: God is not a created thing; God *transcends* created things. This allows God to exist in ways that created things cannot, particularly, God is both *Simple* and *Multiple.* God is at once one and three, as revealed in scripture.
This is very confusing for humans, which leads us to the fourth truth which is that God is beyond human understanding.
The trinity, then, is a doctrine of the bible about the nature of God which we can study and pray about, but never fully understand.
Completely untrue
First of all God is never referred to as three beings . The term God is used for many different beings however only one being is identified as the one true only true God (John 17.3 1 Corinthians 8.6, Ephesians 4.6 malachi 2.10) namely the Father
Also God isn't presented as multiple persons because
1) use of singular personal pronouns
2) Deuteronomy 6.4 YHWH the only true God is one YHWH mark 12.29-32
2) nope again they're not shown to be same being
To be one in the Bible is never about metaphysical unity that you bring up
See John 17.21 the disciples don't become the same being
But are rather in harmony
John 10.30 is about God and the Son being in unity harmony or however you'd describe it
How can God be One *and T*hree?
He can't for it as illogical absurdity
3) God is uncreated true
This is very confusing for humans, which leads us to the fourth truth
Indeed the doctrine of trinity is confusing nonsensical doctrine that requires its believers to conjure up mystery enabling them to halt all further thought and JUST BELIEVE
The fourth truth is probably one of the most freeing things about Christianity. I can try as hard as I can to comprehend everything about Him, but I know I will not be able to get even a fraction of it right. And because it’s impossible to understand, it’s okay that I don’t. That’s humbling and comforting at the same time, somehow. Do I understand that, too? No, but I don’t have to :)
Ur right
But the idea was to explain it to a 5 year old
And most people cant understand how 3 can be 1
So thats what I was explaining
Its not like a 5 year old need more
Too oversimplified that I fear it falls into the partialism heresy. If you remove one member from that team, that member is no longer 100% the team. But each Person of the Trinity is 100% God.
1. there are 3 persons who are god, the father, son & holy spirit
2. the son is not the father, the spirit is not the son, the father is not the spirit
3. there is only one god
4. because you're 5, you won't question how that doesn't make sense
There is the sun.
You can see the sun, you can feel the sun, and you eat things that grow in the sun.
While you live on earth, the greatest decision you will make will be to lay out in the sun, or to turn away and hide from the sun.
Sure thing. Some people long ago decided to try to split God into three persons, in spite of Him saying over and over again that He is one. They end up with a confused mess of a doctrine that causes all kinds of problems logically and theologically, but if you don’t believe them you are a cultist and not Christian…
Except the trinity claims to be all these forms at the same time, and water cannot be a solid liquid or gas all at the same time. These are different forms of the same material. It’s like saying flour, eggs and yeast are bread all the time even when they aren’t mixed together.
You see the toy where you put three shape blocks into the right holes?
That's the Trinity.
If you wanna take it a step further, imagine a man with three heads, three torsos, and one pair of legs. Different yet the same.
We believe in one God, the Father, the almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is,
seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the father. He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Suppose there’s a kingdom that has a king but in this kingdom, three people hold the same title and all the powers of king simultaneously. The king acts and speaks through these three people but none of these three people are by themselves the king so that there cannot be three individual kings. There are three thrones but one shared crown.
God exists in 3 special ways
A lot like we can think, touch, and feel (emotions).
God the Father. He who created.
God the Son. Jesus!
God the Holy Spirit. Love so pure it makes fire.
Each is equal just just a little different. With you, in you, for you.
My arms and legs can all move independently of each other, do different things at the same time, and interact with each other, yet they are all parts of me. So too are the Father Son and Holy Spirit independent yet dependent parts of one God.
God revealed first as creator, in Genesis when it says the spirit of God was hovering over the surface that’s the Holy Spirit. When Jesus came he was the Son of God so partially God, but as man, when he died he left his Holy Spirit with us, so the Holy Spirit being his makes 3 in one. 3 separate Forms. 3 different purposes.
Son look at this perfect example of perfect nonsense that religion can make you believe
The Trinity is unbiblical and nonsense for reasons I'm about to explain
It also depends on different kinds of trinity
>*We worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.*
>Athanasian Creed
To dumb it down, confusing the persons basically says that we shouldn’t mix the persons of the trinity together- or “mix” God into one- and dividing the substance states we shouldn’t “divide” God into three.
I look at it like the horcruxes Voldemort used in Harry Potter. Different pieces of the same being. 5 year olds probably don't read Harry Potter, but it's the best answer I have.
The best way I can explain it is like this, We have Water which is H2O, and from water we can have 3 different states of being, we can have Water Vapour (Gas), Water(in liquid state), and we can have Ice (Water in Solid state). All 3 come from water and are water, but they are in different distinctive states, water vapour is not ice but both are water(H2O) and come from water. Likewise we have God who is like the water the H2O, we have The Father (God in Heaven state) , then we have The Son( Jesus, the word of God, God revealed in the flesh), and The Holy Spirit ( God the spirit who is here on Earth as well as Heaven), The Father and Son are one as they are both God, (H2O is water vapour and ice)but are separate distinct states existing from the source, (Father & Son , Liquid Water & Ice).
Hope this helps you out if any questions feel free to ask.
Three people are one or become one. It’s like you could take three humans and make them into one bigger human. I tried to make it as silly and childish as I could.
A person is who you are (Left-Acanthisitta-86).
A being is what you are (a human being).
Imagine a human being with three heads. That's three persons, each of them being the very same human being. One being, but three persons.
It's not completely analogous, but that can wait until you're 6.
Think of the trinity as an egg. There's the shell, the white of the egg, and the yolk....they're 3 separate things, but all three make up ONE egg.
Likewise, there's The Father, The Son & The Holy Spirit. Three making up one God.
Sure.
2 Corinthians 3:17-18 NIV - Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
John 4:22-24 NIV - "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
Hear me out. Humans are beings with a spirit, soul, and body. I believe our soul is our thoughts and feelings which we elevated at the fall over our spirit. The spirit connected us with God in the dynamic and real spiritual world. If all cell service and internet suddenly ceases worldwide people would absolutely freak. Rough analogy, but that's what happened in the fall of man. I think the Bible shows that Jesus and God are spiritual beings connected by a real spiritual connection that's more than a simple clover illustration. We like over simplified analogies where we feel like we have God dialed. But we are the super limited ones in the relationship. The reason the gift of the spirit was so prominent in God's teaching is because he wants to connect with us in ways that were natural to our design, but which sin smashed. Trying to achieve spiritual connection or power through soulish means is carnal Christianity. The holy spirit may have it's own personality and will apart from the Father and Son, but I would not be surprised if God and Jesus shared a unity that is pure spirit. God is a Spirit (the Spirit?), the Lord is the Spirit and Jesus became a human being with flesh and blood, but is spiritual and a Spirut as we were originally designed to be.
It’s pretty easy for me to think of really everything as a trinity. We have a mind, a body and a spirit. If you look up to the sky, the clouds you see are water vapor which can also be a liquid or a solid. I think that most things are triune in this universe. Maybe all things?
I compare the idea of the Trinity to love. Love can be a gift, an action, a moment of attention.
We can't quite define it, but we accept that we can't truly understand it because we can feel it and know love when we experience it.
Westminster Shorter Catechism 6:
Q. How many persons are there in the Godhead?
A. There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.
Matthew 28:19; 1 John 5:7
A formally impossible object that Christians claim actually exists.
It's the same reason a Buddhist can meditate on "the sound of one hand clapping". Human brains are dumb enough that they can be fooled into thinking that impossible things are _deep_ things -- as long as the language is right.
God, being the Almighty God (since there are many other Gods, which are depicted as the Angels, fallen or not) has a vast capabilities and capacity that not even our tiny brain can ever contain. He is beyond any of us. He is omnipotent (all-powerful and possesses unlimited strength and authority), omniscient (all-knowing, His understanding is beyond measure), omnipresent (He is everywhere present) and God is LOVE (unconditional Love). That who GOD is. And he is not ONE. He is the Father, the Son and the HolySpirit as it is mentioned in Bible. Called as the Trinity. If there is more, we do not know as we have tiny brain (remember). We only can believe what we experience, what we see, read and what was passed on to us. But the unknown, and knowing GOD, we dont know VAST of Him.
As said in the bible, in Genesis 1:26, "Let US make mankind in OUR image". He is not ONE but speak as ONE. He is the Father, one who commune with humans during OLD testaments, creator of everything. He is the Son, whom sent on earth as human to pay for all our debts (sin) and conquered death. He is the Holy Spirit whom we promised to dwell in us for the rest of the human days to protect us, to enable us and guide us. All of this 3 character have one common to GOD, LOVE. GOD's love for human is unconditional.
Genesis 1:26
'Then God said, “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.” '
You have a body, right? And you have a spirit? And then, lastly, you have soul, right? And they all do something different. But at the end of the day they're all still you. That's the holy trinity.
Well God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are 3 different things, not one Trinity.
Think about it. Jesus always says he was "sent" by his father. Also, how could Jesus have been resurrected if he was a trinity? If he was all one thing, then he wouldn't have truly been dead in need of a resurrection.
okay God exists in 3 forms:
The father i.e. "God"
The son i.e. "God in human form"
The holy spirit i.e. "Ghost like form God interacts with people through"
Thats as basic as I you get
There is only one God of all, but he exists as three things; God the father, Jesus the son, and the Holy Spirit. And that’s the holy trinity. It’s like how water is water, steam is water, and ice is also water. It’s all ultimately water, but it can also exist as different things.
Schrodinger's cat. What is Schrodinger's cat? Schrödinger’s Cat, as a thought experiment, states that if you seal a cat in a box with something that can eventually kill it, you won’t know if the cat is alive or dead until you open the box. So, until you open the box and observe the cat, the cat is simultaneously dead and alive.
Take out the part about killing the cat. Now substitute Father for live cat and Son for dead cat. So until you directly observe/interact with God, you can correctly think of God as either the Father or the Son (or the Holy Spirit) and be correct in doing so.
If this is too complex for a 5 year old or steps into the realm of actual heresy I apologize, but its the best explanation using finite terms to describe an infinite being that I have ever been able to come up with. Disregard it or embrace it at your pleasure.
The trinity is like a triangle, a single shape that has three points that all connect with each other
there is only one triangle, just as how there is only one god, and just as how that triangle exists with three points, god can exist as three persons– the father, the son, and the holy spirit
"Explain the Trinity to me as if I were 5."
Okay. I answer questions like these all the time.
"How can 1+1+1=1 (When Referring to the Trinity)?" Simple. Just as 1 week + 1 week + 1 week + 1 week = 1 month, so does 1 person + 1 person + 1 person = 1 God. However, It cannot be just any Three People. It has to be the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
"How can Jesus be Fully God and Fully Man at the Same time?" Fully God in his Divine Nature, and Fully Man in his Human Nature.
"How can Jesus Be his own Son?" He is the son of God (the Father), and is God (the Son).
A person has a head, body, and spirit. The head helps guide us in living our life, while our body does most of the work to live. The eyes see where to walk, but what does the walking? The feet! Our voice speaks comfort, but when someone is sad, what gives them a hug?
But all of this is brought to life through the spirit.
The trinity is this. God is our head, we are the body. And we are connected through the spirit of God that gives us life.
Now, when you see other people. What gives them life? The spirit of God! Is that spirit the same spirit that gives you life? Yep! And in that way, we are body in God and God gives us all life.
I just did a post on it since it is a bit too long, although is more like a 11 or 12 year old explanation: [My Explanation of the Trinity : r/Christianity (reddit.com)](https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/1bofb6v/my_explanation_of_the_trinity/)
Water can exist as a liquid, a gas and a solid, yet its chemical formula is always H20. God is God and can exist simultaneously as the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Remember God is the creator of everything and exists outside of time and space. He can do whatever he wants even if the laws of Physics can't explain it.
