How I Explain the Trinity

Mr Holdsworth explains the Holy Trinity.

His introduction:

People struggle with this idea of the Trinity because we can’t quite seem to make sense of the math. The doctrine tells us that there are three persons in One God. How does that make sense? Well, part of me wants to answer that question by saying that it doesn’t make sense… at least in the sense that, we can’t make sense of it. Sense… sense. You know when you say a word too many times and then all of a sudden it’s starts to sound weird to you. The first thing I would want to say about the Trinity is that this isn’t something that Christians figured out. The Trinity, according to Christianity, is how God has revealed himself to us. Prior to that knowledge, he revealed himself to the Jewish people as I am. What I love about both of these concepts is how puzzling they are. They aren’t the kind of thing that a person would make up. If we were going to come up with an image for God, it would be something more like a Greek god. In Judaism and Christianity, we seem to encounter something or someone that is unexpected and the unexpected is exactly what we should come to expect if we were to encounter God. When we think about God, we need to be vigilant in reminding ourselves that God, by definition, is infinitely more advanced than any concept that we could fit into our capacity for reason. In other words, we’re not smart enough to make sense of God. Therefore, God is a mystery and that makes perfect sense. The Trinity is one of those few descriptions of God that conveys that same sense of mystery. Some people look at that Trinity and say, that’s a contradiction. You can’t have three persons in one God. My answer to that is, how do you know that? Are you so sure that you have such a complete understanding of what defines the scope of a person so that you can definitively say three cannot share the same essential divine substance while also being distinct as persons? I wouldn’t be so bold to make that claim especially baring in mind that we’re dealing with a God who has unlimited power. Are you saying that he couldn’t make that work? The other reason I think the Trinity is such a compelling portrait of God is because Christians, and even non Christians, are so fond of repeating the phrase that God is love. Now, I’m not totally sure if I know what most people mean by love, but for Christians, Love means an outward disposition that aims to achieve the good of another. It means that no matter who you are or what you’ve done, I want the best for you and if I can, I’ll do my part to realize it for you. So, love, in this sense is always focused on someone else. When we say God is love, we’re not saying that God has love or the potential to love, but that he IS love. His energy and activity are constantly pouring out from himself towards others in the pursuit of their wellbeing. If we want to believe that God is Love, then we’re left with a big question. Before God created the Universe and the creatures that inhabit it, how could it have been possible to say that God is Love? How was this dynamic energy given and received unless there was a multiplicity of persons to exchange it? The Trinity portrays this exact eternal exchange of love. The Father begets the Son and loves him. The son reciprocates that love and their Love is expressed in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. The Trinity, to my knowledge, is the only option out there that offers a satisfying glimpse of a God who is Love.