The Trinity: Three persons, one nature, one God -- Do you understand fully?

Question

Many of those professing to be Christians have no understanding or belief in the Trinity, apparently it is "unBiblical". Most people, I believe, make this mistake simply because they cannot comprehend what the Trinity actually IS.

I have received understanding of the Trinity in an epiphany a couple of weeks ago, and what was hard to understand before, is not hard anymore.

It is not difficult actually, for those with eyes to see and ears to hear, it has to do with what is Manifest, and what is Unmanifest.

God (Creator – Father), Son (Jesus – Logos), Holy Spirit (Wisdom/Shekinah/Presence of God – Comforter) -- three Persons, one Nature. The Nature and Being of all of these three are Unmanifest, that which is there, but we cannot see, hear or experience, except through the bridge between the Divine and Created which Jesus Christ Himself offers.

We, including the physical earth and universe, are Manifest. We are physical beings living on a physical plane of existence, and this is how we define ourselves and our understanding. Most people cannot understand or define that which is Unmanifest as we are all Manifest, but it is only through direct experience of the Unmanifest (God Himself) that we can comprehend such things. I included, could not have understood the Trinity had God not graced me with the direct experience of His Presence, the Shekinah, the Holy Spirit. What was nonsense to me before, as it is to most, I now understand.

Jesus Himself, alone, offers Man the opportunity to become divine (Theosis) – we are not Divine by Nature as we are Manifest (only the Unmanifest is), but we can assume the Nature of Divinity by adoption through Christ. Jesus is the only person ever to live Divine by Birth, but as per the Good News of the True Gospel, through the grace of God alone and the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, we take off the “old man” and adopt the “new man”, our very natures becoming changed and divinized through His Power. For “God become Man that Man may become gods” – thus fulfilling the True Gospel and restoring the Image of God in Man and us to His Presence in the Garden from which we fell by temptation – in the Garden, Adam and Eve fell as they attempted to become divine on their own and were not able to do so, Jesus Christ Himself does this through the Divine Providence of God the Father, the Most High, YHVH. This is the difference between mortal humans and Jesus Christ Himself, for only He has seen the Father from before the foundation of the world. Through Jesus Christ Himself, are we able as Manifest, to come into contact with the Unmanifest, the Primordial, the Three Persons of the Trinity of Unmanifest.

The Universe itself is Manifest, it seems infinite, yet there are boundaries to it somewhere beyond our imaginations. There are boundaries to all Manifest existence. The only thing that has no boundaries is the Unmanifest, and the Unmanifest consists of both the Unmanifest itself, and all that is Manifest, for without God, we couldn’t exist. Good and evil exist within the Manifest, therefore good and evil both exist within God Himself (He is not the creator of evil, but yes, it exists within Him, for everything that exists, could not exist without Him). Since the Unmanifest encompasses everything, including the Manifest, all exists within God.

Think of us and the Universe as existing as Manifest, yet the Unmanifest reaching into and out of and permeating all of Manifest existence. This is the true Nature of God and the Trinity – He is able to reach into the Manifest though He Himself is Unmanifest, and the Creator, the Logos, and the Comforter are One – Unmanifest, three Persons, One Nature. Does the Trinity now make a little more sense to those with eyes to see and ears to hear? For those without eyes to see and ears to hear, will still be unable to understand unfortunately, for human words can only do so much to convey what one must understand in the heart and that words are woefully inadequate to describe that which is itself, indescribable!

God is everywhere and all around us (panentheism) in Manifest, yet separate and distinct as One (monotheism) of Unmanifest. Yet God chose to send His Son from the Unmanifest to show us the way back Home to the Garden, and gather us unto Himself in the sacrifice of his Son. His Son sent us the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to minister to us until His Second Coming.

Sorry for the length – but it is very tough to describe something in words, that is not describable in words! I have done my best and hope that some understand.

Blessings!

Answer 1

Interesting. Please allow me to share with you what I have discovered about this subject.