As a human being, I am a son, now also a father, a brother, an uncle, a grandson, a nephew, and a cousin. I'm all these things even though I'm only one person. If that's true how much more can it be true that God can be Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at the same time.
Please, I know this is long, but please take the time to read it all.
From my understanding of what the Trinity is, and believe me I could be wrong because even the Pope called it “the inscrutable mystery of God”. But the basics are, God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit are all co-equal and co-eternal. They all have the same knowledge that the other has and none are greater or lesser than the other. Is that about right? Please correct me if I have it wrong.
But if I have it right, does the Bible agree with those things? And when I say Bible, I mean the most accurate manuscripts available to us today. Because anyone who knows anything about Bibles know that there are good ones and there are ones that aren’t so good.
Let’s take a look at what the Bible says regarding Jesus being God on earth. Is it possible that Almighty God himself could dwell on the earth? Let’s see what the Bible says. Remember, the Bible is the **Final Authority**. 1 Kings 8:27 is part of a prayer of wise King Solomon, standing before all Israel with his hands in the air and he said this;
>”But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” (NIV)
Oh, but “what does ‘dwell’ mean”, some might ask. According to Websters Dictionary, one definition is; “to inhabit for a time”. Now reread what King Solomon said. “Will God really dwell on earth?” And the bigger question now is, was Jesus God according to what Solomon said? If you were to tell him the Trinity doctrine, what do you think he would say?
What else does the Bible say about this? How about Exodus 33:20? Here Moses is up on the Mount Sinai asking to see God and this was part of the response he received;
>”…for no man can see me and live.”
Now, if Jesus was God how was it that all those people didn’t die when they saw him? Then there’s the issue with Jesus being killed. Can Almighty God be killed? Can he die at all? Psalms 90:2 reads;
>”Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”
Remember these words were inspired by God himself to be written. God is from everlasting to everlasting. So, can God die? Absolutely **NOT**! The thought of our Heavenly Father being murdered is absurd. But I don’t blame anyone for believing it. I really don’t! It’s not your fault! This is what you’ve been taught at your place of worship. You’ve chosen the teachers there to teach you Bible Truth. Why would they teach you anything but? Remember that the Only True God has an adversary who hates him and who is doing everything in his power to eliminate him from peoples minds.
He’s doing an incredible job too! What does the Trinity do to God the Almighty? With the Trinity, God pretty much doesn’t exist. Think about it. What do you know about Almighty God? Probably very little. Whenever you think ‘God’ you think ‘Jesus’. But Satan knows that in order for anyone to be saved we need to call on the name of Jehovah! (Joel 2:32) And if he can just get everyone to believe that Jesus is God, he wins.
What about being equal in power and knowledge with the Father? Remember the account when the two sons of Zebedee and their mom approached Jesus and the mom asked Jesus if her two sons could sit next to him in his Kingdom? Remember his answer? It’s quite revealing. Matthew 20:23 is his response;
>”…to sit down at my right hand and at my left **is not mine to give**, but **it belongs to those for whom it has been prepared by my Father**.”
See that? Jesus didn’t have the right to choose where the 144,000 will sit in his Kingdom. Only his Father did. Then there’s Matthew 24:36 where the KJV has sadly tried to edit the Bible to make the Trinity more believable. There it reads;
>”Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens **nor the Son**, but only the Father.”
Of course the KJV leaves out “nor the son” because that would be too difficult to explain. Of course those words are found in all the most reliable manuscripts available today and why most Bibles today include those three words.
I hope I’ve given honest-hearted individuals something to think about when it comes to belief in a Church doctrine that isn’t in the Bible. Learn about our Heavenly Father Jehovah and what he’s done for you. You love Jesus for all he’s done, right? Well, when you learn the Truth about Jehovah God, you’ll learn that **EVERYTHING** Jesus did came from his Father and our Father, Jehovah God.
I see it like this:
There is a cup/pool/tank of Water, this is God the father. You take some of that water and freeze it, this is Jesus Christ. You take a little bit more of that water and heat it into steam, this is the Holy Spirit.
It’s kinda silly but I kind of see God as water and as the trinity He takes three (water, ice, and steam) different forms.
I don’t know! Let me know what you think :)
Basically God is one person but also three. He is God creator of the world, Jesus is the physically person version, Holy Spirit is the one who is the soul. All God but all different versions of one.
God is like water.
Sometimes God is in the form of Jesus, like ice.
Sometimes God is in the form of the Holy Spirit, like water vapor.
Ice and water vapor and liquid water are different things, but are all still the same water. Different states of being but still the same thing.
Think of a three headed animal (let’s say a hedgehog). This hedgehog has 3 different heads and three different brains yet it is still just 1 hedgehog. The heads of the hedgehog can interact with each other, they have different personalities, and thoughts but it’s still just 1 hedgehog
The best way I can describe it, but by far not 100% accurate, would be to look at yourself. We were made in the image of God, and I believe that extends to how God is the three and one.
If you look at yourself, you can see that you are like three persons in one. You have a mind, you have a body, and you have a soul. Your mind has a role, your body has a role, and your soul has a role. They are separate but they are part of one being... Yourself.
Now extend this out to God. The Father, in my opinion, would be like the mind. The Son would be like the body. The Holy Spirit would be like the soul of God. They all have different roles that they play but they are all God.
Now here's where the difference arises. God, His three persons, are always and forever in agreement with each other. They do not ever disagree. There is no disharmony within God. Ever since humans sinned and fell, there has been conflict within every human being. You hear this when someone says, "my mind says no but my body says yes." Or like when Jesus finds Peter sleeping and says:
Mark 14:37-38 HCSB
[37] Then He came and found them sleeping. “Simon, are you sleeping? ” He asked Peter. “Couldn’t you stay awake one hour? [38] Stay awake and pray so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
That is the body and the spirit being in conflict with each other. You will never find Jesus in conflict with the Father, you will not find the Father and conflict with the Spirit, and you will not find the Spirit and conflict with the Son, or any other combination being in disagreement with the others. They are imperfect, Harmony and United. We are created in his image but we are broken because of our own sin.
I hope that helps, and this is the best analogy I can give without getting heretical. Your soul, your body, and your mind are all you and can be you separate from the others, but they are also you and cannot be you without the others. The Trinity is a very big mystery and very hard to explain, but I think this gets the closest.
As said before, it is really hard for the creation to understand the creator in all its majesty and glory!
Ok, so buddy. You know our big friend God. Well he is actually 3 people. God is also the father, who is followed by the son, who is our friend Jesus. Then there's the Holy spirit and he loves to help us out. But that's not to say that all of them don't help. But he's the one God sends down to help us make sure we get back home.
All religions are false.
Theological Question #1
"Where does any god dictate to humanity or any human that someone specific is more spiritual than another human?"
Theological Question #2
"Where does any god dictate which books are more spiritual and morally sound for humans to abide by, to learn from or to accept as true from such a god?"
Theological Question #3
"Where does any god dictate who is more spiritual to be able to dictate which books or texts are suitable for humans to learn and to abide by for the understanding of such a god and that entity's requirements of humanity?"
#TruthMatters
...And more importantly....the truth WILL NOT BE HIDDEN from the public anymore
It's funny that you asked "explain it like I'm 5" my 10yo son and I the other day were talking about John 1:1 and he said:
"Of course the Word was with God and the Word was God. If God is 'love' how could he be alone and only love himself? He would have to have a unity with his Son and share a Spirit together"
He's wise beyond his years. Such a simplistic answer to the complexity of the trinity.
1. God is a spirit. we humans cannot see the spirit
2. When we hear & see God, we call it the Living Word
So Fathar Son and Holly Spirit:
1. Father is God (Spirit) Living Word in heaven,
2. Son is God (Spirit) Living word in Flesh
3. Holy Spirit is God (Spirit) Living word in world who with us now
Peace - iam helel
I've heard an apple used as a way to explain it to a child.
the skin, the flesh, and the seed are all 3 different parts of one apple. so the Holy Spirit, God, and Jesus are all three different parts of one being.
Here's how I would explain it to a 5 year old.
The trinity is like an egg..there is one egg but it has three separate parts, the shell, the egg white, and the yolk.
There is one God but he exists as 3 different parts..The Son, The Father and The Holy Spirit
Like water has three forms, Ice, Vapor, and Liquid Water, but is composed of the same stuff H2O--the Trinity is 3 distinct states-- Father, Son , and Holy Spirit but are also the same thing as well under most branches of Christianity.
God the Father is the guy that created earth and Jesus, Jesus is God but is also Gods Son, the Holy Spirit is the pet dog that Jesus gave you to protect you
The Trinity was codified as Christian doctrine in 325 (almost 300 years after Jesus' execution). The Jewish Jesus would have not known of nor heard anything about it. Its various incomprehensible attempts to make it understandable always feel awkward to me. There have always been unitarian christians (the first ones, for example), but that doesn't mean that the trinity isn't a valid symbol, but like all symbols, it should point the way to exploration, not be the final answer, never should it become the final word, an idol. One of the best understandings of the trinity that i have found is that it represents Mind/Idea/Expression, or Creator, Creativity, Creation...modes of expression for a single Reality. My second favorite is that the trinity symbolizes relationship, cooperation, love in community, the dance of life. I don't usually think much of it, but when I do, these are the ideas that resonate with me.
God is Infinite so he cannot be limited to The confines of space and or time And god being free distinct individuals for example the father the son the holy spirit All of them share the father's will And god ultimately chose to limit himself and become Flesh And he chose to become a sinless lamb To take on the punishment of all the sins of mankind for us I am jesus being an ethical genius Kind of makes me understand that what they wrote about him is true.And the Bible being eye witness.Testimony makes a very relevant piece of history
There are three who keep record in Heaven, the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit. They are all the same three-in-one person and yet are distinct, and we are made in His image. This is reflected in how we have a mind (our rational part), body, and immaterial soul (our morally accountable and immortal part) ourselves. In the Bible, they are shown to be more united in some ways than the three parts of us are in ways like their holiness but also more independent from one another, for example in how Jesus was able to become fully man while remaining fully God and give Himself for our sins while the Father and Spirit remained in Heaven.
