Murals (2008) by PHANTAST - Graffiti - Cultural Music & Art Association inc. - 98 Milne St. Benleigh
IS BELIEF IN THE TRINITY BELIEF IN THREE GODS?
One of the most misunderstood ideas in the Bible concerns the teaching about the Trinity. Although Christians say that they believe in one God, they are constantly accused of polytheism (worshipping more than one God).
ONE GOD/ THREE PERSONS. The Scriptures do not teach that there are three Gods; neither do they teach that God wears three different masks while acting out the drama of history. What the Bible does teach is stated in the doctrine of the Trinity: There is one God who has revealed Himself in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and these three persons are the one God.
Although this is difficult to comprehend, it is nevertheless what the Bible tells us, and this is the closest the finite mind can come to explaining the infinite mystery of the infinite God. The doctrine of the Trinity in not "irrational"; what is irrational is to suppress the biblical evidence for trinity in favor of unity, or the evidence for unity in favor of trinity.
A close analogy to the theologian's procedure lies in the work of the theoretical physicist: Subatomic entities are found, on examination, to possess wave properties (W), particle properties (P), and quantum properties(h). Though these characteristics are in many respects incompatible (particles don't diffract, waves do, etc.) physicists "explain" or "model" an electron as PWh. They have to do this in order to give proper weight to all the relevant data.
The theologian speaks of God as " three in one". Neither the scientist nor the theologian expect you to get a "picture" by way of his model; the purpose of the model is to help you to take into account all of the facts, instead of perverting reality through super-imposing an apparent " consistency" on it. (Josh McDowell)