What are some popular illustrations of the Holy Trinity?

The wise Creator has stamped this three in one feature on His creation. This is seen in nature; for instance, in the universal law of matter, which has three dimensions: length, breadth and height. This is seen alike in the mighty sun in the heavens and in the tiny insect, sporting itself in the sunshine. The remarkable thing is that, though each dimension may be mentally considered apart from the others, you cannot in practice have one without the others. The knowledge of this universal “threeness” is in keeping with the revelation of God in the Trinity.

The Holy Spirit is God, as the Father is God, and the Son is God, in the Unity of the Godhead, of One Substance, One in knowledge, counsel, will, purpose. We are obliged in speaking of them together to put their names in a certain order. Scripture gives the order in baptism, that those baptised are baptised in the name (not names) of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. (Matt. 28:19). But we must be careful not to make any distinction in the Persons of the Godhead in the way of One being more prominent than the Other.

An illustration has helped the writer. Think of a chandelier with three branches, the branches equally distant from each other, all fed from the central stem, diffusing the light equally, blending so perfectly that no one can say, which light belongs to this branch or that branch. If you were asked which was the most important branch, you would reply they are all one in the purpose of giving light, all fed by the same central stem, and no one can say where all are alike that there is any degree of differing importance in respect of these three branches. But suppose for the sake of a very careful inventory of the furniture of the home, it is necessary to distinguish between these branches, the distinction would be arbitrary, and should be so treated. We think this little illustration does help to some understanding of the matter in hand.

An illustration may help. Supposed a handsome chandelier with three branches, each branch equal in shape and size, each stretching out an equal distance from the central stem, each giving equal light from the same source. If the question were asked, Which branch is first in importance, which second, which third? you would rightly reply no differentiation of this sort can be made.

But further suppose that the chandelier had to have its branches numbered for the purpose of some very particular classification. The branches would have to be distinguished in some way. They would have to be numbered one, two and three. So it is with the subject before us. The baptismal formula gives us the Divine ordering of the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But to differentiate the one from the other on the lines of inequality would be very foolish and ignorant; and at the bottom, if the seriousness of this were understood, blasphemous.

Light and love describe God's character. Light is used here symbolically: a beautiful symbol it is. In the first place, light, constituted as it is of three distinct rays, is in itself a trinity in unity, and suitably symbolizes God as a unity of three distinctions. God is a trinity of one common substance.

The typical meaning may here, as elsewhere, confirm the literal interpretation. That "God is light," Scripture declares, and science in the most beautiful way illustrates it. Light it has proved to be a trinity of color, the blue, red, and yellow rays uniting to produce the one white one; while it is a trinity of power also, the luminous, heat-giving, and actinic, or chemical, rays being similarly distinct, and yet united; the chemical rays, in their invisible, impalpable operation, seem to set forth in a striking way the analogous working of the Spirit of God.

Do we not see in these then a marvelous picture of the whole Trinity engaged in wondrous service to man, and yet in perfect unity? - in the Father, the warmth of love; in the Son, the radiance of light; in the Spirit, the mysterious power of life. Where light is, all these must be found together. How this draws the renewed heart in worshipping adoration of the eternal God revealed to us in His beloved Son.

If God is invisible, has never been seen, nor can be seen, how are we to know God? Just as light is broken up into its component parts, so the blessed God has been pleased to reveal Himself as Father, Son, and Spirit, yet one God, blessed for ever.

An illustration may help. The golden candlestick in the Tabernacle was one candlestick, yet it was made up of seven stems each carrying a lamp. You might speak of the one candlestick or lampstand on one occasion, or of the seven lamps on another occasion. In both cases you would be correct.

A.E.B. — That is illustrated, is it not, in creation? There we have, “In the beginning God created;” it is the Trinity, as further down, “Let us make man in our image,” etc.

It will be seen from these extracts that a distinction is drawn between Essence and Person; but as some of my readers may feel a difficulty in gathering up the distinction between the two, I submit the following idea as an illustration, but, be it remembered, only as an illustration. Human nature is distinct, or at least distinguishable, from the individual men and women who in common possess that nature. Thus we may say that, human nature is common to alt men and women, and yet that men and women are distinct from one another as individuals. So, in a high and mysterious sense, the Essence of Deity, which is self-existent, may be distinguished from the Persons in the Deity, who sustain to each other a peculiar and eternal relationship. In Their Essence They are One, in Their Personality They are Three; in Their Essence They are self-existent, in Their Personality They subsist, the Father as Father to the Son, the Son as Son to the Father, the Holy Spirit to both as proceeding from the Father and the Son. Thus we establish a Trinity in Unity. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” There is the unity of the divine Essence. “There are Three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit.” There we have the Trinity of Persons in the divine Essence, “for these Three are One” (1 John 5:7).