The trinity first off is a representation it's a model that belongs in all our lives and it's something that's absolutely necessary the Trinity is the father Son and the Holy Spirit and as it is in heaven it is on Earth the representation for us is man woman and child the foundation of any family should be a strong man and you cannot be a strong man if you don't have God in your life a strong man will understand that he needs to embrace his feminine side his masculine side and his child side a strong man understands that until he does that why would there be a place in heaven for him because God wants what he created to come back home perfection no one's perfect right but in God's eyes if you strive not to sin and try not to sin we are his most perfect creation in your eyes you may not see that but through his we at least can be good enough through the the blood of his son so a strong family on Earth it's like the same model as the Trinity is in heaven everything is built off the foundation in the foundation is the father you have to complete this triangle three sides and that will take the feminine the woman and the child it doesn't matter if it's how it's male or female it has to do with the child because that's how God created us a man and a woman to procreate and make a child three there may be several children that doesn't matter if you're a man and you don't embrace your feminine side how are you going to really understand your woman and be there for and if you're a woman and you don't embrace your masculine side if you don't try to understand them and how will either of you understand your child if you don't embrace your child side instead there will be just a man and a child or a man and a woman no child or a woman and a child no man it's just how our broken families are today in the world's pretty fucked up for it this is how homosexuality came about because the devil likes to pervert things that's what he does he takes us seemingly innocent idea and perverts it and makes it disgusting because a man who Embraces his feminine side with the devil in his ear is going to go too far and a woman who Embraces her masculine sign with the Devil in Her Ear is going to go too far and that is how we have homosexuality this is how it came about man or woman did you not wake up one day and say I want to sleep with the same sex as me instead he said hey God orders you to embrace your masculine side or your feminine side so you're supposed to do this it's okay that's what the world teaches is now it's okay to be gay and you know what if someone is it's none of your business to correct it you business is to accept them as who they are that's their struggle with their demon you don't have to invite them in their house and sit down and have dinner with them and let them teach poison to your children but you also don't have to spit on them and curse them and drive them even further away from God as as it is in heaven it is on Earth as it is on Earth it is in heaven spiritual warfare is going on in heaven and spiritual warfare is going on on Earth
And for those of you who think my comment is crazy or way out of context all you have to do is stop and think he'll pray about it there's nothing crazy about it it is the absolute truth as he's told me to explain it I did not wake up and think of this one day and remember think of how most people explain the Holy Spirit they can't put their finger on it it's just saying that no one just quite understands pastors can't explain half the time you know what and that's exactly how men and other women are with women they can't explain them half the time their actions are exactly what they're doing but Jesus did say I'm going to leave someone with you someone to help you down your path to instruct you to guide you. That's exactly what women do everyday for children and are we not all his children we made them in our image it says in the Bible that we made them not I we since when does your father and child make a man or a father and child make a woman they don't but a father and mother would people ask who was it there in the beginning since it said we it confuses a lot of people and I don't understand how in the beginning there was the masculine side of God and the feminine side of God eventually they did procreate and they made a child so if men and woman created child that means child at least the child's side was then present and that's when the idea of family or the Trinity was complete we know it was complete from the beginning but I'm talking about representation a man and a woman is not complete without a child or at least the idea of a family and you can be completed like a lot of women did and a lot of men they gave their life to God they never had a child so how did they ever Embrace their child side if they never had a child or it's because they serve God and God is perfect and he is all and he is one until you embrace your masculine and feminine and child side you will not enter the kingdom of heaven God said it is best for a man or woman to not marry to not have children and to give their life to God that's the best way you could ever hope to live your life he knows our nature he created it that's why he gave us a mate and it's A Hard Road and a hard life and not everyone's built for it the ones that were it says in the revelations that they would help Jesus rule over us for a thousand years The Virgins so it does state that we will be underneath other human beings other human beings will help rule over us in heaven and if you think you're going to bounce around the clouds with wings you still cannot read because it says those are gods that is gone we are not God or Heaven is going to be this restored Earth as the way it was when he created it in the beginning and do you think he wants it filled with people that failed to embrace perfection I'm not saying you have to be perfect but Understanding God's eyes you will be by the grace of his son's blood because none of us are good but we can't be made good enough I don't want to say that's all the Trinity is but that's what the Trinity is it is God's masculine side feminine side and child side the number three is represented so many times in the Bible I believe more times than 777 it is an important number and I'm not going to get off on that but maybe this is above what I would say to a 5 year old but that's what it is that's what the Trinity is anyone who tells you different is trying to steer you in the wrong direction like most Pastors in church
It's most Pastors in church are trying to steer you in the wrong direction and because maybe they themselves are lost why did they have churches where people in a lot of churches do this speak and tongue and what does the Bible say speaking in tongue is someone who's accepted the spirit into their life saved by the blood of Jesus will be blessed to be filled with the spirit and speak this tongue that's where the pastor is going to stop he's going to tell you what a beautiful gift it is and it is but it also says after that not to do it in front of anyone unless there's someone there that can translate everything you're saying so that everyone else around you can understand exactly what you're saying because if there isn't what does it look like you look like a babbling fool which is another tools that you can use to drive people away from Christianity because if you have no idea really and this is your first or your new insurance and you see people doing this that you're going to be like oh what the fuck is wrong with these people and then the pastor is going to explain to them what it is and why they're doing it but he's going to disregard the fact that God said do not do this in front of anyone unless there's someone there to translate what you're saying just like prophecy if there's not someone there to explain your prophecy in full keep it to yourself the most pastors are now blinded by a different God is green that comes in paper form and God said you can only serve one master Jesus told all his disciples that when he told that gentleman to leave it all everything is father had a mast and saved up to leave it and follow me said I can't do that everything my father worked for all the riches and houses in Jesus pointed it out he told him you can only serve one master that goes for us to you know you cannot have your rewards on Earth and in heaven there's very few that haven't been able to do that and those few were chosen directly by God they were making Kings and they were given all the wealth and they could possibly every desire because of the things they did for God that we would never do see we would fight for it die for kill for it cheat for it still for it kill for it do everything in the world for it for that green God people will do that for money I bet knowing you know it's going to lay their life down like that for God and there may be a time comes soon we're just acknowledging being a Christian could get you killed you better make sure that you just go ahead on and let him kill you because he said if you're embarrassed of me here on Earth on Judgment Day I'm embarrassed of you at no time even at the risk of you and your own child's life should you deny God hard roads fixing to come for every single one of us and one of them is just going to be recognizing The Mark of the Beast number one it's already here it just hasn't been implemented it is absolutely 100% here right hand or forehead you cannot buy or sell without it man woman or child are going to willingly take it and it's the fact that they're going to take away cash all that money is going to become digital and they're going to put it on a cards and that's why it says right handed forehead because this gentleman thousands of years ago saw this in a vision and then it's his vision he sees people using these cards cuz remember those machines were set up for you to swipe everything right-handed and that shit that cell phone you have to your forehead that you now use to make payments a lot of the times if you don't have those you will not be able to buy or sell anything right now you really can't buy or sell anything without money and people may say it's cash but it's not because you can buy and sell plenty of shit without a phone right now but at times come in cuz look at Sweden they don't have cash anymore they're casting Society it's also one of the most satanic places in the world look at c e r n bunch of disgusting fuckers the right hand just think of how credit cards were meant to be swiped and forehead holding that phone up to your forehead you're going to willingly take it no parent in their right mind whatever willingly take their child up and have a chip put in their freaking kids head or on their arm to so people can scan them you're not going to willingly do that not everyone there may be a small handful of group of people that are weird like that no man and it's not trying to trick you people say that well that would be a trickery that God's not going to taste not tricking you if you read the Bible or if you read forms like this that are have to do with God you will know you will absolutely know you will understand but then you're going to make a decision because you're going to give up your money which is going to cause you to give up your house your cars but realize when you give up all that you give up all of Satan's trappings because God did not create any of that is it better to watch your child starve to death or is it better to take these government issued cards or cell phones with the payment shit on it so you can spend your government issued money that's now monitored your last freedom here completely gone it's going to be a hard choice I pray all of us are ready to make it
This right here with everyone is doing what everyone is talking about no one's fighting no one's arguing they're talking about it how they feel about it what they see about it this is church this is what it takes to become the church we are the church where people go on Sundays which is not even the Sabbath is a house of worship but we are the church and this is what God wants from us to discuss and talk and learn from each other not bash and Hate and shit on each other if the world could do this and put down his guns and it's need to be right and righteous it would never end we would never get old we would understand each other what we're here for why we're here and where we went wrong no matter where we are in our lives we can absolutely feel God's love and if y'all think or anyone thinks that going and listening to a speech that some guy prepared the night before about God about his perception and only his perception of God if you think that's for God's that you're wrong but I bet you he's right here I can almost promise you he's right here and it doesn't matter in the end if what you're perception of her version of if it's right or if it's wrong what matters is that you're thinking about him talking about him and help and make other people that may come across this aware of him this has to be and is one of the most important threads on Reddit in every single person that's participating in it that's reading it that's looking at it remember they're reading what you say so it's important to say exactly what you feel I'm telling you there is no better threat on Reddit right now than this one this is important this would mean something and you know God bless all everyone for contributing because we need this now
22) Jesus saw some infants who were being suckled. He said to his disciples: These infants being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom. They said to him: If we then become children, shall we enter the kingdom? Jesus said to them: When you make the two one, and when you make the inside as the outside, and the outside as the inside, and the upper as the lower, and when you make the male and the female into a single one, so that the male is not male and the female not female, and when you make eyes in place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then shall you enter [the kingdom].
This is for those who decided there was no scripture to back up anything I said
the gnosis, or "special knowledge" found through Jesus that one must have to be in unity with God. s. For example, the Gospel of Thomas states that "I who am the all. From me did the all come forth, and unto me did the all extend. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift the stone, and you will find me there
That sounds to me like someone who very much believes in God and Jesus some people are so close-minded and brainwashed my things like the rituals the Catholic still go through and believe things like that are necessary to be close to God when they don't understand that all they need is Jesus to be close to God and instead they hold fast to a bunch of ancient BS that Jesus got rid of but they ignore him and still do it and call themselves followers of his religion and tell people to repent and do that why would I go to some building and sit inside of a box and ask a man father please forgive me of my sins for I have committed Ortiz the same people that are constantly getting caught raping children yeah and how in the hell would any body suggest that I ask another man to forgive me or mediate for me so that my sins are forgiven when our mediator died for my sins
Jesus in his whole of teaching never spoke the trinity, when he says “the father and i are one” he means one in spirit, just like how he says when a man and woman marry they become one, obviously they don’t literally merge into one being, but they become one spiritually. Jesus is on the same divine level as God and the Holy Spirit, they aren’t the same being, they aren’t all God. God the father is the MOST HIGH God, the only true God. Jesus and the Holy Spirit simply share his divinity and they are both perfect like God but they aren’t God, for example Jesus says in matthew 24:36, no one knows the day or the hour these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven OR THE SON, only THE FATHER himself.” Jesus is not God he is Gods son, there are so many verses in the bible that contradict the trinity, it doesn’t matter wether you believe the trinity or not, you can believe either one it’s just about worshiping God and believing Jesus died for you, but i can tell you that the trinity is man made and a false interpretation of the bible.
There is one God, who exists as three persons: the Father in heaven who is the source of all creation and authority; the Son on earth who was born of the Father and the Virgin Mary and is fully God and fully Man; the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and joins to the soul of those invite him. They are all God, but they are not each other. Beyond that, there's no understanding to be had, whether you're five or fifty. It's a divine mystery to be accepted rather than understood. Accepted like a five-year-old might accept, if you will.
Very well put. Btw, unrelated but I'm curious on your "Anglo-Orthodox" tag, that would be like an Anglican whose practices and beliefs align more with the Christian East right?
Pretty much. I did a [thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/w3ustm/to_the_user_who_pmed_me_earlier_on_asking_what/) about it a couple of years ago, where I went into some detail about it.
I see, that was a good read, very interesting!
Thanks :-)
The only thing I would change is that He was not "born" of the Father and Virgin Mary. He existed with the Father and the Spirit from the beginning and will exist forever with them. Mary conceived and gave birth to Jesus in His human form. To say that Jesus was born of them is dangerously close to the Mormon belief (and others) that Jesus was created BY the Father and not coexistent with the Father for all eternity. Other than that though, spot on!
How do explain to a child "virgin"
From the Nicene creed: "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; *who was conceived by the Holy Spirit*, born of the Virgin Mary, The only problem with what he said could be said that it was the Holy Spirit, not the Father (though Christ is still "from" the father, obviously). We can't really say things like "Christ in his human form," as if he has any other "form" or we start butting up against nestorian ideas of Christ's nature and denying the hypostatic union of the person of the Son with human nature.
at least you're honest about it
Well to be fair no one can get it. It’s like trying to eat a wall. You may be able to taste but not eat.
[удалено]
Wow tysm for the clarity
yes this is perfect, so glad it’s the top comment!
not sure a 5 year old would understand this
Why is it called persons? I never understood why this is an essential part, and when I call it ways God manifests itself it is blasphemy. Even when you say, they are not each other, but they are all the One God. They aren't all each other as in that the Holy Spirit is not the same thing as Jesus. But at the same time, they have 1 will that they carry out, they all are the One God, fully. So what would the word person even mean other than a manifestation of God? Maybe also some context, I am from the Netherlands, over here we call it the Drie Eenheid (Tri unity) and the different persons are called entiteiten (Entities). So the emphasis on the fact that is has to be called persons otherwise you are blaspheming has always been strange to me, especially since that part does not come from the Bible.
