Trinity Lesson 11: Using Analogies to Understand the Trinity

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Trinity Lesson 11Using Analogies to Understand
the Trinity
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Analogy1) The use of a similar example or model
to explain or extrapolate from
2) Drawing a comparison in order to show a
similarity in some respect "the operation of a
computer presents and interesting analogy to the
working of the brain" "the models show by
analogy how matter is built up."
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Dont confuse the analogy, or model, with the
thing itself. Understand the limitations of
analogies.
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Some Common Trinity Analogies
Water Exists in three different states
Liquid, Solid, Gas
The Egg Shell, White, and Yolk. Three parts,
yet one egg.
Scissors Two parts, acting together for a
single purpose
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St. Patricks Analogy
St. Patrick, the evangelist to Ireland, tried to
teach about the Trinity by showing the shamrock,
a three leaf clover, to the ancient residents of
the island Ireland. The Trinity is composed of
three persons (the 3 leaves) who are in nature
one being (the shamrock itself). Each has a
distinct function in relation to humanity.
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St. Augustines Analogy (6th Century)
St. Augustine wrote a major treatise On The
Trinity, in which he notes that of all
creatures, only man is made in the image of
God. He reasoned therefore, that the best
analogy for Gods nature would be found in the
creature who bears His image.
He sought to understand Gods Triunity in
studying dimensions of mans personality.
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Spirituality and Personality
The most basic or fundamental reality is
spiritual.
John 424 - God is a Spirit and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in
truth.
Genesis 11 In the beginning, God created the
heavens and the earth. God created the material
world.
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Eastern Thought (Pantheism) God is perceived as
only spiritual not as personal. Gnosticism
Matter is perceived as fundamentally bad,
weighing down upon the spiritual.
We do not hold to this dualism, yet we
acknowledge the fundamental nature of God to be
spiritual and personal.
Christ perfectly embodied the co-existent
relationship of spirit and matter, and such is
the ultimate destiny of the Christian. But in
seeking to understand the trinity, we shall
explore the analogy of personality.
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Perichoresis
Perichoresis is a Greek term used to describe the
triune relationship between each person of the
Godhead. It can be defined as co-indwelling,
co-inhering, and mutual interpenetration. Alister
McGrath writes that it "allows the individuality
of the persons to be maintained, while insisting
that each person shares in the life of the other
two. An image often used to express this idea is
that of a 'community of being,' in which each
person, while maintaining its distinctive
identity, penetrates the others and is penetrated
by them. Theopedia)
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Personality requires interaction. Thus we think
of the triune God as three persons, continuously
interacting and interpenetrating one another.
Video Clip Ravi Zacarias Why God Must Be a
Plural Being
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1 John 4 8, 16 8He that loveth not knoweth not
God for God is love.16And we have known and
believed the love that God hath to us. God is
love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in
God, and God in him.
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Genesis 2 24Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his
wife and they shall be one flesh.
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Love is such a powerful dimension of God that it
binds three persons truly as one.
There is a sense in which the fact that God is
love requires that he be more than one person.
Love must have both a subject and an object.
Thus, prior to the creation of other persons
humans, God could not have really loved, and thus
would not have been truly love. Millard J.
Erickson, Making Sense of the Trinity
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Also, a trinity makes more sense than a duality.
Where two love, there can tend to be an inward,
central focus. With three, there is more a sense
of community and an outward focus.
Twos company, threes a crowd.
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Gods perichoresis has none of the limitations we
face as humans
Physical Bodies We cannot occupy the same
space. We are also individually distinguishable.
Communication We must communicate through some
medium, imperfectly.
Differing Experiences We have difficulty
relating to one another. The same symbol, word,
image may have different meanings to each of us.
Pre-occupation with Self Keeps us from ever
fully focusing on or empathizing with others.
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Each of the persons of the trinity is
interdependent. None can be without the other
two.
The Son, begotten of the Father
The Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the
Son
Each of the three subsisting, not existing.
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Two Final Analogies
The Human Body
Neither by itself constitutes a person, nor can
any of them exist without the third, yet all
three depend upon one another and only in their
successful working together does the person exist.
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Creation (Constructing a Building)
Architect Contractor
Construction Worker
The source of the design.
Organizes and oversees the workers.
Performs the actual work of construction.
So, who is responsible for the existence of the
building?
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Whats it mean to us?
John 14 16 20 16And I will pray the Father,
and he shall give you another Comforter, that he
may abide with you for ever   17Even the Spirit
of truth whom the world cannot receive, because
it seeth him not, neither knoweth him but ye
know him for he dwelleth with you, and shall be
in you.   18I will not leave you comfortless I
will come to you.   19Yet a little while, and the
world seeth me no more but ye see me because I
live, ye shall live also.   20At that day ye
shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me,
and I in you.
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John 15 8 108Herein is my Father glorified,
that ye bear much fruit so shall ye be my
disciples.   9As the Father hath loved me, so
have I loved you continue ye in my love.   10If
ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my
love even as I have kept my Father's
commandments, and abide in his love.
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John 17 20 23 20Neither pray I for these
alone, but for them also which shall believe on
me through their word   21That they all may be
one as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee,
that they also may be one in us that the world
may believe that thou hast sent me.   22And the
glory which thou gavest me I have given them
that they may be one, even as we are one   23I
in them, and thou in me, that they may be made
perfect in one and that the world may know that
thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou
hast loved me.
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Ephesians 528 32He that loveth his wife
loveth himself.   29For no man ever yet hated his
own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even
as the Lord the church   30For we are members of
his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.   31For
this cause shall a man leave his father and
mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and
they two shall be one flesh. 32This is a great
mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the
church.
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Christ calls on us to have the same unity through
love that He has with the Father, and the Spirit.
We need to overcome all the barriers to
relationship which impede us as sinful humans and
lay hold of Christs perfect love, that we may be
one as God is one.
Spirit
Father
Son