The Trinity is something that I’ve always been confused about. When I first became a Christian the way I understood it was that God used three different methods to communicate with us. Through an all seeing, all knowing Father, the Word become flesh as the Son, and indwelling in us as the Holy Spirit.
However, after growing in faith and knowledge of God I found problems inherent in this view. For one, there were several instances where Jesus prays to the Father. Matthew 26:39, Matthew 26:42, Matthew 26:44, Mark 1:35, Mark 6:46, Mark 14:35, Mark 14:39, Mark 15:34, Luke 3:21, Luke 5:16, Luke 6:12, Luke 9:18, Luke 9:29, Luke 22:32, Luke 22:44, Why would God need to pray to himself?
At first I dismissed these conflicts as a simple demonstration of God showing us how to pray, but after careful study I understand that Jesus, was communicating with the Father. Another nail in the coffin of this belief is when Jesus is on the cross “At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”” Mark 15:34.
This led me to the question of is Jesus divine in nature? I began to question the Godhood of Jesus, but it became quickly apparent that Jesus is a divine being. Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:22-23, Mark 14:61-62, Matthew 3:17, Luke 22:70, John 1:1-34. These are only some examples, the New and Old Testaments are filled with others. The most compelling, though is when you take a look at Exodus 3:13-14 and John 8:58. I didn’t really know what to think for years, and simply accepted that Jesus is God, the Father is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and they’re the same singular God, but they aren’t interchangeable. It was concept that I really couldn’t wrap my head around.
Then, years later, the church I was going to had a guest speaker. His topic was the creation, but he did make one reference to the Trinity that really influenced my beliefs for a long time afterwards. He taught that man was created in the image of God, and not just the physical, but the mental and spiritual as well. Genesis 1:27. While we cannot match the creativity of God, we can make works of art and invent new technologies. We also have a spirit which allows us to relate to the spiritual world. He likened these three things to the Trinity. The Father: the mind of God, The Son: the flesh of God or rather the part the touches the physical world. The Holy Spirit: the Spirit of God. The Trinity as I understand it today is that each person of the Trinity is a different part of God. Each part of the Trinity can act independently of the other parts, but is still a part of a God. Isaiah 48:16.
Arise 