First, the Bibles teaches us that there is one God, and that His nature is decribed as trinity. Though I believe that the word "triune" best describes the nature of God. You see, too many who believe in the trinity teach the plurality of God so strong that they are more tri-theists that trinitarians.



The Bible teaches us that there is one God. The Word declares that He is the eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, sovereign, and immutable triune God; and it declares the unity of the Godhead where three personalities, equal in every divine perfection and attribute, execute distinct, harmonious offices, in the great work of redemption.



This does not mean that there are three "people" called God, but rather a way of saying God eternally exists in three personally distinct ways. Scriptures declare that there is only one God, Who is eternally (past, present, and future) manifested/revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.



1 John 5:7, 2 Cor. 13:14, John 1:1,2, Rev. 4:2-5 & 5:1-7



The Father - Co-existent, co-eternal, and co-equal with the Son and the Holy Spirit. He is the Creator and Giver of life. He is God revealed as Father in creation.

Scripture References: Isa. 43:10; 44:8, John 3:16, James 1:17, John 4:24



The Son - Co-existent, co-eternal, and co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus was conceived by the Spirit and born of a virgin, to take upon Himself the form of man. By becoming obedient unto death, Jesus bore the curse of sin, sickness and sorrow redeeming us back to Himself. He arose the third day and ascended unto heaven, there He sits on the right hand of the Father, where He ever lives to make intercession for us. He is God revealed as Son in redemption.

Scripture References: John 1:1-3, Matt. 1:23 , 1 Tim. 2:5, Eph. 2:18 , Phil. 2:6-11



The Holy Spirit - Co-existent, co-eternal and co-equal with the Father and the Son. Sent by the Father, through the Son, He reproves the world of sin, prepares the church for Christ's return, and empowers the believer to follow the Lord. He is God revealed as Holy Ghost in regeneration.

Scripture References: John 14:26 ; 15:26 ; 16:8



Another way of understanding this definition of the nature of God, is to understand His attributes. By attributes I mean His omniscience (He knows all things), His omnipotence (He is all powerful), and His omnipresence’s (He is everywhere at the same time, and at all times). His omnipresence’s allows us to (in a very simplistic way) to see how He can be Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at the same time. Being omnipresent He is not only everywhere at the same time, He is everywhere at every time. God is here, now, at this present time. But He is also in the future. He is already there because He is not limited by time. He is also in the past. You see, time is linier. Time had a starting point (Gen. 1:1) and it will come to an end (Rev. 10:6). But God is eternal. He has no beginning, and He will have no end. Therefore time itself existents within God, God is not limited within time. Therefore the One God is the Father, Son, and Spirit eternally (in the past, in the present, and in the future). I know this is deep, but it does help understand how the One true and Living God is eternally manifested as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.



Hope this helps.



Elder Greg

SFCU

Answer 2

I still don't think we can understand the Holy Trinity. That doesn't mean we should give up. It only means that the Trinity is an inexhaustable Mystery to be meditated upon. I hate to be a stickler, but I don't think you've gotten it quite right. You say ''one nature.'' One nature would be one will. That would be to deny that Christ has both a human and divine nature, which would be an ancient heresy called Monothelitism. Don't get me wrong though... I don't mean it in a condemning kind of way. I just think that maybe you should find a different term other than ''nature.'' It's VERY easy to slip into heresy when describing the Holy Trinity, which it's best not to explain these things in our own words. I would encourage you to continue pondering this, but try not to be too hasty in your explanations, and maybe look over the Athanasian Creed a few more times. Still, I'll give you a star and a pat on the back for your efforts. You've done a far better job with your explanation than I could have.



Peace,

Drew



PS: To those who say the word ''Trinity'' is no found in the Bible (and there will be a few), it doesn't matter whether it is or not. The Bible was canonized around Trinitarian doctrine, which is why the concept is there, even if we don't care to acknowledge it. St. Athanasius and St. Nicolas (yes, Santa Claus) defined the Trinity more clearly in response to Bishop Arius, who taught that Jesus was simply ''a good man.''

