How God is Both One and Three at the Same Time [Animated Explainer]

So I have a question that has always

both

ered me. The Bible says there is one God. But in other parts of the Bible God is

three

: Father, Son and Spirit. How can it be

both

? Yes, this is a question that has baffled people for thousands of years. And although we can't fully explain it, I think we can better understand what it is that we can't fully understand. What do you mean? Well, think about it this way: here is a two-dimensional plane. And then here is an object with

three

dimensions, which will move across the 2D plane.

OK that's fine! From this perspective, the 3D object is above and below the plane. Now this makes sense, but imagine you are a 2D person, trapped in the 2D plane. What would you see? I don't know... what would I see? Well, it seems so! Oh! Yes, Ok. From this perspective it seems impossible: it is one object, then two objects, then three! But in reality they are all one, just not in the way you are able to understand. Now, let's take all of this as a visual analogy of how we experience God. The Bible's claim is that God is transcendent.

A divine being through which we live, move and exist, or as God says "I AM". Ok, but I live here in this universe, so when God shows up, he will make sense in some ways, but in others he will break my categories. Exactly! This happens all the

time

when people encounter the God of the Bible. So let's first look at how this happens in the Hebrew Scriptures. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, God appears in complicated ways that don't quite fit into our categories. A common way this happens is with the attributes of God. So an attribute is a way of describing what something is like.

For example, a soccer ball is round. Good! Or God is wise. Yes cool! Let's take the wisdom of God. So the Book of Proverbs says that God created the world with his wisdom. But there are also poems in the Book of Proverbs that describe the wisdom of God as a person, a collaborator through whom God built the universe. So do the attributes of God become a separate character? Yeah! This is also true of the glory of God, which some

time

s appears as a human figure on a throne engulfed in fire. Or let's take God's word, that He can speak to people, but sometimes his word appears as a person.

Wait! So the attributes of God became new little gods? No no! Biblical writers believe that there is only one almighty God. But they comfortably talk about them as different characters. Yeah! This is part of the way the Bible writers portray the complex identity of the one God. They are attributes of God and also distinct from God. Different from God and also from God? Yeah! Once we learn to see that way of talking about the identity of God, you begin to see it throughout the Scriptures. In fact, you find it in the first sentences of the Bible that mention the Spirit of God.

So the first line of the Bible is pretty well known. "In the beginning God created..." But then read on. Who do we see floating on the waters of creation? The Spirit of God! Yeah! So, spirit refers to God's personal presence and energy that we can interact with here within creation. And that is why the Bible can refer to the Spirit of God as different from God. Different from God and also from God. It is the Spirit of God. And although it may sound strange from our point of view, this complexity is what the biblical writers are trying to show us.

So, we look at the attributes of God and the Spirit of God. Now, let's make our final stop to explore the complex identity of God in the Hebrew Scriptures, with a character called the "Son of Man." So, in the Bible there is only one God that people should worship. Which makes this story from the book of Daniel truly amazing. Daniel dreams of a human figure, called the Son of Man, which means member of humanity. And Daniel dreams of this man being lifted up on a cloud, up, and then higher, Up in God's space, Yes, and then this man sits at the right hand of God's heavenly throne, And all mankind worships this man together with God. .

A man, where do I expect to see God? Yeah! This person is part of the identity of God. This vision is about the culminating hope of all biblical history. God and humanity become one so they can rule the world together as one. So is the Son of Man distinct from God, and also from God? Exactly! So, think about everything we saw. In the Hebrew Scriptures, the identity of God is complex. So when the followers of Jesus knew God as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, they already had categories of how they could all be the One God of the Bible.

Well, let's talk about it. Very well, in the New Testament we are presented with Jesus of Nazareth, and He is human, but much more. His favorite title to call himself was "Son of Man." The figure in Daniel's vision? And the claim is that He is this complex God who becomes man, to unite other people with God. Okay, so the Gospels portray Jesus as fully human. And also like YHWH, the God of Israel. Jesus was saying and doing things that only YHWH can do, like: forgiving people's sins, or calming chaotic waters... So, they say that Jesus is a man, different from God, and also God.

Yeah! And it may seem crazy, unless you've read the Hebrew Scriptures, which prepared you for it. And then look at this: Jesus' first followers, the Apostles, spoke about his identity using the language of God's attributes. They called Jesus the “Glory of God.” Or the apostle Paul called Jesus: "The Wisdom of God." Or John opens the Gospel of him and calls Jesus the "Word of God, by whom the world was created," and then says: "The Word was with God and was God." Ok, I understand what they are doing and my brain hurts. Of course, and if you want to make your brain spin even more, consider this: Jesus, who is portrayed as God who became man, will speak to God as a different person.

And when he did, he called him "Father." When Jesus spoke of God, he was not referring to an abstract force or energy, but rather a personal being with whom you can identify. There are many personal images of God in the Bible: ruler, creator, judge... But Jesus constantly refers to God as "My Father." Jesus experienced God as a source of infinite love. He said, "The Father loved me before the creation of the world." Jesus apparently knew the Father as an eternal, life-giving, other-centered being. Good! Like in the story of Jesus' baptism, when the Father in heaven says, "This is my beloved Son." And then he continues reading, In that story the person who brings that message of love from the Father to the Son is the Spirit of God.

So, we talk about the spirit of God. Here, within creation, it is through Spirit that we interact with the divine. Yeah! And the

same

thing happened with Jesus. Through the Spirit he experienced the love of the Father. But it did not stop there. Jesus promised that the Spirit would go forth through Him and share the Father's love with all humanity and all creation. So it may seem like these three are different gods, but somehow (which transcends my view of reality) they are also one. Good! This is what Jesus' followers later called "The Trinity." The Father, the Son and the Spirit are the only God of the Bible.

I can see how they got there. But this is not just a philosophical enigma. To describe God as a Trinity is to affirm that the universe is held together by an eternal communion of love. Which is something I really can't understand. But the God of the Bible is not a being you understand. The point is to know and be known by this God, so that we can participate in the love of him.