Does the Trinity Doctrine Make Sense?

I didn’t think so when I first seriously considered it, having grown up in a non-trinitarian, psuedo-Christian church. I believed the idea of a “Trinity” was nonsense. “Three-in-one,” “Persons,” “Beings,” “hypostases”—to me it all sounded like a bunch of doublespeak (or rather, triplespeak).

Many of my anti-trinitarian church leaders claimed the Bible clearly taught against the idea of God as three-in-one. Their argument often took the form of questions, such as, “When Jesus prayed in the Garden, was He praying to Himself?”; “Did God forsake Himself on the Cross?”; “Was the Father greater than Himself?”; and others, to show that the Father and the Son, for example, were not one and the same.

Little did they know that these same questions have long been Catholic arguments against a false concept of God called Modalism, which is incompatible with the doctrine of the Trinity. I have since become Catholic, and have embraced the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, realizing that most arguments against the Trinity are straw man arguments.

Here, rather than address these false arguments against it, I want to clarify the three-in-one aspect of the Trinity.

Now I know many people claim to have a near-perfect analogy that unlocks this mystery. But God is not well described as water in the forms of liquid, gas, and solid. Neither is God better understood as a shamrock with three parts, or a man as father, husband, and son. Analogies such as these can be helpful to a limited extent, but they too readily lead to false ideas.

I don’t have an easy analogy that perfectly correlates to the Trinity, but I do want to explain it as simply and accurately as I can, which should take the edge off of some of the mystery of God’s triune nature. Or at least put words to it, making that mystery more acceptable.

First, however, consider some concepts we all believe in and speak about but don’t fully understand, such as infinity and eternity. Two plus two is four, but what is infinity plus two? There is no adequate answer, because by its nature infinity cannot be added to, subtracted from, multiplied, or divided, yet we know what we mean by “infinity.”

In geometry textbooks, a line shown with arrows on each end indicates it goes in both directions without end, forever. Now try to visualize the full line by scrolling out with the mouse wheel of your mind so you can capture its entirety in your imagination. Be careful—your brain might explode.

Just as we can speak of “infinity” without being accused of speaking nonsense, we can speak of the Trinity in sensible terms, even if we can’t quite wrap our minds around it. Thus, it is a doctrine you can truly apprehend, but not fully comprehend.

Simply put, the doctrine of the Trinity states there is only one Being that is God, and that one Being consists of three Persons. Now to be clear, we must define our terms.

A being is something that exists. A paper clip exists, and therefore it has being. It answers the question of what something is. It is a paper clip. Any problems so far? Good.

A person can speak of oneself as “I” or “me” or “my.” For example, “I like chocolate”; “Peanut butter makes me happy”; “My abs are tight and hard.” It answers the question of who: Who likes chocolate, whom does peanut butter make happy, and who is telling a lie? A person is capable of having relationship with others—other whos.

Now think about a paper clip. Is it a being? Yes, it has being because it exists. Is it a person? No, it does not have personhood because it is not a who: it cannot rightly speak of itself in terms of personal identity and cannot have interactive relationships with other persons. We could say a paper clip has one “what” but no “who.” It is a paper clip but not a person.

This time, think about yourself. Are you a being? Yes, you exist as a human—a human being. One might describe what you are as “electric meat.” Now, are you a person? Yes, because you can rightly think of yourself as “I,” as one who knows and loves and relates to other persons. Not only are you a “what,” you are a “who.”

God, on the other hand, unique among all that exists, is one “what” and three “whos.” That’s the best short form of the trinitarian doctrine I know. That’s what it boils down to. Remember it, and say it aloud to yourself right now: GOD IS ONE WHAT AND THREE WHOs.

The hard thing to understand—the mystery—is how one “what” can consist of three “whos,” because in our experience, we never see more than one person sharing a being. Everywhere we look there is a one-person, one-being ratio: there’s no more than one person per being.

There are sound philosophical explanations for why and how God can be three Persons in one Being, but it also fits the biblical model. Throughout the Bible, God is portrayed as one. There is only one God, not two or three or eleven or a thousand. Polytheism, the belief in more than one God, is a pagan concept.

There can only be one Uncaused Cause, only one Uncreated Creator, only one infinite Being. The Bible speaks of the Father as God, but it also speaks of Jesus the Son as God. But Jesus is not a cooperating God who (lucky for us) agrees to team up with another God over there (the Father) to be the ultimate cosmic Dynamic Duo, who, together, are a formidable pair in their quest to rule all that is visible and invisible with love and goodness and righteousness.

No, Jesus is not a God alongside the Father; rather, He is God with the Father. They share the entirety of “Godness” with each other from eternity. Each is the one God “Being” that is self-existing and without beginning or end.

The Holy Spirit is in the same category.

The Bible speaks of the Spirit not just as an energy, a power, or a manner of speaking to describe the presence or activity of God. The Holy Spirit is presented as God, with personal attributes just like the Father and the Son. The Spirit speaks, hears, intercedes, teaches, sanctifies, and encourages.

The Holy Spirit is not the same Person as the Son, who is not the same Person as the Father, but all three are the same Being. One Being but three distinct Persons. That is to say, one What and three Whos.

The exciting news for us, the good news—the Gospel—is that if we remain faithful to love God in this life, we will live in the family of God, relating in perfect love with all our fellow who in Christ, for the rest of the next. And it will last for eternity, which is like a line with an arrow on one end. Like the Trinity, it’s not something we can fully grasp, but it does make sense.