Answer 3

The Trinity id NOT taught in the Bible. It is a manmade thing that stems from Pagan religion.

They can say what they want, but check this out:.

According to the Trinity doctrine, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are coequal in power, authority and eternity. But the critical question is this: Did Jesus Christ and his apostles believe and teach the Trinity? If we believe that they did, we are faced with a number of very puzzling questions.



At Mark 13:32, Jesus Christ said: “But of that day or that hour [of God’s coming execution of judgment] no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (See the box, “Why Are They Missing?” on page 7.) But if the Father and the Son are coequal, how could the Son be ignorant of things the Father knows? ‘Jesus had two natures,’ some will answer. ‘Here he is speaking as a man.’ And, yet, even if that were so, what about the “Holy Ghost”? If it is the third person of the Trinity, why does it not know? A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. And the “Holy Ghost” is part of the Trinitarian chain.



Similarly, on an earlier occasion Jesus had said: “No one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son.” (Luke 10:22) Once again, what about the “Holy Ghost”? If it is a conscious part of the “Godhead,” coequal with the Father and the Son, why does it not know?



More than 20 years after Jesus died and ascended to heaven, the apostle Paul wrote: “‘For who has known the mind of the Lord [the Father] so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:16) How is it possible to have “the mind of Christ” and yet not know “the mind of the Lord”—if the Father and the Son are coequal?

HHHHHmmmmm...doesn't make sense eh?

Answer 4

The trinity was devised by a pagan emperor in order to give early catholic bishops the power over people by including a man as god so as people would take their focus totally from god and return it to the said bishops. It was the christian church's way of slowly going away from what Jesus stated to formalize a religion that was more interested in power and politics than spiritual advancement.

It was quite clear that Jesus was not interested in this debate because he would have said it up front in straight talk but the church has used dissection as a way to get it passed. Don't buy it at all. Jesus said some really amazing things that people should listen to, most especially Christians, So stop these things that are unknowns and read his parables. I mean did he die for nothing?

Answer 5

God is a trinity of persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is not the same person as the Son; the Son is not the same person as the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is not the same person as Father. They are not three gods and not three beings. They are three distinct persons; yet, they are all the one God. Each has a will, can speak, can love, etc., and these are demonstrations of personhood. They are in absolute perfect harmony consisting of one substance. They are coeternal, coequal, and copowerful. If any one of the three were removed, there would be no God.

Answer 6

I believe in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. But I do not understand your question. It's more of a statement or an explanation than a question!

Answer 7

Chrstian theology holds that Jesus was more than just the Messiah. They hold that Jesus is God Himself. Jesus was subordinate to God, and not equal to Him. !

i.e.



(Hebrews 2:7) "You God made him (Jesus) a little lower than the angels"



1) God "made" Jesus. Ergo Jesus was not God, but was a created being;

2) God made Jesus lower than angels, thus he certainly was lower than God.



We find here that Jesus was not co-equal with the Father, for Jesus said: “...the Father is greater than I.” (John 14:28).

Jesus said in this Gospel: “...I live because of the Father...” (John 6:57).



John tells us that Jesus cannot do anything by his own when he quotes Jesus as saying: “By myself I can do nothing...”

(John 5:30).



and this one.....



“I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” (John 20:17).





Did God *send* Jesus, or *was* He Jesus?

I'm just trying to understand ...

God used Jesus, which means that Jesus is a being separate from God !



Chrstians and Jews agree that chapter 37 of Ezekiel is messianic. The object of verse 24 of Ezekiel 37 is the Messiah, and it is clear that the Messiah is Gods servant, and not God Himself.



Not ALL christians worship Jesus as god. Many messianics just think he was the messiah . The Unity Church does not believe Jesus was a god. Christadelphians do not believe he was god either. the Jeh-ovahs Witnesses dont either.



Which one should I believe....all can't be

Right about the Godhead!



