DISCLAIMER: NO ONE CAN FULLY FATHOM GOD'S DIVINE NATURE MANIFESTED IN THE TRINITY; HOWEVER, ILLUSTRATIONS AND REASON CAN GIVE INSIGHT AND FAITH.
The Trinity, a term coined by the Church Father and lawyer Tertullian, is terminology for our God who is one in essence (i.e., that they share the attributes of divinity such as omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence), and is three in person--i.e., uniting three personas. You might say He is triune or has a tripersonality. He is a threesome, that in one sense is three, and in another only one. God is one in the sense of a union or of being one like one cluster of grapes (from the Hebrew Echad). Each of the members of the Godhead work together for one purpose, goal, and will to accomplish it with different job descriptions or roles: In our salvation, the Father planned it and authored it, the Son accomplished it and achieved it, and the Holy Spirit applies it and completes it; In creation as well as in salvation, the Father initiates, the Son redeems, and the Holy Spirit regenerates. This is like three functions of matter in the three states of solid, liquid, and gas. Water, ice, and steam are all the same element chemically, though they have different properties.
How can you say that there are three and one and not be contradictory? If you mean it in a different sense it is no contradiction. According to the law of noncontradiction, something cannot be something and not be something in the same sense at the same time! If you have three lights on in a room and behold only one light doesn't that mean there is but one light with three sources? One person may say, from his viewpoint, that there are three lights, and another that there is only one! It all depends upon perspective. Charles Taze Russell, who founded the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, said this doctrine was illogical and therefore rejected it; however, God's nature isn't necessarily perceptible, apparent, nor lucid to our feeble minds. You may say it is simple arithmetic: 1 + 1 + 1 = 3; however, 1 X 1 X 1 = 1.
No one can adequately explain the Trinity because the finite cannot contain the infinite, as the Latin maxim says. We have to take it on faith that this is so! God will give us enough to take the leap of faith, but He expects us to have faith and not let our cerebral doubts get in the way. Our intellects can be a stumbling block to our faith, get in the way, and hinder true faith--God honors the faith of a child.
What I'm getting at is that you cannot fathom nor explain this doctrine, even if you have all eternity! We cannot peg God, put Him in a box, nor analyze Him to our specs or satisfaction! Just accept it by faith and realize that God is infinite and you are finite and cannot comprehend God. God boggles our mind and just thinking about Him is mental gymnastics. There is always more to God than we apprehend--this is called the profundity of God. God speaks to us in baby talk, or lisping, and is condescending to our level to have a relationship with us, who are in His image--that's why we are capable of it.
In conclusion: I confess I cannot fully comprehend it, but I believe despite this. You don't need all the answers to have faith, just go in the direction of the preponderance of the evidence like a jury is instructed to do. God with the flow! When the majority of the evidence suggests or dictates a conclusion--go with it! Behold the "three-in-oneness" of God. "God in three persons, blessed Trinity." They say the Trinity is not three ways of looking at God (like a man may be a husband, brother, and son), nor three persons or personas that together make up or complete God (this is called tritheism and is like the parts of an egg or apple together make up the whole egg or apple), but a threesome and a union incomprehensibly made one. Soli Deo Gloria!
The Trinity, a term coined by the Church Father and lawyer Tertullian, is terminology for our God who is one in essence (i.e., that they share the attributes of divinity such as omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence), and is three in person--i.e., uniting three personas. You might say He is triune or has a tripersonality. He is a threesome, that in one sense is three, and in another only one. God is one in the sense of a union or of being one like one cluster of grapes (from the Hebrew Echad). Each of the members of the Godhead work together for one purpose, goal, and will to accomplish it with different job descriptions or roles: In our salvation, the Father planned it and authored it, the Son accomplished it and achieved it, and the Holy Spirit applies it and completes it; In creation as well as in salvation, the Father initiates, the Son redeems, and the Holy Spirit regenerates. This is like three functions of matter in the three states of solid, liquid, and gas. Water, ice, and steam are all the same element chemically, though they have different properties.
How can you say that there are three and one and not be contradictory? If you mean it in a different sense it is no contradiction. According to the law of noncontradiction, something cannot be something and not be something in the same sense at the same time! If you have three lights on in a room and behold only one light doesn't that mean there is but one light with three sources? One person may say, from his viewpoint, that there are three lights, and another that there is only one! It all depends upon perspective. Charles Taze Russell, who founded the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, said this doctrine was illogical and therefore rejected it; however, God's nature isn't necessarily perceptible, apparent, nor lucid to our feeble minds. You may say it is simple arithmetic: 1 + 1 + 1 = 3; however, 1 X 1 X 1 = 1.
No one can adequately explain the Trinity because the finite cannot contain the infinite, as the Latin maxim says. We have to take it on faith that this is so! God will give us enough to take the leap of faith, but He expects us to have faith and not let our cerebral doubts get in the way. Our intellects can be a stumbling block to our faith, get in the way, and hinder true faith--God honors the faith of a child.
What I'm getting at is that you cannot fathom nor explain this doctrine, even if you have all eternity! We cannot peg God, put Him in a box, nor analyze Him to our specs or satisfaction! Just accept it by faith and realize that God is infinite and you are finite and cannot comprehend God. God boggles our mind and just thinking about Him is mental gymnastics. There is always more to God than we apprehend--this is called the profundity of God. God speaks to us in baby talk, or lisping, and is condescending to our level to have a relationship with us, who are in His image--that's why we are capable of it.
In conclusion: I confess I cannot fully comprehend it, but I believe despite this. You don't need all the answers to have faith, just go in the direction of the preponderance of the evidence like a jury is instructed to do. God with the flow! When the majority of the evidence suggests or dictates a conclusion--go with it! Behold the "three-in-oneness" of God. "God in three persons, blessed Trinity." They say the Trinity is not three ways of looking at God (like a man may be a husband, brother, and son), nor three persons or personas that together make up or complete God (this is called tritheism and is like the parts of an egg or apple together make up the whole egg or apple), but a threesome and a union incomprehensibly made one. Soli Deo Gloria!
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