holy trinity egg analogy holy trinity egg analogy

If the Sun existed from eternity past then so were the light rays from the Sun. Some people have suggested using an egg to explain how God can be both one and three. The Unseen Father and Father that is seen existed at the same time. Or water can be evaporated and called steam. St. Augustine, one of the most important Fathers of the Church, wrote a great deal on the doctrine of the Trinity. What portion of the analogy holds true with Church Teaching? Try starting your explanation with a simple definition and then ask for further questions: No one can completely know or understand God. However, many of our faithful, and even priests, attempted to simplify the Mystery of the Trinity and made it easier to understand by using MODELS AND ANALOGIES, giving birth to modern-day heresies/fallacies about the Trinity. Some have taken on the task of explaining how Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist as one. The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the primary tenants of the Christian faith. When we view the egg in its entirety we have the Biblical Trinity, One that is Three. The Son is like the light rays that visibly reveal the sun, as Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). These are likewise erroneous or even heretical. The wonders and ways of God may not be apparent or fully known at present, but we can still marvel at His supremacy and worship Him in wonder- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit also exist eternally and concurrently. For example, triangles are not the kinds of things that are personal. Humans as we are, we cannot fully understand how the three divine Persons, though really distinct from one another, are one and the same God. It is not important merely for the sake of tradition, or because the word itself is taught in the Bible (the word is not). From time to time, Doctors of the Church used analogies, but with care. These two analogies are the "water" analogy and the "egg" analogy. Modalism teaches that the trinity is not three distinct persons, but just different modes that God reveals himself to human beings. Can you think of some Bible verses to back up your explanation? Yet it appears to be almost entirely misunderstood within contemporary evangelical circles. The Trinity are three distinct persons who exist apart from each other. These hand embroidered emblems are made with metallic gold-plated thread with silver content, printed on canvas. The Egg and I - Part Two Similarly, light and heat are simply creations of the sun, yet it is the heresy of Arianism to claim that the Son or Spirit are mere creations of the Father. This analogy sounds pretty good, but it is fatally flawed in that is describes the Son and Spirit as creations of the Father. So if all of these explanations are heretical, what is a good analogy? An egg is made up of shell, white and yolk. A certain YouTube page created a famous video titled "St. Patrick's Bad Analogies" (which can be found here), in which the historic St. Patrick meets charming villagers who deride him based on the analogies which he uses in the process of explaining the Holy Trinity. There are many mysteries to our faith. The Father is fully God; Jesus is fully God and the Holy Spirit is fully God. Now if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is not His" (Romans 8:9). He completed a doctorate in 1990, looking at the question of harmonic rhythm in the organ music of J.S. Each person is fully the one God, but is also distinct. Now that we know the doctrine of the trinity and its corresponding major heresies, now we are ready to look at some bad analogies for the trinity. The unseen Father is in Christs mind. You can also catch up with me on Facebook, Pinterest, and TikTok THE TRUTH IS: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not simply names designating modalities of the divine being, for they are really DISTINCT from one another: He is not the Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he who is the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit he who is the Father or the Son. (CCC 254), 3. In scripture we see explicit trinitarian references, especially at Jesus' baptism where the Father speaks, the Spirit descends, and the Son is in the water. The beautiful depth of Gods eternal Triune nature is a sublime reality which should bring an end to our attempts to cognitively master Him. He cares for his creation and his people. Some who deny the Trinity claim 1+1+1=3, and therefore claim we worship three Gods. Modernizations of this analogy include that of an apple (with the peel, the flesh, and the core) or an egg (with its shell, yoke, and white). This is not an exhaustive list: For further reading on the Trinity, I would recommend James Whites The Forgotten Trinity, Wayne Grudems Systematic Theology and online articles by CARM.org. The Trinity is not 1 + 1 + 1 but more like 1 x 1 x 1. Afterall, we can get rid of a few of its parts - for instance the shell - and still scramble an egg. There would be three thrones. But Jesus makes it clear in John 10:30- I and the Father are One. The Greek word for one means one thing, not one person. They are united in their essence (spirit, nature) but not identical persons. The word God in this sense is defined as a single being, having all divine attributes. We have the creeds for just that reason. Dont you know Jesus? That is why Moses said. Armstrong. This is why Jesus said, He who has seen Me, has seen the Father (John 14:9). But its all the same person, operating in three roles or functions. Lord of all, we bow before thee. Now, as youve probably guessed, this analogy also breaks down. Jesus Person is the image of Gods Person (Hebrews 1:3), and the Invisible Spirit of the Father that is in Him - God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself (II Corinthians 5:19). Each PERSON is distinct from one another. The Unseen Father is in Christs mind. The term Economic refers to the roles, functions, and relationships that exist within the Trinity. But while this idea is central to the Christian faith, it is also incredibly mysterious to us. God is like H2Olike water. 