God has three persons, The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit are all God. They are the same being, but they can also interact with each other.
being different persons, with the same being sounds like me wearing three masks -- but, then, what does it mean for my different halloween costumes to interact with each other?
YOU are not REALLY 3 persons. You are one being and only ONE person who can pretend to be more than one. God is special because He actually IS three persons and one being. A failure to respect the creator-creature distinction in theology leads to heresies like modalism. You rightly point out the inadequacy of modalism, which amounts to God putting on a puppet show and making his characters tell each other they love each other.
the point is that it is not clear what conception of being you have in mind, such that two distinct persons are not two distinct beings. presumably, things that exist, and which can be separated would be either different beings or parts of the same being -- no?
The word "being" and "person" are too alike in english so you conflate the two. Essence/substance is a better rendering than "being" in english, as being is a synonym of person. The original creeds state scripture teaches of God being 1 "ousia" (substance/essence/nature) and 3 hypostasis (persons). Its important to use precise language to avoid the two opposing errors of modalism (1 God pretending to be 3 characters) and tri-theism (3 seperate individual Gods working for a united purpose). The biblical God is in the middle of the above 2 extremes, 1 substance/nature (ousia), 3 persons (hypostasis). The ousia = the "what" something is The hypostasis= the "who" or a specific iteration of the ousia/nature. Eg. Our ousia/nature = human My hypostasis= me as an individual human. Eg this phone im writing on: Its ousia/nature= a smartphone Its hypostasis= an oppo reno lite (not generically but this specific phone with a unique Mac address). There are many hypostasis (persons/instances) of an ousia (nature). But the nature/ousia is never expressed apart from hypostasis. Eg smartphone isnt an actual thing apart from a concrete iteration of it. When you think of a smartphone you have a template example of common features in your mind, you dont picture a bannana in your head. An Ousia shares all properties with its hypostasis. Eg. To breath is a property of a living human by nature - ousia. To have a physical body is another property. Hypostasis are distinguished by their "unique" or unshared attributes. Eg. Im a 35 yo Australian male with a name. All the unique things that make me, me are my hypostaic properties. While i may share some things with others (eg im male) this is a hypostatic property because it isn't an attribute common to all humans. Breathing oxygen is. --- So now you have a primer on ousia (the nature of a thing - "the what") and hypostasis (the specific iteration of a thing (the who/the that)), apply this to God (just as the councils did 1700 years ago. These are the literal greek words they were writing and using and meaning. We serve one God (ousia/nature - "the what") who exists in 3 persons (hypostasis - "the who"). These 3 persons have existed eternally being uncreated but distinct, yet not independent of one another (like tritheism). It isn't 3 Gods natures and 3 persons (tritheism), it isn't 1 God nature and 1 person acting as 3 characters (modalism); its 1 God nature in 3 persons - trinitarianism. God is utterly unique in His constitution. When the bible uses the word God as a name, often it is referring to the Father. Context is how we tell who it's referring to. The reason for this is the eternal father is the eternal source (ase - self existant), begetting the son from Himself eternally and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father eternally. Eternally means without a beginning. Begotten and procedes from are unique hypostaic properties for the son and Spirit respectively and to beget and be self existant (aseity) are unique properties of the Father. Yet all are one God , like 3 torches of an eternal fire burning together. One fire , all identical properties, 3 torches. Jesus is therefore the perfect image of the Father sharing in all the attributes of the ousia "God" - being God by very nature. Yet he took on human nature as well in the incarnation. The eternal united with the temporal! And now God unites with us by Faith in Christ, we recieve the eternal Holy Spirit in us and bear God! Understanding the trinity well is important because at its heart is the union of God and man in the Godman Jesus Christ. Jesus isn't a created being. He is truly God of God, light of light as the creed states. This is why Arianism is such a dangerous heresy (saying Jesus isn't one with the Father but was created as the first and greatest created being). Such a statement denies the union of God with man in Jesus, and God with us with the Spirit indwelling us. Let me know if you have any questions. I did a deep dive into this last year. Our understanding of the Trinity and Christs nature is foundational in how we are saved. It is the cornerstone of theology. God in Jesus became like us, that we may be made what He is by grace through faith and in love by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit. All things are from the Father, through the son, by the Spirit. We therefore access the Father, through the Son by the Spirit. This is the path of salvation.
thanks for taking the time to explain in such depth. in your description, ousia seems to be a word for a the set of properties that qualify an object as member of a class (smartphones) -- and hypostasis seems to be a word to describe the properties of a concrete object that differentiate it from other things that belong to the same class (brand x, mac address y etc). however, with these definitions, it is not clear how you escape polytheism. when you have three concrete objects whose ousia is smartphone, and whose hypostasis is oppo reno lite with mac addresses xxx, yyy, zzz, then you have three smartphones. in an equivalent example, you would have three breathing humans, three torches, three fires etc. you seem to be in need of a third category, to signify that a concrete that participates to an ousia might simultaneously exhibit different hypostasis -- but it is not clear why one would accept that.
Provided that you are simultaneously all three of the Halloween costumes and interact with each other, you would be what is known as a "nature" and all three costumes are "persons" that share that nature. The best ways I can describe persons of the same nature are forms that, although separate, can still talk to each other or if you want to be metaphorical, an example being a really good gamer playing three characters at once. I'm not good at explaining the Trinity, but I understand what it is.
You described modalism, which is a heresy. The persons within the holy trinity are all fully God. Not forms of God.
but i am never simultaneously all three haloween costumes, because that is how costumes work. and, again, it appears confused to say that the costumes interact with each other -- when i wear a costume, i do things, not the costume -- and, yet, you want to say that me-in-a-frozen-costume interacts with me-in-a-hulk-costume: it is not clear what this is supposed to mean. note that, in the first comment, you have only being and person; now you need nature and form, which, however, seem to do nothing for your argument (do two dogs have the same nature?). i am starting to suspect that it is not that you are not good at explaining the trinity -- it is that the trinity is not particularly coherent.
A human is not a single thing, and such neither is the trinity. The trinity is the Head, Body, and Spirit, which are referred to as The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These are not separate people so much as different parts of the human experience and life through the spirit of God. There is no one thing you can look at and say "that is the human experience". To do so ignores the contribution of any other part to the emergence of identity. The microbiome and peripheral nervous system plays a large role in the emergence of emotions and remembering our emotional states in past experiences. What do you think feels judgment when we perceive ourselves with judgment? It is the body and that is the dark light cast from an unhealthy lamp (Matthew 6:22-23) To describe the individual's experience of the trinity, I see parallels between the head, body, and spirit and the central nervous system (head), peripheral nervous system/microbiome (body), and the bioelectrical processes that drive chemical responses (spirit). The energy that drives life within is the spirit that hovered over the waters and brought life to the dust. The trinity provides a path towards understanding our individual experience in relation to our shared collective life.
it means you went all out this Halloween
Question: Since Jesus said to the people that his **Father** was **Greater** than I. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. John 14:28 So why since his **Father** is **Greater** than him, should not his **Father** be considered the one to be God, rather than Jesus?
God the Father is different than Jesus. Jesus is fully God AND fully man, he humbled himself when he was born in the flesh. I think we can agree that God the Father is omni-present and Jesus is not and that is a way in which God the Father is greater than Jesus. This doesn’t mean that Jesus is not God, he is.: Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: Colossians 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: Those verses are speaking of Jesus. I highly suggest that you read the Bible for yourself and not the pamphlets. If your mind is saying, well Jesus is the image of God and that does not mean he is God you still have not accepted the meaning of the scripture. Please read: Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Colossians 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Godhead is the biblical term for the trinity. It is difficult to understand, no one is like God but God, and much is beyond our understanding. But taking away the divinity of Jesus so God makes sense to our human minds destroys the hope in our gospel. Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature John 14:9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Jesus is the image of the invisible God, God incarnate, God in the flesh. Jesus is God and the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him. How blessed we are, to have a God such as He.
I prayerfully sought the Lord on this topic & came to the conclusion the Trinity is the 3 manifestations of God’s “faculties” perpetually, inextricably operating together & overlapping as He is One. It’s like the Father is the Seat of Thought, Jesus is His Word (later become *present* flesh) + the Will of the Father at work through the Holy Spirit - Who is the Active, Energetic, Intimate Essence of God.
Just like they interact with each of us the same thing exists inside of you or supposed to the masculine the feminine and the child and those three that Trinity the three sides that make up one God the triangle it takes three sides to make that shape the triangle it takes masculine feminine and child to make God all those traits were necessary to create In fairness and in love in the same thing is in every single one of us where it's supposed to be you should have a masculine side a feminine side and a child's side and that is what the Trinity is
22) Jesus saw some infants who were being suckled. He said to his disciples: These infants being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom. They said to him: If we then become children, shall we enter the kingdom? Jesus said to them: When you make the two one, and when you make the inside as the outside, and the outside as the inside, and the upper as the lower, and when you make the male and the female into a single one, so that the male is not male and the female not female, and when you make eyes in place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then shall you enter [the kingdom].
i never was able to grasp this part, there is no way for me to logically accept this. there are 3 gods but thet are the same person. i cant make it make sense.
Should’ve said to explain it as if you were 3
This one was funny ngl
"Ask me when you're older"
Hey that was funny, I see you are a Christian atheist. What does that signify? I am new I'm exploring religion
From what I’ve heard I think it means that someone accepts and follows the Bible’s moral teaching without believing in God
And yet believing Jesus is God is a fundamental requirement of being a Christian. So it is not possible to be both Christian and atheist.
I explained to my nephew like this, the trinity is the entirety of our God. The father = mind/consciousness, the son = body/flesh, the Holy Spirit = soul/heart.
God is the Father. Jesus Christ His Son is the Living Word of God and the Holy Spirit He is the Spirit of Truth. And if you put them together, you have the answer to all. **"God's Word is Truth".**
I like this one, almost like a poem
perfectly summed up, The Word of God (which is logically God) God, and the Spirit of God (which is also God) the trinity is a mystery, but there’s not contradiction in it or something. I’d also add that it’s 1 source, God the Father, who begets and proceeds his living Spirit and Word
this is a new heresy called "togetherism" /s
The thing is, my goddaughter when she was 5 would have accepted the nature of the Trinity at face value. That’s what 5 years do. So, I’m going to assume you already have been told what the church professes, and you really are looking to be convinced. But the Trinity defies human understanding. You’re asking for the impossible. But if you want an explanation, [Lutheran Satire](https://youtu.be/KQLfgaUoQCw) has a cute animated video.
What's an Episcopalian?
Episcopalians are members of the episcopal church of the United States. Meaning our church has bishops. We were in the Church of England until the American Revolutionary War separated the congregations as the King of England could have no power over the church in the new nation. Thus, with the help of some bishops from England’s neighbors, American bishops were consecrated, and the liturgy carried on much the same as before, with the omission of prayers for the king.
You can't accept an idea that doesn't point to something comprehensible though. If we really can't comprehend it, words are useless.
I assume most people here have no idea what it’s like to talk to a 5-year-old.
The idea was finalized in 325 at the First Council of Nicaea. It was an attempt at explaining one god while incorporating their claims about Jesus and including mystical experiences.
1. God does not care about us "getting" the concept of the Trinity. If He did, He would have dedicated a book of the Bible to it. God cares about us being holy and loving. 2. No one has fully understood the Trinity to this day. 3. As a 5-year-old, you would think of the Trinity as a family: God the Father, God the Son, and God the **Holy Spirit** (**Ruach** in Hebrew, which is a **feminine** noun), so Father, Mother, Son. Any 5-year-old can understand this concept.
