A/N - For some reason, my original post is gone, so I rewrote this article. Also, I feel like this one was better written and has more content. So I'm kind of glad in a weird way? Thanks for reading.

What is the Trinity?

I feel like before we can get into the more complex ideas about the Trinity and questions around it, I need to define what it is. The Trinity is a word created to explain the nature of who God is. It is the idea that God is ultimately one essence and, but Who has three persons. This is explained as one being, or creature, for example, I am a human being. I am one human. God is one God. But unlike us, God has three persons.

Do you believe in three gods then? and Didn't Jesus teach monotheism?

No true Christian believes that there are three separate gods. Any Christian who does believe this, is against what the Bible teaches. Trinitarianism IS monotheism. It is the idea that ONE God has three forms of communicating with us, NOT that there are three gods. To say that the Trinity isn't monotheism means that the person does not fully understand the Trinity.

Is this the same as the Hindus believing there is one god with lots of forms?

It's very different for three main reasons. First, Hinduism teaches God is a force we need to become one with, not  a person we have a relationship with. Second, Hinduism has its gods interact in a very similar way to humans. They kill, marry, fight, hate, and love each other. This is very different then the idea in the Trinity where God ALWAYS agrees with Himself and teaches the same ideas consistently. Third, the Hindu gods are not gods in the same way the Christian one is. The gods of Hinduism are merely like exacted humans, filled with faults and tainted by sin. Rather than being an ultimate all loving, personal Creator who rules over all, they are almost like a higher evolved form of humans that just happened to create the world. The Bible never presents the Trinity like this.

But doesn't the word Trinity not show up in the Bible?

It doesn't, but why does this matter? For example, if for some strange reason, a person never used the word "mother" and she said, "I am the woman who gave birth to you." She is still your mother. Just because she did not use that specific word does not mean she is not your mother or that the birth process does not exist. The Trinity exists in the Bible, so just because that word is not in there does not mean it does not exist.

1 John 5:7 - For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

Is Mary, the mother of Jesus, a part of the Trinity?

No. Mary is not a part of the Trinity, neither is she looked at as a goddess. The Bible greatly condemns any hinting of this idea. Anyone who does believe this is a heretic. This is a common belief merely because the Quran words Mary as being a type of god. While she is definitely given much more reverence than she should in Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity, she has never been a part of the Trinity, and most Christians reject the ideas of reverencing her.

Luke 11:27-28 - And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.

Wasn't the idea of the Trinity invented in the 300's AD?

That is a misconception or even lie many people from non-Christian religions teach, but it is very far from the truth. This misconception comes because a formal meeting that decided core Christian doctrines was finally allowed in the 300s AD. This did not happen before because Christianity was illegal, and Christians were murdered. The beliefs existed, but "official" doctrines were written in the Word of God and hearts of men instead of on documents because the religion was illegal.

Besides being referenced in the Bible, which existed long before 300 AD, the Trinity is also referenced in the 200's by Origen, Hippolytus of Rome, Tertullian and Novatian, and in the 100's AD it was referenced by Theopholis of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, Didache, and Ignatius of Antioch, the latter who died in 110 AD and may have written it before even 100 AD.

So those who say the Trinity idea and even the word were invented in the 300's are ignorant of church history and writing or have an extremely simplistic idea of it.

How can you believe something that makes no sense?

I know this question isn't meant rudely, but it kind of is a little. First of all, just because it does not make sense to you does not mean it does not make sense to me. Secondly, there are so many things about God that can not be just be boiled down to pure logic. Logically explain HOW God performs miracles other than He just can. Explain how God created the world in six days with pure logic without saying God is God and can do anything. Explain how God knows everything in a logical manner unless it's just that He can do anything. I can't know everything at once, so how can God. Since I can't do it it must not be true! See how silly that sounds? Sometimes there are things about God that God can just do because God is omnipotent (all-powerful). He can do anything. To say God can't do this because it is illogical is limiting God and putting human reason above God's explanation.

Isaiah 55:8-9 - For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Can the Trinity be explained?

As we saw before, yes, it can be explained as to what it is. God is one with three persons on earth. When we say this, we do not mean God has three personalities or different beings as much as that God has three forms that always agree in everything and think the same about everything.

Other than this, the Trinity can be compared to things, but usually people take these things out of context. The easiest one to compare to is the human being. The Bible teaches we are made in the image of God, meaning we have a similar structure to God. Interestingly, like God, we have three forms as well, though not persons. We have a physical form - the body. A mental form - the soul. And a spiritual form - the spirit. God has the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You are three in one. God is three in one. We are not God or necessarily like God, but we are a mirror, created to glorify God, and our three in one aspect does this.

If there are any more questions, feel free to DM me. Have an open mind. Pray about it sincerely and ask God to reveal it to you and make it plain. Be willing to have faith in it even if you can not reason it out.

Finally, if I've talked about any of these things in the past, I am not targeting you with this article. I have literally talked about most of the above with at least a few other people too. So it's for everyone who has questions, including those who I have never spoken to.

Thanks again, and hopefully this one won't disappear on me.