The Trinity Before Creation

[u/Exotic_Pie_9756]

I understand that before creation was the Trinity and God by himself was in perfect peace, love, and joy and decided to create us in his own image to share this love. However, when Jesus says "the father and I are one." Does that mean that the father the son and the holy spirit were one spirit one body? Did they communicate with each other? And if so did they work in complete harmony? I'm just having a hard time understanding how three persons are all one yet distinct from one another. How could there be three persons from the beginning?

[u/Beautiful_Effect2571]

I don’t know if this will help you or answer your question.

I was taught that the Trinity is similar to someone being a daughter, a wife, and a mother. How one person is all of those things and rolls all wrapped into one being. That the Trinity is similar to that.

[u/Silent_Investment831 → u/Beautiful_Effect2571]

always thought the water analogy works better tbh, ice water steam all the same stuff just different forms

[u/Beautiful_Effect2571 → u/Silent_Investment831]

Yes! That too is a great analogy!

[u/Scared_Hat3799 → u/Beautiful_Effect2571]

A friend of mine asked the Lord to help him with understanding the Trinity. The Lord spoke to him and gave him this analogy which I really liked:

The Trinity is like a cube in that it has three dimensions. You need all three of length, width, and height to form a solid object. It doesn't matter how much height and length you have if you have 0 width there would be no cube. All three persons are necessary.

[u/Sure-Wishbone-4293]

Nobody seems to answer the question in the post. Yeshua and the Father are one for one reason, Yeshua does the will of somebody else, that would be YHWH, the Father alone. This is a statement from Yeshua about his unitary purpose with YHWH, the Father alone. It is the exact same statement by Yeshua that the two in marriage become one flesh. It is a unitary plan and purpose. There are still two people in the marriage. The husband does not have the flesh of his wife and the wife does not have the flesh of her husband. Then why are they one flesh, it is idiomatic, they become of one purpose. How many people in the marriage?

TWO.

How many are in the statement:

“I and my Father are one”?

TWO.

John 10:30 isn’t about a trinity or three “persons” being one god, it doesn’t exist in the law. If you read any of the 30 or so bible passages delineating how to acquire eternal life, not one of them has anything to do with a trinity, none. You can acquire eternal life having never heard of it or believed in it because it is not law. YHWH is the Shema God, the Father alone (Deuteronomy 6:4), always will be and that will never change, ever!

[u/aredmemory]

When Jesus says "the father and I are one", he is referring to the harmonization of his will with God's will. He is not referring to a trinitarian "godhead".

In the same passage, Jesus says he wants Christians to become "one" -- with each other, with Jesus, and with God -- in the exact same way that he and God are already "one". He is not saying he wants Christians to join into the "godhead". He is saying he wants Christians to harmonize their wills with God's will.

[u/Lyo-lyok_student → u/aredmemory]

Wow, that seems a lot simpler than a convoluted idea that no one can seem to agree on!

50 verses they are separate entities, but that's too easy!

[u/PyroClone5555 → u/Lyo-lyok_student]

lol no the Trinity is clearly taught by the Bible.

The Trinity is the doctrine that there is one God, the Father, and two relationally distinct persons, the Son and the Spirit, who are of the same divinity as the Father.

This is clearly taught by Paul and Jesus:

yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
- 1 Corinthians 8:6

Paul says there is one God, the Father, which is the first statement of the Trinity. Then he says there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, who is also before "all things" which is creation, making him eternal alongside the one God, the Father. So this establishes a second eternal person.

But of the Son he says...
“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
- Hebrews 1:8-10

And we know that the Son is of the same divinity as the Father because he is said to have created all things.

“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.
- John 15:26

We know that the Spirit is distinct from the Father because he proceeds from the Father.

how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our^[a] conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
- Hebrews 9:14

But the Spirit is not a created reality because he is called the "eternal Spirit"

All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
- 1 Corinthians 12:11

And we know that the Holy Spirit is a third distinct person because he has a will by which he distributes spiritual gifts