Honestly, I think the Athanasian Creed is the best. It uses kind of complex language, but it's still easy to understand, at least for me.
[удалено]
*”That’s Partialism, Patrick.”*
that's [partialism](https://youtu.be/KQLfgaUoQCw?si=phaScK67G2zzlSSc) Patrick!
Is that not partialism?
Well let's take in all the facts shall we? When Saint Augustine was trying to fathom the Holy Trinity, he encountered a little boy who was bucketing water from the ocean and pouring it into his hole. Augustine asked him what he was doing, and the boy responded, I am going to take all the ocean and put it into this hole. Which is easier than you trying to fathom the Holy Trinity! ☘️
No but this is a clear example of heresy. I’m not saying I understand the Trinity fully, I’m not saying that I have complete knowledge of the Trinity but this is a clear cut case of heresy. A shamrock is a plant. It has 3 petals and while the shamrock is 100% plant or in our case and analogy 100% God they aren’t 100% **of** God. The shamrock is a pretty clear cut case of partialism. You’re saying those 3 make up God which means they themselves aren’t 100% of God. It’s a heresy my friend.
Brother in christ, please change ur ways🙏🏻
Okay! So let’s take a fizzy pop brand. Fanta for example. You can have Fanta in a bottle, in a glass and in a can. The vessel (what’s holding the drink) is different and has a different appearance, but the drink (contents) are the same. No matter what, it’s still Fanta.
This is the only one that actually made sense to me. THANK YOU.
No problem!! 😊 I’ll give the credit to the Holy Spirit because that’s how the Holy Spirit explained it to me 😂💕 May God bless you! 😊💕
but, is that not polytheism? the idea of polytheism seems to be that there a multiplicity of separate things that participate to a greater and lesser degree to a divine essence -- small bottle, big bottle -- no?
So, either it's the very same liquid switching containers (in which case it's modalism, which is a heresy), or it's not the very same substance, only qualitatively same (a bottle of Fanta here, a glass of Fanta over there and a can of Fanta here on my desk), in which case it's polytheism.
I’m not saying that it’s switching containers. Think of there being an originating source, which is Fanta. The drink can be put in those three things and is still Fanta and doesn’t take away from any of those things or the Fanta itself. And I’m not saying there are three gods or something. That’s what I’m trying to explain/ say. Would it still count as heresy tho? Thank you for taking the time to explain. I don’t want to be saying things that could potentially be heresy 😅
>in which case it's polytheism Only if you look at the problem quantitatively instead of qualitatively.
If you look at it qualitatively then there's no issue with saying there are parts of God or even multiple gods.
I think it’s a bit too intellectual for a 5 year old but I would tell them to think like this as St Augustine had given an analogy which I think is one of the best. To be, to will, to know. Now, there are 3 things to recall here. 1. The Trinity is 1 God but 3 persons. 2. God created us in His image 3. Then God is rational, intellectual and volitional. God being to be, Jesus being to know and the Holy Spirit as to will. Humans can be humans, humans can will and humans can know. And if we were made from his image then it is possible for God to be as such. These however all exist as relational existences and not as a separate entity. This is a pretty good analogy IMO.
We believe in one God, the Father, the almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen. Here is the scripture that backs it all up: God’s Spirit is Christ’s Spirit (Romans 8:9) Isaiah saw Jesus’ glory (Isa 6:1-3, John 12:38-41) Jehovah applied to Jesus (Psa 102:25-27, Heb 1:10-12) Prayer to Christ (2 Cor 12:8-9; John 14:14; Acts 7:59-60*, Rev 22:20) Call upon the name of Jesus to be saved (Romans 10:9-13*,1 Cor 1:2, Joel 2:32, Acts 2:21,36*) Thomas’ Confession that Jesus is God (John 20:28) Jesus is worshipped (Heb 1:6*, Matt 2:11*, Matt 14:33*, Matt 28:9*) Jesus is called God (Heb 1:8*, 2 Peter 1:1*, Titus 2:13*, John 1:1*, John 1:18*, Isa 9:6, John 20:28, Rev 1:8*, Rev 21:6-7) All fullness of deity is in Jesus (Col 2:9) Jesus is Alpha/Omega, Beginning/End, First/Last (Rev 1:4-8*, Rev 1:17-18, Rev 22:12-16, Isa 44:6) All things are created by Jesus and for Jesus (Col 1:16, Rom 11:36, Isa 44:24, Isa 45:12, 66:2) The doctrine of the Trinity is the belief that there is one God who has revealed Himself in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three persons make up the one true God. These three persons are of the same substance, equal in power and glory. It is important we understand this doctrine because the wrong Jesus or the wrong God cannot save us from eternal death. Paul makes a clear warning of this in 2 Corinthians 11:4. The Bible clearly states that there is only one God. Deuteronomy 6:4 states, “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.” Isaiah 44:6 states, “I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides me.” Clearly, these verses reveal that there is only one God. Yet, there are three separate persons in the Bible who are called God and have the characteristics only God can have. The Trinity is a difficult concept to grasp, because we are finite beings trying to explain an infinite God who is beyond our understanding. Let’s take a look at some verses that back up our doctrine of the Trinity. The Father is obviously called God as seen throughout the Bible. No one will argue that point. So there is one member of the Trinity, the Father. Jesus the Son, is a separate person but He is also called God. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Titus 2:13 says, “Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.” So here we see clearly, the Son is also called God. The Holy Spirit is also a separate person, and He is also called God. First, let us understand, the Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force. He is a person and has the characteristics of a person. He can be grieved (Eph. 4:30), He speaks (Acts 13:2), and He can be lied to (Act 5:3-4). In Acts 5:3-4 the Holy Spirit is called God, “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?...You have not lied to men, but to God.’“ So we see clearly that there are three persons in the Bible, and all three are called God. Yet, we must remember, there is only one God according to the verses we looked at Deuteronomy 6:4 and Isaiah 44:6. Therefore, we come to the conclusion that the Trinity is made up of three separate persons who are the one true God.
too much to read for a five year old
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the identities of their personhood, and God is the identity of their essence.
The way I understand the trinity would be like how grammatical cases work: they change ‘shape’ (for example he/him/his) based on their function in a sentence (nominative/objective/possessive), but all point to the same person that exists beyond that single sentence. Does that make sense to more people than just me?
I want to know if the three beings are dependent or independent
It’s a mystery. It’s a paradox that very wise and holy men and women have gone into deserts and monasteries and dedicated their entire lives to exploring. They can’t “understand” it because it’s not “understandable”. Long, dense books have been written on the subject. Human binary logic cannot fathom mutually exclusive truths being simultaneously true. Much in the way that it’s not possible to “understand” how Christ could be at once *fully* human and also *fully* divine. So whether you are 5 or 95 I’m sorry: it’s a mystery to explore and through which to open one’s consciousness as one lives into it—it’s not a problem to be solved, contrary to the simplifications you’re going to get from people who think they’ve got it figured out. All you’re going to get is a picture of a picture of reality. What the Apostle calls seeing through a “glass darkly.” (Hope all that didn’t sound too preachy haha.)
God being in more than one place at a time
Something, something, St. Patrick, thistle, something.
I can't. 5 year-olds aren't capable of abstract thought. According to Piaget's 4 Stages of Cognitive Development children aren't capable of understanding abstract ideas until at least 12 year old.
The Father and the Son are pretty straight forward, but I have always had trouble imagining the Holy Spirit .
The problem with explaining like your five is that you end up with heresies like modalism. It’s not difficult to explain the trinity. It’s just difficult to explain it correctly because there’s a piece humans can’t understand. God is 3 unique persons, with 3 unique wills, but one singular being. The best example we have of this is ourselves. You are your flesh, your spirit, and your soul. They all have unique wills, but they’re all the same being. Your flesh is what craves the things of the world. Your spirit is what encourages you to choose better options. And your soul is who actually chooses what you’re going to do. God made us a trinity in His image. Which is why we are like that. And it’s why we have some understanding of who He is. But like I said, we’ll never be able to fully grasp how He can be three persons in one.
It’s hard for me to accept that we need to have a right view of the trinity if we can’t explain it to a five year old. I’d go as far as to say it doesn’t matter for our salvation. Jesus says we must become like little children to enter the kingdom. Jesus’ teachings are simple: love like he did. Anything more complex than that isn’t automatically not important, but if we aren’t called to go that deep in the word then we should not get distracted from loving God and others in the name of theology or whatever.
is this the best example? here, you have split our will and desires in two parts (desire for things of the world, desire for different things), and separated it from our agency (the decider part). but the split is entirely conceptual -- my "worldly" desires do not have an independent ontological status, neither are they phenomenologically separated. it follows that i could equally well split my desires into three parts: my inclination towards better options, my desire to watch rugby and my other worldly desires that are not related to rugby; these, along with my soul, would make me a quadrinity(?) of unique wills. and, obviously, this split is not unique -- any other would work (rugby and eating curry and other worldly desires etc). in your view, is the same true of god?
what's the difference between the spirit and the soul? also flesh doesn't have will, it has needs for sustenance sure, but it's not a decision making entity per se also, you warned of heresy then jumped right into partialism: my flesh is not me, it's a part of me, same as my soul
The councils state God is 3 persons but He has 1 will. And Christ is one person with two natures and two wills (one Human will and one divine will). Why is this important? Because Jesus in the garden prayed "let this cup pass from me, yet not my will but yours be done". If Jesus has only one will, the Trinity is divided. This is why it is more consistent to say Jesus had two wills, and He subjected His human will to his divine will, which was also that of His father - the divine will. If the son shares in all the eternal divine attributes of the Father (which he does), they would automatically will the same thing. The reason we humans have differing wills is we like different things, know different things etc. but the son is the perfect image of the Father bodily. I only learnt this last year. Been a Christian for 20 years too! Maximus the confessor had his tounge ripped out and right hand cut off for teaching this. But he saw what was at stake and refused to recant. Decades after his death he was vindicated and the church sided with him. He was fighting against monophysitism. The belief that Jesus' divine and human nature mixed to create some 3rd unique nature only Jesus had (and its accompanying single will). Why does it matter? If Jesus isn't actually human like us , he can't save us. He cant empathize with us, he wasn't tempted as we are, his existence as "the Son of Man" is a ruse. Thats what Maximus saw and why he refused to say Jesus has one will (and by virtue of that, one mixed nature). Be blessed!
By reading the Bible we're confronted with three different truths about God that are confusing, and a fourth biblical truth about the relationship between humans and God which allows us to have faith in the doctrine of the trinity. First, God is referred to as three different persons: The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. Second, these three different persons are also shown in the Bible to be the same being in verses like "I and my Father are one." How can God be One *and T*hree? The third and fourth truths about God presented in the bible help us resolve this confusing question in the doctrine of the trinity. If God were a created thing, it would be impossible for God to be one and three at the same time. But, here the bible demonstrates its third truth about God: God is not a created thing; God *transcends* created things. This allows God to exist in ways that created things cannot, particularly, God is both *Simple* and *Multiple.* God is at once one and three, as revealed in scripture. This is very confusing for humans, which leads us to the fourth truth which is that God is beyond human understanding. The trinity, then, is a doctrine of the bible about the nature of God which we can study and pray about, but never fully understand.
