Faithfully In Ecuador: How Can There Be Three Persons In One God?

HOW CAN THERE BE THREE PERSONS IN ONE GOD?

“…there is no other subject in the entire universe that demands and deserves our attention, our reflection, than God himself. To begin to scratch the surface of what God is like is to taste the stuff that eternal life is made of. It is therefore desperately sad that too often we neglect this important aspect of what God is like. And I hold my hand up as someone very guilty of not giving this the thought it deserves, not emphasizing it in my daily life as I should.”

Pete Jackson

The greatness brings complexity with it.

When we look at the nature we see the make-up of God Himself.

This is the God who made the vast universe and it is no wonder there are things we cannot comprehend about Him.

The only way we can know anything about God is by what he has revealed about Himself in the Bible.

Have you ever seen the word "Godhead"?

Theologians sometimes use that term when they want to refer to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit as three divine Persons in one God.

How can God be three and yet one?

Isn't it contradictory?

It would seem that God could be one and not three.

Or three and not one.

But He cannot be both three and one at the same time.

It is a violation of the most fundamental law of thought, the law of noncontradiction.

The doctrine of the Trinity — that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are each equally and eternally the one true God — is difficult to comprehend.

And yet is the very foundation of Christian truth.

Although skeptics may ridicule it as a mathematical impossibility, it is nevertheless a basic doctrine of Scripture.

As well as profoundly realistic in both universal experience and in the scientific understanding of the cosmos.

The Christian belief in a Trinity of three persons in on God is not a contradiction.

A contradiction occurs when something is both A and non-A at the same time and in the same sense.

God is both three and one at the same time but not in the same sense.

He is three persons but one in essence.

He is three persons but only one in nature.

God is like a triangle.

At the same time it has three corners and yet it is only one triangle.

Each corner is not the same as the whole triangle.

God is not 1 + 1 + = 3

But He is 1 x 1 x 1 = 1

Both Old and New Testaments teach the Unity and the Trinity of the Godhead.

The idea that there is only one God, who created all things, is repeatedly emphasized in Scripture.

For Jehovah created the heavens and earth and put everything in place, and he made the world to be lived in, not to be an empty chaos. I am Jehovah, he says, and there is no other!

Isaiah 45:18 (TLB)

In New Testament we can read:

Are there still some among you who hold that “only believing” is enough? Believing in one God? Well, remember that the demons believe this too—so strongly that they tremble in terror!

James 2:19 (TLB)

The three persons of the Godhead are, at the same time.

Come closer and listen. I have always told you plainly what would happen, so that you could clearly understand. And now the Lord God and his Spirit have sent me (with this message):

Isaiah 48:16 (TLB)

The speaker in this verse is obviously God, and yet He says He has been sent both by The Lord God (that is, the Father) and by His Spirit (that is, the Holy Spirit).

The New Testament doctrine of the Trinity is evident.

But I will send you the Comforter—the Holy Spirit, the source of all truth. He will come to you from the Father and will tell you all about me.

John 15:26 (TLB)

Then there is the baptismal formula:

Therefore go and make disciples in all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

Matthew 28:19 (TLB)

God is one God.

Manifested eternally and simultaneously in three distinct persons.

God is love. (1 John 4:16)

But to have love, there must be a lover (Father), a loved one (Son) and a spirit of love (Holy Spirit).

“God is a Tri-unity, with each Person of the Godhead equally and fully and eternally God. Each is necessary, and each is distinct, and yet all are one. The three Persons appear in a logical, causal order. The Father is the unseen, omnipresent Source of all being, revealed in and by the Son, experienced in and by the Holy Spirit. The Son proceeds from the Father, and the Spirit from the Son. With reference to God's creation, the Father is the Thought behind it, the Son is the Word calling it forth, and the Spirit is the Deed making it a reality.”

Henry Morris and Martin Clark, The Bible Has the Answer

Love itself is a tri-unity.

“Another illustration of the Trinity is that God is like my mind, ideas, and words. There is a unity between them, yet they are distinct from each other.”

Norman Geisler

The Trinity is a mystery.

It goes beyond reason without going against reason.

We can apprehend it, but we cannot completely comprehend it.

“If we try to understand God completely, we may lose our mind, but if we do not believe in the Trinity sincerely, we will lose our soul!”

Anonymous

This is Good God Questions Monday. A series dedicated to those good, and difficult, questions about God, universe, life, sin, Christ, love, and everything related.

Why is it so important to answer questions about God?

“but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect”

1 Peter 3:15

Even little children can ask tough question, but there are good answers for all of them. The Bible exhorts us to find them and give them.

“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

Colossians 4:6

This post is based on the book “How Made God? And Answer To Over 100 Other Tough Questions Of Faith” by Ravi Zacharias and Norman Geisler.

The First Monday we wondered:

WHO MADE GOD?

The Second Monday we wondered:

WHY COULDN'T THE WORLD HAVE ALWAYS EXISTED?

The Third Monday we wondered:

HOW CAN GOD MAKE SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING?

The Fourth Monday we wondered:

WHAT WAS GOD DOING BEFORE HE MADE THE WORLD?

The Fifth Monday we wondered:

HOW CAN THERE BE THREE PERSONS IN ONE GOD?