Trinity Lesson 11:
Using Analogies to Understand the
Trinity
Analogy
1) 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."
Don’t confuse the analogy,
or model, with the thing
itself. Understand the
limitations of analogies.
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
St. Patrick’s 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.
St. Augustine’s 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 God’s
nature would be found in the creature who bears His image.
He sought to understand God’s Triunity in
studying dimensions of man’s personality.
“Spirituality” and “Personality”
The most basic or fundamental
reality is spiritual.
John 4:24 - God is a Spirit: and they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning, God created the
heavens and the earth.
God ‘created’ the material world.
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’.
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, coinhering, 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)
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”
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.
Genesis 2: 24
Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother, and shall
cleave unto his wife: and they
shall be one flesh.
“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
Love is such a powerful dimension of God
that it binds three persons truly as one.
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.
God’s 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.
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.
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.
Creation (Constructing a Building)
Architect
The source of
the design.
Contractor
Organizes
and oversees
the workers.
Construction Worker
Performs the
actual work of
construction.
So, who is responsible for the existence of the building?
What’s 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.
John 15: 8 – 10
8Herein 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.
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.
Ephesians 5:28 – 32
He 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.
Spir
FathSon
it
er
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 Christ’s
perfect love, that we may be one as God is
one.