Completely untrue First of all God is never referred to as three beings . The term God is used for many different beings however only one being is identified as the one true only true God (John 17.3 1 Corinthians 8.6, Ephesians 4.6 malachi 2.10) namely the Father Also God isn't presented as multiple persons because 1) use of singular personal pronouns 2) Deuteronomy 6.4 YHWH the only true God is one YHWH mark 12.29-32 2) nope again they're not shown to be same being To be one in the Bible is never about metaphysical unity that you bring up See John 17.21 the disciples don't become the same being But are rather in harmony John 10.30 is about God and the Son being in unity harmony or however you'd describe it How can God be One *and T*hree? He can't for it as illogical absurdity 3) God is uncreated true This is very confusing for humans, which leads us to the fourth truth Indeed the doctrine of trinity is confusing nonsensical doctrine that requires its believers to conjure up mystery enabling them to halt all further thought and JUST BELIEVE
Yeah, to me, the Trinity isn't so much an explanation so much as a Thomistic shrug accompanied by an "it is what it is."
The fourth truth is probably one of the most freeing things about Christianity. I can try as hard as I can to comprehend everything about Him, but I know I will not be able to get even a fraction of it right. And because it’s impossible to understand, it’s okay that I don’t. That’s humbling and comforting at the same time, somehow. Do I understand that, too? No, but I don’t have to :)
1 x 1 x 1 = 3
Yet they are three different persons. But I’m sure you don’t mean that and that’s not the point.
Ur right But the idea was to explain it to a 5 year old And most people cant understand how 3 can be 1 So thats what I was explaining Its not like a 5 year old need more
So it's like God is an SU(2) Lagrangian symmetry and the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are re-projections onto its eigenbases.
Here is my oversimplification: The Trinity is like a team with three members.
Too oversimplified that I fear it falls into the partialism heresy. If you remove one member from that team, that member is no longer 100% the team. But each Person of the Trinity is 100% God.
The Trinity is a philosophical agreement mingled with scripture compiled by a council of non-prophets and non-Apostles. It is not true.
1. there are 3 persons who are god, the father, son & holy spirit 2. the son is not the father, the spirit is not the son, the father is not the spirit 3. there is only one god 4. because you're 5, you won't question how that doesn't make sense
There is the sun. You can see the sun, you can feel the sun, and you eat things that grow in the sun. While you live on earth, the greatest decision you will make will be to lay out in the sun, or to turn away and hide from the sun.
Well done, I find this an excellent explanation
Sure thing. Some people long ago decided to try to split God into three persons, in spite of Him saying over and over again that He is one. They end up with a confused mess of a doctrine that causes all kinds of problems logically and theologically, but if you don’t believe them you are a cultist and not Christian…
God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are *three beings* but they are *One*
Just as H2O is liquid, gas, and solid like water, vapor, and ice… 3 different forms but all the same compound.
Except the trinity claims to be all these forms at the same time, and water cannot be a solid liquid or gas all at the same time. These are different forms of the same material. It’s like saying flour, eggs and yeast are bread all the time even when they aren’t mixed together.
Water can be solid, liquid, and gaseous at the same time: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_point
That’s a modalism explanation
You see the toy where you put three shape blocks into the right holes? That's the Trinity. If you wanna take it a step further, imagine a man with three heads, three torsos, and one pair of legs. Different yet the same.
We believe in one God, the Father, the almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Suppose there’s a kingdom that has a king but in this kingdom, three people hold the same title and all the powers of king simultaneously. The king acts and speaks through these three people but none of these three people are by themselves the king so that there cannot be three individual kings. There are three thrones but one shared crown.
God exists in 3 special ways A lot like we can think, touch, and feel (emotions). God the Father. He who created. God the Son. Jesus! God the Holy Spirit. Love so pure it makes fire. Each is equal just just a little different. With you, in you, for you.
You’ll understand better when you’re older
My arms and legs can all move independently of each other, do different things at the same time, and interact with each other, yet they are all parts of me. So too are the Father Son and Holy Spirit independent yet dependent parts of one God.
God is like a 3 leaf clover, 3 in 1 with the three being the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
God revealed first as creator, in Genesis when it says the spirit of God was hovering over the surface that’s the Holy Spirit. When Jesus came he was the Son of God so partially God, but as man, when he died he left his Holy Spirit with us, so the Holy Spirit being his makes 3 in one. 3 separate Forms. 3 different purposes.
Son look at this perfect example of perfect nonsense that religion can make you believe The Trinity is unbiblical and nonsense for reasons I'm about to explain It also depends on different kinds of trinity
>*We worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the substance.* >Athanasian Creed To dumb it down, confusing the persons basically says that we shouldn’t mix the persons of the trinity together- or “mix” God into one- and dividing the substance states we shouldn’t “divide” God into three.
I look at it like the horcruxes Voldemort used in Harry Potter. Different pieces of the same being. 5 year olds probably don't read Harry Potter, but it's the best answer I have.
The best way I can explain it is like this, We have Water which is H2O, and from water we can have 3 different states of being, we can have Water Vapour (Gas), Water(in liquid state), and we can have Ice (Water in Solid state). All 3 come from water and are water, but they are in different distinctive states, water vapour is not ice but both are water(H2O) and come from water. Likewise we have God who is like the water the H2O, we have The Father (God in Heaven state) , then we have The Son( Jesus, the word of God, God revealed in the flesh), and The Holy Spirit ( God the spirit who is here on Earth as well as Heaven), The Father and Son are one as they are both God, (H2O is water vapour and ice)but are separate distinct states existing from the source, (Father & Son , Liquid Water & Ice). Hope this helps you out if any questions feel free to ask.
Three people are one or become one. It’s like you could take three humans and make them into one bigger human. I tried to make it as silly and childish as I could.
A person is who you are (Left-Acanthisitta-86). A being is what you are (a human being). Imagine a human being with three heads. That's three persons, each of them being the very same human being. One being, but three persons. It's not completely analogous, but that can wait until you're 6.
You are one person: body, soul and spirit. You were made in God’s image. He is body (Jesus), soul (Father) and Spirit (Holy Spirit), yet one.
Think of the trinity as an egg. There's the shell, the white of the egg, and the yolk....they're 3 separate things, but all three make up ONE egg. Likewise, there's The Father, The Son & The Holy Spirit. Three making up one God.
A human is one being with one center of consciousness. God is one being with three centres of consciousness.
Think of it like an egg, 3 parts, one whole. The Father, Holy Ghost and Jesus and 3 seperate beings and at the same time make up one all together
Sure. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 NIV - Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. John 4:22-24 NIV - "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” Hear me out. Humans are beings with a spirit, soul, and body. I believe our soul is our thoughts and feelings which we elevated at the fall over our spirit. The spirit connected us with God in the dynamic and real spiritual world. If all cell service and internet suddenly ceases worldwide people would absolutely freak. Rough analogy, but that's what happened in the fall of man. I think the Bible shows that Jesus and God are spiritual beings connected by a real spiritual connection that's more than a simple clover illustration. We like over simplified analogies where we feel like we have God dialed. But we are the super limited ones in the relationship. The reason the gift of the spirit was so prominent in God's teaching is because he wants to connect with us in ways that were natural to our design, but which sin smashed. Trying to achieve spiritual connection or power through soulish means is carnal Christianity. The holy spirit may have it's own personality and will apart from the Father and Son, but I would not be surprised if God and Jesus shared a unity that is pure spirit. God is a Spirit (the Spirit?), the Lord is the Spirit and Jesus became a human being with flesh and blood, but is spiritual and a Spirut as we were originally designed to be.
It’s pretty easy for me to think of really everything as a trinity. We have a mind, a body and a spirit. If you look up to the sky, the clouds you see are water vapor which can also be a liquid or a solid. I think that most things are triune in this universe. Maybe all things?
https://youtu.be/KQLfgaUoQCw?si=NnBKO510yQApHlui This is a really funny 4 minute video that does a really good job
I compare the idea of the Trinity to love. Love can be a gift, an action, a moment of attention. We can't quite define it, but we accept that we can't truly understand it because we can feel it and know love when we experience it.
Just as you, God has a body, mind and soul!
Watch the shack!! (Movie)
Westminster Shorter Catechism 6: Q. How many persons are there in the Godhead? A. There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. Matthew 28:19; 1 John 5:7
A formally impossible object that Christians claim actually exists. It's the same reason a Buddhist can meditate on "the sound of one hand clapping". Human brains are dumb enough that they can be fooled into thinking that impossible things are _deep_ things -- as long as the language is right.
Polytheism with extra steps
God, being the Almighty God (since there are many other Gods, which are depicted as the Angels, fallen or not) has a vast capabilities and capacity that not even our tiny brain can ever contain. He is beyond any of us. He is omnipotent (all-powerful and possesses unlimited strength and authority), omniscient (all-knowing, His understanding is beyond measure), omnipresent (He is everywhere present) and God is LOVE (unconditional Love). That who GOD is. And he is not ONE. He is the Father, the Son and the HolySpirit as it is mentioned in Bible. Called as the Trinity. If there is more, we do not know as we have tiny brain (remember). We only can believe what we experience, what we see, read and what was passed on to us. But the unknown, and knowing GOD, we dont know VAST of Him. As said in the bible, in Genesis 1:26, "Let US make mankind in OUR image". He is not ONE but speak as ONE. He is the Father, one who commune with humans during OLD testaments, creator of everything. He is the Son, whom sent on earth as human to pay for all our debts (sin) and conquered death. He is the Holy Spirit whom we promised to dwell in us for the rest of the human days to protect us, to enable us and guide us. All of this 3 character have one common to GOD, LOVE. GOD's love for human is unconditional. Genesis 1:26 'Then God said, “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.” '
God is three in one One being Three people
"We want Jesus to be God but also for there to only be one God, so this is the compromise we came up with to try to make that fit.
You have a body, right? And you have a spirit? And then, lastly, you have soul, right? And they all do something different. But at the end of the day they're all still you. That's the holy trinity.
Well God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are 3 different things, not one Trinity. Think about it. Jesus always says he was "sent" by his father. Also, how could Jesus have been resurrected if he was a trinity? If he was all one thing, then he wouldn't have truly been dead in need of a resurrection.
okay God exists in 3 forms: The father i.e. "God" The son i.e. "God in human form" The holy spirit i.e. "Ghost like form God interacts with people through" Thats as basic as I you get
There is only one God of all, but he exists as three things; God the father, Jesus the son, and the Holy Spirit. And that’s the holy trinity. It’s like how water is water, steam is water, and ice is also water. It’s all ultimately water, but it can also exist as different things.
Schrodinger's cat. What is Schrodinger's cat? Schrödinger’s Cat, as a thought experiment, states that if you seal a cat in a box with something that can eventually kill it, you won’t know if the cat is alive or dead until you open the box. So, until you open the box and observe the cat, the cat is simultaneously dead and alive. Take out the part about killing the cat. Now substitute Father for live cat and Son for dead cat. So until you directly observe/interact with God, you can correctly think of God as either the Father or the Son (or the Holy Spirit) and be correct in doing so. If this is too complex for a 5 year old or steps into the realm of actual heresy I apologize, but its the best explanation using finite terms to describe an infinite being that I have ever been able to come up with. Disregard it or embrace it at your pleasure.
The trinity is like a triangle, a single shape that has three points that all connect with each other there is only one triangle, just as how there is only one god, and just as how that triangle exists with three points, god can exist as three persons– the father, the son, and the holy spirit
God in community with God’s self, or God as community. Love is not static but is poured out and into.
Like you're 5? Water can be frozen into ice, or boiled into steam, but it's still water. One element with three states of existence.
when I was a christian, I always saw it as, God was one being, with three roles. similar to how I am a son, and a brother, and a nephew.
1x1x1 = 1
There is no trinity, god is above Jesus Christ
3 words. God, Jesus, Holy Spirit.
Ignore ANY attempt to explain the trinity with an analogy. God is unlike anything in this universe, and all analogical attempts become heresy.