Many Christians worship 3 gods and try to dress them up as one. Christians use many convulted methodologies for trying to prove that 1 + 1 + 1 (father + son + ghost) = 1.

How can it be said that a believer who has the "spirit" in them, knows God, when they really don't have a clue as to what they're worshipping, especially if they believe in dualism, gnosticism, or some other heresy?



How credible is a christian's witness to a Non-believer when that Christian seems non-chalant or indifferent as to the god they advise them to worship? (About the Godhead!).



Revelation : Doubleday Bible Commentary (Doubleday Bible Commentary) by MARCUS MAXWELLWe often hear that the doctrine of the holy Trinity is not found in the Bible. In the sense of the philosophical statements that later theologians loved, this is true. .....



The Shadow of the Almighty: Father, Son, and Spirit in Biblical Perspective by Ben Witherington, Laura M. Icethere is no developed doctrine of the Trinity enunciated in the New Testament, ..."(front of book).



The Illustrated Bible Dictionary "The word Trinity is not found in the Bible . . . It did not find a place formally in the theology of the church till the 4th century."



The Catholic Encyclopedia:In Scripture there is as yet no single term by which the Three Divine Persons are denoted together. . .(it is) is first found in Theophilus of Antioch about A. D. 180



The Encyclopedia Americana plainly reports: "Fourth Century Trinitarianism did not reflect accurately early Christian teaching regarding the nature of God; it was, on the contrary, a deviation from this teaching."



The New Catholic Encyclopedia notes: "The formulation 'one god in three Persons' was not solidly established, certainly not fully assimilated into Christian life and its profession of faith, prior to the end of the 4th century. . . Among the Apostolic Fathers, there had been nothing even remotely approaching such a mentality or perspective."



The Ethnic Trinities by L. L. Paine, page 219, states that the development of the trinity was an evolutionary process. "The Christian dogma did not start from a polytheistic or pantheistic ground, but from Jewish monotheism; but the development from one God to a trinity was just as completely a historical evolution as any other.





Who else after Paul and the characters mentioned in the NewTestement (from about 120-381 ACE) clearly articulated this "correct" view of a 3-in-1 "father, son, spirit" as all Trinitarians believe today ??????



Christians today are blindly assuming or purposely presupposing that their beliefs are those taught directly by Jesus and Paul, when they have no evidence of any such thing!



A man made docterine? ......Hmmm



Maybe some true secret unknown believers in the Trinity escaped the pages of history and passed down the right teachings to only "true" christians today????



With all these new ideas and theories of trinity ...it seems that Christianity uses them as a way to cover up and explain the the multiple mistaken Godhead identities that accumulated through the writers. (many books of the NT also have unknown writers!)



Such man made concepts, reasoning and phraseology was indeed needed to fit the pieces to a contradictory, and puzzled bible... which in the end has endless interpretations by anyone.



(Isaiah 40:18) "To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?"



unity0151.

Answer 8

Um....



There is only one God



God, the Father is a Spirit



Jesus, the Son is God in the flesh.



Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God in us.... It was poured out after Jesus ascended up to Heaven.



There is one God, but in three different forms.

Answer 9

I do not believe in the Trinity. I think that the Trinity is a way too literal interpretation of the Bible. Yes, God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost are alike in mind, but they are 3 separate spirits.

Answer 10

I am sorry but you have go to be kidding. (Shakes head in disbelief).

Yes I know I will get many thumbs down for this but I can't help it. You have got to be kidding.

Answer 11

without reading your long explanation, I already understand the Godhead. thanks.

Answer 12

1+1+1=3 no matter how you try to blur it.

Answer 13

Welcome sister.

Answer 14

Sounds like Plotinus visited your house with some help from Plato. Same stuff way before your holy ideas came along.



Get real...That is so ridiculous.

Answer 15

Loooooong! Yawn!



That's Godhead. 3 persons, one God, one mind, co-equal, co-existing, many verses support that.



Lady above, that's NOT 3 spirits. that's gnosticism!