Trying to understand the concept of the Trinity?

You are so right when you ask, where do people get that they are the same person/being? That's the whole point - they are separate and distinct! No wonder people get confused about the Trinity if they think they are the same person! As you point out, Matthew 3:16-17 proves Jesus was on earth when the Holy Spirit descended on him and while God the Father was in heaven, speaking.

Here is a link that clearly explains what the Trinity is and, more important, what it is NOT: http://www.gotquestions.com/Trinity-Bible.html

And here is another link that clearly explains why it was that when Jesus died, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit did not also die: http://www.gotquestions.com/hypostatic-union.html

I don't get offended when others don't believe the Trinity because I was brought up to believe it was a pagan concept. I was also taught that Jesus was a created being - an angel, no less - and that the Holy Spirit was just God's energy, or active force. I understand why people don't understand it because, like them, it had been misrepresented to me. Interestingly, it is the Holy Spirit who reveals this to us when we seek God's guidance and read His Holy Word.

Think of an apple or an orange...there's the the peel, the seed, and then the actual fruit we can eat. They all have different functions, but are all part of the same thing. The same is true for the trinity. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit....all have different jobs, but they are all working for the same thing. Jesus was meant to be an example to follow and it's through Him that we can get to heaven. The Holy Spirit comes inside us when we accept God's forgiveness, and the Holy Spirit gives us courage and works with us so we can become Holy. God is the head of the trinity and is the Creator of everything....

....the trinity is something I have been studying for a while and right now I'm focused on learning about the Holy Spirit. It's very interesting and AMAZING!!! I really encourage you to look into it more and do more research.

OK, why do I believe that Jesus and God the Father are the same person/being?

First of all, the subject is too intense to address here, so let me brief. The first concept to accept is that there is ONLY ONE God. Jehovah says that in Isaiah 45, verses 5 and 21.

The next concept is that a child would be born who would be called "The Everlasting Father," as spoken by Isaiah in chapter 9, verse 6. And also, chapter 7, verse 14, where his name is also called Immanuel. Jesus Christ was that child, as told in Matthew, chapter 1, verse 23, where the name Immanuel is interpreted as meaning "God with us."

Remember that there is only ONE God. And Jesus claimed to be that ONE God. Read John, chapter 8, verse 58. His enemies knew that He was claiming to be God, as in one example, Luke, chapter 5, verse 21. The Apostle Paul taught that Jesus was God in the flesh, First Timothy, chapter 3, verse 16. The Apostle John made it a test of truth, that if any one did not confess that Jesus is God in the flesh then that one was not a true believer, read in First John, chapter 4, verse 2.

All of these people are saying is that there is ONE God, and Jesus is Him in the flesh.

I don't pretend to understand the concept of the triune God (three in one), but it helps me if I think of this example. Let's say you have some water. (Water is a symbol of the Spirit of God, as in Isaiah 44:3, and of the word of God, as in Ephesians 5:26). OK, now water has three states: it can be liquid, solid, or vapor. Liquid water fills lakes and rivers, solid water is ice, and water vapor is known as steam or evaporation. That is like God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. Now is there anywhere that water can be in all three states at once? Well, maybe in Iceland (or wherever that volcano is erupting), where you have rivers of water coursing through frozen glaciers as the steam rises into the sky. Jesus is that place (person) where all three are seen at once.

1x1x1=1

That is why I believe the concept of the Triune God is so important.

And, Jesus prayed that prayer in the garden "Let this cup pass" because He was about to pay an awful price for sin. He was going to suffer the fate that we all deserve. Separation from the Father. We don't understand how horrible that is, yet. But he was wrestling with the flesh. He was wrestling with the forces of darkness. It was one last attempt by the enemy to get Him to sin, but He did not sin. He submitted, and was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Thank you Jesus, for paying my sin debt.

There's a person in the Bible who is referred to as the Father.

There's another, distinct person in the Bible who's referred to as the Son. The Son is not the Father.

There's yet another, distinct person who is neither the Father nor the Son, who is referred to as the Holy Spirit.

And yet, there is emphatically only one true God.

This concept has come to be called "the Trinity". That word isn't in the Bible, but it was created to describe an idea that underlies the entire New Testament (and is vaguely hinted at in the Old Testament).

The Trinity is hard to understand, so you're not alone if you can't quite grasp it. But when you think about it, if there is a God, then doesn't it make sense that some aspects of His nature would be beyond our limited human understanding?