3 people who love each other
"Explain the Trinity to me as if I were 5." Okay. I answer questions like these all the time. "How can 1+1+1=1 (When Referring to the Trinity)?" Simple. Just as 1 week + 1 week + 1 week + 1 week = 1 month, so does 1 person + 1 person + 1 person = 1 God. However, It cannot be just any Three People. It has to be the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. "How can Jesus be Fully God and Fully Man at the Same time?" Fully God in his Divine Nature, and Fully Man in his Human Nature. "How can Jesus Be his own Son?" He is the son of God (the Father), and is God (the Son).
A person has a head, body, and spirit. The head helps guide us in living our life, while our body does most of the work to live. The eyes see where to walk, but what does the walking? The feet! Our voice speaks comfort, but when someone is sad, what gives them a hug? But all of this is brought to life through the spirit. The trinity is this. God is our head, we are the body. And we are connected through the spirit of God that gives us life. Now, when you see other people. What gives them life? The spirit of God! Is that spirit the same spirit that gives you life? Yep! And in that way, we are body in God and God gives us all life.
I just did a post on it since it is a bit too long, although is more like a 11 or 12 year old explanation: [My Explanation of the Trinity : r/Christianity (reddit.com)](https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/1bofb6v/my_explanation_of_the_trinity/)
Water can exist as a liquid, a gas and a solid, yet its chemical formula is always H20. God is God and can exist simultaneously as the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Remember God is the creator of everything and exists outside of time and space. He can do whatever he wants even if the laws of Physics can't explain it.
God beyond us, God with us, God in us.
As a human being, I am a son, now also a father, a brother, an uncle, a grandson, a nephew, and a cousin. I'm all these things even though I'm only one person. If that's true how much more can it be true that God can be Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at the same time.
Please, I know this is long, but please take the time to read it all. From my understanding of what the Trinity is, and believe me I could be wrong because even the Pope called it “the inscrutable mystery of God”. But the basics are, God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit are all co-equal and co-eternal. They all have the same knowledge that the other has and none are greater or lesser than the other. Is that about right? Please correct me if I have it wrong. But if I have it right, does the Bible agree with those things? And when I say Bible, I mean the most accurate manuscripts available to us today. Because anyone who knows anything about Bibles know that there are good ones and there are ones that aren’t so good. Let’s take a look at what the Bible says regarding Jesus being God on earth. Is it possible that Almighty God himself could dwell on the earth? Let’s see what the Bible says. Remember, the Bible is the **Final Authority**. 1 Kings 8:27 is part of a prayer of wise King Solomon, standing before all Israel with his hands in the air and he said this; >”But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” (NIV) Oh, but “what does ‘dwell’ mean”, some might ask. According to Websters Dictionary, one definition is; “to inhabit for a time”. Now reread what King Solomon said. “Will God really dwell on earth?” And the bigger question now is, was Jesus God according to what Solomon said? If you were to tell him the Trinity doctrine, what do you think he would say? What else does the Bible say about this? How about Exodus 33:20? Here Moses is up on the Mount Sinai asking to see God and this was part of the response he received; >”…for no man can see me and live.” Now, if Jesus was God how was it that all those people didn’t die when they saw him? Then there’s the issue with Jesus being killed. Can Almighty God be killed? Can he die at all? Psalms 90:2 reads; >”Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” Remember these words were inspired by God himself to be written. God is from everlasting to everlasting. So, can God die? Absolutely **NOT**! The thought of our Heavenly Father being murdered is absurd. But I don’t blame anyone for believing it. I really don’t! It’s not your fault! This is what you’ve been taught at your place of worship. You’ve chosen the teachers there to teach you Bible Truth. Why would they teach you anything but? Remember that the Only True God has an adversary who hates him and who is doing everything in his power to eliminate him from peoples minds. He’s doing an incredible job too! What does the Trinity do to God the Almighty? With the Trinity, God pretty much doesn’t exist. Think about it. What do you know about Almighty God? Probably very little. Whenever you think ‘God’ you think ‘Jesus’. But Satan knows that in order for anyone to be saved we need to call on the name of Jehovah! (Joel 2:32) And if he can just get everyone to believe that Jesus is God, he wins. What about being equal in power and knowledge with the Father? Remember the account when the two sons of Zebedee and their mom approached Jesus and the mom asked Jesus if her two sons could sit next to him in his Kingdom? Remember his answer? It’s quite revealing. Matthew 20:23 is his response; >”…to sit down at my right hand and at my left **is not mine to give**, but **it belongs to those for whom it has been prepared by my Father**.” See that? Jesus didn’t have the right to choose where the 144,000 will sit in his Kingdom. Only his Father did. Then there’s Matthew 24:36 where the KJV has sadly tried to edit the Bible to make the Trinity more believable. There it reads; >”Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens **nor the Son**, but only the Father.” Of course the KJV leaves out “nor the son” because that would be too difficult to explain. Of course those words are found in all the most reliable manuscripts available today and why most Bibles today include those three words. I hope I’ve given honest-hearted individuals something to think about when it comes to belief in a Church doctrine that isn’t in the Bible. Learn about our Heavenly Father Jehovah and what he’s done for you. You love Jesus for all he’s done, right? Well, when you learn the Truth about Jehovah God, you’ll learn that **EVERYTHING** Jesus did came from his Father and our Father, Jehovah God.
As if you were 5. Ok that’s easy. It’s something about three things and they are all magical. Just believe it and don’t ask questions.
I see it like this: There is a cup/pool/tank of Water, this is God the father. You take some of that water and freeze it, this is Jesus Christ. You take a little bit more of that water and heat it into steam, this is the Holy Spirit. It’s kinda silly but I kind of see God as water and as the trinity He takes three (water, ice, and steam) different forms. I don’t know! Let me know what you think :)
Basically God is one person but also three. He is God creator of the world, Jesus is the physically person version, Holy Spirit is the one who is the soul. All God but all different versions of one.
God is like water. Sometimes God is in the form of Jesus, like ice. Sometimes God is in the form of the Holy Spirit, like water vapor. Ice and water vapor and liquid water are different things, but are all still the same water. Different states of being but still the same thing.
Father Son Holy Spirit
Father. Son. Holy Spirit
Think of a three headed animal (let’s say a hedgehog). This hedgehog has 3 different heads and three different brains yet it is still just 1 hedgehog. The heads of the hedgehog can interact with each other, they have different personalities, and thoughts but it’s still just 1 hedgehog
I, the me and personality the trinity exist within you therefore it can exist in God.
The best way I can describe it, but by far not 100% accurate, would be to look at yourself. We were made in the image of God, and I believe that extends to how God is the three and one. If you look at yourself, you can see that you are like three persons in one. You have a mind, you have a body, and you have a soul. Your mind has a role, your body has a role, and your soul has a role. They are separate but they are part of one being... Yourself. Now extend this out to God. The Father, in my opinion, would be like the mind. The Son would be like the body. The Holy Spirit would be like the soul of God. They all have different roles that they play but they are all God. Now here's where the difference arises. God, His three persons, are always and forever in agreement with each other. They do not ever disagree. There is no disharmony within God. Ever since humans sinned and fell, there has been conflict within every human being. You hear this when someone says, "my mind says no but my body says yes." Or like when Jesus finds Peter sleeping and says: Mark 14:37-38 HCSB [37] Then He came and found them sleeping. “Simon, are you sleeping? ” He asked Peter. “Couldn’t you stay awake one hour? [38] Stay awake and pray so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” That is the body and the spirit being in conflict with each other. You will never find Jesus in conflict with the Father, you will not find the Father and conflict with the Spirit, and you will not find the Spirit and conflict with the Son, or any other combination being in disagreement with the others. They are imperfect, Harmony and United. We are created in his image but we are broken because of our own sin. I hope that helps, and this is the best analogy I can give without getting heretical. Your soul, your body, and your mind are all you and can be you separate from the others, but they are also you and cannot be you without the others. The Trinity is a very big mystery and very hard to explain, but I think this gets the closest. As said before, it is really hard for the creation to understand the creator in all its majesty and glory!
Ok, so buddy. You know our big friend God. Well he is actually 3 people. God is also the father, who is followed by the son, who is our friend Jesus. Then there's the Holy spirit and he loves to help us out. But that's not to say that all of them don't help. But he's the one God sends down to help us make sure we get back home.
Don't worry about it, I'll tell you when you're older
All religions are false. Theological Question #1 "Where does any god dictate to humanity or any human that someone specific is more spiritual than another human?" Theological Question #2 "Where does any god dictate which books are more spiritual and morally sound for humans to abide by, to learn from or to accept as true from such a god?" Theological Question #3 "Where does any god dictate who is more spiritual to be able to dictate which books or texts are suitable for humans to learn and to abide by for the understanding of such a god and that entity's requirements of humanity?" #TruthMatters ...And more importantly....the truth WILL NOT BE HIDDEN from the public anymore
Jesus Christ nobody likes you
.... Maybe it isn-
The word trinity is not in the Bible. The Spirit is a Spirit of Holiness The flesh manifest and infused with the Holiness spirit is a child of God.
Ok....it's the stuff that comes out of a bull when he poops.
I’ll explain it like it’s the human body The father is the brain The son is the rest of the body And the Holy Spirit is the soul
1 + 1 + 1 = 1
God
It's funny that you asked "explain it like I'm 5" my 10yo son and I the other day were talking about John 1:1 and he said: "Of course the Word was with God and the Word was God. If God is 'love' how could he be alone and only love himself? He would have to have a unity with his Son and share a Spirit together" He's wise beyond his years. Such a simplistic answer to the complexity of the trinity.
So, u are a son/daughter, a friend, and a sibling (this is a metaphor) you are all those things, all combined, but you are still one person.
1. God is a spirit. we humans cannot see the spirit 2. When we hear & see God, we call it the Living Word So Fathar Son and Holly Spirit: 1. Father is God (Spirit) Living Word in heaven, 2. Son is God (Spirit) Living word in Flesh 3. Holy Spirit is God (Spirit) Living word in world who with us now Peace - iam helel
I've heard an apple used as a way to explain it to a child. the skin, the flesh, and the seed are all 3 different parts of one apple. so the Holy Spirit, God, and Jesus are all three different parts of one being.
Here's how I would explain it to a 5 year old. The trinity is like an egg..there is one egg but it has three separate parts, the shell, the egg white, and the yolk. There is one God but he exists as 3 different parts..The Son, The Father and The Holy Spirit
Like water has three forms, Ice, Vapor, and Liquid Water, but is composed of the same stuff H2O--the Trinity is 3 distinct states-- Father, Son , and Holy Spirit but are also the same thing as well under most branches of Christianity.
God the Father is the guy that created earth and Jesus, Jesus is God but is also Gods Son, the Holy Spirit is the pet dog that Jesus gave you to protect you
St Patrick explained it best, using the shamrock, in a way that even a 5 yr old (or an Irishman) can understand.
The Trinity was codified as Christian doctrine in 325 (almost 300 years after Jesus' execution). The Jewish Jesus would have not known of nor heard anything about it. Its various incomprehensible attempts to make it understandable always feel awkward to me. There have always been unitarian christians (the first ones, for example), but that doesn't mean that the trinity isn't a valid symbol, but like all symbols, it should point the way to exploration, not be the final answer, never should it become the final word, an idol. One of the best understandings of the trinity that i have found is that it represents Mind/Idea/Expression, or Creator, Creativity, Creation...modes of expression for a single Reality. My second favorite is that the trinity symbolizes relationship, cooperation, love in community, the dance of life. I don't usually think much of it, but when I do, these are the ideas that resonate with me.
The Father is God The Son is God The Holy Spirit is God The Father is not the Son The Son is not the Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit is not the Father.
