The Doctrine of the Trinity

Christian goes to a Christian youth group, believes in God and the Bible. His friends are called Pierre, Charles and Sarah. Pierre was a boxer, but is now Muslim. Charles is with Jehovah's Witnesses and distributes their magazine now and then. Sarah likes to play football and is Jewish. All three of them believe in God somehow, but still they argue about it from time to time.

One day at Starbucks the Trinity of the Christian God comes up. Christian tries to explain that there is only one God and Christians believe that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are together this God. Pierre says: "So you actually believe in three gods" and Christian replies: "No, we believe in one God". Perplexity spreads. Pierre, Charles and Sarah only understand each other at first sight, and it is not easy to understand either, so Christian takes a pencil and continues to explain.

Let us return to the element of water for an easier understanding. Water consists of the molecule H2O and appears to us in three completely different forms, as liquid water, as ice and as aqueous vapour. The three are not interchangeable or identical, but they are all H2O! Water is H2O, ice is H2O and aqueous vapour is H2O, just as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are three manifestations of the same God. All three are God, but still they are not interchangeable or identical.

Now Charles takes the floor and says, "That's a nice picture, only it's not in the Bible anywhere". Sarah says that nowhere in the Bible did she find the expression "Trinity". Fortunately Christian has informed himself and answers: "You are right Sarah, the term Trinity, Trinity or the Three-Person-God is actually nowhere to be found in the Bible, but the term has prevailed because it expresses, reduced to one word, what the Bible says about God's being."

Surprisingly, in the original text of the Jewish Torah, the term "God" is in most places a plural noun, i.e. a noun in plural. The word for God is called "Elohym", occurs 2600 times and would be correctly translated as "gods" and not "God". Nevertheless this Elohym always speaks of itself in singular.

So in Exodus 3:14, this Elohym spoke to Moses from the burning bush, not "We are who we are," but "I am who I am." In summary, this means that both the singular and the plural apply to God.

You still don't believe it? Also in Genesis 18:1 God meets Abraham in the form of three persons. But Abraham does not address these three persons as "lords," but as "master," that is, in singular. Also in Genesis 6:4, the famous key sentence of the Jewish faith, the Shma, we read: "Hear Israel, the Eternal is our God, the Eternal is unique. "This phrase, correctly translated, would mean, 'Hear Israel, the Eternal is our God, the Eternal is One. "Therefore Trinity!

Charles, however, knows a little about it, since the Jehovah's Witnesses are against the concept of the Trinity, he says: "Could it not also be that he speaks of himself in plural like a king?" Christian replies: "This is indeed the best explanation of the Trinity opponents and is called pluralis majestatis, the royal plural. It means that God speaks of Himself as a plural king.

Let's explain that a bit more. Since kings at that time usually spoke not only for themselves but for their entire court and country, one said, for example, "your highness" and they themselves spoke of themselves in plural, such as "We, King of England, have decided." That sounds plausible, but the earlier Hebrews were not at all familiar with the royal plural. This way of speaking was only later developed by the Greeks and adopted by the Romans. In the Bible, all kings are always addressed in the singular.

Charles, Pierre and Sarah now understand Christian a little better and order another coffee, knowing that it is only a matter of time before the friends take up another topic and learn something new about each other's faith.