The Trinity ability one God, ad infinitum modern-day as 3 separate persons. the guy called "the Son" became born as a human named Jesus. In gaining humanity, He did no longer completely provide up His divine nature, yet He temporarily laid aside specific factors of it. Luke 2:fifty two Jesus will improve in prefer with God: Jesus bigger in prefer with the daddy and the Holy Spirit. John 5:30 Jesus seeks his Father's will, no longer his very own: Jesus, as a human, seeks to obey the prefer of the daddy (remember, they're 2 separate persons from the single God) Mark 13:32 in easy terms God, no longer Jesus knows the tip time: Jesus, formerly His loss of existence and resurrection, chosen to no longer earnings on all His skills as God. in the process His existence on the earth, He chosen to no longer use His omnipotence to comprehend the time of His very own return. John 10:15, 17-18 Jesus is commanded by using his Father: returned, Jesus is God, yet Jesus isn't the daddy. Acts 8:37 the resurrected Jesus stands on the the main suitable option hand of God: Jesus stands on the the main suitable option hand of the daddy.

I don't think you are trying to understand the concept of the Trinity at all, so this answer is more for me in clarifying my own beliefs than it is for you. If you have verses that allude to Jesus being God,then these verses must be reconciled with the verses provided in your question unless we just want to deny the Jesus-as-God passages. But they are there, and to just duck your head in the sand trying to twist the meanings around so that they say the opposite, is just foolishness. What was said, was said, to be taken as is. Jesus was Man, in the larger context of being fully God. The Jews knew very well what he was saying. They tried to stone him for his claim, and this means I'm responding to someone who would pick up a rock to throw at Jesus because he implied exactly what I'm telling you. Jesus warned them about their unbelief, and who their "father" was. Belief in the Trinity, then, is a fulcrum of salvation itself, so important that it was put in writing in the historical creeds of the Christian Church. You pick up your rock, and I'll stand with Jesus as God the Son.

It is evident from the mythology that the trinity existed in all the religion. The trinity is based on the three things or three merits the nature have. The first is satava and the second is rajas and the third is tamas. These there deeds represents the nature of all human living in the world. The person having the nature of satava guna,he hasalways work for good things in the society and these people are saints. The seond elements represents the courage and those people having rajas elements lead the society. and third elements having people bad in nature and did the work against the society. All the work of society controlled by the trinity.

The concept is not really that complex. Maybe you've never had it explained in simple terms before.

(1) There is only one God:

Isa 43:10 "Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me."

(2) One person is called “the Father” and is identified as being God:

1 Pet 1:2 – “According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.”

(3) One person is called Jesus and is identified as being God:

John 20:28-29 – “Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed’."

(4) One person is called the Holy Spirit and is identified as being God:

Acts 5:3-4 – “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit…You have not lied to men but to God’."

The Bible teaches there are three kinds of personal beings: God, humans and angels. I am a created being—a human being, and I am one person. My being makes me human, and my personality is what distinguishes me from other human beings. Because my being is finite and limited by time, space and matter only one person can exist within my being, and that person’s user name is peacelily. However, the Bible tells me that God is eternal, that He has always existed; (Ps 90:2) that He is infinite (Job 11:7-9); He is omnipotent (Gen 17:1, Mt 19:26); He is above and outside of time, space and matter because He created them (Gen 1:1; 2 Pet 3:8); He is omniscient (Ps 147:5, Heb 4:13); He is sovereign and free (Ps 135:6, Is 14:24); He is omnipresent (Jer 23:23-24); He is all this and so much more, and He is also unsearchable and incomprehensible (Ps 145:3, Is. 55:8-9; Rom 11:33-34). Because God’s being is infinite and unlimited, it can be, and is shared by three separate and distinct persons—the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

One very good example in the Bible that shows us God can manifest Himself in three persons if he so chooses is found in Genesis 18, beginning in the first verse.

"Then the LORD (YHWH) appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, and said, "My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant." They said, "Do as you have said."

This is an especially interesting read in a Bible that has restored the name "YHWH" to the text, particularly when you read all the way through Gen. 19:24: "Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens."

Here's a few scriptures:

If you're human and limited on HUMAN terms, and logic. Sure... 1+1+1= 3.. But if You're God, and creator of ALL, there's no limits.

I never get offended. I don't expect people to grasp this concept who aren't turned on spiritually. The light hasn't gone on yet... and that's not being mean, it's simply true. Because the things of the Lord sound like nonsense to the spiritually dead person. (That's scriptural) so I expect it.

Colossians 1:13 - For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son (who's the Son? Jesus) in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him (Who? Jesus) all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—call things have been created through Him and for Him. (Jesus) He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also ahead of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the father’s (who's the Father? God) good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him (who is Him? Jesus)... how much fulness? ALL, not part or some.

1 Timothy 3:16

"Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory."

Colossians 2:9

"For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."

You have to reconcile that God is Jesus in human form, rather than fight against it. There's cocountlessther similar verses. Trinity means 3 in ONE. The physical God, Jesus, was man, but also ALL God.

Take care!

It is an idea born from Scripture. In various places Jesus says that He is God. He even said "destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up." Of course the Jews didn't realize He was talking about Himself.

John 1:

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.

3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood[a] it.

14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,[d] who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

8:

57"You are not yet fifty years old," the Jews said to him, "and you have seen Abraham!"

58"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" 59At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.