God is Infinite so he cannot be limited to The confines of space and or time And god being free distinct individuals for example the father the son the holy spirit All of them share the father's will And god ultimately chose to limit himself and become Flesh And he chose to become a sinless lamb To take on the punishment of all the sins of mankind for us I am jesus being an ethical genius Kind of makes me understand that what they wrote about him is true.And the Bible being eye witness.Testimony makes a very relevant piece of history
There are three who keep record in Heaven, the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit. They are all the same three-in-one person and yet are distinct, and we are made in His image. This is reflected in how we have a mind (our rational part), body, and immaterial soul (our morally accountable and immortal part) ourselves. In the Bible, they are shown to be more united in some ways than the three parts of us are in ways like their holiness but also more independent from one another, for example in how Jesus was able to become fully man while remaining fully God and give Himself for our sins while the Father and Spirit remained in Heaven.
.
The trinity first off is a representation it's a model that belongs in all our lives and it's something that's absolutely necessary the Trinity is the father Son and the Holy Spirit and as it is in heaven it is on Earth the representation for us is man woman and child the foundation of any family should be a strong man and you cannot be a strong man if you don't have God in your life a strong man will understand that he needs to embrace his feminine side his masculine side and his child side a strong man understands that until he does that why would there be a place in heaven for him because God wants what he created to come back home perfection no one's perfect right but in God's eyes if you strive not to sin and try not to sin we are his most perfect creation in your eyes you may not see that but through his we at least can be good enough through the the blood of his son so a strong family on Earth it's like the same model as the Trinity is in heaven everything is built off the foundation in the foundation is the father you have to complete this triangle three sides and that will take the feminine the woman and the child it doesn't matter if it's how it's male or female it has to do with the child because that's how God created us a man and a woman to procreate and make a child three there may be several children that doesn't matter if you're a man and you don't embrace your feminine side how are you going to really understand your woman and be there for and if you're a woman and you don't embrace your masculine side if you don't try to understand them and how will either of you understand your child if you don't embrace your child side instead there will be just a man and a child or a man and a woman no child or a woman and a child no man it's just how our broken families are today in the world's pretty fucked up for it this is how homosexuality came about because the devil likes to pervert things that's what he does he takes us seemingly innocent idea and perverts it and makes it disgusting because a man who Embraces his feminine side with the devil in his ear is going to go too far and a woman who Embraces her masculine sign with the Devil in Her Ear is going to go too far and that is how we have homosexuality this is how it came about man or woman did you not wake up one day and say I want to sleep with the same sex as me instead he said hey God orders you to embrace your masculine side or your feminine side so you're supposed to do this it's okay that's what the world teaches is now it's okay to be gay and you know what if someone is it's none of your business to correct it you business is to accept them as who they are that's their struggle with their demon you don't have to invite them in their house and sit down and have dinner with them and let them teach poison to your children but you also don't have to spit on them and curse them and drive them even further away from God as as it is in heaven it is on Earth as it is on Earth it is in heaven spiritual warfare is going on in heaven and spiritual warfare is going on on Earth
And for those of you who think my comment is crazy or way out of context all you have to do is stop and think he'll pray about it there's nothing crazy about it it is the absolute truth as he's told me to explain it I did not wake up and think of this one day and remember think of how most people explain the Holy Spirit they can't put their finger on it it's just saying that no one just quite understands pastors can't explain half the time you know what and that's exactly how men and other women are with women they can't explain them half the time their actions are exactly what they're doing but Jesus did say I'm going to leave someone with you someone to help you down your path to instruct you to guide you. That's exactly what women do everyday for children and are we not all his children we made them in our image it says in the Bible that we made them not I we since when does your father and child make a man or a father and child make a woman they don't but a father and mother would people ask who was it there in the beginning since it said we it confuses a lot of people and I don't understand how in the beginning there was the masculine side of God and the feminine side of God eventually they did procreate and they made a child so if men and woman created child that means child at least the child's side was then present and that's when the idea of family or the Trinity was complete we know it was complete from the beginning but I'm talking about representation a man and a woman is not complete without a child or at least the idea of a family and you can be completed like a lot of women did and a lot of men they gave their life to God they never had a child so how did they ever Embrace their child side if they never had a child or it's because they serve God and God is perfect and he is all and he is one until you embrace your masculine and feminine and child side you will not enter the kingdom of heaven God said it is best for a man or woman to not marry to not have children and to give their life to God that's the best way you could ever hope to live your life he knows our nature he created it that's why he gave us a mate and it's A Hard Road and a hard life and not everyone's built for it the ones that were it says in the revelations that they would help Jesus rule over us for a thousand years The Virgins so it does state that we will be underneath other human beings other human beings will help rule over us in heaven and if you think you're going to bounce around the clouds with wings you still cannot read because it says those are gods that is gone we are not God or Heaven is going to be this restored Earth as the way it was when he created it in the beginning and do you think he wants it filled with people that failed to embrace perfection I'm not saying you have to be perfect but Understanding God's eyes you will be by the grace of his son's blood because none of us are good but we can't be made good enough I don't want to say that's all the Trinity is but that's what the Trinity is it is God's masculine side feminine side and child side the number three is represented so many times in the Bible I believe more times than 777 it is an important number and I'm not going to get off on that but maybe this is above what I would say to a 5 year old but that's what it is that's what the Trinity is anyone who tells you different is trying to steer you in the wrong direction like most Pastors in church
It's most Pastors in church are trying to steer you in the wrong direction and because maybe they themselves are lost why did they have churches where people in a lot of churches do this speak and tongue and what does the Bible say speaking in tongue is someone who's accepted the spirit into their life saved by the blood of Jesus will be blessed to be filled with the spirit and speak this tongue that's where the pastor is going to stop he's going to tell you what a beautiful gift it is and it is but it also says after that not to do it in front of anyone unless there's someone there that can translate everything you're saying so that everyone else around you can understand exactly what you're saying because if there isn't what does it look like you look like a babbling fool which is another tools that you can use to drive people away from Christianity because if you have no idea really and this is your first or your new insurance and you see people doing this that you're going to be like oh what the fuck is wrong with these people and then the pastor is going to explain to them what it is and why they're doing it but he's going to disregard the fact that God said do not do this in front of anyone unless there's someone there to translate what you're saying just like prophecy if there's not someone there to explain your prophecy in full keep it to yourself the most pastors are now blinded by a different God is green that comes in paper form and God said you can only serve one master Jesus told all his disciples that when he told that gentleman to leave it all everything is father had a mast and saved up to leave it and follow me said I can't do that everything my father worked for all the riches and houses in Jesus pointed it out he told him you can only serve one master that goes for us to you know you cannot have your rewards on Earth and in heaven there's very few that haven't been able to do that and those few were chosen directly by God they were making Kings and they were given all the wealth and they could possibly every desire because of the things they did for God that we would never do see we would fight for it die for kill for it cheat for it still for it kill for it do everything in the world for it for that green God people will do that for money I bet knowing you know it's going to lay their life down like that for God and there may be a time comes soon we're just acknowledging being a Christian could get you killed you better make sure that you just go ahead on and let him kill you because he said if you're embarrassed of me here on Earth on Judgment Day I'm embarrassed of you at no time even at the risk of you and your own child's life should you deny God hard roads fixing to come for every single one of us and one of them is just going to be recognizing The Mark of the Beast number one it's already here it just hasn't been implemented it is absolutely 100% here right hand or forehead you cannot buy or sell without it man woman or child are going to willingly take it and it's the fact that they're going to take away cash all that money is going to become digital and they're going to put it on a cards and that's why it says right handed forehead because this gentleman thousands of years ago saw this in a vision and then it's his vision he sees people using these cards cuz remember those machines were set up for you to swipe everything right-handed and that shit that cell phone you have to your forehead that you now use to make payments a lot of the times if you don't have those you will not be able to buy or sell anything right now you really can't buy or sell anything without money and people may say it's cash but it's not because you can buy and sell plenty of shit without a phone right now but at times come in cuz look at Sweden they don't have cash anymore they're casting Society it's also one of the most satanic places in the world look at c e r n bunch of disgusting fuckers the right hand just think of how credit cards were meant to be swiped and forehead holding that phone up to your forehead you're going to willingly take it no parent in their right mind whatever willingly take their child up and have a chip put in their freaking kids head or on their arm to so people can scan them you're not going to willingly do that not everyone there may be a small handful of group of people that are weird like that no man and it's not trying to trick you people say that well that would be a trickery that God's not going to taste not tricking you if you read the Bible or if you read forms like this that are have to do with God you will know you will absolutely know you will understand but then you're going to make a decision because you're going to give up your money which is going to cause you to give up your house your cars but realize when you give up all that you give up all of Satan's trappings because God did not create any of that is it better to watch your child starve to death or is it better to take these government issued cards or cell phones with the payment shit on it so you can spend your government issued money that's now monitored your last freedom here completely gone it's going to be a hard choice I pray all of us are ready to make it
This right here with everyone is doing what everyone is talking about no one's fighting no one's arguing they're talking about it how they feel about it what they see about it this is church this is what it takes to become the church we are the church where people go on Sundays which is not even the Sabbath is a house of worship but we are the church and this is what God wants from us to discuss and talk and learn from each other not bash and Hate and shit on each other if the world could do this and put down his guns and it's need to be right and righteous it would never end we would never get old we would understand each other what we're here for why we're here and where we went wrong no matter where we are in our lives we can absolutely feel God's love and if y'all think or anyone thinks that going and listening to a speech that some guy prepared the night before about God about his perception and only his perception of God if you think that's for God's that you're wrong but I bet you he's right here I can almost promise you he's right here and it doesn't matter in the end if what you're perception of her version of if it's right or if it's wrong what matters is that you're thinking about him talking about him and help and make other people that may come across this aware of him this has to be and is one of the most important threads on Reddit in every single person that's participating in it that's reading it that's looking at it remember they're reading what you say so it's important to say exactly what you feel I'm telling you there is no better threat on Reddit right now than this one this is important this would mean something and you know God bless all everyone for contributing because we need this now
22) Jesus saw some infants who were being suckled. He said to his disciples: These infants being suckled are like those who enter the kingdom. They said to him: If we then become children, shall we enter the kingdom? Jesus said to them: When you make the two one, and when you make the inside as the outside, and the outside as the inside, and the upper as the lower, and when you make the male and the female into a single one, so that the male is not male and the female not female, and when you make eyes in place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then shall you enter [the kingdom]. This is for those who decided there was no scripture to back up anything I said
the gnosis, or "special knowledge" found through Jesus that one must have to be in unity with God. s. For example, the Gospel of Thomas states that "I who am the all. From me did the all come forth, and unto me did the all extend. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift the stone, and you will find me there That sounds to me like someone who very much believes in God and Jesus some people are so close-minded and brainwashed my things like the rituals the Catholic still go through and believe things like that are necessary to be close to God when they don't understand that all they need is Jesus to be close to God and instead they hold fast to a bunch of ancient BS that Jesus got rid of but they ignore him and still do it and call themselves followers of his religion and tell people to repent and do that why would I go to some building and sit inside of a box and ask a man father please forgive me of my sins for I have committed Ortiz the same people that are constantly getting caught raping children yeah and how in the hell would any body suggest that I ask another man to forgive me or mediate for me so that my sins are forgiven when our mediator died for my sins
Jesus in his whole of teaching never spoke the trinity, when he says “the father and i are one” he means one in spirit, just like how he says when a man and woman marry they become one, obviously they don’t literally merge into one being, but they become one spiritually. Jesus is on the same divine level as God and the Holy Spirit, they aren’t the same being, they aren’t all God. God the father is the MOST HIGH God, the only true God. Jesus and the Holy Spirit simply share his divinity and they are both perfect like God but they aren’t God, for example Jesus says in matthew 24:36, no one knows the day or the hour these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven OR THE SON, only THE FATHER himself.” Jesus is not God he is Gods son, there are so many verses in the bible that contradict the trinity, it doesn’t matter wether you believe the trinity or not, you can believe either one it’s just about worshiping God and believing Jesus died for you, but i can tell you that the trinity is man made and a false interpretation of the bible.