Stories of a God who is Three in One

— God’s character revealed through stories — Andrew Fountain: July 7, 2013

tylenol

Image source: Wired

• People make a big deal with the ‘Trinity” but actually we deal with things like this all the time.
  • We are happy to interact with things we don’t understand
  • headache? take a tylenol —do you need to understand it?

“Cell phone”

Image source: Rama

Law

Image source: trulaw

• There is one legal system—you have either broken the law or you haven’t
  • O.J. Simpson —did he break the law?
  • one law, but criminal & civil (contract, property etc.)

“Abigail & Brittany”

Image source: eatnineghost

• Abby and Brittany Hensel from Minnesota
  • conjoined 22-year-old twins now have their own reality TV series
  • Is this one person or two?
  • Both heads went to university and graduated with a teaching degree
  • But for her teaching job, she is counted as one teacher

www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/abby-brittany-hensel-conjoined-22-year-old-twins-reality-tv-series-article-1.1132466 nydailynews

“Abigail & Brittany 2”

Image source: eatnineghost

Read more: www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/abby-brittany-hensel-conjoined-22-year-old-twins-reality-tv-series-article-1.1132466#ixzz2YTjZcnuy

• What is the first sentence in the Bible?

• Hebrew makes things plural by adding îm to the end
  • Tom is one Tom Tomîm is many.

• Right from the very first recorded events, we see that things are not totally simple
• Main statement of Monotheism:

• There is a word yachid which can be used if you want to say “only one”
  • “Now she was Jephthah’s one and only yachid child; besides her he had no son or daughter.” Judges 11:34

Psalm 45

2. You are the most handsome of all men!
         You speak in an impressive and fitting manner!
               For this reason God has blessed you forever.
3. Strap your sword to your thigh, O mighty one!
         Appear in your majestic splendor!
4. Appear in your majesty and be victorious!
         Ride forth for the sake of what is right,
               on behalf of justice!
         Then your right hand will accomplish mighty acts!
5. Your arrows are sharp
         and penetrate the hearts of the king’s enemies.
         Nations fall at your feet.
6. Your throne, O God, is permanent.
         The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of justice.
7. You love justice and hate evil.
         For this reason God, your God has anointed you

Version: NET

2. God begins to show his complexity

• God is Spirit
• But actually we learn that this is the Father, God can appear as a man:

Genesis 18:2–19:1

1. And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day.
2. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth
   …
22. So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord.
23. Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
33. And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.
1. The two angels came to Sodom in the evening,

Version: NET

2. Full revelation caomes in the New Testament

NT Trinity Scriptures

Matthew 28

18. Then Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20. teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

John 1

1. In the beginning was the Word [Jesus], and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God.
2. The Word was with God in the beginning.
3. All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created.
   …
16. For we have all received from his fullness one gracious gift after another.
17. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ.
18. No one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God, who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made God known.

John 14

6. Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
7. If you have known me, you will know my Father too. And from now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8. Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be content.”
9. Jesus replied, “Have I been with you for so long, and you have not known me, Philip? The person who has seen me has seen the Father! How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
10. Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father residing in me performs his miraculous deeds.
11. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, but if you do not believe me, believe because of the miraculous deeds themselves.
12. I tell you the solemn truth, the person who believes in me will perform the miraculous deeds that I am doing, and will perform greater deeds than these, because I am going to the Father.
13. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
15. “If you love me, you will obey my commandments.
16. Then I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever —
17. the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it does not see him or know him. But you know him, because he resides with you and will be in you.

2 Cor 13

13.The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Version: NET

“Trinity”

Image source: amf

• Errors:
  • modalism
  • three gods
  • subservience
• Most analogies are not helpful
• importance
  • death of Jesus no help otherwise
  • community
  • the very nature of God
  • the hug

Updated on 2013-07-08 by Andrew Fountain