Edward Punt (erp
...@epix.net) wrote:
Edward Punt <erp
...@epix.net> wrote:
> F||LTER wrote:
> > What exactly is the Holy Spirit/Ghost and where did it come from?
> > Can you explain the trinity to me? I don't understand it.
> The trinity is a very simple concept. We have the Father, the Son and
> the Holy Spirit. The trinity means that they are one. Think of the
> different forms that H2o (water) can come in. Water (liquid), steam
> (vapor) and ice (solid). The have different apperances but they are
> still H2o. The same can be said of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The
> come in different forms but they are still one; God.
> Of course this is just my opinion although I believe it is the most
> widely accepted therory.
---------------- end quoted material
Unfortunately, the Trinity is more complicated than that. The three
phases of water analogy of the Trinity, although often suggested, is,
in fact, an inadequate explanation as understood by traditional
orthodox Christianity.
WATER (THREE STATES/PHASES) AS "HERETICAL" MODEL OF TRINITY
Edward Pothier June 1998
Some folks use the analogy of water in its three physical states
-- gaseous (steam), liquid (the usual wet stuff), and solid (ice) as a
model for the Trinity. Unfortunately this model collapses into the
heresy of Modalism -- the three "persons" just being modes of
existence of the Divinity.
Without wanting to get too deep into the language and history of
Christian thought (and we are either blessed or cursed {or both} by
having technical theological terms which were hammered-out in certain
historical situations in the first Christian centuries), we can look at
Modalism and see why the water model fails.
In any Christian Trinitarian theology the two poles which must be
respected and distinguished are the "oneness" of the "substance" of
God and the "threeness" of "persons". [The words "substance" and
"persons" are enclosed in quotation marks to remind us that they are
technical terms.]
Modalism, a Trinitarian "heretical" attempt, emphasizes the
"oneness" of God. Modalists deny any real distinction of "persons",
holding that the traditional "persons" (Father, Son and Holy Spirit)
are merely "modes", "aspects", "functions" or "energies". There is not
real diversity of "persons". Indeed, since there is no real diversity
but just modes or modalities, the "persons" would be able to change
into each other depending on the mode.
In the water (three states or phases) analogy we see a similar
problem. Water, in the aggregate (not individual molecules but in
bulk) will be in a phase (solid, liquid, or gaseous) depending on the
temperature and pressure. [Along a phase line (of temperature and
pressure) it can exist in two phases and at the triple point in all
three.] Water can transform from one phase to another, just as the
"persons" can in a modalist Trinity. However, in the orthodox
understanding of the Trinity, the "persons", while all God, do not
change into each other. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the
Holy Spirit is God. But the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the
Father, the Father is not the Spirit, the Spirit is not the Father,
etc. Nor do they change into/from one another. Water can change from
one phase to another. Thus, the three phases of water are an
inadequate, i.e. heretical, model for the Trinity even though it has
some partial value.
--
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= Edward L. Pothier poth...@lynx.dac.neu.edu _ _ =
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