The Family. We can do better, avoiding images that lead our thoughts in the direction of modalism or tritheism as well. The Anthropological Analogy. The sun has a hot core and is the essence of light, and it emits rays of light and also warmth—so you have a core, light rays, and heat. The first read: Well, I’ve been invited to preach at a local church next Sunday and as they… Read More »Trinity Analogies Yet most Christians have difficulty explaining the Trinity clearly. Why is the "sun" analogy of the trinity considered Arianism? Jesus in his desire to make human minds understand heavenly things most times use earthly items to explain. The family is a great analogy for the Trinity. Yesterday was Trinity Sunday, the day when preachers cower and hide away from the challenge of trying to explain the Trinity (God: Father, Son & Holy Spirit). I felt challenged by a few updates on Twitter yesterday. We might say that this analogy emphasizes the oneness of God at the expense of God’s three-ness. There was never a time when the fire had no light or heat. 1. THE SUN. God is one God. The analogy of the sun, the light and the heat is certainly not arian. But this makes light (the Christ) and heat (the Spirit) secondary to the sun. Ye ole sun, light and heat analogy: This analogy proposes that the Trinity is comparable to the sun, light and heat in which the sun is God the Father, The light represents Jesus and the heat represents the Holy Spirit. It is emanationist, but that is not so far off the classical understanding of the Trinity. This part is easy. However, the Father, Son, and Spirit are not just modes of being. Logic You can teach the logic of the Holy Trinity with seven simple propositions, all of which are supported by the Bible. How would you explain the Holy Trinity with logic or mathematics? Father = fire Son = light begotten from the fire Holy Spirit = heat that proceeds from the fire. Here is a simple and Biblical way to explain the Trinity. And when it comes to the Trinity, there are many analogies to choose from. We will explore just two of them here that I have found helpful. Explaining the Holy Trinity of God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit will be needed at some point when explaining the God of the Bible to children, Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses and other non-believers. Sun Analogy. It smacks of unitarianism. To take this analogy too far would be to think that God exists in three modes and can express being God in three ways. I can just imagine Jesus trying to illustrate the things or happenings in heaven and the linguistic and pictorial limitations he was confronted with due to the limiting nature of earthly languages and 1. Another bad analogy is that the Trinity is like the sun, i.e., the sun as such, its heat, and its light. 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