3 - The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct persons. This error denies something central to God that makes Him God. Every kid in Sunday school thinks he knows all about God. We wont find the word Trinity in the Bible, but the concept is shown in many verses. All Rights Reserved. Each one is fully 100% God. You can throw away one part of an egg (e.g., shell) and still have essentially an egg. If all you had were an eggshell, you wouldnt have a very exciting breakfast. Born in England in 1961, Benjamin Waterhouse Benjamin Waterhouse has been the organist of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity since 2000. For the Trinity, instead of using the formula 1+1+1, we use 1x1x1. Located in the heart of Quebec's historic district, it is a source of inspiration for visitors from around the world. Analogies for the Trinity exist to explain the unexplainable. Who is God? Now God can be in you by His Spirit! In some ways, it resembles the tritheism view (Misunderstanding 2). What happens when an egg hatches? Jesus Person is joined to the Father by the Fathers Holy Spirit, because Gods Spirit is also Jesus Spirit - "But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in you. Let's use an egg to explain the Holy Trinity! He has the world and our individual lives within His supremely capable hands. The white of an egg is the connection between the yolk and the shell. God is Great, I always try to figure out how to explain it to my Sunday school kids and they get confused which i get, how would you explain it to them? . Christians believe, then, that only one God exists but this God exists as a unity of three persons: a Trinity. It is the Fathers desire to join His Spirit with all of us as well for He has said They shall be My sons and daughters (II Corinthians 6:18). This little child cannot look at one without experiencing a profound sense of wonderment and awe. Our limited intellects are unable to comprehend its reality, yet, our Scriptures and scholarly Tradition makes it known to us. Arianism is named after the heretic Arius. The Biblical Principle Of Baptism By Fire, The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything, 3 Reasons Why Jesus Humanity Really Matters Her & Hymn, 3 Reasons Why Jesus' Humanity Really Matters, How Jesus Teaches Us To Be Human Her & Hymn. The Holy Spirit is like the heat that the sun produces, unseen yet powerful and effective in making the sun felt. And when the time comes when death is allowed to crack your shell in its final hour and your believing soul is released; the Spirit of God that holds you will carry you in His arms to your heavenly home because In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. Studying the Trinity poses difficulty to us Catholics. Despite its potential obscurity, Trinity Sunday is a great occasion for me to revisit an old article on the Trinity. But in the Godhead, each Person is fully and completely God unto Himself (even as they are all one God). In one egg you have the white, the yoke, and the shell composing one full egg. In Jesus dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9) In contrast to the Ontological Trinity, there is the Economic Trinity. The Council's definitions concerning the Trinity are really as easy as one, two, three four. Others compare God to an egg, which is part shell, part white, part yolk. But common sense is intuition based on day-to-day experience. The egg example, while not perfect or complete by any means, will still give us a basic understanding of the primary principle of Biblical Trinitarianism. FOR CENTURIES, the Church had fought against heresies on the Trinity. Trinity Egg Analogy . I dont believe that God wishes us to be confused about the Three that are so apparent throughout the Old and New Testaments. If God has existed for all eternity in a perfectly loving Triune relationship, then it shows He is completely self-sufficient and requires no further relationship in order to complete or satisfy Himself. A chicken egg consists of a shell, a yolk, and an egg white, yet it is altogether one egg. In other words, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have a unique and unbreakable unity, and their existence together is the being that is God. Analogies of the Trinity. So under modalism, God acts as the Father in the Old Testament, the son in the Gospels, and the Spirit in Acts and the Epistles. Deuteronomy 6:4- Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. This verse is also the beginning of the Jewish Shema prayer; their confession of faith. Some have used examples such as water, watermelons and eggs; the principle behind those illustrations is that even though each thing is one, it is also three. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength (1 Corinthians 1:25). The Holy Spirit and Son do not send the Father. 6And there are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons., , The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all., There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. It does not represent 3 persons existing simultaneously. In other words, this view denies Gods oneness. But we cannot do that (assuming we can) with God. The teaching of the trinity is clearly taught in Scripture and must be preserved as such. The word Trinity comes from the Latin word trinitas which means tri-unity. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQLfgaUoQCw. He has been relationally fulfilled within Himself since forever. Here are 8 Bible Characters Who Should Be More Famous. I think the analogy of the Sun works well. The Holy Trinity: Egg Analogy The Holy Trinity is GOD in three divine persons GOD the FATHER GOD the HOLY SPIRIT GOD the SON But together they makeup and are still ONE GOD Like how an egg is made up of three things but is still ONE EGG. The trinity is a like a Three-Leaf Clover. It is a miraculous invention, the egg. Similarly, in our aquatic analogy, water can appear in three different modes, depending on the environment, but the three are not co-existing. All three persons exist at the same moment in history. The word Trinity comes from the Latin word trinitas which means tri-unity. However, it breaks down on the level of equality: No one keeps or eats the shell of an egg. Each part of the egg make up only one portion of the wholethe yolk is not the fullness of the egg. Love your blogs! RELATED: What Does The Bible Say About Ghosts? The scientific analogy that will be provided in a few moments is truly inadequate to describe the Holy Trinity. Each one is fully 100% God. The Egg Analogy - This claims to be a good representation of the Trinity because Eggs have three distinct parts: the shell, the yolk, and the whites. Your email address will not be published. Unfortunately, Arianism is still around and can found within the Jehovah's Witnesses teachings. Furthermore, this trinity is related to a shamrock, an apple, or an egg. The three distinct notes come together to make one beautiful sound. Thus, the Father Himself is not God, nor is the Son, nor is the Holy Spirit, but combining the three, there is one God. 2 - The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are each God. Devils cannot grab ahold of them to cast them into Satans prison. God has revealed some mysteries from the Old Testament in the New Testament (the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the coming of the Messiah, salvation by grace through faith, etc.) They say that three separate beings exist, 2. But they are one God. To return to my Life Group anecdote, after our discussion I asked why does it even matter?. But you cannot be broken when your faith is in Jesus, for the Spirit of the Son that lives in us and gives us the voice through which we cry Abba, Father, (Galatians 4:6,) this Spirit of the Father that dwells within you is there to strengthen, protect and guard your person. Understanding 1 Corinthians 14:34-35. Water Analogy - God is like water, or H2O, which can exist in 3 forms. 1B) This son of Graham and Lois Armstrong is Dave. Thought of Tim Its amazing to think that everything will be so clear when we het to Heaven! In one of his sermons, he wrestled with the passage in Scripture recounting Jesus' Baptism. Light comes from God. John introduces us to the Trinity in John 1:1- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and Word was God. Jesus, the Word, was present in Genesis 1. Jesus then becomes a created being and thus less than fully God. There is what is called the 'triple point' the combination of pressure and temperature at which H2O can exist simultaneously in all three states: solid, liquid and gas. God is much bigger than what we can understand yet He is close enough to us so that we can know some things about Him, though not completely and not everything. The Egg- One egg has three parts: shell, whites, and yolk . You are an egg! HO may act as water, steam, or ice, but it is still HO. Likewise we cannot have the Father or His Spirit without the Son I am the Way the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except by Me- John 14:6. Now God can be in you by His Spirit! What does that really mean? What is wrong with what I said? Revelation 4:3 And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. That would not be had God be three persons. As a result the water molecule must change forms. . That is a holding pen for final judgment. We find it in all four Gospels. Modalism denies the distinction of person in the trinity. Like modalism, the "three beings" view was rejected by the early church. His ways are not my ways! The Father sends the Son, and both the Father and Son send the Holy Spirit. This little child cannot look at one without experiencing a profound sense of wonderment and awe. My name is AnnMarie and I'm so glad you're here! God is NOT like H2O in that He does not need the right pressure and temperature to exist as three persons. If one of the persons were not there, then we would not have God. This is the Christmas paradox. Water Analogy God is like water, or H2O, which can exist in 3 forms. In humans, our spirits are designed to operate with and be united to the soul which is the person of anyone and so it is with our Egg. In reality, I change my role depending on who I am interacting with. This may be my favorite verse of them all. He wondered how it was possible that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit could be inseparable, while, in . These images fall short, because these components arent enough to be considered a whole on their own. Arianism denies the deity of each person in the trinity. Analogies often fall short. However, keep in mind that the one being. God created us for community, since God is communal and we were created in His image. When we separate them and view them as individual deities, that is the error of tritheism, which is the worship of three individual gods as one. Its downright hard to understand. Further, we can label each of the sides. See the depths of Catholicism for yourself! Jesus was standing in the Jordan River, His Father speaks from heaven above, and the Holy Spirit descends upon Him as a dove. The past is not the present and the present is not the future, yet all three together is what we call time. So, I shot down a lot of images that seems to be pretty helpful. It only has 1 person acting in three different roles. I do not have the time or space to exhaustively demonstrate in scripture these truths, but the Biblical witness teaches these three truths consistently about God. THE TRUTH IS: The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three different parts or components of God, but the . Basic mathematics tells us that 1x1x1 = 1.. In trying to describe what they saw in the pages of the Bible, the early church decided to use the word person to describe the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 5And there are varieties of ministries and the same Lord. Is He Jesus side-kick? Perhaps youve heard the analogy that the Trinity is like H2O (the molecular symbol for water). What we can understand and accept is that God exists eternally as one divine nature, substance, or essence, comprising three co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial personsthe Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The more I reflect on Easter, the more Ive realized how much its become a consumeristic holidayeven Did Jesus really rise from the dead?